Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with
us right here at WFHR.
Got your host, James behind the mic. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. Our head
of news, our co-host, Melissa K. with us. Good morning.
The best listeners in radio. We appreciate you, everybody. Thanks so much for hanging out
with us on this Tuesday. We will kick things off the way we like to with our good friend,
Brittany Merlot, talking a little mother nature. Good morning, Brit. Hey, hey, how's it
going? Doing good over here. How are you? Pretty good. Pretty good. A little breezy out
there this morning. Cloudy skies still stuck here, but I'm in a good spirit because the
snow is on its way. Yeah, it is, it is it. Winter is coming. So are we going to have
a way, Christmas? Oh, I still have my fingers crossed, Melissa. I'm trying. We've got a darn
warm up headed our way next week. So let's know that we get today and Thursday. Let's hope
it sticks around because we are looking at around an inch throughout this evening probably
pushing in, probably after a six o'clock winding down by midnight or so, just a quick inch
there. And then Thursday is the awesome, awesome widespread first snow storm. A good three
to five inches for a lot of us. So that'll be exciting, but a little rough to drive in
on Thursday evening. Anything you might need to get done, especially if you got to travel
across a town or out of town or anything like that, maybe get it done early. Put on your
sand ahead and get your pictures now. Yes. Yes. I love it. Good idea, Melissa. We appreciate
you, Brittany. Appreciate that energy so much. We'll get people ready for Mother Nature
tomorrow. Sounds good. Have a good day. You too. Thanks, Brittany.
Listen to business right there, Brittany Merlot. Appreciate y'all joining us. Melissa and I
here with you. And of course, heavy hearts on a morning like this. There's no, we don't
you know, bury our head in the sand around here or anything like that. We know what happened
in our state yesterday. We know that what's on a lot of our minds and in a lot of our hearts.
And we're going to push forward because that's what we do around here. We are serious comedies
start your day and we don't get to take days off. That's just the job. And I think if we
all understand that going into this, I feel like it could be a good couple hours and we
can give people a good start to the day. And we appreciate you guys being in on this,
if you will. Look behind the curtain. You guys are behind the curtain with us. And we appreciate
that so much. Have already gotten some really good feedback from you out there and appreciate
that. We're going to have a good time today. And we can do that while also one of the things
we have learned as Americans and not just a recent generations or anything. This is
the story of our, this is our part of our story in America, of handling real life situations
that are not necessarily happy and pushing through. And that's what we're going to do.
And hopefully, you know, not just push through, but actually come up with answers.
And I encourage all of our listeners, make your voices heard, reach out to our politicians
because they're the ones that need to know how you feel about this. And don't hesitate.
They say their offices are open and available. Yeah, I'm a little tired of politicians
being more afraid of the NRA than of situations like that happen yesterday. And that's, that's
that's, that's, I did so much. Thomas, I wasn't going to get on the soapbox, Melissa. And
I did it. Sorry. And I did it. Nope. That was me. I did it. That's not your fault. I tried
to move it out of the room. I picked it up and I physically carried it out of the room.
And I still did it. Really big of you. Thank you. Thank you. But that was a really big
step you took to get on your soap. Exactly. Also impressed. I don't really have a script
today. And I didn't want one. And I wanted that. I wanted to just all be not have a script
today. So I do want to let the audience know our phone lines are always open. 715-424-2600
were a family were a community. So please feel free to reach out if need be. And if you
are struggling or, or, or need to talk don't hesitate to reach out to our help lines
as well. 988 is, is the line that took all if you are in our, if you're struggling.
Nicely done, Melissa. I did not have that for a handy. I did. I, I had it in my head
but my dyslexia was kicking in. Just wasn't helping. We are going to get into some good
things today. We've got a lot lined up for you. The Elcafe birthday and anniversary
club right around the corner. We've got a pizza we have to talk about. I have no context
for this. I just, I just happened to see it and I had to share it with Melissa. You sent
it to me. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. But it does seem interesting. We will
get into that. We have the top five gifts teachers want and one gift they don't. We got
that one coming up for you. And believe it or not, the percentage of adults that don't
have a favorite dinosaur. So you're going to say diner. That could be either one. Yeah,
that could work. We can, we can flip it around. That's no problem. But it is in the process
of trying to find topics that take us in completely different direction. Yeah. No. Well
done. Yeah. But I know a lot of seven year olds who have favorite dinosaurs. So we,
you're correct. We also have some guests joining us in the 9 o'clock hour. We're going to
be joined by our friends from the greater Rapids area churches for a humanism. Grace is
going to be joining us. They are a new chamber member. So they'll be with us. I see a
Reverend Beth Ron Habhager. Sounds familiar. It should sound familiar. James, she was just
on yesterday. She was. It's our best. It's our best. They'll be here. And Reverend
Kate West will also be here with her. So that's going to be a nice conversation. Great
way to kick off the 9 o'clock hour. We'll love all that lined up for you. Also a couple
of other things we want to touch on. We'll get to those in a moment. But to start the
show, what better place than candy canes? Candy canes. But this is where we are with
this divisiveness in our country. We here at WFHR for 80 plus years have worked to bring
people together. It's something that we're very proud of and that we try to do very, you
know, organically. We put a lot of effort into. Yeah. Yeah. This one could be a little
tough. This could be a little tough. America is divided on the right way to eat a candy
cane. Oh, yes. Right way. Melissa, I don't want you to think I'm stepping on your toes
or anything here, but I did do a little journalism this weekend. And I talked to a five year
old. Okay. Excellent. About this very subject. That's good. You know, they are the authoritative
on how to eat candy canes. You got to get down to, you know, sometimes you got to get
right down there to their level, to the people's level. And it really talked to them and
everything. A poll this month found 42% of us never eat candy canes. So their answer
to this is just a don't, I guess. Put them on the tree. And then when you take the decorations
off, do not put them in the ornament box and put them in your storage, because the mice
will find them. Yeah. Yeah. Or next year, my father, I will try to eat them either way.
And they'll be melted. Oh, yeah. There's that too. That's the worst. It's a great no,
man. That's a good one. What was the right way? What is the right way to eat a candy cane?
New survey by the National Confectors Association found America is divided 54% of us start from
the strain end 30% start with the curve and 16% break them apart and eat them piece by piece.
Who are these insane? Maybe five year olds, I think five year old doing that.
I don't know if that's smart or crazy. I don't know. So that's a good one. I didn't think if I
expected that 60% to be decided, I didn't see that coming. In my experience, as having
been a child and eaten a lot of candy canes in my day, you always unwrap the straight end.
So you have the curved end to hold on to and you suck the straight end to a point so you can
stab your brother. Yes. Yeah. In my case, it was, it was, it was, I mean, poke, poke, poke.
Like, you know, these are not actual, like, what drawing things. I mean, if you're not careful,
however, right, right. It is a right of passage. It really is. I mean, and when your brother teases
you mercilessly, you have to have a candy cane handy. Yeah. Or if you happen to have a young
brother and sister and they decide to team up and realize they are stronger together and that you
never have a good day after that. My brother and sister, when it dawned on them, that they could
team up. Oh, bad. That way it was all over for, yeah, it was all over for me. It was all over.
I didn't have that option. I had to hold my own against three brothers. Yeah. That deep. Man.
Two of them were younger than me to be fair. So it's not like it was, you know, completely
ununded, but there's at least a couple of listeners out there. The right there, as soon as you
said that we're nodding your head, that makes sense. That a lot, a lot more makes sense now. A lot.
Now we understand why sometimes the list is vicious. Got it. And how she can handle Seth and I
so well. We have got the LCAP favorite date anniversary clip. We're right around the corner,
looking forward to that. Before that, though, do want to send a couple of quick notes. One,
a gigantic thank you to our friends at the ADRC, the Aging and Disability Resource Center of
Central Wisconsin. They were in with us yesterday, love hanging out with them. We got a nice
holiday card from them. It was, it's always nice when we get these at the station. We appreciate
that. Oh, yeah. We love getting cards. It's the best. I got some handwriting on that,
too, Melissa. I was, I'm sorry. That's my mom, pop it in my head. I like that. That's nice.
In the curse of handwriting. We also wanted to mention that we have a great lineup for you today.
Over on WIRI, we're going to have some high school basketball for you. My Alma Mater Lincoln
high school taken on Sparta. Awesome. This is Sparta. Mike and Seth covering that one on 105,
five WIRI pregame kicks off at 705. Shout out to Mike and Seth. All right.
And while they're doing that over there, we're going to be over here, Melissa, from five to six.
That we are. And actually, we're going to simulcast until that game starts almost on WIRI.
We have the live community stories show tonight. First live show for community stories.
Going live. We're going live. And it's in it's an elf call center. We want kids to call in with
your Christmas wish list for Santa. We are going to have, I did, I did confirm this, James. And,
James, and I don't know how we manage this, but we have an absolute get for tonight. We have
Santa's administrative assistant, Elf. Yeah. Oh, that's a get. Oh, that's it. Because you know
that that is the person that keeps everything running smoothly. Right. Right. Yeah. I've
did my homework on this one. That is that is saying it's right in man. That's awesome.
So Miss Holly is going to be with us tonight to take the phone calls from the kids with their
Christmas wish list. And she is going to make sure that those wish lists get right into Santa's
hot little hands. That is the best way to do it. You know, no middle man. It goes right to the
source. That's a good way to do it. This is smart. I like this. So we're looking forward to kids
calling in. The number is 715-424-2600 or just one button dial in with the Civic Media app.
And I will put you in direct contact with Miss Holly so you can get those Christmas wish
list in. But it's also going to be a fun show in between colors. We're going to have poems and
stories and songs and it's going to be a good time. Cannot wait. It's going to be really fun.
I think that it would be a great option to take all these poems and all these things we
collected may be put them in a director's cut episode. Holiday episode or something like that.
Because everybody works so hard on this and nobody more than Mel and appreciate the work
that you've done on this. This is a really fun idea. Thank you. It's absolutely a team effort
and a huge shout out to Ashley. Our head of sales at the station here for for making this all
happen because this was something we kind of cooked up last year together and she went with it
this year in and really just went all out to make sure we have sponsors and a huge thank you to
our sponsors and then just to make it all happen. Thanks, Ashley. Yeah, great work, Ash.
Get a hold of our and our sales team. Everybody, 715-424-1300. We've got a couple of things and segments
and shows that you would love to be a part of. Trust me. Talk to anybody who's worked with us
sponsors, and how good we treat them and how we treat them on the air. Just listen how we treat
them on the air. You want to be a part of this team. Get a hold of Ashley and also great ideas,
such a creative idea. I got such a creative idea. Great way of marketing your business, like
probably you haven't done before. We encourage you to be listening from five to six today. We're
going to have a lot of fun. It's going to be a blast. We've been doing this Thursday as well,
everybody. That's right. Thursday from five to six. We will be doing the show again and no
repeats. It's going to be a whole brand new show because we're going to get more collars, I hope.
Yeah, yeah. We, of course, also not only today and Wednesday and Thursday, but we will wrap up
on Friday. Civic Media's statewide grown-up gift list text-to-win contest. Yeah, this is the last
week of the text-to-win for the grown-up gift list. That's awesome. Be listening every day at the
top of the 7-11 AM hours and one in four o'clock PM hours, and we will give you a keyword to text
to us through the Civic Media app. Get yourself some cash or a overnight stay at ChulaVista
Resorts and the Dels. And of course, we got our grown-up gift list, grown-up gift list contest
options for you. How could I interest you in a robot vacuum? How about a humidifier? I also have
over here a wonderful espresso machine. Could you be interested in a snowblower? We've got tons of
cool options for you, everybody. This is a lot of fun. Isn't that a luggage too? There's a lot
guys that want to just win luggage. That's the sneaky gift. I think that's the sneaky one out of
all of these is having a nice set of luggage. If you travel like Melody, you get it. You get,
oh, that's nice to have. Travel with old duffel bags. Yes, that would be nice to have. And you
can get in on it and you could possibly win it just by playing along, everybody. You don't need a
QR code. You don't need to know a certain handshake or sign up for points or anything like that.
You just need the free Civic Media app and then down toward the bottom while you're listening to
our station, WFHR or WIRI, you hit the little text selection. Yeah. And then you just text that
number in. It's really simple and it's right there on the app. It says text with little bubbles
and you just click on that and by the being about a boom. There you go. You're in the contest.
But once you get the word in and please spell it right. Yes. That's also important. I appreciate
James. I heard your promotions the other day that you spell it out for listeners. It's very handy.
Yeah. Just a little bit. Just when little touch to hopefully get this, get us some more and more
winners out there. That's what it's all about. And of course bragging rights. Because when you do
this for our stations, you help us with a little bit of kind of just a fun little competition we do
with all of our other Civic Media radio stations. They've been sharing the graphs every day and it's
fun to see who's pulling ahead in the contest. We appreciate you playing along and of course we
definitely appreciate you listening and having this Civic Media app. And we want you to be our winners.
Yes. Yes. Just between us, we're rooting for you, everybody. We're pulling for you. Yeah.
We can't win, James. So we might as well root for our listeners.
I've got to live my carelessly through you. So you guys go ahead and play and win.
Mel and I will back more show coming up on the mornings with WFHR.
It is time for the El Café birthday and anniversary club. One of our favorite parts of the day we
get to celebrate you and talk about our great friends over at 221 Market Avenue and beautiful
part Edwards. Go treat yourself head on over to El Café.
Mm-hmm. Good pie for breakfast because why not?
Yes. You are an adult. You can do that. Take charge.
Agreed. Go ahead. Go ahead. Do it. They will judge you. They will look at you and smile.
They will be nice. They will. They're very happy about the, they have so many choices.
Yeah. That's the thing. You can have fruit pie for breakfast. That's healthy, right?
Mm-hmm. There you go. Anything that's red or blue. I feel like there you go.
I'm not healthy. Just save the putting ones for dessert later.
Yeah. Yeah. And enjoy our friends over at El Café. Say good morning to them for us.
Everybody will appreciate the gang over there. They have. Today's breakfast special is country
fried steak skillet. Mm-hmm. And for lunch they have a hot ham with mashed potatoes and gravy
and soup. And their soups are so delicious. I love the chicken dumpling soup there.
Such great stuff over there. Head on over there. Check it out everybody. By local support,
local support those that support this community. And follow their Facebook page for a giggle.
Fidel does such a great job with his Facebook page. He's got one up there now.
Eight days to Christmas. And it's a picture of the, the staff heads on. I don't even know what they are.
Oh, it is good. It's cute. It's cute. It's cute. It's great. That is good. I didn't
see that. Yeah. No, that's good. And I didn't realize it was eight days to Christmas while.
That is close. Appreciate our friends over at El Café. And we encourage you to get us those
birthdays and adversaries, everybody. We want to celebrate with you. You can email us at info
at WFHR.com. Could of course direct messages on our Facebook pages. And you should call up.
That's right. 715-424-2600. We're just one buttoned island with the Civic Media app.
Yeah, looking forward to talking with you, everybody. Call up. We love these live birthdays and
anniversaries. First up, we want to wish a very happy birthday to Pam's sister-in-law, Carol Hilke.
Oh, happy birthday, Carol. Carol lives out in Sun West City, uh, Sun, Sun City, West Arizona.
Oh, so she's going to have a warm birthday today. Yeah, I don't believe I've heard of that city
before. That's pretty cool. Carol, wish you a good one. Enjoy your birthday. Yeah. We also have
two possible qualifiers. So Melissa need a one or a two. Let's go with two today. All right,
gives us the qualifier. First up, want to wish a happy birthday to Mr. John Richardson.
Happy birthday, John. Enjoy your day, sir. Oh, it's a good one for you. And we wish a happy
birthday to our qualifier, Violet Cooper. Happy birthday, Violet. Enjoy the day, Violet. We hope
it's a good one for you. I am a sucker for the name Violet. That's a great name. I am too. I love
that name. Such a good one. Always, always, that always, but I always am surprised that it's not one
of those overused names because it's such a great name, but in a popular one. But it's a little more
of a classic. I would say, you know, name for, for a baby girl. Yes. It'll make a comeback,
just wait. Yeah. Yeah. You're so right. Yeah. I mean, Olivia, Sophia, Katherine, they all do.
They're, they've all made a comeback. So just wait. It will. Happy birthday to you, Violet,
brag to all your friends and family that you're our qualifier for today. Absolutely.
Taking a look at our celebrity list real quick. I just want to rewind for a second. I did not see
it on our list yesterday. One of my biggest influences in my, uh, maybe my biggest audio
influence. Dan Lebitard was celebrating a birthday yesterday. A big shout out to Dan and his
team in Miami. Certainly during the pandemic helped me out a lot and helped out even our listeners
without them knowing in many ways because I got a lot of information with them. They had a lot more
resources than we do at the time and ever at the time and everything. So it's just really good
people down there. And Dan is, you know, you talk about people that are just themselves on the air
and, uh, believe in what they do and stand with it have such an interesting story, um, one of those
guys. Hey, uh, for today, birthdays, we send a big shout out. I, I believe to one of both of our
favorites, Melissa. Um, Mela Jova, which is 49 today. Yes. I like her so much. I actually just watched
an interview, um, that she did about the fifth element for the first time when she was in it. She
was only 17 in that movie. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Um, she was a, uh, a very established, uh,
supermodel, um, before that. And I always wanted to be an actor and actually got in the modeling
to get in the acting. Um, and it's usually the other way around sometimes. But her, um, Matthew
Gray-Goobler, uh, who's on criminal minds and stuff, a couple of actors like that that really started
out as, as just trying to get their foot in the business with, uh, their looks, essentially,
and, and use that to be able to do what they really wanted to do. Her work and the fifth element is,
is classic. It's a classic movie. Um, the Resident Evil films are very popular. She played Joan of
Arc and nailed it. Nailed it. Um, she's not a classically trained actor. And it's part of the
reason I bring up the modeling thing is because of how, um, good her work is. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I,
the story she shared about, you know, you remember her, her orange hair. Yeah. From the fifth element.
They had, she had one of her model beauticians come in and, and style that look for her. Wow.
But they found out that they had to keep reapplying the orange, uh, and bleaching her hair a lot,
because she has naturally dark hair. Um, so they had to switch over to using a wig because eventually
your hair just started falling out. I believe in no. So much bleach. Um, just incredible talent. And
I believe, uh, if there's any justice, we'll have multiple awards before it's all said and done.
I believe she does have some, but Sarah Paulson is 50 today. Um, most people know her from American
horror story. She was Linda trip and impeachment, nurse ratchet and ratcheted. Um, she is, uh, just
a force. I mentioned American horror story yesterday and, uh, watching it in part because of Jessica
Lang and some of the actors in it. I kept watching because of Sarah Paulson and, um, uh, some of the work
on some of those other actors, but mainly because of Sarah Paulson. Because I, yeah, there are a few
talents I've seen more well rounded than her. Mm-hmm. She's definitely has a presence that could
make you pause. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She's, she, she is so darn good. It's, it's funny to see her
in some ways working so well in, in so much with Jessica Lang because she reminds me so much of a
young Jessica Lang. She, she really is that kind of talent. It's expensive, expensive eyebrows.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I didn't think of that. Yeah. You're right. Uh, Giovanna Ritz is 50 years old.
Phoebe's brother, Phoebe's brother on friends. Um, and, uh, uh, he's an avatar show. Uh,
sneaky Pete was a big show. He had an Amazon great actor, uh, great actor.
Rian Johnson is 51 writer, director of Star Wars, the last Jedi and the Knives Out movies.
Oh, really? Yeah. Really good writer and director. He's really good. Yeah. I haven't seen,
I want to watch the Knives out. I haven't seen it yet. Uh, they're both really good. All right.
So the first one is I didn't get to see the second one yet. Uh, yeah. Glass onion. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I gotta see that Peter Farley is 68 green book director. Also one of the Farley
brothers. They did a couple of movies you might have heard of. I don't know. Maybe King Pinch,
Yellow Hell, there's something about Mary, Dumber, Dumber, Stuck on You, Fever Pitch,
Three Stooges, you know, just a couple, just a couple movies. Yeah, just a couple.
It was kind of dumb funny movies. Give anything to be like just one line in one of their movies.
Like those guys are awesome. They're just great. Uh, Bill Pullman is 71. Uh, Bill Pullman. Yeah. Uh,
of course, um, Independence Day is probably the president of Independence Day. Um, uh,
one of one of the best presidents in a movie. Like it was so good in that. Yes. That's it.
I fell in love with him in that movie. Like he was just so good in it. I would have. If I hadn't
seen him as lone star in Space Balls. Oh, I love it. Kind of a different role. Yeah. Yeah. Very
did. Yeah. But, uh, I mean, just such a likable character actor. Uh, there's a really good,
really good. Well, he was also in Casper. Oh, that's right. In 1995. Yeah. He was, he was the
doctor character. One of my all time favorites. One of my bigger influences. Mr. Eugene Levy is 78
today. Oh, really? Yes. His eyebrows are 70. Um, Jim's dad and the American pie movies.
Of course, waiting for Guffman's splash, bringing it down the house. A mighty wind best in show.
Uh, the Shicks Creek. Um, of course, uh, one of the more popular TV shows. Such a great TV show.
And he was one of the like writers or producers on that. Yes. Yeah. As he was, um, not producer,
but a writer and actor on second city television, SC TV that was on WGN 24, seven when I was a kid.
And while I talk about Saturday Live a lot, that's the stuff that really like shaped me as a,
as just as an entertainer, little long wanting to be funny. Um, whether it was, uh, John Candy or,
uh, Rick Moranis or, uh, Eugene Levy, uh, those guys just, I, I looked up to them. They were
amazing. They made me laugh every time. And Eugene Levy was, it is till still to this day,
a fearless, fearless comedian will do anything to make you laugh. And that's what you asked for.
Um, also, uh, nobody talks about this incredible dresser. He is a great dresser.
Snazzy. Yeah. Yeah. Very good dresser. Yep. You seem a lot with bow ties. Yeah. Ernie Hudson is 79,
Winston in the Ghostbusters movies. Uh, it's not a lot of other roles too. Uh, it's a lot of, uh,
a smaller parts and cameos, but great actor, great actor. Um, uh, Pope Francis is 88 today.
Really? Yeah. Happy 88 to Pope Francis. Um, uh, I, I will say, uh, if I had my choice and you get,
uh, five interviews or something, top five interview, definitely, definitely. Uh, just, uh, I,
I find him to be a very interesting, I put all the religious, uh, religion aside, uh, very
interesting human being, I think, uh, along with, of course, wearing that hat and being the Pope and,
um, um, and as far as, um, from what I know, at least, of, of the popes that we've had in,
in living history, um, one of the more interesting ones. Yes. Very, very. I would say a bit of a
trendsetter as far as that goes. Yeah. Uh, I couldn't agree more. Yeah. And we again,
want to wish happy birthdays and anniversaries to everybody out there celebrate. We wish you the
best of days, everybody. Get us more birthdays and anniversaries. Yes. Enjoy. And head over to
L. Cafe and get some pie and, and, and also delicious food. Yeah. Say hi to the gang over there
for him. Wish, uh, for us, wish him a good morning from all of us. Mel and I'll be back talking pizza.
Crazy pizza. Will we come back? Uh, in the morning show at WF HR.
Welcome back, everybody. Morning show at WF HR.
Morning.
To the shepherd boy, do you hear what I hear?
Sounds really good together. Mm-hmm.
My listen, it almost like us. Well, listen, James here together. Mm, um, I should have
said that. We can. It's okay. Good thing. Good for that. Good thing's coming up, everybody.
The top five gifts for teachers that they want and one that they may not want. That is coming up
in a little bit. But right now, uh, through my endless nights and, uh, you know, researching and
looking for content and all this, I come across things sometimes when I'm looking for one thing
and I come across something that is not what I expected. Um, I happen to come across something called
glitter pizza. What? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I right away want to tell everybody is a pizza connoisseur.
Uh, this, this intrigued me. I had to follow through on this one. Um, and I ran into hungry
highways flavored crust pizza. Uh, they have a number of locations around the country and none
really here in Wisconsin, although I do see some in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.
It might be worth driving. I mean, it's blue in the center. Yeah. Yeah. You can go ahead and, uh,
throw this one in your search engine. If you're curious about what it looks like, everybody,
just type in their edible, howie's glitter pizza or glitter pizza should send you to it.
Right. Or hungry howie's dot com. Yes. Yes. Uh, it is a tie dye pizza basically.
Tie dye. Yeah. It's right on the outside and it, and it goes through all the colors until it gets
to blue in the middle. It's, uh, it's not only edible. People rave about this thing and they've
got a couple of different things. There's a Cajun crust. It sounds pretty good. A half butter crust.
They got some interesting ones. Sesame crust. I love the creativity in the food world. Whoa,
whoa. James limited time flavored crust. Dill pickle. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's, now see, that is just
smart. Uh, those that haven't heard or haven't seen or anything like that pickles around the rise.
Like people are using pickles for everything now. Yeah. Yep. It's a big deal.
Um, there's a, but what I haven't been able to find, I see a lot of reviews and I see a lot of
people like raving about it and everything. I don't hear anything about the flavor. What is it
taste like? Yeah, what is it taste like? I'm wondering if it tastes like what does the glitter
taste like? The fact that they're not saying it just makes me feel like it must taste like regular
pizza, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That does sound interesting. They say,
you might know it by its other names. Rainbow pizza or even pizza tie dye. There you go. Yeah,
yeah. It's from their secret menu. Uh, it, I would definitely try it and I, I'm thinking,
I'm thinking road trip. I'm thinking road trip. Yeah. You know, we talk about all the time. One
of these days we're maybe gonna do it. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I'm all in, I'm all in. I,
I think that'd be fun. I wonder on pizza, it would be fun. It's got the sparkle of a disco ball
and more colors than your grandpa's tie dye shirt collection. Oh, I love it. I love it. Oh,
that sounds so good. I definitely, I really gotta try this. And, and I part of the reason I bring
it up is because we have such a wonderful area when it comes to creating different things. Uh, for,
for decade, at least, uh, the longer than that, the crazy bloody Mary has been a thing. Oh,
man, yeah. You order a bloody Mary nowadays and there's a pork chop. It comes with a buffet. Yeah,
I come, yeah, yeah. Like you have to work to get to the bloody Mary. You, you're full before
you get there. I, I encourage all of our, uh, great chefs and, uh, great establishments in this area
to, you know, come up with some fun, different pieces, inventive food creatives out there.
And, uh, something that I thought about, and I actually talked about, Karla and I used to joke
about this a little bit. We never really had the resources to pull through with it. I wonder if
we could now, I would love to do a, a taste testing where you, Seth and I are the judges of, um,
cheese curds in the area or, or, or something like that. Something that were, you know, really,
that would kill me, but we could do that. Yeah, we don't want to, as I said it out loud and like,
wait a minute. You know, I, I will occasionally sacrifice my digestive well-being for the,
the good of, of, you know, the group. I appreciate that. It may take some of the other
than cheese curds. This may take work, but, but something like that, I think it'd be really fun.
And a great way to support local businesses to promote them. Uh, we'll, we'll, we'll,
we'll put something like that in the workshop. Could be an episode of, uh, the kitchen's open.
Ooh, I think that'd be fun. Uh, and, uh, it, it really would help too, because a study found
eating no sweets could kill you. Well, yeah, yeah. Uh, researchers tracked, and the added
sugar intake of 70,000 people. Uh, this is a pretty good number. Uh, to see how it affected their
heart rate, a heart health. Uh, they looked at three sources, uh, sugary toppings like honey,
sweets like cookies, and sweetened drinks like soda. They found that too much sugar, especially
in drinks, can up your risk of heart attack or stroke, uh, which is something we've read at
research from the American Heart Society. We've known this for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But they were surprised to find that people who completely avoided sugar were also at a
higher risk. Really? They think it's possible. The no sugar people had pre-existing conditions
that weren't revealed. Um, but that's why they were avoiding sugar. If so, it could explain why
their hearts weren't as healthy. Okay. All right. Still, they say, they say it suggests, uh,
quote, extremely low sugar intake may not be necessary or beneficial. So their advice is,
don't overindulge, but an occasional sweet treat is okay for most people. You may even be,
it may even be good for you. Everything in moderation. I mean, that's, that's always been the mantra,
and it always should be. I mean, because anything too much of a good thing is not a good thing.
Yep. Yep. Uh, there's, there's virtually nothing that doesn't, that doesn't apply to.
Even water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's so true. So true. Um, so ridiculous.
One of the, um, the interesting things about that, I think, is, um, the, how are the human
evolution, you know, for it, it isn't, it isn't us growing gills or feathers or, or things
like that. It's the way our bodies and our minds adapt to the world, to the environment,
to each other, to the microplastics in our system. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We are more likely to
become plastic man than we are, uh, you know, grown gills and stuff. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Um, man,
I really wanted to be aqua woman. I know. I know. Keep holding up. Uh, we, okay. You know,
I'm an Aquarius. So it's kind of like second nature for me. You never know. It could happen.
Um, this is part of that, uh, is, is that the need, uh, the human beings didn't start out
needing sugar or, or anything, but kind of over time, I think it, it becomes almost a necessity
for some, for some. Well, I've always been drawn to it though. I mean, you know, as soon as,
we figured out how to tap trees, we talked about it in yesterday's kitchen's open segment with
the maple syrup. I mean, they, she, she, this is something I didn't bring up in the conversation
but I wanted to, the fact that you can tap, tap a box elder tree for syrup. It's amazing. It's
crazy. It's, yeah. But I also would worry about getting the box elder bugs in the syrup. Oh,
yeah. Because we were inundated with those when I was a kid. We had a box elder tree in our yard
and they would come in the house. They were worse than the ladybugs. There were swarms of them.
I just saw one of those little ladybugs in my parents' house yesterday. Yeah. Heads up everybody.
They're indoors. We're not past the season yet, since it's still so warm.
We will take a quick time out checking with our partners. We'll come back and we're talking
holiday gifts for teachers. When we come back on the morning show here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Welcome back, everybody.
Melissa and James hanging out with you, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. We
hope you're Tuesdays treating you good. And I think obsessed fired.
That's the life of the bumper man. You're on top one day. Next day you're down.
One segment you're on top the next you're down. No, not my favorite version of that song.
We got good stuff lined up for you in the 9 o'clock hour. We're going to kick things off for
their friends from grace. Not only talk a little bit more about what grace is, but they've got some
important events coming up. We want to touch on looking forward to Reverend Beth and Reverend Kate
joining us to kick off the 9 o'clock hour. Wonderful. We'll also get into some other fun stuff.
The top Christmas traditions we ditched if we could. Got some entertainment news for you as well.
It's plenty more fun lined up. But let's get into this one right now, Melissa, as it is gift-giving
season, of course. And one of the fun things for kids to do, I think, is giving your teacher a gift.
And someone asked 800 teachers, 800 about the common gifts they get this time of year. And your safest
bet won't cost you much. It could even be free. 52% of teachers said handwritten cards or letters
from their students are a great gift they'd love to get. Yeah, that's the best.
And it makes complete sense to me. We started their show talking about how much we love these cards.
You guys send us and everything from our partners, our nonprofits, and our businesses out there.
Well, we don't get as much actual mail anymore. Yeah. Anytime we get something in the mailbox that
is somebody put the effort into actually handwriting, not just print handwriting, I'm looking at you
advertisements out there. And put some sentiment into the card and the gift, whether it's
delivered by our postal workers, thank you postal workers, or hand delivered in the classroom
by the student, those gifts mean a lot because they're heartfelt. Yeah, there's just nothing that
can touch that, you know, when it comes from the heart and everything. And it doesn't have to cost
much if anything, like you said. Yeah. And here are the top five answers they had. So handwritten
letters at 52%. Cash or gift cards at 45% because you know what they'll do with that cash or gift
card. Put it back into their classroom. Right. Exactly. Classroom supplies at 33%, which almost
breaks my darn heart. That's what teachers are looking for. Not a Maserati, not vacation time.
They want to help their kids. They want to help their students.
Personal, and that they have to ask for that stuff, that there isn't the funding and that we're
not putting enough into education to that they have to ask for those things. Number four,
personal items like a scarf or a coffee mug, 20% like that. Nice. And number five, packaged food,
like cookies or candy, 24% said that one. Because again, they keep that in their classroom.
Yeah. Yeah. Because they have hungry kids in classrooms.
So, um, and it's hard to focus when you're hungry. I don't know what study, who study.com is
talking to and who these 800 teachers were. But I'm guessing that they were not, I don't know,
not a school I went to, whether it was Illinois or here. Because the top gift they don't want is
booze. Not everyone drinks, and it is very inappropriate for a child to be handing over alcohol.
Who is doing this? Who is doing that? What the what? What is going on?
It's, it's the parents that are going, you put up with my child every day, you need a drink.
And then look, you know, there's so much understandable this there. But, you know,
there's, there's, there's, there's also a great year-old deliver that. It's also not okay.
There's no way to rosy that up. There's, uh, there's, uh, no. But I, I, I, I do like the list.
I do like the list. I love the, the list. I love the intent. Um, and I think what are the other
things that, uh, we can do, you know, what about adults? How can we help our teachers? Well, uh,
every couple of years or every couple of months, there tends to be this thing called an election.
And some politicians and some people and some communities are supportive of education and some
aren't. You make your own personal choices on that one and decide and go forward. Because I
think that's one of the best things this, in the holidays, to do for teachers and the thing
would make real change. Um, there, there is plenty of, um, barking and plenty of things being
done to kind of, uh, make a moment, make a, be viral or something like that. How about some
actual change? How about something that actually makes a difference and, and impact society?
Yeah. And you can do that with our current politicians that are in office because they work
for us. And even if they don't, you know, don't seem to support the things that you wish they would,
the more that they hear from their constituents on this is what we want you to work on.
That, that give them those, give them their instructions because they work for us.
Yeah. Uh, and, and I, you know, I feel very comfortable, uh, saying this, having talked with
these individuals off air on air about this, whether it is, uh, Mayor Matt Zacker, our mayor here in
Rapids, who's going to be in with us tomorrow on midday magazine. Senator Teston will be in
with us on Friday. Uh, Representative Krueger, I believe we'll be with us next week. Um,
any of these individuals, I've talked to a lot about this and you may think, well,
they have this in front of their name, they have an R or D in front of their name or something
like that. No, no, they, they have you in front of them. That's what matters. Um, let, forget
about all the other silliness. That's, that's other people's business. Uh, right now you have an
idea or you have a thought or you have something you're passionate about. They want to hear about it.
They do. They do. And, and, and I, I will say this too, I believe that our politicians get
things done here in this, in locally, in this area. Um, I, I, I think, I agree with that.
I think that that's, uh, another good incentive for you to reach out to them. Um, you don't,
uh, it's such a good point, Melissa. You don't have to wait. There are already in office.
Go ahead and reach out to them and let's get some things done. Uh, and, uh, let's make sure
that teachers have a, a more fun list next year. Uh, because, because I, I, I mean, I, I,
really, I did not pre-read this and, uh, didn't make me sad, but it did make me, you know,
obviously get on my soapbox, which I had moved out of the room, even.
Yeah, you did that once already today, James. It's not my fault. I have very long legs. I was able to
reach. I appreciate that there were some personal items on there, you know, scarves and coffee
mugs. That was great. They, they, they also are human. Yeah, spitballing here a little bit, uh,
with somebody who did work in the education system and everything, uh, and, and somebody who, uh,
didn't, uh, and even though I was a teacher, I, I worked with adults and comedians and stand-up
you know, I, I mean, yeah, yeah. Um, but I, we do do, uh, gift giving, uh, for like a lot of our
senior, uh, teachers and things like that. Uh, very different scenario than this, but spitballing
here ideas for kids. I, I think that, yeah, the gift card thing is nice. But if you're like me,
I, like when I do something for my mom and dad, I don't want to do something that I know that
they're going to just turn around and spend it on a bill or something like that. I try to do
something they wouldn't do for themselves. So I think that if you notice your teacher, um, you know,
uh, could use a new mug or, or something like that, I think that's a really good idea or
maybe they like to change it up and, you know, have a different mug on different weeks or something,
you know, uh, those are good items. That's a good idea.
I think I lost Melissa. I think I lost one. Oh no, I'm still here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm sorry.
I had muted my mic so I could move in my chair because it makes noise. I do the same thing. I hear you.
Yeah. But yes, they have to take those dirty mugs home occasionally and wash them. So having a
backup is handy. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good idea. Everybody we encourage you to do that.
Encourage you as well to take in some of these great shows that these teachers and kids put together.
And uh, week like this, I, I can't think of many better ways to spend your time.
Tonight at six o'clock, we have rams having their grand six grade band concert. Oh nice.
Be sure to check that out, everybody. That's going to be really fun. They have a nice
auditorium over there at rams. So you'll enjoy it. That's one of the two stages in town I have
not performed on that I would love to. Love to. I am very jealous of the, I mean, it's supportive
of these kids. I know it's going to be awesome. And of course, in just a little while, we've got a
ribbon cutting happening at the New Wood County Jail. Yes, that's at 11 a.m. It's in the Wood County
Boardroom, which is on the third floor. They'll have an open house and refreshments. Encourage you
to check that out, everybody. And see what, uh, see what, uh, everything, all the work that
has been put into this and everything. Parking will be available in a lot north, the lot north
of Baker Street. So keep that in mind. Uh, bit my tongue, Melissa. I hate it when that happens.
But this, this is a long time coming. This is, I mean, we're talking three, four decades in the
making getting this, this to this place right now. Um, this is going to be not only beneficial for
the community, uh, but really are surrounding communities. Um, it is a safer, more, um, feasible
and smart way of doing things. And you're, um, you're going to notice this, uh, maybe not instantly,
but, uh, as, as most things work in life through time, uh, through your taxes and different things,
whereas we're not having to send inmates out of state or out of the city, I mean, um, in that.
Because we just don't have the space or, or the rehabilitation that's needed, as people are
incarcerated, which, uh, stops, uh, something, uh, that, uh, sure, Becker and I feel is very
important that revolving door and getting people to be just, you know, good citizens and taxpayers.
All of this happening at the ribbon cutting, you know, with the ribbon cutting new jail and the
ribbon cutting going on today at 11. Go ahead and check that out. If you can, yeah, get on over there
everybody. Uh, we got more fun lined up for you in the nine o'clock hour. We're going to be getting
into it in just a few. Stick around. We got good things coming up for you right here at.
This is locally grown radio. WFHR 1320 AM W24 A.D.E. Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming on the Civic Media app.
