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. Got your host James J. I am joined by Melissa
Kay. Good morning. Seth Habhacker. Good morning. And the best listeners in radio. Thanks
for joining us, everybody. A lot of fun stuff lined up for you in the hour. We're going
to get in some entertainment news in a little bit. A little after that, we're going to talk
about national state fair food. That should be fun. You know, all of that. But it's a nine o'clock
hour on a Monday. You know what that means, everybody. Tell me something good. Hello and welcome
to the kitchen's open on WFHR. This segment within a segment usually covers all things kitchen.
We talk about food or kitchen gadgets. Someday we'll get to appliances. But today we're talking
fluff. What? No. Like reality TV kind of fluff. Nope. Actual fluff. The marshmallow kind. Because
I can't take any more hard news today. Okay. That's like something fun and fluffy. Yeah.
Something soft. Yeah. So instead we're going to talk about marshmallow fluff. Fluffer noter sandwiches
and just fluffy stuff in general. Did you know that marshmallow fluff has a history in radio?
No. I did not know that. I learned a little of this back in the day from my old Cole host to
Carl. But yeah, I've heard a little bit about this one. This is pretty interesting.
So but before we can get to the fluff, we have to start with the marshmallow itself. Ah, yes.
The herb native to parts of Europe, North Africa and Asia. The history of using the marshmallow
root goes back as early as 2000 BEC to ancient Egypt. My people, you know, my great great great great great
great great great great great many many many greats and a nippy always made this amazing
dessert with marshmallows for family gatherings. I'm not sure I would eat marshmallows with barley,
but that doesn't kill you. You know, it makes you stronger, I guess. Really? No. No. No. I totally
made that up. Ancient Egyptians actually used the marshmallow plant to make medicines. The sap
was extracted from the root by boiling. The resulting resulting mixture was then mixed with honey and
used to soothe coughs and sore throats. The may have even used marshmallow root medicine to soothe
irritated skin and digestive tracks. Interesting. So how did a plant that was used as a medicine
become the marshmallow candy treat? We all know and love today. According to Wikipedia,
the marshmallow plant made its way to France in the early to mid 19th century. Owners of small
candy stores would whip the sap from Mallow root into a fluffy candy mold. They made a spongy
soft dessert by mixing the fluff with sugar and egg whites. You see, marshmallow root contains
mucilage, which is a gelatinous substance that that that will act as a natural thickener when
it's extracted from the plant. The problem was it was a lot of work to find and harvest enough
marshmallow roots to keep up with demand. By the early 20th 20th century, candy makers replaced
Mallow root with gelatin to create a stable form of the marshmallow. We all know and love today.
So marshmallows don't contain the marshmallow plant anymore. Nope, just gelatin.
Bummer. I thought I was going to be able to justify eating marshmallows as a medicine next time
I got a cold. Wishful thinking. Now they're just made with sugar, water, gelatin, and air.
Air? Yes. Actually, they are 50% air. That's what makes the unique mouth feel of marshmallows.
Shouldn't they be 50% cheaper than I mean? You would think so. I mean, you know,
your paper all packaging. Good help. So now, let's move on to the real star of today's show
Marshmallow Fluff. You know, that wasn't its original name, right? It originally appeared on
shelves under the name Marshmallow cream. According to eater.com, the earliest reference to the stuff
appeared in an 1896 cookbook from American culinary guru Fanny Farmer. The cookbook was called
the Boston Cooking School cookbook. It contained a recipe for marshmallow paste.
That's right. Fanny suggested melting down marshmallows as a shortcut for making frosting
and candies. Boston was known as one of our country's candy centers. By 1910, there were numerous
companies in the area producing marshmallow cream. Did you know that the first commercial shelf
stable marshmallow spread made by the great, great, grand children of Paul Revere? Really?
I did not know that. No, I didn't know that. That's fascinating. That's crazy.
From Silver Smith to Marshmallow maker. I like that. I'm not even kidding. It was developed around 1913
by a brother and sister team, Amory and Emma Curtis. They called it snowflake marshmallow cream.
But the person who created the recipe for marshmallow fluff was Archibald Query in 1917 and
Summerville, Massachusetts. According to marshmallow fluff.com, Query made the fluff in his kitchen
and sold it door to door. War time shortages forced him to close down and by the time the war
was over, Query wasn't interested in restarting his business. But he sold his formula to two
World War One veterans named H. Allen Durkey and Fred L. Moore. Durkey and Moore pooled their
money and paid Archibald Query $500 for the formula. They started off calling their product
toot sweet marshmallow fluff. But toot sweet didn't stay on the label for for long. According to
a recipe found in the company scrapbooks, they sold the fluff by the gallon 1920. Wow. The price
$1 per gallon. They peddled their product door to door earning a reputation among local housewives
that eventually placed fluff onto local grocers shelves. As they side note, Durkey and Moore sounds
like the worst law for a dozen. I was right there with him and totally with you there. By 1927,
they were advertising prominently in Boston newspapers. In 1929, they moved to a factory on Brookline
Street in East Lynn and tripled their floor space. They hired more employees and merged with the
cream of chocolates company and the Durkey Mauer entered the hot chocolate business.
Durkey Moore started advertising on the radio in 1930. They were actually pioneers in
radio advertising. They sponsored the weekly fluffernuts radio show on Yankee Radio Network. I love
that name. So the 15 minute show aired on Sunday evenings just before Jack Benny. It included
live music and comedy skits. The show continued through the late 1940s and served as a stepping stone
to national recognition for a number of talented performers. Can you play a bit of their jingle for
us, James? You know it.
Next week at the same time for more fluffered melodies. Your announcer is Hal Miller. This is the Yankee
Network. Oh, is that charming? Isn't that great? Yes. Wow, the Yankee Network. What was that? No,
no, I'm, I'm rabbit hole time. I got to figure out what that was. That's so cool. Yeah, nice
hunting, Melissa. That was very cool. It was right on the website. That's awesome. It was right
there. That's very cool. There is something so charming to me about old radio ads.
It sounds like a record player. It's got that, you know, crackly sound. It's really cool. I'm
not kidding. I can listen to him for hours. Like old radio ads. I don't know why, but there's
something about them. It's more than a stowager. There's something very unique and cool about them.
They're very quaint and very well done. Yeah, you will never like the production level of those
is amazing. Yeah, you'll hear ones you may not like, but you'll never hear one that was not
well acted, produced, written. And they're, they tell a story. Like, it's not in and out.
Like, it is nowadays. Hey, this is a dollar off. Buy it. One quick, one quick side note,
and I'm sorry to digress on this, but most of the shows back then were sponsored by one sponsor
instead of having commercials like we do now. So then the whole show was formed around that one
product. So they would do, like James said, they would have these really cool jingles. And of
course, they would have the integrated commercial where the, whoever the stars of the show would
talk about the product and make jokes, you know, and that kind of stuff. So it's really cool,
really interesting. We should bring that back. Yes. Yes. While moving back to our, our, our story,
here, our story, they're the Dirkie Moore story. They, the company survived the depression,
doing so well. In fact, they purchased a two-story factory in 1934. But World War II caused
supply shortages and the existing sugar supply was rationed to the corporations that needed it.
Dirkie Moore wasn't willing to lower the quality of their products. So they were forced to
cut production a lot. During this period, the company's resources were used to promote the war
effort in various ways. Part of the factory was converted to rap war critical electronic and
optical parts for in special waterproof packages. Oh, that's cool. Some of their advertising helped
promote victory gardens in cooperation with the Massachusetts State War Garden Committee.
The website goes on to say, with little fluff to sell, the fluff arrests show, show through
its advertising support to the armed forces, particularly the Navy, the branch which Allen
Dirkie's two older sons served during the war's years. The company expanded again in 1945.
And when industrial sugar rationing ended in 1947, they were preparing for yet another
expansion. They started by redesigning the products package. They surveyed their customers and
listened when housewives told them the best jar for fluff would be short enough to easily fit into
the refrigerator for leftovers and have a wide enough opening to fit a tablespoon into.
Fluff itself doesn't need to be refrigerated, but customers wanted to be able to reuse the jar
and the company listened. And the same basic jar is still in use today.
So this is shocking. And as much as it isn't, it shouldn't be shocking. It's one of those things
as far as I could tell, this may be the first example of a company truly going out of its way to
listen to its people that are buying its product, its customers, and actually doing something about
it. Like there's plenty, there is some examples of surveys of people going door to door to
how would you like your milk prepared or those things, but nothing where the company actually did
something about it where they changed their product. And I love the fact that they wanted to be
able to reuse the jar. It's so cool. Isn't that, you know, it's fascinating when we look at
companies like this one that made basically one product. And they had in order to survive,
they had to make sure their customers were satisfied with that one product. And this is how you
get that. You ask them questions, hey, how can we make it better? That kind of thing. Very,
very cool. The company expanded again in 1950 building a new factory to fill the new jars with
the greatest efficiency. This was one of the most modern food manufacturing plants in the country.
The new capping and filling machines increased the speed of production and much of the line was
automated. But because the company's plans included increasing production, they could automate
without laying off any employees. It's also worth noting that speed and efficiency came second to
cleanliness and purity. That's right. Whenever Marshmallow fluff was exposed to air the room was air
conditioned or demitified or both. The walls in the floor were sanitary tile covered to facilitate
the daily washdown that still takes the crew one and a half hours to complete no surprise.
And I love this part. Every conceivable measure is taken to protect the purity of Marshmallow
fluff. Because of the sanitary environment and practices, it is not necessary to refrigerate Marshmallow
fluff, even though it still contains no preservatives of any kind. Amazing. That really is amazing.
That's great. Wow. That's a great. It's made with just four ingredients. Yeah.
I thought that was the most impressive part. I don't know. It still may be, but some of these
other things you brought up today, Melissa, are right there with it. It is. It's remarkable.
I mean, this could be the greatest company ever. Yeah. Considering all that they did, they were
planned ahead. They treated their employees good. They made sure that everything was right and good.
And it wasn't any, yeah, wow, it's amazing. There's plenty of topics you've brought to us where I
look at something completely differently now. There isn't much where I can say, why? I have a new
respect for this company. I have a new appreciation for this company. I actually want to go out and
buy some marshmallow. Exactly. It really does. And I'm not even a Marshmallow guy. I mean, either
in s'mores, I really don't eat marshmallows, but it kind of makes me want to eat them more.
Well, I have to tell you, when I started this segment, I was a bit wrong out. There is so much
negativity happening. And I was just looking honestly for fluff. Who knew I would find this
incredible history of a company created by World War One veterans that survived World War Two
and is still profitable today. A quick internet search proved that this is still a family-owned
business run by John Durkey, the son of H. Allen Durkey. The factory in Massachusetts is still
running strong with much of the original equipment from the 1960s. Wow. They're an international
company, but they don't sell it everywhere. It says on their website that if you can't find fluff
locally, you can order it directly from their factory. That's incredible. The other really
fascinating is that they haven't sold out to a large food manufacturing conglomerate
that they have kept it in the family and have kept it the same way for so long. They're very
secretive. One interview that I could find where somebody was allowed to come into the factory
and he pulled out his phone to start taking pictures. And John was like, no pictures in here.
Sorry. Wow. I don't blame them. They keep their recipe private. I mean, it's only four ingredients,
but they're not sharing it. But the process is the secret, right? Yeah. It's a little similar to
KFC with their recipe and everything. It's really interesting. Well, thank you for joining us
today for another segment of the kitchen's open. Wait, you can't end the segment yet. You didn't tell
us what a fluffer nutter sandwich is. Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. Like the name implies, it has marshmallow
fluff as an ingredient and also peanut butter. Of course. Fluffer nutter makes perfect sense.
It was hugely popular in Massachusetts, no surprise. And it was even served in school. In fact,
according to Wikipedia, in 2006, a Massachusetts state senator proposed legislation restricting
the serving of fluffer nutter sandwiches in public schools. After he learned his son was served
the sandwich daily as elementary school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think
daily is too much, but I think they should still keep it in there for every now and then. Yeah,
yeah. That's correct. Senator Jarrett Barrios drafted an amendment to the junk food bill,
which would limit fluffer nutters to once a week. The proposal was criticized as trivial and overly
intuitive, intrusive legislation, state representative Catherine Ann Reinstein supported legislation
that would make the fluffer nutter the official state sandwich that measure also failed.
All right. Can we end this segment now? Well, I suppose. But first, it must be mentioned that a
fluffer nutter sandwich is even better with bacon. Oh, everything, everything. I don't think I have
ever had a fluffer nutter sandwich in my life. But I would add bacon to it. Oh, I might have to.
I may have to. They also grill them. Imagine a grilled peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich with bacon.
Oh, my God. I want. I want to eat. I was on the fence going into this last half of the segment.
You mentioned bacon. I'm listening. You mentioned grilling it. Yes. Yes. You're going to try it.
All right. All right. Let's wrap it up, boys. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor of
the kitchen's open, we'd love to talk to you about your business during the 9 o'clock hour
every morning. Just call Pam in our front office at 715-424-1300. And she'll put you in touch with
our head of sales, Ashley. That number again, 715-424-1300. And with that, we'll close the kitchen.
Oh, that was fun. Classic, Melissa. That's an instant classic. One of the most informative ones
you've ever had. Yeah. Yeah. Because you never knew that much about fluff.
Absolutely not. I hope this inspires others out there too. Because you never know where that
single little thing can lead you on that rabbit hole and what you could find in the history that you
can take pride in from. That's American history. Stories. Just these great stories out there.
So cool. All from fluff. It's pretty cool. Nice work, Melissa. We'll have another segment of the
kitchen's open for you next week right here in the 9 o'clock hour on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back everybody. Morning show at WFHR. Locally grown radio. Melissa, Seth and James here with you.
We hope you're having a fantastic week out there. Thanks for joining us everybody. We're going to
dive into national state fair food a little bit later. It's an evolved marshmallow fluff.
We will find out. We will find out. We had a little bit of entertainment news to take you to our
news break. Nicholas Cage has made over a hundred movies, but there's one he wants you to see
more than any other. And it's possible you haven't even heard of it. It's called Pig. It came out
in 2021. It's about a former chef who goes goes looking for the thieves who stole his truffle pig.
It's very good. It's very very good. Nicholas Cage like this is okay. So 2021 is not that long ago.
No, but in Nick Cage years, it's like 10 years ago. In part because Nicholas Cage does a movie
a month, like he's been working his tail off. Now this has been going on with him for a while.
At first, it started because many like many heard out there. He was having some trouble with the
tax. Yeah, it's financial issues. Yeah. And so you know, that's what an actor, it's the only way an
actor can make money is commercials or movies. And Nicholas Cage was actually not able to get commercial
work. So he started doing B movies and everything. And this script comes across Pig. And it's,
oh, it's a B movie about a former chef who's hunting down looking for revenge on his pig.
What's the bigness there? But Nicholas Cage, like he does with a lot of roles, saw an opening
and saw something in that character that not many other actors, if any other actor would have seen
and was able to really bring the whole Nick Cage, you know, energy to this role.
And it's really good, you guys. Like, he sees it incredible. That's really cool.
It's I'm not saying the movie is great, great, but his performance is beautiful.
It's just great performance. Looking at like the pictures from the film,
he's not even very recognizable. No, no. I mean, he's all craggy with a big old beard and long hair.
And it doesn't really even look like Nicholas Cage. So up until this point in 2021, he has done a lot
of these B movies and has not really gotten a lot of notoriety or it's just, oh, there's Nick Cage
and another Nick Cage. Do it this way. But this movie comes out in critics all the sudden like,
whoa, what's this? Oh my gosh. Is this a copula acting again? Is this Nicholas Cage giving us the
Nick Cage that we know is one Oscar and one an Oscar and been nominated for movies and all this.
And this movie propels him to where he is right now where he's getting in mainstream movies again.
He's acting along Pedro Pascal, one of the biggest actors in the world.
And Nicholas Cage's career is back. And it didn't come back because of who he's dating.
It didn't come back because he did something crazy and got in the paparazzi's eyes or anything
like that. It came back because he worked for it and he earned it. Sure did. And it's so it's
cool to see. You got to give him credit. How many actors bounce back like this?
Right. I think Travolta might be up there a little bit, you know, where he was the biggest name
for a while there goes away, comes back and does a look who's talking and kind of gets his name
back there. Pulp fiction brings him back after that. And you know, and then he's kind of faded
away for a while. He does battlefielders. Yeah. It's just it's something that I think that,
well, very few people can relate to an actor's life or anything. I think all of us can relate to,
hey, we've been counted out and look what we and look what we were able to do when we were counted
out. I have to read you the description from Rotten Tomatoes. Like the animal itself,
pig defies the hogwash of expectations with a beautiful odyssey of loss and love.
Nicely right? That's good. That's not a bad synopsis.
Nicola says quote, it's something that I think people can get something out of because tragedy
is going to hit all of us at some point. It's just a matter of when. It's also a movie that to me
is like a folk song. It's a very quiet, gentle movie, which is the polar opposite people thinking
I'm crazy. Let's also describe it as a thriller. Yeah. Yeah. It is. It is. It's an intense movie in
some ways. In other ways, it's a very calm like you said. It's kind of folks. I am a very big fan of
what you would call a quiet movies. You know, that just don't that just kind of have a certain feel
to them. And a lot of people would find boring. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of thing. One of the, I'm sorry,
I'm I'm digressing a lot today. One of the best movies I've ever seen is a German film called
Shelty Gets the Blues. And it's one. There's very little dialogue forces in German. But it's
about this this force to retire. He had worked in a factory, but they've said, no, you're done now
trying to find out what to do. He plays the accordion in one night over the radio over international
radio. He hears Side of Co. And it totally changes his outlook on life and music and everything.
It's a very cool movie, but it's very quiet. And for some people, it's very slow moving. So,
I don't know if you like it, but that's the kind of movie I like those kinds of movies. And I think
that's really neat. I one thing that is missing from all media. Oh, I'm not media. I'm sorry. All
entertainment right now, whether we're talking music, TV shows, movies, anything in the above is
the idea of giving and I'll include stage very much with this as well with a lot, especially with
a lot of the way things are written nowadays. The idea of two people sitting in a room and they're
just sitting there. They're just sitting there. And they may have a, hey, did you, did you check
the news today? Yeah. Anything? No. And some quiet. People want more than ever real. They want
real, whether it's a radio station, a TV show or a movie. We got this. Most people that were smart
enough got this with golden eye when all of a sudden James Bond was taken a punch. And way up
until then, we never saw James Bond's hair messed up, let alone him taking a punch. But this is
what audiences want now. They don't want superheroes that are perfect. They want people who there are
relatable. They want relatability. Yet we continue to move farther and farther away from that in
entertainment. Oh, I got to make every scene explosive. Oh, I got to make every scene sexy. Oh, I
got to make everything life ain't like that. Life has pauses. Life has quiet moments. Theater gets
this, but theater has gotten away from it. Yeah. We need to go back to this more if you want people to
come and see things. It may seem like a simple solution, but it is one of the ways that you get people
to care about new entertainment more is by having more reality in there. And part of reality is
a pause, a quietness, a pace, a tone, quit trying to make everything so quick and hit and
everything's got to be boom, boom, boom, boom. And I'm going to piggyback on that, James, real quick,
because I don't think what what we're discussing here means, you know, it has to be realistic and like,
you know, it has to be exactly the way life is kind of thing. No, you can do a science fiction film.
And it feels realistic. Yeah, because either the characters are well developed. Yeah, exactly.
They're well developed characters. They touch on things that are concerning to us right now.
It doesn't matter like the style or anything like that, but there's got to be something there.
There's got to be something you can hang your hat on, rip on it as a real. And then I think you're
right. People will respond. Not everybody's going to lose their truffle pig. But we're all going to
lose something or someone your lifetimes. New on your small screen tonight, the six season finale
of all American, the bachelor ed is also new on seven o'clock and ABC in the 2024 home run derby
is on at seven on ESPN. The president Biden exclusive is on at eight on NBC, the 2024
American decides a Republican convention nine on CBS and the Republican national convention,
your voice, your vote, nine o'clock on ABC. Again, keep in mind, civic media is also your home for
the Republican national convention. We'll be covering them back to back all a week long right here
on our civic media radio stations. Yeah, let's take a call before we go to break. Good morning,
you're on the air. Yeah, I have a movie that was one of my very favorites and you probably none of you,
I'm sure it's none of you have ever heard of. It's called Rainbow, the Rainbow Tribe, David James,
Elliott is the star and also the recent Russell, the kid from Diary of the kid. Yeah, okay,
but like I said, it's one of my very favorite and it's all kids all kids. It's all yeah,
my sister actually suggested this movie to me. Oh, yeah, yeah, she loves this movie. Yeah,
that's that's wild. I've got a bookmark of lists of movies and books that my sister has given me
and this is on there. Oh, that's awesome. That's very cool. Yeah, I play it on every couple of months
and this much. Yeah, that's what I enjoy. These are really cool kids. Yeah, nice. It looks great.
It came out in 2008. It looks like it looks like a great movie. Definitely. Then a great
suggestion, sir. Thank you for that. The one kid is actually deaf in the movie and he doesn't
speak at all. Well, I see. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, it looks great in a great team behind
the two of writers and directors and everything. I'll definitely check that one out.
Cool. We appreciate you, sir. You have a great day. Thank you. Thank you. Great suggestion
right there. We'll come back and we're going to talk a little local theater. We'll also get
into our favorite state fair foods, all that coming up on the morning show. On a stick.
W F H R on a stick. Welcome back, everyone. Morning show here at W F H R locally grown radio.
Seth, Melissa, James here with you. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. I hope you
have a great one out there. One of the talk a little local theater with everyone and remind you
that the Tin Woman is still got another performance to coming up. All right. Yeah, they got a whole
weekend yet. Yeah, join them starting on Friday, the 21st. Yeah, Friday, the 19th. I'm sorry,
the 19th. And then they'll have shows on the 20th and 21st. Get your tickets and find out more
at pittsvilleact.org, pittsvilleact.org. And let's help keep theater alive in this state and
especially here in Central Wisconsin. All these communities, it's so important to have these
these local theaters heard from a good friend of mine up north recently over the weekend.
And we were talking about how up north they don't have as much theater that they that we do
here in Central Wisconsin. This person, him and his wife were just blown away by every week. I
hear you guys talking about another theater company near you. And you're right. And I was telling them
because we support the theater companies in this area. We need to keep doing that, everybody.
You can support them by doing some really, really heavy lifting, taking in a show. That's it.
You know, the sacrifice that you have to make, man. You're going to have to sit there in that
studio in that auditorium and enjoy, you know, some show local great entertainment. Yes,
yes. It's what we ask. And also, you know, a lot, all these businesses and all these places we
talk about have social media accounts, you know, like their their pages and share them on your pages.
It's another great way that you can help local theater. And and certainly the maybe the best way
that you can help local theater join the show. Sure. Be a part of the stage backstage direct doesn't
matter. Just have fun. Enjoy this kind of there's nothing like it. I mean, we talk about it a lot.
I know on this on these airways, but it's one of those things. There's just nothing like local
theater being a part of it in any capacity. It's it's fun. It's it's it's fulfilling. It's just
enjoyable. Young and young and old. It doesn't matter. You can be a part of things you can encourage
you to find out more about Pitzville's era beautiful theater. The pack at Pitzville act.org.
And of course, as I mentioned, young and old, we're looking for young to audition. I was all
gunning for this. I thought, oh, this is a great opportunity to work with Stephanie before arsenic.
Get the foot of the door. Yeah, yeah, you're a shower. What I got and everything, you know,
and stuff. It's I was planning for the auditions. And I see it's a kids show. So go ahead.
Not pass for 18 anymore. No, no, no, no. That should have sailed a long time ago. I'm not sure I
could edit. W R C T's auditions for hopefuls production of it's a madhouse start tonight. Five
to only only tonight. Yes, right. I'm so used to them doing two nights. I'm so sorry. Yeah,
it is. Oh, it's fast. Yeah, they do things in a real fast tempo because the show is only three
weeks away. Yeah, yeah. We encourage you to go to W R C theater.org. And there's a forum. You
can fill out to speed things up. Which is very cool. This is something they started to do. And
it's it's really nice. Easy to follow form. Just fill it in and do it online. I like it because
then I can just sit there and start to focus on that stage. Get bring on the kit. Bring the kids
down. Come one. Come all Stephanie always finds a place for these kids. Get on down there and go.
This is a but this is what theater is all about. Yes, absolutely. Is these shows?
This sounds like a fun fun show. It does. Be get the kids ready. Bring them on down whether
they've been in the hundred shows or never been in the show before. You never know what this might
spark in kids. And we certainly know that this is a great way to support our youth and a great
way to invest in the future. Yeah, absolutely. Our caller called up earlier talking about the kids
in the cast of that movie that he really enjoyed and everything. I guarantee you that those kids
had supportive communities. Absolutely. They watched their grade school shows or things like that
that help propel them to where they are. Now, maybe the kids that you see in it's a madhouse.
Maybe they'll go on to do things like that. Maybe they won't. But whatever they go on to do,
they could use some confidence with it. They could use some people skills, some feeling of speaking.
Yes, yes. My last class that I did for a second city had a equal amount of kids that wanted to
be the next, you know, John Belushi or Chris Farley and everything. As much as we had attorneys
and doctors and nurses, I should say, had two nurses in that class that just wanted to feel
better at public speaking because they didn't have a lot of experience with it growing up. And all
that those people grew up in like the 90s and early odds. Kids nowadays, we worry about that
more than ever. Here is a great way to get your kids out there and doing stuff a little bit.
Maybe they'll be have one line in the show. Maybe they'll have a hundred. Who cares? They're
going to be involved in meeting new kids and getting out there and experiencing new experiences.
Well said. Well said. Find out more at wrctheter.org or wrctheter.org and get ready for it's a
madhouse. Audition madhouse. Tonight from five to seven production dates will be August 3rd and
fourth. We'll have a seven o'clock show and the third to a clock matinee on the fourth.
We thank you for supporting local everybody. Oh, and as Melissa pointed out in her news broadcast,
man, what a weekend. Yeah. Newsies junior. I did want to give them shout out to news.
Those are very cool. Yeah. Those kids did a great job. Congratulations to everybody involved with
that production. Really nicely done. Really well done. Let's go ahead and talk state fair food.
Right. So state fairs are definitely not that well. I've been around for a long time. The first
US state fair was held in Syracuse in New York in 1841 183 years ago. Oh, wow. Nice.
According to a recent poll, the number one reason Americans go to state fairs is the food.
81% of people said that that's a draw more than spending time with family and friends.
Entertainment and music rides and the animals. The whole reason we have them. But some states are
crazier about the food than others. A survey found Vermont loves state fair food the most.
Really? Ohio is second followed by South Dakota, West Virginia, Washington, Arkansas,
North Dakota, Tennessee, Florida, and Iowa. Mm hmm. Utah. Utah is the state that's the least
interested in fair food. Hawaii is also down down on it and other states that are okay passing
on that food are Montana, Rhode Island, Maine, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Oregon,
and Michigan. Mm hmm. All right. Okay. I would say Hawaii because their food is always amazing.
Yeah, right. It's true. Yeah. I kind of like these ones that don't necessarily have any rhyme or
reason. They're just kind of all over the place. You know, I love the fact that the state that has
the least amount of laugh emojis is also the one that likes state fair food the most. Yeah.
What can we glean about Vermont from the right, right? Right, right.
L&A, Illinois finished 13th on the list. It Wisconsin 18th. Okay. So somewhere in the middle of the pack,
not bad. That's how we feel about our fair food. I actually found that to be surprising.
I thought overwhelmingly Wisconsin would be in the top 10 as far as lovers of fair food.
I'm with you on that one. I think I think you're right. I'm all surprised myself. Yeah, me too.
I think in certain parts of the state, it is probably more love than others.
And when we look at our northern or southern parts of the state, they tend to be a bit different
than most where we go with here in the center of the state. Right. Right. So I don't know.
I don't know how much that plays into it or not, but it didn't ask the right people.
I think that's how many times I wonder how many times these surveys, it comes down to that.
You know, so here's I think are they just looking for how many people are googling?
What's at the state fair this? Oh, that's probably true. Yeah. Yeah. So my question to you,
and the audience, the listening audience out there, what's the most straight, what's the weirdest
thing you've had at a state fair? So I know, I don't know, James, not an adventurous eater,
so I don't know what you've got there. But I have to say for me was alligator on a stick.
Oh, whoa. At the Minnesota state fair many years ago. Oh, yeah. Oh, I try that. I would try that.
It was pretty good. It was not bad. Not a bad. That's a good one. I've never had that at a fair.
I had it when I was in Louisiana. Okay. Yeah. They're like, they're gators down there.
Mine is boring. Fried pickles. Right. Yeah. And I, well, I only had enough money for a
fried pickle or an elephant ear. And the girl I was there with was like, you got to try these,
you got to try these, you got to try it. And of course, at that age, I'm not going to say no,
you know, of course, I'm going to try that. And I tried it. And it was, I did some great acting,
great acting. Some of the best you've ever done. I took, I just, it wasn't my thing.
It just was spicy. It had a little bit of spice to it. A lot of fried pickles have a little
spice to it. I don't like my pickles that way. I don't like that. I think that would be good.
I have, I do want to try all of the things that they deep fry though. Like anything deep fry,
I will try. I will try. I just haven't had a chance to yet butter. Something that's showing up
more often on like pub menus is deep fried cauliflower. And if you've never had it, it's amazing.
Yeah, I would try it. That is a huge craze right now, especially out in the west coast. They
love it out there. Interesting. Let's find out what you love. Good morning. You're on the show.
Well, I'm surprised Texas wasn't on that limb. Yeah. Yeah. I think they did a big Netflix thing
on it or you would think on it or whatever for a Texas state fair competition for yeah vendors,
you know, whatever it was. Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
I was really surprised that they didn't have that bad that make the list, you know. Yeah, very
different, but nothing beats a carnival or a state fair food. I mean, I've been down to a
state fair animal off the a few times. If you walk out of that place hungry, you did it wrong.
Yeah. Yeah. Get it wrong or you're poor. One of the others. Then you're not going to
state fair because it's sad. Yeah. Yeah. Sadly, which doesn't make any sense to me. Why would
it be so safe for anyway? No. Do you have a go to food and a fair calf?
You have to do the elephant ears. I mean, that's just. Yes.
I mean, that's a given. I mean, I have this dancing and you can see this, but it's been a
while since I've been in the March real. But there used to be a standard. I'm sure a price
still is there because it's very popular. They're called moisture. And basically,
they're the same thing as an elephant ear, but you get they're smaller. Oh, okay. It's nice.
Yeah. I mean, you got three in a, you know, they're street, all the politicians are
never seen on it. It was just like eating an elephant ear, but it's more manageable to eat it.
No. Easier to eat. Yeah. Right. Yeah. A little bit easier. A little bit easier.
Yeah. That makes sense. Well, until I lived in Wisconsin, I mean, the whole cream puff thing.
That's very much a Wisconsin thing. Because I'd never ordered that before. Yeah.
And those are very good. But for me, it's the mini donuts. Oh, the fresh made ones.
Or funnel cakes for that matter. Yeah. Oh, donuts. It's just powdered sugar change. That's what.
If you get a chance to go to state fair, you do have to stop and get a cream puff.
And you can't just stand online a little bit. But you have to get a cream puff. I mean,
that's one of the things that we do go down there. That's the one of the first places I go.
To the pork producers. I mean, that's, I mean, I'm pretty sure that you can't leave the
state fair until you've had a cream puff. I'm pretty sure that force you to go back in.
Get back in there. What you haven't had. Yeah. They take a look at your hands. Do you have any
to bring home? You got to get back in there. Get back in there. We appreciate you,
Kevin. Have a great day out there. I do have one more thing for your marshmallow puff
fluff thing. For your your fluffer nutter. Yeah. So the next thing closest to it,
you have to slowly roast the marshmallows and you have a recent peanut butter top
and then put it on a graham crackers. Hmm. The variation on the s'more. Yes. Oh,
man, I want to try this. Oh, that sounds good. That sounds good, man. Because you said that you
had to beat a butter with the fluff. I mean, that's the most thing with the, you've got to add a
little chocolate with it. Yeah, it's like a fluffer nutter s'more. Or bring the show full circle
everyone. Add all that stuff you're just saying. Add some banana. No, even better. I'm telling you
right there. And the mosquitoes will show up. It's a party for everybody. You weren't invited.
What are you doing here? Safe travels out there, brother. Take care.
All right, you guys have a great day. You too. You too. I love our listeners.
Best listeners in the radio. We'll be back with more fun in the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back everyone. Morning show at WFHR.
Home now right away. I'm coming home, baby. Now I'm sorry. Now I ever went away.
Melissa, Seth and James here with you, hoping you're having a great one out there. Everybody,
we're going to take you right to the top of the hour. Matt Nair on the air coming up for you. Be
sure to join Jane and Greg for their fantastic show. They're going to take good care of you all
week long. A little bit later, you got the Maggie Don show from 2 to 4. Join Maggie as she continues
her 100 days of Biden and continuing to tell you about different things that President Biden and his
cabinet have accomplished in their term. It's doing a nice job. Lots of R&C coverage.
All those people, I cannot wait to hear today. There are some of the only voices I want to hear
today if I'm being honest with everybody. I'm looking forward to those shows today. And of course,
they'll lead up to Midday Magazine. We're in part one, Catherine Elkhart, Library Director with
Art McMillan Memorial Library. Going to join us. Look forward to that. Awesome.
In part two, Peter and Lisa from Two Hearts catering are going to join us to talk about their
music benefit coming up for the Never Forgotten Honor flight. All right. It's going to be
amazing food. Yeah, they are really amazing, Melissa. By local support, local support our friends
at Two Hearts. And of course, Raptor baseball on your radio dial tonight. Raptors are up in Michigan
to take on Kalamazoo. That means early start times this early part of the week. Today, tomorrow,
Wednesday, they're going to have 520 start times. That means there will be no playmakers today for
y'all. We will be back on Friday live and direct. Take your phone calls. Let's look forward to it.
Seth, I wanted to take a moment to talk about some local events in our area. When we got time,
we'll get into a good story. But you've got a big one for us right there. Yep. Just a reminder that the
summer food service program is still going on. Free meals are available for all children 18
years of age and under. They're just doing lunches at this point. Everyone going through August
16th, two places where you can go then meet Park near the splash pad on 14th Avenue South. That
goes from 1130 to 1230. And also at Witter Park in the shelter outside of the aquatic center,
681 Chestnut Street also from 1130 to 1230. Again, until August 16th, both of those, those will
be going through August 16th this summer, 18 years of age and under. All meals are free.
Keep that in mind, everybody. The Community Blood Center has their summer tour for all
blood types they're doing this tour. Nice Wisconsin Rapids is one of our next stops tomorrow at
311 Lincoln Street in Wisconsin Rapids. They'll be taking donations from 10 to 3. You can schedule
a lifesaving donation by calling 1-800-280-4102. That's 1-800-280-4102. Appointments are appreciated.
Again, this is held at the former Eastern High School cafeteria due to construction park in the
6th Street parking lot and enter in the cafeteria field house door off of 6th Street. Yes, indeed.
And keep in mind this Friday, our friends over at Millen will have a blood drive from 10-3
over at Millen Library at 490 East Grand Avenue. And that ones are red cross.
Blood drive. Right. Yeah. Keep that in mind, everybody. And donate if you can. We greatly appreciate
all you heroes out there donating. Our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids City Band got a show coming up
this Tuesday. They'll be performing at Robinson Park. Big thank you to Solaris and
Engle Fellowship Lodge that are sponsoring that event. If inklement weather happens, they will
be moving this to the Lincoln High School Pack Auditorium. Keep that in mind. So you should be
okay tomorrow, though. Hope you're so open. You can join the band. You can find out more and
certainly promote the band at www.cityband.org and encourage you to do so. And what a
reminder, everyone, that we are looking for school supplies, looking for your investment in the
future. Stuff the school bus desk is a collaborative community initiative led by our United Way of South
Wood and the Amps counties to ensure every student has the supplies they need.
If you are the parent or a guardian of a child in need, please make sure to sign up before August
1st. That date is getting closer and closer. Yeah, it's coming. And you can also donate items
for this great event. Whether I would encourage you to donate anytime you can. But specifically,
after August 1st, they're going to have a better idea of the supplies they have and the ones they
need. So be paying attention to the United Way. You can do that by going to uswac.org or by
calling to 1-1. And of course, listening to this radio station, where we'll keep you up to date
on everything United Way related. You bet we will. Keep it up, everybody. We appreciate everyone
being being and being in on this one. Patriotism doesn't stop on the 4th of July. An ice cream
shop in Massachusetts called Eskimo King is offering free ice cream to kids who can recite the
pledge of allegiance. Hey, that's cool, which they all should because it's said in every single one
of vehicles. That's right. Kids can choose a cone of vanilla or chocolate twist. And if they want
one with red, white and blue sprinkles. That's pretty cool. Yeah, nicely done for them.
And six critically endangered sea turtles were released back into the waters of Massachusetts
this past Wednesday after being saved and rehabbed by a team at the New England Aquarium.
They included one loggerhead, one green, and four Kemp's Ridley sea turtles. All three are
endangered species. If they are. Awesome. That's pretty cool. Good news. Good show today,
you two. You two, man. Yeah, you two. Have a great day out there. We'll be good to each other.
We'll talk to you soon in the later right here at
