Friday, 10/2

Wow. I can't believe this is the twelfth go around of it already.

I don't have much time to write this morning, as I'm shortly due at Public TV 13 to tape the first shows of the year for “High School Bowl”. It's the 48th year for the show, and (gulp) number 12 with me as host, which is kind of unbelievable seeing as how it seems I just started doing it last month. But as we discover more and more, time doesn't seem to lie, so year twelve is now in the starting gate.

It's funny, because it seems like we just taped the championship game from last year last week. But nope; that was February 13th, over half a year ago, and here we are, getting ready to start it all over again. The show we tape today airs November 7th, and once we start it's (almost) a non-stop thrill ride for the next month and a half, when we take a break for Thanksgiving.

And then it all starts up again.

So with that in mind, I'm off to make a fool out of myself, as usual. But before I do that, I also need to wish my favorite little sister a happy birthday, which it is tomorrow. So if you're at Lofaro's Fresh Market in the next few days, let her know. And while you're at it, have yourself a great weekend, as well.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/1

It's been ten years. I know I REALLY need to update it soon.

Because it's been such a long time, some of you (heck, probably many of you) may not remember that I once had a list I kept updating on here called "Jim's 107 Things to Love About Marquette County". It listed 107-plus things that were amazing about this place, and every so often I'd get a note about how someone enjoyed the list or about a potential addition to it..

But then a couple of things happened.

The first was Covid, which meant that for two years I was working alone at the station and didn't have the time to do anything about it. The second was the sale of the station, which meant that as we developed a new corporate website the "107 List" didn't make the trip over.

And that's my bad.

However, I've been thinking of updating it recently, and have been spurred on by two things. One was a note from someone who wondered if he could still find the list on the new website, because he enjoyed looking at it every so often just remind himself about what a magical place Marquette County really is.. The second thing came to my attention when, after receiving that note, I printed out the 2017 version and noticed a typo in the part talking about Range Bank, where I had obviously meant to type "that's where my dear wife works".

Unfortunately, the typo stated that Range Bank is where "my dead wife works", and for some reason the idiot that typed it never noticed that.

Oops.

In going through the list, I've also noticed that maybe 20 percent of it consists of people who are no longer around or businesses that have closed. After all, a lot changes in a decade, especially in the decade that we've just lived through.

So here's the plan. I'm going to redo the list, updated to show the new things that around and to make sure that Loraine's my "dear wife" and not the other way around. I'll be posting it over (I think) an eight-day span, and then stick the whole, completed list, as well as all the pictures that accompany it, like this one--

on our new website, so that anyone who wants can read it whenever they want. It's gonna take a little work on my part, so I'm shooting for a target date of later this month and/or early next month. And I'm telling you that target date so, in case I slack or get behind in things, you can hold my feet to the fire and demand that I get it done.

After all, on occasion accountability still counts for something, right?

Wish me luck. It's long overdue.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 9/30

Think what you could do with money you'd spend on that car.

Several times the past few weeks I've noticed people driving new Corvettes around Marquette, in bright shiny colors and with nary a scratch on them. You see a bunch of them every year when the snow finally melts and the temperatures warm up, and then, like snowbirds, they disappear for the other seven or eight months of the year.

As you know, I'm not big into cars. Heck, technically I don't even own one. So for people to spend $90,000 (what Google says the price is for a new one) on a car they can only drive four or five months out of the year, I have to wonder--

Isn't there something better you could be doing with the money?

I'm not saying I begrudge the drivers of the Corvettes their cars. I'm sure that they've worked hard for them, and in buying one they're fulfilling a life long dream. And that's their right; after all, it's their money, and they can do whatever they want with it.

But to take $90,000 and buy something you can only use for a third of a year? Aren't there charitable organizations, or people in need, or other worthy uses where the money would help those in need? I mean, if I had an extra $90,000 that's what I'd would do with it. Once again, it's your money. You can spend it however you want. But in these days when social programs are being cut and charities are pushed to the limit in trying to help out those in need...

Does a Corvette really matter?

Like I said, I don't even own a car, so I'm probably not the best person to address this subject.  And if you think I'm wrong or misguided; well, then you're in good company, just like as on many of the things I've written about in here. All I know is that each and every time I saw a Corvette this past summer one thought kept popping into my head. Namely--

"I wonder how many people could be fed by the purchase price of that car".

But that's just me.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 9/29

I should probably learn how to play the game again.

My TV piece last night dealt with what it perhaps the UP's national card game, cribbage. It all started a couple of weeks ago when Deanna, Loraine, and I were out at lunch and Deanna asked if I knew how to play cribbage, because she's been looking for someone to play with. I had to explain that I knew how to once, back a thousand years ago when I was a kid, but I've forgotten just about everything about it since then.

I know; I'm a bad Yooper.

Anyway, the whole experience made me think two things. The first is that I really SHOULD learn how to play it again, if only because it might be one of the few ways that I would fit in as a “real” Yooper and not a “city boy” (as I've been called before by "real" Yoopers).

The second? That I could get a really good TV piece out of the whole thing. And you know what?

I don't think it turned out half bad--

Now, if you don't mind, I have to skip out of here early, as as I have a (gulp) 9 am appointment in Negaunee. As long as I remember how to drive that far, I think I'll get there in time.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 9/28

I guess I might as well own it, right?

Over the years, I have had a lot of people (especially young women, for some reason) compare my looks to that of an actor. Well, I was giving a tour to a group of law professionals over the weekend, and while we were stopped for a second one of them leaned over to me and said those words that have been said many times before--

“Do you know you look like a younger Billy Bob Thornton?”

Here's where it gets weird. I know that when they're comparing me to an Oscar-winning actor and writer they're complimenting me. I realize that young women, especially, find Billy Bob Thornton a very fascinating and attractive individual. However, when they say I look like Billy Bob Thornton, I always assume that they mean Billy Bob Thornton in his most famous, Oscar-winning role.

You know...THIS Billy Bob Thornton--

When they compare me to Billy Bob Thornton, I'm pretty sure they don't mean the way he looked in “Sling Blade”. But for whatever reason—and this probably says more about me than anything—I always assume they mean the very bizarre character he played in that movie, as opposed to the Billy Bob Thornton who married Angelina Jolie or the Billy Bob Thornton who has broken hearts on the big & small screens for 30 years now.

But like I said—that's just me.

Personally, I don't see the resemblance. But I guess that's normal, much in the same way I record someone for a commercial and they say “that doesn't sound like me”. We're just too close to the subject to me impartial. I suppose if I tried to disconnect to everything I know about myself and stared at a picture of Billy Bob Thornton long enough, I might see what everyone else is seeing. Maybe I'd see the dashing but quirky leading man or the tough but intelligent guy trying to hang on to his scruples.

Or maybe I'd just keep seeing the dude from “Sling Blade”. It's one or the other.

In the end, there's nothing I can do about it. We're all born looking like we look, and if we happen to slightly resemble an Oscar winning writer and actor enough that people keep mentioning it?

Well, I suppose there are worse people to be compared to.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 9/24

Attached to the protective grating around a tree right outside of the station is this--

Yes, you are seeing that right. It's a (I'm guessing) Valentine's Day-themed teddy bear, strung up like it's the first week of February and not a random day in late September. But because it's Marquette, I'm not sure WHY the Valentine's Day-themed teddy bear is stuck on the protective tree grating. Because it's Marquette, it could be there because someone lost it and someone else wants to whoever lost it to find it.

Or, because it's Marquette, it could be art. Maybe, just maybe, someone put it there as, I dunno, a statement on their love for a random day in February or as a comment on the disposable aspect of our modern day society.

Because it's Marquette, it could be either one.

I'm not saying that in a bad way. Marquette is just one of those places filled with artists, and often time those artists will try to make a statement with “found objects”...things you find just lying around on the ground. Like, you know, a Valentine's Day-themed teddy bear that just happened to sitting in the grass or lying on the sidewalk.

Hence, my confusion as to why the Valentine's Day-themed teddy bear was stuck to the protective tree grating outside of the station in late September.

If it disappears some day soon, I'll trust that whoever lost it found it and took it home (or, I guess, that DDA workers found it and wanted to remove it from the protective tree grating). But if it remains there for some time, allowing passersby to ponder the statement that someone is trying to make, I'll know it's art.

If for no other reason than I just happen to live in a place where either of those is a possibility.

*****

By the way, tomorrow is a corporate holiday, so there won't be a new one of these. Have yourself a great weekend (whether it be 2 or 3-day). You'll find something new here on Monday!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 9/23

Okay, it’s time for me to rant about geography again.

Every so often I’m astounded by the geographic ignorance of the people in this country. Now, I realize most people don’t care, and that I probably do because I minored in the subject in college, but I came across two scary statistics while reading news sites this past weekend, and they just blew my mind.

The first statistic? Despite the fact that we’re engaged in a war in this particular country 63 percent of Americans can't find Iran on a world map. They had no idea that you go to the Mediterranean Sea, take a slight zig to the left when it ends, and go a couple of countries in.

Of course, that would pre-suppose that they knew where the Mediterranean Sea is.

The other statistic might even be scarier...around 50 percent of ALL Americans can’t locate New York state on a map. That means HALF of all Americans, despite knowing of the state, couldn’t point to where the Empire State Building sits, or where Long Island juts out into the Atlantic.

Don’t you think it says something about Americans when we don’t know where world hot spots are? I mean, how can we as a country care about things like the past tragedy of mass starvation and mass death in Darfur when most of us don’t even know where it is? I guess it’s just a little disappointing that we as a people don’t seem to be aware that we’re not just Americans. We’re humans sharing a planet with many different people and many different countries, and in that sense, don’t you think we SHOULD have some knowledge of our neighbors?

(Darfur, by the way, is in the Sudan. In Africa. PLEASE tell me you know where Africa is.)

Now like I said, maybe I’m just a little sensitive to this mass ignorance because it’s something about which I’ve always had an interest. That interest, by the way, started from the time I was 4 years old and my mom read to me from Rand McNally’s World Atlas. I, apparently, was disappointed that I couldn’t go to school with the other kids, so she decided to let me learn at home. And it’s an education that’s stayed with me to this day.

So thanks, Mom, for opening my eyes to the fact that there’s an entire world out there, filled with different people, different customs, and different problems. It’s an education that I would hope ALL kids could get some day.

And then we would never have to see statistics like the two above, the ones that blew my mind, again.

(jim@wmqt.com)