Friday, 10/31

Well, I made it, just under the wire. I managed to watch “It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” before Halloween actually occurred.

I'm so proud of myself.

Because my life has become increasingly insane over the past five or ten years I seem to have become a Halloween Scrooge, in that I don't dress up, I don't give out candy, I don't decorate, and I don't go to parties. In fact, the only Halloween tradition I do seem to still have is a yearly viewing of “Pumpkin” assuming, of course, I remember it's Halloween. And I can find the DVD. Well, I did find it, I popped it in, and I watched it, continuing my one Halloween tradition. Unless, of course, you count my saying the lines along with the cartoon characters as a tradition while Loraine laughs and/or rolls her eyes while sitting next to me and watching it. Then I have a tradition.

I say the lines along with the characters because I've seen the cartoon what...50 times in my life? And after you watch it that many times you tend to know what's coming up next. In fact, it's so bad that I bought a soundtrack CD for the show a couple of years ago. All it has it the background music as it's presented in the show. Listening to it the first time I was actually saying the lines as the music cues came through the speakers.

And if you think Loraine rolls her eyes when I do that while watching the cartoon, you should have seen her when I was doing it while listening to the CD!

So there you go. Maybe I'm not quite as much of a Halloween Scrooge as I thought. So on that note, have yourself a great Halloween. If you dress up, I hope you win an award. If you give out candy, I hope you get hundreds of kids showing up (or just a few, if you enjoy eating all the left over chocolate you have). All in all, I just want to say--

Happy Pumpkin Day!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/30

What the heck is wrong with you, Wikipedia?

Actually, there really isn't much wrong with the online encyclopedia, which has (or at least has attempted to) bring the knowledge of the planet to the entire world. But because Wikipedia does this by using a group of volunteers around the planet effort, every so often something falls through the cracks, like several years ago when I went to look up something about one of Loraine's favorite hockey players and learned that, apparently, Jaromir Jagr was married to a goat.

I'm thinking that particular section of the entry might not have been 100% correct.

Anyway, the thing I noticed about Wikipedia was when I looked up the opera "Carmen" on the site. I did so because the Marquette Symphony is performing the work--complete with singers--early next year, and I wanted to find out if one of the opening sections of the opera was titled "Habenera" or "Habenero". (I'm pretty sure it wasn't the latter, because I'm guessing Bizet would not name a classical work after a chili pepper. But maybe that's just me).

As I scrolled down the article, I can to realize--to my horror--that it didn't, in any way, mention how most people first HEARD the opera "Carmen". Nowhere in the article, including in the "influence on pop culture" sub-section, did the contributors to Wikipedia mention the fact that almost every single person on this planet first heard pieces of "Carmen" on an episode of "Gilligan's Island".

What the what, Wikipedia?

Even if you've never sat down and listened to the opera, if you've watched a particular episode of "Gilligan's Island" you HAVE heard music from it. You remember the episode of the show where Broadway producer Harold Hecuba finds himself stranded on the island, and the castaways put on a music version of "Hamlet" to show Hecuba that Ginger could really act?

The music they use? From "Carmen". In fact, and I'm guessing that it's just not me, when you hear the opening strains of "Habenera" you start subconsciously singing to yourself "I ask to be, or not to be", because that's what The Skipper was singing when the used the music on the show.

And, Wikipedia, how could you NOT acknowledge that?

As I'm sitting here typing this I'm trying to decide if I'm just being a nerd in pointing this out or if the contributors to the Wikipedia article really missed the boat. I'm thinking the latter, if only because so many people first hear music from the opera that way. It would be like reading an article on Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and not mentioning Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the Wabbit".

Although now, apparently, I'm going to have to go down THAT rabbit hole and see if that particular Wikipedia article made the same mistake.

So while Wikipedia really IS a force for good in this world, it's not 100 totally complete, at least not yet. The snubbing of "Gilligan's Island"'s borrowing of an opera proves that.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/29

I didn't mean for Kevin to end up in handcuffs. Really, I didn't.

I think I mentioned a few days ago that part of my Saturday was spent handing out candy at TV 19 for downtown Marquette's big trick or treat shindig. And boy, WAS it big; an estimated 7, 000 kids were downtown between 4 and 7, which might account for the fact that we ran out of candy an hour or so into the three hour event.

Yup.

One of the kids who came up for a treat before we ran out was a young man dressed as a police officer. Because there's a running joke on the newscast between Kevin & me about his not yet having tried a pasty, despite being in the UP for over a year, I jokingly told the kid dressed up as a cop that he could probably arrest Kevin for that offense.

And you know what? The kid took me up on the offer.

Before I was even done talking to him, he had his (toy) gun whipped out and went over to Kevin, who was dressed up as a taco (pasty costumes being someone scarce around here on Halloween). Within seconds he tried to handcuff Kevin, and while his handcuffs were a little too small to fit, Kevin was properly chastised.

And I had found the hook for my TV piece.

So, once again, let me apologize to Kevin, who (probably) didn't deserve the treatment he received. But then, you know, if he'd just eat a pasty, like a normal Yooper, we wouldn't have to deal with a situation like the one on Saturday.

Really, we wouldn't.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/28

And happy National Chocolate Day, the most wonderful time of the year!!

I had no idea that there actually WAS a National Chocolate Day or that it was being celebrated today, but thanks to the keen observational powers of my Dad, who noticed it on a calendar a bunch of years ago, I now know it's a thing. So thanks, Dad!!

How does one actually celebrate National Chocolate Day? Well, I'm sure eating some is a big part of it, and I'll make sure I celebrate in that way. But what else do you do? Sing chocolate carols? Send out chocolate cards? Build a chocolate man out in the front yard? If that's the case, I'm ill prepared for the holiday.

Let's just hope that my overall love for the food is enough to carry the day.

It's funny; I've always loved chocolate, but I can't pinpoint an exact reason why. All I know is that even when I was a kid, I was a bit...particular about the kinds of chocolate I would eat. When I was really young, I had a fondness for Milk Shake chocolate bars. I don't know if any of you actually remember Milk Shake bars or if they were even available to people outside of Michigan, but they were kind of like a slightly less sweet version of a Milky Way bar. Or at least that's how I remember them; I haven't eaten one, or even laid eyes upon one, for almost 30 years now.

As I grew up, my tastes in chocolate (and chocolate bars) evolved, but it wasn't until I went to Europe for the first time that my tastes became what they are today. I don't wanna sound like a chocolate “snob” or anything, but for the most part there really isn't a comparison between what you can get here and what you can get there. Heck, some “chocolate” bars in the US don't even have chocolate in them (which is why you'll notice the phrase “chocolate-flavored” or “chocolate-flavored candy” on much of your Halloween or Christmas chocolate), but in Europe, especially Belgium, chocolate is a fine art. And once I experienced what you could taste over there, I was spoiled for life.

However, I do have to give credit to the burgeoning American artisinal chocolate market. Some chocolatiers like Endangered Species are doing amazing things with chocolate, especially dark chocolate. And as the health benefits of darker chocolate are becoming better known, I have a feeling that that trend will continue.

I, for one, can not wait!

So I hope you have a great National Chocolate Day. Grab your favorite kind of bar and bite off a big hunk; after all, if you eat chocolate on National Chocolate Day, the calories don't count, right? I think I read that somewhere on the Internet, and as we all know, everything on the Internet is true, right? Or celebrate it the way I'll celebrate it, by trying a chocolate you've never tried before (in my case, a dark chocolate lemon-ginger bar I picked up at the Marquette Food Co-op). Either way, just make sure you celebrate.

After all, it's not National Chocolate Day every day, is it?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/27

 Wow.  Just what DOES happen in downtown Marquette after midnight?

I think I've talked about this before, about how downtown Marquette after midnight is a very different place than the downtown Marquette before midnight.  In the few hours after most people have gone to bed but before the bars close, downtown Marquette becomes something different than most of us know.

And that was pointed out when I walked down to the station early Sunday morning, as I do every Sunday morning to make sure things are running okay, and saw this between our building and the Elks Club next door--

I have no idea if this was done by drunk college students on their way home from the bar, by drunk homeless people looking for a place to hunker down for the night, or by a bear that may have been roaming through the city (although I'm highly doubting that one), but someone decided they didn't like the look of the fence and took out (what was most likely) their alcohol-fueled aggression on it.

So...there you go.

I know the fence was fine around 530 Saturday afternoon.  It was, after all, in one piece when I walked home from passing out candy at TV 19 during downtown trick or treating.  But when I walked past the same area 15 hours later...well, destruction had wrought its mighty sword.

Or, probably more accurately, alcohol had wrought its mighty sword. 

There aren't any security cameras (that I know of) facing right at the fence, so we may never know exactly what happened.  But what I do know is that when I tell people the story of the two lives of downtown Marquette, I often get a blank stare.

Maybe a picture like the one of the fence will change that.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/24

I have TV (yet again) this morning, so we're going to put one of our favorite words into use--

Re-purpose.

I actually haven't re-purposed anything for a bit, probably because “High School Bowl” was on hiatus, but there's no time like the present to get into practice. What are we re-purposing this time around? A newspaper article I wrote for the History Center. It's based on a story I've told many time while on tour, so it was easy to write something about it.

But you know what? It actually turned out better than what I wrote, as some of the volunteers at the History Center, apparently intrigued by the story, dug a little deeper to find out a few things that I hadn't been able to previously uncover. We added them to the story, and voila--

Came up with the article that was printed Wednesday and that you get to read today.

With that. I'm off. If you happen to be in downtown Marquette tomorrow for trick or treating, make sure you stop by the TV-19 studios, as I'll be handing goodies out with Kevin and the crew. Otherwise, have yourself a fantastic weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****

Murder on the Sands Plains

By Jim Koski

99 years ago, two conservation officers went missing south of Marquette.  It took a month of searches by police and the guilty conscience of one man to reveal the fact that an ex-con named Roy Nunn killed the officers in cold blood.

Richard “Roy” Nunn had been in a state training home as a juvenile and in and out of Michigan prisons most of his adult life. He was only 17 when he was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life.  During his incarceration at the Marquette Branch Prison, he was classified as “incorrigible.” Despite this, his sentence was modified to 25 years and when he had served seventeen of those 25 years he was paroled for good behavior.    

Nunn stayed in the UP where he immediately resumed a life of crime, stealing gold fixtures from the Negaunee Catholic Church and robbing stores in Gwinn and Little Lake. He served another six-year sentence for those crimes.  Following his release from prison on those charges he managed to get a job doing watch repairs in Marquette.

On September 29, 1926, he and a friend, Joseph Contois, went to the Sands Plains to visit a female friend of Nunn’s and, as it turns out, to do a little out-of-season deer hunting at the same time. Two state conservation officers, Arvid Erickson and Emil Skoglund, caught Nunn & Contois as they were approaching a salt lick, and pulled Nunn’s car over to question them.  

Nunn claimed he could show them proof of his innocence in the trunk of his car. They allowed him to do so, so he went to the back of his car, opened the trunk, pulled out a pistol, and shot both officers. Contois ran away, while Nunn went back to the home of the female friend and her young son, continuing his visit as if nothing had happened.

When Officers Erickson and Skoglund failed to return home that night, a search ensued involving hundreds of officers. Authorities followed many leads, some provided by the public and most of them false. The missing men had disappeared into thin air. It wasn’t until almost a month later that Contois, affected by a guilty conscience despite his fear of Nunn, told another conservation officer what had happened out on the Sands Plains.  

Nunn was quickly arrested and from the very beginning proclaimed his innocence in the matter.  For the next several days the Mining Journal reported that Nunn “wouldn't crack.” He kept saying that he didn't commit the crimes of which he was being accused, even going so far as to name other people he claimed killed the two.  

Eventually, though, on October 22, 1926, Nunn finally cracked, telling authorities the whole story. After the murders, he shoved the bodies of Erickson and Skoglund in the trunk of his car. He proceeded to cover them in tarps and weighed them down, before eventually dumping them off the end of the Spear’s Merchandise dock in Marquette’s Lower Harbor. Divers quickly found the bodies and Nunn’s trial on two murder charges was scheduled to begin in early December.  

The trial only ran for a few days, with Nunn acting as his own attorney. He spoke on his own behalf for over three hours, giving various reasons as to why he shouldn’t be blamed for the killings. However, when testimony was over, the jury quickly rendered a guilty verdict. Nunn was sentenced to two life terms in the Marquette Branch Prison. He lived there the rest of his life before dying of a heart attack in the spring of 1948.

Arvid Erickson and Emil Skoglund were the first two state conservation officers killed in the line of duty in Michigan. They are honored on, among other things, the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington DC, as well as the Michigan DNR website and on a plaque outside of the DNR regional office in Marquette.

Thursday, 10/23

Hi, my name is Jim, and I might be a tea-aholic.

I came to that realization yesterday after throwing two new boxes of the stuff onto the shelf on which I keep my current boxes. That realization came because the two boxes would literally not fit on the shelf, which was crammed full of existing boxes & packets of tea. I gathered them all together, boxes & packets of tea old & new, and THAT'S when I realized that I might have a problem--

I wonder if I can find a support group for this somewhere online?

There are over a dozen boxes & packets total in that picture, a whole bunch of them various green teas with or without flavorings, mostly citrus flavored. I'm not quite sure why or how I ended up with that many boxes of green tea, mostly citrus flavored, but I did. The others are an orange tea that I was introduced to by my mother, and a gaggle of others I discovered during various excursions to Germany—a red tea with vanilla, one that's blueberry & vanilla, another that's a wild berry mix, yet another that's spiced plum, and that fennel-anise-caraway seed tea that might be my favorite ever.

Despite the fact that every single person to whom I describe the tea looks at me like I'm insane for even tasting it. They just don't know what they're missing.

So, note to self. You really DON'T need to buy tea for the next couple of weeks (or months) (or maybe even years). It doesn't matter if it's on sale, or if it's a flavor combination you've never tried before. Over a dozen (mostly full) boxes & packets of tea is probably almost enough for anyone.

Even you.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/22

Guess what. We finally saw it.

If you recall on Monday I wrote about how Loraine & I started in a TV spot for the Marquette Food Co-op and were (apparently) the only people in the Marquette area to have NOT seen it? Well, that has changed just a little. We didn't come across it on TV, nor while exploring You Tube.

However, the Co-op was kind enough to post in on their Facebook page. So guess what? YOU get to see it, too!

In all honesty, just between you & me, I have no opinion about it. I'm on TV so much that for me it's all just one big blur. But you know what? I AM happy for Loraine. She came off really well in the spot, and unlike the dork she lives with she's hardly ever on TV, which means that people notice when she is and the spotlight shifts over to her for bit, a situation with which I am more than okay.

It should be on your favorite streaming channel or your next visit to You Tube for the rest of the month, so maybe we'll actually see it in its native state one of these days. But if not, at least we HAVE seen it, and can now join every single other person in Marquette County in saying that we have.

******

Speaking of me being on TV too much, I have to scoot now to shoot another episode of “High School Bowl”. It's like the fun never ends, huh?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/21

I'm gonna guess no one got the gag. But that pretty much describes a lot of what I do, right?

8-)

Last night's TV piece dealt with films that people might not have seen at the Fresh Coast Film Festival this past weekend. It was basically one big joke; after all, I made up all the film titles and plots, and I made a conscious attempt not to rely on any of the running gags I've usually used in the 3-plus years I've been doing this.

Thankfully, while I was on a long, meandering run Saturday morning several of the fake titles simply popped into my head, as often happens when I run. One of them involved a joke about a UP poet trying to find a word that rhymes with “cudighi”. I needed a title for the fake flick, and for some strange reason this one popped into my head--

“At Least Orange Has Door Hinge”. And the gag that probably no one got is that orange—another word that doesn't have a direct rhyme—at least has something that kinda sounds like it, at least according to writers as varied as William Burroughs & Jim Morrison. “Cudighi”really doesn't.

And, as we all know, if you have to put that much explanation into a gag, it probably appeals to few—if any—people.

I still think it's funny, but then I think a LOT of things are funny that the average person would just shake their head at.

It was just one of many gags, including one that I threw in at the last minute because an actual real-life miracle occurs. See if any of them are actually funny to YOU--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/20

It seems as if everyone in Marquette has seen the commercial, except for the two people who star in it.

You may recall a few weeks ago, when I mentioned that Loraine and I were two of the people approached by the Marquette Food Co-op to speak about the virtues of being an owner of that fine establishment during “Co-op Month”. We spent an hour or so being photographed and filmed in and around the store, and a few days later a commercial featuring the two of us debuted online and on streaming services.

Or so we've been told.

Neither Loraine nor I have actually come across it, but two of her co-workers, several friends, someone who owns a store we frequent, and a camera operator on “High School Bowl” have all, in the past few days, mentioned seeing it.

So it's out there. We just haven't come across it yet.

It's funny; two of my jobs are in TV, so I really don't give a rat's butt about whether or not something I did has aired or whether or not people have seen it. But Loraine doesn't do a lot of TV, and so when she's on it and when people see it it IS kind of a big deal. All of the comments we've received has been positive (mostly because of her, I'm sure) so I'm kind of curious to see how it turned out.

Assuming, of course, we actually get to see it before the end of October, the end of Co-op Month.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/17

Another day, another taping of a TV show.

We're getting into it with “High School Bowl”. I have an episode to shoot this morning, and then one on each Wednesday and Friday of the next four weeks. I don't mind, but it does mean that once again I'll have to keep this a little short, and I apologize for that.

However, let me pivot from TV Jim to History Jim for a second, and have you write this date on your calendar-

Thursday, January 22^nd, 2026.

Why that date, you ask? Well, I answer, that's the date my pal Jack & I are slated for a return to our big annual Kaufman Auditorium show for the Marquette Regional History Center. The title? “Legends & Lore III: Way More Legendary”, reflecting the fact that we're telling legendary stories that night.

As opposed, you know, to the stories we usually tell.

8-)

Okay; I have to mosey along to a TV studio now. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but all the shows we've been taping recently (and that a lot of them) start airing two weeks from tomorrow—November 1st.

Feel free to mark THAT date on your calendar, as well. And while you're at it, have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/16

The song is 43 years old. Why can't I get it out of my head?

In case you didn't know this, I have a weak mind. I know...shocking, right? It's something to which I'll admit any day of the week. So when someone requested a song yesterday afternoon I shouldn't have been surprised that for the rest of the day I had Toto's “Rosanna” running through my mind on constant repeat.

Some days it's not easy being me.

I suppose I should grateful it was “Rosanna” and not some, say, Barry Manilow song stuck in my head, but that's not the point. I liked the song when it first came out, and I've enjoyed listening to it over the years, but it's now looping over and over and over and over in my head, I'm not so sure. And the weird thing is that it's not the same part of the song, which is now it usually happens. Nope; with “Rosanna” it's sometimes the interplay of synths and horns in the middle of the song, sometimes it's the guitar solo during the extended playout, and on occasion, it's even a one measure organ riff in the middle of the first and second verse.

That's how much it's been stuck in my head. I woke up in the middle of the night last night with a 43-year old organ note stuck in my head. To quote my friend Deanna, “just shoot me now”!

Except, of course, I don't want you to do that. While it would probably get that particular song out of my head, it would also remove ALL songs from my head, and I'm pretty sure I'm not quite ready for that yet.

It's my fault it's stuck in my head, after all. I had to answer the phone and play a request yesterday. But, you know, that's kind of what I do, so it's not like I have anyone else to blame but myself. That one Instant Request was all that it took; since then, it's taken up residence in my head and it won't leave.

Lucky me, right? And now, let's conduct an experiment. Want it stuck in YOUR head?

No, that's okay. You can thank me later.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

(And as an aside, here's a cool trivia fact about the video. Two of the dancers are Patrick Swayze and Cynthia Rhodes, working together for the first time five years before they were a couple in “Dirty Dancing”. See? My obsession was good for something, right?)

Wednesday, 10/15

I have finally used up all of the honey.

A couple of months ago I was gifted with a jar of local honey. Being a big fan of the food I was looking forward to seeing what I could do with it. I batted a few ideas around in my head, and slowly coalesced around an idea--

Honey sugar cookies.

Yes, I realize that honey is (mostly) sugar and that you could call "honey sugar" cookies kind of oxymoronic. But I tried them, and they were really good. Over the past few months I've made them more, gave them to my dad (among others) and realized that yup, they're not oxymoronic all all.

They are, however, quite good.

So good, in fact, that they may become a “Jim Staple”, which is something I can't say for every cookie I've ever tried (although they are a few, like the whole wheat chocolate chip and lemon rosemary cookies that do make the list). However, I've now used the last of that jar, and I'm curious as to whether or not it's that particular kind of honey that made the cookie, or whether ANY honey will work. I guess I'll find out the next time I make them, right?

So if you're bored one day, curious about what a honey sugar cookie might taste like, and have some high quality honey lying around, here's my recipe. Try them out, and good luck. Although, you know, can ANY cookie with honey in it be bad?

I'm guessing not.

If you wanna give it a shot--

Mix a stick of butter with 2/3rds of a cup of sugar. Then add an egg and a quarter cup of your favorite honey. In a separate bowl mix two cups of flour, a teaspoon and a half of cinnamon, a tablespoon of baking powder, and a dash of salt. Combine the two bowls, form into balls, and bake for 12 minutes at 350. If you're really energetic you can even roll the balls in a cinnamon-sugar mix before you bake them.

Then comes the most important part--

Eating them!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/14

I had no idea I'd have to cut so many of the gags.

First of all...hope you had a great 3-day weekend if, indeed, you had a three day weekend.  I had yesterday off from this job but spent most of the day at two of my other gigs, including doing last night's TV piece, a light-hearted piece of fluff riffing off the fact that yesterday was a holiday.

The thing is...people only saw about half of what I wrote.

I think I may have mentioned in here before that I often have to cut a line or six from the first draft of the scripts I write, and I'm okay with that.  Often, what I edit makes the piece sharper and a little more concise.  But for some strange reason this week's bit came in long--way long--way and I found myself cutting (almost exactly) half the gags from it.

That's not a bad thing, as what I was left with was right on the nose.  See for yourself--

However, I did spend a bit of time coming up with and, in a few cases, researching a few more jokes, and even though no one asked for them, I feel like I should use them somewhere.

And where is that somewhere?  Yup...here.  So in no particular order, what did I end up cutting?

History gives us a couple of dates we could celebrate, including December 14th as either Yooper Independence Day or the beginning of two centuries of indentured servitude.  Why?  Because that’s the day in 1836 that the Toledo Compromise was signed and the UP became part of Michigan.

November 1st should also be a day off of work for everyone, if only to pay us back for the onslaught of tourists we get every year thanks to what happened on November 1st, 1957…the opening of the Mackinac Bridge.

There may be a couple of holidays that are just celebrated locally, or regionally, like March 8th, the first time of the year that the average high gets above 32 or, as Marquette residents refer to it, “Time to Wear Shorts Day”.

I also cut out a few jokes, including one about everybody having the day off EXCEPT for those of us working in TV, but since I had so much to toss out, that was just part of it.

Did the cuts make the piece better? They probably did. Was I sad to cut them out? Yup, if for no other reason than I actually put work into figuring them out.

But at least I got to use them here. So thanks!

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/10

I only have a few minutes before I have to zip over to “High School Bowl”, but I do wanna share something that popped into my head while reading an article last night--

I don’t have a favorite number.

I don’t know if it’s a big deal that I don’t have a favorite number, just as I have no idea how many people actually DO have a favorite number. All I know is that I don’t have one, so maybe I SHOULD get myself a favorite number, and make sure it’s odd. Besides, how apt would it be that my favorite number is odd? Certainly would fit, wouldn’t it?

The article (and I wish I remember where I read it, so I could give the author credit) posited that most people’s favorite numbers are even numbers because, for whatever reason, people perceive even numbers as “nice” and odd numbers as “bad”. I’m not quite sure why; I think the article pointed out that, with one exception, all prime numbers are odd and, for some reason, people don’t like prime numbers. That could be a reason. But there’s also something I’ve kind of noticed over the years--even numbers look friendlier.

No, I’m not strange. Well, yes, I suppose I AM strange, but think about it--when you look at an even number like “8”, it just looks friendlier than, say, a “15”, which just looks more severe. Or at least it does to me; after all, this theory has absolutely no basis in scientific fact. It’s just how I perceive the way the numbers look. But, according to the article I read, maybe there IS some basis in it. Maybe I’m not the only person who feels that even numbers look “friendlier” than odd numbers.

That might explain why most people have a favorite number that’s even, right?

So like I said, if I ever do picture out a favorite number, I’ll have to make sure that it’s an odd number, perhaps even a prime odd number, just so I can be a contrarian. Right now, I’m thinking 29, although that could change depending upon my whims.

I’ll let you know.

8-)

*****

By the way, Monday's another corporate holiday, so I have the day off. Next new one of these is Tuesday, so enjoy the next few days!!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/9

You know how I mentioned I spent a lot of time outdoors during this past last weekend of summer? Well, I made an interesting discovery while out doing so—

I found out you can see over 100 discarded beer bottles and cans lying around the streets while spending an hour walking through Marquette.

Yes, I know I should’ve saved that for a “Jim's Weird Fact of the Day”, but I just thought I’d share it now. And I can’t say I’m surprised by the discovery; after all, the part of the city where I live (especially on the 100 block of West Arch Street and the 100 block of West Ohio Street) has its fair share of, shall we say, people of the partying age, I’ve heard quite a few gatherings where, I’m innocently guessing, beer was consumed. In fact, there’s one house, just around the corner from where we live, where last Sunday I saw two dozen cans just tossed out on the front yard or into the street, or, as the picture shows, just piled up on the porch. And seeing as how it’s also a house from where quite a racket emanated Saturday night, I’m gonna guess the two are somehow connected.

That brings to mind two things—the first, which I don’t wanna admit, is that I may have started upon the slippery slope toward cranky old man-dom. Pretty soon, I’ll be standing at a window, staring and muttering under my breath, “Those kids and their loud noise. Someone should do something about that”!

In other words, I’ll be like my dad.

(Sorry, Dad. I couldn’t resist!!)

The second is this—when I was in college (back in the 1800’s) the people with whom I lived, when they had a party, returned the empties, so they could buy more beer to have another party. They just didn’t toss the empties out in the street or leave them on their porch. I mean, shouldn’t you get more out of a party than a hangover and an ongoing relationship with the police? Sure, it might only be a couple of dozen empties, but that’s still two and a half bucks. You can buy part of a pizza or three pages of a textbook with that.

Kids these days, I tell ya.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/8

We now have a start date.

I've written in here a couple of times the past month or two about how I'm working on another series of those "Pieces of the Past" videos I make for the Marquette Regional History Center. I haven't said too much about them, as we really didn't know when they were going to start to drop, but I can now safely say that the wait is almost over...

Because you'll be able to see the first one four weeks from today, on Wednesday, November 5th.

The reason we didn't have a firm start date was because I wanted to get as many of them done before the debut, if only so I wouldn't have to be rushing to get them all  finished on a deadline. And seeing as how I should have nine or 10 of the 11 (or 12) for this batch done by the time the first one drops, things are working out just the way I'd hoped.

And seeing as how that doesn't happen very often, I'm taking the win.

I think I had previously mentioned that the first one is an epic, and it is. It's a 17-minute long version of the "...And Put Up a Parking Lot" tour I give, and that I think the video turned out amazingly well. Then, every Wednesday through the end of January (with the exception of Christmas Eve), a new one will roll out on such varied topics as fires, schools, nurses, railroads, and everyone's favorite dance club of the 70s and 80s.

One guess as to what that is.

Every year when I do another batch of these they get longer and a little more technically complex, and that's certainly the case with this batch. Aside from the opening epic they're all averaging around 4 minutes, filled with all kinds of digital effects and special footage shot just for them. When you compare them to the original batch, which were about 90 seconds long and put together by me during Covid, you can definitely sure see the difference.

And that's why we're hoping this "season" is the best of all.

I had mentioned there were 11 (or 12) of them. We're still not sure about the 12th. The final one of this batch was supposed to be another epic, timing out at (our rough guess) about a half an hour or so, but it's starting to grow into a beast of its own making. As I write this I have no idea in what form it'll end up, or if it will even end up being a "Pieces of the Past".

That's one of the things when you do a project like this. Sometimes, a piece (or, in this case, a "Piece") takes on a life of its own.

So...that's the scoop on one of the many projects I've been tackling recently. I'm really excited to start sharing these with everyone and, with any luck, you'll think they're kinda cool.

Because I know I think they are.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/7

It looks like people actually pay attention to them. That goes to show what I know.

I've now been doing “Life in the 906” for three years now (the first one airing during TV19's very first newscast on October 3^rd, 2022). Over the 155 different topics on which I've babbled I've often wondered if anyone was listening or was interested in what I have to say, and I've often thought that if they they make an impression at all, it's mostly people thinking to themselves “Why do they let that dork on TV”?

But I guess I would be wrong.

Twice in the past week I've had proof that, at the very least, people are paying attention, as I made eye contact with someone Saturday at the Farmer's Market and she then shouted out “Life in the 906!” Then just a few minutes later, at Super One, I passed a guy in an aisle, and he felt he had to double back to let me know that my bit is, and I'm quoting here, “the best part of the newscast”.

Well, both you & I know that's not true, but thanks for the kind words, anyway.

Then when I was at the Marquette Symphony Saturday night, I had someone I know lean over and ask, in a bit of a conspiratorial whisper, “Is this the topic of your 'Life in the 906'” this week?

To quote a great American philosopher, when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.

And boy, do I guess I'm wrong about this. Most of the stuff I do is ethereal in nature. It's not like I make widgets, and can track the sales of what I produce. Instead, I create “things” that pop up for a moment and are then gone. I make a crack on the radio, I muse on TV, and I ask high school students questions. There's no way for me to know if those “things” are making an impact, which is why I often wonder if anyone pays attention or, indeed, actually cares.

This weekend, though, I guess I found out for sure that, apparently, people actually do care.

*****

By the way...DID I work the Symphony into this week's TV piece? See for yourself!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/6

I hope you enjoyed the heck out of it.

The "it" to which I'm referring was, of course, the amazing weekend we had, at least weather-wise, with temperatures actually hitting the mid 80s on both Saturday and Sunday. For early October, weather like this is not common; for it to fall on a weekend was a bonus, and, like I said, I hope you enjoyed the heck out of it.

Because I know I sure did.

I tried to wring almost every single second I could out of it while playing outside because, of course, I know this was a gift from Mother Nature. This time of the year our weather should be like it is today--chilly, cloudy, perhaps even slightly wet. Odds are slim that it will happen again this year; in fact, odds are slim that it'll happen any time before, say, next June. And that's why I hope you took advantage of it.

Because for the next seven months, we probably won't see anything like it again.

Am I ready for those next seven months? I don't think so, but then wherever we have what I know will be our last few nice days of “summer” I'm never ready for what follows. And I don't think it's because of the cold or the snow, although I'm sure they do play a part in it. Instead, the thing that I do not look forward to is the unrelenting bleakness of it all...the gray skies, the short days, and the conditions that keep you huddled inside of your apartment for weeks on end instead of playing gleefully outside.

THAT'S what I don't like about winter. And that's what I'll miss after a weekend like the one we just had.

Hopefully, my batteries are charged enough to get through the next seven long winter months. Hopefully, you have enough in reserve to do the exact same thing. And that's why a weekend like the one we just experienced--a bonus taste of summer in October--was so important.

Or, at least, it was to me.

One of the many things I saw while out playing on Saturday.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/3

I have been doing this for a long, long time.

Actually, there are many things about which I could make that statement, but today I'm talking about "High School Bowl". In a few minutes I'm off to shoot the first episode of the 11th year with me as host, a length of time that both does not seem possible and, paradoxically, seems way too short.

But it is both.

When I started doing this in 2014 I had no idea if I would be any good at it or if it would last; as we're starting our 11th year with me behind the podium I guess we've gotten the answer to both. And I think one of the reasons it doesn't seem like it's been as long as it's been is that it's been a blast. The students make the show, and I've been lucky enough to be able to interact with three or four sets of classes. That's cool. What's also cool is that every year you get one individual or one team who picks up on the slightly off-kilter vibe I bring to everything, and when that happens, all bets are off.

And the show becomes even better because of it.

Of course, we're heading into this 47th overall season of the show with a cloud over our heads in the form of a proverbial axe taken to the part of the federal budget that helps support places like WNMU-TV. Hopefully, that's just a temporary glitch, because just between you & me, I hope the show is around long enough for me to get a couple of more sets of classes into the studio.

Because hosting the show is just that much fun.

*****

Speaking of which, my studio call time is coming up, so I'd better get going over to NMU. Before I leave, though, I do wanna wish the best sister in the world a happy birthday today. So if you just so happen to be out at Lofaro's Fresh Market in Harvey and see Mel behind the deli counter, wish her a great day!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/2

I do get the sentiment. Most of the time, I might even agree with it.  However, the organization promoting it may not be the best to offer it.

I was driving past a local business a few days ago (yes, I DO drive, at least three times a year), and their sign, like many others on businesses near and far, had a cute little line on it--"Life is short--be loud", a sentiment with which I can usually agree. After all, you have a short, finite lifespan, and making an impression the world while you're here, or "being loud", is one way to have a legacy that may outlive you.

So, like I said, I don't disagree with the sentiment. What I DO disagree with is that it was posted by a motorcycle dealer.

If you've spent any time in downtown Marquette you know what it's like when a motorcycle (or six) goes rumbling through. They're loud, that loudness echoes off the walls of buildings, and if you're walking by all you can hear is the reverberation of an engine without any kind of sound suppression system, made even louder by the fact that it's driver keeps revving the engine to make things even louder. Add to that the fact that some of the motorcycles have radios turned up to the max--just so the rider can hear it--and the ear-splitting noise drives all conversation to a halt and (most likely) causes the unintended passersby a small (although probably not statistically insignificant) episode of hearing loss.

So being loud as a general concept? Yes. Using a motorcycle to drown out all other loudness?

Nope.

Now, I was under the impression that the state of Michigan had laws against vehicles that made too much noise. Whether those laws are just for cars and trucks, or whether they were repealed in the name of "freedom"...I don't know. All I know is that every time a motorcycle (or six) goes rolling past windows shake, conversation stops, and some of the people on the street glare at those causing the ruckus like they're the devil incarnate.

So, you know, there's that.

I don't have a solution to this problem, or even if it IS a problem, except for those who live and work in a densely packed area with buildings that reflect sound. And I'm sure that the vast majority of people riding the motorcycles either don't know of the problem or would be mortified if they found out. But in this one particular instance, the use of the phrase "be loud" might not have the effect that you've intended.

At least if you ask a cranky old man in training.

(jim@wmqt.com), cranky old man in training.

Wednesday, 10/1

Oh...what to wear. What to wear?

As I've written here many times before, TV Jim has a problem that Radio Jim never has to worry about, and that's making sure I look good. Or, at least, look presentable, seeing as how I'm not quite sure that I can ever look good. When I'm just Radio Jim I can dress however I want, assuming that the clothes I choose don't have too many holes in them and are reasonably wrinkle free.

TV Jim? Not so much.

I bring this up because one of my projects the past weekend was to figure out what I'm gonna wear this year on “High School Bowl”. We start taping the first show Friday, so I had to dive in with my annual ritual of deciding what gets worn when.

Yes, I have a ritual. I'm a dork. What's your point?

There is an actual reason for the ritual, believe it or not (I mean, aside from the fact that I'm a dork). I shoot 20 episodes of the show each year, and I wanna make sure that what I wear varies throughout the season. After all, I wouldn't want to wear black shirts or a gray jacket three or four weeks in a row, would I? Nope; I wanna mix things up, and make sure that each week I'm in a different color scheme.

Once again, I'm a dork. What's your point?

So here's what I do. I figure out what I have in my closet, and what I've been thinking of picking up for future use. I then (and don't laugh here) write down all the combinations on 3x5 cards. I stare at the 3x5 cards for a while, and then start to move them around, until I think I have a schedule that varies color & texture throughout the season.

Yes, I'm a... oh, never mind.

There's actually no reason to do this. I mean, I could probably wear the same color on the show for three weeks in a row and no one would notice. There's no reason for me to go through all this effort, and yet for ten seasons in a row I've done the exact same thing.

If nothing else, it's a pre-season ritual, right?

Anyway, I seem to have worked out all the kinks, and think I know what I'm wearing each week of the show this year. Of course, if this is like years past, I'll end up buying something halfway through the year and want to wear it as soon as possible, thereby throwing my system all out of whack. But if that happens, I'll just do what I always do...haul the 3x5 cards out again, and start the whole thing over.

Yes, I'm a dork. What's your point?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)