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. I am joined by your head of news.
Our co-host, Melissa K. Good morning. And the best listeners in radio. Thanks for joining
us, everybody. We hope you're having a good one out there. We got good things on the way
for you. We're going to kick things off with our good friend, Brittany Merlot. And Brittany
got some nice blue skies out there today. Yes, this is my favorite when the sun is shining
on the fresh fall and snow and it just sparkles. You know, all of the glitter everywhere.
It is gorgeous outside right now. It really is. It's a winter wonderland. It's beautiful
out there. It's just if you need to have a, if you need a backdrop for your computer or
something like that, take a picture of your outdoors right now. But the real question is,
when are we going to get snowman snow? Oh, seriously, right? We asked the tough questions
around here, Brittany. We do. We do. Good. I'm glad you do. We do have a chance for a little
bit of that, potentially on Monday. So figures crossed through our temperatures are going
to be into those low 30s to even some mid 30s. So as this system pushes in on Monday,
that will be that packable snowman snowball fight kind of snow on Monday. We're looking
at a couple of inches there. But before that, a dry and crisp and cool weekend, highs
today will hit the upper 20s. But right now with the windshield, it feels like eight
degrees. So the single digits are actually going to slide to those overnight tonight. It's
going to be a cold one. And then tomorrow, highs will only be in the teens. But it'll
be bright and beautiful just like today. And then on Sunday, a few more clouds start
to filter in. Temperatures rise a little bit more into the upper 20s. And like I said,
Monday is that packable, hopefully snowman snow highs in the mid 30s.
Hmm. I feel like a great weekend to stay inside or bundle up like the Michelin men,
right? Yeah. Yeah. It feels like the cold is a little bit easier to take when it's nice
and sunny out like this in the morning. It's something about it. It's a little bit nicer,
especially on a Friday. Thank you, Brittany. We appreciate you. You have a fun winter weekend,
okay? Thanks you too. Best in the business right now. Best in the business. We got good
stuff on the way for everybody. Five gifts you can buy at the last minute. We'll get that
one out there for you. We've got a gift giving etiquette. We'll get into that. Wait, wait,
hold up. We're going to give people a way to play it ahead to buy gifts last minute,
James. Yes. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. We are, we are helpers around here. That's
what we do. I mean, if the 20th, there's plenty of time before Christmas, right? You
got it, right? Yeah. You got a weekend. Honestly, I haven't even thought about it yet. I haven't
even, no, no. We got all that. Whatever. You're all fortunately stuffed in a closet where you forgot
about them. No. How did you know they were in the closet? I got to re-hide them. We got all that
coming up. That o'clock hour going to have some entertainment news for you as well. Get some fun
things lined up in there, including Dolly Parton, Simple Wish. We have got some news on Lady Gaga,
and what's new on your small screen, big screen, and plenty more. Get into all of that for you.
Want to kick the show off, though, with a couple of other things. First, we'll have our
L.K.F.A. birthday anniversary club, and the star of the day all coming up for you, everybody.
Oh, yeah, it's Friday. Hey. I got a couple of fun topics here, but real quick,
I do want to send a big shout out to our team for pulling off something really fun this week
with the Elf Collins that we did Melissa. Yeah, it was great. I appreciate you and Laura
help it out in Seth and Ashley and everybody. And of course, Ms. Holly, we couldn't have done it
without her. She was the greatest Elf ever. I did not expect her to be coming in on a reindeer.
I pull in the department a lot. Yeah, and there's a reindeer right there, which is, I mean,
cool. I didn't have any problem with it. I just didn't expect it. That's all. Now, I know we have
somebody to take care of our snow. Do they have something in the contract that covers a reindeer
do-do? We covered that. We definitely made sure that they were paid for their services.
Yes. Okay, good. And I took care of the rest. Great reindeer, but you know what happens.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You feed them, hey, and now comes the, it just, it happens.
Rain deer need a lot of calories, everybody. A lot. A lot. They have to stay warm.
They got to fly. I mean, you think you lose a lot of energy when you're walking. Flying. My
God. But it was fun. It was a lot of fun. And thank you to all the colors that called in. It was
great. And it was just a nice way to bring in the holiday season. We especially thank our sponsors
and being able to, we can't do this without you guys. So thank you so much to everybody being a
part of this community, being part of this team. Absolutely. And you know, I think we, we start
doing this kind of thing more often. You know, next year and everything, I think that'd be fun.
Yeah, sure. We've got something fun lined up this weekend. We got our, our kind of office party
going on this weekend. That's going to be a lot of fun. We're looking forward to it.
Games. Oh cool. I don't know if you saw on the sign up. I'm bringing games. Honestly, no, I didn't.
I'm sorry, Melissa. I'm not trying to. That's why are you like this? Because I, I don't, I don't
think about this stuff. I think about work. Why are you like this? Because I need help.
Because I, I, I, I, there's, that's so we don't only have two hours of show. We do not have enough
time for that. Okay. But, but, but why are you like this? Is the name of one of the games I'm bringing?
Oh, okay. She should have read the sheet. She should have read the sheet. I'm sorry. No, no, no, it's
good. That's really good. That was great. No, I also have, I also have a, a ping pong ball game
where you have to connect for. Oh cool. Oh, okay. Yeah. So it requires skill and dexterity. And
it's practically a sport. James, I'm bringing a sport game to our Christmas party. Aren't you proud
of me? It's a Christmas miracle. That's beautiful. I might even call into playmakers after this.
Oh, I like it. I like it. I, I love that. Actually, please do, please do. One of the things we're
having fun with with this event and everything. We're doing the white elephant thing that a lot of
people do and stuff. But I, we throw this term around it. I don't know how many people know where
it comes from. So I thought it would kind of fun to dive into that one. I always love where,
looking into the history of these things. And the term white elephant actually comes from Siam,
which is now Thailand, and refers, refers to a burdensome and expensive and useless possession.
Was that what we're supposed to get? You're talking about how things grow and change over the years.
This has really been a, you talk about Americanizing things, you know, we, we really did.
Okay. Yeah. This, I guess, these bookshelf ends. Those will be what I'm given, maybe.
Right. So in their culture, in the Siam culture, the white elephant is sacred.
And the animals were so valuable that they were automatically gifted to the reigning monarch
who would sometimes give them as a gift of good or bad fortune. Because it's an elephant.
And I mean, they already, you know, where you're going to put that in a DZ exactly,
didn't go for walks, feeding it, all of that. Okay. But that more accurately describes the gift
that I got for the person. So I'm glad I, I'm glad I followed the original, you know, sentiment behind
the title. No word here on if there was a price limit on what they did back then, though. I don't
know if they kept that part of the tradition. I don't think the elephant even back then would fall
under the $25. No, I don't think so. Especially not if you consider inflation.
It felt like one of those things where you hear it and you're like, well, it doesn't have anything to
do with an actual elephant. That's just, you know, some, no, actually does. It does actually
to do with an actual elephant. I didn't think that. I didn't think it really did. So wait, we weren't
just supposed to buy a white elephant. That's what I did. That's it. I mean, I just went in
the kusa and had Mr. Peter's print me one. I really think that that's where, like,
somebody like the pet rock, there's something people are missing out on. Just a little white,
you know, elephant that you, you know, 3D printer, I don't know, kick him out there. It works great.
How many people would love, like my father that would love to, for a white elephant, give
somebody a white elephant. Like that's, that's right up his alley. I don't know. Go ahead and get
on that one. I've got the fix for it. You know, if you don't have the budget for your white elephant,
you just give someone a white piece of paper. And you tell them that the white elephant is on that
white piece paper. It's in a snowstorm. You can see the white elephant in a snowstorm on this white
piece paper. If you squint, you can really see the trunk. You can really, you just got to squint.
You really want to go above and beyond frame it. Oh nice. I like that, actually.
Oh, I really love that. Oh, that's a great idea. Oh god, I love that. Thank you. Now I have solved all
of your white elephant gift problems. Absolutely. You're welcome, everybody. Didn't know that was
covered this morning, but there you go trademark. Yep. And we talked about this the other day,
Melissa. And I just wanted to wrap up the conversation when we were talking about candy canes and
Guinness world records. The longest candy cane ever made was by chef Allen Rob Roddy created the
world's longest one at 51 feet long in Geneva, Illinois. That take a long time to eat. So he did this
back in 2012. I was living there back in 2012. And I don't remember this. I was very busy back then.
I was just starting at second city and everything. But I, yeah, I was a little surprised, but this
Rob, Robby used over 900 pounds of sugar to make this thing. That, that, I mean, that sounds
about right. When you got multiple dozens of feet of something, it's gonna take pounds of sugar.
How about the most candy canes ever on a Christmas tree? That, that seems like a fun one. That
seems like a fun one. It does because a Christmas tree could only hold so much if it's a real tree.
The Winter Wonderland Group set the record for the most candy canes on a Christmas tree at
6425. Wow. Wow. Wow. That portrait. Because when they put that 26th one on, the tree was going,
nope. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm good. I'm good. Put one more on me. I've fallen down.
That was set in a 2018 in Grove City, Ohio. Pretty good. And most candy canes in a beard. That's
an actual record. And I like it. I like it. Joel Straszer set the record for the most candy canes
in a beard at 187. Wow. Yeah. Did this last year? Where they full size candy canes. Yeah,
I'm okay. I've been trying to look for a picture of this one. I bet you they'd have to be full
size because they don't wrap the many ones like you could hang them on a tree. Yeah. And they are.
They're full size. And man. Now, I gotta say, I don't know if this counts as cheating or not,
but some of these are hooked into other canes. So I don't know. I don't know. I mean, but
that's still he's carrying that weight on his face. Yeah. Yeah. That's not. Yeah. That ain't easy.
Ben. You know, James as much as you talk about your wild hair and how crazy it is. And I think
you should do this, but in your hair. Oh, yes. Oh, that's the idea. Oh, I'm doing this. Doing it.
I hope you're writing these down every time I come up with something. I'm writing down right now.
That's the idea because I've come up with at least, I don't know, seven now.
I will say this for those that don't know me, I write everything down. I really do.
But do you know where it is? And that's the dead now. Okay, you didn't ask that.
Well, did it make question, James? It really is, really is. We will take a quick commercial break,
come back with the L. Cafe birthday anniversary club. And a little bit after our news break,
we're going to make you a star today when they're friends from callers. It is Melissa James
taking you through a Friday edition of the morning show here at WFA.
You heard the boys. It's time for the L. Cafe birthday anniversary club.
One of our favorite parts of the day we get to celebrate you and our great friends over at L. Cafe.
Go ahead and treat yourself, everybody. Head on over to 221 Market Avenue in beautiful port
Edwards. Let them know that we wish them a great day from all of us here at WFHR.
Got a great post out there too and a nice side note here. Thank you to all of our snowplowers
and everybody out there working so hard overnight. We appreciate you. Yes, absolutely.
And we appreciate our friends at L. Cafe. Head on over there. Check out one of the most
unique, fun, wonderful menus you're going to find with some of the best people you're going to run into.
And if you don't, you know, can't get over there this morning, today is it's Friday.
So it's the only day they're open until 8 o'clock tonight where you can get the one of the best
delicious fish. Well, I can't even talk. I'm so excited. One of the most delicious fish fries in our
area. Yeah, check it out, everybody. It's only getting more and more popular. Head on over to L. Cafe
today and get us those birthdays and anniversaries. Everybody, we'd love to celebrate with you.
We do indeed. Info at WFHR.com. You can email us at. You can also give us a, you know,
hit us up on Facebook, hit a, any, either via WRI or WFHR Facebook pages. That's right. We
will see it almost, almost right away if we happen to be looking that direction. And yes. And
feel free to call up. That's right. 715, 424, 2600. Just call up and tell us who you want to wish a
happy birthday or anniversary to or if it's your birthday or anniversary. We want to hear from you
directly. We love to hear from those you guys and to love those live birthdays and anniversaries
and keep in mind on Fridays. We're not just celebrating Friday but Saturday in Sunday. So if you
have one on Saturday or Sunday, go ahead and give us a call. Please do. Dive in into the
celebrating Melissa. I need a one or a two. I'm going to go with two. Okay. And I need a one or
three. Oh, I'm sticking with two. Okay. All right. It gives us their qualifiers. So we can get
right into the celebrating. And first up, just putting the spotlight on our one qualifier for today,
Friday, December 20th. Marge, gauze. Oh, happy birthday, Marge. Enjoy the day, Marge. We hope
it's a good one for you. Mm-hmm. Taking a look at our Saturday birthdays for December 21st,
wish an happy birthday to Crystal Tracy. Happy birthday, Crystal. And to our qualifiers,
celebrating their golden anniversary, their 50th anniversary. Oh, wow. Tom and Emily Anders.
Tom and Emily, happy anniversary. Wish you guys a wonderful 50th year. That's beautiful.
That's beautiful. Why is it the golden 50? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Because when it's your
golden birthday, it's the day you were born on, like my 25th year because it was on 25. I wonder
that must be different for anniversaries then. Yeah. Yeah. Either way, Tom and Emily,
wish you guys the best of anniversaries and your qualifiers for Saturday. Congratulations.
On Sunday, just a year behind them, celebrating their 49th anniversary, Ray and Sue Onesti.
Ray and Sue, congratulations. Happy anniversary. Oh, happy 49th you guys. That's awesome.
Bad. This is just kicking my heart. I love this. This is great. And we wish you happy birthday
on Sunday to Peggy Mertens. Happy birthday, Peggy. Enjoy your day, Peggy. Hope it's a good one for you.
And on Sunday, we wish a happy birthday to our qualifier Barbara Hunt Caves. Happy birthday, Barbara.
Barbara, wishing you best of days. Go ahead and brag to all your friends and family that you are our
qualifier on Sunday. Absolutely. Thank you, everybody, for getting us these birthdays and anniversaries.
We take a look at our celebrity list. First up for today, Jonah Hill is 41. Really?
Yeah. Yeah. Actually, a little younger than I would have expected. Not much older, but a little
bit older. Well, he's kind of been around for a bit. Yeah. Yeah. And he's had some ups and downs as
far as not so much just where he is. He's been in almost every movie and then he goes away and he's
come back. And he's having more steady work, I think, as it goes along. And he seems like he's
handling it all much better too. It's got to be something when you're that young
thrust into things. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's got two Academy Awards, B-A-F-T-A-A-Word,
two Golden Globe Awards. I mean, so he's doing all right. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
David Cook is 42. I had to look at this. He was the American Idol winner in season seven.
And I don't know. I don't know. And looks like men who stuck finger in light suck it.
Isn't that show supposed to make stars? Like, how is it that we don't know for the people that
win that thing? I don't know. Luck? Yeah. Yeah. Chris Robinson is 58 lead singer-songwriter for
the Black Crosse. Mm-hmm. Good band. Good band. Mm-hmm. On a Friday, I should definitely mention
the, my favorite song of them, there's this good Friday. That's a good song. Oh, it's a good song.
Great Friday song. Let's see here. Ellen Parsons is 76 today.
Parsons. Ellen Parsons of the Parsons project, of course. And a lot of other things.
Ellen was also the assistant engineer on, like, Abbey Road and Dark Side of the Moon,
two of the most classic albums of all time. Yeah. Two of the greatest albums of all time.
This guy was sitting in the studio with him. That's amazing. And it's, I'm glad you mention it
because the audio engineers don't often, you know, always get in the limelight. Even though they
make the people in the spotlight sound great. Absolutely. And it's one of those things that I,
honestly, I didn't always feel that way. I wasn't until I got into radio and I started working
at a classic rock station and learning more about that stuff and everything. And how the great
engineers, you know, a lot of engineers will come in and they have an idea what they want to do.
And they kind of try to, like, shoehorn it in or make it happen. The good ones come in and say,
and try to go like, what do you want? You're the artist. What do you want me to do? How can I help you
make your vision possible? Alan Parsons, guys like that are really good at that stuff.
Yeah. And the good artists come in and say, I'm looking forward to working with you because you
are going to make me sound good. And Peter Chris is 79 today. Drummer, who has been fired three
times by Kiss, but, you know, just, you can't, you don't have Kiss without Peter Chris. It's not
the same. The Catman also wrote in saying the love ballad beth. So let's see here, taking a look at
our Saturday birthdays, a couple of names on the list. Jane Charismatic is 68. Malcolm in the
middle mom and she's done a lot of voice acting since then. They are back at it too. As we mentioned
the other day, they're going to be filming a couple of more episodes. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Keith or Sutherland is 57. Great actor. Really good actor. Yes. I had a student once just convinced
that Keith or Sutherland was underrated. And I was like, you know what? It's okay. I'm not going
to fight y'all that one. He might be. He might be. I know that I grew up in the 80s, though, and
that's the lost boys. I mean, there's certain movies. Keith or Sutherland was in that. Stand by me.
Yeah. Young guns. Young guns. Come on. Young guns. You talk about movies that I am just all
in on, but have no historical accuracy or don't really make a lot of sense or anything like that.
Young guns is right at the top of the list for me. I love that movie. I loved him in designated
survivor. Oh, good one. Yeah. There's a couple of them too, where he's done some dramatic roles.
It's really good. It's in a couple of elsewhere. He's just like a cameo kind of in it or a side
actor. And he's he's he's just a very complimentary actor. He really does embody everything his
father did. It's one of those ones where the apple does not fall far from the tree at all.
Ray Romano is 66 on Saturday. I'm worthy to one of the more unique voices you're going to hear.
Perfect. The perfect voice for a sloth. Like, yeah. I love John Lake, Wasamo. And I think Dennis
Leary does a really good job as a voice actor and everything. Really good casting with all of those.
You can't get much better than that voice for a will a will a willy mammoth. You know,
that's perfect. Perfect. Samuel Jackson is 75. And I feel like I should be shouting his name. I feel
like. But one of the greater actors I've ever seen, period. I just think Samuel Jackson is one
of the most complete actors I've ever seen. And one of the biggest influences I will ever have.
Seeing somebody like him not only get his break late in life, but the consistency and the work
ethic that he has. You don't have to like Samuel Jackson, but you I don't know how you cannot
respect that man's work ethic. And everybody will tell you he is the he is another similar to John
Wayne. He's the first one on the set. The last one to leave. He's one of those people that
everybody likes to work with. Just a good guy. Happy 75th to him. 75. So many movies that he was in
that are just a love, love, love. Yeah. Yeah. Jurassic Park. So many. There's so many good movies.
I love the S. Samuel Jackson once. You know, Sam, which movies did you do for the money?
All of them. All of them. Like he loves to work. He loves to act. And that's, you know, to get paid
to do what you love to do what you're good at. I mean, you know, that's the dream. I didn't know he
was in Mrs. Paragrand's home for Procure Children. I read the book and I love, love, love the book.
But I haven't seen the movie now. I'm going to watch it. Yeah. It might be worth watching. I
not that's one of the few performances I say is I have not seen. I got it directed by Tim Burton
too. Yeah. That's even more worth watching. I got a good cast. Yeah. It's got a good cast
on that one. And wrapping up Saturday. Birthdays. One of the greatest tennis players will ever see
in one of my favorites. Chris Everett is 69 today. Oh, loved watching Chris Everett play.
Man, the days of the highlights of American tennis. Oh, man. Chris Everett was right at the top
of that. We're routine and never to loan of that rivalry going on. And it's so cool too to see
this. It's actually one of the cool things I think about tennis where these stars, they're 30,
33 and they're old and they're retiring. So then they have the whole second half of their life
to kind of see how this plays out. And so many of them, it's interesting. John McArrow goes into
announcing the thing that he hated. And because almost famous for that. And Chris Everett and
Martina never to Lovah. Both were, I mean, heated, heated rivals. I believe they end up having like
coffee on accident and becoming kind of friends. And then they both went through our both cancer
survivors and really helped promote and talk about cancer awareness together. It's wild to see
that to me as a as a young kid that grew up watching those two battling it out on the court.
It's a cool story. It's cool how that was. But that is one of the great things about sports. Like
you can be not the worst enemies, but the biggest competitors on, you know, the field or on the
court. And then off the court, you could be the best of friends. Yeah. It's a kind of a cool
thing about sports. Absolutely. It's one of my favorite parts of it. And God, do I miss American,
could American tennisman really thinking about that? Look at that Sunday birthday. So real quick,
Megan trainer is 30 on Sunday. Oh, I like Megan trainer. Good voice. Very good. Let's see here.
And just a couple of more for you. Oh, but that bass, but the great, the legend of Ralph
Fines is 61 today. Now I don't know about Keith or Sutherland, but Ralph Fines is definitely
underrated. Definitely. He will show not be named in the Harry Potter movies, of course.
That one of his more famous roles, but the English patient so many, the menu I want to see that
so much. Oh, I do too. And I heard such good things about it, but I haven't gotten to see it yet.
The great Budapest Motel. That is my daughter's favorite. And she loves him in that. That's a good one.
He was in the Kingsman too. That one. Now that one is I'm a sucker for action movies,
but that one is a sneaky good movie where it actually gives you real history of like how many
bloodlines were killed off in World War II and things like that. And Ralph Fines,
the thing one of the things that is so versatile and cool about him is he can pull off all this action
stuff while also being like a Shakespearean level actor, which just makes that stuff that because
they put that same train at Colin Firth also in the Kingsman series. These are guys who they
only know one speed. So when they train for a role, they're going to do everything it takes to
be that role. The same training they put into an accent or something like that. They're going to
put into their action moves. And when you get when you're a sucker for action like me,
oh, that's awesome. And then of course, all the James Bond movies he was in. Yeah. Spectre,
no time to die. Skyfall. Just an incredible, credible actor. Really something. And that is going to
do it for our birthday and anniversary list, everybody. We appreciate it. Oh, looks like we might
begin to call in a late entry. Let's see. Good morning here on the show. I am. Hey, how's it going,
man? Good. What did one ocean say to the ocean? I don't know. What did one ocean say to the other
ocean? Yeah. What? Yeah. It's not. It's just waves. Oh, that's so good. All right. That is
real. Excellent. That got me. That was a good one, man. We appreciate you, but thank you so much
for calling in. You have a great morning. Thank you. Best listeners of radio. A big thank you to our
friends over at the ODC. We appreciate them very much. Find out how ways that you can impact your
community with the ODC. Go to ODC I and C dot com. Find out more about the work that they're
doing over there. That was great. And don't they have the milkweed market? If you need some
unique Christmas gifts, I am telling you, they have the greatest, most unique gifts you're going
to find really in the area. And I know with everybody, and check those out, but we got a couple
of places like that, like our central Wisconsin cultural center and stuff, but the ODC is really,
really cool stuff over there. Check that out. We will take a quick time out. We will come back
and we're doing, we're making, we're giving away some callvers when we come back. Oh, yeah.
Morning show at WFHR. Likes, camera, action. It is time to make somebody a star of the day with
our friends from the Wisconsin Rapids callvers. What Melissa and I are about to do is play some
theme music from a famous Christmas special. Yeah, me getting into the season a little bit here.
We'll play that for you. And as long as you haven't won anything in 30 days, you call up 715-424-2600,
or you're just a touch or two away on the Civic Media app. Get you in quicker.
You call up, do that, and boom, just like that. You're going to win yourself a family pack of four.
From our Wisconsin Rapids callvers, greatly appreciate our Wisconsin Rapids callvers.
Visit them on A Street, everybody. And keep in mind, wherever you're listening to us,
if you got a callvers, you got a callvers that puts back into their community.
And it's plus, it's great food. Oh, it's some of the best you're going to find.
Visit our friends at callvers today, everybody, and get in on the winning and get ready to call up,
or use the Civic Media app, and let us know what Christmas special this is from.
And let's see if we have ourselves a winner. Good morning. What's your answer?
It's Christmas, Charlie Brown.
That will count. That will do it. There it is. Now it's official.
Well, it's a must. It is a must. I cannot, I cannot truly get into the season until I hear it.
And I will say almost December 1st, I'm listening to that soundtrack.
And have been for decades, since being a little kid and seeing it and everything.
Okay, get your first name, sir. Patrick. Patrick, thank you so much for listening and playing along.
What town you call us from, Pat?
Wisconsin Rapids right here in town.
All right. Got ourselves a rapids winner. Thank you so much for listening and playing along.
You are a fan of the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
Oh, yes. Must see every year that and Frosty and Rudolph.
Agreed. Agreed. A whole hearted. Well, it's well done.
I haven't seen Rudolph in a long time. I got to look that one up.
It's a good one. It's a good one. Patrick, thank you so much for listening.
Playing along. We appreciate you. Hang on a line.
Gonna get a little information from you. You're a newest star of the day.
Thank you.
Yeah, we appreciate that. It is just a classic.
I did not even realize until this year,
Bria wanted us for one of our What The Muppet podcasts come up with our favorite Christmas movie.
I never really thought about it.
And I went through, you know, the list and did all the things I did.
I came down to it and I'm like, oh, this is it.
The Charlie Brown Christmas special is my favorite.
Like, even more than a nightmare before Christmas or, you know,
some of the more modern classes like L for Christmas vacation, stuff like that.
That's it. That's the one for me.
I've been told I have to watch spirited.
Yeah, I've been told that too.
Yeah, yeah, that's supposed to be a good one.
I'll have to check that out.
We're told by the same person.
Yeah, probably.
Probably. I don't know.
We will, I'm going to talk to Patrick a little bit here.
We'll come back and have some fun.
We're talking about five easy gifts to get.
Last minute gifts from talking that when we come back.
Here on The Morning Show at WFHR.
I
I had to play it at least a little bit more.
I'm sorry, everybody.
I had to.
Well, I don't think that's something to be sorry for.
I just, I just, I just love it so much.
I did want to mention this from 1965.
So it's already over 10 years old before I come around in 77.
And I, I mean, it felt like one of those things.
It was, uh, that it's still that relevant.
This, all these years later and everything,
without any special effects, without any, you know,
I don't know.
I just find that amazing.
Well, we talk a lot this time of year about the fact that like new Christmas songs,
new Christmas movies, they're really,
they're not that great.
Yeah, yeah.
They haven't really come up with, with better things to replace the classic ones.
No, no, they really haven't.
Well, I've said a big shout out to Patrick, our,
our newest winner for Star of the Day.
Appreciate him.
Congratulations, Patrick.
And appreciate our, our great friends over at the Wisconsin Rapids call for us.
We'll be listening next Friday for another opportunity to win some free call.
It's December 20th, which means you've got less than five days to pick up that last minute gift.
And while gift cards are always a reliable standby,
here are five other ideas that might be just as easy or more meaningful.
Now, I will say there are people that ask for gift cards and people that prefer those.
That's true.
That's true.
But it definitely takes the, I know what you want out of it.
Yeah.
I'm just going to let you get what you want.
I do a thing like, especially with my youngest Izzy.
I know that she doesn't do stuff for herself very often.
So I'll get her a gift card in her favorite store, usually for Christmas.
But for her birthday, it's a little more personal.
I don't know if that's the right way to do it.
I'd say to like that as an example.
Well, getting it for a specific store, I think does say a little bit more than,
okay, here's just a visa gift card to buy whatever you want.
I do know her favorite store.
I do know that.
I do know those things.
So I'll say that.
I think you get one extra point for that.
Yeah, the half a point, maybe half a point for that.
So here are some of the last minute gifts and the five last minute gifts that you can get.
A digital product, like an online course or a streaming subscription or even a video game.
Actually, I got that for Christmas last year from one of my best friends.
And she specifically wrote on the gift card what what streaming movie or shows I should watch
with the gift card.
Yeah, Schmickadoon.
Oh, oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
That's another one I heard too.
Yeah, that is that is like a spoof on on musicals.
I think that's already a great gift.
But you put that on there and that just is such.
Oh, that's the ribbon on the on the package right now because she knows I don't have
any streaming services because I just I don't have time to watch them anyway.
So why pay for them?
So it was a very thoughtful gift.
And then also the here's the recommendations of of in she gave me three choices.
It was Schmickadoon, Ted Lasso, and something else.
I don't remember the third one.
I know.
Maybe I'll get to it this year.
I have hopefully it doesn't expire.
I have to be honest as somebody who really, you know,
it's my wheelhouse entertainment.
I got into the Ted Lasso thing late.
That's a great show.
That's a great great show.
Now like top to bottom, it's well written.
It is incredibly well casted.
The directing of it is really good.
Like I've only seen a bit of the first season and I'm already like,
okay, yeah, I'm going to finish this out.
I got it.
I just I like you don't have much time.
I think the biggest thing that I will say that I've heard in this chair
over the last year of things that as far as like,
hey, what to do for people for Christmas?
It's give them an experience.
And that's the thing that most people are asking for too.
It seems like I don't I actually find a lot of encouragement in that.
Now, I know that experiences can cost a lot of money.
But I love the idea of so many people from so many different walks of life.
And this is the thing they're looking for.
Or giving this year is an experience like concert tickets
or tickets to a sporting event or a future event.
We got a lot of summer concerts coming up and everything.
I think that's kind of a cool one.
And they print out the tickets and put them in the card.
So you have something physical you're still giving them while also,
you know, having something to look forward to.
Yeah, I did that last year.
Got tickets to a comedian.
That's awesome.
It's a really cool gift.
Yeah, yeah.
And it was enjoyable time too.
Great. I'm good to hear.
Cryptocurrency is on this list.
No, no, no.
I don't I don't look, look, if I'm wrong about this one,
you go ahead and you rub this in my face, everybody.
But there is nothing that can give ins me that this is a good idea
or that this is the future of our economy.
For one, the people that are behind it, for one,
the people that are behind it are already billionaires.
I know a hustle when I see one.
And two, even if it is a great use of currency or whatever,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
For one, it is not worth it.
What it is doing to our world.
It is not worth it.
No, it is not.
There's no energy consumption.
I mean, a small city can be powered with what it takes
to produce a small amount of it.
It's just do a little bit of digging into it.
And I swear you will not jump into Bitcoin.
I will stand on this one.
I will put my name on it.
I don't care if I get in trouble.
I don't care if you're rubbing on my face later.
I yeah, there are a few things I have never been more certain
of in my life than Bitcoin is a hustle that it is not going to work.
Let's talk about this again in five years.
Yeah, a homemade coupon.
Oh, those work.
Those are great.
We used to do those a lot when I was a kid
because we didn't have a lot of money.
So we'd make mom a little coupon book.
Then she'd get some free extra services
beyond all of the bathroom cleaning and floor mopping
and regular chores we had to do every Friday.
Yeah, it's cool.
We did it my brother and sister and I would do it.
We need to make one.
And yeah, those are always great.
And I don't think that's necessarily an age limit on that.
No, but I don't ever remember mom caching
in any of those coupons.
You know, yeah, I can remember somewhere my sister
was really out of it about it.
Like even like my February.
And she'd be like,
Mom, you didn't use your coupon.
Like they had expiration dates and stuff.
These are only good until February 2nd.
Jill, it was really good about those.
And a great one at number five.
And maybe it's an older one,
but it still works.
A photo of you together.
If you've got a great photo of you
and someone together, you print it out.
You put it in a nice frame.
That's always nice.
And especially, I actually think this
means even more nowadays,
because we don't do that stuff anymore.
We don't print photos much anymore.
Yeah, no, they're mostly just on our phones.
That's a good one.
Yeah, I actually, I had,
and I can say this because I know they're not listening.
I had my nieces go through my phone
and find their favorite pictures of them with Nana.
They're my mom.
And I'm going to print those out
and put them in a picture frame for them this year.
Well done.
Well done, Mel.
That's a good idea.
We also want to look at this one right here,
because we've got some gift giving etiquette
and some other things.
And some other stats here.
If you're looking for a gift for a coworker
or somebody that you don't know that well,
but you want to do something nice for,
it's probably a good idea to surprise them with something
that you know is not a burden,
probably not an animal, probably not.
Someone just did a poll on holiday etiquette
and there are some fascinating results to this.
There's no particular rhyme or reason
or order to any of this.
We'll just go right at the top of the list.
Like, and this is one,
boy, this isn't just Christmas.
This is gift giving 101 in my family.
You do not do this under any circumstance
no matter what the price or anything.
Number one on the list,
leaving the price tag on a gift.
56% say it's unacceptable.
That number is unacceptable to me.
How is that not higher?
Some people do it without
without even thinking about it.
And if it truly is an accident,
no worries,
that water under the bridge, all that.
But we all know that there are people.
Oh, did I leave that?
I'm so sorry.
I can't believe I left that under.
Let me just take that off of there
and make sure that everybody sees the 400 dollar price tag.
Wow.
Yeah, I've seen that.
I've seen that happen.
Really?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's why there's gift receipts, people.
Yeah, I know.
You will never know what I spent on a gift.
Never.
Because he got it at a bargain business sale.
Got it at such a bargain.
Such a bargain.
Jimmy had this truck pulled up in the back lot
and that, you know what I mean?
There were toasters.
What could I say?
Hey, what could I say?
People fell off a truck.
Quit asking questions.
Will you ask us how many questions for?
There was no price tag.
What?
What?
What do you mean you want to return it?
We don't do that.
Make it fit.
Jimmy doesn't take return.
Jimmy, make it fit.
Again, true story.
True story.
Giving a child a toy gun is a gift.
That's 40% say that's unacceptable.
Well, in today's day and age, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
When the number one cause of death for our children
is gun violence?
No.
There are literally a billion things you can give a child
that don't have to do with that.
Like, there's a million things you can do.
Now, it's a different story
for people who know people well.
I mean, the skit list is talking about
people who don't know people well.
Right.
Right.
Yes.
These are co-workers.
These are your friends' kids.
Yes.
This is not like, I mean, obviously,
if a BB gun is something your kid has wanted forever,
I mean, a red rider BB gun.
Red rider BB gun.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a different story.
And obviously, we have a very, you know,
ingrained ethical hunting here in the state of us.
It's a heritage here in Wisconsin.
So we're not talking about that.
Not at all.
Not at all.
Especially, I remember I had a good friend of mine.
He was so excited.
He got a, I think it was a BB gun,
but he got that and he got a hunter safety.
He got a little, a class.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And he just jacked.
Just jacked.
I never forget that.
I came to the room and I was going about.
Yeah, those costs for those classes are very, very affordable.
Yeah, yeah.
Giving is a pet as a gift.
38% say that is unacceptable.
Unless it's a pet rock.
Yes.
Don't do it.
Yeah, no.
Even a plant.
Even a, yes, even that.
Yeah, if you don't know if they like it
or are capable of taking care of it, don't do it.
Now, some of this stuff, I think, is the opposite in some ways.
If you know the person like Melissa was touching on there,
but this is again a list of people that you don't know that well.
Not giving a gift to someone who gave you one.
37% say that's not cool.
I actually, I have no issue with that.
I don't really have no issue with that.
Because the purpose of giving a gift
isn't to get one in return.
Yeah, I've never, I can generally say,
there's not that many things I could say this about,
but I could generally say, I've never said I love you
and I've never given a gift expecting it back.
I don't know, that's the way to do it.
For me, for me, I'm not, you know,
it teased their own and everything.
I mean, it's nice.
Yeah, but it also, it's like,
somebody gives you a gift and, I don't know,
five days after Christmas.
Yes, ma'am.
With something off the clearance rack.
Hey, look what I found.
Like, look at these Christmas lights.
I had this for you all along.
Just, I just, I couldn't find it in the massive pile of gifts
I had to give out.
Got you a bunch of Christmas lights.
There you go.
Their route, they were cool, they were on sale.
A lot of people are doing more of this,
so I'm not surprised to see this number a little bit lower,
giving a gift that second-handed or used.
34% say that's unacceptable, so that's a much lower number.
I have zero problem with that.
Yeah, none.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know anybody who does have a problem with that, actually.
Well, I do know a few people who have
about certain used things.
One of my friends can't wear used clothes.
It's just, it's a thing.
He has a full deal of it and it's something he can't do.
And we're fine.
He can, he can afford to buy brand new clothes.
Well, they have a lot of it.
And if that's, you know, it's a weird thing for you.
It's okay.
So I don't give him used clothes as gifts.
There you go.
Asking for cash as a gift, 29% say that's unacceptable.
I don't really, yeah, again.
I think cash is better than,
cash is better than giving gift cards.
My mom feels the way.
Yeah, because why are we adding to the mega,
mega profits that are being made by
Visa and MasterCard, who practically I should want to put out there
have almost a monopoly on credit card systems.
Yeah, there's, there's way too many monopolies
or almost monopolies going on in our, in our business.
Right, and as far as we're moving away from using cash,
I think we should actually push the American people
should push back into using cash.
Agreed.
As much of a pain in the butt as it is sometimes,
in a way that we can keep our money for us.
It's really easy to use cash when you're buying local, really easy.
Giving a gag gift instead of a serious one, 28% say that that is not cool.
What if you don't know, like, again, this is one of those things
where I haven't seen it, but I know I've heard about it,
where somebody gets a gag gift for somebody,
and then they open the gift from the other person, and it's serious.
And it's in there like, oh no.
That's, I don't know if I get the too bad doubt of shape out of that one.
You know, I do think you've got to know your audience now.
Yes, yes.
And again, we are talking about people you don't know.
I wouldn't probably get somebody I don't know very well, a gag gift.
Yeah, yeah.
If I didn't know if it would fly, you know, probably stay away from that one.
I'd probably stay away from that one.
Know your audience.
Throwing away wrapping paper instead of recycling or reusing it,
28% say that is unacceptable.
Oh, I'm kind of big on this.
A hundred percent of your grandmother's do, though.
They do not think this is, no, you are not going to be okay with them on this.
No, yeah, that's perfectly acceptable to be reused.
Why are you, why are you crumpling it up?
Yeah, yeah, right.
Yeah, no, I'm with you on this.
And giving a gift after the holidays, you just touched on Melissa.
Seven percent say that's unacceptable.
So most people are okay with that.
I would hope so, because we can't all get together on December 25th.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, I'm not even going to see my siblings until maybe, I don't know,
January, possibly February.
It better be okay.
It better be okay.
Want to do, it'd be sure.
Oh, I had another one I wanted to mention.
Asking for a donation to a cause instead of a gift,
16% say that that is unacceptable,
but that's a very low number.
Yeah, and that has become a more common thing you see on social media a lot,
especially for people's birthdays.
Yeah, yeah.
And again, I think that's another good one.
I think that'd be cool with that.
That's not proud of me.
We wanted to mention that today is the final day
to get a non-sificed media is up and down the state,
grown up, gift list, text to win contest.
It's the last day.
Oh my goodness.
You got three more chances today, everybody.
Be listening at the top of the 11 a.m. hour.
I'm Matt Nair on air.
Jayne and Greg will have the keyword for you.
Then at the top of the one and four o'clock hours,
both here at WFHR and WIRI.
Yeah, listen in to get those keywords.
You just text them in through the Civic Media app
with a little text button on the app there.
It's little bubbles.
Click that text the word in and you're entered.
Automatically.
Every hour for those next three opportunities,
somebody's going to win some cash or an overnight stay
at Chula Vista Resorts in the Dels.
Eight of you lucky people and we're pulling,
I'll be completely honest here.
We're pulling for our local listeners here.
Of course we are.
You guys are going to have a chance to at the,
a bunch of our gifts of our,
it grown up gift list that we have for you.
Such a great list of gifts too.
Really good stuff on there, man.
You made a fire, express a machine,
snowblower, luggage set, all kinds of cool stuff.
All things we could use.
And one of the coolest things about this contest
and the kind of contest we do around here,
all you got to do is have the Civic Media app.
And it's free.
You don't have to have so many points
or scan a QR code or a bunch of different things.
You just need that keyword,
text it to us and get in on the winning.
It's a big thank you to all of our listeners out there
who've downloaded the app,
who've been playing along and who've been supporting
the real democracy radio and what we do here at Civic Media.
Promoting Civic Discourse and discussion and involvement.
And thank you so much to our local listeners
helping represent our area.
You guys make us proud.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, give us bragging points.
Yeah, yeah.
Melissa and I'll be back more show coming up.
