August 16th

Today is the anniversary of the death of Elvis in 1977. I have always wondered why this registers so heavily with people. Babe Ruth also died on this day. Was it because Elvis may have died on the toilet? All week, there have been articles on the death of the king of rock and roll. Today is also the anniversary of the crash of the airliner going from Detroit to Phoenix in 1987. Only one little girl survived. They are releasing a movie called Sole Survivor about people that survive plane crashes. May they all rest in peace.....

Owwwwww!

Really? Where else could he go but to St. Bernards! TRUMANN, Ark. (CBS Atlanta) – A paralyzed Arkansas man awoke to find blood on the muzzle of his dog and a “burning pain” in his mid-section, and according to the police report: “the dog had eaten one of his testicles.” The 39-year-old Trumann, Ark. man, who is paralyzed from the waist down, had recently adopted the “small, white, fluffy” stray dog in hopes of having a loving companion, reports KAIT8.com. The man said the newly-adopted animal bit off one of his testicles while he was sleeping naked around 7:45 a.m. on Monday. The man, who has not been identified, was taken to St. Bernard’s Regional Hospital for treatment to his injuries.

Cesar Chavez

I saw a plaque for Cesar Chavez today. It reminded me of the conversation I had with him many years ago. He came to support a Presidential candidate in the Midwest. As the candidate was talking, I was standing next to Cesar. In quiet moments we talked about farm workers, what he was doing and why he was supporting the candidate. This was pretty much before he became a national leader, so hardly anyone in the crowd knew who he was. I had been following the news on some of his activities, so I knew who he was at least. His gentle determination will be what I always remember. He accomplished a great deal against people who were more than willing to use great violence. I am sure he would be on the front line of some of the issues that are facing workers today....

Obits

A good obituary is amazing to read. It tells you something about the person and reveals little insights into their lives whether or not you know the person. Here are a couple of excerpts that I found enjoyable. Mary Blakeslee "Mary was most fond of her numerous poodles and cats, sadly leaving Sambo, Bandit and Jake to meet her later at the Rainbow Bridge." Bob Jacobson - this was actually a bit of an article from The Arizona Republic "'He enjoyed being an editor, but I think he loved writing more," said his wife Earline. "He loved sports. That was his life. Next to his kids, that was his fondest love'"

Pope

I have never met a Pope or seen one live. However, when he went to Phoenix years ago, there was a big effort to make his visit spectacular. One of my friends at the time was a musician with a group that was playing at a reception for the Pope. During a break, he went into a bathroom off the kitchen of the resort where he was playing. The Pope's security started grilling him when he emerged from the bathroom. I guess it was some sort of emergency exit way for the Pope if something would happen at the dinner. He tried explaining that he just had to pee....they were not impressed. My friend was dressed in formal wear, so he could not have looked all out of place in the area. This was in the late 80's I believe, so security was not at the level it is now. Now, he probably would have been tased....my friend, not the Pope... First, the Holy Family gets recycled, and now the Pope. What is the world coming too?

Happy New Year!

The Holy Family box is on its way to the recycling facility. I assume it will be back next year:) Places are closing early for New Years celebrations. It is suppose to be cool tonight for people out celebrating. I am hoping to stay up until NY turns midnight to see what Anderson Cooper and Kathy G. can do to make us laugh. I hope they leave their clothes on this year!

Holy Family

Day after Christmas and when I went to the dumpster, the Holy Family was sitting in the recycle dumpster. Hopefully, it was just the cardboard box....but you never know....

Olgivanna Wright

Many years ago I worked for a company near Spring Green, WI that would do work for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. They would ask that the drawings be delivered so a conversation could be had with the person working on the project just to make sure everyone understood the symbols and information on the drawing. One day I was finishing up my explanation with an architect in the grand drafting room at Taliesin when Mrs. Wright entered the room. She came over and asked who I was. I told her. She then invited me to her private quarters for cookies and tea. Her quarters had a grand view toward the east. We sat at the table near the windows and she proceeded to ask me questions about what was going on outside of Taliesin. We talked about government. We talked about the arts. The tea and cookies arrived and they were excellent. She expressed dismay that she did not get out much. I suggested that since she was the owner of the place she could do what she pleased. She was amused by that suggestion. We had a simple conversation which began several years of delivering small projects to Taliesin so that Mrs. Wright could have conversations with me. One time she suggested that she invited me into her quarters to make Wesley Peters mad since she never allowed him in there. A couple of times, I got to meet Svetlana Stalin who was married to Wesley Peters. I held their daughter for a short time during one visit while Svetlana and Mrs. Wright had a private conversation. I have read that Mrs. Wright tried to manipulate the people around her. Perhaps she was using me to make some of the staff mad. I never particularly felt that way. I did tell her of meeting her husband. After I finished the story, she laughed and laughed. She said many people had told her that they had met Frank Lloyd Wright. She said my story sounded just like the Frank she was married to. She told me she did not view her husband so much an architect, but more of an artist. That has always made sense to me. If you view his creations as art, they are very vibrant....more to follow.

Little Oscar smelled of beer and cigarettes

One of the joys of summer is seeing the wiener-mobile as they travel the country. Some people do not like wieners, but they make a tasty treat at baseball games and summer pick nicks. When I was a kid, I remember the first time the wiener-mobile came to our town. At that time, there really was a Little Oscar who was a little person. He rolled into our town. There was a crowd of kids with the parents standing in the back. The door opened and out popped Little Oscar. I was at the front of the crowd and it sort of pushed us up against him. I was kind of surprised that he smelled of cigarettes and beer. Good times were being had as he rolled down the road apparently. He got the crowd to move back and pretty soon, the parents had stepped away to talk. As soon as he realized they could not hear him, he started to say some pretty salty things to us kids. We all learned some new words that day. Of course, when we tried them out on our parents, we got to taste bars of soap. They wanted to know what hoodlum of the town was teaching us sailor language. As kids, we were pretty truthful. When we told them it was Little Oscar, we got to eat some more soap. It was not good to lie to your parents, they said. Over the years I have met a number of people who worked at Oscar Mayer who all said that Little Oscar had quite a dirty mouth on him. He was told to keep it shut, but he had learned how to teach the kids a lesson, I guess. The people who knew him also said he was very fond of his cigarettes and beer. We actually had a friend named Oscar. We used to sing a rather ribald version of the wiener song about wanting to be someones wiener so all the girls would be in love with me.....

9/11

I thought a lot about that terrible day from 11 years ago. Maybe it is because that day was also a Tuesday. In the next few days I will think about the eerie silence when the planes were grounded.

The Old Bag

When we were kids, we had a baseball field at the corner of the block. The corner yard was big, so it had an equal right and left field. Past left field was a front yard of a neighbor who did not object to our games. Past right field lived a woman who we called The Old Bag. Fortunately, none of us batted left handed. Anything hit to right field was an automatic out. However, every once in awhile someone would hit a monster hit to right field that went into The Old Bag's front yard. She must have been always watching us play baseball. As soon as that ball went toward her front yard, she was out on the porch. If the ball went into her yard, she was there to pick it up. She took it in the house and threw it away! Hence, to us, she was The Old Bag. At that time, most people had a housekeeper. The Old Bag had one. The housekeeper would sometimes smuggle the balls back to us. However, she explained that The Old Bag would keep count of our balls to make sure they went into the bottom of the garbage can. The garbage was collected early in the day, so we rarely had a chance to tip it over to get our balls back! The teams shared the duties of providing balls. They were mostly whiffle balls anyway. so they did not last a real long time since we used wooden bats. Our summers were filled with efforts to keep the Old Bag away from our balls. Sometimes, she would come out and yell at us about playing baseball. There were no easily accessible baseball fields and our parents knew where we were. So, our parents just told us to keep playing and try not to hit the ball into the Old Bag's yard. At the time, the backyards in the block were open so we could run around in the big area between the houses. Of course, The Old Bag had a fence around her back yard. Any stray balls that flew into the yard were immediately scooped up and disposed of. She must have kept a keen eye on us. One time she reported me to my parents that I was peeing behind a big tree in the next yard. I figured no one could see me because I was between a tree and a garage. Actually, we all peed there, both the boys and the girls on the block. My parents said I should come in to pee, but the single bathroom of the house was on the second story. You never knew when it was occupied, so planning ahead was a hard thing for a little kid. I have no clue what the Old Bag's name was. She was just a nasty old lady who stole our balls. I suppose I am her age now. STAY OFF MY LAWN YOU NASTY LITTLE KIDS!

Tommy Gun

On Cajun Pawn the other night, someone was trying to sell a Tommy Gun. They wanted $65K for that weapon that was made during WWI, but ended up sitting on docks in the United States at the end of the war. When I was a kid, my parents took me to Washington DC on vacation. One of the places we got to go to was the FBI Building. It was the old building. Some poor FBI agent who was probably in trouble, got to show us around the facility. There were probably only 6 to 8 people on the tour and I was the only kid. He took us down into the basement to show us the firing range. When we got down there, the range guy was loading up Tommy Guns for some sort of raid. Our guide got excited and asked if he could demonstrate one to the tourists. The range guy said OK, and handed him a Tommy Gun loaded with a 100 round canister. He acted like a kid with a new toy. He said he had never gotten to fire one of those guns. So, we went into the range in the basement. No ear plugs or any hearing protection. He let loose with a couple of burst from the Tommy Gun. As I recall, he made a happy yell. Empty shells were flying all over the place. I think he probably did a couple of more bursts before he turned around. He asked me if I wanted to shoot the Tommy Gun. Did I? He asked my parents and they said OK. So, he took me to the firing line. Gave me the gun and sort of stood behind me to make sure I didn't blast away at the tour, I suppose. I did a short burst, probably five rounds. It was awesome. He took back the Tommy Gun and said he had to return it to the range master. I picked up a few of the empty brass. I had those for quite a few years. Either my mother threw them out or I traded them for something. I was just a little kid, probably 10 or less. I doubt they let the kids shoot the guns at the FBI building any longer. I doubt you get to the firing range. I remember my ears rang for a couple of days. Ear plugs would have been a good idea. I have no idea if I hit the target, but I certainly knew how our tour guide felt when he got a chance to fire a Tommy Gun.

Barry Goldwater

I used to exchange letters with Barry Goldwater on a regular basis. He rarely agreed with me, but he always sent me a real letter, not the computer generated dribble that most politicians send you now. One time I wrote him about some issue. I got a pretty venomous letter in return. I got to wondering who wrote that letter out of his office, so one day I called his office to inquire about the response. A lady answered the phone. I identified myself and asked about the letter I sent to Mr. Goldwater. She was quiet for a moment and then she said "I told the Senator that he should not send you that letter." I was a bit surprised that Senator Goldwater had written that letter. She told me that he had. She said she held the response a day or two to see if he would change his mind. He did not, so she mailed it with trepidation. She then informed me that I was on the list. I asked what the list was. She said it was the people who Senator Goldwater wanted to see all the mail from. She told me it also allowed me to talk with Senator Goldwater. She said he was in the office and I could talk to him if I wanted. I could not think of anything to ask him. She laughed and said the Governor of Arizona was not even on the list. A few years later, I asked Senator Goldwater to see if there was a FBI file on me. He called me at work. He said he would be glad to ask, but he could not even find the FBI file on himself, so he held little hope that I would find anything. He said when those requests went to the FBI, the request was held and clerks got a list of names to pull the file. The files were then sent to other agencies. When the clerks were allowed to try to find the file, there was never a file, so the clerk could respond that the file did not exist. He imagined that after he died, the FBI file on Barry Goldwater would suddenly appear. Several years later, after Barry Goldwater's death, the file on him was released. All in all, it was pretty boring, but he was correct that there was one that remained slippery to find. After he was out of office, I once saw him at a car wash in Phoenix. I sat down next to him. I said I was surprised to see him getting his car washed. I figured he would have minions to do that. He said he did not even have minions when he was Senator. It was just him and his secretary that did all the work. He said he never had a very large staff like the people that replaced him.

Frank Lloyd Wright

As a little kid, I actually met Frank Lloyd Wright. My parents had just moved to Southwest Wisconsin from Central Wisconsin. They were driving down the County Highway on the south side of the Wisconsin River from Muscoda to Spring Green. My parents had lived in the area years before so they were familiar with Taliesin. So, when my dad got to a driveway just below Taliesin, he turned into it and drove up to the house area. There was a barn there. The bottom level was used for the tractors and some trucks. The loft area opened to a higher level on the hill. My father said sometimes the cows and horses would wander into the loft and look down upon the road. That day, the loft was empty. As we sat there, a man came up the hill with a couple of dogs and a shotgun broken over his arm. He had the funny Frank Lloyd Wright hat on. Of course I did not know who he was then, but he was an old man and came up to the car. He asked my father what he was doing there. My father replied, "We just came to look at the barn." The old man asked my dad if he was there to see someone. My dad said no. As the old man was talking, he took out a couple of shells and put them into the shotgun. It was a side by side double barrel as I recall. The old man asked my dad if he had an appointment. My dad said no. The old man(Frank Lloyd Wright) snapped the gun together, then said "This is my land, so get the hell off of it." The driveway was a narrow one lane driveway. My dad had to back down onto the county road. As I recall, there was much cursing as he backed down the driveway. Years later, I had a chance to tell this story to the last Mrs. Wright. After I got to this point she laughed and laughed and said "Yes, that was Frank!"

1000 trees for the 700 people in viola

This August marks the three year anniversary of when a tornado struck Viola, causing more than $2 million in damage. Since then, citizens and volunteers have been slowly rebuilding the village.

One person involved in the cleanup activities is Harley McMillen. McMillen is being given the Wisconsin Urban Forestry Council's Distinguished Service Award for his dedication and commitment to his community.

McMillen was an important part of the Viola cleanup. When he learned the village would not receive financial assistance from FEMA, he and other community volunteers came together to begin cleanup activities in Viola.

McMillen also helped organize Trees for Viola, a nonprofit group dedicated to replanting trees destroyed by the tornado. As part of Trees for Viola, McMillan applied for and received a grant for $15,202. The organization also raised additional money that was used to buy trees and fund other community projects.

To prove how successful Trees for Viola is, they will be meeting their goal of planting the one-thousandth tree in the village this month. Also, thanks to McMillen's dedication, Viola has become a Tree City USA community.

Excitement for Richland Center

When I was growing up, this bank had a 'bubbler' ot front bythe corner where the kids hung out. Friday nights were the big time when all the farmers came to town. This was the spot where I heard my first 'fuck'. Said by a sweet looking farmers wife. I was SHOCKED! Probably because at 7 or 8, I didn't know what the helll that was. So, we went home and used that word.....the soap didn't taste so good.....geez, my mother had no sense of humor.....




A Richland Center bank has been selected for the filming of a robbery scene in the gangster flick "Public Enemies," according to a newspaper report.
M&I Bank in Richland Center, which was built in the 1920s and features chandeliers and marble floors, is one of four banks to be robbed on camera, the Richland Observer reported. The other three have yet to be determined.
Scouts visited the Wells Fargo and Baraboo National banks in Baraboo a month ago, but seem to be broadening their search, visiting communities across Wisconsin, Illinois and parts of Indiana. Universal Pictures location scout Adam Boor told the Observer the studio has verbally committed to shooting in Richland Center, but no contract has been signed. The only other Wisconsin site Mann has chosen is the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, the scene of the John Dillinger gang's 1934 shootout with federal agents.
"That means that we're still in the running," said Gene Dalhoff, executive director of the Baraboo Area Chamber of Commerce. "That's better than the alternative."
The film is set to star Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as the FBI agent who hunted him down. Filming reportedly will begin in Chicago. The Observer reports filming in Richland Center is scheduled for one day in early March.
While scouts choose locations for filming, others on Mann's team will conduct a casting call for Depression-era vehicles to appear in the movie. Filmmakers want people with antique cars, trucks and buses from 1930 to 1935 to bring them, or pictures of them, to Milwaukee's Miller Park on Sunday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. About 45 people turned out for a recent vehicle call in Madison, although nearly all just brought pictures of their vehicles because of road conditions.

You go guy!

Years ago, I had argumets with my bank managers over using the drive up window at the bank. Much easier than taking the bike inside and I was always ready, so I didn't delay anyone. After a few discussions, they let me use the drive up window without hassle. Alas, that bank no longer exists....ATMS rule the day

Perhaps, one day, freeways will give way to bikeways.....





Chuck Thomas tried to get a TxTag; he really did.
Thomas, a financial analyst at Dell Inc., went on the tollway Web site and started filling in the boxes.

Texas 45 North's shoulders are wide, clean and smooth - ideal for Chuck Thomas, whose commute takes him about an hour.

"I got as far as 'type of vehicle,' " he says.
That was a problem, though, because you see, there's no box for "bicycle."
Yes, Thomas wanted to ride his bike to work on the Texas 45 North tollway. Actually, Thomas does ride his bike to work on the Texas 45 North tollway — has done so since October.
As far as I know, he's the only tollway bicycle commuter in Austin. And as far as I know, he's not deranged.
The Texas Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety aren't quite so sure. Thomas e-mailed TxDOT back in early October, inquiring about the legality of riding a bicycle on the four tollways here in Austin (TxDOT runs three of them, including Texas 45 North). He expected to hear that what he had in mind was against the law. To his great surprise, it isn't. Not yet, anyway.
Marcus Cooper, a spokesman for TxDOT's Austin district, replied in an e-mail to Thomas that the agency really wishes he wouldn't do it, that the tollways are designed for cars going 70 mph and that entrance and exit ramps would be especially problematic because the shoulders are thinner than on the highway proper.
"However, if it comes down to it, (it) is not against the law," Cooper concluded.
So Thomas, who has commuted by bicycle his whole working life (he's 43), started using Texas 45 North last fall. He and his family had moved west of Lakeline Mall off RM 620, rendering his former McNeil Drive commuting route well out of the way. The tollway is a straight shot, about 14 miles portal to portal. The ride takes about an hour.
He uses the shoulders, of course, not the highway lanes. The shoulders are a spacious 8 feet wide, Thomas says, and, being relatively new and made of concrete, are unusually smooth. There's very little trash, unlike Loop 360, for instance, where many cyclists ride, and traffic is much lighter than on 360 or other Austin highways. He says he feels safe.
There have been obstacles, though, mostly of the organic life-form variety. He began pulling into tollbooths at the Lake Creek plaza and asking what he needed to pay. Sometimes they charged him the 75-cent toll, sometimes not. But many times, in the early weeks, they told him he wasn't supposed to be riding there with his $600 Fuji Silhouette bike and its special commuter tires coated with Kevlar.
He carries a copy of the Cooper e-mail as a sort of hall pass, and that tended to do the trick.
"I'm not trying to freeload on anything," Thomas says. "I'm perfectly willing to pay a reasonable fee for a 30-pound bicycle." Whatever that might be.
TxDOT has since determined that it can legally charge tolls only on motorized vehicles, and the tollbooth hassles have ceased.
State troopers have pulled him over twice. He flashed the e-mail at 'em.
"Now they wave at me," Thomas says.
Then there's his wife, Pei. They have a 14-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy. Thomas said that, philosophically, his wife likes that he's doing something ecofriendly. And that it keeps him in shape (5 foot 11 inches tall and a sturdy, wind-resistant 200 pounds) and saves the family money (they have just one car).
"But she's concerned about the danger," he says. "There is some risk."
Thomas stays well to the outside on the shoulders, and he has developed strategies to minimize his exposure time on the ramps. He says his exit at La Frontera Boulevard has a 6-foot shoulder and is lightly used because most eastbound Dell commuters take an exit east of Interstate 35 instead.
Despite the well-publicized deaths of a couple of cyclists in the past couple of years, both on Loop 360, Thomas said he is not frightened while riding on the tollway.
"I would like some company, though," Thomas wrote in a blast e-mail he sent to a cyclist forum in November.
Thomas has yet to see another cyclist on the tollway, and he's worried that if some don't join him, the powers that be might ban turnpike biking. The Texas Transportation Commission has the authority to do so, according to TxDOT, but hasn't.
"I would like to have some momentum (number of cyclists) to fight it in case that happens," he wrote in that posting.
Thomas never did get that TxTag, by the way. After being foiled on the Internet, he phoned the tag office and inquired. Given that he has no windshield for the tag, and the general oddity of his request, the tollway folks decided not to complete the sale.
"It jangled them," Thomas says. "I'm sure they had a good laugh and shared it around the water cooler."

You go guy!

I'm a geezer who began riding on Washington's streets during the Johnson administration. I've never had any real problem with motorists, and I've never caused any motorist to do anything crazy or unsafe. Counterintuitively, I've found that drivers of buses and large trucks are among those least fazed by my presence. On both sides, I believe it's clear that sharing the road is all about competence and attitude and that the physical situation is not a problem unless we make it one.
With regard to bike paths, I think it's absurd to burn gasoline in order to take a bike ride. I'd rather just push my bike out the door and start riding than to load my bike onto my truck and take a drive before taking a ride.
TOM WILLIAMS

rebates

I guess Walmart is not part of the economy



Tim from Richland Center, who questioned whether tax rebates to stimulate the economy would work if people will just spend them at Wal-Mart.

Pi a la mode

from south dakota

Our Friday afternoon meeting was over, a poll question had been set, but as we were walking out, someone asked “What if we were to include pi (3.14) in our weekend question asking our readers’ favorite pie?”
Perfect. Not only are we big fans of math humor (when have you ever seen those two words used in the same sentence), but we had long been looking for a way to tap into that elusive, coveted demographic: geometry teachers.
And, despite its potential obscurity, we have been pleasantly surprised by pi’s showing in the race. Despite still trailing the field, it has more respectable John McCain-type numbers as opposed to Dennis Kucinich-type results. The tally as of 3 p.m. Monday:
Apple (523 Votes, 22%)Cherry (310 Votes, 13%)Lemon meringue (358 Votes, 15%)Pecan (482 Votes, 21%)Pumpkin (425 Votes, 18%)3.14 (249 Votes, 11%)

Way to go PI!!!!!