I can't stand Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, but the best part about waking up at 6:35 a.m. is his Writer's Almanac. For five minutes he puts his cornmeal voice to good use, first to list this-day-in-literature history tidbits, then to read a poem.
In this way I learned that three of my favorite authors, David Mitchell (the 12th), Lorrie Moore (the 13th), and Julian Barnes (today, the 19th), were born in January. That kind of news is the kind of news I want to wake up to.
From perusing the Writer's Almanac's website, I have learned that Keillor's signature signoff, "Be well, do good work, and keep in touch," is trademarked.
I won that Julian Barnes book, by the way. Sweet. (I suspect no one else entered, for lack of publicity.)