Friday, 11/6

For me, at least I know the reason why.

My “Weird Fact of the Day” yesterday mentioned how Americans eat more during Autumn than any other season. I'm not surprised; after all, Thanksgiving and the Christmas season fall in there, and we're also probably eating stuff we shouldn't in order to ward off any approaching Seasonal Affliction Disorder from which we may suffer.

And then there are also the foods that may only see during the fall.

If you've been reading these over the years you may have picked up on the fact that, for the most part, I try to eat well. I try to avoid fast foods, overly processed foods, and foods that aren't really “foods”, foods that are just made up of chemicals and additives and shaped to look like “food”. Even the “bad' things I eat, like chocolate, are the “good” versions of the food.

So I try my best.

It may not, however, come as a surprise that I have a food that's a guilty pleasure. It's a food that I don't believe I've ever seen in a 'good” versions, and while I don't eat it a lot I do savor the times when I break down and ingest it. And that guilty pleasure is?

Cornbread.

Yup; I know I don't seem like a cornbread-loving kind of person, but I am. I know it's not good for me; it's basically a grain with all the good stuff removed combined with sugar and a bunch of fatty oils, but there's just something about it that I can't resist. So when I noticed that two Marquette grocery stores started selling freshly-made cornbread, I couldn't resist, even though it means eating 1,500 calories of gunk that could instead be used for healthy whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

But it's cornbread...and there's something about cornbread that I just can't resist.

I did something else I probably shouldn't have, and that's read the ingredients list they stuck on the back of the container. I noticed that instead of sugar the store uses high fructose corn syrup, which is something I try to avoid at all costs. So for a few months, I had to live without cornbread.

It was hard.

Then a few weeks ago we were at another grocery store, and I noticed they had a slab of cornbread for sale. They make theirs with sugar, which obviously meant that I had to buy it and try it out, just to see if it was any different than the cornbread I'd previously been eating. A larger than usual (gulp) one pound container of calories later I was totally satisfied, not only by the cornbread but by the fact that it had sugar in it. Sure, I had just eaten around 2,000 calories, but at least those calories didn't include high fructose corn syrup.

Yes, I know I need help. What's your point?

Thankfully, I don't eat cornbread all that often. If I ate it every time I felt like it, I have the feeling I'd be adding another 20 or 30 pounds to my 160-pound frame. Besides, can you imagine what all that processed grain and fully saturated fat would do to a body not used to it? I shudder to think. However, I am human, and I do have the occasional temptation. So if you ever run into me in a grocery store and you happen to see one of those one-pound bricks of cornbread in my cart, realize it's not part of my everyday diet.

It's just a guilty pleasure.

Speaking of which, I'm doing something this weekend that might, by some, be considered taking a guilty pleasure to extremes. Details Monday.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 11/5

I may have found the second greatest opening paragraph in news writing history.

Nothing catches my eye like a good opening line or a great opening paragraph, especially in a news story. Fiction, essay, and feature writers get to do it all the time, but in the world of news writing, which tends to be dry and factual, you don't get to see it often. It's only when a bizarre set of circumstances come together that you get to string together words like this, something I saw 13 years ago, and something I still consider to be the greatest opening line in a news story ever--

“A jazz musician was injured Friday after jumping from a burning motor home driven by a one-time roller skating stripper’.

I mean, it has everything you need—it's factual, it tells a story, and it's so absurd that it can't have happened. Yet, it did. In the 13 years since I've seen it I've thought of it often, especially when trying to come up with opening lines for these things. I never thought I'd come across another quite as bizarre, until I was perusing election results yesterday and somehow clicked into another story that led with this--

“Three Indiana judges have been suspended after a failed attempt to visit a strip club led to a drunken brawl outside an Indianapolis White Castle that ended with two of the judges being shot.”

I mean, I know Indiana can be a strange place, but THAT strange? Why did the judges—in this case, two male and one female—want to go to a strip club? Was there a reason they couldn't get in? Why did they end up drunk at a White Castle? And why did two of them get shot there?

I mean, that one line is filled with sooooo many questions that you HAVE to read the story, right?

Right?

I can just imagine the reaction of the reporter assigned to the story, thinking it was just another hum-drum piece that said reporter could probably do in their sleep. Luckily for them, it wasn’t. And luckily for us, that person had the wisdom, the foresight, and the, well, uncommon mind to put all the details of the story together in such a way that makes the rest of us riveted with just 33 words.

I hope—nay , I aspire—to write something that good some day. I know I'll probably never get the chance, but a boy can dream, can't he?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 11/4

Because I a) stayed up too late last night watching election results and 2) have to go shoot a TV show in a few minutes, I'm going to leave you with something you haven't seen in a decade or so.

So that almost makes it new, right?

8-)

Something REALLY new tomorrow!

(jim@wmqt.com)

******

(as originally posted 11/4/15)

They're on their way there. See? It isn't that hard.

I know I've probably railed about the misuse of the different forms of “there” in the past, so forgive me if I'm babbling babbles that I've already babbled. But there was a meme going around on Facebook this morning in which someone posted that people join an organization because, and this is taken verbatim from the post, “there to stupid to do anything else”.

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have the very latest definition of the word “irony” right there.

I'm starting to wonder if this whole “there/their/they're” problem is the latest version of the “chicken & the egg” quandary. Are people just grammatically stupid overall, and we notice it more these days because they post everything they write on the internet? Or has technology—the internet and spell-check—made people stupider, so much so that they don't actually know which “their” to use here and there?

Some days, I just don't know.

Now, I make a lot of grammatical & spelling errors when I write, as those of you who read this are no doubt aware. I rely too much on spell-check, and each and every one of these could probably use an extra round of proofreading, the time for which is, unfortunately, limited. So I'm not claiming to live in a glass house. I'm not claiming to be a perfect writer myself. But if I were to post something accusing someone else of being stupid?

I'd make sure I wasn't an idiot myself. But then, that's just me.

I'll shut up about this now, if for no other reason than I have to go hang out with people who, I'm guessing, actually DO know which “there” to use, four teams of some of the brightest young people on the planet, who will be taking part in another action packed edition of “High School Bowl”. It starts shooting in about an hour, in fact, assuming they make it there.

Just not their. Or they're.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 11/3

I hope I wasn't being too idealistic.

Welcome to mid-term election day, a day when (from all appearances) big changes are on tap. Any time there's a consequential election it seems like the county holds it collective breath, and this one is no different. So I took the opportunity to use my TV piece last night to share a dream I have, a dream that—and I hope I'm not being too naive here—that we can all live together when it's over.

Of course, I'm the same person who asks for my own spaceship every Christmas, so I do have some experience in pipe dreams.

I posted the video to social video last night, along with a slightly changed line from John Lennon's “Imagine”. The first few people who responded thought I was indeed crazy for saying what I said, but as the evening wore on it appeared that there are a LOT of people out there who are tired of the political divide among us, and who yearn for a little civility in our civil discourse. Of course, we have about as much of a chance of that as I do of getting my own spaceship, but a boy can dream, right?

No matter how things turn out tonight—whether your side wins or loses—I hope that, beginning tomorrow, as can all live together. After all, if there's anything the past decade has shown us, is that we're really good at living apart.

And I really hope that that changes soon.

The TV piece in question?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 11/2

Yes, I'm insane. What's your point?

Over the past weeks I've had several people ask when I sleep, seeing as how I have a full-time radio job and two different weekly TV gigs that require a lot of preparation and/or writing. So I guess it's s fair question, although, in all honesty I love what I'm doing and it really doesn't seem like work.

But that's not the point. If the people who asked me when I have time to sleep also knew that, aside from my radio & TV jobs, I've received my History Center assignments for next year, then they'd think that I've REALLY gone over the edge.

But I'm not quite insane. Not yet.

Here's what it looks like I'm doing next year (and keep in mind that this is on top of a full-time radio job and two different TV gigs that require a lot of preparation and/or writing)--

January—Kaufman show with my pal Jack, which we're calling “Legends & Lore 4” because, I guess, “Lore” & “four” rhyme. Although this WILL be the fourth in the series, so I guess, in a way, the name DOES make sense.

April—I'm not quite sure why, but I've been asked to make a presentation in front of the Marquette Economic Club. You know...the club that brings in important people with important topics.

And, for some strange reason, apparently me. I have no idea why.

Also in April—The debut of season six of “Pieces of the Past”, the short videos I do for the History Center. At this point, it's looking like there will be 15 of them. Although there could be 16. Or 14. But odds are, it'll be 15.

At least for now,.

June—A reprise of my old “Third Street: Day & Night” walking tour, which was actually the first tour we did at the History Center after Covid restrictions were lifted. It might be nice to do it with an actual crowd this time around.

August—A brand new walking tour I'm putting together called “Jim True Life crime Tales”. While I haven't started work on it yet, I'm guessing it's deal with crime.

And true life.

Add into that the probability of, oh, four or five newspaper articles, and...

Well, now that I think about it, maybe I AM insane. If nothing else, we'll find out by the end of 2027, won't we? But the cool thing is I really enjoy doing all of this, and it's not like I'm dreading tackling any of the projects. In fact, I'm really looking forward to most (if not all) of them. The only problem—and I'm not sure yet if this will be a problem—is trying to find the time to (properly) put together everything on a timely (and tight) schedule. We'll just have to see.

And besides, if I need them, I always have the seven or eight hours I should be in bed each night, right? If people are wondering where I get the time now, maybe they should look at my schedule for next year.

Then the questions might really begin.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/30

Happy Halloween Eve. Here's your scary thought for the day—you still have five more days to sit through what seems to be non-stop commercial breaks filled with nothing but political ads.

Sorry. Didn't mean to send THAT much terror through you.

Doesn't matter if you're watching TV or listening to your favorite radio station (and you DO have a favorite radio station, right?). You'll either see or hear upwards of 20 political ads during an average one hour period. In fact, while it's not quite as bad on the station where I work, I have seen an hour of TV on a local station where they had nothing BUT political ads. It's almost enough to make you long for the days of non-stop drug commercials listing their side effects, you know?

Well, okay. Maybe not THAT bad, but I think you know what I mean.

It's probably not much a surprise, either, that in our highly polarized political climate most of the ads you see or hear aren't positive ads. For the most part, they don't tell you what the candidate wants to accomplish or what the candidate stands for. Nope; we're just lucky that most of the commercials we see and hear are negative ads, either telling you that one candidate is a horrid human being, or trying to twist facts so much that you start to believe if you vote one way or another you'll end up with brain cancer.

And that helps the democratic process how?

I don't know that their system is any better, but I've written in here about how German elections are relatively peaceful affairs. There are no non-stop orgies of negative ads, no dark money political action committees, campaigns are limited to a span of just a few weeks, and they hold elections on Sundays so that everyone can vote. In the end, they have a higher percentage of their citizens voting, and, if I had to guess, a lot less stress caused during their election season.

But, for better or worse, that's not how we do things here. And that's why for the next five days any kind of media you consume will constantly remind you of that. So if you're looking for a scary Halloween fact, there you go. But at least six days from today, it'll all be over. Or at least it'll be over until, say January, when the 2028 Presidential campaign gets underway.

Boo!

8-)

Have a great & safe Halloween weekend. If you're downtown trick or treating tomorrow, stop by TV-19. I'll be joining Kevin and, I'm guessing, cracking a LOT of jokes about pasties.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/29

It's been a few weird days. It really has.

I complain in here waaaaay too much about how some weeks are just jam-packed with things to do, while others are much lighter. I really shouldn't complain; that's just the nature of having (ahem) four different jobs. For instance—this week, aside from my usual insane daily schedule I'm also in the middle of several “High School Bowl” shoots, doing some extra stuff for TV-19, and, as I had mentioned a few days ago, interviewing a congressional candidate.

Or that's what I thought.

A few minutes before I was set to interview Callie Barr, running for the US House in Michigan's First Congressional District, her UP campaign manager popped into the station and said “Would it be okay if the Senator joined in the conversation”?

And that's how I ended up interviewing both Ms Barr and ex-four term US Senator Debbie Stabenow at the same time.

I wasn't expecting it, but I guess I'm lucky that I know enough to roll with it. I was actually able to incorporate Ms. Stabenow's own experience in the interview, and after the interview was over even asked her for her perspective on Michigan's US Senate race. After all, it seems like she would know something about that, right?

So maybe, just maybe, in hindsight it's not surprising I forgot the topic of the blog I was going to write about old masks. Maybe, just maybe, it's surprising that there aren't MORE things I haven't forgotten about.

Unless, of course, I have forgotten about them already. Because, you know, that's how I roll these days.

8-)

If you have 11 minutes and the inclination, here's the interview with Callie Barr & Debbie Stabenow--

(jim@wmqt.com)