Good morning, Wisconsin.
Morning, world.
It's a new day.
Thanks for kicking it off with us right here at WFHR.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
Thanks for joining us on this Tuesday morning.
We've got some entertainment news coming up for you in a little bit.
Got some other fun topics we're getting into.
The 10 things we wish we had more time for on Sundays.
Got that one coming up.
Couple of other great ones too.
We'll get into that in just a little bit.
But right now we kick off the 9 o'clock hour with our great friend,
Connie Hanky.
Connie is a watercolor artist and art director over at the Alexander House in Port Edwards.
Connie, thank you so much for joining us.
Yes, thank you, James.
Always appreciate the time.
Just to make sure Connie, can you hear Melissa okay?
Good morning, Connie.
Oh, yes.
Excellent.
Wonderful, Melissa.
Really cool.
Very cool.
Very cool.
Just in case Melissa had any questions,
wanted her to be able to jump in.
Connie, thank you again so much for joining us.
And I want to dive right in because I know as you are,
you guys have a really cool opening show coming up this Friday over at the Alexander House.
Yes, we do.
The house will be featuring the small town landscape by Jody Begley.
And she's from Clover, Wisconsin.
Along with the miniature world of Doug Whitts.
And he is from Westbound.
And our show opens Friday, as you said.
And it'll be open from five to eight.
And the artist will be there.
And we will be serving refreshments.
We appreciate the Alexander House supporting our artists, local artists,
and supporting the arts in general as they have for so very long, Connie.
And when we can bring in people like this,
and the artist can be there, you can get to talk to them.
There's so many questions that can happen organically
and so many fun conversations that can.
It's a really fun thing to be able to do and a wonderful thing to host.
Connie, would you mind telling us a little bit about these artists?
Oh, sure.
Yes, Jody is, like I said, she's from Clover, Wisconsin.
She received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree from UWSP.
And then she said that she initially worked in oils.
But then she, in watercolor, but she took a class in colored pencil up in Rhinelander
at their school of the arts.
And she has been working exclusively with this medium since that time.
And her work is beautiful.
She works a lot with the light coming into like these neighborhood scenes
and layering the colored pencil and making them, like she said, almost mystical looking.
So she just loves the older walkable neighborhoods of the Clover Siemens Point area,
different areas around Central Wisconsin.
And then Doug is, well, when I asked him for his bio,
he said that he was a self-taught artist.
And he, as a kid, played with play dough all the time.
And then when he got in high school in art,
he was introduced to polymer clay.
And then he began sculpting people and found a style that way.
And his work is really cool.
It sees little three-dimensional scenes with all of the clay modeling of the figures within.
So really, really cool work.
So yeah, it's incredible.
Yeah, it should be a really great show.
He likes to, you know, pick up on all things,
find things about Wisconsin like the whole day
and going to the farmer's market and different things like that
with those little creations and scenes.
I want to thank you in the Alexander House County
because you guys send us these postcards whenever there's events coming up
and we love these, we put them up all the time.
And one of the things that we got with this one was some examples of their work,
of the artist's work.
And just looking at these and seeing some that I have online and everything,
both of them are so realistic and got such nice details to them.
Doug's work is just incredible.
The fine detail that he put into so much of this work is really noticeable
and makes it come alive.
It really does.
Yeah, I think it'll be a really cool show.
The two different styles will be really, really cool together.
Yeah.
It also want to remind everybody that there are other events
and more events coming up at the Alexander House throughout the end of the year.
Next month, you've got evolving dimensions,
a multi-faceted journey through art.
That sounds amazing, Connie.
You're going to have to come back and talk to us about that one.
Yeah, I will.
I definitely will.
That will be Show KC Bill Carver,
who is a long time resident of the area and artist.
So yeah, it'll be a solo show for him.
So yeah, it'll be a great show.
Keep in mind the Alexander House is open to the public on Sundays,
Tuesdays and Thursdays from one to four, or by special appointment.
Connie, if people want more information or to find out about this great event,
I'm sorry, I meant to ask right away.
Do you have to register for this event or anything?
Can we just stop on by?
Oh, definitely just stop on by.
Excellent.
All are welcome.
Okay.
And keep in mind the exhibit will be on display until November 19th.
Now, Connie, if people have follow questions,
I want to know more about some of what we talked about today.
How can they reach you?
Actually, we are online.
We have an online page.
And that is Alexander House Online.
And then we also have a Facebook page Alexander House Center for Art and History.
That's on Facebook.
So it has all the information on all of our events and times and when we're open.
Otherwise, people can call the house.
And the number there is 715-887-3442.
Always appreciate the time, Connie.
Have a great time at the event.
We'll be talking about it throughout the week and making sure you guys get a good crowd for these artists.
Oh, that'll be super.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
You take care.
Yeah.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you, Connie.
I love talking with Connie.
It's just great.
And then tell me more at AlexanderHouseonline.org.
And on Facebook, type in your search bar and like what they're doing.
Support the arts and everybody.
It is on us to be able to do that and help the great work that they're doing with these artists and over at the Alexander House.
Yeah.
And it popped right up on Facebook.
Just type in Alexander House and then it's Alexander House Center for Art and History.
Thank you, Connie.
We appreciate you.
Listen, I'll be back with entertainment news coming up on the morning show here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
To the morning show.
I was looking in the lab late one night when my eyes be heard and hear the sight
for my monster from his lab began to rise and suddenly to my surprise.
I like the idea of the singers in the background just doing, they did the mash.
Not really a do it or a zombie like almost.
Happy October, everyone.
We are going to get in some entertainment news right now.
But first up, a big shout out to Connie Hanky for joining us from the Alexander House.
We'll talk more about that great exhibit that they got coming up this Friday.
A couple of great art local artists that they're going to have in there.
Looks like a fun exhibit.
Some really great art.
Some really really good stuff right there.
A little bit after that our news break will be coming back and we'll get into a couple of fun topics.
There's a list of the greatest American dishes.
Want to get into that with you Melissa.
And the top 10 things we wish were more, we had more time for on Sundays.
Naps.
Yes, yeah.
It's got to be number one, right?
It's got to be up the top of the list.
I did not free read that so we'll find out together.
Green Day's music is banned at two Las Vegas radio stations.
At a recent show in San Francisco, Billy Joe commented on his team.
The Oakland Athletics moving to Las Vegas.
Quote, we don't take that from people like the owner John Fisher.
I hate Las Vegas.
It's the worst in America.
One radio host in Vegas said, quote, maybe Billy Joe should take a look at the city and the people involved in the transaction
and then talking smack about another city like Las Vegas.
And there's a lot of back and forth going on with this one.
The athletics played their last game in the stadium in Oakland last Thursday.
I don't mean to assume, but I'm guessing I am assuming that this isn't something you know a lot about Melissa.
That is the far okay.
So the Oakland Athletics have been in the loss and in Oakland forever for a long time.
And they've had a bad stadium and the ownership has not really put a lot of money into that team
because he wants the city to just spend money on a stadium and they won't.
So like a lot of teams like the Golden State Warriors and the Oakland Raiders, they're moving from that area.
And the fan base is really hurting from this.
I know something about this.
My best friend is from that area or one of my best friends is from that area.
And this has hit him very hard.
He is currently wearing Oakland gear every single day up until well was where I'm sorry.
Was wearing it right up until the last day of their final game.
And he said he's not wearing Oakland stuff ever again.
He's done.
He's not following the A's anymore.
He's not even sure if he's going to watch baseball.
He's just he really hurt.
Well, and that's the sports fan for you.
You know, we're not rational people.
And taking this very hard to heart.
Billy Joe Armstrong is like this.
He's from that area.
He's taking this to heart as well.
And probably handled it very poorly because he's probably got a lot of listeners in Las Vegas as well.
This is not the people's fault.
This isn't the people's of Oakland or the people of Las Vegas's fault.
This is a very, you know, an owner being an owner.
I'm not even the players fault.
No, it's not the play not even close to the players fault.
It's the ownership.
The owner is going to blame the city.
No city should ever have to pay for any for one dime of a stadium.
I don't care what they get in return from that.
That is business.
If you are fortunate to have a professional sports team in your city, you that's great.
That's an advantage for you.
As far as that sports team, you are fortunate enough to have a built-in fan base.
Imagine a business.
Imagine that I'm going to start a business.
I'm going to start selling stuffed penguins.
I got this stuffed penguin thing.
People love them.
I'm going to sell them everywhere.
And I'm looking, I want to go somewhere where I know that these are going to sell.
I know it's going to do well.
I'm going to build a fan base.
Sports.
That does that.
You can't do that with almost any other business.
Here in Rapids, it took Starbucks two different, no, I'm sorry, three separate times to move into this town before they finally made it.
A sports franchise can just walk in and they've got a built-in fan base.
There's no other business model like this.
So as far as the city having to pay for anything, even the concessions, they shouldn't have to do that.
And these owners are billionaires on top of it.
You spend some of your money, man.
You want this stadium so bad.
That's what they did in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Clippers owner did this and used most of his money to make a new stadium and everything for the Los Angeles Clippers.
Do that.
The people are stuck in the middle.
Like always, the fans get stuck in the middle on this one.
Well, in a lot of it gets lumped on the taxpayers, doesn't it?
Yep, yep.
I mean, weren't they just talking about this with the brewer stadium?
Yeah, yeah.
Oh.
It shouldn't ever come down to the city.
It just shouldn't.
It shouldn't come down to the taxpayers.
There's so much money in sports.
Yeah.
It's just ridiculous.
There's a lot in it.
There's a lot in it.
And it's not.
And obviously, anybody who listens to me for five minutes knows I'm not a sports fan.
And this is probably one of the biggest reasons.
It's understandable.
There are people, like I said, my friend will there or other people that I know from this area,
they're dropping a sport.
Well, Will is talking about next summer and everything.
He's going to go on these trips and everything instead of like going and watching baseball,
how he's going to spend his time.
It's a small portion of people, but that adds up.
And I talk about this all the time with the NFL.
They're going to kill the Golden Goose.
They're going to do it.
It's just a matter of time.
They keep pushing the fans farther and farther.
And at a certain point, people are going to push back.
Well, and obviously sports has their place.
Let's invest where it really makes a difference.
Kids sports.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, that building of teamwork, the working together, the trying to all obtain the goal.
That's where the money should be invested, in my opinion.
And we really do need to invest in those sheets that little height, little kids,
grade school kids, like run through.
You ever see the videos of that Melissa where they're trying to run through the paper,
and they can't break through the paper.
So they get stuck in there.
Like there's a pile up of them and everything.
Oh, it's great.
I could watch that for a days.
Like if that's the only sports that existed, I'd be fine.
I'd be okay.
I could live.
I could live with that.
Is roller skating coming back?
A reality competition series called Roller Jam is hitting Max on Thursday, October 10th.
Really?
It's a six episode series hosted by former American Idol star, Jordan Sparks,
and produced by Fixer Upper Stars Chip and Joanne Gaines.
Contestants will be judged by a figure skating champ, Johnny Weir,
a roller skating legend, Terrell Ferguson, and a different celebrity judge each week.
Michelle Williams, Debbie Gibson, Joanna Gaines, some of the guest stars that they will have on it.
The winning team?
This is cool.
The team will receive $150,000 plus $10,000 donation to their local rink.
Yeah, I love this.
I love this idea.
Yeah, this is actually a reality show.
I would be interested in watching, not that I have TV, but if I did.
Between you and I, Melissa, I've never gotten into reality TV.
I've mentioned it many times.
But I did watch a little bit of dancing with the stars once.
And there were parts of it I liked.
I could never watch a whole episode, let alone what I've already seen.
I'm probably out, it's all I'll ever see.
But I'm a big fan of dance.
And I do think I love the idea of taking just anybody and showing, hey,
even you can learn this and learn how to dance and enjoy dance.
This seems like just an extension of that.
You know, with roller skating and just roller jam and people dancing on the roller skates.
Yeah.
And I just, I wonder what, because I did get to go see Roller Derby for the first time this year.
Laura and I took a couple of her kids and we went and watched that in Steven's point,
which was a ton of fun.
And it'd be interesting to see a professional like.
So is this like roller skate dancing?
Because you mentioned dancing.
Yeah, it's it's a little mix of both.
There it seems to just from the trailer.
It seems like there's a lot of dancing involved.
But there's also like some stunts that go on.
And it's it seems like it's an open competition.
Like, can you do something cool on roller skates?
Come on down.
Kind of thing.
It feels like, as it feels like, just from the trailer, it looks like there's a mix of both.
And man, the things people can do on roller skates nowadays.
Yeah.
Because what's interesting, we don't talk really about it.
But this isn't the people are in this article they're asking is roller skating come back.
I don't think it ever really went away.
Oh, I mean, we have, look at Skate City here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Perfect example.
Yeah.
That place is still going strong, you know.
You know, it's been a long time since I've been on roller skates.
Yeah.
We might need to, we might need to try this, James.
I think so.
I think you would think it a very similar thing here because I love being on roller skates.
I like skating.
I like, I can't really get on ice skates anymore.
My ankles really aren't, aren't built for it anymore.
And I, it drives me crazy.
No, I'm not being able to be on ice skates.
Yeah, it's such an awesome feeling.
Roller skates are a little close.
You know, that sounds close.
You got a bit of a more of a platform, bit of a more of a, that was real good English.
A bit more of a platform to balance on than just to blade with, with four wheels.
Yeah.
It should be interesting.
Again, that TV show premieres October 10th, a roller jam hitting Max HBL Max on road then.
I'm getting your fix down at Skate City.
Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, support local everybody.
This is one that I don't hear a lot of people talking about again.
So I want to make sure to bring up because we need to keep an eye on these things.
Direct TV just announced yesterday that it is buying its rival dish network
after decades of on and off talks about the two services merging.
And I want to say at least two decades.
This is, this conversation has been happening.
And it's finally happening.
And the price direct TV is paying for dish is a dollar.
What?
It's just a dollar because they are agreeing to assume dishes billions of dollars of debt.
The deal hasn't officially closed yet.
There are still a few hurdles including dish bond holders accepting you reduce debt deal.
Customers probably won't experience any big differences at least at first.
Direct TV says that they don't have any plans to make changes to the existing dish brands for better or worse.
But they always say that in the beginning.
Who knows where that'll go.
I would love to know how many people are still, you know, dish users.
Satellite.
They're out there.
They're out there because you don't have.
There are areas of, you know, especially in rural areas where you just can't get anything else.
Dishes you're, oh, satellite is your only option.
The percentage of American adults who subscribed to satellite TV has been declining with the number dropping from 76% back in 2015 to 56% in 2021.
The Pew Research Projects, I'm sorry, projects that the share of American adults who subscribed to cable or satellite TV will drop to 26% by 2025.
It depends on the infrastructure.
Yeah.
And how much we, and quite bluntly, what happens in November?
Because there are, there are group.
It's been kind of, while there are a lot of purple going on when it comes to, you know, internet, accessibility.
I'm trying to think of the actual terminology that we use for that.
But rural accessibility to the internet.
There's been a lot of conversations about that.
And some politicians talk about it, some don't.
And it can be a purple topic.
I don't believe that it's just one side of the other.
I do see certain groups focusing more on this and caring more about this than others.
And we have broadband advocates right here in Wisconsin, right here in Central Wisconsin, who are advocating for expansion of broadband.
Because there are rural parts of the state, farmers who just, they have, they have nothing.
Yeah.
Or next to nothing because the speeds are so slow.
You might as well go back to dial up.
Well, and this is becoming more and not becoming, it is vital.
It is important.
There's too much, we're not talking about being able to check your Facebook status.
We're talking about being able to contact emergency services or look things up on an emergency top, you know, for a matter.
We're able to monitor your crops in case of, you know, frost coming in that could cause damage.
I mean, there's all sorts of reasons that we absolutely need this technology in everywhere.
It's, it's too important to not have it.
And, and how are people in rural areas supposed to stream us?
I mean, let's think about the, no, it's nothing.
The real issue.
What's new on your small screen tonight?
You've got the 15th season premiere of the Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo.
Watch what?
That's insane.
That's insane.
The standard special Tim Dylan, this is your country on Netflix, is also premiering.
And of course, the big one, the vice presidential debate at eight o'clock on major, on all major networks.
We will also be streaming that on our radio stations.
That's the real reason I'm bringing this up is we are, of course, are going to be covering this here at Civic Media
as we do all of these debates, looking forward to hearing the coverage and hearing the conversations afterwards.
The post game talk, if you will, when it comes to that.
Yeah, I think they'll have short commentary before and after.
Yeah, and we're looking forward to that.
We have the best news team in radio.
I cannot wait to hear from everybody on this one.
And certainly going to be in a very interesting debate, you know, regardless.
Yeah.
I'm very curious with the, with people out there.
And this isn't necessarily something I'm asking.
It's more rhetorical of how many people are still deciding and how many people have their minds made up.
And the purpose of a debate is certainly those people that are in the gray.
And, and I don't know, I don't know if in my lifetime there has ever been an election where it seems so.
People have got their minds made up one way or the other, it seems like so much.
Even though the stats tell us different, there are quite a few people out there of undecided voters.
Well, and I think it's really, really vital, James, for people to listen themselves.
Not just listen to the commentary before or after or the clips that are being played all over the internet.
Watch the actual debate.
Hear it from their lips.
Don't take other people's opinions about it.
Form your own opinion.
There, there is no noise.
There is no, you know, you can't, yeah, you can't spin.
If it's, if you're hearing it yourself right from the word, I'm out right from the person.
It's a great point.
In the context of the conversation that's going to happen during the debate.
We'll be covering it right here at Civic Media and our networks.
We will get to our state, local in sports news.
We'll come back and we're talking that greatest dishes in America.
Greatest American dishes coming up.
Coming up on the morning show here at WFHR.
Welcome back everybody.
Morning show at WFHR.
Locally grown radio.
Melissa and James here with you.
Happy October.
Happy autumn.
Happy autumn.
Oh, it's so good.
I love this long sleeve weather.
Seeing the colors change on the trees and all of this.
It's a fun time of year.
It is.
And there's a lot of fun meals that we love this time of year.
We look forward to as we get closer to the lower temperatures and everything.
And CNN had an interesting feature they did the other day about American foods and defining what American food is.
Because a lot of the most popular dishes in the US are heavily influenced by other countries and cultures because that is America.
Yes.
We are built on influence.
We are built on other cultures and certainly going back to the original cultures of this of land and kind of branching from there.
CNN has a new feature on the 20 greatest American dishes and they've included one of the most one of most Americans might avoid.
It's kind of interesting.
Okay.
Fried Okra.
Fried Okra is number two on the list.
To avoid?
No, no.
Or to enjoy.
To enjoy.
20 greatest American dishes in Fried Okra is shows up at number two.
I would love to have it made by somebody who knows what they're doing because I tried to make Okra ones and did not turn out.
Hmm.
I don't think I've had it.
I don't think I've had it before.
They have barbecue.
I'm sorry.
Did I cut you off there, Melissa?
Nope.
Go ahead.
One.
And the rest includes cop salad, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the hamburger, apple pie, chili, clam chowder, the rubin sandwich, exbenedic, grits, spaghetti and meatballs, and chocolate chip cookies.
Interesting list.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some of the less, you know, you know, you best, you be quest items, fried bread, red beans and rice, gumbo, poke,
the classic mission burrito and banana pudding.
Banana pudding.
There's also a general, it's a sauce chicken or a sauce chicken.
A general sauce chicken.
A general sauce chicken.
Yeah.
Which was basically been claimed by America at this point.
Hmm.
Though I'm a little surprised and I see those orange circus peanuts show up on the list.
They did not make the list.
You can't make those at home, Jane.
No.
Maybe this is not.
It's not as common as chocolate chip cookies.
So I don't know if it's right or not, but I love that barbecue is number one on here.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
I think that's pretty good.
Yeah.
Well, barbecue is delicious.
Diving into this a little bit, Spanish conquistadors brought the cooking style practiced by an indigenous, indigenous
Caribbean tribes north.
It's arguably one of the most argued, argued about foods in the United States and we're all well aware of the grand, you know,
the rivalries that exist between the Carolinas and Memphis and Kansas City and, you know, as far as who has the best barbecue.
But nobody does barbecue like we do in this country and by far and away.
Other countries don't really do this kind of stuff.
Well, I mean, we do eat a lot of meat here.
Fried Okra being high on the list is another reason for its originality to the states here.
Cobb salad.
Interesting to see that one up there too.
Yeah.
So credit for the Cobb salad generally goes to Bob Cobb, owner of the now defunct brown derby chain in Los Angeles.
Back in 37, he whipped up and then chopped up a late night salad at the North Vine location.
And it be, you know, just went famous from there.
Hmm.
I have to look it up because I'm not 100%.
Okay, so it's the, it's just a large American garden salad made with chopped green.
Salad greens, bacon, chicken, hard boiled eggs, avocados, chives, buchis.
I mean, it's got like everything in it.
Yeah, yeah.
That's, that's my kind of salad.
One of my, half of my body weight is peanut butter and jelly.
So I just put that out there.
And according to the National Peanut Board, peanut butter was first introduced in 1893.
World's Columbia and exposition in Chicago and became popular in upscale tea rooms.
Peanut butter and watercress were a big deal.
The first known PBNJ, the first known PBNJ sandwich recipe was published in 1901
in the Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and used current,
or a current or crab apple jelly.
Current.
Current.
Current, it is current.
Okay.
Eventually mass production techniques in the early 1900s introduced the sandwich that we know now.
The sandwich as a, they introduced the sandwich as a rash and for US military personnel in World War II
and helps spread the appeal of this.
Because it's high in protein.
Yeah.
It's interesting that it started as a savory salad or a savory sandwich though.
Because I mean, we all think of, well, what do you pair with peanut butter and a sandwich?
Well, of course, jelly or, you know, bananas or something sweet.
But as a savory topping, it is gaining some traction.
You can go to a burger joint and get a burger with peanut butter on it.
And it's fantastic.
A, you know, apple pie is certainly the number one thing that most people think about with America,
even to this day.
But the hamburger has got to be pretty, pretty far up on the list as well.
It's super compressed or origin story.
Basically, from the Golden Horde to the Golden Arches,
burger expert George Mats traces the modern burgers ancestry back to 13th century Mongolia.
The raw mutton concoction from the remnants of the Mongol Empire
eventually made its way over centuries to Hamburg, Germany,
and shifted in making up to cooking chop beef.
That's where they kind of put their own spin on it, which is where this comes from.
German immigrants brought it over to the United States,
where it eventually made its way onto a bun.
Okay.
The founding fathers were scarfing down burgers on the regular
while crafting breakaway documents in Philly back in the 1700s.
Kind of like the idea of that.
I kind of like the idea of the sitting around putting these documents together and everything.
You know what?
You know what?
We should put bacon on this.
That's a real good idea, Benny.
That's a good idea.
I don't know why.
I said, Ben Franklin came up with that on the wide open.
Chili is another great one, another American staple.
And we are entering Chili season here very soon.
As with so many foods, the further back you go,
and the ancestry of the modern bowl of chili,
the murkier things get, but at least within the United States,
the loose consciousness is Chili was popularized in Texas first.
In the 1880s, San Antonio's downtown was known for its Hispanic outdoor vendors called Chili Queens.
At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
where so many of these stories begin,
whether we're talking about this stuff or just inventions like the Ferris wheel
or just even modern lights,
all started at these expositions in Chicago
or expositions in New York and other places.
Today, many questions still surround Chili.
Beans are no beans, beef or turkey, red chili peppers are green.
You're going to put crackers in there or not.
You want some cornbread with it.
Chili is so versatile.
And growing up for me,
Chili always contained elbow macaroni,
because that's how my mom made it.
I didn't realize that was considered goulash until much later in life.
And I think a staple as well,
and maybe it's more of a southern thing,
but definitely an American staple is grits.
The creamy dish has its roots and culinary culture of Native Americans
who pound a dried corn to make a coarse corn meal.
They then cook it down into a soup of,
or porridge like tomatoes, corn,
and completely new to European colonizers
who quickly took the concoction.
Oh, wow, this is flavor.
If you're a nerd like me and you love history,
and it's not just people history, but just items,
one of the things you keep coming back to
when it comes to food items and their origins
is the popularization of them from Europeans,
and it always has to do with flavors.
It's kind of like it took a lot of us
and other immigrants doing these things
for them to realize,
oh, we can treat our taste buds well.
We don't have to be mean to our taste buds.
Yes.
It's the most popular grits in the grits belt,
stretching roughly from parts of Texas to Washington, DC.
Have you had grits before, Melissa?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I like grits,
but I'm also a savory breakfast food person,
more so than sweet.
So, yeah, grits are right up my alley.
There's a little butter in there, salt and pepper, yum.
I hadn't had until I went to Texas and my God.
That is a nice meal.
That is some good stuff on the side right there,
especially having it with some brisket.
Oh, yeah, good stuff.
Or is an alternative to hash browns
for your breakfast side?
Yeah, I didn't think of that.
Yeah, I bet.
Where I went, they did.
It was a breakfast, what do you call it?
You can just go up and get your food and everything.
Buffet, buffet.
I couldn't think of the word buffet.
Yeah, and they had that there.
They had all kinds of stuff.
And the combinations I saw people doing,
I didn't know you could combine these with breakfast,
so I changed breakfast for me, it really did.
And we wrap up with the chocolate chip cookie,
which made the list here, of course.
Americans have an inventive Massachusetts in owner
back in the late 1930s to thank for this yummy, wonderful treat.
The story goes that Ruth Wakefield,
who ran the toll house in Whitman,
added chopped up bits from a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar
to a batch of butter drop do cookies.
Butter drop do cookies, that's great.
And things didn't turn out as she had planned.
She thought the chips would melt entirely,
but what she got was soft, gooey, distinctive bits,
which were delicious.
Chunks of chocolate in your cookie.
Wakefield sold her recipe rights and the toll house name
to Nestle Company back in 1939.
Soon enough, they were an American classic.
Well, and honestly, you know,
everybody's got a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe
in their family, typically.
My family's go-to is the one on the back of the toll house.
Chocolate chip cookie bag.
That's perfect.
That's great.
And we want to send a special shout out to our friend Diane,
our wonderful listener, who brings us cookies.
We got to see Diane yesterday.
The best cookies.
Did she bring cookies?
She did.
There are chocolate chip cookies in the break room.
And I got to stop by the station now.
Yep.
Gonna make sure that there are some put aside for you, Melissa.
Gonna make darn sure.
And I do that out of guilt.
I do that.
No.
I do that alone.
Just do it so you don't eat them all.
Right.
Exactly.
That's the whole reason.
That's absolutely.
I'd love to keep this one going.
We're going to wrap up the segment in the moment here.
But what are some things that you would add to the great American dishes?
What are some things out there?
Let us know everybody.
715-424-2600.
I would say macaroni and cheese.
Oh, I was going to say grilled cheese.
Yeah.
Both are great.
I think both of them are in there.
Yeah.
And how to be.
Gotta add those.
Those are mainstays for growing up.
And yeah, I think there's got to be a lot of breakfast foods, right?
Or, no, a lot of our breakfast foods are influenced by European stuff.
But yeah, I think pancakes are pretty American.
That's a good one, too.
And the things that we have done with sandwiches.
The Ruben sandwich got brought up earlier.
But we've done so many things with the sandwiches and stuff.
Clubs sandwiches, patty melt.
Did we mention gumbo?
Because gumbo feels okay.
Yeah, I did, okay.
Because that's got to be in there, too.
Yeah.
That's definitely amazing.
Let us know some of yours, everybody.
We'd love to hear from you.
715-424-2600.
It's a touch or two away on the Civic Media app.
And we appreciate all of you downloading that app.
And as a side note, those of you wondering,
hey, who won the whole big contest thing you guys were doing over there and everything.
We got that coming up for you.
That'll be coming up this week, everybody.
We do.
You can blame the delay on Verizon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you need to blame somebody, we're working on it.
Yeah, we will have that for you, though.
We want to make sure to get it right and make sure that everybody can find out at the same time.
So we'll be releasing that information this week.
But thank you again to everybody that played along and had some fun with that one.
It was a fun contest.
We'll be doing another one real soon and we're looking forward to it.
For now, Melissa and I will get to our break.
Take care of our sponsors and our partners.
And come back and have some more fun on the morning show here at WFHR,
locally grown radio.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
I'm going to take it to the top of the hour.
And we got a listener to help us do it.
Good morning, you're on the air.
Oh, we lost them.
We lost them.
Feel free to call back though.
Love you.
So we'll be five, four to four, 2600.
Yeah.
Got an interesting one here to kind of wrap up the show, Melissa.
24-year-old man in Pennsylvania named Joshua Kaiser spent the past four years attempting to break the record for the world's tallest hat.
And he's accomplished it.
Joshua first decided to do it when he was browsing the internet during the pandemic quarantine.
And he saw the record for the world's tallest hat had been set a couple of years before.
And that was 15 feet and nine inches.
He set out to beat the record.
His first effort used stacked cardboard blocks and Velcro and was an utter failure according to him.
So his second one, which involved wooden dowels, he created, he also tried creating one with chicken wire and a tall cone shape.
Eventually, he found success using a couple of 10-foot long aluminum gutters from Home Depot in a modified metal Philadelphia Eagles hat.
Oh, wow.
Joshua's final design was 17 feet 9.5 inches.
Oh, my goodness.
And it weighs 26 pounds.
Wow.
That's a lot of weight to carry on your head for, you know, something that tall.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know where you got to put this.
So you got no, there's not a hat wrap for something like that either.
Well, we got to build a shed in the backyard because I got a real tall hat.
Yeah.
And I don't know if it should count.
It doesn't really look like a hat.
It just looks like he says, well, I don't know.
Let's go to a caller here.
Good morning.
What's on your mind?
Yeah.
You cannot have grilled cheese sandwiches without tomato soup.
Yes.
Oh, that's the best.
We're actually built.
Depp are goat cheese sandwich into chicken soup.
I absolutely.
I'm pretty sure that's somewhere in the bill of rights that you can't have grilled cheese without tomato soup.
I'm almost certain you're absolutely right about that, sir.
I appreciate you as always.
Thanks for calling up.
Great comment.
Yeah.
And he's right.
Favorite comfort meal when I was a kid.
You talk about combinations of things.
And that is one of those that you almost have to have them together.
I know if it's my dad, you have to.
I don't know.
I don't think my dad could eat one of the other.
He has to have both of them.
You can't have one without the other.
Let's see here.
Want to get into some good stories of the day and our schedule for the day.
We got great things coming up for you.
As mentioned earlier, we are going to be covering the vice presidential debate here at Civic Media.
Yes, we are.
Our team will be bringing you live coverage of the vice presidential debate.
Beginning at 7.45 tonight.
Join our news team Terry Bell among host Pat Crite Low and political editor Dan Schafer.
For the insights, you won't receive anywhere else.
That's right.
Looking forward to covering this one for you today.
And we're looking forward to bringing you another midday magazine from four to five.
And man, we got a jam packed episode for you.
In part one, Catherine Eckert will join us director of McMillan Library.
Get an update from them.
Oh, good.
And in part two, we're going to talk to our friends from the South of County main society.
All right, South of County, a YMCA, I'm sorry.
It just rolls off the tongue.
It does.
Baxter and Audrey are going to be joining us from there in a big thank you to Tri-City Services sponsor in this.
It's going to be a fun midday.
We're looking forward to that a little bit later.
And we are looking forward to in just a couple of days to the great cast of drinking habits getting back into work, getting back into the habit.
Yeah, they're kicking off their last weekend on Thursday.
Yeah, Thursday and Friday.
They will have seven o'clock shows.
A two o'clock matinee will wrap everything up.
Get your tickets and support local support the arts at WRC theater dot org.
And I can tell you from personal experience.
This is a show you do not want to miss.
It's hilarious.
You're absolutely going to love it.
Yeah.
Be sure to check that one out everybody.
Our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids Parkinson's support group.
Meet on the first Wednesday of each month in the legends room at Ridge's golf course.
They meet from 130 to 230.
There is no charge for this.
The group caters those with Parkinson's diagnosis as well as caregivers.
They have a Facebook page if you'd like to find out more.
Or you can go to wiparkinson dot org.
That's wiparkinson dot org.
Or give them a call at seven one five four five one three six nine four four five one thirty six ninety four.
Yeah.
And our great friends over at the United Way of Southwood and the Ames counties have their day of caring coming up at the end of the month.
It's coming up soon.
One of the my favorite days in the community where you're going to see a bunch of other red shirts this year.
You're going to see a bunch of red shirts in the area of people.
Strangers helping strangers community members helping community members.
You can not only get your lawn on there if you'd like, but you can also put a team together or just yourself.
Get together and help out with the raking.
Mm hmm.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's going to be a free breakfast.
You can donate personal essentials.
You get a free t-shirt with this.
All of that can be and you can find out more information at uwswac.org.
UWSWAC.org.
CEO of the United Way of Southwood and the Ames counties.
Terry Johnson will be with us tomorrow.
We'll be talking more about this then.
Oh, great.
Looking forward to that.
And we got some world good stories.
I wanted to get to like a dad in South Carolina named David Jones walked 30 miles to get his daughter's wedding dress in Tennessee.
Oh, wow.
It was supposed to be a two hour drive, but the roads were blocked by flooding from Hurricane Helena.
Mm hmm.
He told first responders he had to be there at 11 a.m. to walk her down the aisle.
So he ignored their warnings and hoofed it for five and a half hours.
Oh, wow.
He had to climb over debris and got stuck in knee-deep mud at one point and he made it about 20 miles before someone picked him up and drove him the rest of the way.
He didn't fill his daughters in on what happened until after the reception.
It was probably smart on his part.
Yeah.
Yeah, very, very smart on his part.
Good move there, sir.
An thoughtful, very thoughtful of him.
And certainly not something we recommend to people doing or anything.
I mean, I'm not going to lie as a dad.
I could see doing something like that, but it wouldn't be very smart of me.
It wouldn't be a good idea to do, but I do appreciate his, him doing it.
I do get it.
Yes.
Completing it.
Yeah.
The thoughts and hearts go out to everyone who was impacted by Hurricane Helene and the devastation down there.
Thinking of you.
Sending good thoughts.
Yes.
Thinking of everyone of you.
And certainly thinking of you on a large scale too, as far as the people that we have in charge of these things.
Yes.
Speaking of hurricanes, Carolina Patherson or David Tepper announced he and his wife Nicole are donating initial three million to help relief funds.
Carolina got hit especially hard by this.
We were talking about owners earlier and one of the worst owners in professional sports is David Tepper.
Him and his wife doing something like this.
I would say it's almost the least they can do in some ways, but certainly not something that is expected of them.
So it is noteworthy and appreciated.
Yeah.
And it's necessary.
They're going to need a lot of help.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And any way that we can help in volunteering.
You know, one of the things that I'm really proud of, whenever these things happen, there's devastation.
And we have to look for silver linings.
And one of the silver linings I think is you constantly see news stories of people here in the Midwest, people here in Wisconsin going there.
They don't know anybody down there.
They're just going down there to help.
And the ideas of what I was talking about before with day of caring of strangers helping strangers.
And the idea of that normalizing that more and more in our society.
It used to be normal.
It used to be something that we did all the time.
But now it's noteworthy and it stands out more and more.
And we need to kind of normalize this again.
This is one of those things I think we can normalize.
That we need more of this.
And it's great to see.
And it's a great point to bring up Melissa about what's going on down.
What has gone on down there.
Yeah.
And if you feel like you can't help, well, yes, you can.
You can donate blood.
You can donate in your local community in another way.
And all of that helps.
It goes so much farther than we can really even put in the words.
A great time and great show today.
Thank you so much, everybody who joined us called in.
Thanks for all the callers.
Yeah.
I want to thank Connie Hanky for joining us from the Alexander House.
Find out about that great exhibit that they have coming up this Friday at 5-8.
We're going to talk more about that as we get closer to it and everything.
But we're looking forward to it and looking forward to a great show tomorrow.
Melissa, you have a great rest of your day.
You do James.
Be good to each other out there, everybody.
We will talk to you soon and then later right here at...
This is locally grown radio.
W-F-H-R-1320-A-H-O-W-2-4-A-D-E Wisconsin Rapids.
And always streaming on the Civic Media App.
