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across Wisconsin from Civic Media.
This is Up North News Radio.
Now, live from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Breitlo.
Well, hey there, Wisconsin.
Good morning.
It's 6 0 6 on this Tuesday morning, April 22nd, 2025.
It's another beautiful morning to have you here up north live from Lake Wissota from wherever you're listening across the Civic Media radio network on the app, on social media,
By podcast, thanks for starting your Tuesday right here.
I've got a question for you.
Have you heard about the lineup changes?
Probably rhetorical.
We've been talking about them nonstop for over a week here, but one last time, this is Up North News Radio, a six to eight AM program that tomorrow becomes a six to nine AM program and gets a new name.
as well, still part of Up North News, still part of Courier Newsroom, still in partnership with our friends here at the Civic Media Radio Network, just a few little tweaks here and there, and more of us, and more outlets, because as it turns out, not only starting today, are we on the Up North News Facebook page and the Up North News YouTube page and the Civic Media Facebook page, where now,
on the Civic Media YouTube page.
So one more option for joining us along the way from by radio or online.
You can also join us by phone or by text 855-75 Civic is the phone number 855-7524842 or you can use the Civic Media app to call us or to text us directly from that app or you can put a comment on YouTube.
or on Facebook.
We will see it here and maybe pop that up on screen.
Coming up on the program today, we will be talking to Sharita Booker, our social media manager.
about some of the more popular social media posts of the past week.
Christina Laurie will be here talking about some stories she works on for our newsletter.
Willi Adamus, the Brewer's former teammate, now foe.
They saw him for the first time as they opened up a series last night in San Francisco.
In our second hour, we'll talk to Hans Breitenmoser and a marathon county farmer who's been doing everything right.
you know, growing those crops, making sure that local food gets into local food pantries and on local school lunch tables.
It was supported by a program that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have now taken an axe to and that's going to hurt a lot of Wisconsin farmers.
So we'll be talking about that, Brittany Merleau's forecast and much more all on the way.
Speaking of Brittany's forecast for the state, she notes that there is warmer weather today, a warm front's moving into the state right now from west to east, but it's also bringing more chances for rain.
She also notes that rivers are rising, so take note of any local flood advisories or warnings.
So here's her forecast for today, cloudy scattered showers in the morning.
Some rumbles of thunder are possible in southern Wisconsin, highs in the low fifties up north to the mid sixties in the south, south wind at five to 10.
For tonight, partly cloudy, a small chance of showers in southern Wisconsin, lows up north in the upper thirties in the southern part of the state in the mid forties and a light southeasterly wind.
Bus stop temperatures at six o'clock.
You can definitely tell the warm front has started coming in to the western part of the state.
because it's 47 here on Lake Wissota, 47 in Amory, 45 in La Crosse, but it hasn't reached Hayward yet where it's 37.
Wausau's at 34 Rapids 37 Green Bay's at 40 Madison 38 and it's 35 in the Milwaukee area Where we find one Greg Bach and Tony saying on YouTube hope Greg feels better today Greg.
Good morning.
Do you feel better today?
I've got
enough
cold medicine in me to power a village
But all part of the plan this is all part of the plan to help you feel better yeah, but first to make you feel better we've got a
take your, we've got to drill into your sinuses and turn it into Mount St.
Helens.
Well, I was actually, what made me feel a little bit better yesterday was that I was frustrated at the fact I'm like, did I just pay a business to make me sick?
I found out somebody who had a similar procedure.
It's part of the healing process.
Part of the plan, man.
It's all part of the plan.
So I
just, I sucked it up.
I'm
taking my Tylenol like I was prescribed to do.
Did I throw a little dayquil in there for flavor to taste?
Yes, I did.
But because I can't, I got to be operating.
Got to be doing things.
We got Pat, we got a new lineup tomorrow.
We got new hours.
We got new things happening.
We got so much to do.
Yesterday was definitely yesterday was a very productive day getting all the there's so many little things behind the scenes.
I mean, just now I'm looking at the little slides that we put up on social media for like the commercial breaks and realizing
Oh, yeah, I made I made a main one, but I didn't make one for the commercial breaks, you know.
So, yeah, there's there's still things to do, but companies coming, companies coming six a.m.
tomorrow, whether we're ready or not.
So
it's like that thing where you're like ready to move.
You're like, oh, I think we're we're good.
And then you look in that room,
you're like, we haven't even packed up this room yet.
Oh, I I have a great story about that from a friend of mine who I I can't use the name, but it's a public figure was talking about as a kid.
As a kid his like one of his grandparents passed away and then the other one passed away So now they it was time to sell the old farmhouse And he talks about watching his his parents and his aunts and his uncles all going crazy to get the place ready because there was gonna be this auction
Yeah,
and so they had to get things cleared out.
Yeah, they worked so hard They got everything out it was getting near the end of the day and everybody was really relieved they had
done it.
And my friend says he spoke up in his little boy voice and goes, what about the attic?
And they all realized nobody had gone up to the attic in this farmhouse.
And they had to do that too.
And it was just like, and he felt like like they wanted to turn on him and go, why didn't you say something earlier?
But it was their job.
So when you
just look at your, you look at your family and go, just want to burn the barn down.
And that's
That's where we are right now.
I thought about that story a few times lately going, we're going to be all set.
And then at about 5 45 tomorrow morning, one of us is going to say, Hey, what about that thing?
Yeah.
We'll do it tomorrow.
Yep.
I had something similar only not as not as charming where like you.
I was getting ready to move out of my apartment.
And I had just gotten wracked with massive anxiety about moving and packing and all the things.
All the things.
And I
said, Hey mom, can you come over and help me just like, get me like, like, help me pack.
And she's like, absolutely come, come on over and, you know, I'll bring lunch and whatnot.
And she walked in the house and she goes, have you packed?
This was 48 hours before I had to move.
She goes, have you packed anything?
I went, no.
Oh, yeah.
My mother, Jacqueline Anbach, she is a woman of momentous patience.
And I tested it that day.
She just had this thing of like, boy, I'm really
Proud of my child right now.
And it's just yeah, we got it done.
Well, she got it done.
We got
it done.
But oh my
God, I never will happen again.
But yeah, I remember her walking in and realizing just how far behind I was.
Yeah, that's that's that's it.
But well, we're we're getting there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Bit by bit.
Yeah, we're gonna be the other thing we have.
The other thing we have tomorrow is a new clock.
Yeah.
And so I'm warning you all ahead of time.
That's a little behind the curtain stuff, but we've got new times that we have to hit for commercial breaks.
You won't notice a big difference, but for us, we have to, you know, you have to hit that right on time because, you know, seven, eight, nine stations all have to hit that commercial break at the same time.
So I've got, I've got this big old posted note above my computer screen right now with the new clock not to get fooled by it today, but be ready tomorrow.
So we're telling folks now, just in case suddenly we're talking to.
Boom the commercial break comes on right over us or something or I toss it to break at 19 past the hour and say we'll be right back and then there's this awkward silence and then Greg comes on and goes
You know, we moved it to 620.
We have one more minute
there,
Pat.
One more minute, Pat.
Oh, OK, OK.
Well, then I'll just fill it.
I'll fill it with some sports.
Like I'm going to do right now.
Talk about your bookshelf.
Talk
about your
bookshelf.
Yes.
Now talk about the Brewers instead.
They went out West.
The Giants beat the Brewers Monday night five to two in the open air of a four game series in San Francisco.
Game two is tonight.
Jose Quintana is on the mound for the Brewers tonight.
You can listen starting at 810 on some stations across the Civic Media radio network.
including the newest Brewer affiliate up north WBZH in Hayward WCQM and Park Falls stations in Richland Center Oshkosh and Racine as well.
The Milwaukee Bucks Game 2 of their playoff series in Indianapolis tonight that is on NBA TV.
Game 3 will be Friday in Milwaukee also on NBA TV.
If you want to watch the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs and then don't want to get NBA TV Well, you just have to wait till late Sunday night for game four in Milwaukee We've got a lot to cover with Sharita and with Christina.
So let me hit some of the news headlines real quick here.
I Could not help but notice something about The the president of the United States and who he chooses to defend and who he chooses to slam
There is a new report of a second text message chain involving Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth leaking classified information about impending US attacks.
And please stop trying to sugarcoat it.
If it's battle plans that haven't yet happened yet, it's classified information.
Please stop.
Stop with the parsing of what this may or may not be.
It's exactly what it is.
Was that the last straw for Donald Trump who says he always surrounds himself with the with the best people all the best people?
No, he defended him to the hilt at the White House Easter egg roll yesterday Saying that he wasn't going anywhere and yet this same president was slamming personally insulting Jerome Powell the head of the Federal Reserve System because Powell had the audacity to tell the truth that Donald Trump's trade war is causing global economic instability
But you see, Donald Trump can control Pete Hegseth, just not his text messaging.
He can't control Jerome Powell, who is an independent head of the Federal Reserve.
So watch carefully when somebody like a president shows you who they are, believe them in his choice to defend an incompetent defense secretary and slam somebody who has the audacity to point out the economic problems in their arguments.
But it leads to this other contradiction.
And the funny thing is, I think it started as an onion headline, because I did see it in the onion, but I've also seen other people making posts on the topic of the Second Amendment.
And it goes like this.
All these folks that said they needed guns, they needed lots of guns.
Well, that's to stand up against tyranny.
That's to stand up against the tyrannical government that could do unconstitutional things I mean if we didn't have our guns the government could like sweep people off the streets Without like a warrant or any kind of cause They could deport they could they could put you on a plane and ship you out of the car and without due process I mean, where's the law and order crowd for that?
For not having due process.
So we heard that's why we needed the gun We got to have all the guns to rise up against the government
And again, I like other people.
I'm not saying we want y'all to rise up with your guns right now.
We're just saying you're being mighty quiet about the kind of government that you think you need the guns for.
Unless, of course, it's, you know, just about killing.
We'll be back with more.
Sharita Booker tells us some of the more popular posts on Up North New Social Media feeds.
After this, I'm Pat Crichtlow.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
And now we're going to visit with Sharita Booker, our social media manager.
She's the person who at Up North News takes the things that come from me or Selena Heller or Christina Laurie or a lot of freelance writers or some of our national team and packages it all up so that you see it in a good order on Facebook and all of the other social media sites out there.
So it's a lot to juggle.
Sharita, how are you doing today?
today.
Said like somebody who juggles a lot.
That's exactly it.
So, uh, well, we won't take much of your time here, but I just want to, as always, this time every week, see what posts were, you know, striking a chord with folks.
And so let's start first with Monaco Brewing Company and for folks that aren't familiar, uh, you know, this is Kirk Bankstead's operation and, you know, he and
Manaqua have been
doing
battle for quite some time as he continues to be a nearly lone progressive voice up there in the north woods in some ways and sometimes he does it in some very shall we say passive aggressive ways and other others are much more outward and in this case it's the latest in his progressive line of brews so what's what's the latest brew that is coming out of Manaqua brewing?
And the back of the can explains why they created this new beer.
It says, we created Gulf of Mexico Mexican Lager for those in America who still have the courage to stand up to the bullies and respect a world order that's held together by a common belief in democratic ideals and the rule of law.
And some of the backstory, if you haven't already heard, in January, Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to rename the U.S.
portion of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
And this change was a part of a broader initiative titled Restoring Names That Honor America's Greatness.
So that post had more than 300 likes and more than 100 comments, which seems to have like mixed reviews.
Um, Chuck Reese said, wow, way to cut your customer based in half.
Pretty dumb idea jumping into the political world as, but like how that works.
And Erica Bevia said, the only time I'd ever agree with him.
And Dr. Jenna Liskins said, where can I get some?
I'd buy a case.
And Jenna, the beer was canned last week, so expect to see it in the next few weeks here.
There you go.
And to Chuck, by the way, every time Monaco Brewing Company does something like this, you see comments like this where they go, oh, wow, you're about to cheese off half of your customers.
No, no, no.
This is what Monaco Brewing Company has been from the get-go.
They are very proudly progressive.
And so this is right in their business model.
They're not looking to attract a group of folks that don't necessarily disagree or agree with their politics.
That's their choice.
We've talked about this with other businesses as well.
We're just telling you what these businesses are doing.
You make the decision whether you wanna buy their product or not and whether you agree with them or not.
Let's turn to our second of three stories that we're talking about this week and it is one of the many roadside attractions in Wisconsin.
This state has so many...
interesting roadside attractions.
There's Chattie Bell, the giant cow on Highway 10 going through Neilsville.
There's that great big musky that you'll find up in Hayward.
I mean, just all manner of things.
This one starts off by saying, have you ever been to a concrete park?
Tell us more about that.
yeah so we love helping y'all add to your bucket list so check this one out it's the concrete park located just off state highway 13 in phillips and the outdoor museum has more than 200 sculptures made with materials like wood, mink wire, cement and broken shards of glass now this was all created by northwood's logger turned self-taught artist fred smith between 1948 and 1964 and he wasn't able to read or write but he did have an artistic vision that continues to live on even after his passing in 1976 and thanks to
the Kohler Foundation who bought and restored each statue and gifted the land to Price County, it's totally free to check out.
And that post had more than 1000 likes.
Marion Lynch said, yes, and it is a wonderful place to stop.
I took my photography classes there on the way to Cooper Falls State Park when I taught at Flambeau.
I highly recommend it.
And Jenny Sussman said,
I've been there several times stopping on my way to things further up north.
It is very unusual on one of a kind of traction.
I have not seen this, which kind of surprises me.
I feel like I've been on every stretch of highway up north, but clearly must have missed it there somewhere along the line.
So yes, now the next time that I'm up in that part of the state, I'm going to be checking that out.
And I'm sure if you look around up north news's website, you'll see some of the other roadside attractions that we've talked about over time covered in our daily.
newsletter as well and you know again it just adds to it adds to the alert you can't just be looking at you know the driftless area and you know the beautiful rivers and everything sometimes you get the quirks to go along with it so that's that's the fun part of it now
If you're in the Madison area, you're going to see something completely different on the roads or near the roads.
And I, for one, am here to say that I salute my robot overlords in case they might be listening.
But Sherita, there are actual robots out there roaming the streets of Madison now.
And this is completely new to me and new to Pat.
We never heard of it.
But there's robots that deliver food to students rolling around the streets of Madison.
Dodging students and everything else and they use GPS and radar or even sonar to find their way
Um, they first showed up during the pandemic in 2020 and now they're just part of campus life.
These robots were actually built in Estonia and are run by a company out in San Francisco.
And if they ever get stuck at a busy crosswalk, a human can jump in and steer them remotely, I suppose.
I wanted to give a shout out to our UW intern, Henry Tecum, who posted that gem on our Tik Tok.
It is about the size of a Nesco, uh, one of those large, you know, broiler pressure cooker type things, uh, or a small wagon, however.
want to and it's got this little orange flag that sticks out off the top of it and it's on the wheels obviously and I mean it's it's cute as a button and I've seen these things on TV but I I did not realize they are actually out there now working delivering food and things around the Madison area.
I assume there's some kind of a secure way that you know only the customer can open it up and get their food out of there and I'm sure we'll see more of these.
I'm sure we'll see more delivery drones.
I mean I I
I get that, I'm trying not to sound too much like a funny daddy here, Sharita, but it's, it just, I think it takes a level of trust that you're gonna order food and a robot's gonna bring it and somebody's not gonna go, hey, free robot and puts it in their trunk or something.
I don't know, maybe I'm just
cynical about
and by the way there are more cities where you're also seeing the self-driving cars when I was in the Scottsdale area you saw a lot of those the uh what are they called Waymo's the taxis that have no driver and it just takes you around I am not ready for that yet
I'm not ready for the self-driving car.
I just know too much about how some of the other folks are on the road here.
But to see the cute little robot that's delivering food and all of these other stories that Sharita's talking about, head over to our social media websites, any social media platform search for Up North News or Up North News WI, and you'll find what Sharita's putting up there.
Thank you, Sharita, very much.
Appreciate it.
Thanks, Matt.
Back with more after this.
Hey, welcome back.
We are talking now to Christina Laurie as part of the uplift where we look at some of the uplifting stories that she follows posts on social media puts in our newsletter tells us all about day in and day out.
Christina, how are you?
I'm great.
How are you, Pat?
I'm good.
Thanks.
We've already talked about the Brewer's first game of four against the
San Francisco Giants last night, part of a 10 game road trip that they're out on where they saw a familiar face as they took on the Giants face.
I think a lot of fans still miss and still tell stories about getting to see William Domus again.
Yeah, all fans miss him.
I just
you know, I took a little trip down the memory lane knowing that we were going to play Willie Adamus again.
And I just wanted to share my personal favorite Willie story that I feel like did not get nearly enough attention when it happened before game at the end of last season.
Adamus was signing autographs when a teenage girl caught his attention because she was holding a neon yellow softball.
and you know he asked what's up I play baseball um it turns out this girl's name was Kennedy and the ball was special because it was the first home run that she'd ever hit and he of course was her favorite player so at first he thought like does she want me to sign this what's going on here but she gave him the ball and just
wanted him to have her first home run so she ended up signing for him and he kept it in his locker at the Brewer's ballpark and it made the move with him over to San Francisco as well.
That's
just a really nice full circle story and it shows you how humble will he is because afterwards reporters were all over the story and you know they're asking like you know what
How do you stay like this?
You know, he's not new to the majors anymore.
And he said he still feels like a kid when he gets the chance to play against some of the biggest names in the league.
He said he met Derek Jeter for the first time when he was 27 years old and completely fangirled up.
So it's nice to hear that no matter how many multi-million dollar contracts these players sign.
A lot of them they just love the game and I like players just like the rest of
us Well, and it's important not only in sports, but in everything when people go Oh, yeah, that's easy to do when you make a million dollars No, it's something we can all do and I know Christina We use the word joy a lot in the segment But if you're doing something that either brings you joy or if you can just find the joy
in the little things that you're doing, you know, for, for a living or for a hobby or for anything like that, you know, life, life gets a little easier.
We'd love to see that in athletes, you know, whether it's a Willi Adamus or, well, I mean, we, we've just had so many come through the area, Yanis right now with the Milwaukee Bucks that are just kind of infectious that way.
And you don't have to be like that.
But, you know,
We live in an era where we could really use a little bit more wonderment at what we're all getting to do in life sometimes.
Well and I've been hearing a lot of conversations going back to Adamus of people saying like oh dodged a bullet there he's only batting 200 so far this season with one home run like good thing we didn't spend a bunch of money on him.
I don't know about that.
I think that Adamus' biggest contributions to the team, much in the same way as Giannis or how Jordan Love appears to be leading the Packers.
There are just those quiet leaders who are doing everything right in the locker room too, so it's much more than just their on-court presence, their leaders off the field.
Yes.
And again, in a workplace, you know, sometimes the leaders aren't necessarily the ones who have the highest scores, the most sales or whatever the case may be.
Sometimes the leaders in a workplace, you know, it isn't about the statistics.
It's about the attitude that they bring, not just of themselves, but to everybody else.
So we wish them well, just, you know, not too well.
Especially this week
he personally can have a great three rest of the games of the series as long as this team doesn't
Yeah, that's that's exactly what it is and again a 10 tonight coverage begins across several civic media stations for game two of the Brewers versus the Giants Turning to some of the news that we've been covering and we did not have time to get to this yesterday with the Pope's passing but
It's reassuring to see this development when it comes to the Trump attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, whatever you want to call it, that the Big Ten schools are banding together
and saying, you know, an attack by Trump on one is an attack on academic freedom against us all, and that they're not all doing the, you know, every school for themselves, and boy, sure hope you're not, sure hope you're the next target from Trump instead of me.
There's much more strength than numbers, especially on something this important, Christian.
It's like the NATO of the Big Ten, so.
all 18 faculty senates that make up the conference's academic alliance which includes all the same schools of sports.
So this is actually a great asset that we added four extra schools this season because there are power numbers.
They've all created a mutual defense compact.
That's what they're calling it to fight against Trump's attacks on higher education.
So Rutgers actually started the plan by passing a resolution that asked university leaders to commit meaningful funding to a defense fund.
So basically what that means is that if any school is politically or legally threatened, that money will be used to provide resources to support that school and any other school.
So we're all helping each other.
University leaders also asked to make their legal counsel.
available to all schools and unfortunately this you know we're hoping that this was just like a last resort definitely won't need to use pie in the sky type of what if plan but it's looking like these scenarios really could play out we're seeing what's happening with Harvard Trump initially freezing 2.2 billion dollars in grants now word is leaking the Wall Street Journal reported on last night that
He's expected to cut another one billion dollars.
And I know I've seen the negative comments.
I'm trying to like both sides this and see what other people are saying.
I hear the comments saying that these schools are very rich.
Why are we giving so much money to colleges when we could be,
you know, doing
X, Y or Z?
This is so important for everyone regardless of whether or not
you ever went to any of these schools or went to college altogether, whether or not you even value education.
We all value different things.
Maybe school isn't your thing.
But these schools are responsible for so much more than what happens in the classroom.
They're the ones that are finding cures for diseases through their research programs.
They're the ones that are taking in people from other
You know countries all around the world there are students from more than 160 countries at the University of Wisconsin And then we're getting them here in the United States.
We're getting their ideas They're turning them into these potentially life-saving whether it's inventions or cures or you know, whatever it is and then We're getting that like for free
as part of just welcoming them to our colleges.
So it's just crazy that these attacks are happening and it really shows how undereducated our current leaders are.
Christina, imagine the situation.
You go into Monards and when you get to the cash register, you just keep walking and wave at the clerk and go, oh no, no, no.
The Monard family has enough money.
They don't need any of mine.
That's not what this is about.
This is transactional.
These institutions are not getting money out of the goodness of Uncle Sam's heart.
They're paying for things, mostly research, but also all kinds of other services that these universities provide.
So the notion that this was ever some kind of handout is foolish.
Don't allow people like that to pull the wool over your eyes.
Look at the transactional nature of what some of the
most prestigious research universities in the world, located right here in the United States, are offering.
The same goes for the U lines.
You're going to buy stuff from them and go, well, they're billionaires and they give money to all these Republicans.
They don't need my money.
That doesn't work that way.
If you want the transaction, you pay the funds.
And yet Trump is over here saying, well,
you guys got your own money, you don't need this because you're not following what is in my opinion, you know, this racist dictate that you are not going to teach history to its fullest and its most fact based.
And you're, you're still insisting on diversity, equity, inclusion, when we want something, you know, more like sanctioned, you know, discrimination.
So good on all of these big 10.
campuses and the others that are finally standing up.
Harvard filing its own lawsuit yesterday against the Trump administration.
This is exactly what you need is to stand up to a bully, whether it's in the playground at an elementary school or at a university.
And also a lot of people are saying, you know, but what about all the endowments?
Harvard has so much money.
A lot of that money, and this is true for all schools,
is not accessible.
It's pledged money.
So, you know, for example, Ab Nicholas, the great Badger basketball player, he became a really successful businessman in his life.
He passed away about eight-ish years ago, and he left behind the rest of his fortune for the University of Wisconsin to use for different scholarship programs.
But it's earmarked for that.
So they can't, you know, if the
if Trump would cut UW's budget they can't just say hey okay like we're gonna cut back on these scholarships and instead we're gonna use this money to fund this life-saving research because obviously that should take priority they can't use his money that way and that's the
problem that a lot of schools, including Harvard, are running into.
Right.
Again, don't fall for the diversion.
Let's wrap things up here as we get closer to the end of the school year and some places are already talking about their commencement speakers who they're looking forward to.
I don't know if you have any good stories like that, but the University of Wisconsin, UW-Madison especially, is known for attracting some pretty high-profile, talented speakers to talk to those graduates.
And
they've had a lot of high-profile speakers that are right off our alley pat.
They've had David Muir, they've had Katie Couric, Tammy Baldwin, of course, JJ Watts was super memorable.
He actually wanted to put a beer under every graduate's chair, and the school rejected that.
for probably obvious reasons.
But then he even followed it up.
He was like, can I give them a coupon to get a free beer at the union?
The school also vetoed that.
But just know, if JJ Watt was your graduation speaker, he did want to buy you a beer.
This year's graduation speaker is kind of a mismatch of both sports and news world.
It's Wall Street Journal humorous Jason Gay.
You might not recognize his name, but you've probably read one of his columns.
He's been working for the Wall Street Journal since 2009, but his pieces have also appeared in GQ, Rolling Stone, New York Observer, the Boston Phoenix.
He graduated from school back in 92, and his pieces are just really funny in a natural, not forced way.
He even joked when he was given this.
honor, obviously, to deliver the commencement address that he always, he took a second to think of whether or not he should accept.
And he said, I still ask myself before every big decision, what would Barry Alvarez do?
So that gives you a little taste of what you can probably expect from his speech.
Absolutely.
Did you have any, any celebrities or big deals talk to you at high school or graduation or high school or college graduation?
did not and I'm really bummed because I went to the University of Illinois and that's another big big 10 school and I got kind I mean I don't want to call her a no-name but I can't even remember her
name
he was
it
was what was so fascinating about it was so the University of Illinois the year I graduated had just announced that they were gonna start a medical school they never had one yet so it was someone from the medical field but
someone from the medical field giving a commencement address to a class that Doesn't have anyone majoring in anything related to medicine
wasn't an option for us Just didn't really like I didn't understand the connection there.
However, I
was I was bomb.
So I graduated a year early from school and The following year there was a giant
rumor that actually turned out like he was actually considering it, that President Obama was going to give the commencement address at the University of Illinois.
And I was going to be really mad if I graduated early and missed that one.
So I'm glad that one didn't happen.
Thankfully, just a rumor this time around.
Overachiever getting done with school a year ahead of time, Christina Laurie puts together our daily newsletter as well.
Catch it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Christina, thank you so much.
Have a great day.
Thanks for having me Pat.
We'll be back with more after
this.
You're up north.
This is a clip from Saturday Night Live from this day in 1978.
It is the first appearance of the Blues Brothers on Saturday Night Live, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd.
And it was only the second most popular song and historical note on what was definitely a historic episode of Saturday Night Live in today's history lesson.
Pat Cripple here, Greg Bach over there.
Did we chase off Dan Hagen from NewsWatch 12?
Maybe we made just too many references to things he doesn't know that he's like, you know what?
These codgers have nothing for me.
They're old.
Don't forget that I wasn't here.
So I don't know, Dan, if you're, if you're catching this later, we miss you, buddy.
Yeah.
Um, but you're too young to know, he said, going forward again, that on this very same show on April 22nd, 1978,
There wasn't just the Blues Brothers.
What?
There was also the guy at the height of his comedy, his stand-up comedy phase of his life.
Yeah.
Steve Martin did this song, which was on the charts at the time.
Man,
you guys in the late 70s were
weird.
We had fun.
Yeah, you did.
It was a good time to be a pre-team.
We couldn't get in trouble, but we could enjoy all the fun of the cultural references.
Yeah.
I mean, I watch these growing up.
I realize now how much SNL played a part in my life because I would watch those best of episodes that would come out.
They would play best of SNL at 5.30 in the morning.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And I would wake up early because I just did.
And they'd play them.
It was great.
I'd watch all these first five season
Huge like supercuts.
Hmm.
Trying to think 530 in the morning.
Interesting programming choice.
It was the 80s.
They had a lot of content to fill 23 channels.
Yeah.
23 channels, right?
Happy birthday to another musical legend of the 1970s.
One Peter Frampton is 75 years old today.
Do you?
Do you?
Do you feel like I do?
And this is the one where later on, for like 10 minutes in the middle of the song, were you the one telling us about the little
pipe that he puts in his mouth and the voice controls the guitar.
The talk box.
Oh, yes.
It's a rubber, a rubber hose that goes in your mouth.
And you just, if I play like a, it just goes.
It's so fun, but it's so disgusting, by the way, because you have to
clean that too.
Rubber hose.
It's brought out to you by Vinnie Barberino.
Yeah.
Now there's 70s reference kids.
More birthdays for today.
Jack Nicholson.
is 88 years old today.
I didn't realize he and he and the Pope, the late Pope were so close in age.
Keeping them away from JD Vance.
All right.
You know, I wasn't going to go there, but you know what?
Let's let's pause for a moment.
I just want to pause for a moment and say that there's a little joke here and there about JD Vance on the day before.
Forget the joke.
If let's say Kamala Harris.
Had met with the Pope and he died the next day.
Do you know what conservative, conservative media would be insane?
There'd be gunmen on every grassy knoll.
The conspiracies would be so deep.
Just, I'm just pointing that out.
Sherry Shepherd is 58 years old today.
Machine Gun Kelly is 35 years old today.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
On this day in 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated thanks to Gaylord Nelson,
the man
from Clear Lake, Wisconsin.
On this day in 1966, a new record was released by a group called The Trogs.
And I'm a child of the 80s.
This song only has one meaning for me.
Charlie Sheen coming out of the bullpen.
Yep.
And to the Carouda County Stadium going wild.
Still get...
Goosebumps when they play in that scene, because I'm like, oh, wow, things coming.
It's always nice when an actor like owns the role, fills the role.
We all know Charlie Sheen, he's had his moment, shall we say?
Yeah, yeah.
But you still buy him as Ricky Vaughn coming out of that bullpen in that moment.
Absolutely, absolutely.
On this day in 1989, Madonna's Like a Prayer was both the number one single and the number one album.
Happy birthday to probably one of the great utility players of the Rock era.
Paul Carrick is 74 years old today.
Like he just was everywhere.
I think I honestly, yeah, you're right.
Utility player.
That is amazing.
He has so many hits with so many bands
with so many different bands.
He had he was the lead singer for Ace.
for the song How Long Has This Been Going On, 1975.
By 1981, he was part of Squeeze, and you know him from the song Tempted by the Fruit of Another.
In the mid-80s, he was with Mike and the Mechanics.
You hear him singing Silent Running and The Living Years and some of their other hits, and then he had solo hits like this one in 1988.
Just
awesome.
And Mike and the Mechanics very, very slept on
Genesis Universe Band, like great pop songs that gave Phil Collins solo records a run for their money.
Without a doubt.
Yes.
So happy birthday to Paul Kerrick.
On this board in this day, let me do the math here.
89 years ago, Glenn, Glenn Campbell passed away in 2017.
Yes, Glenn Campbell, Pat.
Glenn Campbell.
Yeah, you know what we should remind Brittany of that after the news
I think it's important for her to know about these things.
Yes Well, we'll tell her about this this man who was raised in poverty in Oklahoma the 7th of 12 children eventually made his way to Los Angeles in 1960 became a sought-after session musician and then was on the country charts the pop charts had his own variety TV show for a time and
He also has the official theme song to Line Man Appreciation Week, which was last week, which we'll remind Brittany of.
And again, why Brittany?
We don't know.
It just kind of came out that way.
This is Work Zone Safety Week.
Please be careful.
My zone
is safe.
Yes, have a safe work zone wherever you're doing your driving.
More of Up North News Radio coming up after.
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