Good morning, Wizcats.
Morning, world.
It's a new day, and thanks for kicking it off with us at 97-5 FM, WFHR.
Your host, James J. Maylove here, joined by our head of news, our co-host, Melissa K.
Good morning.
And the best listeners and radio we see you out there.
Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.
We're going to kick things off the way we like to around here with our good friend, Brittany
Merlot and our weather and morning break.
How's it going?
Pretty good.
How's your morning going so far?
Going for a little damp.
I almost, I got to be, it's a little damp.
I got to be honest, so I do two morning shows every morning and I, you know, two different
stations.
And I feel like I do a pretty good job of separating these, but Brittany, I almost introduced
you as with our wicked, awesome weather today, because I just talked to Phil earlier with
the wicked, awesome word of Wednesday shout out to quality plus printing.
I do.
I love that.
I wouldn't mind that.
That's so hysterical.
That would be awesome.
That's so nice.
I'm going to get out of your way.
Go ahead and do your job, Brittany.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Okay.
All right.
I'll try to be serious here.
All right.
We've got some just ups and downs all over the forecast of the next couple of days into
the weekend.
Yeah.
We sure do.
We've got the heat and the humidity.
It feels gross out there.
We've got damp conditions, cloudy skies, on and off chances for rain through this morning.
And then we're also looking at some thunderstorms that want to start to spark up maybe around four
o'clock later this evening.
So as those chances move through, after we could see some heavy rainfall, maybe some
heavy downpours and some gusty winds with those, but they aren't supposed to be too severe
or anything like that.
So no major risk with them, maybe just some localized flash flooding possible.
So we've got that moving through today, just kind of cooling our temperatures in the
upper 70s to about 80 degrees as our cap today.
Then tomorrow, the more humidity starts to move in.
We get into the mid 80s and we've got some showers and storms that definitely want to
hit late at night, overnight.
Some of those could be strong with severe.
So we're tracking that as this warm front lifts through, more storms expected on Friday
that could be strong.
And then we get underneath that front where all the heat and humidity, it's basically
we're going to take Florida and put it right over Wisconsin because it's going to feel
like 100 degrees over the weekend.
Wow.
Do we get the Everglades?
Do we?
No, because that is, man, that is swampy.
That's all I can think of as swampy.
Yeah.
And while I like swamps, but no mosquitoes and no alligators, please.
Right.
No thing.
There's a few things that would shock me more than singing alligator in real life.
I don't know.
I don't know how to handle that one.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
I held one down in Louisiana and I kissed it on the nose.
That's amazing.
That was a baby.
That was a baby one.
It was pretty scary.
What did it feel like?
You know, I was 17, but it just felt like dry, I don't know, it wasn't, you know,
it wasn't gross or anything.
It just felt like a, like a pair of cowboy boots, the mouth, the old shut.
No.
No.
So I, because of my sister liking Disney movies, I've kissed many frogs in my life, not
of one of them.
What happens if you kiss an alligator?
Does it turn into a, like a cowboy?
Does it turn into it?
You know, it didn't turn into anything and the person I was with was no prince charming.
We appreciate the weather, Brittany.
Thank you so much.
Have a great morning.
Best of the business right there, pretty for a loan, joining us every morning, writing
this time slot and putting up with us.
He puts up with so much.
We appreciate it.
Appreciate all you hanging out with us.
We're going to have some fun this morning.
The El Caffe birthday anniversary club is right around the corner.
We'll dive into that in just a bit.
We've also got the percentage of American adults that have never visited another US state.
I find that staggering.
That one is going to be coming up.
And before the hour ends up, wraps up.
We, Melissa and I will have for you the one trait that can make you happier the rest of
your life.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
Great though, trait.
So this is something we have to have.
Mm-hmm.
And if we don't have it, we're not going to be happy.
Good catch.
Good catch, Melissa.
Yeah.
That'll be coming up.
Ten o'clock hour.
We're going to kick it off in a really fun way.
We're going to have a special edition of Meet Your Rafters.
We'll have a couple of the Rafter players joining us to kick that off.
Rafters coming off as a very nice, as a comeback victory last night.
That was fun.
Looking forward to hanging out with them.
We'll have some of the players joining us to kick off to ten o'clock.
Get into a little entertainment news after that.
I want to talk about our WFHR newsletter and some great things going on in their area.
And of course, we got cranberry blossom fest kicking off tomorrow.
So we're going to be talking about that and plenty more in the ten o'clock hour.
And we're going to be there.
Yes.
Yes.
I'm so excited about that.
Before we get to our opening monologue topic here and everything, though, Melissa,
I do want to send a big shout out to our Wisconsin Rafters and our United Way of South
Wooden Amps County and every non-profit, every business that was a part of the United
Week kind event, the 13th annual.
We'll be getting the stats from Terry and the gang over there at some point in the next
couple of weeks.
But I can tell you it was a lot.
I got the chance to go down there and judge and hang out and talk.
I ran in the handful of the, you know, of staff and with the Rafters in the United
Way.
And it's always a lot of fun.
It's just a very humbling and fun thing to be a part of a really creative year.
Some cool stuff down there.
I don't know how often we get to see the lunch ladies do stuff, but they came up with a nice
little one.
Really?
There was a, I believe, Alilo and Stitch one down there that was pretty cool.
Quality plus printing got into it.
I think it was, I believe this was their first year doing this.
And they made a, a faxing machine that I thought was really good.
The ODC put together a really nice one as well.
Everybody did a great job on these.
I, I do want to send a shout out to Paper City Savings and the Hungry Hippo thing that
they did.
I didn't expect that to make me think of playing Hungry Hippo with my brother and sister.
I did, I did like, immediately sent me back to that moment there.
It's just.
Oh, that's so awesome.
I love, you know, you and I were creatives.
We love seeing these kind of things in the creative universe and people that maybe aren't
always in the creative world being creative.
I think that that's one of my favorite things.
I love seeing that stuff.
But the thing that really, it hits the heart every single year and every time doing this,
if there was one group of people out there with 10 cans of food, I would get emotional
during this.
Let alone seeing the thousands and thousands of pounds of food that were able to raise
to help out our locals, help out our friends, our individuals.
We know this from the Alice report.
We know this from life in just day and day, age, you don't have to even have the stats
to be able to tell you that at that stadium yesterday, which was jam packed, there were
people sitting next to people that were going to need that food and that's that we're helping
each other out here.
We're strangers, helping strangers, neighbors, helping neighbors.
That's what we do and nobody does it like we do in central Wisconsin.
And helping up our community.
Yeah, really proud of that.
Just shout out to the community and everybody involved.
It was a lot of fun.
I have a hard time judging these things because you want them all to win.
They want them all to win.
Want them all to win.
Yep.
Okay.
But I have to be honest.
All I'm hearing in my head right now is hungry, hungry, hit bow, hungry, hungry,
hit bow.
Yes.
Yes.
I don't even know if that's like a real thing.
No, but it's great.
No, but it's great.
I want that to be the thing.
Actually, I wanted to bring that back.
I had more commercials to get and bring that back.
That's great.
Got one here for us.
What other way would we kick off our show, Melissa?
Oh, I'm sorry, real quick.
I can go to UWSWAC.org, go to the United Way, check out their website.
And they've got other great events coming up.
And things for you to be a part of it.
Make sure to register for stuff to desk, stuff to desk that is coming up.
I want to make sure to get your kids registered for that.
Everybody.
Yeah, because if you register early, you can pick your time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
UWSWAC.org.
Big shout out to them.
And again, the rafters.
And they'll be joining us at 10 o'clock.
A while ago, scientists debunked the myth that drinking coffee stunts your growth when
you're young.
I was thought I was pretty good evidence of that.
I was drinking coffee at a young age.
And I'm 6'1 and I have a wingspan of a condor.
And while he's mostly made up of peanut butter and marinara, there's a fair amount of coffee
in there, too.
A little bit.
There's a little bit.
Well, this new study out from Tufts University shows that drinking 1 to 3 cups of caffeinated
coffee daily is associated with lower overall mortality.
Hey, we're going to live forever.
Yeah, particularly cardiovascular disease and causes.
So yes, we are immortal, Melissa, and it turns out, well, almost, almost.
It turns out that there is a little bit of a catch to this.
The benefits are specifically for black coffee.
The more you...
What is what I drink?
And there you go.
So you definitely are.
So the more you add cream or sugar to these things, certainly the more that it brings
it down.
But it still comes back to coffee being healthier for you.
Now you don't have to ditch the adjectives completely.
Black coffee and coffee with low levels of added sugar and saturated fat were associated
with a 14% lower risk of death compared to no coffee consumption at all.
Whoa.
That's gigantic.
That's really...
Like, look, I'm not going to lie to anybody.
If this was the opposite, it might not change how I drink coffee.
I've never picked up a coffee for its health benefits, but this is kind of amazing.
This is kind of cool to hear.
It is cool.
And we also know that there'll be a study that comes out next year that says something
different.
Yeah.
And this is science.
This is what science does.
This is what we want science to do.
Well, it doesn't matter what we wanted to do.
This is the beautiful, wonderful thing about science.
And Neil DeGrasse Tyson words this much better than I ever could.
Science has no political party.
Science has no money in its pocket.
Science is just science.
It's not right or wrong.
It just is.
It's just...
You know, what...
And I think that's a beautiful thing in life.
Rubble by other scientists.
They can do the same experiments and come out with the results.
Yeah.
That's a wonderful thing about life, about science and all that.
If you're curious, the study suggests that the lower mortality risk could be attributed
to the bioactive compounds in coffee, which many studies have talked about that before.
That's why I always add more bioactive compound creamer to my...
Does that come in the bottle?
It can.
It's a can.
It's a can.
So lower added sugar was defined as 2.5 grams per 8 ounces of cup, or approximately about
a half a teaspoon, and lower saturated fat, which defined as a 1 gram per 8 ounce cup,
or 5 tablespoons of 2.2 percent milk.
And so you can go more into the study if you'd like to go to sciencedaily.com to find out
more.
And finally, drinking 2 to 3 cups was slightly better than drinking 1 cup.
However, there was no added benefit to drinking more than 3 cups of coffee.
Yeah.
Unfortunately.
At that point, your anxiety is just through the road for your cancer still.
They could not keep anybody still long enough to be able to do a study of that.
Yes, they could do it.
Again, sciencedaily.com, if you want to find this one.
So for me, when I drink coffee, I used to be...
When I first discovered creamers, I was pretty bad about it.
My aunt Pat, my poppy used to always joke, she would put sugar and creamer with a little
bit of coffee.
I've gone very opposite the older I've gotten, where I just put a dab of both in, a little
bit of a dab of sugar or a dab of mocha creamer.
I like mocha.
So I put a dab of that in there, and that's about it.
So I don't know.
This study rings pretty good to me.
This is pretty good.
Yeah.
But you know what, and that also, I'm going to defend my very large cup, Pat Cretlo, who
made fun of me for it last week Wednesday.
But when I was on a show, he was like, well, that's a big cup.
I'm like, it's my one cup a day.
I mean, it's technically at least two cups.
But you know what?
It's the one I have, and I don't have any more coffee caffeine throughout the day.
And it counts to you.
That's what matters.
That's what matters right now.
It's my mermaid cups.
Yeah, well, there you go.
You're the best.
It's the first purchase I made when I moved to Wisconsin Rapids.
That's cool.
I did well.
I bought them at a garage sale because I stopped at garage sale to ask them about the
house next door that was for rent, and I felt like I had to buy something.
So I bought three mermaid mugs.
Boy, now I've been there before, as far as I like, especially with garage sales.
If you stop and ask anything, yeah, you feel like you got a kind of a halter, yeah,
yeah.
Yeah.
We will get back here with our L.K.A. birthday and anniversary club.
It's time to do some celebration with our good friends over at L.K.A. and the Birthday
Anniversary Club.
We encourage you to treat yourself, get on over to 221 Market Avenue and beautiful
port Edwards.
Wish you a great day from all of us and check out that amazing menu.
I love their specials this week.
Yeah.
A BLT Benedict, which that sounds yummy.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, there's so many ways that you can have pork for breakfast.
Yeah, I love a good BLT.
Yeah.
There's so many options, but I've never heard it in a Benedict, a bacon Benedict.
I don't think I have either.
Yeah.
And the Gringo breakfast.
That's great.
I actually had to look up, for sure, the meaning of Gringo.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And basically, it means a non-Hispanic-relicional person, so un-American, but it's all the things
that you would love wrapped up in a tortilla.
Sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and cheese wrapped up in a warm tortilla.
I love the adding avocado to any of it is really a nice offer too.
And the Hawaiian chicken melt sounds very interesting, but maybe it's just the mozzarella
cheese that's pulling it.
It might be, but the pineapple on there, James, would you try that?
Oh, yes, yeah, definitely.
Oh, okay.
I'm impressed.
Yeah, yeah, that's one that I would definitely definitely try.
And then even the hot breaded pork sandwich sounds delicious too.
Country-fried steak served over mashed potatoes with a slice of bread and covered in rich brown
gravy.
It does sound like a good one, and there are so many other things for you to check out
over there.
Oh, my.
Get on over there today and wish them a good one from all of us.
And of course, we want you to get us your birthdays and adversaries.
We love celebrating with you.
You can email us info at waffager.com.
Direct messages on our Facebook pages.
We encourage you to do that.
And of course, you can call on up.
Yep.
You just dial 715-424-2600.
If you have the Civic Media app, you can just do a touch or two away.
It'll dial right to us as long as you're listening to WFHR.
Yeah.
We're looking forward to talk with you, everybody.
Reach out anytime.
And let's go ahead and take a look at our list for today in Melissa.
I need a one through three.
Ooh, let's go with three today.
All right.
Is this the one right there?
So we can get right into it.
And first up, we want to wish a very happy birthday to well-belated birthday, I should
say, Civic Media's own dominically.
Oh, hey, yeah.
Happy birthday, Dominic.
Happy birthday, Dom.
Enjoy it.
Oh, but it was a good one for you.
You know, since we didn't get it in today, yesterday, let's go ahead.
Do you just celebrate today, too, man?
You go right now.
Why not?
I said celebrate all week.
Anybody gives you a hard time, like, look, on the morning show, they forgot to mention
it.
You're entitled, too, I think.
I just...
I agree.
I agree.
Yeah.
We also want to wish a very happy birthday to Larry Stevens.
Happy birthday, Larry.
Larry's a good guy.
Larry, enjoy your day.
We're wishing you a real good one right there.
Also a happy birthday to Jim Johnston.
Happy birthday, Jim.
Enjoy the day.
You got a great name there, sir.
Enjoy the day.
Yeah, I know a lot of good gems.
Enjoy it.
Oh, but it's a good one for you.
And our qualifier today, Dave Mancusi.
Ooh, happy birthday, Dave.
I know a lot of good days, too.
That's a good name.
Dave, enjoy your day, sir.
Oh, but it's a good one for you.
And we encourage you to brag to all your friends, family, animals that you are a qualifier
for today for the Elcafe birthday anniversary club.
And get over to Elcafe and get your free pie.
There's too many to choose from, so you might need to get one to take home.
And check it out and encourage you all of you to get on over there and let them know.
We love our friends over at Elcafe, and they want to celebrate with you.
Taking a look at our people that you share your birthdays and anniversaries with, Emma Heming
Willis is 47 as she is married to Bruce Willis.
Okay.
Let's see here.
Oh, Blake Shelton is 49.
He is married to Gwen Stefani.
I just, since I mentioned it, I just figured I'm going to mention everybody's significant
other down on this later.
Oh, please don't.
No, no, no.
I wouldn't know half of him anyway.
Honestly, I wouldn't have even thought of the Blake Shelton thing if it wasn't right here
next to his name.
Yeah.
He was on the voice, big time singer, country music, all that.
Very popular artist.
He's a very popular artist.
I think an incredibly talented musician that is criminally like underrated and undercovered.
Ray Lamontaine is 52 today.
Everybody got into the music business.
He was working double shifts at a shoe factory, New Hampshire, and just kind of trying to make
it grind and add it and everything.
Comes out and to me is just such an original singer and a songwriter.
It does a really nice job with the Dolly Parton cover of Jolene.
He's got a couple of songs.
You are the best thing.
I think it's probably his most popular song, but if you're going to listen to a song of
his, you want to hear what I'm talking about, listen to the song Trouble.
That song, man, that's a good song.
He's a good one.
That's a good artist right there.
I don't know if I've ever heard of him, I'll have to listen.
I would never have guessed he's 52.
I love seeing artists like him make it and get a break, get going.
He's just an American songwriter.
I don't think you can label him.
I don't think I could tell you, oh, he's a this genre or this genre.
His music, his style, I think it fits almost anything.
He's a great singer.
Nathan Morris is 54, boys, the men singer, incredible vocal range.
Incredible vocal range, way all over the place.
He also has a college degree in computer programming.
He, part of the credit that he got in the band was being able to sing baritone and soprano.
And I'm only saying what I'm reading, I don't really, I mean, I feel like I know what
that means.
So the one is the lowest and soprano is the highest.
Right, right.
soprano, soprano, whatever you say it.
He's always been credited as being a really multiple, multi-leveled singer.
And so many songs that take me back to high school.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Water runs dry, that's the one that was running through my head and I wasn't sure if I could
try it.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one.
Oh yeah, forgot about that one.
That's a good one, I forgot about that one.
So many, they have such great harmonies.
Yes.
Because of him, in large part.
Some of the best harmonies ever, ever, boys to men, absolutely.
Isabella Rosalini is 73 today, incredible actress, incredible actress, wonderful, wonderful
performer, incredibly funny too.
Just never got a chance to really do a ton of comedic roles, but she did a little bit
in the 30 rock and some spots late in her career and she's very good.
I've been here, I heard a lot about Conclave.
Yes, yes.
And she's in that.
Yeah.
And that really makes me want to watch it.
Yeah, that's one that I really got to see.
I saw, I've seen most of it, I haven't gotten to see the whole movie together, watched a
lot for clips, for voting, for, you know, award shows and everything, but I need to see
it as a whole because it's just, it just seems like such a beautiful movie, like a funny,
interesting, beautiful movie, like put together.
I mentioned Isabella Rosalini is funny, very talented in everything, but I, I, I,
I journalistically have to mention that one of my earliest crushes in my life was Carol
Kane, who is 73 today, younger audiences might remember her from as Lillian on the unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt.
Many of us, of course, will remember her as Miracle Max's wife in the Princess Bride.
You never had it so good, but I, I felt, felt for her watching a little show on TV called
Taxi with my dad, and she was, she had a very small role on there as Alaka's wife Simpke
I believe Simpke was her name.
And there was something about her voice, her eyes, that I couldn't get enough of, incredibly
funny, incredibly talented.
The world will never see the full range of Carol Kane at her prime because she just never
got the opportunities and everything, but I adore her to this day.
Just love her, love her work, everything about her.
She's fantastic.
Her and Billy Crystal, the Princess Bride, and they had to age her so much for that role,
but they did such a good job in it of it.
So good, so good.
And Sir Paul McCartney is 83 today.
Wow.
One of the greatest musicians of all time, just, you know, I don't know what more you can
say.
And it really says something about a person when they're able to live long enough and we're
talking and rambling about them and all we have to say is something like that because
everybody out there, we don't, I don't have to explain to you the depth and, you know,
levels and layers to Paul McCartney's career and life and all of that.
I mean, you probably do, but the average person, no.
Yeah, yeah.
Just, I mean, heck, the fact that I introduced him as Sir Paul McCartney, which anybody that
doesn't do that, it's very insulting, by the way.
This has nothing to do with country.
Yeah.
I mean, the guy's been night to give it to him.
And I think one of the best songwriters of all time, if somebody wanted to tell me that
they think Paul McCartney's the best songwriter of all time, I wouldn't fight him on it.
Like, that's how impressive, incredible his career is.
Hope he's enjoying his day.
And Roger Ebert would have been celebrating a birthday on this day, born in 1942, passed
away in 2023, legendary movie critic, him, Ebert and Robert was, the pinnacle show to
me as a kid.
Back in the day, I couldn't, if I wanted to see a trailer for something, you couldn't
just, you know, Google it and look it up and everything.
If you loved movies, if you loved trailers, if you were a young kid that wanted to be an
actor or be in that industry, you waited for Ebert and Robert's at the movies and you watched
that show religiously.
I didn't agree with those guys half the time, but I loved everything they said and they,
I didn't know it at the time, but they shared back behind the scenes and insight into the
movie industry that nowadays would be coveted and it was a game changing.
It was way ahead of its time as far as that kind of thing goes.
Now what we see in sports, in sports media is basically what Ebert and Robert were doing.
Even now, unfortunately, in political commentaries, what we see as well, a lot of that too, but
they were able to do something that I don't think, I don't think anybody could match,
generally then, but now, it's just a different time and they were really, really groundbreakers,
really impressive, but also really good writers as well, Ebert and Robert are really good
writers for Chicago Tribune and Chicago Suntimes respectively.
That is going to do it for our birthday and anniversary club.
I cannot think of a better way to celebrate than heading over to El Caffe.
Yeah, you'll have a great meal and a great time because the people are fantastic.
Get on over there today, everybody, and enjoy it and wish them a good one from all of us.
Here at WFHR, we'll be back after our news, sports and entertainment break on The Morning
Show.
Welcome back, everybody.
Morning Show at WFHR.
Little Ray Lamontane to play us in his song, Trouble, just celebrating his birthday, and
I mean, I can't reference the song and I play a little of it, right, Melissa?
Of course not.
I encourage you to check that one out, everybody.
Melissa and James hanging out with you, thanks so much for joining us, everybody.
In a new poll, 16% of American adults say that they've been to about 30 or more states.
16%, not a bad number.
16.
Yeah.
No.
Wait, 16% have been to more than 30.
30 or more.
Yeah.
Okay.
That's a lot of states.
Yeah, and that's a pretty good number.
That's pretty good.
Yeah.
So that's more common, the older you get, of course, but 5% of Gen Zers under 30 already have
at least 30 under their belt as well.
Wow.
Very impressive.
They're following with their parents who are going to be states.
Another 60% of Americans have been to 20 to 29 states, 28% say that they have been to
10 to 19 and 22% say that they have been to 5 to 9 and another 17 say that they have
been to less than 5 states.
Less than 5, wow.
As a matter of fact, 5% of adults say that they have never been to another state other
than the one that they currently live in.
5%, that is a shocking number to me, a borderline shocking number to me.
It's hard to shock, man.
Yeah.
I mean, some states are really big and hard, like if you live in Alaska, it's really hard
to get to another state.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a good point.
Yeah.
I actually didn't even think of that.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
20% if you're in the middle of Texas.
The rest of the article, and you can find this at ugov.org, 20% of people say it's very
important to them to visit a large number of states within their lifetime.
35% say it's somewhat important, 29% say it's not, 28% say it's not very important.
And not surprisingly, the most visited states, well, we'll get to that in a second.
Let's break this down first.
There's way too much going on here.
I'm stuck on this 5%.
That's, I will wholeheartedly admit, I literally have gypsy in my DNA.
It is in my blood to travel, to pop around, to check out different things.
My family and I moved around a lot.
I've lived all over.
I, even with all those count, all that, I, I, 5% of people, I just find that really interesting.
I'm not, I don't want to sound like that's judgmental, like you live your life.
If you don't, if you don't have any reason, why would I need to visit another state?
I got everything I want right here.
That's fine.
I got no problem.
Yeah.
And if you don't like to travel, that's also fine.
When you get car sick.
Just in my over.
It's a lot of things.
In my overthinking brain, I never thought about like a number, a stat of how many people have
done that.
Yeah.
Not to say that this is the big outlier and this is, you know, a perfect stat or anything
like that.
I'm sure that it might be a little higher or a little lower if you literally, you know,
talk to every single.
You didn't talk to every person.
But man, that's something.
5% is still a high number to me.
So I had to count how many I've been in and just like, roughly, I, I think it's at
least 31.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
That's a good number.
Wow.
And that was just a quick count because I have been out west and I've been down, I've like,
I've driven to Arizona.
So I've been through all of the states kind of in the middle.
Yeah.
And then I've been down to Florida and Louisiana.
It really the, the last frontier for me in the United States is the East Coast.
It's weird to me how many of us are like.
I'm same, same way here.
The most East I've been is the Carolinas and, you know, I don't think that really counts.
I don't know.
I mean, it's on the coast.
I've been to, yeah, I've been to like West Virginia when I was a kid.
I was really a kid, like really young.
That's when I ruined my favorite pair of panties in the red clay.
Do you?
Saturday panties.
It happens.
We've all been there.
It is.
It's still devastated by it.
And it comes to, like, as a kid, I don't know, since I was a kid, I felt this way.
And it hasn't changed.
I'd like to visit all 50 states.
I would love to be able to, you know, get to whatever age I'm lucky enough to get to
and be able to look back and say, I visit at all 50 states.
Mm-hmm.
I had a friend when I was in high school who their, her parents had an RV and they had
one of those maps on the side of the United States.
And where you can fill in all of the ones that you've been to, and I just thought that
was so cool.
It is really.
I like that.
I like that a lot.
That's a good way to do it, mm-hmm.
So not surprisingly, the most visited states are Florida, New York, Texas, and California.
The least visited Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, and Montana.
I guess not, you know, not surprising, but it is interesting to see that kind of clump
together.
I'm surprised Vermont is in there as one of the least.
I think it's, and this is only from me, you know, looking, I was looking at living there
at one point.
Mm-hmm.
I was going to get, there was a radio gig up there that I was going to take and I was
looking at that area and price of living and my computer laughed at me.
It literally laughed.
I didn't even know it could do that, but when I was looking on Zillow and looking at things
and everything, it just, you know, you're just browsing, right?
You don't really think that you could live here.
It's a very expensive place to live.
It's a thing.
Okay.
Well, and I've heard some, like, they get annoyed with the leaf peepers in the fall.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So, I don't know.
But I think Vermont tears, is that what they're called?
I think so.
Um, are, you know, a very welcoming people.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, yeah.
Except when they're annoyed with tourists, which don't, all of us, in our own home states,
get annoyed with tourists.
We just do.
It's kind of a universal thing.
Or what it's worth, they didn't define what a, quote, visit is, but it's probably safe
to say you have at least, uh, at least drive through a majority of it.
Um, you're not maybe even staying there.
They're in it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If they are, I think that counts.
Um, I, I would say that, um, I will go as far as if you even just had a layover there.
And, um, and, and you were just there.
The only time I've been to Vegas is layovers.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And I'm not saying-
But you don't leave the airport does that count, because I've been to Boston.
I saw where I was going.
Yeah.
You got to leave the airport though.
Yeah.
You have to be able to, cause I bopped around the strip and everything and I, you know,
it was like two in the morning.
So I didn't really get a great experience, but it was also kind of cool, because I, I experienced
Vegas very differently.
Like there, there wasn't that, the people that were out and about had an agenda, um,
when they could just leave it right there, um, and otherwise, I, I don't know, I, I imagine
that most people, when they first experienced Vegas, it's very different.
Um, but I know, I'm not saying that that counts counts.
I'm just, for me, I count it because-
I think, well, yeah, I think if you let the airport accounts, but like in Boston, I did
not leave the airport.
So I don't think that counts.
I see.
Yeah.
That's in, in that East Coast, man.
I, I just got to get out there and check that out.
There's my friend.
Um, and, and I think that, uh, you know, traveling in general, especially this time of
year, you know, they're, they, I don't think it hurts.
And I think that if you've, what I would, what I would be much more interested in, the
five percent of people never leaving their home state, um, is, is interesting.
When I, I, I would find much more interesting is the reasons why and, and, and I would think
a lot of it has to do with financial state, you know, you just don't have the money to
take a vacation.
Yeah.
I drive somewhere else, unless there's a reason for it.
I would say that it used to be my, my, um, defense of not taking a vacation or traveling
more was time, um, now it is money.
I, I, I can't even, I can't excuse, use the excuse of time.
I've got paid days off.
I don't use, um, civic is really good to us that way.
Uh, so I, I can't use that as an excuse.
It's just more so I just, um, don't really financially know if I could necessarily pull
it off.
And I, I don't get a bad paycheck.
I get a, I get a good paycheck and I, I still don't know if I could, so I think that's
a really good point of it.
It's expensive.
Yeah.
Um, and it's part of why I, now here's another part of this too with, with that, how
much do you travel within your own state, though, you know, um, every state in the unions
got plenty to see in it.
And most of us haven't seen half of what's in our own state.
Right.
We have a lot of so many awesome things to do and see here in Wisconsin that, I mean, you
could just travel in your own state and have a fantastic vacation life.
I spent the majority of my life in Illinois and I, I haven't visited half the places
there.
Wisconsin, no, the other half of my life I've spent it and when basically in Wisconsin
a little bit and play other places, but basically here.
And there's at least three places off the top of my head that I've been to that I've
got to go.
Sorry.
Yeah.
House on the rock.
Yes.
Number one.
Number one on the list.
Yes.
Um, and there's the Milwaukee Zoo.
I haven't been there.
I haven't been there.
Um, I got to check that out.
Yes.
Yes.
And there was a, there was a museum.
I wanted to check out.
I can't think of which one it is now, though.
Um, yeah.
There's things like that.
And every one of us has a little list like that in our head.
Better time than now to go ahead and check those things out.
Yeah.
Um, spend our tourism dollars right here in our own state.
Mm-hmm.
And if you would like to jump in on this survey with us and let us know if you've traveled
a lot or a little or why you have it, you haven't.
We would love to hear from you, everybody.
Yes, we would.
Seven one five four two four twenty six hundred or you can reach us out, reach out to us
through the Civic Media.
Mm-hmm.
You can just text in and on there if you'd like or on our Facebook pages.
We're looking forward to hearing from you, everybody.
Mm-hmm.
We will take a quick time out.
We'll come back and do that.
We're going to help everybody, Melissa, when we get back.
We got the one trait that can make you happier the rest of your life.
Help or depress.
One of the help.
Your choice.
Find out when we get back on the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everyone.
Morning show at WFHR.
Local, the grown radio.
Melissa and James here with you.
Thank you so much for joining us.
I almost called myself Seth.
Oh boy.
Oh, listen, don't you?
I just need sleep.
Maybe a little column A.
Call it, call it.
We've got we've got the one trait that can help you make, be happier, everybody.
I think you're going to be happy, I think you're going to be happy with it.
Let's go.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to help you make, be happier, everybody.
For James, it's sleep.
Yes.
Yes.
A new study in the Netherlands found there's one trait that makes us happier no matter
how old we are.
It's true whether you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 80s, whatever it might be.
All you have to do is learn to trust people more.
Trust.
That is it.
They found that having a trusting attitude makes us feel happier and more satisfied
with life and it gets easier and easier the more you do it.
As a side note, we started off this show thinking that we were immortal.
I'm starting to worry that I'm like any moment now.
I have a hard time with trust, like night I would imagine the majority of the audience
out there.
Well, the difficulty comes in when you've had your trust broken.
It's really hard to trust again.
When it's happened multiple times, it's just hard.
I have a very hard time with it.
It takes a lot for me to be able to do it again, like many people out there.
I will say at the same time, I know people that have been through much worse than I have
and go out there and get back on that horse and there are a few things that are braver
to me than that.
Being able to do that, I don't want to make light of that and I don't want to sound
like this is the way you should be.
I would recommend to people not being the way that I am with that stuff.
I think that actually the people that I know that are living life to the fullest are
in all the phrases we use and everything, they seem to be able to do this.
When I think back to the periods of my life where I was very, very trusting, I was happy.
But then, I don't know, I was also very naive.
Yeah.
So I mean, is that go hand in hand with being trusting?
I don't know.
It's, hmm, yeah, that's a fair thing to say because I feel like, you know, it's certainly
something that, it's interesting that they bring up in the article that it doesn't
matter what age you are because this feels like something that is certainly an age-related
thing.
You don't know many little kids who aren't trusting, except if you knew me when I was
little.
Well, unless they've had reasons to not trust.
Right, right.
Which has happened to unfortunately too many children.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I'm on that list and when it comes to that part of it, you know, the older we get, it
does feel like the more life experiences we have that can bring this down.
So it's like a feedback loop, this whole thing.
The study showed that trusting people makes us happier and being happy makes us want
to trust people.
So it's, you know, kind of just a trust and, well, being mutually reinforced each other
over time.
Mm-hmm.
Well, and I think, I think the positive takeaway we can bring to this conversation as, you
know, middle-aged people that we are in James.
Yes.
And the experiences that we do, you learn in life to surround yourself with people who
you can trust, who've earned your trust or who trust you.
And that's one thing.
If people trust you, it's easier to trust them back.
Yeah.
And know that they can rely on you and you can rely on them and to, you know, populate
your life with those people.
No, it's funny.
I don't put a lot of stock or thought into my trust in others, but I put a ton in
people being able to trust me.
Like, that, that means an incredible, like, it's one of the better compliments anybody
could give me or, or look at me as, as somebody that is loyal, somebody that is trustworthy.
Yeah.
Whereas, you know, they can, you can, they can rely on you.
I almost don't put that on others.
I almost, I don't, I, I've been so on the other side of this that if somebody is those
things, I, I, I appreciate it.
I love them for it.
But thankful for it, I, it can change in an hour and I don't expect it.
I don't hold them to it.
It's something that I don't expect it from them every day or whatever.
But if, when they bring it, I'm very rewarded.
I'm very appreciative of it.
Um, it's, I never thought of it that way.
Maybe, maybe it's time now that you've reflected on that that you put more faith in, in
the people in your life.
Oh, I'm too old.
I can't change.
I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
Remember, it's, it's does the old dog want to learn new tricks?
Mm-hmm.
Therein lies the question.
Here's another part too, uh, the, the, the type of trust does matter though.
Trusting the people you're closest to makes, uh, the biggest difference, following, followed
by trusting humanity in general.
So that's another interesting part of this too, where, as far as trusting your society,
oh, I'm not even worried about that.
But trusting your core people or like you were talking about that earlier, the people
that you surround yourself with, the older you get, um, that's where you're, that's
what you're really focused on.
You're not, uh, we've almost kind of stopped worrying about being able to trust society.
But we do see glimmers of, and, and things that, you know, renew our faith in humanity.
Yeah.
When, with strangers helping strangers or people coming through in times of, of natural
disasters or crisis or, you know, like, how community surrounds and builds up someone
who's experienced a devastating loss or a fire or, or, you know, those kind of things
really help to build back that belief in, oh, you know what, humans are good people.
Less than 24 hours ago, right here, uh, not even 10 minutes away from us, we had a prime
example of this with the United Weekend event and strangers helping strangers and people
taking food out of their own pantry and putting it there for others.
Um, and, and there are, I believe that there is more good than bad.
It may be the last naive bone I have in my body, but I believe in that.
And I think that there are more, there are, I know there are good examples out there
of it.
Unfortunately, we don't always do a good job as a society leading with those stories and
talking about them, which is why we do a lot around here.
Yeah.
That's why we definitely, absolutely, because we do have a tendency to focus on the negatives.
Um, but if you do choose to try to be trusting, to have that childlike wonder about life and
about, you know, the beautiful things, like, I'm excited about the thunderstorms we're
supposed to have tonight.
I love thunderstorms.
I love rain, like when it was wet this morning of like, come on, just down poor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want water falling from the sky because it's awesome.
Yeah.
I can't love with you.
Inst, uh, the last part of this, and you can find the article at studyfines.com, institutional
trust is when you have trust in things like government banks and healthcare industry,
they found that that doesn't make us, uh, make as big of a difference.
So it's almost a completely other category.
And when we look at each other as individuals or as people or even as groups and, uh, when
we look at businesses or government or some of these things, that, that's fat.
That's absolutely valid because you view a, uh, I'm, I'm sorry, the corporations are not
people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry Supreme Court.
They're not.
Yeah.
I don't care what the Supreme Court says.
Corporations are not people.
They're made up of people, but to, it's a, it's a, it's a far different trusting than
the people that we know in our lives and the, and the people around us.
It's, um, and, and unlike, so I don't, I, I think that, you know, the old phrase, trust
is earned.
I think there's a lot to be said for that.
When it comes to businesses, politicians, politics, I should say, um, or, or just, you
know, industry in general, uh, I do believe that.
I do believe that that's what that statement's really for.
I don't know that it's for people so much, but when it comes to those other factors, those
other things, oh, yeah, you got to earn it every day, every day you have to earn it.
Mm-hmm.
That's the job.
If you don't like it, there's a billion other things you could be doing, um, but I agree
with that.
And I will speak to, you know, like, okay, look behind the curtain of my life right now.
I am fighting a horrible and devastating battle with my mattress.
Uh-huh.
It's, it has been ongoing for months now where I'm, I'm literally sleeping on the floor
right now, James.
Oh, right.
On a camp pad, you know, like, I have a, I have a, a very expensive camp pad that I bought
when I thought I was going to be living in my car, which didn't happen because I wanted
to.
Not because I had to.
Right.
Because I wanted to.
Um, so I'm sleeping on that because the mattress I have is causing me pain.
I bought one online because it was what my chiropractor recommended.
I, it's, it's hurting me.
So I have to get a new one.
So I went to mattress firm here in Wisconsin Rapids.
And so far, they've, they're, they're earning my trust.
Mm-hmm.
I haven't purchased anything yet, but I, I would recommend talking to Matt at mattress
firm.
Mm-hmm.
I'm obviously they're not paying me to say this.
No, right on.
I haven't paid them anything yet either, but we're, but we're working on building up this
trust.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
He's got it far more than slumber land, which was the, the, the start of this horrible
mattress saga of my life, the real Princess P.
As it, it really is.
And as they side note, everybody, be on the lookout for the pay-per-view Melissa vs.
the mattress for the heavyweight title belts.
As I bring up my serrated knife and chop up my former, former, uh, mattress I was using,
that's foam.
Mm-hmm.
I'm thinking if I cut it in half, it might work.
Uh, that's, you know, that, that's where it's going.
Where you're at with this.
Where you're looking at it.
That is where I'm at.
I'm literally going to get out my bread knife and cut that thing into pieces.
I guess we're doing this.
We just get on it.
But my life is stupid.
It's just screaming that the whole time.
Is this my last request?
The whole time.
You got to be thinking that.
It's a patient.
I don't sleep pain.
I don't want the song actually playing.
I want just you chanting that reframe over and over.
Uh, we are excited to have our Wisconsin rabbits rafters join us at the, uh, top of, uh,
next hour.
They're going to be joining us.
For our news break and everything.
We'll be hanging out with them, talking a little rafter baseball and getting to know them
and meet your rafters.
It's going to be exciting.
Looking forward to it.
Also, uh, looking forward to hopefully having a game tonight, uh, we'll see what Mother
Nature does here.
Okay.
Sorry, guys.
I wished for thunderstorms.
I'm sorry.
Uh, we'll be talking about it on playmakers.
Be sure to join us on one of five five WIRI from four to five.
Our life sports call in show.
It's brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods.
Big shout out to them.
Uh, we'll, I'll be able to keep you up to date on the game and let you know, uh, you
know, if there's any change down our way to field, uh, we'll be talking about that and
talking more rafter baseball and just a little bit.
And next hour, we're also going to be talking about the cranberry blossom festival.
Hey, that's going to happen soon, like tomorrow.
It's going on the 19th through the 22nd right here in Rapids, uh, the home of cranberries,
uh, cranberry country, uh, the festival's filled with so many cool things.
Melissa and I are going to take our time to get into those next hour.
And we're going to be live and direct this weekend at the arts and crafts vendor fair.
We will have WFHR down there from 10 to noon and from noon to two 105 five WIRI, we're
going to have some fun with that.
You can just listen to us all day.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be a blast.
Uh, they let the inmates out of the asylum, uh, we're going to be out in the public again.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
We'll be back with more show everybody coming up here morning show at WFHR.
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming
on the civic media app.
