Blogage

For those of you who like to know what is going on, business wise, in the Falls, the following stores are now closed:

1. Ponderosa - closed two weeks ago.

2. Camille's at Good Hope and Appleton closed about two months ago. Was open about 3 months.

3. The Custard Company on Main Street closed about a month ago.

Please use this blog post to honor those who have fought, served, and died for our ability to live as we as we are today. Please honor those who are serving right now as well.

 Posting a tribute below is very simple and would mean a lot to those who should forever be remembered.

No announcement has been made as to where the headquarters will be located when the merger between SAB/Miller and Coors/Molsen is approved by the Feds. My prediction, dating back to December 07, will be Colorado. I wish it were not so, but that won’t make it so.

“Southeast Wisconsin did lose the bragging rights to being GE Healthcare's headquarters last year. After General Electric Co.'s acquisition of Amersham PLC, the headquarters was moved to Chalfont St. Giles - a city near London.”

JSOnline Oct. 29, 2005

Every state is trying to be “Thee Biotech State” or the “Pharmaceutical Capitol” of the U.S. because the moniker implies high tech, high paying jobs. Wisconsin’s leaders declared they want this title. While the “goal” sounds good, is it a realistic?

I want to be the starting power forward for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2008. Even though I am over 50, under 5’8’’ and never played college basketball, my goal is more realistic than Wisconsin’s.  

Many do not realize that Brewing is a high tech industry. Miller Brewing had a world class technical center in which there were over 35 PhDs in areas such as microbiology, cereal chemistry, protein chemistry, foam chemistry, etc. It had more PhDs than any other non-medical or non-educational institution in Wisconsin. Pabst and Schlitz also had significant research facilities. The industry also paid good wages and benefits to the line workers and provided many executive positions like accounting, IT, legal, and marketing.   

Hundreds of S.E. Wisconsin companies are/were vendors to Miller Brewing-including mine.

Wisconsin was the brewing capital of the U.S. but things change and brewing dispersed. No effort was made to save it or replace it. Brewing wasn't high tech enough.

There are plenty of opportunities for Wisconsin to be the capital of something else. Paper and printing are good examples. While it doesn’t create the buzz as being the Pharma Capital it is infinitely more sensible, realistic, and achievable. 

Maybe someday we will have a Governor who can lead companies into Wisconsin instead of filing lawsuits against them. Until that day, we will be known as the “Moving Van State” moving corporations out of Wisconsin. 

It seems like only yesterday that most of us were able to get on with our lives thanks to the writer’s strike settlement. Hopefully, you are all pleased with your favorite shows returning in full splendor.

“Boston Legal” was an amusing show until about two weeks ago when David Spader hectored the U.S. Supreme Court while defending a retarded murderer from receiving the death penalty (good luck kid, your high minded lawyer just tweaked the nose of your last chance). Denny Crane added to the absurdity by ripping one during the proceedings. This show has truly left the cliff and is heading for the rocks below.  It reminds me when “MASH” was a great show, before everyone became good buddies and each episode delivered one pious sermon after another.

Today’s comedies need to use shock, sex, or something gross to get the laughs. They use everything but good writing. It’s just not that funny.*

Something happened the other night while watching TV. My kids looked at me very puzzled. When I asked what was the matter they both responded, “Dad, you are laughing out loud-you never do that when you watch TV.”

Now, I love to laugh but had to admit it doesn’t happen when watching comedies. What was I watching? The classic “Beverly Hillbillies.”

“The Beverly Hillbillies” is just laugh out loud funny, even to this day. What is great about the show is it never really makes fun of Jed and his kin. They are just good-hearted mountain folk that are in a culture clash in a strange land and trying to make sense of it all. They have great riches but never loose their center. That is, they never loose site of who they are in spite of a great reversal of fortune.

Those supposedly much smarter city slickers who try to swindle money from them always end up trying to escape from the Clampett’s overzealous generosity. The Clampetts never would think of giving money to someone when they could teach them how to plow, cook possum, or have some of Granny’s free doctor’n.

When working the Appalachia region of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, I found the folks there to be trusting, generous, and friendly.  So, the real story behind the show is the joke may have been on us city folk all along.

* Admittedly, I laugh out loud watching “The Simpsons” but, hopefully, the kids aren’t around to watch me, while I’m watching that.

Who has not been touched by the death of a pregnant mother and school administrator, her unborn baby, and her daughter? People overuse the word tragedy to describe many things. This truly was a tragedy. A verdict will soon tell us if it was murder. Maybe Mark Benson will get another chance.

Charity is not charity if you give with other people’s money, resources, or at other’s expense. Charity is giving of yourself, the money you have earned or the money and/or time you could spend on yourself but choose to give to improve the lives of others.

Compassion has a price, and I do not mean money. Do we automatically offer compassion because it is right or because it makes us feel and look noble? People often write “compassion checks” on someone else’ account and take the credit for being noble.

Apparently people wrote Mark Benson multiple “compassionate checks” long before he went out driving without a valid license. 

Who paid the price for this compassion?

Was it worth the cost?

Note: The laws in this state are too weak for multiple offenders and people who drive without a valid license. The judge did what he felt was fair but even the maximum sentence would not have prevented ths tragedy.