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)

Tuesday, 9/22

 Why yes, I DO put the "goof" in goofy.

8-)

This week's TV piece was not at all serious, and one of those that just popped into my head one day a few weeks ago.  As usual, I was out running right before school started for the year, and for whatever reason the topic of Yooper-themed school classes entered my brain, as did an image for a Kindergarten book.

And with that, I was off to the races.

As usual, the gags came pretty easily in this one, while the graphics took a little more time.  I really do need to work on being a better graphic artist, but with little or no talent in that area, I guess I'm stuck doing what I do.  And thank goodness for Canva, a web-based graphics program that actually makes sense (and doesn't use AI, unless you wanna pay for it).  I'm pretty much able to stick together stuff that kinda sorta looks like I want it to, and with my limited abilities in that area...

I'm happy with the results.

So just how goofy did I end up this week?  Judge for yourself--

(jim@wmqt.com), goof.

Monday, 9/21

Wow. It’s just about over. It’s really over.

Tomorrow (tomorrow night at 8:05 Eastern time, actually) marks the Autumnal Equinox, or as a normal person would put it, the beginning of Fall. Summer’s over, and while we (once again) really didn’t have much of a summer this year, the door has been officially slammed on it.

Yikes!

Every week on the air we do something we call our “At Work/Online Network Question of the Week”, in which we ask a question on the air and also throw it on our station Facebook page in hopes of getting a little discussion going. An upcoming question, written knowing what is on the way, asks if everyone is ready for another Upper Michigan winter.

I know what my answer will be.

I’ve always thought of Summer as a time to recharge your batteries, a time to (literally) soak up enough sun to wash away the memories of the winter you’ve just lived through and to charge your psyche up enough to face the onslaught of the next, upcoming cold season. I mean, that’s just how I perceive it, but in talking with other people it seems like I’m not alone in that area.

This year, though, was something special. We had a brutally cold and brutally long-lasting winter, one that I know drained my batteries far more than they’ve ever been drained. We didn’t have much a spring at all, and then “summer” this year consisted of a nice Memorial Day weekend, a few nice days here and there, a hot (but hazy) July, and a few more okay days in August before all heck broke loose. Sure, it might not be too bad a day or two this week, but did we really have enough of a “summer” this year to erase memories of what we lived through a few months ago, and what we may have to live through a few months hence?

Don’t answer; it’s mostly a rhetorical question. After all, we each handle weather (and what it does to us) in different ways. But I have a feeling that if you were to ask 100 different U.P. residents that question that a majority—maybe even a large majority—of them would answer the same way I did.

And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

Maybe we’ll get lucky this winter. Maybe there will be a strong El Nino in the Pacific this year, and we’ll have warmer than average temperatures. Maybe, like a few years ago, we won't even have any snow throughout the year. Hopefully, though, we'll have few (if any days) where the temperature falls below zero. Maybe Lake Superior won’t freeze this year, which means that we’ll have a warmer Spring, which might lead to us having a “normal” summer next year.

Maybe.

Living up here, you gotta have hope, especially as far as the weather goes. After all, there’s nothing you can do about it; you just have to live through it, and keep your fingers crossed that it turns out for the best.

So as we head through the last full day of "summer" and stand on the brink of the first day of Fall, perhaps the best thing I can say is “good luck, everyone”. We may need it.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 9/18

Okay...my eyes can stop watering any day now.

When I was young I used to suffer from rather severe hay fever twice a year (spring & fall). But one of the few good things about getting older, I've discovered, is that allergy problems, at least for me, have fallen way off. I no longer have any sort of problems each Spring, and for the past few Autumns I haven't noticed anything happening at all.

And then there's this Fall. For the past week or so, my eyes have been watering like a fire hydrant left on during a hot Summer's day. And also for the past week or so, I've had a non-stop low-grade headache centered right behind my eyeballs. My nose hasn't in any way been stuffy, but several days this week you could actually hear all kinds of roughness in my voice. In total it's not quite as bad as what I suffered through as a younger person, but it's not that far off, either.

I have no idea why it's hit me with a vengeance this year. I don't know if it's the fact I was downstate around farm fields for a few days or if the (and I say this generously) weird weather we've had this year kick-started something in my head that's been laying dormant for a couple of decades now. All I can say is...

IT CAN STOP NOW!

I really hope that it's just an anomaly brought on by travel. I really hope that our increasingly screwed up climate hasn't caused my annual bouts of hay fever to return. But I always travel somewhere—Reese, Chicago, or Europe--during this time of the year and have not have the allergy problems that I do right now. So if the problems HAVE been caused by the weather, let's hope they've just been caused by our weird weather year, and not by our increasingly weird weather patterns.

After all, I suffered enough when I was young. I'd really dislike having to do it again. So if you see me walking down the street in the next few days with tears running down my face, realize that I'm not weeping in joy at seeing you (although I suppose i COULD be weeping in joy, at least inside). It's just my stupid sinuses getting their revenge for some inexplicable reason.

******

One more note before I go...I need to wish a happy anniversary to the two people without whom I wouldn't be here! It's my parents anniversary, so if you see either Dar or Chicky-Poo, make sure you wish 'em a happy day, because they sure do deserve it!

Love to them both,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 9/17

The signs are starting to go up. Now we'll see if they make any difference.

If you've been reading these the past few years you may recall all the issues that the city of Marquette has had with e-bike (actually, riders of all bikes) riding where they're not supposed to, and with many suggestions on how to control the few people who ride their machines like they're out of control. Out of that came a series of laws that the Marquette City Commission passed earlier this year.

One of those new ordinances involved the banning of riding any kind of bike or e-mobility devices on sidewalks in downtown Marquette. One of the ways to inform the public about the new law involved posting signage throughout downtown Marquette, and that has, after several months, finally started--

Even without the signs, the new ordinance has been in effect for four months now, and I've noticed a marked decrease in people riding bikes on sidewalks outside the station. However, it's not universal,; I still see kids (and adults) speeding down the Front Street sidewalk, oblivious as to the fact that someone may be stepping out of a building or getting out of a car. Hopefully, the signs will inform them that you can't do stuff like that.

And hopefully, those people actually listen.

I talked about this on TV a month or so ago. There seems to be a (small) subset of people out there who think that any kind of rule infringes upon their “freedom”. When it comes to things like public safety, that actually baffles me. You're being asked not to speed down a sidewalk on a hill to avoid injuring people. How is that infringing upon your freedom other than, perhaps, your freedom to hurt others?

Some days, I just don't get some people.

But that's neither here nor there. The signs are going up, which means that anyone on any wheeled device will soon know that they're not supposed to ride on sidewalks in certain areas of Marquette.

I'll be curious to see if those signs actually do their job.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 9/16

It's another sure sign that summer is over. My auxiliary office was empty yesterday.

I've been writing here and there about signs that our too-short summer has now receded into the depths of history, and I noticed perhaps one of the surest signs of that yesterday. The temps were mild, the sun was (kinda out), so I decided to head down to my auxiliary office to eat lunch and to do some writing, and that's when I saw yet another sign that summer's over.

My auxiliary office was, except for me, empty--

My "auxiliary office" is actually Marquette's Lower Harbor Park, one of the crown jewels of Marquette's park system, and a park that, during the summer, is filled with kids on the playground, bikers on the multi-use path, and individuals eating lunch at one of the many picnic tables. In fact, when I head down to my auxiliary office during the summer, sometimes I find that there's actually no place to work.

But not yesterday. In a giant city park, I was the only person within sight.

Yes, I know some of it's because school's back in session and yes, I know some of it's because (most of ) the tourists are gone. But to see the park that empty and that desolate just made me think that people have given up for the year, that they know fall is here, winter is coming, and it's time to hibernate for the next eight months.

And that's always one of the saddest revelations you can have this time of the year.

I myself am hoping that I get a few more days in my auxiliary office, although I guess that's up to Mother Nature. I'm guessing, though, anything like that would be a bonus, especially when you consider all of the people who already seem to have given up for the year, and who are ready for winter to show up, in whatever form it takes this year.. We'll have to see, I guess.

All I know is that after yesterday, it seems as if the summer that was way too short has now had the curtain officially drawn upon it.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 9/15

And now, the rest of the story.

Well, technically, it's not the REST of the story, as I haven't actually told any of the story yet. But if you recall last week when I wrote in here after returning from visiting my favorite father-in-law in the whole wide world, I said that I was going to put together a TV piece about small towns, both here and downstate. Since last night was TV night, guess what I did?

Yup. I told the whole story.

Once again, technically, it's actually not a “story”. It's more a series of observations punctuated by jokes (or at least by attempts at jokes) that came to me while I was out running one morning in Reese. I sat on my father-in-law's front porch (because that's what you do in a really small town, right?) and wrote most of it right there. I did not, however, have the “kicker”, the one thing near the end that ties the whole piece up with a nice bright bow. But then I went running another morning and ran into someone on the street as I was finishing.

And what she said to me was the PERFECT kicker for the piece.

What observations did I make, what jokes did I attempt to tell, and just what did the lady on the street say to me? Well, find out for yourself--

(jim@wmqt.com)