Good morning, Wisconsin. Good morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with us right here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM WF HR locally grown radio.
Melissa and James hanging out with you at 904 on the clock. Good stuff coming up this hour. Gonna get into a bunch of fun things including some that ain't right stories involving our Guinness World Records people.
A candle and like you would never think that a candle light vigil would be and are that ain't right stories but it is.
You got to listen for that one everybody you got to get the follow up on that. That's coming up for you let's kick off the hour with a little bit of entertainment news Melissa and this is kind of interesting to me more has been in the news a little bit more recently with her former husband Bruce Willis and his health condition.
As a side note Bruce Willis I think it was this past weekend his daughter and I think to me was there too took a video of him it was the first time we've heard him speaking and talking since his diagnosis and he sounded look great.
That's good. Unfortunately though those things what he's dealing with you you have these moments of clarity these moments of clearness and it was nice to see him in that moment.
I make no bones about it I'm biased I like Bruce I a big big fan of Bruce Willis and a big fan of Jimmy Morris to be honest I think one of the better actors I've ever seen as far as when when she is at the at her the top of her game.
There are many there aren't many actors to can hang with her. I think when to me I don't know I haven't seen her acting quite some times but back in the day I feel like she could really hold a scene.
Yeah I'd watch a movie just because she's in it. Yeah same here it's the reason I watch GI Jane.
What was was to see her in that performance and I'm really glad I did a great movie really good movie.
Do me more still has those little clay pots she made with Patrick's Wazey 35 years ago and ghost.
Yeah she says they're pitiful and the saddest looking things but you know they need a lot to her.
No pottery wheel takes practice. Yeah quote well the first thing that just popped into my head was meeting Patrick for the first time.
He took his shirt off and I was like okay got it get up behind me go ahead so that was their first scene together.
Oh wow man I didn't know that that's that's got to be a little intimidating that's got to be a little difficult.
Wow and that was the first time they met.
So interestingly and maybe as I tend to do with these things overthink it and everything maybe that I don't know if that was a director's choice or intentional or not.
I don't remember the movie that well but I know they had a relationship before spoiler alert he dies that's where it's got ghost.
If you haven't seen it sorry this movie came out way long time ago.
And if I and if I have this right I believe he's a ghost when he's behind or I think doing the pottery thing or whatever.
So you know they there should be a kind of stiffness to it you would think there should be kind of like an almost uncomfortableness to it.
You wouldn't feel normal doing that unless I guess you experience it all the time I don't know.
Well they were in a relationship so I think that yeah because it's been so long since I've seen it.
I don't remember if that was a ghost scene or not either.
I barely remember will be Goldberg was in that movie.
It was a long time ago.
Well she was a fun part of that.
She was. She was.
Yeah she was great.
And it's kind of cool to think that I always think it's interesting and not most of the time on a set you don't get to keep things.
It doesn't matter who you are you could be there's there's some great stories of George Clooney wanted to keep things from a movie set and they wouldn't let them.
But every once in a while you come across directors or prop people if we're being honest who look the other way.
I don't know what happened here but it's kind of cool to think that she that it meant that much to her that she still has those.
Ryan Gosling in the news after weeks of speculation it is official Ryan Gosling will perform.
I'm just Ken from the Barbie movie at the Oscars.
It was nominated for best original song Ryan is up for best supporting actor.
The first round of Oscar presenters has been announced.
They include Nicholas Cage, Jimmy Lee Curtis, Brendan Frazier, Zendaya, Matthew McConaughey, Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino.
Wow Oscars will air Sunday March 10th at 7 on ABC Jimmy Kimmel is hosting.
Nice.
We will see if I was if the any of my votes mattered.
I don't worry.
It's going to be an interesting year for the Oscars.
I'm curious to see ratings wise how it does and how many people like if they get more eyeballs.
If people are watching because they're hoping to see another situation like last year happen.
Who knows.
I think the percentage of people that tune in for that reason is probably going to be pretty small.
I got it.
It'd be different if the Oscars were a week later.
The momentum was still there and the hype and all that.
These news stories are interesting because they seem to take up so much of a bandwidth and then they're gone.
It feels like it was 20 years ago almost.
Actually, it wasn't even a year ago.
The 24 hour news cycle has our brains completely different than it was when we were kids.
In some ways, yes, but also time is just weird.
Time is a flat circle.
Time does it.
Time is weird.
Should be interesting.
Let's dive into this one, Melissa.
I really want the audience participation in this one.
I practically demand it.
25 424 2600 424 26 island fingers ready.
Ranker dot com people voted for the funniest TV show of all time.
It includes both sitcoms, cartoons and sketch series.
It's a big list.
How can they include cartoons in it too?
I like the attempt, but I don't like a list like this because it just gives too much.
Too broad.
Yeah, way too broad.
And just the subject of comedy is too broad.
Melissa and I have a lot in common, but I guarantee that we're going to laugh at different things given this list here.
There's going to be shows that she likes or I like that the other doesn't.
It's so subjective.
It's part of the reason why I think comedy is maybe the most interesting to me.
Yeah, and the most universal.
Yeah, of any of the arts when it comes to, if you can make somebody laugh,
I think that's one of the greatest skills you can have in existence.
Let's take a look at this list for the heck of it and we'll tear it apart.
But we do encourage your feedback.
We'd like your list.
And you don't have to give us a list necessarily.
Give us a couple of your, you think are the greatest comedies of all time.
And it doesn't matter.
Obviously, this is wide open.
So it could be a sketch show.
It could be a cartoon.
It could be a TV show.
It's your list.
Make it however you want.
Looking at their list at number 20.
I'm going to go through like five and then we'll go ahead and dissect.
How about that?
Okay. Sounds good.
So future drama, home improvement, Chappelle show, Malcolm, Malcolm in the middle,
arrested development and Mr. Bean are the 15 through 20.
Wow.
Those are also, I mean, some of them are similar to each other.
The rest of development, Malcolm in the middle, like the similar type of show.
Sure.
Yeah, sitcoms.
Yeah.
But I don't know.
I'd have to pick Mr. Bean.
Yeah.
I love all of those.
This is probably my top.
Rowan Atkinson is an institution.
He should be preserved and saved for future generations.
I wonder how you feel about that.
Yeah.
I don't know how he'd feel about that.
Yeah.
And he should be knighted.
And how does that compare with future drama?
It doesn't.
And no more than it does.
You can't compare the Chappelle show to future drama.
I like both those shows, but they don't add up.
I will say I immediately dislike this list because to me, arrested development
is a top five comedy of all time.
Like just to me.
And I haven't seen it.
So I can't weigh in on that one.
For what it's worth, I've got a handful of our civic media brethren behind behind me on that one.
Shout out, Rebecca.
We're thinking of you.
14 through 10.
Let's look at those.
We got the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Seinfeld, Tom and Jerry, family guy, and married with children.
A crazy list.
Whoa.
Like Seinfeld is.
Many people out there consider Seinfeld.
They top three if not number one comedy of all time.
So to see that at 13 is interesting.
Tom and Jerry is just weird to see on this list.
I think against it, I grew up loving Tom and Jerry too, but.
Well, it's a comedy, yes.
I don't know.
I don't think you'd watch both Tom and Jerry and the children.
I don't even know.
I don't even know if you'd go from Tom and Jerry to family guy, you know, two cartoons back to back.
I don't even know if you do that.
Well, family guy is not exactly a children's cartoon.
No, no, it is not.
By any stretch of the imagination.
Some might say it's not even suitable for adults.
Correct.
I was never a big fan of family guy.
Yeah, I should admit too.
The first couple of seasons I watched it was okay.
I think Stewie and Brian were kind of funny, but.
I like Stewie, and that's about it.
Yeah, same here.
But honestly, it's, and if you like it, you like it.
But if you've seen one episode, you've seen them all.
It's not one of those shows to me where they do something any, every episode is, you know, the same formula.
Over and over and over.
It's one thing when a cartoon, the characters, we expect them to wear the same outfit in every episode.
I don't expect the same writing and jokes.
And that got really old to me quick.
Let's see from number, and Mary to a children is the biggest game changer of any comedy.
You can make the argument in history TV history.
Well, that's the one that really showed family dynamics as they are.
Or were at the time versus this picture perfect.
You know, the parents sleep in separate beds and the kids don't do anything wrong.
Yeah.
It was, it let normal families, like my, you know, and I say normal as in, like, just everyday families.
Representation.
Yeah, yeah.
It made us feel like we were, you know, we were so weird.
We didn't, you know, hey, it turns out our neighbors that we don't even know are probably just like us.
Out of that list, I choose Tom and Jerry.
It's a good one.
It's a good one.
And then we're top, the, the marriage of children is a number 10.
So the top nine here, it goes modern family, parks and wrecks.
Whose line is it anyway?
The Simpsons, South Park, Brooklyn 9.9, Looney Tunes.
And then the top two, it's always sunny in Philadelphia and the office.
Hmm.
That's just a wild list.
Looney Tunes is an institution.
I don't know many people that didn't grow up, at least seeing a little bit of Looney Tunes in their lives.
Yeah, mm-hmm.
Especially our age group, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.
Whose line is it anyway is, is completely different than any of these other 20 shows, I think.
And it's one of my favorites.
I think that one.
Love that show.
Love that show.
Everything I said about it.
The British version of it is, is my personal preference, but.
Hmm.
I do like the British version.
The reason I love the American version is Colin and Ryan.
Ryan Stiles, Colin, those two.
Well, Wayne Brady.
Wayne Brady's amazing.
Wayne Brady is one of the most talented human beings I've ever seen.
I love those guys.
Those guys are amazing.
I'll watch them inside it out.
Any type.
Those guys are great.
I obviously am known for being a big fan of the Simpsons, so I will move on from that.
I do think it's always sunny and Philadelphia is the closest thing to kind of married with children ask where.
I love that show.
I've seen every single episode.
I am a big fan of the creators of that show, Charlie Day in particular.
There's nothing redeemable about any of those characters.
Every, every, every one of those characters, you're just watching basically because it just you're cringing.
You can't look away from the train wreck.
Kind of thing.
It's almost.
Yeah, it's kind of like that.
And I don't know why.
I continue to watch it sometimes, but I can't help.
I love the show.
I love the actors on it.
Ellen, I've been told by my brother and I trust his opinion on this that I absolutely should watch Parks and Rec.
Just I haven't had the option of the platform to watch it on.
I will second that.
I think you would love it.
I've also been pushing our friend Terry John's to watch it for a long time, but I don't know.
All right.
Terry, watch party.
Your name.
We're going to binge it.
Okay, girl.
Yes.
I think it's a really cool show.
And one of the best casts in TV history, Amy Polar.
I, the only reason I don't say Amy Polar's the funniest person on the planet is because of Tina Fey.
I think I think at a given day, you could get me, you could make the argument in my head that one's ahead of the other.
I don't know.
But I, what I really love about that show is her and Nick Offerman's relationship and the dynamic there of
a man and woman in the workforce and guess in just friendship.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's never once.
Maybe, maybe in the first season or two, some people might have, but I personally, I never wondered,
oh, will they won't they kind of thing?
Like, you had our whole lives growing up in TV shows.
I like that.
And I think we need more of it.
Not, not for a lot of like social reasons.
Sure.
But also, how about just original storytelling?
Like, how about just getting away from boy meets girl boy loses girl boy gets girl back?
Like, just getting away from that from a little bit.
Yeah.
We got a lot of that out there.
Maybe have more representation of normal relationships in our lives.
Yes.
Yeah.
And normalize that because I don't think that that, and we've obviously, we've touched on this before,
but it does need to be normalized.
Yeah.
Feel free for the whole hour here to call up and give us your favorite comedies, everybody.
715-424-2600.
Melon, I'll be right back with more fun and more conversation.
On the morning show at WFHR.
How sweet it is to be loved by you.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show at WFHR.
How sweet it is to be loved by you.
Melissa and James, here with you and then James.
James.
Yeah, James Taylor plays.
All the James's are here.
We've got a whole fleet of them behind me right now.
Just ready to step in in case we need to James.
You got to know when you might need to James.
We don't have a James.
We have a Steve coming to town.
How sweet it is.
Steve Leslie sings James Taylor.
Be sure to get your tickets for this show.
It's coming up next Thursday, March 7th at 730.
Right here at the Performing Arts Center in Wisconsin Rapids.
Be sure to check it out.
This Grammy award winning songwriter and recording artist Steve Leslie performs
Music of James Taylor in an authentic and spellbinding concert event.
You want to be a part of this, everybody.
Get your tickets right now.
And keep on listening.
We may be giving some away.
Big shout out to our friends at Save of the Arts.
Get your tickets at Saveofthearts.com.
Saveofthearts.com.
Melissa, I wanted to touch on this one.
And I'll be honest, I'm shoe horning it in right now.
But I wanted to do it before our news break.
And I do think it is newsworthy.
The good news network.org as I learn to talk.
Clarke Miss County in Oregon, which contains the city of Portland in it,
has reduced the rate of homelessness by 65% from 2019 to 2023.
65%.
That's huge.
A number that officials say reflect a more comprehensive strategy when it comes to this subject.
According to Clarke's Miss County quarterly report on the support of housing services,
or SHS, the county has rehoused 314 people in six months.
429 people and 223 unhoused, sorry, homeless households were placed in permanent support of housing,
exceeding the stated goal for the period by 20.
Wow.
Quote, just over the last couple of months,
we've placed 30 households in the Rapid Rehousing Program
through the support of housing services, says Melissa Elberbaum, executive director of the Clarke's Miss Women Services.
We're doing amazing work in partnership with the county.
According to KATU News, officials also said that in the report that the SHS prevented 1,369 people
and added is one of the chief strategies for reducing the number of homelessness on the street,
providing assistance to people on the precipice of homelessness.
I kept them from being evicted, wow.
Not just helping people that aren't unhoused, but people that are right on the cusp,
something we touched on earlier, and we've had many conversations about with our United Way's ALS report and many other things.
Yeah.
The permanent support of housing is another component of the approach, detailed in the report, the officers of the combination.
This offers the combination of permanent personal space and social services necessary to help those who have experienced homelessness to stabilize things.
Hmm.
Yeah, because it's not just, you know, people who are homeless don't always choose that.
You know, there are some who choose that lifestyle.
I don't think the majority of them do.
No, no, not only does the stats show at this, but I know in my life experiences that that's showing me this,
whether it's, you know, homeless people that I grew up around when I was a kid or it's the many that I ran into when I was out in San Francisco.
And I spent a couple of months when I was living on California homeless.
I lived on the beach pretty much and ran into quite a few people in those regards.
And not I would say that if you told me that I've met over 200 homeless people in my life,
I would think that that was a low number, but okay.
And I would say out of those 200, none of them have I met that said,
this is where I want to be in life.
Or I chose this path.
Not a single one of them.
The majority of them are veterans.
The majority of them that I met.
The other majority of them I would say are people that were either in addiction or had life snowball on them.
That one financial disaster.
I remember a person who told me their car broke down on their way to work.
And before they knew it, they were out of work.
Yeah.
It speaks to that.
It also speaks to something that interestingly, I think of Sheriff Becker when I'm thinking of,
because this approach of that we've gotten away from since the 80s of,
hey, we want to fix this, we got the solution.
This one thing, you know, that's going to fix it.
The drugs are bad, just say no.
That'll do it. That'll fix it.
Wait, what? No? Didn't do it?
Come on.
We said no. We tried.
No, it takes more effort than that to make real change to make things happen.
And it gives you two stories right there.
One, you get the difference of the people that actually do want to make a difference
and the people just talking loud and saying nothing.
And you also actually get change happening when you take approach when you have patience.
I think if you look at all of the elements that go into it,
the social determinants of health.
This isn't a TV dinner.
We're not going to get it in two minutes.
It's going to take time to fix this situation.
And it's in part because of something that you were touching on earlier, Melissa,
with the difference in income and the top 1% and the rest of us and everything.
That is a big part of where this stems from.
Yeah.
And then our housing situation.
We don't have.
We have an affordable housing crisis in not only this state, but in this country.
Yeah.
I think of Sheriff Becker in part because he's one of the people that I admire
and that has taken his position and done some good with it, I believe.
And I think this community in county believes they sure have, they voted for him.
He didn't get the job because he got a great smile although it does.
He got good smile.
When it comes to making real change, people were tired of crime in this community.
People were tired of addiction in this community.
Okay. How do you fix it?
We got the answer.
Make bail bonds higher and give them a life sentence in jail for this and that and everything.
Well, we did that. We tried that.
Guess what? It didn't stop a dang thing.
Nobody has ever been prevented from committing a crime because bail bonds went up
or because you added five more years on to a sentence.
It happens when, why did you do this?
Right.
What were you trying to accomplish?
And when people are incarcerated, given them opportunities to better themselves,
when they come out into society, they are a good taxpayer and then the walk in the line and all that.
You have to give them the tools to be able to accomplish life.
You know, as opposed to treating the symptoms, you have to treat the source.
And to the portion of society, and it's a small one out there,
that agrees to the old style of things.
Well, I grew up this way and that's how I learned and everything.
Just torture penalties.
Times change, man.
We're not using coal anymore either.
We're learning that some of those approaches don't work.
Yeah.
At the same time, I don't think anybody, myself and Melissa, included,
are saying that people deserve a pet.
You know, hey, it's going to be okay.
You know, just a little pet on the back.
You go right back into society, do your thing.
They make bad choices.
Hell no.
They deserve to pay for those bad choices.
That's true.
Accountability is everything.
Accountability is incredibly important in life.
And we have lost sight of that, where doubling down is the new accountability.
Instead of actually owning, like owning that you've made a mistake or that you are wrong.
No, I just doubled down now.
Proactive, not reactive.
I say we got a quick giving power and voice to people that do this.
That don't have any accountability.
You really want to make a difference in society.
We got to get rid of a lot of that.
That isn't helping anybody except that person.
The only person who benefits in that situation is that person.
Everybody else, they don't care about.
They show it by not having accountability.
Yeah.
That's incredible to our amazing advertisers.
That's...
And our partners in our local community.
We appreciate them.
It's a segue.
We're going to get to our state and local news right now.
But before we do, I do want to send a shout out to the Good News Network for that article.
I encourage people to learn more about this and look into that more.
Shout out to Andy Corbley for the great reporting of GetGoodNewsNetwork.org.
GoodNewsNetwork.org.
And I'd also like to throw out a quick shout out to the Healthy People Wood County for putting on the wood.
Healthy People Wood County for putting on the Wood County Health Summit.
Housing Summit.
That's happening.
I believe you can still register or maybe they close registration.
But you should keep a lookout for it because it's going to be an interesting conversation that happens.
Yeah, I've got it in our good news stories of the day, Melissa.
So we will give the details of that before we wrap up today.
Yes, we will cover it.
And coming up right now, state and local news covering a lot for us right here on WFHR, locally grown radio.
Welcome back everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa and James here with you, I almost called myself Seth.
That's not good.
That doesn't seem to boat well for the rest of the day for me.
Or it could be the end of the morning.
Let's have some fun here, Melissa.
I'm not going to lie to the audience.
It's going to be a little tough on this one.
It may seem like a lot of these things that the middle class already can't afford.
But someone asked finance experts to name things.
People in the middle class won't be able to afford in the next five years.
And I feel like this kind of piggybacks off of the conversation and theme we've been touching on today.
So let's dive into this.
And I want, again, audience participation.
Everybody got, I mean, years and years ago, Melissa, we handed out a play at home versions of the morning show.
So you guys got this at home.
You can call up and join the conversation.
715-424-2600.
If you're listening on the Civic Media app, you're just a toucher tool away.
Number one in this list, extended family vacations, especially trips overseas.
But even just taking a week off to go to the beach is hard for a lot of people nowadays.
That is very true.
And I was actually just recently reading about other countries in their view on paid time off.
If you ask somebody in Europe or Australia what they consider a normal amount of time off is,
it's like three to five weeks that they get off in a year from their job.
And you tell them what Americans get and they're just astonished.
Yeah.
I've never known anything like that.
So there's no getting used to not having that for me and my family necessarily.
That's true for so many Americans.
That's the thing.
They don't get any time off.
New cars.
Prices have gone up significantly in the past five years and it looks like that trend will probably continue.
And you probably don't want to buy a new car because the engines keep failing.
And to be honest, when I look at like if I like jeeps.
So if I look at a Jeep from the early odds and a Jeep in 2024 or 2025, most of the time the only difference is a bunch of tech that I don't really care about anyway.
So computer chips to fail on you.
I mean, if they start making a vehicle, this vehicle cannot turn over.
This vehicle cannot get in an accident or something like like, okay, now we're talking.
No, no.
Versus you can't fix this vehicle at your house because it's got too much tech.
Yeah, not to mention you can't fix this your local, you know, handyman or your local mechanic can't even.
You got to run it over.
You take it back over to the dealership.
Right.
New cars have always been overrated to me.
I'm sorry.
As soon as you drive them off a lot, they drop in value.
And that to me just adds to my point.
I mean, unless you just you're really trying to put on airs or you really want to show off to the Joneses or something.
I don't see the need for a new car when there's millions of used vehicles out there that are perfectly fine.
Somebody has to buy the new car James.
Otherwise, they don't get old.
Well, and I mean, that's also part of the reason why the prices have gone up is that kind of thinking too, along with a lot of other factors.
Private school, the rise in tuition is far outpacing gains and income.
Yeah.
And now I will say that I do find I do think that there are a lot more scholarship opportunities nowadays.
And there are a lot more a lot more things than when you and even when you and I were kids.
My little brother is in his 30s.
But when Nick wanted to go from Lincoln to assumption, there was no way my family could afford that.
But he got scholarships and was able to.
I know that there are some of those.
At the same time, you know, I don't think it takes a lot of overthinking to realize that this is something that just like these other factors are going a little bit more and more to the wayside where private schools are probably just going to be filled with the top 1% kids.
If they aren't already.
I have a lot of mixed feelings about private schools having attended them myself.
I don't think they are and this is just speaking to my own experience.
I think that there are some things that happen in private schools that shouldn't.
I think that there are things that people aren't aware of.
Like you automatically, oh, you went to private school.
Well, that's, you know, how great for you that must have been so amazing.
Not always true.
And the level of education that you receive in a private school isn't maybe, you know, maybe it's great.
Maybe it's not.
How do you know?
Who's overseeing that?
That's questionable.
And this is all my personal experience.
I'm not speaking to all private schools because obviously I don't know.
I only attended a couple of them.
But I do think that education is something that we need to be paying attention to.
And I think public education is crucial and important to the future of our nation.
Hmm.
Yeah. Well said.
Number three, I thought you had something else.
Sorry.
I was getting off myself.
No, no, no, no.
It was great.
There are other things I don't need to say.
I'm going to help.
I'll just go ahead and keep going.
Thank you.
Enjoying retirement.
People who retire in the next five years might need to really reign in, reign things in
to make sure that they don't blow through their savings, especially because we're living longer than we used to.
So I think that that latter part there shouldn't be taken lightly.
The fact that we are living longer.
Credit, you know, thank you, science.
That's a great puzzle.
And medical advancements.
That's great.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, just being blunt, I think I've said this before, I don't even think about retirement.
I'm half at the thought of retirement.
Yeah.
I have my entire life.
It's like I'll never be able to retire.
Yeah.
At most I can hope for a three day weekend every week.
You know, maybe I can go down to four days a week working.
Right.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, yeah.
Same boat here.
Same exact thought here.
And I've never spent one day of my life thinking about what I do in retirement.
It just doesn't seem like a luxury.
I got things to do.
I got work to do.
I can't afford to be thinking about it.
That's not right.
And sadly, you can't afford to not be thinking about it.
Because there will come a day when you won't be able to work.
Right, right.
Which.
And then what?
Yeah, yeah.
Then you're in the situation that so many of our fellow Americans are in.
And then we wrap up with homes.
Especially in cities and other high demand areas.
It's just harder to afford a home now than it has ever been before.
There's this romantic, this romanticized idea of the way things were.
And the American dream.
Yeah.
And that that was attainable for anybody.
Yeah.
And not only that Melissa, but attainable for anybody at any point in human history.
And American history, I should say.
Now, was it for some parts of America, for some families in America, for some people in America?
Yeah.
But it's two different Americas here.
We're talking about.
Because there's the other portion of society that never experienced this idea of, well, my, you know what?
Mom and dad are going to give me their car when I turn 16 and they'll buy a new car.
And, you know, they're going to, when we're, when me and so and so get married,
they're going to give us this or what have you.
Like those days, I don't know if they ever existed for a lot of our, or a lot of American families.
Not people who grew up in generational poverty, no way.
Yeah.
So this, this romanticized idea of, of that is not necessarily something that's ever been the case
or attainable for a lot of people out there.
It doesn't mean that there's, I don't mean that, that say that there's anything wrong with that dream.
I just think that the dream, there's nothing, it's not the dream that there's something wrong with.
It's the way that the system and the way that we're doing things, we've obviously done it wrong.
I don't know how, unless you're in the top 1%, I don't know how you can think we've done this right.
And, and that's just taking accountability.
When you love things, you hold them accountable.
I love this country.
I'm proud of being from this country.
I, because of that, I hold it accountable.
If I didn't give a damn, then I wouldn't care.
And that's not love.
That's not, that's not true.
To me, to me, just my opinion, that's not true, being a true American.
Accountability is a huge part of being an American if you ask me.
And I don't think I'm alone in that one.
I agree.
And for people to, as you said, it's always good to have dreams.
And it's always good to work towards those dreams.
But dreams do take work.
You have to put the work in.
Yeah, yeah, I suppose.
Although, unless we come up with a cool invention, Melissa.
Yeah, sure.
I haven't thought about that in a while.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
We should work on that.
Look, I mean, come on.
How hard could it be?
Right?
I agree.
And check back in with us five months later.
There's nothing new under the sun, James.
No, no, unfortunately.
And just to backtrack a little bit, you know, to touch back on private schools for one moment,
there are a lot of good private schools.
There are a lot of amazing teachers in private schools.
But some of my issues with them are lack of oversight in what I experienced.
But I am not speaking ill of private schools or people who attend them or people who work in them.
You know, I have nothing but respect for teachers, especially people who have a passion
for teaching young people and for enriching their lives and their futures.
I taught at a private school.
Do I think that what I gave those children education wise was top notch?
Well, no.
I was an uneducated 18-year-old, you know, having just graduated from high school.
I don't think that I was capable of necessarily giving children what they need for their well-rounded future.
But again, I have nothing but respect for teachers.
And I bet you Melissa that you gave those kids everything you had.
And, you know, you did give them something.
I'm sure you were a good teacher.
Yes.
But I lacked the education that so many teachers have gone to school for and have learned from those that came before them.
You know, and paved the way of what you need to teach young people at certain ages.
I mean, there are so many professionals that have studied this and have built upon what other generations have learned from and done.
Yeah.
Yeah, Ting, you know what, Melissa?
That's a strong point.
I take it back.
You probably were a horrible teacher.
You're probably worth it.
I know one student who really thought, you know, yeah, I've regressed going to this.
She literally said that to us.
Oh, come on.
You can't go.
No, yeah.
That's the right story.
We got more of those coming up for you on the morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Welcome back, everyone.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
There is freedom within.
There is freedom without trying to catch the doubt you should have given me a call.
Don't dream it's over, everybody.
Gotta wrap up the show sometime.
We'll take you to the top of the earth.
It's so bad.
It's so bad.
Take you to the top of the earth, Melissa and I.
We got great stuff coming up throughout our whole day today.
We'll get into some of that lineup in just a little bit.
Doing our mind you that Matt and air on the air coming up right after us.
Be sure to join our friend, Jane.
We look forward to her show coming up.
She's always got such great topics and she's a smart talker.
She's got great guests.
Get some great calls on her show.
You and your exes between her and Greg are pretty.
Yeah, they really are.
I love that show.
I love what they do over there.
Stick around for that coming up just a little bit.
Right now, though, we got to get some of that any right stories.
We got two big ones here, Melissa.
I want to make sure we touch on.
And we've all been about a couple of themes this morning.
One of them has been accountability.
And we are, you know, we don't like to really wrap up our show on a dark note or anything like that.
But I do think that it's important we touch on this, especially how much we touch on the Guinness World Records people.
The Guinness World Records said that it has revoked the title of oldest dog ever for a booby.
A dog who was supposedly 31 when he died in October of 2023.
Mark McKinley, director of records at GWR said booby's title was revoked after an investigation was conducted
in accordance with the record keeping organizations reviews and appeals process.
Quote following concerns raised by vets and other experts, both privately as well as within public commentary
and the findings of investigators conducted by some media outlets,
we felt it is important to ponder view into booby's records.
He said that the investigation found there was insufficient evidence of booby's age.
McKinley said that the evidence submitted by booby for booby's age was all sourced to microchip data from the Portuguese government database
and the probe found booby's microchip was installed in 2022 when Portugal did not require proof of age for dogs.
So there was no way to really prove this.
Okay.
So they just had to take it away from the dog, I guess, the title.
And what were we following this story before?
And the man had a similar dog previous to this dog.
Am I thinking of the right story?
Yep, yep, you are.
Yeah, they just double checked on that before we got going today.
And yep, yep, that is the case.
Some experts had previously expressed skepticism about booby's claimed age as we touched on when we covered the topic before and everything.
So kind of this is the wrap up of that.
But I was trying to find who the dog got the title now though.
And is the dog alive and can the dog celebrate it?
Who's a good boy?
Who's a good boy?
But I couldn't find that data.
But that ain't right, man.
I'm sorry.
I don't know that this stuff's got to be official and everything.
But I mean, I don't know that the dog has his day.
It's a good boy.
It's a good boy.
He's gone now.
What does it matter?
It's a shame.
Well, I guess it matters to the next oldest dog.
It does.
And I'm just teasing.
I do hope that dog had a great life.
I do hope it did.
Oh, I'm sure he did.
No, however long it was.
This one nicely said.
This one is a little like that one right there.
I think is a little of a half that a right story.
This one.
And you can go ahead and get mad at me if you want.
James.Mailoff at civic media.us.
But this one is one of the bigger that a right stories.
I think I've seen.
Fans are former quote unquote fans and former employees of the last hooters
to close its doors in West Virginia.
Oh, boy.
Gathered outside the former restaurant for a candlelight visual ahead of the building's
demolition.
The hooters eatery in Coana City, Charleston, closed during the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020
and never reopened because nobody's going there anymore.
Developers eventually announcing the building would be demolished to make way for a Sheets
gas station.
I said the candlelight visual started out as a joke between friends, but it took off on
social media and hundreds of people showed up, including some former hooters employees turned
out to pay tribute to the restaurant famous for its hot wings and, of course, scantly
dread.
Let's get over this.
Did anybody ever go to hooters for the wings?
Come on.
I'll be honest.
I've only went to one once and I remember the food being terrible.
I was in one hooters.
The one in Madison one time for like a half an hour took forever for us to get our food
out.
It was cold and the wings were horrible.
And if I want to see a pretty girl, I have the internet for God's sake or my eyes for
God's sake.
Or you can just walk through society.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, what do we do it?
Like, there's a reason that these have not like stuck around.
You know, that they're not doing that well.
Nobody's putting money and stock into hooters.
I don't know.
Good riddance.
Good riddance if you asked me.
Agreed.
I don't see the point of this.
Now, I don't...
The very right part to me is I like to think that there are some things in society that we
leave alone.
You know, candlelight vigil is one of those.
I get quite upset about some of these religious groups that there will be a funeral or there
will be a candlelight vigil or something and they will come out and protest when there
are people mourning, when there are people hurting.
I think that that's not only cowardly but on godly and that's just me speaking.
That's personally how I feel.
So, these kind of stories, I feel like are a slope to that.
And I see a connection that I'm not comfortable with.
I don't like.
So, I don't think you just throw these things around.
I do actually think it's a that ain't right story.
Well, and some of these things that start out as jokes and then take off.
Like the one that happened with the Walmart self-checkout employee party.
Yeah.
I thought that one turned into something kind of cool because then they ended up raising,
you know, like getting donations of toys or whatever for charity.
Cool.
What good came out of that particular instance of a candlelight vigil?
The idea of doing this, it brings down with...
So, say in this same town, something happens and they have a candlelight vigil for that.
I feel like this...
It doesn't hit the same.
It doesn't feel the same.
It doesn't mean the same when we use these things.
It cheapens it.
It cheapens it, yes.
So, yeah.
Is it silly?
Am I getting all bent out of shape over nothing?
Probably.
Yeah.
I got a whole heartily admit that.
But I also speak to me in five, ten years from now if something's different with visuals
or these kind of things, you know.
I'd rather get ahead of it and be over, you know, than not.
Why make, you know, something that is supposed to be solemn and something that pays homage
to a sad situation or a tragedy and make a joke of it?
Is that what we want in our society?
Do we want to just make jokes of all of the terrible things in life?
You know, we got to find a silver lining and maybe find a way to laugh and pick ourselves
up, but tragedies are real.
Yeah.
Closing of hooters is not a tragedy.
That's actually...
They should have had a celebration.
Right.
And I want to be extremely clear about this.
I love dark humor.
I am all for dark humor.
That's my wheelhouse.
That's my funny bone.
My funny bone is black.
I am very into dark humor.
This is not dark humor to me.
This is an online joke that went too far.
It had been one thing if it was just a post and a bunch of people commenting on it and all that.
You know, that's harmless.
People were actually taking time out of their day to go do this and everything.
I imagine having to find a candle.
Yeah.
And if they had turned it into something positive, like a donations for charity or something like that.
Because I can't imagine that these people who lost their jobs didn't have a warning.
Right.
I mean, the building was being demolished because it was closed in 2021.
Right.
I mean, in 2020, it hasn't been used in years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's get a palette to look at some good stories of the day and includes our Midday magazine.
Join us from three to four today as we kick off Midday magazine for the week.
Lacey Ailing, events and engagement director with a heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce will be with us at three.
And then at three thirty, we're going to get to know Ashley Engel.
She is the Violence Prevention Specialist and Advocate for our Family Center here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Oh, good.
Couple of great conversations right there looking forward to it.
A little bit later today.
It's a ball night, Melissa, right here at WFA chart, five o'clock.
Wisconsin Badgers taking on Indiana in a big ten matchup.
That's going to be a good one.
And on our sister station, WIRI, our pregame will kick off at six fifty for the game that Randy and I previewed a little bit yesterday on Playmakers.
You got Lincoln High School Boys Basketball.
They're taking on their hosting Chippewa Falls and Regionals.
Randy, Michael and Seth cover in that one for you with those three.
You know, it's going to sound good.
Nice.
And Mel, you touched on this earlier.
The Wood County Housing Summit.
Finding solutions to affordable housing crises.
They did.
It does look like registration.
It was extended to the 23rd, but it did end on the 23rd.
Oh, okay.
We do encourage you to save the date.
It is March 7th, 930 to 330 over at our friends with our friends at Midstate Technical College.
You can find out more and maybe find out if you could still attend.
By going to just typing to your search bar, Wood County Housing Summit.
I tried that and it gave me right to the information.
And another thing you could do is just go to HealthyPeopleWoodCounty.org and sign up for their updates.
Because they will, they're going to keep you, if you can find out how to get involved through there.
Even if you don't attend the summit, this is going to be ongoing to try to help solve some of these problems that we are experiencing in our area.
And also keep in mind that not only is how sweet it is coming up March 7th, Thursday, March 7th.
It's at 730 at the Performing Arts Center as part of the Save of the Arts.
But as well, we've got always Olivia coming up March 10th to a clock at the same spot, Performing Arts Center.
Thanks to Save of the Arts, a big shout out to our friends over there.
And keep by listening this week.
We're going to give you a chance to win tickets.
We've got tickets for both of those shows.
We're going to give you a chance to win some tickets for them.
Great show today, Melissa.
Yeah, you two James.
Have a good one. We'll talk to you soon and later.
Be good to each other.
And we'll talk to you later right here at...
