Thursday, 2/29

Welcome to your extra day.

I never actually know what to do with a leap day; normally, it's just another day in a never-ending string of days. But for some reason—and I have no idea why—it seems like this year we should mark the leap day with something big. I have no idea what that should be; I just know that it should be something big. And it should not be the way most of the world marked the last time we had a leap day, back in 2020.

You know...when Covid was beginning its assault on the planet.

Hopefully, if you do something “big” to mark the whole day, it won't be so big as to unleash a virus and shut down the lives of billions of people. Because, and this just may be me, I think we've all had enough of that for a lifetime.

Am I right?

8-)

*****

I should also mention that a miracle occurred yesterday—we actually had our first Snow Day of the year. Yup; every single school was closed, although the amount of snow we received was, well, negligible--

They were probably closed for two reasons, the most important being that early yesterday morning the wind was blowing the snow around so much you couldn't see. And the second?

Well, we haven't had any snow days yet this year. So, you know, why not?

Right?

One more fun fact from yesterday, too. It was a LOT colder than it was Tuesday. At the National Weather Service in Negaunee Tuesday's high was 59. Not too long afterward, the temperature got down to 7. In 11 hours, it dropped 52 degrees.

This has been a weird weather year. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 2/28

You know how I've been alluding to telling you something the past week or so, but couldn't because of various issues (mostly technical)? Well, I can now finally spill the beans--

We're (finally) streaming.

This is perhaps the one thing that I've been trying to get going over all these years, but for various reasons was never quite able to pull it over the line. But it has now happened, and no matter where you are in the world you can listen to us.

In fact, wanna give it a shot? .Just click or jab your finger HERE

There are a couple of reasons I've been trying to push this over the line for a while now, the first (and most important) is that we've had SO many people request it. We seem to have quite a large diaspora of former Marquette residents now living elsewhere who really REALLY wanted to listen to, and I'm quoting a bunch of them, their “favorite station”. Not only that, but here in the UP we do have signal gaps here and there, thanks mostly to topography. You may have experienced that yourself; you can hear us fine while driving, go over a hill & not hear us, and then pick us up again as you go over another hill.

For those people living in one of those valleys, they can now listen just like everyone else.

That's about it; the fact that it took a week longer than I hoped is nothing compared to the years that we've been trying to get this going. But get this going we have and, like I said, you can now listen anywhere in the world.

So jab your finger HERE and join in!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 2/27

Believe it or not, this is a line I utter with some regularity--

“Argh. Where'd my brain go?”

Now, don't worry. It's not like I've lost my mind (or whatever I have left of my mind after all these years of being me). Instead, when I wonder where my brain went, I'm wondering about THIS brain--

That's a little foam brain, given to me by my mother-in-law over a decade ago, right after I was in my little bike accident and had a bashed up hand. I needed something to squeeze to get my stuff appendage loose, she had the brain lying around, and voila—that's how I ended up with the brain.

Although I don't need it any more, I still have the brain sitting on my desk at work, among the papers and other little knick-knacks that people have decorating their workspace. Unlike the other knick-knacks sitting on my desk the brain, though, has a mind of its own. Because of its weird shape it'll often roll around on its own, or because it's usually sitting near a mouse cable it gets sent off flying somewhere whenever I'm trying to get work done.

And THAT'S why I'm often uttering the line about wondering where my brain went.

Now, I realize I could put an end to all this just my placing the brain somewhere else on my desk, but where would the fun be in that? I could stick it in a drawer or somewhere out of harm's way, but then it wouldn't go rolling around and give me an excuse to visit all the dust-balls underneath my desk as I'm retrieving it.

Where would the fun be in that?

So for now, the brain stays where it is. I may need to go searching for it every few weeks, but I'm okay with that. I mean, who among us HASN'T wondered where our mind has gone on occasion, right?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 2/26

It's not easy being part Vulcan.

I say that in jest, of course. My DNA says I'm 100% human, so I'm taking Ancestry's word on that. However, having grown up watching a show that features a Vulcan, I'm often wondering about the illogic of certain situations.

Here's one of them.

I had to take Loraine's car out over the weekend for a few errands. Because I don't drive much, I'm often very alert when I'm behind the wheel. I keep my eyes where they're supposed to be—on the road—and I don't pay attention to too much else.

However, while on the bypass on the way home, I noticed something pop up on her dashboard display. I was doing what I was supposed to, keeping my eyes on the road, but I noticed it out of the corner of my eye.

What popped up on her dashboard display? This--

Yup. While I was driving Loraine's car popped up a message that I should be keeping my eyes on the road. Of course, to read the message about keeping my eyes on the road, I had to take my eyes off the road. How—on Earth, Vulcan, or any other planet—does that make sense?

There's no logic to it!

I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to have you read a message about keeping your eyes on the road while you're trying to do just that. It totally defeats the purpose of keeping your eyes on the road if you have to take your eyes off the road to read the message. Yet, either Chevrolet or OnStar or some combination thereof thought that it would be a good idea to do just that. Were they not thinking? Have they never driven before? Or were they thinking, somewhat deviously, that “if we get people to read the message and take their eyes off the road they'll wreck their car, and we'll make money selling their insurance company a new one?”

These days, nothing would surprise me.

So there you go. The latest example of non-logic that totally perplexed a logical person. And just so you know, I took the picture after I pulled into the driveway, and no longer needed to keep my eyes on the road. Maybe that's when OnStar and/or Chevrolet should think about putting the message on the dashboard display, and NOT when the driver is (theoretically, and logically) trying to keep their eyes on the road.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 2/23

And now, it's time for Jim's “Pick 'O the Flix”!

Most of you probably don't remember this, but for many years in the 90s I used to do on-air reviews of movies that no one else would even think about watching. I used to go into a video store and find the VHS tapes that were among the dustiest and most untouched; those were the ones that I reviewed. (And then I would wrap it up with something really stupid like “Check it out--'Wrestling Women vs the Aztec Mummy', starring, in alphabetical order, the Aztec Mummy and the Wrestling Women”). While video stores don't even exist any more, nor do I have a VHS player.  there are a couple of things I've watched (admittedly, watched a couple of years ago) that I always thought I should review.

And now, I'm finally getting around to doing just that. Especially because I STILL can't tell you about the new thing we're about to do that I've been teasing all week (equipment issues, sad to say. But it IS coming soon!)

Anyway, the first review covers a documentary called “KZ”. Loraine and I have always wondered what it was like for people who live and work in a town that housed a former German concentration camp, so imagine our surprise when we came a film that deals with that very same subject matter. It was shot in Mauthausen, Austria, site of a very big (and, apparently, quite well preserved) camp, and focuses on several of the guides who take tourists around the grounds. I don't wanna give much away, but let's just say that working at a place like that isn't very good for your health, both mental and physical

Now, I guess, Loraine and I have the answer to our question.

The other thing I wanna mention is something else I bought years ago and eventually watched, and that's the complete series of a Saturday morning cartoon from the 70s called “Return to the Planet of the Apes”. Now, when I say it's a “complete series” it's only 13 episodes, and it's so ploddingly paced that you can scan through large chunks of it without missing any dialogue or plot (including, I might add, one 94 second shot of people walking across a desert. Ninety four seconds. You don't think they were short on running time and trying to cheaply pad out an episode, do you???).

8-)

I only wanted to check it out because I was a kid when I saw it, and I was curious as to if it was any good to an adult viewer. And it's really not; it's like most cartoons of the 70s, and better left to youthful memories. But there are two things to recommend to it—almost every episode has a germ of a good idea behind it. Sure, it's a small germ and sure, that germ never gets to grow amidst the really bad animation and the horrendous voice acting, but there is a germ there nonetheless.

The other thing? Well, I didn't even give it a second thought until 10 or 11 episodes in, but the show revolves around three astronauts who get caught up in all the ape-foolery. That's something you'd expect in a Saturday morning cartoon from the 70s. What you might not expect is that one of the astronauts was African-American and another was a woman. These days we don't give that a second thought. But almost fifty years ago?

Well, maybe there was something to “Return of the Planet of the Apes” after all.

Anyway, if you ever see them on a streaming service or find yourself in a store, staring at a discount bin, and notice either of those DVDs on sale for a buck, go ahead and pick 'em up. You might actually get something out of them.

Have a great weekend. If you're so inclined, hope you have something good to watch yourself!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 2/22

Well, our snow's gone again.

Following a week of (almost) winter-like conditions our abnormally bizarre weather conditions for the year have returned. It's been in the 40s the past few days, and after a chance of snow tomorrow it'll be back in the 40s for the foreseeable future. One by one most of our major winter events have been canceled, and almost every day we come across something that just hasn't happened before, or something that hasn't happened in a long, long, time.

I'd like to add something to that list, if I may. This will most likely be the first winter in over 30 years that I haven't been able to go cross-country skiing.

I started cross-country skiing a few years after I moved back up here. I was looking for something to help me get through the winter both physically and mentally, and my parents (the greatest parents in the world, of course) gave me a pair of skis for Christmas. I was instantly hooked; for many years, I would head out to Blueberry Ridge every weekend, and once I went car-free a decade or so ago, I would often walk over to the Fit Strip in Marquette for a few laps. And even though I've slowly been cutting back on skiing and shifting more toward snowshoeing the past few years, I still love going out after a fresh snow and logging a bunch of kilometers.

But this year? It's looking for and more like it'll be the first since (I think) 1991 that I won't able to do that.

We had that one big storm (well, if you consider 11 inches a “big” storm) in January, after which I went snowshoeing around Park Cemetery and the Fit Strip. Everything then soon melted. We then had (maybe) three inches this past weekend, which was not enough to either ski or snowshoe. Now, whatever's left from that will soon be melted. And while it wouldn't shock me in any way if we got a 22-inch dump of the white stuff before the middle of May, I have a feeling like the weather's gonna stay the way it has the past few months.

Weather warm and snow free enough for me to play soccer several times since Christmas. But cross-country ski?

Nope. And I'm pretty sure that for the first time in over three decades it's not gonna happen.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 2/21

Okay...so I DON'T get to tell you about something new we're doing here, because the person who was supposed to get it going was sick yesterday.

Tomorrow, hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed.

Instead, let me tell you about something I've noticed as I'm gathering research and pictures for the upcoming new batch of those “Pieces of the Past” history videos I make. Did you know no one has a picture of the Alibi in Marquette?

One of the videos I'm making is about dance clubs over the years, and the Alibi certain qualifies as that. After all, from the 70s through the 90s, it was THE bar frequented by NMU students (not surprising, perhaps, seeing as how it sat right across the street from NMU). A couple of years ago, when I was putting one of my bar shows together I did a quick survey and found that the Alibi topped the list as the bar people remember the most fondly. But for as beloved as the place was, no one seems to have a picture of it I can use.

No one.

That actually does surprise me a little. After all, you'd think that people who spent a big chunk of their life in the building would have some kind of memento of it. But then when you consider what people were doing in the building while they were there, you can also understand why there weren't any pictures. I mean, it is kinda hard to hold a beer AND a camera at the same time, right?

All I've been able to come up with so far is a newspaper ad that talks about the bar, and (pardon the pun) barring anything else popping up by tomorrow I'll just use that. It would be nice, though, to have a picture of the actual building, inside or out. I have pictures of all the other dance clubs I'll be talking about, including ones going all the way back to the 1910s.

But something from the 1970s? Not so much.

I have feelers out to what seems like 100 groups and individuals regarding a picture, so maybe one of those feelers will pay off. And if it doesn't? Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing, I guess, because if nothing else, I can spend a few seconds during the video talking about the freaky fact that no one seems to have a picture of a bar a whole lot of people claim was their favorite.

So, I guess, keep your fingers crossed that I find a picture. Or, if you want, keep your fingers crossed that I DON'T find the picture. I guess I can work with whatever comes my way, no matter which way it comes.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 2/20

 What's the use of having a nice picture window if this is all you can see?

We use the window at the station to do a lot of things—checking the weather, informing people about road conditions, and seeing what's going on in and around downtown Marquette, all so we can tell our listeners about it. But you know what?

It's kind of hard to do so when you can't actually see what's going on.

Over the past couple of months we've had this problem. Someone who works for a business in the building next to us has parked that big-a$$ van right in front of the station, despite a plethora of parking spots in the neighborhood. We've asked—nicely--for them not to do it, and for the most part they've respected what we're trying to do. But one employee of theirs doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Sometimes it's just for a few minutes, and sometimes it's all day, but their van is quite often stuck right in front of our window.

It wouldn't matter if it was a normal vehicle, like a car, or even a pickup. But a van that's nine feet tall with no windows to see through is a problem. It's like having a giant steel wall parked right in front of you. It's funny, too...until that van started parking in front of the station I had no idea that vans that huge were even sold to the general public. Now I see them everywhere I go.

Of course, technically, they're doing nothing wrong. They're just utilizing a legal parking spot. But the size of the vehicle is the issue. Hopefully as the weather gets warmer and they're out in the field working more, this won't be a problem. Otherwise, we may have to ask them nicely yet again not to block our view. Like I said, they're not doing anything wrong, but I'd also hope they'd take into consideration what we're trying to do and how the sheer size of the van is making it harder for us to do it. And I know we're not the only ones to whom it's causing issues. You should see what parents have to do when it's parked there and they're trying to drop their kids off for class at the dance studio above us.

In the world-wide scheme of things it's not important at all. However, when you're trying to do your job, it IS a pain in the butt. And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

*****

Speaking of doing my job, I have been, which means that tomorrow I may get to share some news about something new we're doing, something many of you have been asking for for years. Stay tuned!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 2/19

 As I was on a long, leisurely run this morning it occurred to me that I never mentioned to you WHY I would be on a long, leisurely run on a Monday morning--

I'm not at work today.

Nope; we have the day off today, which means that there normally wouldn't be one of these.  But since I didn't mention that I figured that U should at least mention that I didn't mention it.

So that's the, uhm, mention.  Back tomorrow with something new--the story of what I've been seeing when looking out the window at work recently.

Have a great President's Day.  I WILL be in TV tonight as usual!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 2/16

Wow. The sheer number almost kind of blows my mind.

Today we wrap up shooting the 45^th (!) season of “High School Bowl”. The shows we're taping today will actually air in April, but after this morning's extended shoot all the competition will be done for the year, save the “Season in Review” show we'll tape in a couple of weeks.

If truth be told, I had a blast this season. It was one of the best yet in the (gulp) nine years I've hosted the show.

Anyway, that nine year mark made me think which, as we all know, can be a dangerous thing. But maybe not in this instance. Having hosted the show for nine years now, that means I've done 175 hours of the series. Each hour has two games. If you subtract the six “year in review” shows from the mix, that means I've how hosted 350 games of “High School Bowl”.

350 games. Maybe one of these days I'll even get it right.

8-)

I personally can't believe it's been that many games. The science, though, is 100% correct. And if there's one thing I've learned doing 350 games is that science is always right. Of course, I'm also having a little trouble grasping the concept I've been doing the show for nine years now, as it seems like it's been, at most, a year or two. But nine?

Once again, the science, as is always the case, doesn't lie.

I am, however, still saying the same things about the show that I said after hosting the first few, foremost among them that the kids who take part are smart. I mean, they're really, really smart. I'd like to think I know a little something after all the decades I've accumulated, but if we were being honest I only know the answers to maybe a third of the questions I ask. The rest I just sound like I know what I'm talking about. But some of the young people who've come through the show the answer to every single thing I've asked. And if they don't know it outright, they're able to infer what the answer might be. And they're doing this at the age when (joke coming here) I was still learning to feed myself.

They're that smart.

Now that production of season 45 is in the books we've already started talking about season 46, what we hope to accomplish, and any changes that might need to be made. And I'm sure that twelve or thirteen months from now, I'll be sitting here and wondering to myself how it is that I'll have done 193 hours—389 games—of a TV show that I thought I had just started hosting a few months prior.

On that note, I'm off to wrap up the season. Have a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 2/15

It always blows my mind that, for some people, I'm a celebrity.

I was reminded of that earlier this week as I was walking from my radio job to one of my TV jobs. A young man stopped me, and said something I hear quite a bit--”You're Jim Koski, right?” I informed him I indeed am that dorky individual, after which he proceeded to give me a sticker for his business in Calumet, a business that was actually a question sponsor for “High School Bowl” earlier this year. Apparently he had no idea that walking down Washington Street in Marquette would lead to a “celebrity sighting”, but it did, and he seemed quite happy with the encounter.

I HAVE mentioned in here before that my life is weird, right?

I, in no way, think of myself as a “celebrity”. I'm just, you know, me. But that line I wrote a few paragraphs ago--” as I was walking from my radio job to one of my TV jobs”--should probably act as an indicator that I'm not just "someone".

I'm someone in the public eye (and ear). By definition, that kinda, sorta, DOES make me a “celebrity”. Even if both you & I know that I'm really not.

Of course, I don't help that cause by agreeing to something along the lines of what I agreed to yesterday. I received a message from a writer at a local publication asking if I'd be willing to be a subject for an interview. I guess some people are interested in my many varied interests and gigs (what some of us call “my inability to say 'no'”) and she wants to showcase it.

So there's that.

I guess one of the reasons my "celebrity" hasn't really registered is that it's been a gradual process. Sure, I was “that dude on the radio” for a long time, but over the past decade or two I've added two TV jobs and a wildly successful third career as a history entertainer, and apparently at some point it all reached critical mass, leading to me (improbably) becoming a “celebrity”.

Who would have figured?

I guess, from now on, I'll no longer be surprised if I'm approached a whole lot more, much like with the young man from Calumet this past Monday. I mean, I'll still think it weird, but I won't be surprised. I'm guessing that's just part of being a “celebrity”.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com), in no way a “celebrity”. 

Wednesday, 2/14

Happy National Chocolate Appreciation Day, everyone. Celebrate like it's the biggest holiday of the year.

Oh, wait. It's another holiday, too? Is that something I should know about?

8-)

Actually, Happy Valentine's Day, as well, at least if you're celebrating. And considering a piece of news I saw over the weekend, it might be a better thing to celebrate than National Chocolate Appreciation day. Why, you ask? Well, I answer...

Chocolate prices are about to skyrocket.

Because climate change is wrecking havoc on our planet things are being turned topsy-turvy all over the world. One of them is a bout of excessive rain in Africa that has caused the harvest of this year's cacao crop—the raw material of chocolate—to be almost negligible. And since Africa produces about two-thirds of all the world's cacao that means chocolate prices will be skyrocketing, at least until next year's crop comes in.

Assuming, of course, that next year's crop doesn't fall victim to climate change, as well.

I realize that won't affect most people. However, for those of us who (ahem) consider chocolate one of the four basic food groups sticker shock may become a part of our lives. So keep your fingers crossed this doesn't turn into a long-term problem.

I'd like to say I'm confident it won't, but I'm not. So please, keep those fingers crossed!

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I did a TV thing Monday that may, just may, have had something to do with the holiday. CLICK HERE & check it out--if you dare..

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 2/13

For a few minutes yesterday, we almost didn't know what was happening.

You know what our winter has been like this, uhm, winter. Except for a ten-day span in January it's been pretty much non-existent. So when we looked out the window yesterday afternoon and saw this--

I wouldn't be surprised if some people thought the world was coming to an end. That's how rare the snow's been this year.

Actually, I don't even know if you can tell there was snow in the video, even though it did come down quite thickly for a few minutes. Because it was over 32 it didn't stuck too much, and I have the feeling that whatever's on the ground this morning will soon disappear. Now I'm wondering if what happened last year will happen again this year.

Last year at this time (heading into what used to be UP 200 weekend) we had little to no snow on the ground. We then proceeded to get over 100 inches in the next month and a half, capped by a 22-inch dump on May 1^st. Will it happen again this year? I have my doubts, thanks to El Nino, but nothing would surprise me any more.

Really, it wouldn't.

Of course, that also has implications for our upcoming Spring & Summer, if only because Lake Superior didn't freeze at all, which means it'll be starting from a warmer-than-usual state and probably won't have as many cooling lake breezes as we usually do. And because we've barely had an precipitation this winter, that also means the lake levels will probably be much lower than normal.

And seeing as how out little lake contains 12% of all surface freshwater on the PLANET, I'm thinking that's not a good thing.

Is yesterday's snow an aberration or a sign of things to come? I guess we'll find out in the next few weeks.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 2/12

Oh no. My kalimba has a crack in it!

For those of you who don't know what a kalimba is, it's an African thumb piano, an instrument that requires a LOT of digital dexterity to play.

 If you've listened to Earth Wind & Fire throughout the years, especially to anything off of the “I Am” album, you've heard a kalimba as played by Maurice White. Now I have absolutely no talent when it comes to playing a kalimba, but as an Earth Wind & Fire fan I'm very familiar with the instrument, so when I saw one on sale a while ago at an alternative craft fair in Marquette, I scooped it up.

After all, how many people actually have a kalimba, even if they can't play it?

Because I can't play it (or more precisely, can play it but can't play it melodically) it's just been sitting on a shelf as a decoration, as opposed to a working musical instrument, and I haven't really paid much attention to it over the past few years. That's why I wasn't too surprised when this past weekend I had to move the kalimba to get at something else on the shelf, and noticed a huge crack in the bottom of it.

I guess now I'll never become a master of the kalimba.

I can't say I'm surprised it's cracked; after all, I bought it probably 20 years ago and it's just been sitting around since then. And since I picked it up at a craft fair I'm sure it was more ornament than functional musical instrument. Still, when I plucked the keys it did produce something resembling a musical tone, and who knows—I was planning on actually figuring out how to play it one of these years.

I guess it just won't be on that particular kalimba. And I guess my dreams of joining Earth Wind & Fire will have to go on the back-burner, at least for now.

Sigh...

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 2/9

Since I have to go and shoot the (gasp) next to last episode of ”High School Bowl” for the season I'm going to leave you with one of those history videos I make. Even though I originally made it two years ago, I'm sharing it for two reasons, the first being that it's “remastered”. It has a few new pictures, and I wanted to see just how much better I could make it with new video editing software.

The other reason it's remastered? Well, it 's one of five “Pieces of the Past” that WNMU-TV, the fine people who air “High School Bowl”, will be showing over the next few months when they need a little filler between shows. So if you think I'm not on TV enough now, just wait.

I haven't even begun to peak yet.

8-)

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the video. See you Monday!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 2/8

Hopefully, three months from today will be better than it is today.

Three months from today Loraine and I are hoping to head to Germany, where we hope to spend ten days flying into Frankfurt, taking a train to Kaiserslauten, another train to Freiburg, and then a train back to Frankfurt to fly back home again. I say “hope” because, as I write this, both airport security & ground crew workers, as well as train drivers are on strike in Germany, along with the people who run the tram systems in each city.

And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

It's been like this for a while now; people in one of the fields will strike for a day or two and go back to work, followed the next few days by another group hitting the picket lines. As with all workers, they're looking for better pay and better conditions, and they do have the support of a majority of the German people. But then Europeans take the quality of their work life a lot of seriously than the rest of the world, so the support they're receiving doesn't surprise me, nor do the strikes.

I just hope they're over in three months.

At one time Loraine & I were thinking of renting a car while we're over there, as we usually do. But when we discovered that the car rental would be almost as much as a plane ticket over there, that changed. Besides, the two places where we hope to go are very-pedestrian and public transportation friendly, at least when the public transportation workers aren't on strike, so we figured not having a car wouldn't be that big of a deal.

We'll see how that turns out.

This will be the first non-soccer trip we've taken over there since 2018, and our first jaunt at all since the fall of '22. We're hoping it works out, if only because I love Freiburg and Loraine really wants to see Kaiserslauten. And while we realize there are some things out of our control, it really WOULD be nice if they called off their strikes for just a short period.

You know...like May 8^th through the 19th?

8-)

Here's one of the places we're heading, Freiburg. I can't wait to see it again. And hopefully, I'll have the chance.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 2/7

This is kind of a big day in the Koski family.

It seems like there are a lot of big days in the Koski family; much, I'm sure, like in every family everywhere on the planet. But I could not let this day go by without wishing a “happy birthday” to my favorite old guy in the whole world. That's right; it's Chicky-Poo's birthday.

When I mailed my dad's birthday card a couple of days ago and actually addressed it to “Chicky-Poo Koski”, someone asked how I had gotten into the habit of referring to him as “Chicky-Poo” instead of something normal like “Dad” or “Father” or “Sir” or “You know, that guy”. And in all honesty, I have no idea whatsoever. I don't even know when it started. I just know that one day, probably as a joke, I must have called him “Chicky-Poo” and, for some strange reason, it got stuck in my brain. I started referring to him in that manner. Not all the time, and certainly not when I'm actually having a conversation with him, but I address his mail to him that way, I refer to him that way when he wants me to tell Loraine something, and when talking to my Mom on the phone, I'll ask her to tell “Chicky-Poo” I said 'Hi”.

I know...great way to treat one of the two people without whom I wouldn't be here typing this, right?

Anyway it's Chicky-Poo's (excuse me, my dad's) birthday today, and I couldn't let the day go by without making sure that everyone else knew it was his big day, too. Since he's in Florida, I'm guessing he'll either be playing (or teaching, believe it or not) pickleball or going for a long bike ride (or both) before my Mom takes him out for dinner. So have a great day, DAD. Enjoy the weather, and enjoy all the attention for a few hours!

And one of these days I might even start referring to you the way a son normally would. I mean, I wouldn't lay money on it, but you never know. Your Lions almost made it to the Super Bowl this year, proving miracles CAN indeed happen, so we'll just have to see what the future holds.

8-)

Love,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 2/6

Better than anything I could ever write, the two pictures show just what a wacky, wacky winter we've had.

I know I've written a bunch in here about just how non-winter our winter has been, and at the risk of driving the subject into the ground and causing you to run from your computer, tablet, or phone screaming, I want to show you two pictures, taken a year (to the day) apart, that show just HOW insane it's been.

The first is from Saturday afternoon, where Loraine and I were able to go out and play soccer on a snow-free pitch in Marquette in February---

That's right. We played soccer—in shorts—in the snow-free 50 degree sunshine on February 3^rd in Marquette. I know I've been saying it a lot, but this IS a weird winter, isn't it?

I'm just saying...

If that isn't enough proof, here's the second picture, taken last February Third (2/3/2023, to be exact). Notice the difference?

And last year was a year where we had such a low total of snow that several things, including the UP200, were canceled a week or so after I took that picture.  So if it seems like I keep referring to a “weird winter”, it's not because I'm fixated by it (well, okay, maybe I am a little). It's just because this really IS a weird, weird winter.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 2/5

It seems like forever ago that Jack & I did “Legends & Lore” at Kaufman, yet the spectacular was held but a mere ten days ago.

As I think I mentioned back those long ten days ago, we had to cut a bunch of stories. Most of them were for time, but one was cut because Jack's granddaughter was going to be at the show. When we were first putting it together he saw the topic--”Hookers”--and brought to my attention the fact that an eight year old would be present. So there went both my hooker stories. One of them ended up being the video we shot at the History Center and I posted here a few days before the show, and the other?

Well, here 'tis—and it's about Seney, of all places.

In the 1880s, Seney actually had a national reputation as a center of sin. It wasn't entirely warranted; in fact, most of it was trumped up by a highly sensationalized story (written by Nellie Bly) in the 19^th century magazine “The Police Gazette”. But there was vice in Seney last century. In the 1880s, the town consisted of 2,000 residents, 22 bars, and two really big brothels on the edge of town, where loggers and railroad workers often fought over women, alcohol, and money that they lost gambling.

Yup. Seney was one of THOSE places.

Most of the prostitutes who worked in Seney actually came from elsewhere. There was money to be made, and unlike in Marquette, where the police had this almost unhealthy obsession with the “ranches” that lined Lake Street, the law in Seney didn't care. Of course, it probably helped that there wasn't really much (if any) law in Seney, but what there was didn't really care.

Anyway, here's the (short) story I didn't get to tell. There wasn't really a bank per se in Seney; instead several large merchants would instead hold money for people and even pay them a little interest on it. One day, a young woman who had just moved into town a month prior came into the store with almost $1,500, which would be worth almost $40,000 these days. When asked where she got it, she was quite honest about it. It came, she said, “from pants that weren't being worn at the time”. As it turns out, she had just gotten engaged, and she and her fiancee had set out in different directions, trying different ways to come up with the money they needed to get their lives started.

I'm guessing that, after a single month, she did quite a bit better than her fiancee.

That's one of the stories I didn't get to tell at Kaufman ten days ago. A few others may end up being turned into videos, but this one? Probably not. I didn't want to let it go to waste. After all, when's the next time I'll get to talk about prostitutes?

Well, I'll actually more hooker stories in June when I do my “Walk on the Wild Side” tour for the History Center. But, I mean, before then?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 2/2

I'm pretty sure it's not my fault. But these days, I can't be 100% sure.

No more than an hour and a half after I posted yesterday's entry about the weather's impact on events like the UP 200 came news that for the second year in a row the UP 200 race itself had been canceled due to a lack of snow, to be replaced by the “Festival of the Sled Dog” for the second year in a row. Now, I know I had nothing to do with it; all I did was point our that the weather REALLY hasn't been conducive to winter events up here.

But after my TV piece this past Monday, I'm starting to wonder.

In case you didn't see it, the piece was a joke apology about a prediction I made at the beginning of the year. That prediction was that we wouldn't get any snow and our major winter events would have to be altered, which caused Sarah to (jokingly) say that it would be all my fault if said major winter events were indeed altered or canceled. It was a joke on my part and a joke on her part, yet that prediction still came true which means, if you look at it a certain way, that it's all my fault.

Oops.

Yes, I know I'm not to blame, at least not anywhere as much as El Nino and climate change. But still, these are important events, not only to the area in general but, as I said yesterday, also to the merchants who depend upon them. I feel for them, and like I said yesterday, I hope it's not the start of a run like this.

Because that would suck, not only for them but for the UP in general, as well.

On that note, have yourself a great weekend. It's only supposed to be sunny & 15 degrees above average here the next few days, which means that our “winter” doesn't appear to be coming back any time soon.

(jim@wmqt.com)

(ps—the TV spot, in case you didn't see it? CLICK HERE).

Thursday, 2/1

For once, I wasn't exaggerating.

Yesterday I made the off-handed comment that we had our two weeks of winter this year. And that prompted daily blog reader Jennifer of Madison to accuse me of, perhaps, going off on a flight of fancy, as I sometimes do when I try to make a point. That's something I'll cop to; after exaggeration is a great way to get a point across.

Only Jennifer, in this case I wasn't exaggerating. Here's a picture from downtown Marquette at just after 1 yesterday afternoon, when we broke a record high temperature for the day (and the fourth highest temperature ever recorded in Marquette in January--

See? It looks more like March 31^st than January 31^st. It's symptomatic of our “winter” so far, in which we had snow on January 12^th and 13^th and since then...

Zip. Zilch. Nada.

I was speaking with someone yesterday about how some major UP winter events—the UP 200, in particular—might have to deal with the lack of winter. No snow last year led the UP 200 to be cancelled, and unless something happens that's not in the forecast, and happens soon, it might not occur for the second year in a row.

Stop for a second to take that in—there's a very good possibility that for the second year in a row a major UP event might not happen because there's just not enough snow on the ground or in the forecast..

And there are still people who believe climate change isn't a thing?

Maybe what happened last year—the fact that we received 100 inches of the white stuff AFTER the UP 200 will occur, and occur before the race, allowing it to be run. But if it doesn't, the toll on not only the race but the businesses that depend upon visitors to it—or heck, just depend upon snow in general—could be tragic.

Jennifer, what I'm about to say is also not an exaggeration. Even though I'm someone who doesn't like snow (or winter in general)—I'm pulling for some of it to actually fall from the sky someday soon.

Because if it doesn't...

(jim@wmqt.com)