Friday, 1/30

I have to go shoot yet another episode of “High School Bowl” in a few minutes, so I'm taking the cowardly way out and leaving you with a few more examples of what I do in one of my other jobs, that of historical storyteller. As you know, we've been dropping a new season of “Pieces of the Past”, and if you wanna check them out, here are three stories from the past few weeks.

The first? How Marquette's two “suburbs” actually have something in common--

The next is the tale of an event that people STILL talk about, 67 years after it happened--

And finally, the story of three generations of a family, three generations that could not be different than the other. I told the first part of the story on a walking tour a couple of years ago, Beth Gruber from the History Center then did a little genealogical research, and voila.

An epic story we didn't even know existed came into being--

With that, I really do need to get over to NMU. Hope you have a great weekend, and you know what? There's one more history video I do have to share, and I will some time next week.

If only because it's probably the closest I'll ever come fulfilling a dream I have, a dream that physics says will never come true.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 1/29

I made a discovery yesterday. And I'm not quite sure I'm comfortable with what I found.

This was a discovery I never thought I'd make, nor one that I ever assumed would have to be made. But after getting to work after shooting an episode of “High School Bowl”, and getting myself into my daily routine, I made a discovery that—hopefully--will not change my life as I know it.

I discovered I may be getting tired of eating chocolate.

I know...mind blown, right? Yet for a moment yesterday morning, right as I reached for my first piece of the day, that flash did cross my mind—did I REALLY want to eat it? For several seconds, I pondered the thought, holding the chocolate that really, in that immediate moment, didn't seem all that appealing.

Then I ate it.

I ate several other pieces that morning, too, proving that (I guess) I'm really not tired of eating chocolate. And as I ruminated on this bizarre reaction, I all of a sudden realized that I probably wasn't getting tired of eating chocolate so much as I was getting tired of eating chocolate with bits of candy cane crushed up inside, the kind I was holding in my hand when I had that strange feeling of not wanting any more chocolate.

And just between you & me, I'm okay with that.

As we entered the holiday season a few months ago Loraine and I may—may--have gone a little overboard in buying seasonal chocolate. And a lot of that chocolate, especially the dark chocolate of which I am a little too fond, had crushed up candy canes or some other peppermint flavoring inside. Those bars consist of the majority of the chocolate I've been eating recently, and yesterday morning just must have been a kind of breaking point, a way of my body reminding me that there ARE other kinds of chocolate, not just the kind with crushed up candy canes in them.

So that's why I thought I was getting tired of eating chocolate. And that's also why I spent a chunk of the day eating more chocolate. It just wasn't the kind with the candy canes in it.

Of course, I still have several various bars of chocolate containing candy canes or peppermint flavor lying around. I'm now kind of curious. If I let them lie around for a few months, will I still be sick of them? Will I be able to eat them with as much gusto as I usually attack chocolate, or will I be forced to, say, stick them in cookies and give them away to someone? I have no idea. We're in uncharted territory here, so we'll just have to see.

I'll let you know the answer in three or four months.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 1/28

I can not believe it's been forty years.

For those of us who were born in the 1960s and 1970s the first time we had a “generational” moment, a moment where we know exactly where we were when it occurred, occurred 40 years ago today. Much like people older than us know exactly where they were when John Kennedy was shot, we as a generation know exactly where we were when we heard that Challenger blew up 74 seconds after liftoff from an icy Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The event that occurred forty years ago today.

In one way, it's been amazing that it happened forty years ago, because it sure doesn't seem that long, at least to me. I don't if that's because I'm just getting old(er) and time flies by a lot quicker than it used to, or if it's because NASA was still flying shuttles a quarter century after the accident and that kept it at the forefronts of our brains, but if doesn't seem as if it happened four decades ago. It's really doesn't.

But then when you look at footage about the accident (something I really don't like to do, always covering my eyes at the words “Challenger, you are go for throttle-up”), you see grainy, standard-def video, you see spokespeople with big 80s hair, and you see computers that, while advanced for their time, probably have less processing power than the phones you hold in your hand. The evidence is there. It really DID happen 40 years ago today.

Since Challenger, of course, there have been two other “generational” moments that have occurred. And I think it's surprising that the loss of another space shuttle, Columbia in 2003, wasn't among them. I don't know if that's because we already had a spaceflight “trauma”, or because by that point people just didn't care, but for most people Columbia didn't mean a thing. Or at least it didn't mean as much as the other two “generational” events that occurred after Challenger.

What were those two events? Well, September 11^th is one of them. Everybody know where they were when the planes hit the towers. The other generational event might surprise you, but it's true. Everybody knows where they were the night O.J. Simpson took a ride in that white Ford Bronco. It's wasn't as earth-shattering of an event as Kennedy or Challenger or 9/11, but everybody seems to know where they were that Friday night. And some might even argue that since O.J hired an attorney named Robert Kardashian and gave he and his family their first access to fame, it's the most influential of the generational events.

And that's a scary thought.

But for many of us, the first “generational” event of our lifetime was Challenger, which occurred forty years ago today, whether you want to believe it or not.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 1/27

It's holding up for now, thanks for asking.

One day last week I had mentioned that, with all the stuff going on, I hoped my voice would hold out. And now that this week has become the second busy vocal week in a row, a listener gave me a call yesterday and asked how my voice was doing.

I'm happy to say it's cooperating, for now.

All I did last week was talk...on TV, on radio, to a sellout History Center crowd, and at the Noque. As it's turning out, all I'm doing this week is once again talking, on TV three days, on radio all five days, and to a small history group (but just for one hour).

Maybe one of these weeks I'll have a “normal” week and not have to talk too much at all. And yes, you can spend a few minutes laughing your head off about what I just said.

I'll let you get it out of your system.

My voice has actually been holding up remarkably well, with the exception of a brief episode yesterday when someone walked into the station after obviously being in a car full of cigarette smoke. That's one thing that really wrecks my voice, and it's something I've noticed has gotten worse as I get older. Thankfully, very few people around Marquette poison themselves anymore, and I'm rarely exposed to it.

But when I am, I can really tell how it affects me.

I have confidence that I can make it through both “High School Bowl”s and everything else this week with relative ease. Then maybe I have a few days with minimal vocal output, sitting around in silence as I...

Oh, who are we kidding? If I get a couple of hours of not speaking, I'll be happy. And it'll be a relief.

8-)

*****

One of the many ways in which I've been talking the past few days? Here 'tis--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 1/26

That was a Noquemanon unlike any I’ve ever seen. And I should know—I’ve been at all of them.

I’ve done the finish line announcing at Noque races that had too much snow, or were lacking snow, or were too warm. However, I don’t think I’ve ever announced at one where the temperatures were so cold and the winds so strong that I actually saw skiers being blown down the course or, at the very end, just blown down like a big chunk of ice.

It was bad.

I feel sorry for those hardy souls who took part in this year's marathon and half-marathon. Between the delayed start, the slow course, and the wind chills of 20 or 30 below it took most skiers, even the elite ones, a half an hour to 45 minutes longer (or even more) to complete the course than in a “normal” year. There were some people out skiing for four or five hours on Saturday, and as they crossed the line you could tell by the looks on their face that they had been through a struggle.

And these were the skiers who actually took part in the race. I can imagine that there were a ton who just took a look at the forecast and decided not to do it. And I don't think anyone would blame them whatsoever.

I do have to hand out kudos to everyone in the crowd who stood out and braved the icy cold for a few minutes, or those volunteers who stood outside at the finish line for hours in the bitter wind chill to collect chips or guide skiers where they needed to go. I’m one of the lucky volunteers. All I do is sit in a heated shed and talk. That’s nothing compared to those volunteers who spend the entire day outside in whatever Mother Nature throws at them.

Saturday, she threw her worst at them, and they persevered.

So the Noque is over for another year, and I’ll be curious to see what the 2027 race holds. After all, two years ago it was too warm. Last year was cancelled because of a lack of snow. This year, they were worried it would be too cold. What on tap for next year? Too many lava flows? A tornado?

These days, nothing would surprise me.

*****

By the way, you know last week was supposed to be my “busy” week? Well, what would you call TV tonight, “High School Bowl”s Wednesday and Friday, and the release of last “Pieces of the Past” of this batch, along with all the usual stuff I have to do?

Yeah; that's what I thought, too.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 1/23

Even wonder what the crowd at a sold out show at Kaufman Auditorium looks like? THIS is what it looks like-

That's right; despite the fact that frigid air was already starting to move into the area Jack & I were able to get “Legends & Lore III: Marquette Unknown” into the, ahem, history books. It seemed to go quite well; as always, I provided the laughs and the bizarre stories, while Jack (mostly) managed to hold back the tears as he recounted the story of the Donckers family, complete with special guests and lots of “aahs” from the crowd as he explained how they (in some cases literally) saved the business he ran for 30-some years.

All in all, quite the successful night. And based on what people I spoke with afterward said, they're already ready for the next one.

So, you know, no pressure, or anything.

8-)

Now, we wait & see what happens with the weather. As we thought, every single school and almost every single institution in the UP is closed today because of the bitter wind chills, so I don't have a “High School Bowl”. The Noquemanon is still up in the air; after cancelling today's events, they'll be making a decision later today on what they're doing tomorrow—shortening some or all of the races, altering the course, or, heaven forbid, saying “sorry” for the second year in a row.

That would suck, but when you have 1,200 skiers and 600 volunteers outside in Martian-like weather conditions, you have to think about stuff like that.

So, I have no idea what my weekend involves. I started the week knowing that it would be a busy one. I had no idea it would also be highly disjointed and slightly chaotic, as well.

But then it's 2026. Should we expect any different?

Have a great weekend. If you're in any part of the US that's freezing or covered with snow (and that's most of the US), stay warm!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 1/22

How do you make a week of insanity even more insane? Add a little chaos, and stir the heck out of it.

As we know, I'm the midst of a bunch of days of non-stop activities, everything from “High School Bowl” to the Noquemanon. But how can we make that even more interesting? Well, why not add a weather term I've never heard before, an Extreme Cold Warning, that'll be in effect from tonight through Saturday. In fact, temps shouldn't get above zero through that span, and wind chills are forecast to fall down to 60 (that's sixty) below zero in some areas of the UP tomorrow.

Fun, huh?

Because of that, my week of insanity has changed just a bit. No longer do I have “High School Bowl” tomorrow morning, as schools started preemptively cancelling classes as early as yesterday. That takes Friday off the table. And while no decisions have been made yet, if conditions are that bad Saturday morning is it actually safe for people to be outside cross-country skiing from Ishpeming to Marquette in the Noque?  They've already cancelled the youth events scheduled for Friday, so...

Thankfully, I don't have to make that decision, especially because it was shortened two years ago and scratched outright last year because of a lack of snow. It would indeed be ironic if it was axed for a third year running because there was too MUCH winter, as opposed to too little.

I guess we'll find out soon.

That Extreme Cold Warning goes into effect tonight, but not before we're (hopefully) able to get in “Legends & Lore III: Marquette Unknown”, which gets underway at 7 at Kaufman. Jack & I have a bunch of cool (and in my case, occasionally bizarre) stories to tell, all wrapped up with Jack's epic salute to an iconic Marquette business (complete with special guests).. One of the stories I'm most looking forward to sharing is how many of the classic pictures of Marquette were taken by one guy on one trip.

Pictures such as this one--

Wish us luck. And since I don't have “High School Bowl” tomorrow, I may actually have the chance to share how it went. Assuming, of course, the world doesn't freeze before then.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 1/21

Okay...my week 'o fun is now officially underway.

And because I have to get over to NMU in a bit to shoot the first “High School Bowl” since the beginning of December (we've had a few snow days since then, you know) I'm going to leave you with something I did Monday night, but that you may not have seen since it aired at 11 instead of its usual 6 pm slot.

That's right. I got bumped from my usual slot Monday night. But you know what? I got bumped so they could show Martin Luther King's iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety. And if there's one thing that I do NOT mind getting bumped for, it's the greatest piece of oratory in human history.

Trust me on that.

Since I have to scoot in a few minutes, I'll then leave you with this week's “Life in the 906”. Given what our weather has been (and will continue to be) like this week, I don't think I could have picked a better topic.

Your opinions may vary.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 1/20

This week should be interesting.

Here's what I mean. Today is a “normal” day, if one considers being on the radio all day “normal”. Tomorrow, I shoot a “High School Bowl” and then spend the rest of the day on radio. Thursday, I do radio, then head up to Kaufman for “Legends & Lore III: Marquette Unknown” with Jack for the History Center. I (hopefully) get a little sleep, then wake up Friday to another episode of “High school Bowl” and a full day of radio. Saturday, I head out into the (forecasted) below-zero cold at the Dome to announce the names of all 1,200 (or so) skiers coming across the finish line at the Noquemanon.

I'd then like to say I'll have time to pass out, but Sunday I'll have to do all my usual weekend chores AND write the TV piece that I'll be doing Monday.

I really need to have a talk with whoever plans my schedule.

8-)

Actually, I have no doubt I'll be able to physically do it all. I'm a little worried about my voice holding out, but as long as I don't talk when I don't need to talk, and I drink a lot of tea, I should be okay. Nope; the thing I'm kinda curious about is the decompression aspect of it all. Or, more to the point, the lack-of-decompression aspect of it all.

Let me explain—normally, when you do something “big”, like put on a history show in front of 800 people, or host two TV shows, or announce 1,200 names, you like to “decompress” afterwards. You like to put your feet up, and reflect upon what just happened (or, at least, that's what I like to do). But with so many events in the next six days coming bam-bam-bam, one right after the other, I won't have the chance to do that. I'll either be rushing from event to event, preparing for the next event to come up, or trying to fit in things like eating & sleeping. From the time I head to NMU tomorrow morning to the time I stop making fun of Kevin Monday night I'll have done a whole bunch of amazing stuff.

I just have to hope I remember what it all was.

Now, I'm not complaining. After all, I know just how fortunate I am to be able to do all this. And I'm gonna have a blast doing it all. This may be picky on my part, but I just wish I'd have a few minutes to appreciate it all while it's happening, instead of looking back on it a few days later and hoping I got everything out of the six days that I hoped to.

Oh well; that's (my) life. And if, over the next few days, I cheat on these by sharing a “best of” or put up a picture or a video in place in place of an entire blog of the usual weird thoughts and garbled syntax, forgive me.

The only excuse I can offer is that it's gonna one blur of a week.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 1/16

I think Facebook may have outdone itself this time. And even for them, that's saying something.

I've written in here many times about the world's most popular social media platform, and how at times it makes no sense and/or does something so unbelievable as to defy any sense of logic. Well, last night it actually did both of those, and made me laugh out loud while seeing one particular item..

And I can't say that happens a lot when scrolling through my news feed.

Here's the deal. Every 10 or so posts Facebook has this thing called “Suggested For You”, where they spotlight an individual or organization that their algorithm thinks you may want to follow. I don't know that I pay particular attention to the suggestions they make, as they often aren't that interesting or are just different versions of pages I already follow. However, while scrolling last night I did actually pay attention to this latest suggestion, one so absurd that, has I been drinking tea or water at the time, the spit take I would have done might have been the biggest spit take inn the history of spit takes.

Just who DID Facebook suggest I follow?

That's right. Facebook, in its infinite wisdom, suggested that I follow...me. I'm not quite sure how that happened; after all, I'm pretty sure that I know what I post, and that I probably don't need to follow myself to see what I'm up to. But for whatever reason Facebook thought I might find myself interesting and suggested I sign up, just to make sure that I don't miss anything I do.

That's awfully kind of them, isn't it?

I mean, I've had weird Facebook suggestions before, everything from them thinking I might need help in finding my next OB/GYN to its facial recognition software believing I'm some dude in France.

But a suggestion to follow myself? Even for Facebook, that's a new one.

*****

Monday is corporate holiday, which means I have myself a three-day weekend. Good thing, too, as next week is my annual “Week of Intensity”, this year with a bonus shot on insanity involved. I'll explain that when I'm back on Tuesday.

In the meantime, stay warm!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 1/15

I guess in one respect the timing of it was perfect.

We had another snow day yesterday, the third since the 2026 began. If there was any question that this year is a quirky return to what we're calling a “Throwback Winter' around here, that question has been answered.

In fact, Mother Nature, I think you may actually be trying to make up for three years of mild winters all at once, and you're more than welcome to take a break from your efforts. Really, you are.

Don't believe that it's an insane winter? Here's what it looked like yesterday--

However, the latest wind-whipped weather episode did, in a strange way, come at a fortuitous time. The latest video in this season's “Pieces of the Past” dropped on the snow day, and if nothing else it allowed us to give a shout out to the people who help keep streets and highways around here clean when Mother Nature throws a fit. Now, the video wasn't actually about road workers, although that might be an interesting topic for some future batch of episodes. Instead, the topic was about one of the roads they strive to keep clean, a stretch of highway that's actually one of the newest in the UP. For some bizarre reason, I had a blast researching this particular topic, and had my mind blown one fact in particular--

The day the stretch of highway opened. Watch the video, and you'll understand why--

Thankfully, the snow seems to have laid off for a little bit, which means that I really do need to get to work, just in time for it to snow a little more this afternoon and tonight.

This is getting a little tiring, Mother Nature. Like I said, you're more than welcome to give it a little rest. I'm really thinking that no one up here will complain all that much.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 1/14

I’ve bitten my tongue and, as a result, can’t say certain letters. But that’s okay; it’s not like I have speak clearly for a living, or anything.

Oh, wait...

Shucks.

The latest entry in the never-ending parade of my own self-abuse came courtesy of dinner last night. As I am wont to do, I was chewing on whatever it was I was eating when I, uhm, missed the food and instead formed a nice little hole at the end of my tongue with what are apparently my vampire-like teeth. Sad to say, it’s something I do on occasion; after many decades of feeding myself you’d think I’d know what I’m doing, but on those occasions when I bite my tongue, apparently I don't.

Anyway, my tongue has started to heal like my tongue usually does. But because of the position of this bite--right on the lower left tip of my tongue--I’ve found myself with the inability to properly say a couple of letters, mostly notably “d” and “s”. Well, I shouldn’t say that I can’t properly say the letters; I can, but when I do, the bite that’s slowly healing on my tongue hits my teeth and sends spasms of pain throughout the rest of my mouth, and probably slows down the healing process, to boot.

I don’t know about you, but a lot of the words I say in the course of an average day contain either “d” or “s” or both, and it’s not like I could leave them out of my vocabulary. Well, I suppose I could leave all words that contain a “d” or an “s” out of my everyday speech patterns, but then I’d ended up mostly using words like “Tomato”, “Anxiety”, and “Iowa”, and if you think I’m occasionally incoherent to being with, imagine what I’d be like with a vocabulary that consisted mostly of words like “Tomato”, “Anxiety”, and “Iowa”.

Although it would be kind of an interesting mental exercise, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, my friend Deanna, upon hearing that I was having trouble talking, sent me a list of long songs that I could play on the air to avoid speaking. Let’s just say that I’ll deal with a little pain and forego some of the suggestions she made, including a 48 minute and 53 second version of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” and a 22+ minute version of “Chariots of Fire”. I mean, it hurts me to say the letters “d” and “s”, but it would hurt you guys a lot more to sit through songs like that.

That’s okay; you can thank me later.

So if in the next couple of days you throw on your radio and I sound strange (well, okay, stranger than usual), know that it’s not the fault of either your ears or your radio. It’s my fault entirely, and because of that, you can rest assured--one of these years, I WILL learn how to eat. If nothing else, I’m sure my tongue would appreciate it.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 1/13

Most people will come up with a question before an answer. But as we all know, I'm not like most people.

That was the gist of my TV piece last night, one that, admittedly, was just an excuse to tell a few bad jokes. I first gave out an answer, followed then by a question, and (hopefully) once you realized the relationship between the two you chuckled.

Or at least didn't throw things at the TV.

As with most segments of “906”, I have no idea how this one came into being. I was out running one day, had “answer before the question” pop into my head, and before the run was over had most of the gags already mapped out. Then the Packers lost to the Bears Saturday night and provided me with an extra joke, and I was all set.

The Packers aren't good for much. But every so often they do come in handy.

8-)

What answers popped into my head even before I had the questions they prompted? Well, check it out for yourself, as well as the extra bonus ribbing of a news anchor afterwards--

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 1/12

My life is weird. Have I ever mentioned that?

The latest example of that weirdness occurred while I was out running Saturday morning. Now, as you may recall, we had a snow day on Friday, not because of a lot of snow but because of a lot of rain & slush on the roads. Most of the slush had been removed by Saturday morning, and that which hadn't had frozen, making certain parts of certain streets quite slippery. I found that out when I was running down Magnetic by the old hospital site and almost lost my footing. Luckily, I was able to upright myself before a car headed my way got to me.

And that's when I once again discovered that my life is weird.

As that car got closer, it slowed down until it got right next to me, when the driver—an older gentleman—rolled down the window and said, and I'm quoting here, “make sure you take care of yourself. You're too important to the UP to get hurt”. And with that, he rolled up his window and drove off. And with that, I continued running, taking care not to injure myself.

The whole experience was slightly surreal, although it IS nice to have complete strangers looking out for my well being. But me...too important to the UP to get hurt? Did the gentleman mistake me for someone, you know, noteworthy and vital to the continued existence of the peninsula as we know it? He does know I'm actually just a dork with a propensity for showing up in the media, right?

An occasional nuisance, yes. Important? Well, that's up for debate.

But it's something like that that makes me realize that I'm not joking when I joke that “my life is weird”. It also makes me wonder how and when all this happened. I have no idea when it started or how it started; I just know that increasingly over the past few years, things like this have occurred more and more. And I don't mean to sound like I don't appreciate it; in fact, I'm touched that people take actions or say things like the gentleman did on Saturday.

But really?  Me??

I know; there's nothing I can do about it, and if people feel that way about me, I'm one insanely lucky dude. We live in a world full of hate these days, and to have people actually treat me with fondness and respect means that I've apparently done something right. I have no idea what, but it sure beats what people COULD be doing or saying to me.

So while my life IS weird (and we all know it is), it sure beats the alternative. So yes, fine sir who stopped next to me on Magnetic Street Saturday morning, when I'm out running the next few months I will take care not to hurt myself.

Apparently, I'm a little too important for that.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 1/9

Okay. Enough of winter already.

After a couple of years of mild (or non-existent) winters, the season has returned with a vengeance this year. The latest example is today, when a mix of rain, fog, and snow had deposited slush all over and forced the cancellation of schools around the area..

It's just yucky out there.

So with that in mind, I think it's time to haul out a yearly tradition...pictures of flowers taken on sunny summer days, pictures that might hopefully (at least temporarily) take your mind off the crud you see outside your window.

With any luck, in just a few months you'll be seeing more than just gray, light gray, and dark gray. In fact, you might be seeing orange--

Or magenta--

Or more magenta (with a special guest)--

Or that special guest then visiting a sunflower--

Or flowers of different colors--

Or with two other different colors--

Or with just a whole lot of colors--

I know it probably doesn't help, especially because it feels like we're staring at another seven to nine months of winter, but you know?

In situations like this, you take what you can get.

8-)

Have a great weekend. Stay warm, and stay dry!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 1/8

I did not grow up in South Marquette. But I was spawned by someone who did.

In doing publicity for “Legends & Lore III: Marquette Unknown” (two weeks from tonight at Kaufman Auditorium; tickets still available, hint hint) someone had mentioned a factual error that has popped up over the past five or six years, and I'd like to set the record straight--

I am not from South Marquette.

I don't know how the story got its start, although it may have something to do with the South Marquette shows & tours I've given over the years, quite often mentioning a specific person who IS from that neighborhood. But I'm here to state categorically that I am NOT from South Marquette. I spent the first few years of my life out on the highway where Walmart now is, and then split the rest of my childhood between Norway Avenue, and Fairway Drive. The closest I came to being a resident of South Marquette might be the years I spent at Bothwell Middle School.

But I didn't grow up there.

I actually try to point that fact out when I'm talking about South Marquette. Maybe I just don't do a good enough job. Either that, or when people hear me talking about the fact that my dad is from South Marquette they automatically think I am as well, or they're not just paying attention to the words “my dad”. Any one of those would be a good explanation; I'm guessing it's a combination of all of them.

It's kind of funny, too, because when I was young and my dad took me to visit some of his relatives who still lived in South Marquette I always thought it was an exotic place. There were new, interesting families and lots of hills and a softball field stuck smack dab right in the middle of it all. I was fascinated by the place, which is probably why I enjoy telling stories about it so much.

Another thing that may have led to my interest in the area is that the old Hogan family homestead –where my dad grew up--was torn down before I was born. That means whatever tenuous link I may have had with the neighborhood was never around for me to exploit. I don't even know what the house in which my dad grew up looked like. But I do know where it was (the top of Jackson Street hill), and I kind of use that as an anchor when talking about the people and the places of the surrounding streets.

But still, like I said, I'm not from South Marquette. I do, however, think it's interesting and, if I'm being honest, kind of cool that people assume I'm from there.

It must just (literally) be in my DNA.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 1/7

I kinda had an idea that this one would be popular. I just didn't have an idea as to HOW popular it would get.

As you know, we're in the middle of rolling out a new series of “Pieces of the Past”, the videos I do for the Marquette Regional History Center. There are all sorts of topics being covered this time around, and they run the gamut from the founding years of Marquette to a little more modern history. Knowing that one of the videos would be coming out on New Year's Eve, I borrowed from one of my recent walking tours for the tale of how some people may have celebrated the holiday in the recent past.

17,000+ views (and counting) later, I'm glad I did it.

When we put out these videos, we consider it a success when we get a couple of thousand views on various Facebook and You Tube pages. But knowing how people love bar stories, and how people really loved the old Alibi in Marquette, the number of views we got really doesn't surprise me. I mean, it really makes me glad (and some of the comments on the video made me laugh), but I had a notion that it might be one of the most popular of this current series.

It's nice to know I can still get a few things right on occasion.

The funny thing is that there's not much to look at in the video. The only pictures that seem to exist of the Alibi are two separate and very poor shots of the building that appeared in newspapers. So I had to figure out a way to keep reusing those two shots, along with a bunch of newspaper ads, to make the video visually interesting. Thankfully, the story of the bar is so compelling, and the humor I was able to get out of it rather funny, that (for once) the visuals in the “Piece” really didn't matter.

Whatever pictures I might have used really don't matter. It's the tale of the bar and the people--many of them under aged—who used to frequent it that make it such a cool video.

So cool, in fact, that it's up to 17,000 views (and counting) on Facebook.

Wanna see it yourself?

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 1/6

It's nice to know it was finally done right.

I have now done 168 editions of “Life in the 906”, and 167 of them have come off without a hitch. Oh, sure, there have been a few where visuals didn't pop up or popped up in the wrong order, and there have certainly been more than a few where the person presenting it stumbled upon a word or didn't do it justice (that person, of course, being an occasional idiot), but there was only one that so totally flamed out that it has been banished from my brain forever.

But now it's welcome back.

The bit to which I'm referring occurred a year ago this week. Kevin was sick, and a fill-in anchor didn't know how to operate the teleprompter. During the first three segments of the show that anchor missed a few stories made up some of the copy, because the 'prompter had shot ahead (and that anchor didn't know how to rewind it). When my segment came up the first sentence was fine, and then all heck broke loose. I tried to stumble my way through it, the director has no idea where to put the graphics, and I ended up reading the last half of it from a hard copy that I always keep in my jacket pocket.

The only time, I should add, that I've ever needed to use that printed out copy. Doing live TV is always a bit like walking a tightrope, and that night was the only time I've ever been pushed off.

When I was walking home after the show that night I vowed to myself that when the next chance to use it presented itself I'd do it again, only this time (hopefully) the way in which it was intended. And since it was written for this particular time of the year, last night I hauled out the script and the graphics from last year, updated it just a bit, and this time it came out the way it was supposed to--

I can now say that every single segment I've written for “Life in the 906”, all 167 of them, have been presented the way I envisioned. We'll just ignore the fact that one of those scripts took two attempts (and someone who knows how to work a teleprompter) to get right.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 1/5

Wow. It's a week later and we're still feeling its effects.

One week ago we had our “Bomb Cyclone”, the storm that dumped anywhere from four to 35 inches of snow across the Central UP and caused a vast majority of the city of Marquette to be without power for anywhere from nine hours (like Loraine and me) to four days (parts of North Marquette and Chocolay Township). Effects from the storm and the power outage are still around in the strangest ways, like this--

Loraine and I have woken up without heat two of the past five days.

Once our nine hour power outage (try saying THAT three times fast) was over the furnace in our building came back on and warmed us up. But both past Tuesday and past Friday something happened during the overnight hours, as we were awoken by 60 degree temperatures thanks to a furnace that hadn't kicked in. Someone came to look at it Tuesday and was surprised that it had actually worked after the power outage, and when he came back Friday he was a bit curious as to why it hadn't worked again after he fixed it.

But it was fixed, and that's the important thing. There were people around here without heat for four or five days; our few hours was nothing compared to that.

But hopefully—hopefully--our furnace will stay on and continue to keep us warm. Keep your fingers crossed.

*****

Another lingering effect of the storm? There was such a dumping of snow that the city is just getting around to clearing off sidewalks, and I took advantage of that to grab a yardstick and take a picture--

That's right. The snowbank outside of the station is 34 inches tall. Now, we didn't get 34 inches of snow; that's what happens when snow plows go through multiple times and toss crap onto the sidewalk.

But still. A 34 inch snowbank is nothing to sneeze at, especially a week after the storm, one that was so big that we're still dealing with the aftermath.  And today?  Well, it snowed another two inches here in Marquette, but apparently more outside the city as schools are closed all across the UP.

After several years of not even bothering to appear, it seems as if winter is making up for it--and more--this year.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 1/2:

I am never going to eat again.

First of all, hope you had a great New Year's Day. I spent part of it doing what I seem to have been doing quite a bit the past few weeks, and that's cook, and then eat the cooking. I stepped on the scale this morning and noticed I've gained a pound & change the past month, so I really should stop that habit (cooking, that is, not stepping on the scale). However, if this is indeed the end for a bit, I'd like to think I went out in style.

Let me present to you New Year's Day Kaiserschmarnn, topped with home made cranberry sauce and Nutella--

I've written in here about making the Bavarian delicacy before; it's just basically a super-charged pancake that's torn up & covered in some kind of fruit topping. Usually, that fruit topping is applesauce, but since I had leftover fresh cranberries from Thanksgiving (which I had frozen) and leftover Nutella from one of the few kinds of Christmas cookies I made this year, I decided to throw them all together in one last final shot of food gluttony.

Kind of like the finale of a Fourth of July fireworks show, except without the big “booms”.

I have to admit the dish turned out quite well, especially in the way the tartness of the cranberries played off the gooey sweetness of the Nutella. But I now think I may have reached my limit (at least for now) of dishes that take hours to prepare and contain more calories in them than any human should ever consume in a single day. In fact, I find myself craving not Greek food, not Indian food, not some insanely huge desert, but instead a simple turkey sandwich and a carrot.

No cranberries,, no Nutella, no bechamel sauce, no nothing.

I'm sure that, too, shall pass, and in a few weeks or months I'll start to get adventurous again. But for now, for (at least) the beginning of the year, it's back to normal. It's back to simple. It's back to healthy.

At least until my body says it's“okay”, and until I lose that extra pound and change.

(jim@wmqt.com)