Thursday, 10/31

I realize I keep meaning to write about two TV shows you should check out, but today ain't gonna be that day.

I will, however, still talk about TV. At least for a bit.

Specifically, I will talk airdates for the “Marquette @ 175” show that I co-produced, wrote, and hosted for TV-19. The show itself is done, and you'll have the chance to check it out on four different days--

Sunday, November 10^th at 11pm.

Sunday, November 17^th at 1130am

Sunday, November 24^th at 1130am

And, as a special holiday treat--

Wednesday, December 25^th at 6pm.

Plus, the show will be available online, so there really won't be an excuse not to watch it, right?

8-)

Now to pivot (in a non-”Friends” way) to history without TV. It looks like History Jim's 2025 calendar is slowly coming into focus. Jack & I will invade Kaufman for our annual January show (on either the 23^rd or 30^th) for “Legends & Lore II: Even More Legendary”. I have no idea what my stories in the show will be, but it's three months away. That gives me two months and a couple of weeks to figure it out, right?

Then I'm going to do two big walking tours next year. The first will be on June 18^th, and called “Wild Wild West—The Forgotten Story of West Washington Street”. We'll stroll up Washington Street from Fourth to Seventh (and back) and talk about all the fascinating (and occasionally sleazy) stuff that used to be there. Then sometime in early August we'll be hitting the streets of downtown Marquette once again for “Happy Hour”, in which we'll discuss all of the old bars at which people used to kill their brain cells.

THAT one will be fun.

That, of course, isn't including pop-up tours or videos or documentaries or anything else that may occur. But the calendar looks to be full, so buckle up and get ready to hear me whine about not having any free time for the next year.

I'd really appreciate it.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/30

Well, what do you know. Someone got the joke.

I know I was going to write today about two reasons to actually want to watch television again after being subjected to 82 kazillion political commercials in the past month, and I will do that tomorrow, but another TV related item popped up, and that's what I want to babble about now.

I received a Facebook message after my “Life in the 906” aired Monday, from someone who wanted to compliment “my writer” for managing to “work in everything from Greek philosophers to 'It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown'” in the bit, which actually dealt with (possible) UP-themed Halloween costumes. I told them I'd pass along the kind words, logged off, chuckled for a second, and then patted myself on the back.

I guess my secret's safe with me.

I'm not quite sure why people don't think I write those pieces myself; maybe they think that everyone on TV is just a talking head who has to be fed their lines by the little writer gremlins that live in the basement. Thankfully, my gremlin doesn't live in the basement; instead, it resides in my head, where it has the ability to write in the style in which I speak, complete with bad jokes, lots of whining, and the occasional odd reference to people like Diogenes and/or Charlie Brown.

Plus, that writer gremlin works cheap. Really, really cheap.

I'm glad that someone noticed, and felt strong enough to send me a note. I appreciate it. And so does my gremlin writer.

Wanna see what they were talking about?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/29

As we get into the scariest season of the year, here's perhaps the scariest thought that can come into your brain--

You still have another seven 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 so lucky in the fact 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 before 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 seven 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 one week from today, it'll all be over. Or at least it'll be over until, say January, when the 2026 gubernatorial & congressional campaigns gets underway.

Boo!

8-)

Tomorrow, two reasons to actually WANT to watch TV again.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/28

I finally got to use the macadamia nuts we bought in Germany.

I don't remember if I wrote about the nuts we bought at an Edeka store in Germany in our trip blogs; specifically, these nuts--

We actually stopped at an Edeka store somewhere in Germany specifically to buy the nuts. Loraine had grabbed a flier at one of their other stores, was leafing through it, and noticed that you could buy a pound of the nuts for 2 or three Euro. Normally, that would cost 12 or 13 bucks in the US, so we stopped at the next Edeka we passed, walked in, bought the bag of nuts, and walked out.

Yes, we DO do strange things when we travel.

Anyway, we brought the nuts home with us, and they've been sitting on a kitchen shelf ever since. Loraine then decided that this past weekend would be brownie weekend, a weekend we do once or twice a year when I make a batch of (very) decadent brownies and we eat them. We both decided it was time to use the nuts, so in the end we devoured what we're calling Jim's German brownies, with a dark chocolate Bailey's ganache on top, made with the bag of  macadamia nuts we brought back from Germany. Even just thinking about them makes you gain a pound; imagine what is was like actually eating them.

Don't worry. We consumed the calories so you didn't have to.

So the next time you're in Germany, and see in a grocery store flier that macadamia nuts are on sale, buy them. You won't be sorry.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/25

How am I going to handle next week?

As I've been discussing in here (perhaps to the point of over-saturation) I've been busy recently. Aside from this daily radio thing I've been doing TV on Mondays, shooting “High School Bowl” on Wednesdays and Fridays, and working on the history special for TV 19 whenever I have time to breathe. But now, the history special is done and next week I only shoot “High School Bowl” on its regular day, Friday.

It's going to be a “normal” week for me. I don't think I know how to deal with that.

This month has been so jam-packed that there really doesn't seem to be a routine in my routine any more. I just do what I to do when I need to do it and move on to the next thing. That means the little things in life—like doing certain workouts on certain days or making sure things are done by a certain time—have all been thrown out the window. The past 25 days have been a blur, and not always in a good way. Now I get to go back to “normal”.

At least, that is, until the next time I forget how to say “no”.

It'll be weird, but I also think it'll be welcome. While I don't seem to think that I need them that much, I've come to find that sometimes a routine is a good thing to have. I think we're all aware of just how brain blowing constant chaos can be, and to welcome even a little normalcy back into one's life can be a good thing.

In fact, I'm counting on that.

So, as part of the return to my “normal” life, I'm off to shoot more “High School Bowl”s. But that's okay. After all, that's what I do every Friday this time of the year. It's nothing more than getting back into my “routine”.

And after this past month, that's something to which I'm looking forward.

Have a great (and normal) weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com) 

Thursday, 10/24

What is it with men these days?

You've probably uttered that on occasion recently. I know I sure have, and (last time I checked) I'm a man myself. But there's been an explosion of something I've noticed in the past few years, all of which can be blamed on men. What is that, you ask? Well, I answer--

Just what is it with men and (incredibly) loud cars & trucks?

I'm being serious about this. I walk everywhere, and I live on a very busy city street. In the past three or four years (maybe since Covid, but quite possibly before) there's been an exponential increase of vehicles on the road either without mufflers or with some kind of noise enhancement doo-hickey on it. I always thought that was against the law—although that law could have changed—but it seems like every time I'm out or even every time I sit down to work on something in our living room I hear an insanely loud vehicle a few feet away from me.

And trust me—those vehicles are a joy to be around.

I'm not quite sure WHY someone would do that to a vehicle, unless they have a desire to be a pest to the general population and/or prove to everyone that they have a small...piston rod. But vehicles like that are everywhere you look (or walk) these days. And like I said, every single one of them I've come across—and that's been a LOT—has been piloted by a guy. Sometimes there's a woman in the passenger seat. More often than not, the dude's alone in the vehicle. But whenever there's a loud vehicle there's a guy present.

As I said before, what is it with men these days? I mean, this is just me speaking, and I may be missing the whole point of car-casting your presence to the entire world. But what makes you think the rest of the world wants to hear how loud your car or truck is? Do you think the 99.9 percent of us woke up this morning and thought to ourselves “You know, I wonder how loud I can get my car today?”

Let me give you a hint—I really don't think we DO wanna how loud your vehicle can get. So if it's at all possible, do you think you could either a). show a little common courtesy, or 2) use the money you'd spend on a noise enhancement doo-hickey and maybe, I dunno, buy the rest of us earplugs?

We, the general public, would appreciate it.

Thank you.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/23

Some of the pictures actually weren't half bad.

After talking yesterday about how I couldn't capture everything my eye saw in a photo, I looked through some of the other pictures I took Sunday and realized that maybe it's just that one shot that didn't work out. And since I have to leave shortly for yet another “High School Bowl” shoot, I figured I'd share some of the ones that worked out.

And if nothing else, consider it a walk up Marquette's Washington Street Bike Path, because these are all in order as I strolled up the path. It started with a little red after I tried (and failed) to fully capture the glory of Mount Marquette--

Continued with another little splotch of color around Fourth Street--

After Fifth Street, a couple of buildings caught my eye--

And then I...look—squirrel!!

After I brought my attention back to reality, I noticed I wasn't the only one enjoying a nice warm October day outside--

Even the cattails seemed to be into it--

Finally, after making to the old railroad bridge over the bypass, I snuck a look at the next part of the Heritage Trail before turning back. And boy...I'm glad I did.

Okay...I suppose I should stop posting pictures and get to NMU. After all, smart high school students and a TV show await their dorky host.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/22

It doesn't look like it does in real life.

The past week and a half or so I've been taking pictures from Front Street in Marquette looking toward Mount Marquette, which has been ablaze with the color of Autumn. Depending upon how the light hits it it can almost look like it's glowing, while a lack of sunlight makes some of the colors pop out.

At least, that's what the naked eye sees. A digital camera? Not entirely--

That's one of dozens of pictures I've taken trying to capture what I see in real life. Unfortunately, technology hasn't quite yet caught up with the amazing tool known as the human eye. Sure, it's a nice picture, and sure, you can see all the different colors in it, but those colors don't look exactly like they do when I'm looking at the mountain.

What are you gonna do?

I'm using a quite a good camera, which captures colors of flowers and other items quite well, but for some reason just doesn't seem to like that particular hill. I know I'm shooting it with a long lens, and that may distort the image I'm capturing a little. Maybe I just need to learn how to use Photoshop and tweak it so that the final image replicates what my eyes see.

Even if it wouldn't be exactly what my eye does actually gaze upon when looking down the hill.

I realize I have nothing to complain about. I'm sure someone trying to take the exact same picture 50 years ago with an Instamatic would be even more disappointed than I. And someone could look at the shot in another 50 years and think to themselves about how cool the “old” downtown Marquette looked with the mountain all lit up. But I know what my eye saw, and I know that the image doesn't, for whatever reason, quite capture that look.

I guess that, no matter how much technology improves, it still can't match what nature has given us... at least not until the cyborg optical implants of the future can merge their vision with our brain power. I mean, if it worked for Steve Austin (the Six Million Dollar Man, not the pro wrestler), it can probably work for us, right?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/21

You want proof recycling pays? I found $10 in our recycling bin this weekend.

No; seriously, I found a $10 bill in our paper bin Saturday as I was (and i'm not kidding here) looking for a piece of chocolate I dropped into it. Trying to find just WHERE the chocolate landed I was moving things around and noticed a strange looking orange-y piece of paper sticking out of the paper bin. I took a look, and lo and behold, there was a ten dollar bill, ready for me to grab.

See? It does pay to recycle.

Unlike many of these weird instances in my life, where a $10 bill might mysteriously appear in my life, I have a pretty good idea where this one came from. It was stuck to the grocery store receipt I tossed in the bin last Saturday after getting back from the store. I believe what happened was the $10 was attached somehow to the receipt, and when I tossed the receipt into the bin I didn't notice the $10 bill stuck to it. It then became loose when I moved the bin around, and that's when I noticed it.

So there you go.

This brings up two points, the first being that I really need to pay better attention to the money I carry around with me. You'd think a normal, reasonably sane person would notice that they're missing a $10 bill, right? I mean, I always assumed that I would notice if I was missing a $10 bill. But nope. I can now say, with absolutely no pride at all, that I can a ten spot into the recycling bin and not even realize it.

I know. It's a gift.

The second thing is this—if I didn't recycle everything I could, I'd be out the ten bucks. If I didn't recycle I would've tossed the receipt and the money attached to it into the trash, and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have been randomly moving or digging through the trash enough to cause the money to get loose from the receipt, which is now I noticed it in the first place. The $10 bill would've just gone out to the Marquette County Landfill where it would've slowly decomposed along with the egg shells, Loraine's banana peel, and whatever funky stuff ended up in the garbage this week.

Like I said, it was a stupid mistake that I made tossing it in the first place. But thanks to the fact that I recycle 90% of the stuff I use, I was able to find the $10 bill I mistakenly tossed in the first place. So if you are ever told that recycling doesn't pay...

That person is lying. Trust me on that!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/18

Well, this is different.

I'm supposed to be shooting yet another edition of “High School Bowl” this morning. Instead, a team has (sadly) dropped out, which means there's no shoot this morning, which means I have an extra hour and a half all of a sudden dumped into my lap.

It's strange. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react.

I mean, I'm happy that I have that extra hour and a half in my life. Time is precious, so be gifted even a little more of it than I expected is indeed most welcome. But I enjoy doing “High School Bowl”, as well, and was really looking forward to today's shoot, as it featured a team (not the one that canceled) that shares my strange sense of absurdity and is always fun to interview during the show's halftime segment.

Guess I'll have to wait until the next round for that.

What am I going to do with my newfound hour and a half of time? Well, I've already worked out a bit, and my mom has a new tablet upon which she needs printer drivers installed. Other than that...I guess I'll just be catching up on a few things, noodling a little bit here and there, and then, before I know it, that hour and a half will have vanished, and I'll be back to wondering just how in the heck I've fallen behind schedule, even with that little gift in my back pocket.

Because that's how things roll these days.

We'll see how it turns out. I'm confident I can make good use of the hour and a half. Hopefully, I'll be able to make such good use of it that I can carry some of that time over to this weekend when, instead of doing some kind of work, I can play outside for a few extra minutes in what promises to be almost summer-like weather.

Because to ME, at least, that would be the best possible way in which to use that gift of an extra hour and a half.

Enjoy your (hopefully) nice weekend, as well!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/17

I know I've already talked about pictures this week, but I have a few I've been meaning to share.

Suppose I should do that, huh?

I actually suppose I should do that because I find myself taking a picture of something interesting, say to myself “I should stick that in a blog”, and then promptly forget about it until I'm scrolling through my phone or transferring pictures from a camera. I then wack myself on the back of the head like I'm an idiot and vow to actually do something with them.

Which is what I'm doing here.

While I still have to take that shot of Lake Superior without any sign of humanity that I was talking about a few days ago, I have been bust taking a few for work, including this one a few days ago, which may be familiar as the current “Out Our Front Door” picture on the homepage of the station website--

We could also go back a few months and see what it looked like with in  temporary "office" on those days when it was nice and I'd take a laptop down to Lower Harbor Park to write a few things--

Oh, if only we could have days like that back again, huh? That was my thought a week or so ago when our “Summer in September” went away and it was so chilly that I actually had wear (gasp!) pants to work for the first time in (literally) months--

But, if the cooler temperatures means you get to see things like this, I suppose they're not 100% horrid. Maybe, only, like 98%...

Finally, what happens when you're the winner of our “Yooper 101” contest? You get prizes, just like Tracy Michel of Marquette!

I think we're caught up. I think we're good to go. Of course, knowing how things go I'll find another batch on a different phone or a camera card I'd forgotten about since last Spring or something. But that would be a blog for another day.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/16

Wow. That was cold.

I went running yesterday morning, and I think it may have been the first time I’ve gone running in temperatures around freezing (and with a cold rain, to boot) since the last time temperatures were around freezing--you know, mid May. I don’t think my body was quite ready for the shock, and I spent the day sitting around work shivering and wondering if there’s a way I could turn up the heat in the station without anyone noticing.

That’s how cold I was.

Of course, part of the problem is self-inflicted. I went out to run wearing shorts, and although the sting of frigid air and cold rain hitting bare legs was, uhm, bracing at first, I thought they (my legs) would warm up as my body temperature itself warmed from the exercise. Shows what I know; my legs became frozen even as my core, draped in two shirts and a jacket, started to sweat.

Those of you who know me know that I often joke that as long as it’s above freezing it’s warm enough to wear shorts, and that’s especially true when you’re running in temperatures above freezing. But following my experience yesterday, I’m guessing there has to be a DRASTIC drop off in comfort from running in shorts when it’s, say, 35 degrees and raining, as opposed to running in shorts when it was 35 and not raining. I normally don’t notice the cold on my legs when it’s 35, but when it was 35 and raining yesterday, that was a whole ‘nother story. Maybe it was because my legs aren’t used to the cold yet; heck, when I go running in February and it’s 30 degrees I’ve often just run in shorts and a t-shirt. But yesterday when it was 35 degrees?

I probably couldn’t have been wearing enough layers of clothing, especially on my legs, to stay warm.

Hopefully, my body will adapt to its new, colder, surroundings soon. I mean, I probably won’t be going out running in shorts any time in the near future, but it would still be nice if my body acclimates to the cold (and the dark, and the rain, and the frigid wind) quickly. Either that, or the next time you come into the station you’ll see my sitting in the studio with 14 sweaters on, complaining that the campfire I’ve built in the corner isn’t big enough.

Ah, fall and the approach of winter. You gotta (sarcasm alert) love it.

(jim@wmqt.com), lover of warmth. 

Tuesday, 10/15

What I found (or, actually, didn't find) stunned me.

First of all, hope you had a great (extended) weekend. I did, even though it was the first truly “Fall” weekend in Marquette this year and, as such, I didn't quite know how to handle it. But what with it being cold & rainy means I had the opportunity to get some work done, and when it was getting said work done that I made my discovery.

Or, depending upon how you look at it, my lack of discovery.

Let me explain—I was putting together my “Life in the 906” for Monday and, as I seem to do every week, spent almost as much time looking for pictures to go along with it than I do writing. That was really the case this weekend as I was looking for a picture of Lake Superior—just the lake, and nothing else—to illustrate a point I was making.

Now, I've been taking pictures with digital cameras for over 20 years, I have tens of thousands of shots on my laptop, and you think I'd have one—just one—of the lake, and nothing man-made in front of, on, or near the water. But you know what?

You'd be wrong.

It actually did blow my mind. I spend summer afternoons just wandering around Marquette shooting pictures. Many of those wanderings take me right by the lake, but not once—not once—did I ever take a picture of just the water, with nothing else in the shot to show humans were around. This, in fact, was the closest I got--

And even then, if you look in the trees, you'll see the tops of several houses and a few power lines. And since I needed a shot that had NO sign of human habitation, I was almost resigned to walking down to the lake in the cold rain and taking, for the first time (apparently) in two decades, a shot of water and nothing but water.

Luckily, Loraine looked through her accumulated photos, and found this--

Thanks to her I was spared having to go out in the rain, and it's the shot I ended up using last night. But it just blows my mind that in over 20 years I have yet to take a picture of just the lake, and nothing else. Here, I thought I had taken every conceivable picture there was to take in Marquette.

But, as is often the case. I was wrong. Guess I now know what I get to do on the next nice day I go out for a wander with my camera in hand, huh?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/11

Wait, I only have to shoot one TV show today? What kind of life is that?

8-)

As I've been mentioning, my life has been somewhat insane this month, with the past Friday and Wednesdays devoted to shooting “High School Bowl” segments in the morning and “Marquette @ 175” segments in the afternoon. That's why it seems strange that today I only have to shoot one TV show.

Oh, the problems in my life, huh?

Not only is that a first-world problem, but it's a first-world problem that most of the first world would never even have to deal with. That's made me think and, as we all know, that's a dangerous thing.

But if this is the biggest problem in my life I'm one insanely lucky dude.

I know I whine about how hectic things are, but if you had told the college-aged me that the adult me would be working in radio and starring on TV and on a daily basis write about everything from history to how I don't like hockey, I'm pretty sure the college-aged me would have said “cool”. Like most people of that age, I had no idea how my life would turn out. I had hopes, I had dreams, but I really had no concrete idea or no firm concept of how things would end up.

And all in all, despite all of my whining (and occasional lack of sleep), I'd have to say that things turned out quite well.

So maybe I should curtail the comments, whines, and occasional pity parties about the state of my life. As a great American (the one I'm married to) will say on occasion, “you have no one to blame but yourself”. As usual, of course, she's right. And in all honesty, the comments, whines, and pity parties aren't THAT big of a deal. They're just...me being me.

And I have it on pretty good authority that if you'd would have told the college-aged me that the adult me would be happy, healthy, and creatively fulfilled, but a bit whiny about it, he just would have shook his head.

And said “cool”.

I'm off to be insanely lucky.  Have a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

(PS--I have Monday off, so back with something new Tuesday!)

Thursday, 10/10

Since the “Best Of” I left with you yesterday dealt with a series of guilty-pleasure movies, maybe we should continue that theme today, if only because over the past few months I've (on occasion) been watching one of those movies that I know I shouldn’t, yet still keep watching it over and over.

Long-time readers of this blog may remember the little, uhm, “addiction” I seem to have to the movie “Smokey and the Bandit”. Whenever it’s on, I feel compelled to watch it all the way through, even though I know I’ve seen it dozens of times before and even though I know I’m probably killing off dozens of brain cells watching it again.

I just can’t help it.

Well, it now looks like there may be another movie that’s on its way to joining “Smokey and the Bandit” and the post "Gorija" Godzilla movies in the Jim Hall of Shame. That movie? “Urban Cowboy”.

Oh, the horror! The horror!!!

Like with “Smokey and the Bandit”, I don’t know WHY I do it, I just do it. Maybe it’s the over-the-top characters and dialogue; maybe it was the fact that I was in Texas for a couple of days right around the time they filmed the movie and I saw people like Bud & Cissy and the neighborhoods in which they live. Or maybe it’s the fact that Debra Winger was a babe in the movie. I’m not quite sure; all I know is that I’ve felt compelled to watch parts of it here are there over the past few months.

Why me?!?!?!?!?!?

Actually, I think that two good things HAVE come out of this whole “Urban Cowboy” situation. The first is that I’ve never ever worn a cowboy hat, and now realize I never ever will. The second is that I listened to Boz Scaggs again.

One of the few non-country songs on the movie’s soundtrack is the Boz Scaggs’ ballad “Look What You’ve Done To Me”, and hearing it in the movie reminded me that I really used to like the R&B-ish stylings of the 3-time Grammy winner. So Tuesday, while I was lifting weights, I pulled out his greatest hits CD and listened to tracks like “Lowdown”, “Breakdown Dead Ahead”, and “Lido Shuffle”.

That was nice; much nicer, in fact, than seeing people break bones on a mechanical bull.

I'm hoping that now that I've written about it, and have worked out whatever deep-seated psychoses make me do it, that watching parts of it here and there will not become a habit. With any luck, this whole thing will NOT turn into another “Smokey and the Bandit”-type situation. Because if it did. . .

Well, then I’d be staring at the screen, shouting out “Look What You’ve Done To Me” to the characters on screen. And that would not be a pretty sight...

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/9

Well, today is one of those days.

You remember how yesterday I was telling you that my inability to say “no” has led to a packed schedule on my part? Well, I wasn't lying, as I soon have to rush out to shoot an episode of “High School Bowl”, followed by a little radio work, following by shooting a big (outdoor) interview for “Marquette @ 175”, followed by my usual gig on the air (radio-wise).

So...I'm going to take the easy/wimpy out, and leave you with something I wrote (I think) five years ago. But, believe it or not, I'm still (occasionally) watching what I talk about.

Go figure. Back with something new tomorrow!

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****

(as originally posted 10/16/19)

Okay. So maybe they're not QUITE as good as I remember.

When I was a kid I loved Godzilla movies (explains a lot, doesn't it?). I would sometimes stay up late to see them, I bought a monster movie book once just because it had pictures of the creature, and I would always look forward to hearing the “rawr” and watching the cardboard buildings get the heck stomped out of them.

Don't look at me like that. You already knew I was a weird kid.

Anyway, Turner Classic Movies is featuring Godzilla movies Friday nights this month. They're showing each and every movie Toho made featuring the creature from 1955 to 1976, the films I watched as a kid, so I figured I'd DVR them and see if they live up to how I remember them as a kid.

Spoiler alert—with the exception of one, they don't.

That one would be the original Japanese version of the tale, “Gojira”. That's the film they cut Raymond Burr into for the first US release of “Godzilla, King of the Monsters”. I've seen the movie many times; I even have a Blu-ray with both versions of the film. And the original is a harrowing, atmospherically black & white allegory of the dangers of nuclear war, perhaps not surprising considering Japan was just a decade past having had two atomic bombs dropped on them. Even the Americanized version of the film still holds on to some of the power of the original.

So that one still holds up.

The rest, though? Not so much. As the years advanced and Godzilla was made more and more human-like, the series devolved into a formula piece, where you knew that Godzilla would make X appearances stomping a building and would be joined by one or two other monsters, ending in a fight that made pro wrestling seem unscripted by comparison.

That was especially true in a movie they showed last weekend, “Invasion of the Astro Monster”. I remember loving the Americanized version of it, “Godzilla vs Monster Zero”, almost as much as the original. But upon viewing it the past few nights my fond memories turned into thoughts that I must've been drunk when I watched it, even though I don't drink and even though I was probably eight the first time I saw it. The plot made no sense, the characters made no sense, and even Godzilla was in an alien-induced coma for most of the film. Loraine walked into the living room while I was watching it, caught a few seconds, and said (quoting here) “This isn't a very good movie, is it”.

And I found it very hard to disagree.

So while I'll always have fond memories of watching Godzilla movies as a kid, the adult version of me now realizes that there wasn't really that much to recommend those fond memories. But I'll always still love “Gojira”, and no matter what, seeing a guy in a rubber suit stomp over a cardboard version of a skyscraper—no matter how badly produced or how formulaic--will still always bring a nostalgic smile to my face.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/8

I forgot to tell you, didn't I?

A week or so ago, it's been brought to my attention, I promised to fill you in on the latest example of how I have an inability to say no. It's the latest example of why my life's insane, and also proof positive that, literally, I'll sleep when I'm dead.

I'm writing, producing, and hosting a half half TV show on the founding of Marquette. So, you know, no big deal.

I've written in here about how this is Marquette's 175^th birthday, and back in June some of my colleagues over at TV 19 approached me to see if I had any interest in helping them put together a birthday show. Things happened here, more things happened there, and I now find myself knee deep into actually putting the program together.

Have I ever mentioned my life is weird?

Due to staff changes and other factors my involvement in the show is actually quite greater than when we first discussed it. That's okay; after all, I can write, produce, and star in TV shows about local history in my sleep. But to put a show like this together, and to put it together well, takes time. And, as we all know, I'm not going to do a half-sassed job. So over the past month we've been shooting interviews and stand-ups; I've gathered pictures and recorded voice-overs. But there's still a lot left to go, and between my radio duties, my weekly TV 19 gig, the starting up of “High School Bowl” for the season, and, I dunno, the need to eat & sleep, things might be a little hectic for a bit.

So, sadly, not that all different than usual.

The final product will air several times, the first being November 10^th. More details on that as we get closer to the date, but between now and then if you happen to see me on the street and I look someone insane—or, perhaps, even more insane than usual—now you know why.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 10/7

I'd be a catch if I were single.

First of all, let me state this—I am not single. I have not been single for many years. I don't wish to be single again. I am not implying anything with this blog other than the facts about to be stated. So don't read anything into it other than the fact that if I were somehow to be single, I have two things going for me.

'Nuff said.

Now, a “weird fact” I used last week had to do with the two things people are looking for when on a dating website. We've all heard stories about how said sites are not always filled with, well, the best of catches. But there seem to be two things that are deal-breakers, at least for 88 percent of women and 75 % of men.

The biggest deal-breaker is personal hygiene. Apparently, if you post a picture of yourself in bad clothing, or looking like you haven't washed your hair in three weeks, that turns most people off.

Who knew?, he says sarcastically.

The other? Bad grammar. Poor spelling and not knowing which there, their, or they're to use is a turn-off for both men and women, although more women than men. So if you find yourself on a dating website any time in the near future, you know what to avoid.

That's okay. You can thank me later.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I'm not single, nor do I have the desire to be single. But I'd like to think that I'm pretty good with my own personal hygiene. And I know how to construct a sentence like, say, “They're on their way there”. So if the world were to flip on its axis—or flip on its axis more than than it has since 2020—and I found myself needing the services of a dating website, I would hope that I would pass muster.

After all, it seems like it's hard being single these days. Who knew there was so much pressure to get everything absolutely right?? Any kind of head start a person can get, I guess, is a start well worth exploiting.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 10/4

Wow. I can't believe this is the (gulp) tenth season 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 46^th year for the show, and the tenth 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 ten (which actually would have been year 11 if Covid hadn't interceded) 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 22nd, over three quarters of a year ago, and here we are, getting ready to start it all over again. The show we tape today airs November 2nd, and in the lead I have to lay out my schedule of what to wear for the year; to make sure I alternate through all of my jackets, and to make sure I don't repeat a tie or a color combination without a buffer of a bunch of shows between them. Sure, it might seem a little shallow and stupid, but as I've found, people actually pay attention to those things.

No, I'm not quite sure why, but they do. And that's why I keep track of what I wear on TV when, and that's why the list I keep throughout the season seems more and more invaluable, especially after doing this for six years.

So with that in mind, I'm off to make a fool out of myself, as usual. But at least I'll be wearing a shirt & tie TV-13 viewers haven't seen recently. Oh, they may have seen it on my other TV job, but at ;ast on “High School Bowl” I'll be safe.

8-)

On that note, have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 10/3

I wasn't joking. Really, I wasn't.

During the past month I kept referring to the weather as “Summer in September”. And as it turns out, there's actual science and actual facts behind my joke. According to statistics released yesterday by the National Weather service, the month we just finished was the warmest September on record, with an average temperature of 64.9 degrees, almost seven degrees above normal.

Not only that, but September, which is usually our wettest month of the year, wasn't. We only had about 30 percent of our usual rainfall, which is why there was an extreme fire danger day yesterday, the end result of a very windy day after a very dry month.

Lucky us, huh?

I don't think any of us are actually complaining about a warm September, not when you consider that we're heading into a bunch of months that are anything but warm. In fact, over the past few years as climate change wrecks havoc on our planet, Septembers have been increasingly warm up here, so much so that the month is, on average, a touch warmer than June, the first month of what we usually consider to be “summer”.

Whether or not that's a good thing...well, that's another debate. But there are a few good things about it, especially when you get to take pictures like this deep into the month--

What does October hold? I usually shudder to think of what our weather might be like by the end of the month. But this year?

We'll just have to see.

*****

Today, however, does mark one of my favorite things that happens each and every October, and that's my sister Melanie's birthday. It's kind of a milestone birthday, in that it ends with a “5”, so it you happen to be at the grocery store she owns or see her here or there, wish her a happy birthday.

Because she deserves a great one!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 10/2

If you're curious as to how much it costs, I now know.

As we're well aware, my life is weird. I do things I never thought I would ever do, I have strange and/or quirky things happen to me, and, every so often, I, through whatever process, find myself with a piece of information I had never before pondered in my life.

Like how much it costs to send a 20-pound box to Belgium.

Now, in their life, the average American would never need to know how much it costs to send a letter to Belgium, much less a 20-pound box. But, as we both know, I'm not average, and that's how I came across this interesting little factoid. I think I've mentioned my Belgian friend Carl before; he's a lawyer, speaks five languages, and will probably one day be President of the European Union. Anyway, I know Carl because he's deeply into the history of a certain Army unit that fought during the Battle of the Bulge near where he grew up, and one of the people Loraine's researching died during that fighting.

You can guess the rest.

Anyway, every so often Carl will come across a piece of memorabilia or a research item he needs, and for whatever reason he can't get it shipped to him in Belgium. So he'll buy it and have it shipped to me; then, I send it his way. I've done this with army helmets, medals, books, photographs, and, uhm, Garth Brooks CDs (that's a story in itself). Anyway, Carl came across a treasure trove in the form of letters and photo albums from someone who served in the unit he's researching, so he bought it.

And the two boxes arrived at my doorstep yesterday.

I stuck them in a single box, packed it up, schlepped over to the Post Office, and sent them on their way. Carl reimbursed me, and will happily dig through the boxes when they get to Belgium next week. I hope they contain everything he wishes, and that he's able to further his research into what has become his life's passion.

Because that's anything any history nerd wants.

And, if the topic comes up in conversation (and I sure it will), it's not cheap to send a 20-pound box to Belgium. Like I said, I've learned a lot of strange/weird/useless/useful facts over the years, and this is just the most recent.

By the way, if you curious about the total?  It's $176.65.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 10/1

Even after a week I'm still chuckling about it.

I think I've written in here before about how a lot of people mention they see Loraine & me walking everywhere. It's just a fact of life; we do walk a lot, a lot of people seem to know who we are, and for whatever reason it sticks in their head. In fact, it's gotten to the point where if someone DOESN'T bring up our walking habit sometime in the course of us knowing them it just seems weird.

But that's life. And it's not what I'm laughing about.

Last week I met someone for the first time. And one of the things she mentioned was about seeing Loraine and me walking everywhere. Only, she phrased it just a little differently than people who know us better. She said that she sees me “and my girlfriend walking everywhere”. And while I do consider Loraine my girlfriend, she is also a little more than that. When I pointed out that we're married, my new acquaintance looked at me and said this--

“Oh, I'm sorry. You look like you actually like each other, so that's my mistake”.

Yup. The reason we don't look like we're married? Because we look like we like each other. Who knew?

8-)

When I mentioned this to my girlfriend Loraine that evening she burst out laughing, and then kinda wondered about the reasoning behind it. Does that mean that people who are married are supposed to look like they DON'T like each other? Are we just weird, and for some reason still have the look that a dating couple has? Is there something in the background of the person I met that leads her to believe you can't be happy & married at the same time?

I'm not sure. I just know that my girlfriend and I just thought it funny. And interesting. And, if I have to admit it, kind of reassuring, too. I mean, I know we like each other. But it's kind of nice to know that other people notice it, too.

See what you get when you walk everywhere, and people notice you doing it?

(jim@wmqt.com)