Hour 2: The Kitchen’s Open

Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off

with us right here at WFHR, locally grown radio. 906 on the clock. Catcher host James J.

I am joined by Melissa K. Good morning. Seth Habagger. Good morning all. All of you. Thanks

so much for joining us, everybody. We hope you're having a great Monday out there. It is

treating you good. We got some entertainment news coming up. A little bit of a, then

any right stories. Good stories of the day. Some local stuff all on the way for you. It's

a Monday. It's the 9 o'clock hour. You know what it means.

Tell me something good. Welcome to the kitchen's open on WFHR. Today we are going to do something

just a tiny bit different. And we're going to talk about mock tails, which are non-alcoholic

drinks, but it's different because this one is not scripted. It was a busy, we're off

script. It was a busy, busy last two weeks. And for me personally, last week was actually

very busy. Yeah. Who knows what can happen. Yeah, right. Exactly. There's a craziness.

We get a speak for ourselves. No, you don't. I will cut you off if you go off. She's absolutely

right. She's actually somehow Melissa can cut my mic from afar. It's amazing. It's amazing.

It's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. Okay. She really can. But I am pulling this

from Roland Foods.com. It's a blog, apparently. I didn't know that they did that. But it's

actually a great article about what mock tails are. Like thing cocktail, but hold the booze.

How they're becoming far more popular. That was the surprising thing to me about this

Melissa. You had sent this over right before I jumped into class. So I was talking to a couple

of my students about it. And I, these are very popular with young people. Something that

you talked about this morning with us, though, that I had not known is that a lot of them

don't like the term mock tail, though. Yeah. That's not necessarily always the most friendly

term to them. Another big thing that came out of this conversation that I didn't know

about, and I'm sorry to be talking so much, but I did find this really interesting. One

of the big things that for young people right now, they don't want to drink, but want

to go to the bar, want to socialize, there is a company that sells water and a can. It's

got kind of like a funky label on it and all this. That was like a beer I'm guessing.

So instead of being at the bar and having a glass of water and everybody being able to

notice that you are drinking water, they have these cans now that kind of give you a little

bit of an illusion. Right. You're still, you just got a can like everybody else in the

bar. Right. Right. Yeah. It's become very popular along with these mock tails or the many,

many names for mock tails, which some of those are a lot of fun. We got to have a moment

of this segment where we're going over those names. We will. You can just throw them

in periodically here and there. There you go. Baseless.

A weird name. That is kind of weird. Yeah. Well, as you said, the younger people, millennials

and Gen Z are kind of leading the pack on this mock tail fan club. They're known more

to be health conscious and they're appreciating that these drinks without alcohol. What's another

name for them, James? Barely legal. There you go. Oh, no, I got a better one. I got a

better one. I'm sorry. That wasn't the one I wanted to read. Show first choice. Show

first choice. That's great. That's great. But they offer a solution for a different drink

and then you don't have to deal with the hangover the next day. Very true. So there have

been several studies that are shown an increase, significant increase in overall alcohol consumption

happened at the onset of the pandemic. Consumption in adults. And this is from Cedar's

cyanide. Consumptions in adults over 30 rose 14% since March March of 2020. But in 2021, the

shift toward sober curiosity ensued. Interesting. Wow. Interesting way to put that. Yeah, it's

to freeze. Right. Nielsen reported that 22% of consumers said they were cutting back

on alcohol and when asked why they were curbing their alcohol intake, people noted they were

going out less or they are losing interest in alcohol as the top two reasons. Wow. 22%.

That's a big number. That's great. Yeah. Wow. So this cut, you know, desire to cut back

on booze has really sparked more interest in mocktails and other non-alcoholic beverages.

A poll found that since the start of the pandemic, 52% of Gen Zers and millennials said their

consumption of mocktails and alcohol free beer has increased. Okay. Hmm. So, you know, for

people looking for alcohol free solutions, they're becoming more in vogue. Interesting. It's

very cool. And it does. So it's expected to grow 923 million in 2020 and more than 1.7 trillion

by 2028. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. This does not seem like either a fat. No. This seems

like a again, and this is a my words used, but one of our younger teachers brought up a correcting

of the market. It is the way that he put it that we went too far with alcohol and not only are

use of it, but are popularizing of it are are kind of like random normalizing abuse of drinking.

Basic. Well, and the societal pressures to drink. Yeah. Right. Especially in social settings.

Yeah. Right. We've all experienced that where what can I get you to drink? I'll just have a

water. Oh, come on. Why aren't you drinking? Yeah. Yeah. You know, we've all experienced that,

and that shouldn't be the norm. However, the history of mocktail goes back to even further than

1916. That's the first time according to the Merriam Webster dictionary that the word mocktail was

used. Okay. Now that slightly predates prohibition, which began in 1920. Right. But they actually found

a recipe for in the bartender's guide from 1862. Whoa. Made a mention of temperance drinks. Oh,

yes. Which are defined as beverages without alcohol. Right. It makes sense for the time. Temperance

was a very used term at that time. Of course, the whole temperance league, which has

most appointed out eventually led to prohibition. That was the big hand of that. The water drinking

army. I like that one. That's great. That's good. That's a good one. So I think we've all had a

surely temple, right? That's the first thing I thought of. Yep. When I was a kid. Yep. Yep.

And it was exciting. It was like, oh, I get I get this cool, pretty mixed drink because it's

typically, you know, like seven upper ginger ale. And then it's got the grenadine in it.

And the tiny umbrella, you know, that's the important thing. And sometimes the umbrella, yeah.

Or the sword. The sword. James, the sword. I remember the sword. The cherries and the orange slice.

Yes. The sword fit perfect. The GI Joe guys can hold those swords perfectly.

He's not wrong. I did the same thing. You're a poor Nana.

But it is still one of the mocktails or, or, you know, the different virgin drink, whatever

you want to call them, that is enjoyed today. There's several others. A lot of these can be made

just without alcohol. So like a piniacalata or a margarita strawberry daiquiri mojitos. Those

are all pretty easy to make without the alcohol because of the ingredients. But there are others

that are better made just like straight up on their own, not in not like an alternative to

the alcohol version of it. Gotcha. Yeah. So I did find a couple recipes. This one is on

this farmgirlcooks.com. Oh great name. That's good websites. You're right. And it's an apple cider

punch. So it's just apple cider, sparkling water, ground ginger, orange, like a slice of orange,

a slice of apple. You serve it over ice and you put cinnamon sticks in for garnish.

Oh, that sounds good. It sounds delicious. Yeah. So it's like an apple ginger punch. It's got a

little bit of a kick to it as far as the spice goes. And it's a pretty good way. Yeah.

And it's bubbly. Yeah. The biggest part I have found about these, because I don't know about

you guys, but every once in a while I sometimes have an urge to have something special to drink.

So I'll pop open a can of sparkling water and pour it in glass. There you go. Nice. That's not

that special. No, I just put sparkling water in a glass. But if it makes you feel it, you know,

that's cool. That's cool. So what I did when I was actually doing the research for this last week,

I was like, I was looking through and I had found and now here I've got to pull it up. I had found

the recipe for Tom Collins, which is a, you use a non-alcoholic gin and, you know, the normal stuff

that's in a Tom Collins, but I came across these carefully crafted for your consideration non-alcoholic

spirits. Oh, wow. Okay. And I was like, Hey, I actually have this in my cupboard. Oh, really?

I've forgotten. I got, I bought it at festival, like probably this time last year. I don't even

remember. But the, the company name is seedlip, S-E-E-D-L-I-P, and they are, they're botanically

infused spirits that are non-alcoholic. Wow. So they have a spice one. They have a citrus, which is

called grove. So that's more citrusy. And then they have the garden version, which is the one I

have. So it's, it's a fresh herbal blend with traditional garden herbs of rosemary, thyme,

and spearmint. So what I was reading about the Tom Collins, I was like, I can make something like

this. So I, I, I did. I put ice in a glass. I poured some of this seedlip garden over that. I

added some squeeze, fresh squeeze lime juice, and then a, like a lemon lime sparkling water.

Okay. And it was really good. That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. I was impressed. But so, so half of

the battle with these is the presentation. Right. Going through the, the crafting of a cocktail,

or, or, you know, whatever other word we can use for their James.

It was like a G rated. Sure. Carefully crafted G rated. Not a movie.

Parts tend to have a G rated. Give me a G rated drink. If you blank looks, what?

So the, just that part of it does make it more special. There are other things you can make at home,

like a shrub. It's an acid-related drinking liquid made from infusing the sweet flavors of fruit

and sugar into vinegar. So typically use a 111 ratio of each ingredient and any vinegar works.

You can use apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. Those are two popular options. And so you

combine your fruit and your sugar and you add the vinegar. You cover the mixture tightly and you let

it sit out at room temperature for about two days, stirring it occasionally. And then you strain out

all of the solids out of there. And you end up with a syrup. You add one vinegar to the syrup,

slowly tasting it along the way until your desired flavor is achieved. And then you just add

that to a club soda. For a flavorful zing. It's almost like a, like, a tonic kind of thing there.

Yeah, yeah. And then, of course, you know, we have muddling. We've all had an old-fashioned

because we live in Wisconsin. And you have to muddle the ingredients to the drink. So that's where you

put your whatever they are, like fruits or citrus or herbs for a mojito. It's mint. But you also can

use, like, rosemary or thyme or some of these other flavors and muddle them in the bottom of the

glass before you add your liquids. And it usually want to do it sometimes with sugar to get that,

to get the herbs mixed in with the sugar. But it makes a flavorful release of the juices and the

components in the herb into your drink. And they look pretty. Yeah, that too. Presentation is

everything. That's the biggest part of it. I have found as I'm reading through these. So I want

to share this one other recipe with you. It is a, let me see what, it's a white Russian.

Oh, okay. It's familiar with a white Russian. It's coffee,

lacour, and heavy cream and vodka. I had a stretch where those were my things. Yeah, yeah,

I had a thing. Yeah. Well, they are very good. It's couloua. It's couloua. Yep. That's the coffee

lacour, yep. So with this, there isn't really a good substitute for vodka. You can use water

to thin this out, but they, they, they strongly recommend just omitting it.

But what you do for the coffee, the cori, you just, you use a very strong brewed coffee.

And you add a little bit of vanilla extract to it. So what, when you're making this,

you put the ice in the glass. You pour your very strongly brewed coffee over the ice. Add in your,

like you can add vanilla extract or peppermint extract or both if you like.

And then the fun part is the layering that you do in this drink. So you take a spoon,

you flip it over and you pour the heavy cream over the backside of the spoon.

And that causes a separation between the coffee and the cream. So you get that beautiful

marbling of the cream slowly going down through the coffee in your drink. Very cool looking,

yep. It's called floating the cream. That sounds really good. Yep.

And then you add a peppermint stick in the top and your garnish, which is your peppermint stick.

Okay. And then you're good to go. Very cool. Very cool.

Actually, I would throw another garnish on top of that. Any time I made, when I was a bartender,

any time I made a white Russian or a black Russian, filberts. That's a couple of filberts in

there too. Yeah. Interesting. I've never had it like that. Yes. I try that.

That sounds like quite the beautiful, immaculate concoction.

Is that another name? I love that. I had to get that one. That one's good.

Yes, there are several ones that have, I don't know why they equate maybe because you don't drink

when you're pregnant because there's the pregnant teamies. Yes. The all ages show.

When I was, I brought this up with the students and the teacher had mentioned this and everything.

They mentioned dry cocktails and they see that on this list. Dry cocktails.

A lot of people, that's how they'll order it. Or zero cocktails. Yep. Right. Right.

I thought that was a good one. Makes sense.

Well, and the only other one that I did come across and wanted to share was the cranberry

mocktail or cranberry zero tail, whatever you want to call it. Right.

But you can use fresh or frozen cranberries, cranberry juice, sparkling water,

mint syrup, which you can make at home. Or I'm sure you can find it in the store and ice.

And then again, that's a very just pretty cocktail. Get some fresh mint in there as a garnish.

Float the frozen cranberries in there in addition to the ice to make it look pretty.

And that's perfect for Christmas. Oh, very nice. Good one. That's a really good

lovely and with that, we'll close the kitchen. All right. That sounds good.

But feel free to you know share with us your favorite NWA's everybody. That's

not nothing with alcohol. Nothing without. Oh, that's great. That's the one.

That's the one. Like I don't even do this and I would go to a bar just

just so I could order it in order at NWA. That's fantastic.

She used me. Another amazing segment. Thank you so much. Thank you.

I really appreciate that segment. Listen every Monday for another episode of The

Kitchen's Open. And of course, we're looking for a wonderful sponsor to tag

team with this. We'd love to have some one of you great businesses out there.

Be a part of the team. Call up and join us 424-1300. Pam will put you in touch

with Ashley and we'll get you on the team. Yeah.

And in the meantime, share your drinks that are safe for work.

Or liver friendly. Yeah, liver friendly.

Oh, that's good. Those are my favorite. That's good. That's good.

Nice. Nice. Nannies.

There's another one. I want the Nannies. Nannies. I want to get there.

Hey, Nannie, Nannie. Although we could do T totaler tipples.

Oh, good one. Good one. That's what's very British.

It does.

Didn't want to let the audience know as a programming note.

Tomorrow in this time slot, we're going to have Bill from FRM Music

joining Melissa and I. It's going to be a fun conversation.

Bill's going to be with us. We'll talk a little bit about FRM. The direction

it's going. FRM fast. So much we want to talk about with Bill.

Looking forward to that. Looking forward to talking to friends and

rapids music. Absolutely. That is going to be fun.

Speaking of that, and a guy to entertain me coming up right here

on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everyone. Morning show at WFHR.

I really can't stay.

Maybe it's cold outside.

I've got to go away.

Maybe it's cold outside.

Even in this bin.

Oh, that you dropped it.

So very nice.

I'll hold your hands like just like others.

They do such a good job of that one.

They do. He and she, I believe it is.

She and he, she and he, that she and him actually and him.

She and him. She and him.

And then it's Zoe, Deschanel.

And I finally, I had to, I had last time we mentioned it.

I was like, I got it. It's M Ward.

That's his name. That's the name he goes by is M Ward.

M Ward. Yeah.

All right. That's a beautiful version of that song.

Yeah. That's cool.

There's a lot of fun versions of that.

Want to dive into a little bit of entertainment news right now, everybody.

Uh, I encourage, uh, if you get a chance, check out some of the segments,

some of the sketches from this weekend's SNL.

Kate McKinnon was the host.

She came back to 30 Rock for the first time in a couple of years.

And Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wig, we're a part of sketches.

She brought a bunch of friends.

I did. She brought a bunch of friends.

How about that?

Any chance to see Maya Rudolph take it.

That's it. That's all I got.

Love me some Maya Rudolph.

Uh, it was really cool. It was a very fun one.

Um, uh, we got some local things I do want to touch on in a second.

Uh, in fact, one of them very close to Seth's heart.

Um, but over the weekend, I had a chance to, uh, watch Oppenheimer.

Oh, nice.

Um, Oppenheimer's a three hour movie.

So, uh, with my time frame and the way things go, I figure I'm going to break it up in two.

I'm going to watch the first half of the movie.

Now watch the next half later this weekend or something like that.

Uh, I tend to watch these things when I'm doing other things or I'm grading or something

because I can't sleep that night anyway.

And I'm going to be up.

So I throw on a movie or something like that just to catch up on these things.

I do have, uh, it is go time for us voting on the Sagan, the Oscars.

That's right.

We've got to get her now.

But literally actually over the weekend was a let.

I believe the, the cutoff date to make recommendations and nominations and that.

Okay.

Um, so I got all that in in the, in the nick of time.

Um, I, I'd seen clips and scenes from Oppenheimer.

I had not seen the whole movie together.

I could not turn it off.

Oh, no.

I was up all night.

I did not, I did not why watch it all in one sitting.

And I, I swear to you, it did not feel like a three hour movie.

Okay.

Um, it's, it's one of the most important movies I will ever watch.

Wow.

Wow, um, saying something.

It is incredibly filmed and beautifully done.

It is incredibly active.

There is no, I mean, you, I knew this is my wheelhouse.

I knew who was in this movie and I was still blown away

when I see Gary Oldman as a former president Truman.

Or I see Robert Downey Jr. as a former Strauss and stuff.

Some of the, I, I can't even begin to tell you.

I've watched everything.

I've, I've literally been right in front of Robert Downey Jr.

and worked with him.

And this is the best, maybe he's ever done.

Wow.

It's incredible his performance.

Silly and Murphy steals everything in this movie for me.

Like, there's a scene where he's coming out of a building and he's standing there.

And, and I honestly thought it was a still of JD Oppenheimer.

Because the cameras pull the way.

Even his body posture is like that of Oppenheimer.

And it speaks to one of the more important moments in a world history,

not just American history of world history.

It gives you details that only the, I've read the book.

And it gives you details and stuff that came to light only now.

At the time, so Albert Einstein and JD Oppenheimer were friends.

And JD looked up to him very much.

Albert went through things before JD Oppenheimer did.

Albert went from being the smartest person in the world

to being kicked out of his own country, basically.

I haven't run from his own world coming here.

And then all of a sudden, like living long enough to, to be brought back.

And by, oh, we love you, Albert.

Here's some more war.

It's here's some things.

There's a line where, and I'm not ruining anything here, but there's a part where

Einstein says to JD that they're going to do this to you.

They're going to hold you up.

And they're going to make you the king of the world

and the most smartest man and all these things and everything.

And then they're going to tear you down.

And then a couple years later, they're going to give you awards.

And then I'm not going to give them to you for you.

They're doing it for themselves because they feel guilty.

Because they feel bad of what happened.

And this is the course of JD Oppenheimer's life.

JD Oppenheimer was a womanizer.

Was not a saint.

He had, there's a big difference between having an ego and narcissism.

An ego can work with other people.

A narcissist can't.

He had a ego.

He had an ego that I don't know if we're to fit in Montana.

But he could back it up as well.

And don't let it get lost in time here.

That this was a Jewish man.

And how easy it was to get rid of a Jew back in the day.

You didn't have to kill us.

You didn't have to do it.

All you did, he's a communist.

He's a communist.

JD Oppenheimer was never a communist.

He had a mind that questioned everything.

And we ought to be dang thankful he did.

Because we wouldn't be where we are.

We would not have won the war.

We wouldn't want more war, too, without him.

We wouldn't want, we wouldn't have, there's so many things that come into line

that I think that are so important.

And not only him, but the scientists that worked on the Manhattan project

deserve our respect.

How you feel about bombs and war and all that stuff.

That's a whole other category.

That's a whole other conversation that we can have anytime you want.

You, my e-mails, james.mailupheadcivicity.us.

I'm just talking about what these individuals did.

These scientists did.

How we used them, chewed them up, spit them out,

and how not one of those scientists could get a job afterwards.

Most of them died working on railroads and things like that.

If you truly love this country, you have to own all of it.

America is very similar to our family.

Would you say not?

Would you say that's the weirdest we've ever seen?

That made no sense.

America is very similar to our family.

And you love your family.

And you care about your family.

You also hold your family accountable.

You also hold your family up to the light.

If your brother or sister or your mom and dad

or somebody like that, they do something that you're not liking or whatever.

You usually say something, right?

You know, just hold your tongue.

That's being an American.

You can have your cake you need to chew.

You can own this country's scars as well as its beauty.

Because it all leads to our tapestry.

It all adds up.

And this movie isn't a accumulation of that, I think.

I generally think it's one of the most important movies.

I will ever see.

And I cannot encourage people enough to see it.

Yeah.

It's very good.

Very good.

Also, I got to put a shout out to Emily Blunt,

who was amazing in this.

And Matt Damon.

Matt Damon, I don't think of him as a leading actor really.

I don't think of him as one of the greatest actors.

But when you put him in a movie like this,

like Ocean's Eleven or these movies,

ensemble piece, yeah.

Where he's not necessarily not all of it's on his shoulders.

He does not carry the film, right?

He is good.

Oh, he's good in those situations, man.

It was a great movie.

Very cool.

It is out of it eventually.

Well, that's just it.

It's not only a three hour movie,

but many of our listeners out there are parents.

Yes.

And if you're a parent,

you can watch things in like 10, 20 minutes.

Right, right.

That's it.

You're lucky if you get that.

It's a good one.

The lift notes version.

Someday, someday.

It is a Monday.

And so that means it's a Muppet Monday.

What the Muppet, of course,

dropped this morning.

A big shout out to Bria Hoyton.

A nice work she does on that.

I want to encourage everybody to check out this episode

of what the Muppet, in particular,

because it's a special episode.

This one, we had on the Puppet Masters of None, on.

Very cool.

And they did, it's kind of a side quest,

as Bria calls it, great name.

So, 21st episode.

And we still did the same show we usually do,

just with the guys on with us.

No, it's awesome.

We had one of the biggest Muppets in history

actually pulled out of the hat just by chance.

Oh, wow.

So, we had a real fun time with the guys

and encourage you to check out the podcast,

Puppet Masters of None.

Bria and I were on their Christmas episode.

It was a lot of fun.

Oh, great.

Got to ear from a lot of people I haven't heard from

a while just coming out of the woodworks,

telling me, man, I love this movie.

It's my favorite Christmas movie.

Christmas Carol, all this stuff.

It was really fun.

It was really fun.

A big thank you to the guys,

Puppet Masters of None, for having us on

and joining us on our show.

Be sure to check that out wherever you get your podcasts.

Download all what the Muppet and Puppet Masters of None.

And if you go, you want to check out the video,

we've got a great video up of it.

Go to YouTube, type in your search bar,

what the Muppet and find out more.

And thank you so much to everybody.

Every time I pull this up every week,

I see more subscribers.

That just blows me away.

Thanks so much, everybody.

Very cool.

As we're wrapping up,

I did want to mention to everybody,

plans for January.

Get your monologues ready and get ready

for your auditions.

The Glass Menagerie coming up January 2nd and 3rd

over at the WRCT Auditorium.

This is being directed by Suth Haferher.

I knew foreign director.

That's what we just said.

You want to take a stab at that name, man?

I got no idea to say that.

No, yes, we are going to have our auditions

for that come right up on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.

It is just so everyone knows that there's only four parts

in the show.

So it's a very intimate show.

And James wasn't kidding.

Lots of monologues in it.

So brush off your monologue remembering thing.

But I do also want to remind people

that who have not heard him.

And I've talked about this a little bit on director's cut

and that sort of thing.

That this is a multi-media production.

It's not a straight stage show,

which means that there will be some voiceover recordings.

There will be some video.

We're going to do a little film, hopefully,

that our good friends over at Wisconsin Raps Community.

Media are going to help us with.

So I'm really excited about it.

And come on down.

We have, like I said, there's only four roles.

But it's going to be an experience.

And even if you've had theater before,

I hope it's something that's a little bit different for you.

Should be a different experience to view as an audience,

but as well.

That is absolutely true.

If you look at the very beginning of the thing,

the Tennessee Williams had a little introduction to it.

And he says, this is a memory play.

It's supposed to be like you're remembering something.

It's not supposed to be something that happened necessarily.

It's how you remember it.

So I'm kind of taking that and running with it.

So it's got the opening monologue is one of my top 10 favorite monologues.

I've ever read it.

It's a beautiful stuff.

It really is.

Shout out to the candle in the window.

They wrapped up their production this weekend.

Big thank you to them and every cast member.

They're everybody behind the stage.

Of course, Deb directing.

Nice work, everybody.

Her great things about that job.

Yeah, they did a great job.

I got to see it on Thursday night last week.

And it was, it was a really cute show.

Very cool.

Yeah, get your tickets and find out more

at wrctheater.org.

wrctheater.org.

Gonna get to our state and local news.

We'll come back with more fun on the morning show here at WFHR.

Locally grown radio.

Welcome back, everyone.

Silver bells.

Silver bells.

It's Christmas time in the city.

Ring the link.

Hear them raise.

It's a puzzle look on James' face.

I'm enjoying it.

I know, I know that voice.

And I know it's a country voice.

It is.

We already heard it in this morning.

Yeah, we did.

Singing in Christmas song.

We did.

Is that Alan Jackson?

That's Alan Jackson.

That's Alan Jackson.

Yeah, where was it?

Where was it?

This is the green one.

It is the green one.

Yeah, we got it.

Now it's our first one.

I got points.

I don't get on points.

You're right.

Melissa leads the points category here.

Seth is a close second.

But I'm way down.

I'm pretty sure I'm a negative point somehow.

I don't even mean negative.

Well, it doesn't make sense.

I can track it this.

I'm the one that's doing it.

How do I get it?

We got some fun stuff to get into.

On Friday, we're going to the James gang back together again.

Melissa, Seth and I will be hanging out on Friday's episode.

Yeah, episode.

Yeah, that's right.

Do I have that right?

Okay.

You got it right, yes.

On Friday, I want to get into this one.

I want to save this.

The 10-oddest Guinness World Records of the year.

Oh, that's a good one.

That's kind of one of our real hosts.

We have to cover that.

Yes, we do.

We have to do.

So we'll get into that on Friday.

We got a little more time.

For now, I thought this was kind of interesting,

especially this time of year,

where it is so important.

If you are, if you were sick, stay home.

It's very, very important.

And I'm not saying this.

I'm not pointing the finger at anybody.

I'm one of the most guilty people in the world of this.

Unless I'm in an iron lung, I'm finding the way to get here.

Right.

But that's, I think that that comes from good intentions.

I think that comes from a good work ethic for a lot of us.

But it's also something that we kind of have to correct

going forward here.

Because you may have the best end of intentions,

but you may be getting your fellow employees sick.

And that's not good either.

Yeah, I have all the love in the world

from my fellow workaholics out there

until you start hurting other people.

You can't do that.

So that's something to keep in mind.

And it's also interesting, this angle of it.

It's that time of year when you see someone blowing their nose

and think, oh, no, I hope I don't catch that.

For me, it's the rubbing of the nose on the sleeve

or something like that.

Now, that's not necessarily a mental thing.

It could be an actual biological response.

According to new research,

just seeing someone who's sick can trigger a protective response

in a healthy person's body.

It could be the body's way of preparing to fight off potential threats.

Totally makes sense.

We do this with physical things all the time.

You hear a loud noise that you didn't expect.

And you immediately react like you're defensive

or protecting yourself or something like that.

Our bodies are doing that internally.

That's fascinating to me.

In studies, animals who interacted with sick people

actively activated their immune systems

and even changed the way they produce eggs.

Oh, wow.

As if their bodies were trying to protect them

from before they even got sick.

How about that?

Oh, just fascinating.

Yeah, fascinating.

Man, it's just fascinating.

Researchers hope that they can learn more

about these protective responses

and find out if they can help

in guarding us against infections.

Wow, how about that?

You can find out more at studyfines.com, studyfines.com.

There's also some really cool.

If you are one of these like myself

and I follow a lot of virus hunters,

I find that very, very fascinating

and interesting and some of...

Now, this I will use the word brave.

I don't throw that word around

and these are brave human beings.

These are incredible human beings.

Yeah, that's...

They're going around.

Dangerous so we have studied here.

Without these individuals,

we don't make it out of the pandemic as like we do.

And I'm not making light of what we lost,

but it could have been worse.

Yes.

There's a parallel angle of this

where there's barely any of us left.

And this goes back to the plagues.

I'm going to say this is like a bubonic plague

kind of thing.

These virus...

Or even the 1918 Spanish variant

that decimated the population of Billy.

And other places too.

Yeah, great, very important note.

Without these researchers,

without this work that's being done on this field,

we would be so behind on this subject.

It's fascinating.

And then to hear these other parts of it,

where we're learning so much from the animal kingdom

about how our own bodies work

and how they can respond to things.

Right, that's fascinating to me too.

Well, we're all mammals,

you know, because that's what they study it on.

So there's gotta be certain traits that are similar.

And yes, we're all very, very different.

You know, all the species are very different from each other.

But that's...

To me, it's really fascinating that it's still...

Still, all the things we're discovering.

Yeah, about us.

In this day and age,

we still have so much we don't know about, you know,

why the body does this,

or why the brain does that,

or all these sorts of things.

And it's so interesting as we learn more and more.

Well, we're not cookie cutter, you know,

replications of each other.

Everybody is different.

I watched a wonderful special

on the Yucatan Peninsula this weekend.

And it's fascinating.

If you don't know much about that,

it's, I got it's so cool.

It's so interesting.

The history behind it and everything.

Asteroid hits thousands of years ago.

We get the Yucatan rainforest from this event.

All these thousands of years later and all that.

And the ecosystems that are going on in there and everything.

It's just really interesting.

But one of the cool parts of this to me

is the evolution that we have made from this

and how we've evolved on this planet from these things.

It's just, it's a wild ride, man.

Yeah, it really is.

It's a beautiful wild ride.

It's crazy.

And it is one of, it's one of those things too,

where I think that science like gives you the,

the thumbs up like that you thought,

something you felt like you couldn't prove was true.

Like science goes, yeah, you were right.

Yeah, anytime you see somebody cough and you think this

and you feel this, it's not just that you're big.

And like you, you know, you're not being...

Not being a germaphogue.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just, well, it's an instinctual protection.

Yeah, even flipping the script and saying, you know,

something that, you know, everyone thought was true.

But, oh, look, it's not...

That's, to me, that's just his interest.

Yes.

It's like, wow, why did we think that for so long?

And then it's like, oh, no.

From learning that, you know,

wearing garlic around your neck does not actually protect you

from the flu, but eating it can help your immune system.

Isn't that fascinating?

I know, wow.

That's, that's, that's something like that.

I used to always throw out there when this subject would come up.

Well, we used to put leeches on ourselves at everything.

But that actually has some true history to us.

It does.

And there's pain from some.

There's still some...

There is a medical, yeah.

You could still use it sometimes.

Yeah.

Occasionally, they still use them.

Wild, beautiful ride.

We will take a break.

We'll come back with some good stories of the day.

Some local stuff for you.

Plenty more.

It's Seth, Melissa.

And James, taking you through your morning here at WFHR.

Well, come back, everyone.

Morning show here at WFHR,

locally grown radio.

Melissa, Seth and James with you.

My wife just turned off the radio.

She hates it's on.

We set it right up during the break.

A great question.

We're going to have to get to this week.

You get one Christmas song.

Yeah, we'll get into that one.

Oh, yeah, we got to get into that one.

A poll question, yeah.

I don't want to send a shout out to Brittany.

You have to hear Brittany do the weather very much at everything.

Brittany and I were talking a little bit over the weekend.

And looking forward to her joining us soon here on the radio.

We're going to talk more about that coming up this week.

We'll let you guys know.

But get used to hearing Brittany.

And I like the way she did that.

I like the way she's very good.

She's very good, yes.

Let's put some energy to it.

A lot of flair.

Yeah, I like that.

That's fun.

Looking forward to talking with Brittany more.

I want to get into this, that any right story, though.

Last December, a man in Florida was arrested after trying to shop live

from a Walmart while the store was hosting a shop with a cop event.

Which included around 40 officers, all standing there,

just waiting for this poor gentleman.

But not poor gentleman, but this gentleman.

She is.

Yeah, yeah.

Poor planning.

Criminal mastermind.

Yeah, right.

I meant to say poor planners.

What I was trying to say there, yeah.

This time, it was a 62-year-old woman in Michigan.

Oh, no.

She was caught trying to shop live last Saturday while the store was hosting

its shop with a cop event, where this time 75 officers

were shopping with young children.

Wow.

A Walmart employee.

You got to be pretty blind to not notice that many officers in the store.

I don't even know how to wrap my brain around this one.

Like a Walmart employee noted one of the cops that they saw a woman

stealing more than $700 in merchandise.

Oh my gosh.

So the trooper just followed her out to her vehicle,

which was parked next to all the other patrol vehicles outside

in the parking lot.

She even parked next to the other officer's cars.

Nothing set up a flag?

None of this?

Oh my.

I mean, I genuinely, if I was one of those officers,

as I'm cuffing her and everything, I'm like, look, I got to ask.

Did you want to get caught?

No, I just between us.

I got to know.

I got to know.

$700 from the merchandise.

Like, I thought at first when I was first reading the story,

okay, she's stealing stuff, but she's doing nonchalant.

Maybe a couple of things here and there.

$700 worth of stuff.

I'm surprised that she didn't like ask one of the office,

like she's standing next to the office.

Like, could you scoot over a little bit

of trying to grab something?

Could you just move a little?

Can you help me carry this out to my car?

Right.

Yeah.

Like, what are we doing?

I do actually, though, there is inside of this negative bad story

of the day, I think is a good story, where, you know,

officers don't have enough, like, book breaks or enough laughter

in their jobs.

I hope they got a laugh out of this.

Every now and then, you get a story like this.

No one's hurt.

You know, there's some life threatening or anything like that.

It's just people, for whatever reason,

doing something they shouldn't.

Well, and then the fun part for the cop

of calling it into dispatch themselves.

Yes, yes.

We're already on site.

We got the woman in custody.

We got the merchandise right here.

No need to put out an APB.

We're all here because we're literally all here.

All of us.

Every officer.

Do they do rock paper scissors to see who gets the bust?

Do they, I mean, I don't know.

I don't know.

Did you see her in there?

Did you see it?

I don't know.

I don't know.

She was arrested and taken to jail.

Of course.

I hope she gets the help she needs.

Yeah, no kidding.

You know, there's an underlying reason why people set for some.

Why stealing happens.

So, oh boy, I feel like I'm the one that usually has to say

that I appreciate you mentioning that, Melissa.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you.

We need to, we need to be fair.

Yeah, I did want to get to some local good stories of the day

and one of those happens to be our line up of the week.

We got some great guests joining us on Midday magazine.

Before that, though, of course, we got playmakers today from three to four.

Be sure to join us.

It's our sports talk show.

You call up and join the conversation.

Whatever you want to talk about.

We're looking forward to getting into.

Got some river kings to talk about this weekend.

Plenty of other sports topics we want to get into.

We want to talk about what you want to.

With our friends at Quality Plus Printing,

who sponsor playmakers,

every Monday, three to four, be sure to join us for that.

Tomorrow, midday magazine, in part one,

Alison Darylens Ashley Hagenau will join us.

Yay!

Wonderful.

Ashley joined us on the morning show here a little while back

and look forward to her being able to spend a little more time with her

and talk a little bit more about the great, great products

that Alison Darylens program promotes through Wisconsin here.

Actually, it's great too.

She's got a lot of conversation.

That's going to be great.

In part two, we'll catch up with the United Way

and Ben Eberley and going to join us.

Oh, good old man.

On Wednesday, Mayor, Wisconsin Rabbits Mayor Shane Blazer will be with us.

Always look forward to it.

Got to talk to him while you can.

Exactly.

He's going out a few months.

Yeah.

We'll be talking about that along with plenty of other things going on in our community.

And speaking of that, we have Wisconsin Rabbits Community Media

into record, looking forward to it.

In part two, Amy Shide from the Family Center

being with us.

Always look forward to talking with our friends at the Family Center.

Yeah.

Thursday, we're going to Rome, visit Rome.

Looking forward to that.

Love focusing on the Rome area.

In part two, we'll talk with four-h,

assistant Jasmine Carbohol.

Oh.

Talk a little more.

She's always fun to talk to her friends.

Yeah, she's very important.

She's got some great stuff.

Yeah, that's going to be a really good one.

Friday, our friends at the Aging and Disability Resource Center,

Kim Inda, going to be with us.

Nice.

We love talking with our ADRC and Kim's fantastic.

That's a lot of fun.

And in part two, we'll wrap up the week of Midday Magazine

with Wisconsin Rabbits Public Schools Superintendent Craig

Braun.

All right.

Hey.

Craig's been doing this thing where he's

been bringing in local grade school principles.

I know that's been so cool.

It's been a lot of fun.

It's been a lot of fun.

We'll look forward to see who our guests will be this Friday.

And this leads up to over a great weekend of lineups.

And then, you know, starting up, coming up, starting

at noon on Sunday, 30 hours of Christmas.

It's back.

It is back.

Yeah.

Looking forward to that.

Hard to believe that's here already.

I know.

Wow.

We have some local grade events going on,

including a community blood drive going on tomorrow.

Yes.

It actually starts today.

And tomorrow, you were right on both counts.

Actually a little different because of the holiday.

So they had to switch it up a little bit.

So today, from two to seven at the former East Junior High

School, room 111 at 311 Lincoln Street in Wisconsin

Rabbits is the first part.

And then tomorrow, from 10 to 3, same location,

same everything.

They will be doing the same thing just a couple days in a row

to make sure they get it all in.

I call 866, 566, 5900 for an appointment, which

are, of course, encouraged.

The Blood Center of North Central Wisconsin

is the primary supplier of blood to a Spirits River View

hospital.

But it walkins, of course, are also welcome.

So take your time today, everyone.

Or tomorrow and get it in.

It's a great way to give, not only it's a season of giving,

right?

Another great way to do it.

And if you can't do it Monday or Tuesday,

you can do it Wednesday at the McMillan Library

from 10 to 3, the Red Cross is holding a blood drive there.

Nicely done.

Lots of opportunities.

Our friends in the Seavis Point Blood Donation Center,

the next couple of days, also from noon to 7,

going to be taking donations over in the point area.

Keep that in mind.

And thank you to everybody that is out there donating

you heroes.

We appreciate every one of you.

Yes.

A couple of great local concerts going on.

One of them happening tonight at Lincoln High School Orchestra

concert at 7 o'clock at the Performing Arts Center.

Nice.

Very good.

We're looking for our kids.

Yeah, support our kids, taking a great show

in a great atmosphere.

The pack is a wonderful place to see any show.

I want to play on that stage so bad.

Check out the kids.

Lincoln High School Orchestra concert tonight at 7

at the Performing Arts Center.

Be sure to check that out.

Everybody encourage you to do that.

All right.

And also Alexander Middleschool and Nicosah High School

have their choir concert going on tonight at 6.30.

And their high school auditorium.

And be sure to check.

Get your holiday cheer.

Yeah, again, the Nicosah area, our listeners out there,

Alexander Middleschool and Nicosah High School Choir Concert

tonight, 6.30 in their high school auditorium.

And we want to mention something else, Seth, coming up.

Yep, on Wednesday, which is the shortest day of the year,

just remember that, or the longest night of the year

at the Meravian Church in Wisconsin Rapids,

the Blue Christmas Worship Service.

Gonna be starting at about 6 p.m.

This worship is designed to recognize our grief

and struggles even in the midst

of the most wonderful time of the year.

During the service, we will recognize those

whom we have lost, the struggles we are facing

and having an opportunity to be supported in prayer.

You are invited to bring a picture

or some other symbol to represent your struggle.