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The Terrible Burden of Destiny: Chicago and Waupaca

2010-10-05 · John, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, a guest · watch on YouTube · Personal life · personal update

John's travelogue of driving from Chicago to the Waupaca Book Festival in Wisconsin, framed by Carl Sandburg's line about Chicago laughing 'under the terrible burden of destiny'; it ends with a party that falls quiet after an elderly guest is taken to hospital and then finds its way back to laughter.

What is said

00:00:00 — Crowd greeting; waking in Chicago on a friend's couch; driving through Chicago, his favorite city, with Carl Sandburg's line

  • ★ John wakes up in Chicago on a friend's couch, borrows the friend's toothbrush, and hits the road in his station wagon. (playful) — 00:00:03 · Chicago
  • ★★ John says Chicago has always been his favorite American city, a city of so many neighborhoods that you can never discover them all. — 00:00:19 · Chicago
  • ★★★ John quotes Carl Sandburg describing Chicago as laughing 'under the terrible burden of destiny', the phrase that titles the video. — 00:00:20 · Chicago > «under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs»

00:00:31 — Drive north into fall; Waupaca; Brainard's Bridge Park and a walk (Frost parody, needing to pee)

  • ★ John drives north for three hours, during which it all at once becomes fall, and reaches Waupaca, Wisconsin, for a book festival. — 00:00:31
  • ★★ John says Waupaca is a city of 6,000 people with three independent bookstores. — 00:00:37
  • ★★ On a librarian's tip John visits Brainard's Bridge Park, saying he has found over the years that librarians make excellent recommendations; the park was no exception. — 00:00:41
  • ★ Walking a long, beautiful path, John jokes that he took the road more traveled to avoid getting lost and was mostly deciding whether to pee in the woods; he walked back to the park restroom. (playful) — 00:00:55

00:01:28 — Speaking at Waupaca High School, signing books, the public library's teen room with a Hank poster

  • ★★ John speaks at Waupaca High School and is given a cheesehead; after 10 hours alone talking to people felt weird, but a handmade DFTBA shirt always makes him happy. — 00:01:28 · DFTBA
  • ★★ John signs books and visits the Waupaca public library's teen room (a poster of Hank, a gaming space, a chandelier playing Hank's music), where he and teens play a complicated game of 'bunny murdering'. — 00:01:40 · Hank Green

00:01:53 — Festival cocktail party; Amy Krouse Rosenthal's 10/10/10 event at the Bean in Chicago and how to take part

  • ★★★ At the festival party John meets 'noted positive pranker' Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who is organizing an event at the Bean in Chicago, 'a kind of sequel to 8-8-08'; John will play a very minor role. — 00:01:56 · Amy Krouse Rosenthal
  • ★★ Amy Krouse Rosenthal gives the date and time of her event: 10-10-10 at 10:10 p.m. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ John tells viewers who want to take part in the 10/10/10 event to click the screen or read about it in the doobly-doo. — 00:02:12 · doobly-doo

00:02:16 — An elderly guest taken away by ambulance; the party falls quiet, then finds a way to keep laughing; sign-off

  • ★★ At the party a 91-year-old woman got sick and was taken to hospital by ambulance; for maybe half an hour afterwards it was quiet. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ Then the party grew louder and louder as everyone, under the terrible burden of destiny, found a way to keep laughing. — 00:02:25

Humor (significant)

  • On a walking path John begins Frost's 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I...' — 00:01:00 > «I took the road more traveled by because I did not want to get lost in Waupaca, Wisconsin.»
  • Awash in the majesty of the woods, John reveals what he was really thinking. — 00:01:11 > «I need to pee and I can't decide if I'm adequately in the woods right now to pee here»
  • Over footage of someone's home on his drive (not described in speech), John speculates about the person who lives there. — 00:01:24 > «I'm gonna go ahead and wager that this person has Elvis flags for most of the major holidays.»

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