The Premium

As mostly everybody knows by now, The
Hoeing Zollerns portrays a German farm
family which settles in Ireland,
uh...inevitable mixups which prove to be
so very very funny. So keep those phone
calls coming for your favorite show! Let
Grandpa Kurt and all the others know how
much they're, well, loved, actually, in
the five counties.

I think Rich has an unusual umbrella to
show us. It's the, uh, quite bosomy
caricature of Gretchen from the show.
AND I see you're also holding a mug with
your other hand? Let me just re-LIEVE
you of it for my own, uh, devious
purposes. I hope Jerry's camera can
see...this. Beautiful Gothic script on
this cup here! It's four or five of the
fractured German and Irish phrases from
the show. Like Faith and begorrah, dot
ist a fertilizer?

And now we have a surprise tape to show
you now, but please please keep on
phoning!

Zis Grandpapa Kurt. In ze five
county best our show. So danke a lot!
Und zend in zose marks! Dollars I mean!
Mit der pledges! Who on ze phones,
Larry?

It's not Larry now, Kurt, but Belsome
Narraway here. And on the phones to my
left, the Combined Realtors of the Five
Counties.

And manning - and womanning - the bank on
my right, the Five Counties Dental
Association and their, of course,
lovely hygienists - speaking of
which I have right here Dr Ralph Macron,
whose favorite show on PBS is? Well, I
don't think we have golf, but weren't
you just talking about those
extraordinary conversations with the old
directors at the Hollywood Convalescent
Home, part of the Film Pioneers Series?

And Gwendelin, your very own hygienist
here, uh, likes? Oh? All right then,
it's not Gwendelin but GEL-dewin. That
spy and his thing you say? Come again?
Ah yes! I have it! Berkley In the Fold!
Speaking of which I think Marcy over
there has a special bookset over there
which...


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About the author: I've been running this website from 1997. For a living I write stories and essays, program computers, edit things, and help people launch online publications. (LinkedIn). I wrote a novel. I was an editor at Harper's Magazine for five years; then I was a Contributing Editor; now I am a free agent. I was also on NPR's All Things Considered for a while. I still write for The Morning News, and some other places.

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