Sweet Caroline (Hour 1)

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.

Well, hey there, Wisconsin, good morning.

It's Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025.

6.06 in the morning, another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake Wissota, from wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network.

or watching us on social media, catching us by podcast, all the other ways to get here.

We appreciate you starting your day right here.

I got a question for you.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

You know, the one that I mean, anybody can listen to whatever is currently, you know, popular, what are the big hits right now?

But what about those things that you tend to listen to, you know, on your own?

And it could be a wide range of things.

We'll go into what they all are all could be in just a minute here.

But specifically, I'm going to bring up Neil Diamond because of a movie that's going to be opening soon.

A Wisconsin based movie that might just become the feel good film of the holiday season.

We're going to talk about how actor Hugh Jackman came to town for the premiere of Song Song Blue

telling the story of a Milwaukee couple whose Neil Diamond tribute band was a bit of a local sensation back in the 80s and 90s and yesterday Hugh Jackman also took a shift at a cop's frozen custard stand yesterday scooping custard for customers as part of the promotional tie-in for the movie and let me tell you for somebody whose mom raised him on a steady diet of Neil Diamond tunes

I am perfectly positioned to ask about your own guilty pleasures because for all those years, I'd be like, mom, turn that off, mom, ah, Neil Diamond sucks, turn it off.

Now I know the words to every song and about half of them, I'll turn up.

Some will still turn away from, but it's just that little, it's become a little guilty pleasure, I guess.

And look, you have your own.

It could be the carpenters, it could be Abba,

It could be Nickelback.

What's the other one?

Parker Olson's producing this little shindig down in Madison Studio A2.

Coldplay.

That would be a modern day one, I think.

People don't want to admit they listened to Nickelback or Coldplay right now.

I'll admit

I

listened to a little Nickelback.

I will not admit that I listened to Coldplay because I don't listen to Coldplay.

All

right.

Well, if you say so, if you say so.

Anyway, we would like to know your musical guilty pleasure at 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.

Use the Civic Media app if you wish to call us or text us.

Or you could have voice note of you singing a little bit of your favorite guilty pleasure tune.

You could

sing a little

sweet Caroline if you're a Neil Diamond fan.

And time is just right so that, you know, Parker and I have to go.

Bum, bum, bum.

We could do that, you know.

8-5-5, 7-5 Civic.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

Now you've had some time to think about it.

You got one that's a little bit older that maybe your mom still plays around the house.

And you go, I used to hate that, but I guess it's kind of grown on me now.

I can't think of.

older stuff necessarily.

I do listen to a lot of country music, which is something that has kicked in recently.

That's actually on my list here is that might be people who want to be rockers.

And but, you know, behind the scenes there, they got a little like classic country with a little bit of a twang, you know,

yeah,

maybe it could be just something that you haven't gotten over it.

You're still playing it.

It could be 90s, you know, Shania Twain or something like that.

Yeah.

See, I had a couple of other examples I wanted to bring up here.

Oh, like, you know, for somebody like me that raised daughters.

Sure.

Look, I've

got a

lot of pop music.

You can't call me a Spice Girls fan, but there are definitely a couple of songs where I turn them up.

They remind me of, you know, these two little girls dancing around the house, you know, saying, stop right now.

Thank you very much.

You know, I can still see them and I tease them about it now that they're in their mid 30s.

No, dad.

although sometimes they'll still do the dance for us as well.

So that's cool.

85575 Civic 8557524842 or send us a text or put something in the comment section.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?

And I just thought it was cool that Hugh Jackman came out to, you know, scoop some custard and be part of, you know, the promotion for song sung blue.

which is a story about this couple in the 80s and 90s.

And they the husband is has passed away now.

The wife is still with us.

And there was a documentary that was done about them about, you know, they were rather, I don't know, I never saw the word in the article, but I'll say kitschy, you know, and

people would go see them at Summerfest or at the Wisconsin State Fair and so it was Claire and Mike Sardina were their names and Mike passed away in 2006 after a head injury, but they were kind of local, you know,

Local artists of note.

I don't know if local legend is the right way to put it But one time, you know Pearl Jam invited them up on stage to sing a Neil Diamond song up there the Wisconsin area music industry association The Whammy's recognized them with a lifetime achievement award and so now Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are playing the couple

in the movie Song Song Blue about the early days of getting this tribute band put together and all the drama and the comedy that comes along with it and it's going to open up on Christmas Day and so the the premiere the hometown premiere was last night in Milwaukee which is what brought Hugh Jackman in and he could not have been

kinder and more of a, you know, of a great sport, talking to people, taking pictures with fans who came to cops, saying that he really believes that Kate Hudson could be an Oscar contention for this movie, and said that Kate Hudson, she studied for the role, I guess she's what they call a method actor.

She gets immersed in the role and she's even like that off camera to really, so she studied for the part apparently at the Morris Cheese Castle.

down by Kenosha, just across the line from Chicago there, and spent a lot of time preparing there.

Yeah, sure.

Where else would you study?

Yeah.

Well, if you're, you know, if you want to come into Wisconsin, but you know, can't get too far away from the big city of Chicago, you go to the Mars Cheese Castle.

I liked as well that Hugh Jackman made a...

made a crack.

Well, first off, he made a crack about Ryan Reynolds because of two of them have a bit of a, you know, a tongue-in-cheek rivalry going.

Sure.

And when Hugh Jackman made a comment about Wisconsin Badgers, he's like, Badger, isn't that like a Wolverine?

See what he did there?

It's an X-Men thing, if you're not familiar with it, anyway.

So there's, speaking of Bucky's and Badgers, did you see the Bucky documentary?

that premiered on Wisconsin public television.

Oh, I forgot it was last night.

It was last night.

Yes.

I've been watching the Ken Burns American Revolution documentary series.

I have not seen that yet, but I have seen the the right wing blowback from it.

And it's like, Oh, they're they're making the founding fathers, you know, these people that they've deified making them look like

I don't know what human beings.

Yeah, no, this is the problem with American history is we really like to blow out a proportion.

How awesome our stuff is our stuff.

Yes, the American idea is obviously a very, very, very, very revolutionary thing.

And it should be celebrated.

However.

They

owned people.

That's not cool.

They did bad things.

They did bad things to their spouses, to their kids.

Yeah, it's.

It's not perfect and any attempts to say otherwise, you know, need to be rewarded with a metaphorical swift kick in the butt.

I was on with Jane and Greg on their show yesterday and they brought up the topic of this member of Congress who I guess is originally from Columbia, became a citizen.

And now wants to end dual citizenship.

says you should you should simply be devoted to America and America only and those are the people that I would like most to deport because if you can't appreciate you know the human nature of of all of us around the globe that we can be proud of where we're from but not to the exclusion of others well then I don't want to know you know I

feel like people need to understand how complex the world and people are

Yes.

And that would send us a

long ways.

And if you can't acknowledge, you know, the faults from time to time, like, you know, presidents who commit war crimes, well, then, you know, as Tony would say here on YouTube, some would say exceptional idea, but let's just forget how they actually acted.

Right.

There's actions versus ideas.

And he quickly jumps on there with a follow up comment.

It's not America.

It's Merca.

And that's it.

It's the people who are like Merca that that

that bother me most of all.

And actually, we're going to get into the whole woke-ism thing a little later on in today's history lesson about the holidays as well.

Roger puts up on Facebook, back to our musical Guilty Pleasures.

My music to relax to is Jim Reeves.

His style was as laid back as Sinatra's.

And see, I can't call Frank Sinatra a guilty pleasure, because I mean, I'm just right out there.

I've listened to, you know, Sinatra a lot.

I don't think that.

For anybody, I don't think Sinatra should qualify as a guilty pleasure.

No, no,

I think he was too good for that.

Yeah, that's that's that's a very good way to put it.

So eight five five seven five civic, we'd love to know your musical guilty pleasure as well.

If it and if it's Neil Diamond, you know, that's perfectly fine.

Then then we got to know your favorite song.

You know, what is it that, you know, got you hooked on him.

So that's all ahead of that.

Christmas Day premiere of Song Sung Blue.

Let's do a little sports here simply because at just about 6.17 it's time to engage in some conspiracies.

Oh boy.

Yanis Atkupo has scrubbed his social media account of most mentions of the Milwaukee Bucks.

leaving up primarily images of championships that were won as of Tuesday on Instagram, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The only photos of himself in a Bucks uniform were from the NBA Cup championship in 2024 and the NBA title in 2021.

On X, he scrubbed all posts following the 2021 championship.

The Bucks are nine and 13 and he hasn't been part of a Bucks team this bad since early in his career.

The Bucks are home tonight versus Detroit.

So, of course, that's got tongues wagging that Giannis wants wants to be traded.

He's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It, it, it stokes the fires.

Personally, I just think it's, it's a motivating factor, like kind of a reminder to the people, you know, I could leave.

So how about y'all step it up?

So I see it more as a, not so much a threat as a motivating factor, but I could be wrong.

Maybe, maybe we will get some big announcement.

You never know.

Maybe.

I don't know.

I didn't, I don't know how to read that honestly.

That is, that does bring me more concern than anything else that I've heard, because that's like an actual thing that Yanis did.

And then the question is, who did it?

He's a busy NBA player.

You know, did he say to one of his people, I need you to go through my thousands of posts, going back five years and erase everything of me in a Bucks uniform.

That's, that's not the kind of, you know,

thing that you do.

You do a couple of things while you're lying in bed, doom scrolling, but you don't do something that deep.

I don't think without some kind of intention.

Yeah, I do.

I don't know if you're right, but I like your take about trying to motivate people.

It feels kind of

MJ ask to

me.

Yes, it does and hey, I hope it works Meanwhile, there's college basketball tonight badger men's basketball team taking on Northwestern Coverage is going to begin at 730 on several stations across the civic media radio network head over to civicmedia.us to learn more and then there is the The Packers Bears games plural now another one has been flexed.

We've got this weekend's one that has already been flexed from noon to 325

The two teams are also going to play less than two weeks later, and that game on Saturday, December 20th in Chicago is now a primetime game kickoff set for 7.20.

And of course, you can see the next Packers Bears game coming up Sunday afternoon.

Coverage begins at 1 p.m.

From the heart of America's Up North live from Lake Wissota.

Thanks for making this the place to spend part of your mornings.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Coming up on the program today, we'll be talking to pediatrician Dr. Kelly Snooks.

There's been a lot of misinformation running around about Tylenol and kids and sadly, that misinformation is coming from people in high places, people who should know better, but they don't.

their conspiracy theorists and other tinfoil hat wearers and so Dr. Kelly Snooks will be along to set us straight on that and about flu shots as well and some other infant ailments when we visit with her along about 8.35 this morning.

Also, coming up on the program today, we will have Allie Bordeaux, our newsletter editor here at Up North News, talking to us more about what she's got in the newsletter that you can sign up for over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

We've got Chris Handbook Boyle coming in from the Wisconsin Public Education Network.

As we talk more about the spread of local efforts to get

transparency on your property tax bills about the real cost of the voucher school program, which legislators have been keeping under wraps from taxpayers for many years.

And as people see the price tag rise, they realize that not nearly enough other people know about this and should see it.

Again, our question of the day.

What is your musical guilty pleasure 8 5 5 7 5 civic I mentioned Frank Sinatra to which Tony apparently must be a Sinatra devotee as well because he says have you got Sinatra under your skin?

Does he make you feel young at heart?

I see what he's doing there.

He also says that Chris was up in Ashland talking about taxpayer transparency on

property tax bills about voucher schools.

And so Chris is very well traveled that way.

And we'll look forward to finding out what all that she's been up to.

Now, Parker reminds me that we we kind of got off the tracks real quick there when I brought up the the Bucky documentary and then we got into Ken Burns and, you know, politically correct, you know, wokeness about the founding fathers, because they're humans.

But getting back to the Bucky documentary.

I saw what I wanted to see, which was kind of more of the history of it.

You know, how did it get its start?

And I don't want to give much away.

I just thought it was extremely interesting.

You know, you start with the history of, you know, why we use the word badgers.

And it wasn't always about the animal, but about some of the early settlers to Wisconsin and their occupation.

But then, of course, you had the football team getting its start in what was it, 1889.

And a few years after that, they started trying to do more with the Badger, including bringing live Badgers to games.

I was going to say, I know that that happened.

It turned out to be ill-advised.

And so they went the mascot routes.

And it was great to see the history behind it.

I have to admit that then at that point, it really was more of kind of an infomercial for

you know, for the UW and for Bucky and for everything else, there, there wasn't a, a storyline, you know, an arc necessarily beyond that.

So I kind of saw what I wanted to see in the first half hour, which was followed by a pledge break that lasted about two hours, it felt like, and then they got back to the next part of it.

And I was, I was pretty okay after that.

So I do recommend it, at least for the history of it, if nothing else.

So yeah, so

Oh, there will be opportunities for you to especially pledge a certain amount and you'll get the DVD or whatever it is that they do now.

So yeah.

Let's see.

Yesterday, there was another good old fashioned Trump cabinet meeting complete with another good old fashioned garbage racist rant and all kinds of bootlicking from the cabinet members as they went around the table.

And

There was the effort to try to fact-check this okay And Daniel Dale who was the longtime fact-checker for the Washington Post took on the assignment and God loved them for it And so maybe we'll get through a few of those but it's worth noting that the night before Trump was up most of the night rage tweeting the president of the United States was up most of the night rage tweeting again garbage

and then falling asleep during this two and a half hour cabinet meeting, which was solely there so that people could prostrate themselves before the king.

They talk about how wonderful he is.

At one point, Christine Ohm saying, we haven't had a hurricane yet.

You've kept the hurricanes away, which I know was a joke, but the obsequiousness, I really, really, really do expect at some point, even if it's half joking, the words dear leader are going to slip out of somebody's lips here.

But when Trump wasn't falling to sleep, he was saying just some disgusting things.

I'm going to play a sample of it, not that he needs the oxygen, but in case you think I might be exaggerating a little bit.

When you hear him talk about people from Somalia, I want you to know that people said these same things about your great grandparents, wherever they came from, Italy, Ireland, Laos, wherever.

And it's a sad, ugly streak.

in American culture.

It's something that's always been a part of us, but what else should be a part of us is standing up to this kind of garbage like this.

We'll play a little bit of it and then I'll just interrupt it midway.

I'm understanding and you're going to look at that.

I hear they ripped off some millions, ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions every year.

Billions of dollars.

Can you pause that right there?

Let's let's pause that just to say he's talking about in Minnesota There's a problem with some government programs and money that's been embezzled.

All right Are you really gonna tell me there hasn't been embezzlement of programs in other places by I don't know white dudes You're gonna try to tell me that the people you rub elbows with haven't been ripping off taxpayers as well I wonder what could be different about them.

Anyway, let's play on and they contribute nothing

The welfare is like 88%

They contribute nothing.

I don't want them in our country.

I'll be honest with you.

Somebody would say, oh, that's not politically correct.

I don't care.

I don't want them in our country.

Their country is no good for a reason.

Their country stinks.

And we don't want them in our country.

I could say that about other countries, too.

All right.

He goes on and on at length.

But again, this is a tale as old as time in this country, that people in power and people who are a little too full of themselves or victimhood

just make us look bad around the world.

And thankfully, I'd like to think most of us are still better than that.

Hey, speaking of woke well, let's talk about the famous Christmas cartoon in today's history lesson, you know, the one where Santa's a jerk and the reindeer bullies.

That's up next.

I'm Pat Crite low, you're up north.

It's time once again for today's history lesson on mornings with Pat

Franco.

Well, welcome to this happy place.

Welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles.

That's one small step for man.

Well, I'm not a crook.

You believe in miracles yet?

You know, this depression is going to be so great.

We'll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.

That's going to be fun.

Once again, it is time to take another revealing peek back into history.

That, of course, is

Burl Ives, giving us Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

The animated TV special by that same name premiered on CBS on this day in 1964.

with burlives as the voice of Sam the snowman and of course there was what Bernie who wanted to be a dentist and Rudolph's girlfriend Clarice and Yukon Cornelius and all of these other characters a beloved TV special that you watch year after year after year until it slowly dawns on you.

Santa's kind of a jerk and the reindeer dads are bullies.

What do

you mean?

Watch it.

Watch it again now and go, yeah.

Santa's kind of a jerk there.

They're all about the exclusion of people who aren't just like them.

You've got a red nose.

Oh, you've got this disability?

No, sorry.

We don't want you in our reindeer games.

But, Pat, it's a story of understanding that they're different and that Rudolph can contribute.

That's

the whole

point.

Not?

not until they exclude him and then the way they really need him.

It isn't until he's functional that they're suddenly all welcoming again.

Well, you know.

You know.

And this is how when I hear, I hear people right now, their hair is on fire, but this is that kind of woke-ism we're talking about.

Then maybe look at yourself and see if you've been a jerk or a bully maybe once too often.

All right.

On this day in 1994, Adam Sandler performed a holiday song for the first time on the Weekend Update segment of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

This

is one of those examples where you're watching Saturday Night Live and you don't know sometimes which skits are going to have staying power.

Sometimes you see something like the cowbell one.

Yeah.

And you think, all right, that's pretty good.

Others, you think they've come and gone, but then you see the clip again and again and again.

That was definitely the first time I'm watching Adam Sandler do this.

I'm going, okay, all right, that's kind of creative.

We're still talking about it 31 years later.

There you go.

Because who had written the Hanukkah song prior to now?

Adam Sandler did this day in 1994.

Also on that same day 1994 Sony released the very first PlayStation Which you were telling me you have right or you've used PlayStation 5.

Is that the current one?

Um PlayStation 5 is the current one.

I have a ps4 pro

Oh a 4 pro but not a 5.

Oh,

okay.

Well

Well just remember just remember Santa's listening, you know, yes, but this

little elf I don't think needs a

Yes, five to be perfectly honest with you.

That seems like it'll result in bad

things.

OK, that sounds fine.

Let's see.

Businesses were a lot different back in the day.

There was Pillsbury Company, for example, and Charles Pillsbury, the businessman who founded the Pillsbury Company with all those good foods and the little pop and fresh guy was born this day in 1842.

Happy 76th birthday to singer Mickey Thomas.

Now there are some of you and I would have been one of them until a few years ago who would have been like That's not Mickey Thomas.

That's Elvin Bishop.

That's how it was always advertised as Elvin bishops fooled around and fell in love No, this is one of those things kind of like Santana, you know where or Quincy Jones Where they wrote the song and their name is on it, but somebody else does the singing so Elvin Bishop wrote the song

But this was Mickey Thomas just prior to replacing Marty Ballin in Jefferson Starship.

So people go, wait, Jefferson Starship had two lead singers?

Yes.

Marty Ballin gave us songs like Miracles and With Your Love, and then started the Mickey Thomas era, which gave us Sarah and the Unfortunate We Built This City.

And Mickey Thomas turns 76 years old today.

Actress Daryl Hannah is 65 years old today.

Born the same day, Julianne Moore is also 65, so happy senior citizen day to those two.

Amanda Seifried is 40 years old today.

Singer Andy Grammer is 42.

Hector

Brendan Frazier is 57 years old today.

Happy birthday to Tiffany Haddish.

See she is 46 today.

She is funny.

I like Tiffany Haddish Anna Chomsky is 45 Montell Jordan is 54 years old today Can somebody correct me Montell Jordan one hit wonder anything other than this how we do it.

I know nothing else

Yeah,

yeah

I think you're on to something here,

okay?

Tony wants to back it by this the ps5 is $500 Ridiculous

that's all right.

I believe it.

I don't know that's cheaper than I thought actually

I was gonna say with iPhones costing like a thousand bucks I would have thought it was more

yeah, it's been like a couple two years now I guess for

PS5

so I guess the price would have gone down since

And

about Elvin Bishop and Mickey Thomas in the song lyric he must have been through about a million girls Tony says he really should see a doctor for a checkup.

Yes, I agree on this day in 2017 LL Cool J became the youngest person at age 49 to receive a Kennedy Center honor and the first rapper to do so on this day in 1800 the presidential election had ended in a tie the electoral college

cast their votes for president and vice president between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

So the election was thrown to the House of Representatives, which deadlocked on 35 ballots, then finally on the 36 ballot.

Alexander Hamilton threw his support to Jefferson over Burr, and Jefferson became the third president of the United States, and we got some extra lyrics to the Hamilton musical as a

result.

We thank Lin-Manuel Miranda.

We thank you very much for teaching

us

all of this.

So we actually knew a little about this election before Pat started talking about it today.

Yes, we did.

Yeah, see?

Thank you, Lin.

On this day in 1967, the first heart transplant on a human where the patient lived and regained consciousness.

It was only for about 18 days.

Back in 1967, they couldn't control the pneumonia and a weakened immune system.

But still, it was the first time that somebody had successfully received a new heart and regained consciousness without the heart needing electrical stimulation.

It paved the way for countless lives saved and extended since that time.

Let us see what's on today's National Day Calendar from Parker.

It is Cookie Cutter Month, Pat.

Cookie Cutter Month.

Yes, I don't think it quite qualifies to need an entire month, but a month is

what we have last.

It is the only month that anybody uses Cookie Cutters is what you're saying.

This is true.

It's in part because, I mean, a lot of people, and I know some people still do it, but fewer people than ever throughout the course of the year,

will make you know like sugar cookies and different cookie cutters and they weren't just the Christmas type there used to be all kinds of different cookie cutters you could get and now it's just primarily a holiday thing.

Pat, do you have a favorite cookie cutter?

The closest thing I have to a cookie cutter I don't even know if it's really a cookie cutter but you know it's in the shape of Wisconsin.

Oh,

okay.

So

it used to be when I when I made my my my chippewauffles.

Sure.

I would sometimes use that batter and make a little chippewauffle in the shape of Wisconsin.

That's

pretty clever.

That's because I love Wisconsin that much.

That's what that's what I do.

So happy cookie cutter month to to those of you and there are still some I've got a good friend who does the you know

one weekend during the holiday season, like everybody is in the kitchen rolling out cookies and decorating them and or gingerbread houses and everything.

So by all means do enjoy it.

All right.

We have let's oh, so you know, Tony gets at our cookie cutters transitioned to play dough cutters.

Make sure you wash those off, Tony.

Uh, yeah.

And I mean, transitioned.

I don't know.

Sounds like it needs some kind of, you know, gender therapy thing, you know, careful Tony, they'll be, they're listening out there.

Trust me, they're in the comment sections.

What else we got for the days and the months and the weeks?

National candle day.

National candle day?

Yes.

National candle day.

You're a big

candle person.

Here

you go.

If you're a candle person, is that your way of saying that very few young men in their 20s, do you own any candles whatsoever?

I cannot say that I do.

I think a couple of my roommates did though, I think.

I'm not sure they bought them themselves.

However,

they

did have them in their possession via mother or

girlfriend.

Yeah, I mean, we've got a lot here now.

I mean, you live in a home for 30 years and you acquire a bunch.

I got a bunch from a Door County candle company.

I've pointed to the one on the shelf behind me about Ukraine.

But there's also a warm apple pie candle that is nice to light up every now and then, especially if you've burned dinner or something like that.

Yeah, I

just, I just remembered, Pat.

Oh boy.

All right.

One of my buddies has been a huge fan of Josh Allen since he got into the NFL.

Okay a friend of his it might have been his girlfriend.

I don't remember got him a Josh Allen scented candle And I still don't know what that means

I don't I don't want to know either Tony's got a couple here.

He says I have a candle that's old book smell It was a present from my wife and she also got me a beagle can candle a beagle candle, which is also a weird smell

Yeah,

which now now I want to know because we talk about artificial flavorings all the time How do they get?

Things to smell the way that they do which I know is just basic chemistry.

I'm sure but yeah What is it that they do to get a candle to smell like an old book or Josh Allen as the case may be There's a whole Gwyneth Paltrow thing that we're not gonna get into here on the radio But yeah, Josh Allen Tony writes does it smell like sweat?

I suppose but like

in a good way or like in a, I can't get out of this locker room fast enough.

It's so rank in here kind of way.

I don't remember ever smelling

it.

So okay, that's for better or for worse.

Okay.

So happy national candle day, whatever your favorite candles happen to smell like.

What else we got on the calendar is also national

coats and toys for kids day

coats and toys for kids love the coat drives the toy drives.

There's always something going on.

So by all means you look, it's going to be super cold tomorrow.

And you got to look in your closet and go, OK, it's the coldest day and I'm still not going to wear this particular jacket.

It's time to donate it.

So yeah, by all means, please do.

I'm glad we have a reason to remind people to do that.

Anything else?

It is National Let's Hug Day.

National Let's Hug Day.

Didn't we have a National Hug Day not that long ago?

Did we?

I thought so.

I don't know.

Once again, we've got to run to the calendar

and

Tony's probably running AI on this right now.

But.

I have a feeling that there's been some some hugging in there.

Anyway, I mean, look, go ahead, hug it out if that's if you feel so inclined.

Maybe while you're making your cookies

and

lighting your candles.

Yeah.

And setting aside some toys for kids.

By the way, toys that are new or gently used, these aren't the ones where like your mom says, if you don't pick up your room, I'm going to give your toys away.

Don't be doing that to the kids.

Be nice.

Yes, be nice about this.

Anyway, still ahead, we're going to talk to Ellie Bordeaux, newsletter editor here at Up North News.

And we'll be talking to Chris Hamblock-Boyle in our homeroom section as well.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are about 15 minutes away from your next chance to win in our grown-up gift list text to win contest through civic media coming up after the 7 o'clock news We will give you a keyword you'll have until 8 o'clock to text it in and then you'll have more chances more keywords throughout the day 7 9 11 1 p.m 3 5 and 7 every other hour throughout the course of the day to win a daily prize $200 cash and several great grand prizes.

I'll tell you more

right after the news.

But first a reminder, our question of the day, what are your musical guilty pleasures?

Which we bring up because of the movie Song Song Blue about a Neil Diamond tribute band based out of Milwaukee that will be opening up on Christmas Day.

Is Neil Diamond a guilty pleasure of yours as it is occasionally of mine or do you have one other that what would you like to confess to?

Confess your musical guilty pleasures on the radio here at 85575 civic or in the comment sections as well I don't believe Miley Cyrus counts as a guilty pleasure unless you are let's say a Dude age what 40 and up then it's a guilty pleasure

Yeah, I suppose.

It's that's not one you're just going to write away.

Oh, yeah.

I'd listen to every Hannah Montana song that's out there.

No,

I mean, I guess I am probably in the age group that should like Hannah Montana and stuff.

I never got into it.

So I'm not thinking

about

it.

Meanwhile, she's in the news.

She isn't the news.

She's engaged.

This is a very big deal.

She is engaged to her music producer to her music

producer.

Okay.

I, I, I understand, you know, workplace romances, they happen, you know, I think of Mariah, Mariah Carey.

Remember, she was married to the guy from, you know, who basically ran the record company.

And so what's this guy's name?

Max Morondo?

Yes.

Okay.

And she was married to a Hemsworth or something, wasn't she?

That

sounds

right.

I don't know.

Yep.

I see.

My point being again, I, I hope the second time is the charm for her.

Assuming this is the second time around for

her.

Okay.

There you go.

See, I, I, I, I'm kind of half awake sometimes watching TMZ.

I'm, I'm like the president in a cabinet meeting.

Sometimes I might doze off a little bit, but I, I try to take any information that is most important, whether it's.

cabinet officers praising me or the marital status of Miley Cyrus.

So congratulations

to Miley.

For some reason, I feel like Trump probably cares more about this engagement than you think he should.

Well, no, right now he's got a thing going with Sabrina Carpenter.

Oh,

God,

I

almost, I almost put that in here, Pat.

Yeah, I wasn't necessarily going to talk about it either.

I was

just going to say that she's not happy and leave it at that.

She's not happy about the White House using, yeah, using her song for a video that basically, you know, mocks all of the people that ICE is arresting.

And, you know, again, the Trump administration continues to lie and say that these are all terrorists and drug runners and everything when, by and large, these are people who are

you know, trying to make a living in this country through a broken immigration system that he is responsible for it still being broke.

And, you know, at one point, you know, Sabrina Carpenter told them, you know, your policy is the video is evil and disgusting.

Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.

And a White House spokeswoman

Came back and tried to clap back at Sabrina saying here's a short and sweet message for Sabrina carpenter We won't apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers rapists and pedophiles from our country Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid or is it slow?

apparently referencing another one of Sabrina Carpenter's albums.

So this is what we've got in the White House now.

People calling you sick monsters, stupid or slow, because you don't like that mass secret police are rounding up people based on a racist policy, rather than actually looking for the people who might be murderers, rapists, and pedophiles.

That's where we are in this day and age.

This is why we try to take a break.

at least once a day and go over things like entertainment news, except that, you know, the entertainers sometimes get dragged back into the muck by the guy in the White

House.

Wild thing to put a pop song to, by the way, just wild video.

Well, wild might be or sick or stupid to use their own words.

Got any happier news for us?

Yes, much happier news, Pat.

The

Flying Circus.

Monty Python, the flying circus, spam a lot the musical.

It'll be coming to the US.

It's on a tour.

I believe it begins in Ohio, I think, this week.

And it will be in the Marcus Center in Milwaukee in July 14th through the 19th.

Pat, this show is described as laughing at yourself and at your own death and your inevitable end, which you can do nothing about.

It is loosely based on the 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

And again, we have to, this is where Parker's list grows.

Parker, Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Pat, I referenced this like a week ago.

That's right, you did.

Oh, we were so proud of you for flinging the cow.

Yes.

Oh, I feel so much better now.

Spamalot itself goes back to, I think, 2004.

Yes, it arrived on Broadway in 2005 and won the Best New Musical Tony Award, which is where, again, now I'm going to show my age.

It's been around since 2005, 20 years now.

I literally cannot remember if I've seen it or not.

Because I've seen a few other

you know, funny plays over time.

And I can't remember if that was one because it would have gone back quite a ways.

Are there are there, which it only tells me I can't wait to see it because it'll be new to me even if I've seen it before.

That's a very good

point.

We talk about spoofs a lot of late movies.

Are there spoof musicals?

Are there spoof musicals?

Yeah.

I mean,

like, could we qualify this as that?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm sure we could.

Yes.

And I'm sure the listeners will be a lot quicker on the draw than I am to come up with spoofed musicals.

But yeah, they are definitely a thing.

So spam a lot.

Whether I've seen you or not, welcome back to your U.S.

tour and maybe see you in Milwaukee come July.

All right.

Coming up in our seven o'clock hour, Up North News newsletter editor, Ellie Bordeaux, will have Chris Hamburgboil joining us for our homeroom segment.

Day two of 12 Days of Kindness.

And at 8.35, we'll have Dr. Kelly Snooks.

Oh!

Tony reminds us the Book of Mormon.

There you go.

Real information, great conversation on Abundantly Wisconsin.

I'm Pat Critello.

You're up north.

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Basota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.

Hey, good morning.

706.

Nice to have you back here up north on a Wednesday morning.

It's December 3rd.

Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2 coming up Elie Bordeaux.

Also our homeroom segment on taxpayer transparency so that property taxpayers know the actual cost of the voucher school program that is growing like a cancer on the Wisconsin state budget.

We also have Dr. Kelly Snooks coming up at 8.30 to talk about the misinformation being spread about children and Tylenol.

Our question of the day is asking, what is your musical guilty pleasure?

And Walter tells us that growing up in the mid 80s and still Bobby Vinton, that is a classic answer to a musical guilty pleasure.

We were talking about that in light of the Neil Diamond tribute band movie based out of Milwaukee song sung blue that's going to premiere on Christmas Day.

And actor Hugh Jackman is in it along with Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman was in Milwaukee yesterday and last night for the premiere.

So we'd love to know your own musical guilty pleasure as well.

Before we get to Ellie, it's time to tell you about our grown up gift list text to win contest.

Right on cue This is a multi-station multi-state text-to-win giveaway where there's a daily prize of $200 and three grand prize winners who will choose from a brand new snowblower a portable air conditioner or a stainless steel cookware set and Just remember that to do this you need the civic media app and you use the text feature to text us the

um the key word that I'm about to give you until eight o'clock and then there'll be another chance to win in the nine o'clock hour and then eleven one three five and seven

and each entry has you in the running, so you can enter several times a day and be in the running for the daily $200 prize and the grand prize drawings as well.

This hour's word is bell, B-E-L-L, and you have until eight o'clock, eight o'clock this morning to text us bell, B-E-L-L.

for your chance to win in our grown-up gift list contest.

All right, time to catch up now with the Oracle of Economy Walk.

Ellie Bordeaux, newsletter editor for Up North News.

Sign up for that newsletter over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Ellie, good morning.

How are you?

I'm great.

How are you guys?

Uh, we're great.

Thank you.

Do you have a good Thanksgiving weekend?

I did.

It was lovely.

It was very busy.

I feel like I never was able to just like sit down and relax, but we had a great time.

We went over to my grandma's had all my family over.

It was super nice.

Watched the Packer game.

Um, it was very fun.

We had a good time.

Okay.

Uh, did you do cooking or was just all just being social and eating?

I actually was the bartender.

I was in charge.

You were the bartender.

Yes, I bartended for a very long time.

I started bartending when I was 18 at my local dive bar and then continued while I was in college.

And then I, yeah, my grandma was like, can you make everyone old fashions?

I was like, yeah, for sure.

So I was in charge of the bar.

I had no idea about all this.

I had no idea that you were a

bartender.

Yes, yeah.

All right.

So.

Tell me about your old fashion making.

Which is very important to Pat.

You have to make sure that you nail this.

Well, do you want me to go through my whole step by step?

Absolutely.

Yes, I mean, because why can't you talk about booze at 7 10 on a Wednesday morning?

This is, you know, these are life skills clearly in a conwalk.

So what do you tell us?

Walk us through it.

So you start with orange slice, half.

a half an orange slice

and then

well it kind of depends on what everyone likes.

I like or what the size of it but I do half an orange slice, two maraschino cherries, seven dashes of bitters, if you're doing sweet you add a sugar cube, if not you don't do any of that and you don't even muddle all that but you muddle all that and then ice, brandy and then seven up if you're doing

Some people prefer a press.

Some people don't prefer it as sweet.

If they don't prefer it as sweet, you do club soda, a press, you do half club soda, half seven up.

If you just want full sweet, you do seven up.

That's my process.

She's totally not faking us on this.

She's done this.

I have done a

lot of old questions.

I was waiting for a moment for imposter syndrome to kick in and for to go, oh, OK, I just throw some premixed stuff in here.

No, no.

You got the real deal.

No, I don't mess

around with it.

Yeah, I make a mean old fashioned.

I like to say so.

That is okay.

Well, needless to say, the next up north new staff retreat is we've got, you know, somebody filling that role.

So that's great.

Yes.

All right, well, let's get to your day job then.

And that, of course, would be working on the newsletter for us over at Up North News.

And I've

I've bragged about this before, but now I love that you want to brag on it as well.

And that is the photos that all of our readers are sending in to share at the top of each day's edition.

Something we did, you know, five, six years ago, when we first started the newsletter, we kind of fell out of that habit.

You've brought it back.

And these are just spectacular images, Ellie.

They really are.

Yeah, it's so great.

So it actually kind of it's a little bit funny.

It started with Halloween because I was asking

people

to send in their Halloween decorations or their costumes.

And then it just kind of never stopped.

People just kept sending in their fall views, now their winter views, all the snow, all those things.

And so it's so great.

I get so many photos from our readers every day, every morning.

And it's so hard to choose which one I'm going to feature.

And I mean, it's so great because I will

never run out of them because I already have so many in the bank, but it's so great.

And some of our readers take such incredible photos.

It's so cool to feature and it's so great to feature their work and that kind of thing.

So it's really great.

It's funny that you say not about not running out because I still get a regular notice from Dropbox, a cloud storage thing that says your Dropbox is full.

It's out of storage space.

And I know that part of it is that

It is so full of reader photos.

And, you know, one of these days, we got to talk to the bosses about doing some kind of a calendar book or something because we, I think we're at 365 photos easily at this point.

And we could do a photo book just from listeners sending in and readers sending in things because they're amazing.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's the same with this.

It's, I feel like I get like at least 20 photos a morning,

which

I also

for my own sake, love to go through them.

I think they're so great and so cool.

So it's super fun.

Yeah, it has been.

So we're talking to Ellie Bordeaux newsletter editor at UpNorth News.

You can sign up at upnorthnewswi.com.

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday.

And so there were all kinds of things that happened here at Civic Media and of course through UpNorth News.

So I'm sure you've got a lot of satisfying feedback on that as well.

Yes, absolutely.

So we did a story about Giving Tuesday and ways to give back in Wisconsin.

So Giving Tuesday launched in 2012 and it's a global movement to encourage generosity the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

So we did a story on different ways that you can give back in Wisconsin.

And these aren't obviously just exclusive to Giving Tuesday.

They were just running Giving Tuesday campaigns.

You can give to these campaigns at any time.

And we encourage that, of course.

But some of the places we had was Renew Wisconsin.

with the donation goal of $15,000, the hunger task force, which is especially important right now as food pantries face a lot of...

a lot of need right now.

And so they had all of their donations will be matched up to $100,000 to feed and end hunger in the community.

The Wisconsin Humane Society, Freighter and the Medical College of Wisconsin was having a campaign, Gathering Waters, Mom's Mental Health Institute, and Special Olympics Wisconsin.

We have so many campaigns that are giving Tuesday.

And it's super great to see people give back and give to these places.

Yeah, it's just becoming more popular and more organizations than ever, including here on this fine program, where yesterday we kicked off 12 days of community kindness on Giving Tuesday, and we will have our next group to spotlight for you exactly 30 minutes from now at 7.45.

We'll tell you more about how you can help out another group that's making a difference in our hometowns.

But back to the newsletter, we also have our series, Civic Check-In,

And our latest addition that you've put together for us is really about what's at the heart.

What's the DNA of Up North News?

And that is increasing your civic engagement.

Right, exactly.

And I wanted to go through different ways that people don't necessarily always realize the ways that they can get involved in their community and the impact that it has on a broader scale.

And so I wanted to put together some ways that people can get involved at the local level that they may not necessarily know.

the impacts of.

So we talked about attending public meetings, city councils, village boards, county boards, school boards, all of those hold regular meetings where you can learn about what's going on in the community, what's going to be at stake, those kinds of things.

get different perspectives from the leaders or the people in the community that you know.

And then we also have connecting with your municipal clerk.

Clerks are a really great way to get involved and understand what's happening at a local level.

Participating in local elections, which obviously we know is really important, but especially in local elections, that sets things up for you.

directly your community.

So and serving on committees or commissions and engaging with neighborhood associations or community groups are all really great ways to get involved in your community and see.

What's happening around you?

Yeah, there is no shortage of ways that you can get more involved in your community at a civic level.

We will mention in passing here another section of the newsletter, the Badger State Buzz, mostly because that's a lot of events going on that Sharita Booker tells us about on Thursday mornings at 6.

20, about the goings on throughout the coming weekend.

But along with Sharita telling us about it on the radio on Thursdays, you've also got it as a regular feature of the newsletter.

Yes, exactly, and we started this section because we wanted to have something I got feedback from from some of our readers was we they wanted to know what

events were happening in the state.

And so I wanted to do a roundup of different things you can do throughout the week.

And I've gotten great responses from it.

Someone reached out to me and said, I'm brand new to Wisconsin, so this is super great to get me involved in my community or know what's going on around the state.

So we just list out a bunch of different events that are happening throughout the state, throughout the weekend, throughout the week, different ways you can volunteer, different ways you can give back just.

Fun events, Christmas markets, Christmas is coming up.

There's no shortage of Christmas markets, that's

for sure.

And all the parades, we listed all the holiday parades that are coming up around Wisconsin, including Chippewa Falls this coming Saturday evening.

So just so much that you can see there in that section of the newsletter, the Badger State Buzz.

And finally, looking ahead, you're putting together another special edition of the newsletter.

Yes, so this will come out on December 6th, and it is our giving guide.

In lieu of Giving Tuesday, we wanted to do an edition that talks about giving back in Wisconsin.

And so we have four different sections.

We're going to talk about different organizations you can give back to in Wisconsin.

And we're also featuring some of our readers, some of the ways our readers give back in their communities, whether that's donating to food pantries, volunteering, those kinds of things.

And then we have a section about Wisconsin conservation and different conservation efforts going on in the state.

And then we also have just as a little.

round up some winter wellness tips, just a reminder of

How to stay safe this winter, different tactics to make sure you're staying safe and staying safe in the cold.

Exactly.

Yes.

So look for that special edition coming up.

And of course, for all of the weekday newsletters and the Sunday morning newsletter with an emphasis on Wisconsin politics, you just have to head over to upnorthnewswi.com.

Click subscribe in the banner up at the top of the homepage and get on board everything that we put forward.

Much of it from Ellie Bordeaux.

Ellie, thank you so much.

Great to see you.

We'll talk to you a little later on.

Yeah, sounds good.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

And let's check a little sports here at 719 because if you missed it from Mike Lemons a little bit earlier, little concern with the Bucks now that Yanis has scrubbed his social media accounts of most mentions of the Bucks organization.

We're hoping that does not, that's only out of frustration or motivation and not a preview of coming attractions.

And again, the Packers Bears, that game has been flexed this Sunday to 325 and the next Packers Bears game on Saturday, December 20th has now been flexed to 720 p.m.

Live from the lake, I'm Pat Crightlow from Open North News.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network, our homeroom section on transparency for property taxpayers is coming up.

Got a few other sports notes to tell you about as we sneak up on 7 23 here on a Wednesday morning, December 3rd, starting tonight with Badger men's basketball Big 10 play getting going.

We're at that part of the season already Badgers taking on Northwestern hosting Northwestern at the Cole Center and coverage begins tonight at 7 30 on some of the stations of the civic media radio network.

Then on Friday, there's Badger men's hockey at Notre Dame.

Coverage will begin at 5 30.

on our stations in Wisconsin Rapids and in Ironwood, Michigan.

And again, from a radio standpoint, you can catch the Packers Bears game this Sunday.

Coverage begins at one o'clock for a 325 kickoff this Sunday.

So again, if you were looking at a schedule and thinking Packers Bears was at noon on Sunday, no, no, no, no.

It's been flexed.

That's a fancy way of the NFL saying we can do whatever we want and you're gonna have to live with it.

So the Packers Bears game has been moved to 325 this Sunday and then as I said before to clarify the Packers Bears play again in less than two weeks after that game.

They play on Saturday, December 20th in Chicago, and that December 20th game has now been flexed as well.

It is now a prime time game.

Kickoff at 7.20 for the Packers Bears on December 20th.

But back to the Sunday's game, coverage begins at one o'clock on several Civic Media stations.

Head over to CivicMedia.us to learn more.

Here is a story about the

power of patience.

Parker Olson, our producer in Madison is not a homeowner yet.

So I feel like I can pass along these, these friendly tips, because in this day and age, when young people can't afford their first home until well, you'll be 50 by about the time that it happens.

So maybe these lessons will be completely lost on you, but we'll we will see.

Yeah.

I've been very, we've been very lucky.

Our house has had the same furnace and the same central air conditioner for 30 years that we've been here.

And so that makes the home 31 years old and.

They've had their hiccups from time to time.

Sure.

But when they do, you know, we have called the same company, you know, off and on over 30 years to come out and do things.

Sometimes it's been a mouse has chewed the wires as was the case with the air conditioning unit outside.

Other times like a relay died or a, you know, a blower motor needed to be replaced, little things like that.

Not all the time, but just, just often enough.

And we'd always called the same company.

So we have an issue now with the furnace, it's getting a little old and and occasionally it just doesn't light, you know, it's and it's not spreading gas or anything.

I don't want to alarm anybody.

But you hear the blower motor come on, but the gas units never actually fire up, you know, something about the ignition of it.

I don't know exactly what it is.

So we go to call at that same company that we've used for 30 years and they say, I'm sorry, we're not taking on any new customers right now.

Like

What do you mean?

We've been using you for 30 years.

Well, but you haven't for a few years now.

And so, you know, we're not we're not taking out any new customers.

I'm like, I'm not

a new customer.

Well, you would be because we haven't used you for a certain number of years and we can only do so much business.

Your service is a very infrequently needed thing.

Right.

So we're being penalized for them actually doing their job and keeping our furnace running.

And I'm like, you know, we're actually looking at replacing this thing now after 30 years.

You'd be in line to get a big chunk of business to replace the furnace and maybe replace the air conditioner.

I'm sorry, there's really nothing we can do.

Did you tell them that you're a radio host?

No, no, no, I don't.

I don't.

I don't.

Big time.

I'm like that.

Um, and I don't think it would have gotten anywhere anyway, but I was just, I was, I was really taken aback by that.

Yeah.

But that's only the first half of the story.

Of course.

Second half of the story is I did ask friends for recommendations and I got a lot of really good recommendations.

I'm really appreciative for that.

And so I did call one of them and the repair tech showed up yesterday.

Now.

You can imagine what happened next because we've all been in that position with a car or something like that.

You take it to the mechanic.

It's making this weird noise and then it doesn't.

Well, yeah.

And so sure enough, he gets there and now for hours, I've had a hoodie on and we're in shoes in the house because it's getting cold in the house.

Yeah.

He's there.

He looks at it.

It fires right up.

Of course it does.

And what I had seen from the previous company that no longer wanted us is that the tech would be like, well, nothing to see here.

Call us when it's doing it again and hopefully it'll be doing it when we get here.

Okay, thanks.

Not this guy.

This guy just sat there and waited.

I mean, he tinkered around with a few other things.

He kind of poked around.

And I was getting a little concerned.

But and it took took a good hour or so and then he came upstairs with a part Well, actually I he went to his truck and he came back on the eventually came upstairs with a part and he said I had to wait a while But eventually after it's starting to stop and starts it did refuse to fire up.

I have found the issue It was this part.

It's replaced the parts replaced now You don't have to replace your furnace right away in the middle of winter when the prices are sky-high.

Yeah

you know, um, instead we'll wait till spring and probably replace it and the central air conditioning unit.

And you know, who's going to get our business probably that company with the guy that wanted the business and the guy that was willing to be patient and wait to see the, he didn't like not believe us.

He's like, okay, if this is happening, let's wait and actually see it happening.

So I am.

I am over the moon about that.

No, I have not seen the invoice yet.

So let's keep in mind the story may not have a totally happy ending, but I'm always willing to pay for good service and for quality.

And in this case, for patience.

And so I'm very thankful for that.

So y'all keep that in mind.

I think on the text line as well.

Michael in Pleasant Prairie.

Here's a book recommendation for Parker and others, Home Buying for Dummies.

It prevented me from making many expensive mistakes.

Mike in Pleasant Prairie.

I appreciate that very much and you know what, the dummies books, properly named as I've learned myself on many occasions, but they're good books.

Are they?

Are they actually that helpful?

Yes, they really are.

I can't say that about all of them, but they definitely have been.

So a home ownership, there ain't no money pit like a home money pit.

That's that's for sure.

Coming up next, we have our homeroom segment and also we'll continue our 12 days of community kindness.

First, the Midwest Farm Report.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

735 now welcome back on a Wednesday morning December 3rd And it's time for another reminder of the keyword send us this hour at least I think so Let me wait for that that audio cue to remind me that I got to give that keyword.

Oh There it is.

Okay

Just like we did in rehearsal.

Bell, B-E-L-L.

You've got until eight o'clock to use your Civic Media app and text us the word Bell, B-E-L-L to be in the running for a daily prize and for the grand prizes as well.

If you missed it at the top of the hour.

There are chances throughout the day to win different keywords each time and you have until the end of that particular hour to text it in on the Civic Media app.

Every entry, so you can enter multiple times a day, every entry puts you in the running for that $200 daily prize as well as those great grand prizes as well.

Get your details at civicmedia.us.

I should also mention as well that the first time you enter, you're going to get an automatic message.

giving you a chance for more entries via a link to do something specific.

It might be follow our newsletter.

Maybe it's, you know, share your name in hometown, something like that.

Each action is done only the one time, but gets you another entry.

And again, full rules at civicmedia.us.

Coming up in just a bit, we're going to have our second installment of our 12 Days of Community Kindness.

And we'll be talking to Donna Ambrose of The Neighbor's Place in the Wausau area coming up.

But for

First, it's time for our homeroom segment with our friend Chris Hamburg Boyle from the Wisconsin Public Education Network, which you can learn more about at WisconsinNetwork.org.

We don't make you put Wisconsin Public Education Network, just WisconsinNetwork.org.

We'll get you there.

Chris Hamburg Boyle and I talk a lot about helping shine a light on the true cost to taxpayers of the voucher school program that

Many taxpayers don't know they're now paying for two school systems in Wisconsin and again the usual caveat This is not to say there shouldn't be private schools.

It is to say that public dollars should go to our public schools and The voucher program should not be siphoning money right off the top before our public schools get any help whatsoever and yet that

Chris Hamburgboil is exactly what's happening.

And in Green Bay, they started to do something about it.

And you and others have started a movement that is spreading to other cities.

Chris, good morning.

How's that feel?

Oh, we got you.

Have I got you muted here?

Let's get you unmuted so we can hear from you.

Are you there now?

Gosh, you were there.

And now I'm not hearing you all of a sudden.

Let me let me do that.

and see if you've ever got your microphone back yet.

I'll tell you what I'll let you I'll let you exit the the studio and then come back in.

I'm not sure if it's like our my furnace technician would have said is turn it off and turn it on again.

So we'll have her exit out and then click the link and come back in.

Now thankfully Donna Ambrose is standing by so we can get right into other things here talking about the neighbor's place and the 12 days of community kindness.

We'll talk about that for a few minutes here and then we'll join Chris Handbook Boyle again.

Donna, good morning.

How are you?