Wednesday, 3/25

Every so often, I'm reminded that the internet is actually good for something.

I have no idea how the conversation started, but a couple of days ago Loraine and I were talking about beer. For some reason, at that moment we both flashed upon a moment from our childhoods, both vaguely recalling that while we were growing up there was a shampoo made out of beer.. Neither of us could recall its name; in fact, we were both only about 80% sure that the product actually existed.. Since we were curious, I pulled out my phone, went to Google, typed in “70s beer shampoo”, and was rewarded with the rich (albeit brief) history of “Body on Tap”.

Yup; the 70s, which gave us such strange items as pet rocks, polyester clothing, and Gerald Ford, also gave us, for a year or two, a shampoo made out of beer. In fact, it was a product made by Budweiser, which, I'm guessing, made a little too much beer one day and needed to find a way to get rid of it.

Although I might not actually be correct about that.

Neither Loraine nor I believe we ever used the shampoo, although once again we may be incorrect about that. After all, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast 10 minutes ago. Asking us to remember what kind of shampoo we used 45 years ago?

Yeah, good luck with that.

So anyway, it's nice to know that every so often, the internet can be a force for good, as opposed to what most people use it for. In fact, not only can it confirm that there WAS indeed a shampoo made of out of beer decades ago, it can even provide a TV commercial touting it--

We live in amazing times, don't we?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/24

Am I weird in that I actually like flying?

As Loraine and I are getting ready to (hopefully) head to Germany in just over a month, I find myself actually getting excited that I get to fly somewhere soon. I know; it's strange. Most people look upon flying somewhere with the same enthusiasm they would have looking forward to a root canal. But not me. For some reason, even when faced with a TSA slowdown and the fact that it takes 20-some hours to get where we're going, I actually get excited that I'm gonna be up in the air soon.

Go figure.

I don't know why I always so look forward to flying. I just do. And before you think I'm totally insane, know that I am fully aware of the hassle of flying. I know what it's like having to stand in long security lines. I know what it's like losing luggage. And although I've never had to deal with a situation like someone I know had to last week, when her Sunday night flight from Detroit to Marquette didn't actually make it to Marquette until Wednesday night), I know first hand what it's like having to make a short connection or re-book a canceled flight.

Yet, I still look forward to doing it.

I suppose, if I had to think about it, that maybe it's because I like the romance of flying. Not romance as falling head over heels in love, and not romance as in joining the Mile High Club, but just the “romance” of doing something out of the ordinary and going somewhere special. Maybe I like it because flying is a gateway to an adventure. And that's true. But it still wouldn't account for the fact that I even enjoy the flights home after the “adventure” is finished. I still enjoy boarding the plane, spending hours gazing out the window and watching the world slip by below me, and I still enjoy the rhythm of life that's unique to an airport.

I can't explain why. I just do.

Ask me again in mid-May after we've experienced whatever's gonna happen during our flights to Europe and back. But you know what? Even if something bad were to happen, even if I spent a lot of time afterward grumbling about it, I'd probably still harbor a weird, secret wish--

That I'd be able to fly again, and fly again soon.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 3/23

Black jellybeans. Never, ever black jellybeans.

Loraine and I took our annual Easter shopping trip out to Harvey this past weekend; Lofaro's for everything I'll need to make Easter dinner, and Snyder Drug just to check out their collection of Easter goodies. While perusing all of the choices from which we could choose, we came across the one Easter candy that's so bad, so horrid, that it threatens to turn a person off of sugar and yummy treats forever. Which Easter goody is so bad, so horrid, that it threatens to do that for me?

Black jellybeans.

Unlike, say, the tale I've mentioned several times about how bananas (literally) make me throw up, I've never ever liked black jellybeans. And I'll be the first to admit it's the taste of them. While I like anise in cookies and LOVE the taste of anise in that weird German Fennel-Anise-Caraway Seed tea I drink, the taste of it in black jellybeans (and its weird cousin, black licorice) just turns my stomach. Unlike bananas, I don't know why it turns my stomach. It just does. And it's not even because I force-fed myself so many black jellybeans that I made myself sick, like I did with bananas when I was two or three. I don't think I could ever eat that many black jellybeans, because I just don't like the taste.

If that makes me a freak, so be it, because I know there are a LOT of people who love black jellybeans. I know of people who'll buy a bag of nothing BUT black jellybeans and eat them one after the other. But not me. Any other color of jellybean is fine; heck, I even like those bubble-gum flavored Jelly Bellys that make some people wretch.

But black jellybeans? Nope. I'll leave those for you.

So if you happen to see me being offered jellybeans sometime in the next few weeks (not that you would, but never say never), you can rest assured that I'll happy munch down on the red ones, the green ones, the yellow ones, the blue ones, and even the bubble gum ones. But the black ones?

I think I'll pass.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 3/20

Here are two pictures to wrap up one of the weirdest weeks in recent history.

As you know, we had a LOT of snow the past ten days. The Weather Service in Negaunee recorded the snowiest week in the 64 years since they moved up there, and while we had 20 inches of white stuff dumped upon us here in the city, our friends out at KI Sawyer are still digging out from the 54 inches (four and a half feet!) of snow they've endured since last weekend.

So I guess I wasn't too surprised when I got home last night and Loraine told me that I needed to head a few blocks over from where we live to see a tunnel that someone had tried to snow blow through a drift.

I present to you the sidewalk on the east side of Pine Street, by Williams Park--

I have NO idea why someone took a snowblower through the drift, although I'm guessing it was just to say they did it. And if you wondering just how high those walls of snow are, here's a picture of a dork standing inside of it--

Now, I'm 5-10 and a half (the average high of an American male, if you're curious) and the walls of snow are at least a foot and a half above my head. THAT'S how much snow was in that drift, and that's how much snow someone had to blow through just to make that narrow path. How they managed to get a snowblower through the drift remains a mystery, but I do have to admit that I stand in awe of their accomplishment.

Especially after the week we've had.

Hopefully, this upcoming weekend is a lot lot more peaceful than the past week. After what we've been through, I'm pretty sure that we deserve it.

Have a great one yourself!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 3/19

Once or twice a year, the jacket comes in handy.

This is the jacket of which I'm speaking--

It's been sitting on the back of my office door for, geez, 15 or so years now.  A couple of times a year, when it's cold in our studio and I (like a dummy) haven't dressed like I should, I'll slip it on, be warm, and be thankful that I have it.

Everyone needs a jacket like that, right?

Now, if you look at the picture closely, you may be thinking to yourself “Jim...why do you have a personalized Checker Cab jacket hanging on your office door?”  And that would actually be a good thought to have.  You see, I have a personalized Checker Cab jacket on my office door because of a contest we did with the company in the early teens, our “Trivia Taxi” contest, where a Checker Cab would pick up a listener and drive them around Marquette while I asked them trivia questions.

And yes, it WAS a blatant rip-off of the TV show “Cash Cab”.  I don't think we ever denied that.

8-)

Anyway, the contest went on for several months, and during that time the then owner of Checker, Jesse Schram, who also doubled as the taxi driver of whom participants could ask advice, gave me the jacket in appreciation for the contest.  Since then, I've used it as my “office” jacket on those occasions when it's needed.  And trust me—this winter, especially the past week or so, it's been needed.

So if you ever come into the station on a chilly day and notice a Checker Cab jacket on me, that's why.  I haven't traded jobs or anything.  I'm just using a gift from a long-ago contest, a gift that after 15 or so years is still much appreciated.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 3/18

The fact blew what little was left of my sanity.

Because of all the snow (in fact, the snowiest one week period since the National Weather Service moved to Negaunee, which was 1961 or '62), I've spent four of the past five work days working alone. And much like the year & and a half I worked alone during Covid, during the past week I've started to notice little things I do without even thinking the one I happen to have noticed?

I wash my hands a lot. Specifically, during an eight hour day, probably 12 or so times. But that includes washing out tea mugs and after digging out dusty computer cables, so it's probably not that much is it?

Actually, that's not a bad thing. I know washing your hands is a good thing. After all, the best thing you can do to stop the spread of ANY kind of germs (and get rid of dirt from dusty computer cables) is to wash your hands. It's so simple, and it's so effective. I do it myself quite often, and how often do I get sick?

At least (ahem) physically sick?

So I did a little digging to find out how often “normal” people wash their hands; specifically, how many times per day the average American does it. It's 8.6 times in a 24-hour day, not just an eight hour workday, if you're curious, which means that in at least one way I'm quite above average. But the fact that accompanied that was the one that blew my mind--

73 million Americans—22 percent of us—don't wash their hands at all. Whatever was on their hands after working, pooping, and touching anything and everything is still on there.

I'll pause here for a moment if you feel the need to dry heave for a second.

22 percent of Americans go from wiping their butts to unwrapping a Twinkie without washing their hands. 22 percent of Americans go from sneezing in their hands to shaking your hand without washing said hand.. 22 percent of Americans go from digging through the garbage to changing a child's diaper without washing their hands.

Now, I'm not a germophobe, nor do I play one on TV, but is it any wonder some people get sick at the drop of a hat with the flu, the common cold, and any kind of crud that you can pick up from another person? A little simple personal hygiene could make everyone safer & healthier.

But maybe I'm just odd that way. And maybe, just maybe, I shouldn't work alone so often. I shudder to think what strange personal habit I may notice next.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/17

I think I've run out of words to describe the situation.

After almost 48 hours, our Blizzard Warning is no more, the snow seems to have stopped falling, and the winds are starting to die down. This has been a horrid, horrid situation, with schools still closed, roads still impassible, and a monster clean-up in front of everyone.

It was so bad I even had to snowshoe to work yesterday, where this was the scene that greeted me as I made it past the Peter White Public Library--

It's funny; we really didn't get as much snow as was in the forecast, but winds of over 50 mph drove the 14 inches we did get all over the place. There are still huge drifts everywhere; some roads in remote parts of the UP may not be cleared until the end of the week, and I think we're all still shell-shocked by what we've gone through.

Like I said, I think I've run out of words to describe. Thankfully, I had enough left to stick together my TV bit last night, an idea that Loraine actually thought might be apropos.

And as always, she was spot on--

That's all I'm gonna say about that, except to leave you with one parting thought, a phrase that has been coming out of my lips almost as much as the word “wow” the past three days--

Is it June yet?

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 3/16

You know what? Considering the circumstances, the sign was spot on.

I work across the street from the First Presbyterian Church in Marquette, where they have a sign out front that discuses what they'll be chatting about during the weekend's services. The topic they were to discuss this past weekend caught my eye on Friday, when we received a foot of snow, and seems even more relevant today, when portions of the UP could see up to three feet of the white stuff. (And you read that right—three FEET).

The topic?

I mean I know that it's just a coincidence. I'm guessing the topic for the past weekend's discussions were probably chosen well in advance. But when I saw the sign Friday during heavy snow, I thought it was perfect. And now that we're in the midst of even heavier snow?

It's even more perfect.

Armageddon, of course, implies a disastrous, permanent upheaval, and I do realize that what we're going through right now is not permanent (disastrous...well, that's up for discussion). But seeing the sign in the midst of three major storms in a six-day span couldn't have been more fitting. After all, sometimes things get so bad that the only action you can take is to laugh.

And I think most of us will agree that the past six days have been THAT bad.

We have warmer temperatures and rain the forecast for the end of this week; hopefully, that stays on track and doesn't because even more snow. Because I really don't think many of us could handle what we've been going through the past week.

For some of us, in fact, it could indeed qualify as Armageddon.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 3/13 (!)

Okay. This is just getting to be ridiculous.

As I alluded to yesterday while NOT talking about the weather, we're in the middle of another one of those bizarre weather episodes with which we've been graced this year. This whole week seems to have been a microcosm of an entire winter, so it's probably no surprise that we're now in the midst of a snow storm, with anywhere from two inches to a foot falling over this place, with an even worse dumping expected on Sunday.

Mother Nature, it's the middle of March. Can we please stop this torture some time soon?

8-)

Seriously; this has just been a weird few weeks around here. Today's the second day this week that most places in the UP cancelled school, and after almost all of our snow melted some areas are getting a LOT of it back. So in order to, perhaps, nudge Mother Nature, to give her a gentle reminder that we do deserve some nice weather, here are some pictures I took from just a few months ago.

Hopefully, I'll be able to take them again soon. But until I can, Mother Nature, remember when you gave us green?

You have us beach weather?

You gave us bike weather?

You gave us things growing from trees?

You gave us opportunities to see (and do) things you can't see (or do) in the snow?

And you gave us a color (or six) OTHER that white?

You know, if you could do that again, and do it again soon, that would be cool. That would be really, really cool.

Thanks in advance,

Your pal,

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 3/12

Today, I promise not to write ANYTHING about the weather. I'll save that for tomorrow when we're supposed to get another foot (or more) of the white crap.

Sigh...

Instead, two totally unrelated things I've been meaning to mention. First of all is a weird thought that popped into my head yesterday afternoon while eating an apple—do you leave the stem in when eating an apple, or do you twist it out? I don't know why the thought popped into my head; it just did. I personally twist the stem out. I don't know why; I mean, I could eat an apple with the stem in it. It wouldn't bother me at all. But for whatever reason, I always twist the stem out.

I guess I'm just weird like that.

And in regard to twisting the stem out of an apple—is/was there some kind of weird thing that goes along with how many twists it takes to get the stem out of the apple? You know; like if it takes four twists you'll kiss four people this year, or something strange like that? I seem to remember something along those lines from when I was a kid, but I don't remember any of the details. So if YOU know if I'm remembering this correctly or if I've just moved myself one step closer to heading off the deep end (a distinct possibility), let me know.

And thanks.

Secondly, I would like you to read this paragraph--

“In this paper, we develop a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue. This vector has been found to have applications in fields such as graph partitioning and graph drawing. The algorithm is a purely algebraic approach based on a heavy edge coarsening scheme and pointwise smoothing for refinement. To gain theoretical insight, we also consider the related cascadic multigrid method in the geometric setting for elliptic eigenvalue problems and show its uniform convergence under certain assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for computing the Fiedler vector of several practical graphs, and numerical results show the efficiency and optimality of our proposed cascadic multigrid algorithm.”.

My question is this—did you understand it? Please say no. Please say that only a genius (or, in the case of the person who wrote it, a former lineman for the Baltimore Ravens who's a math scholar) can understand it. Because, you know, if that's something most people understand and I don't; well, then, I even dumber than I thought I was.

And that's quite dumb!

Okay. That's it for unrelated things for now. Except for this—if you're in Marquette and wanna see a dork on TV, there's a special fundraising edition of “High School Bowl” on WNMU-TV tonight at 9. There will be two pledge breaks in the show, and the aforementioned dork—well, okay me—will be begging for bucks for Public Media.

Between those, though, will be game segments featuring some of the brightest young people on the planet. And I'm pretty sure at least one or two of them might even understand that paragraph about the cascadic multigrid algorithm.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 3/11

Okay. This can stop any year now.

As I may have mentioned once or twice (or several hundred times) the past few months, we're in the middle of an honest to goodness “Throwback Winter”, a season that reflects what winters used to be like around here before we broke the planet. After a bunch of mild winters in a row I don't think most people are quite happy with the way this one is turning out, and were kind of euphoric on Monday when it jumped up into the 50s and melted a whole bunch of the white stuff--

However, it didn't last too long. Here's what it looked like when I showed up to work this morning around 10--

We're in the middle of a Winter Storm Warning, schools all across the area once again closed, and I'm thinking the vast majority of the 300,000 people who call Upper Michigan home are so ready for this stuff to be over that today is kind of like a gut punch to the psyche.

It really IS unwelcome.

It blows my mind that according to the National Weather Service, here in the city of Marquette we're only 15 or so inches above our “average” snow total. Based on the massive amount of white stuff we've all had to move this year it doesn't seem possible, but that's science and, as we all know, science doesn't lie. Averages, of course, are made up of many different numbers, including those when our horrid winters were the norm and not just “Throwback”.

We've just been spoiled the past decade or so.

Will it ever end? Well, that's a question for people much smarter than I. All I know is that our brief tease of Spring this past weekend was just that—a tease. Apparently, we still have a LOT more of our “Throwback” winter to get through.

Yuck.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/10

I wonder if anyone actually got all of the jokes?

Following last week's somber TV piece about the ultimately unsuccessful search for a missing person in Marquette, I decided to go all out on the goofiness this week. Thankfully, this time of the year there is a ready made subject for a little goofiness, which I'm guessing is the ONLY thing potholes are good for. So I went all out on them last night, mixing in gags ranging from Yooper jokes to off-handed comments about 16^th century Portuguese explorers.

Why? The question, perhaps, should be “why not”, right?

8-)

This was also one of those instances where the bit came in way too long, and I had to cut a bunch of gags out, including (but not limited to) my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon, the two least of the Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, obviously), Bigfoot, and the state bird of Michigan, the mosquito. But you know what? As we've said before, sometimes editing makes things better.

See if it did this week--

I think I've written in here before about a line one of my favorite comedic personalities of all time (Jack Benny) once said—“if we can't stick in one joke a week just for us, we're in the wrong business”. So if there's a gag or two (or eight) in there that you didn't get or seems just plain stupid (probably the vast majority of them), never fear.

I was just paying homage to one of the great comedic minds of all time. It was just me writing a gag (or six) for myself.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Monday, 3/9

And now, we’re left with the garbage.

With probably 90% of the snow in the city of Marquette melting over the past week, what was just recently a white wonderland is now a big brown blob of sand and junk and all kinds of crap, both figurative and literal (thank you, the small minority of Marquette dog owners who don’t think the city’s pooper scooper law applies to them). Loraine and I went for a stroll Sunday and were astounded by the amount of bottles, cans, empty fast food wrappers, and other different examples of the refuse of winter, all laying in decaying heaps on city sidewalks and in city streets.

As I wrote about last week, March may be the one month of the year when Marquette isn’t, well, beautiful. Aside from being filled with leftover brown dirt, it's also filled with the leftover remainders of people who think that, just because they can’t see where it lands, it’s okay to toss whatever garbage they have in their cars or in their hands on the nearest sidewalk. And it’s also filled with the leftover remainders of pets, innocent animals whose owners think it’s okay to leave big piles of bacterial-filled waste on a sidewalk where hundreds of people must dodge said piles when the snow melts for the season.

Sigh.

Thankfully, as I mentioned last week, we live in a community where the clean-up doesn’t take too long. But until then, we’re stuck with an uglier than usual city. Uglier than usual because of the natural result of winter ending (the sand everywhere, and the broken branches everywhere), and uglier than usual because, well, some people are just slobs.

The sad thing is, of course, that it doesn’t have to be that way. People COULD pick up after themselves during winter, and then when March rolls around, clean-up would be quicker, it wouldn’t cost the city so much, and Marquette could start looking like Marquette again, instead of someone’s personal garbage heap.

Sad to say, though, I won’t be holding my breath waiting for that to happen. After all, I know what people are like these days.

And let's just say my faith in humanity is not what it once was...

(jim@wmqt.com)

Friday, 3/6

Wow. I can't believe we're done for the year.

I'll have to keep this kinda short, because I'm off to NMU in a bit to tape the final episodes of “High School Bowl” of the season. We're doing two shows today, the semi-finals and the finals, as well as interviews and material for the "Season in Review" show, and it puts the wraps on another fun year, a year that seems like it just started yesterday.

But now, it's over.

I don't know if it seems like it's been a short season because it all went so smoothly, or because it's been a blast doing it, but I'm kind of stunned at how quickly it went. Maybe it's the fact that I've been doing it for a bit now; maybe it's because this year, more than any other, the young people on the show have been doing things like putting my face on their pants. I have no idea. I just know it's been a blast this season, and I'm very sorry to see it come to an end. Some familiar teams have made the semis, while there are a couple of surprises in there, as well. I can't wait to see how it turns out later today. You'll have to wait until the middle of April to see it for yourself, but trust me when I say this—there are some amazing moments still to come this season.

The season that, like I said, wraps up shooting in just a few minutes.

With that, I'm off to make sure my tie is straight. Have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)

Thursday, 3/5

As I mentioned a few days ago, I'm wrong about a lot of stuff. But I know I'm not wrong about this.

Marquette is usually one of the most beautiful places on the planet. During the summer there's green everywhere you look. During fall that green changes to a palette of polychromatic majesty. And even a snowfall during winter can have an ethereal beauty of its own.

At least the first few snowfalls of the year have that ethereal beauty. After that, all bets are off.

However, there's one segment of the year during which Marquette is not at its best. In fact, you could even make the claim that during that particular segment, Marquette is downright ugly. That period of time?

March.

Don't believe me?

That's a picture I took yesterday, as the sun & 45 degree temperatures reduced our six foot snowbanks into five foot snowbanks. And it, I think, proves my point. All winter long city crews dump sand everywhere, just to make sure that vehicles can make it up the wicked hills of Marquette. That sand is covered up by snowfall, so we really don't notice it when it's around. However, when the snow starts to melt, the sand doesn't, meaning the city turns, for several weeks, into a pile of giant brown mush.

And you know what? There's no way a city can look good when it resembles a pile of giant brown mush.

Thankfully, that particular phase doesn't last too long. Soon (hopefully), the snow will entirely disappear, city crews can work their cleaning magic, and in a month or so green grass and the first flowers will make an appearance, propelling the city toward awesome beauty for which it is known.

But that's still a little bit away. For the next few weeks, we'll just have to deal with the fact that Marquette is still in need of its yearly makeover.

And hopefully, after the winter we've had, that makeover comes sooner rather than later.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Wednesday, 3/4

Who knew a sign of its legacy would still be around, and still sitting in my bedroom, all these years later?

I've been reading a book about the history, development, and sales of candy in the U.S., and one of the things discussed in the book was Wacky Packages. Admittedly, Wacky Packages weren't a candy, but since they stuck sticks of bubble gum in the package, I guess that allowed it to qualify for inclusion in the book. For those of you who don't know Wacky Packs, a thousand or so years ago they were stickers satirizing products of the day (for instance, Crest Toothpaste was turned into Crust Toothpaste), something that appealed to those of us who were nine years old back then (as opposed to those of us who occasionally act like nine year olds now).

Anyway, I had quite the collection of the stickers, so reading through the section of the book about Wacky Packages made me chuckle. I was reading in our bedroom, while Loraine was somewhere else in our apartment. I left the bedroom to show her the page, and in doing so walked past one of the dressers we use. I've had this particular dresser since I was a kid, and on the side of the dresser I passed while leaving the room there are several areas where the stain had been peeled off a long time ago. It wasn't until I walked passed the dresser carrying that book on candy that I realized WHY the stain was peeled off.

The stain on the dresser was peeled off because of the fact that when I was a kid, I once had a bunch of Wacky Packages stickers stuck onto it, stickers that were at one time removed, causing the areas where the stain had been peeled off.

It's funny, because I hadn't looked at the side of the dresser for decades. And I have no idea why I looked at it at the moment I was also carrying the book with the section on Wacky Packages. I just know that I, for some reason, looked at the dresser at that exact second and made the connection. It's funny, too, because if you look close enough you can see the stain that's peeled off is actually peeled off in the shape of stickers. I suppose if I had pictures of each and every Wacky Package sticker from my youth I could tell you which sticker on the dresser was planted where, but that would probably be bordering on the obsessive.

Just a little.

It's weird how parts of our youth keep popping up as we get older & older (and older). Sometimes all it takes is a book—and an old dresser—to remind us of that.

(jim@wmqt.com)

Tuesday, 3/3

I, personally, think the description is apt.

My TV piece last night dealt with what Marquette residents went through last week; namely, the ultimately unsuccessful search for missing NMU student Trenton Massey, and how the community pitched in in an attempt to find him. At the end of the piece I talked about the old Mr Rogers quote on “looking for the helpers”, saying that maybe the one good thing to take away from this whole tragedy is that the residents of Marquette ARE, indeed, the helpers.

I'm often wrong about things, but this is one time I know I'm not.

I guess i would hope that residents of EVERY community could find it in themselves to be called “helpers”, but something I saw after getting home from TV last night reminded me that might be one of things about which I might be wrong.

A Facebook friend of mine had expressed sympathy for a group of marginalized people, and shared the reaction someone from his hometown (another community in Upper Michigan) had stuck on the post. I'm not going to quote it exactly, because it was not nice, but in essence it said “the people of Marquette are corrupting you”. Now, I know that we live in an extremely polarized world these days, and that for some individuals empathy for others and hate of “the other” has been weaponized. The comment left on the post is proof positive of that. But to say that the people of Marquette, one of the kindest groups of people you'll ever meet, a group that turned out en masse to help find someone who was missing, are a “corrupting influence” on someone?

Really?????

Like I said, I know we live in a polarized world these days, and that the very things that make the residents of Marquette “helpers” are looked down upon by a certain segment of society. But you know what? I'll take love over hate, inclusion over division, and helpers over takers, any single day of the week. I would do that even if I wasn't one of the “corrupted residents” of Marquette. Why?

Because that's what being a good human being IS.

Here's the TV piece from last night--

(jim@wmqt.com), corrupted resident of Marquette.

Monday, 3/2

Going to the grocery store really does get weirder & weirder.

I wrote last week about how I saw both an “old” person and someone who wanted to compliment my TV work at the store last week. Well, as always happened, when Loraine and I went shopping this weekend I had people come up to me, one of whom asked a question that proves that, perhaps, my reputation precedes me.

That question?

“Are you ready for the beach yet”?

Now, as those of you who read this regularly know, I kinda like the beach. I spend a good deal of my summer (at least a good deal of a warm summer) just walking up & down beaches, basking in the warmth of the sun and the zen-like sound of the waves crashing on shore. Those of you who read this on a regular basis also know that my dream job would be “beach bum”, only I've yet to figure out a way to get someone to pay me to do it. That's why I was surprised when the question was asked and it turns out the person doing the asking doesn't read these.

Apparently, I've been doing what I do long enough that everyone in Marquette knows everything about me.

8-)

I guess, in a way, the question made sense, especially because on Friday—the day before the grocery store encounter—the sun was out and the temperatures were, for one of the only times this calendar year, actually above normal. You could even if you felt, joke that on Friday we DID have “perfect beach weather” outside. And while the sunshine DID add a beach-like glow to the day, the fact that it was glaring off of seven-foot snowbanks kind of took away the whole allure of going to the beach, at least then.

So I guess I'm now known not just as the geek on the radio who walks everywhere; or the geek on TV, or the geek who leads big crowds around downtown Marquette while babbling about history. To one person, at least, I'm also known as “the geek who wants to go to the beach”. I guess, though, there are worse reputations to be had, right?

(jim@wmqt.com), who wonders who I'll speak with the NEXT time I'm at the grocery store.