Friday, 4/10

I miss “Stump Jim Day”.

Those of you who've been listening for a thousand years may remember “Stump Jim Day”, which occurred every Friday when listeners were able to turn the table on me. Instead of me asking them a question about a movie, they would ask me one, and if I didn't get it right (which happened on an almost weekly basis) they'd win. The reason I miss it is two-fold—first of all, I got to see just how unknowledgeable (if that's a word) I was about certain kinds of movies or certain actors. I'd like to think that I'm fairly literate as far as film goes, but over the years listeners figured out that I did have certain Achilles Heels—Disney cartoons or Nicolas Cage flicks among them. So I'd often get asked questions about my “heels”, and listeners would (usually) walk away happy.

Then, every so often, I'd get one of those questions right (usually just by sheer luck), everyone thought I had studied up on the subject, and they'd move on to something else. Of course, I really hadn't studied up, but the people asking the questions didn't need to know that, right?

8-)

The other thing I miss about not doing “Stump Jim Day”? Well, the whole concept had kind of turned into a “thing”. People had tried to get through for weeks or months or (in some case) even a few years just to try and stump me, and even if they weren't able to, even if I answered their question correctly, they were just happy that they were able to get through.

And if you're looking for proof that it worked, even though it's been 10 or 11 years since we last did it, I still have people come up to me and (proudly) announce how they stumped me one day. That's the kind of thing that makes me realize we were on to something, and that's a kind of “something” that you don't easily come across in this business.

Now we just need to find a sponsor that'll let us bring it back, and we'll be all set.

On that note, have yourself a great weekend. Even though it'll still be kinda chilly, I hope you can at least get out and enjoy some of the sun that's been forecast!!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 4/9

Have I ever mentioned my life is weird?

I joke, of course. It seems like there have been weeks recently where I do nothing BUT mention my life is weird. But it's happened again twice, and it's all History Jim's fault.

First of all, the annual UP History Conference is being held in Marquette in June, and I was asked if I would give a walking tour. I, of course, said yes, and yesterday the organizers let me know that there have already been a bunch of people who've signed up for the event, not even knowing what the topic is, but because—in several cases attendees coming from downstate—they've heard that I give fun tours and they wanted to experience one for themselves.

Okay.

The other? Well, the quarterly newsletter from the History Center just came out. There's a big article in each edition (I've written a few myself), and when I started to read this quarter's I came across this--

I am apparently now someone to be quoted when individuals write long, scholarly articles. It took me a few minutes to actually remember where the quote came from (I believe from a Mining Journal about the Great Fire of 1868), but my tales are now being used as reference materials by serious people doing serious things.

They DO know who I am, right?

I'm sure there may be a day when stuff like this happens and I won't be fazed, but I'm guessing that day is probably quite far away. All I know is that, on an almost daily basis, something like these two incidents happen and I have no idea why.

Well, actually I do know why. Why? Because my life is weird.

There's just no other answer.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 4/8

I don't have a car, so I don't have to buy gas for a car. But if I did, I don't know that I'd let it sit there just running, and running...

And running.

For those of you not fortunate enough to live a (mostly-car) free lifestyle, just let me say this—I feel your pain. Every time I walk past a gas station and see prices driven sky-high by a war of choice I myself cringe a little. I can't imagine what it's like having to drive 15 or 20 or 60 miles a day.

It must be painful.

So that makes me wonder about the guy around the corner from where I live. I don't know him, but he's one of those stereotypical guys around here who drives a pickup truck. He also, from what I can tell, has a habit of starting his pickup so that it's warm when he gets into it. With the weather we've been having recently I don't begrudge anyone that. I really don't.

But...I went running this morning. When I ran past his truck it was turned on, the engine roaring like the engine of a diesel pickup truck usually does. I finished my four miles, which means that about 35 minutes later, as I was walking up the street cooling down, I noticed that his truck was still running.

And as far as I can tell, it hadn't moved an inch.

Gas is what...four-plus bucks a gallon, at least here in Marquette? How much gas—how much money—must a big diesel pickup truck left idling in a driveway burn up in that (at least) 35 minute span? I mean, forgot about all the toxins you're spewing into the atmosphere by leaving your pickup running for at least 35 minutes; that's a rant for another day. How much money do you (literally) burn by letting your truck run just so you'll be warm?

I just don't get it. But then, I'm not a pickup owner. Heck, I'm barely even a driver of a (fuel-efficient) car. There may be a reason for letting a truck run every morning, just as the money that goes out the tailpipe may not be an issue. But still...you're wasting a finite resource (gas). You're throwing away a valuable commodity (money). Where's the sense in that? Where's the logic in that?

Some days, I see things that make me realize I'm not like other people. What I noticed while running this morning was one of those things.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 4/7

Ever wonder how my mind works? Well, apparently, THIS is how my mind works--

Those are notes, scratched out over the span of a few days, for my TV piece last night. I've mentioned about how, on occasion, the bits pop into my head fully formed. The one I did last night, sadly, was not like that. In fact, like most of them, I had a broad idea, and as I then as I pondered that idea it came more fully into focus, allowing me to write thoughts and/or complete lines that might eventually be used in the piece.

That sheet of notes is fairly typical when I'm writing, although it's also atypical in that if you were to see the other side there would be even more jottings and arrows pointing from one thought to another. I usually just cover one side of paper; I guess this time, I was just lucky.

Of course, I WAS writing about one of my favorite things of all time, space. It's funny; until last Friday, it didn't even occur to me to talk about the Artemis mission, if only because it really doesn't have a lot to do with the UP (I mean, aside from me being a space geek). However, and don't ask how I connected the two, the Seney Stretch popped into my head as a metaphor, I jotted that down, and before I knew it, I had the sheet you saw above.

Well, actually I had both sides of sheet, but you get the idea.

Was I able to somehow meld a trip to the moon with “Life n the 906”? Judge it for yourself, and remember--

It all started with a bunch of almost illegibly written notes on a small piece of paper--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 4/6

You know, it would be one less thing to worry about.

First of all, hope you had a great Easter, and that all your chocolate bunnies were actual chocolate and not just “chocolately flavored candy”, as a lot of them are these days. I had a great weekend myself, making pea soup and trying my hand at making Bienenstich, or “Bee Sting Cake”, a traditional German goodie--

It was yummy.

Speaking of Germany, we're now at T minus one month (to the day) before we (hopefully) head over there for a few days of fun. Over the weekend I took care of a bunch of little things, ranging from beginning to write my “Life in the 906”s ahead a few weeks to starting to decide what goes where in luggage, backpacks, and carry-ons.

Plus I wondered about the blogs.

Here's the deal—as you may recall, every time we go to Europe I'd write a blog on a nightly basis about what we did that day. People seemed to enjoy it, even if it does seem (at least to me) to be a little humble-bragging about what we were doing. But seeing as how it's been two years since we've gone over there and have done anything like that I'm starting to wonder--

Do I need to do it any more?

There are several points behind my pondering the question, not least of which is the fact that we have no idea whether or not this trip is either going to come off as planned or even come off at all. Because of strikes in Germany and TSA troubles here in the US we could find ourselves stranded at Frankfurt Airport for four days or find ourselves struck in Chicago because, well, it's 2026 and nothing seems to be going right in 2026.

Not only that, but we're not actually doing much this time around. We're just going to basically one place—Saarbrucken--to check out the area, see a favored soccer team of Loraine's, and head across the border to France & Luxembourg to buy (real) chocolate. Do people really want to read about that? I'm not sure. It's not like we're meeting people or will be the subject of a news conference (which, as we all know, HAS happened in the past). Of course, without a lot of concrete plans for the days we're there I might have the extra hour or two each night it takes to put one of the blogs together, and, if I'm being honest, it HAS been kind of fun going back and reading them for the past several trips, so...

See why I can't decide anything yet?

Thankfully, I still have one month to the day to make that decision, as I probably wouldn't be able to write anything until we get to Frankfurt on May 7th. If you have an opinion on the matter, please let me know, as I don't write the blogs for me, I write them for anyone who wants to read them.

So vote early, and vote often. Your voice is the one of the most important as I ponder whether to do these again or not.

Thanks!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 4/2

That was kinda cool.

I know I haven't written about it all, what with my recent obsession over the weather, but the space geek in me has closely been following the developments around the impending launch of the Artemis II mission around the moon. As we all know, I was warped by being a little kid during the Apollo missions a thousand years ago, and seeing this is the first times human have attempted the trip to the moon since then...

Well, you can kinda guess my reaction to it.

I had the launch coverage on in the background as I was working yesterday, and while I didn't get a chance to see much of it I did note the little kid in me would have been quite jealous regarding what little kids can see of a launch these day. Back a thousand years ago when the Apollo launches were taking place you could only see whatever Walter Cronkite (or whoever you watched) saw and whatever CBS (or whoever you watched) decided to show you. But now, you can just watch NASA TV and see (as I did) over four hours of pre-launch coverage, featuring cameras inside the capsule and a whole bunch of helicopter beauty shots of the spacecraft on the pad.

Can you imagine what little kid me would have been like had I been able to access coverage like that during Apollo? If you think I'm geeky now...

8-)

Anyway, I hope things go well during the duration of the flight and, more than anything else, I hope it's not another half century before I get to watch the launch of humans to the moon. After all, that's a long, long time to wait.

*****

Because tomorrow's a corporate holiday I have the day off, so there won't be a new one of these. Before I leave, though, I have to wish a happy birthday to one of the two people without whom I wouldn't be here geeking out at the launch of a spacecraft. It's my Mom's birthday on Sunday, so I hereby declare that she gets to spend the day munching on chocolate Easter bunnies.

After all, next to a rocket launch, that might be the best way to spend a big day, right?

Happy birthday in advance, Mom!!

Love,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 4/1 (no fooling)

Please tell me this isn't a very bad April Fool's Day joke.

Please.

As you know, we have had one horrendous winter around here, with snow storm piling upon snow storm. After the historic event we lived through a couple of weeks ago one would hope that Mother Nature would take a little pity on us but sadly, that does not appear to be the case--

Forecasts are still varying wildly, and will probably change eight times before tonight, but while it seems like we here in Marquette will (hopefully) see a bunch of rain mixed with snow, outlying areas outside of the city could see up to eight inches of snow, some freezing rain, and, given the way our year has gone so far, a plague of locusts.

Okay, maybe not that last item, but it looks like ti could be a mess, something that we really don't need as we're still struggling to clean up from the last mess. Take Marquette for example—the winter parking ban has been extended through April 15^th, city crews are working day and night to fully clear off streets & sidewalks, and the DPW is—literally--running out of places to dump the snow they remove.

Do we REALLY need another eight inches on top of everything else?

Now, hopefully, this will be a like a lot of Spring storms, and either not live up to its potential or hit the hardest away from the lake. Of course, if it hits inland, that means our friends in places like Negaunee or Republic or Big Bay have to deal with it. And while they probably have a little more space in which to dump the snow they're trying to remove (unlike here in a packed city) they've also received more snow.

And after the dumping upon dumping that we're endured the past few months, I wouldn't wish that on them as well.

We'll have to see how it all turns out. If it fizzles out, cool. If it doesn't, we'll just have to keep muttering “is it June yet” to ourselves until it actually IS June.

And if that doesn't work? Well, we'll just have to hold it against Mother Nature for playing one of the cruelest April Fools Day jokes on us that she could come up with.

(jim@wmqt.com)