Virginia? That Checks Out. (Hour 1)

Good morning, Wisconsin.

Morning, world.

It's a new day.

Thanks for kicking it off with us here at WFHR.

Got your host, James behind the mic?

Join by our head of news, our co-host, Melissa K.

Good morning.

Our head of production, Seth Havager.

Morning.

And the best listeners in radio.

Thanks for joining us, everybody.

Puppy all are having a great start to your week out there.

We're going to kick things off the way we like to.

We're going to get into some fun.

Got the LKF Abert day and anniversary club coming up.

Got some other good ones we'll get into.

We're going to talk a little bit about the 4th of July

and some other things like that.

And we'll kick off the 10 o'clock hour of the way we like to

with the kitchens open.

Yeah.

Looking forward to that.

Beth will be joining us a little bit later.

Should be a bunch of fun.

Beth brought us a topic too that I thought we would have some fun

with as well.

You get an interesting one.

Yeah.

We're going to get into that a little bit later.

All of those things coming up where you get into our schedule.

And a quick reminder to everybody out there that may have not known.

Now, I will tell you, you would have known this before anybody

if you signed up and talked with Roscoe.

I don't like to name drop.

Oh.

But I do, I do text with Roscoe.

Oh my gosh.

From the rafters.

But step aside while I name drop.

Yeah.

Everybody just think that up here.

Get some police tape up.

Make sure there's nice clear space here.

And no, I am not dropping Conan and Robert, Robert, our junior's name.

Again.

I'm dropping Roscoe.

That's even cooler.

That's a cool one.

Pretty cool, actually.

Give it a half an hour.

Yeah.

But yes, if you sign up, if you go to northwoodsleague.com and you sign up

with the rafters for their text line or the newsletter or anything,

right away you might have found out that the game got, they called the game early yesterday.

They did.

They did very quickly.

So that means we get an Ernie Banks special today.

Let's play two.

Pam is working very hard scheduling that right now for us.

We appreciate you, Pam.

So that means for one, we won't have a playmaker this afternoon.

That's correct.

No playmakers.

Just Wednesday show this week.

Yeah.

But also, you know, that is going to be our schedule is going to be a little different today.

Right.

But we do get two games of rafter baseball right here at WFHR for you today.

Yes, you do.

That's exciting.

And we'll get into the rest of our schedule.

Throughout the week to this week, we'll be talking about Independence Day and building up for that in this area.

We do a pretty good job of celebrating the fourth around here.

I think we do.

Fantastic.

All those things.

But it is summer.

It is a peak vacation time.

Yes.

But do you need a cool cation?

A cool cation.

A cool cation.

And this is not just an excuse for me to say cool cation as much as I can.

It's your secret plan.

He found a new word.

I will let you all know that I already sent this to Terry.

Right away.

I will let everybody know.

I already sent this to Terry and I'll see you over your night away.

It joins us all the time.

If you're already sweating just thinking about summer travel, you're not alone.

But there is a new trend that might be perfect just for you.

It is called a cool cation.

Okay.

It means skipping the heat and traveling somewhere with cooler temps in the summer.

So places with mountains, lakes, forests, for example.

Makes sense.

Don't go south.

Yeah.

Go the opposite direction.

According to Google Trends, searches for cooler travel destinations are way up.

People are supposedly swapping out Florida for Alaska and ditching desert heat for places like Canada and Iceland.

Okay.

And in fact, I don't think this is a little secret anymore.

But for, I would say, almost 20 years now, it has been this secret of like in summer or especially during spring break.

A lot of people are going to Iceland.

A lot of people.

It's a very America friendly area.

There's a lot of wonderful tourist places.

Lots of tourists in there.

And it's beautiful, but it's expensive.

Yeah.

This is the only part of it I knew.

I didn't know that part, Melissa, or even to be honest, how many people do I just know that I'm hearing from a lot of people in the city that they're doing this.

That this is the big thing.

And it started, I knew it was a big deal when the last couple of spring breaks.

I've heard people making plans to go there and not like, you know, Key West or something.

Right.

Somewhere in the down south, right?

Which was mind boggling.

I thought it would, because to be fair, I'm teach improv.

I teach comedy.

I thought it was a joke at first.

I really did.

I thought it was a...

Oh, to Iceland.

Well, are we doing it big?

Teachers are always looking for chances to be like cool with the students.

And like, oh, are you guys doing a bit?

Oh, I'm in.

Come here.

No, you're just talking.

I should go.

Oh, you're being sincere here.

I should go.

I should go.

Now, it makes sense with extreme heat events becoming more common.

And it's not just about comfort.

Cooler spots often have fewer crowds this time of year.

Oh, okay.

Now, I love the way I love that this becomes a thing for like 20 years.

And then like, you know what?

I want to get away from people.

I'm going to Key West.

Yeah, exactly.

Sit down south again.

I'm going to Vegas.

Yeah.

It's just nice this time of year.

I like the heat.

It's fine.

So you might need to jump on the Caucasian trend if a breezy 70-degree getaway sounds more

relaxing than roasting an overheated beach resort.

Hey, man, I'm telling you.

Well, when you put it that way.

You know what?

Perfect.

You know what?

We've got four people, Wisconsin here in Minnesota and Michigan, Midwestern here.

We could be that destination.

Yeah.

We've got these two giant air conditioners called Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

Okay?

Exactly.

Go by them.

Yeah.

And you will be cooled off.

I can guarantee you that.

You have to put your drops like 20 degrees.

Yep.

Cooler by the lake.

I don't think you're wrong.

Not only that, but I think that this is a wonderful opportunity for the Midwest states.

I think so, especially in the northern ones, right?

Yeah.

Take advantage of this.

Absolutely.

Take advantage of this trend and offering your...

Now, I do think that this, anybody in the Midwest, most people in the Midwest hearing this,

it's just kind of like, well, we don't get that many warm days.

I'm not going to waste a single one of them.

I'll put up with the...

I'm still of the mind.

It's hard for me to put up with or hard for me to complain about any weather.

Like, honestly, any weather.

It doesn't stop me from doing it, but at the same time...

At the same time.

A little guilty about the time.

It's fine.

It's fine.

And we're cheaper than Iceland.

And we also have our own fermented fish.

It's not really fermented, but I mean, it's such a lie and stuff like that.

I mean, because that's a delicacy in Iceland.

It's like a rotten chocolate.

Yes.

I forget.

Oh, I forget what it's called.

It's got a really cool name, though.

It does have a really cool name.

And then you take a shot of, like, dark...

Like, some kind of vodka after it.

Here, you can have ludifisc.

And she's with an old fashion.

Oh, see?

Now, we've got the makings of a whole thing here.

Right.

We've got our own Iceland equivalent.

Yeah, that's right.

Pam, could you get...

Wisconsin style.

Pam, could you get travel Wisconsin on the phone?

We've got an idea.

We've got an idea.

It was a bad Pam.

It was a bad Pam.

It was a bad...

I shouldn't do that to her.

I love you, Pam.

I appreciate you so much.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

So, I like the idea of this for a lot of reasons.

We're kind of joking about it, but honestly, you guys went right where my mind went...

Before I had even finished this article.

Hopefully, this past winter was a little bit better.

A better...

I don't know why I said better that way.

It's much better if you do it this way.

I don't know what that was.

Crazy Monday.

That's going to try to be crazy all day today.

I don't know how exactly.

I know it was a little bit better than it was the previous winter.

I'm really thinking about two winners ago when we had no snow and it was just so hard difficult for...

Right.

Our northern cities and everything.

I think that here is a wonderful opportunity to just...

Oh my gosh.

Be the new, you know, break for people.

They're at two sets point what he was saying.

But I would go a bit farther with this.

And this is something that is not going to be popular with a lot of people.

But I'm telling you, as a...

It's not just, you know, two faiths I grew up with.

I grew up in two states.

And I'm telling you, we need each other.

And I believe that Midwest states should start advertising together.

I agree.

I absolutely agree.

Man, we have...

We have one of the great natural wonders around us, the Great Lakes, especially the big ones.

There's so much fantastic scenery.

If you've ever been like the South Shore or the North Shore Lake Superior, that is...

I mean, gorgeous views.

We're talking...

I mean, there's...

People know about it, but I'm so with you, man.

But yeah, there's beautiful hiking trails.

Lots of great outdoors, yeah.

Our states, the governors, the advertisers, the people in charge of marketing and all these things.

They need to learn from our non-profits.

And where our non-profits learned a long time ago because they had to,

that, hey, you know, crabs in a barrel doesn't work.

Why don't we work together?

If we work together, look, all of a sudden we're all rising up.

We all know how the economy has been for quite some time.

And how difficult some things can be.

And yet, I sit in this chair every day and I talk with non-profits pretty much every day.

And every event they're doing, every time that they're in need or they reach out to the community,

we're seeing them showing up, we're seeing people step up.

Whether it is volunteering or it is with dollars or diapers or food or any of these things.

And our city is not different than most cities in America.

Most rural communities in America.

I look at this stuff.

I curious, in part because I want to be able to say, well,

are our areas performing this well compared to Albuquerque or something like that?

And yes, I threw an Albuquerque.

You just wanted to say Albuquerque.

Yeah, I did.

Are you Bugs Bunny?

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, I'm a poor man's version of Bugs Bunny in many ways.

In many, many ways.

All across America, you're seeing this.

There are areas like ours, some better than others, but for the most part,

communities are stepping up, communities are showing up.

It's part of the reason why I am able to face every day and believe in people.

Because of this stuff that, you know, I don't just look at the national newspapers

and the national headlines.

I'm also looking at this from that angle.

And I'm seeing people stepping up.

So if I think states should take from that, take a page from that book

and be like, hey, you know, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin,

all of these Midwest states.

Let's be the example to the Union.

Right.

And show I'm not saying we don't still have a rivalries.

Obviously, we still have a rivalries in our sports.

We have our jokes and all these things.

That's part what makes us Midwesterners.

Right.

But part of what also makes us Midwesterners is that I'll hold the door open for you

even if you have the opposite sports team on your journey.

Yeah, exactly.

You have horrible taste, but I'm still going to hold the door open for you.

Courtesy is still alive on that thing.

We're going to leave out Iowa, though, because who wants Iowa?

I mean, actually, this is all part of my grand master plan

to take all the surrounding states on Lake Superior.

So like that, the northern shore of Minnesota, the southern shore of Wisconsin,

going up into the UP in Michigan and turn it into a new state.

Yeah, yeah.

We're going to make new states going to be called superior, of course,

because it's around Lake Superior, right?

And I'm telling you, you know, if we have to take climate change

and look at the good sides of it now, because we're not doing anything about it.

So this is going to be a popular area right around Lake Superior.

I'm telling you.

The other thing, the other idea here, is a Midwest passport.

And the states will all participate in this Midwest passport.

And they have like a road trip ideas of here.

You travel from this place to this place in this state.

You get a discount at this resort or this hotel.

And you could do a whole plans of people.

Because road tripping is so, it's fundamental to America.

Yes.

And people love doing it.

And having already a planned out, like, you know,

here's a guided tour of the Midwest on your own road trip.

I mean, absolutely.

Yep.

I love it.

100 percent, man.

Team bonding.

Exercise.

Right there.

Right there.

Three of us.

And then we're going to launch our own company.

That's right.

And I can already tell you how this goes.

The three of us go out of road trip.

That next Monday's show, it's just Melissa.

It's just Melissa.

It's just Melissa.

It's all in one way.

What happened to the other two?

We best not speak of it.

We're not going to talk about it.

No, we're not going to talk about it.

We will talk about El Caffe.

They're coming up on the birthday anniversary club here at the morning show.

It's time to do some celebrating with our good friends over at El Caffe.

The birthday and anniversary club, we encourage you to treat yourself tomorrow.

When they open their doors, they'll be open tomorrow for the week.

Everybody.

So keep that in mind.

You got today to go ahead and make some plans for what you want to order.

They open those doors.

You can go to ElCaffeWi.com.

Check out their menu at their website.

Courage, of course, to check out their Facebook page as well.

I hope that Storytime Miss Cathy McGrath went well this week.

Oh, yeah.

The monarchs.

Wow, they did a butterfly release.

That is so cool.

Cathy's the best.

We appreciate Cathy and appreciate her friends at El Caffe.

Get us those birthdays and anniversaries.

Everybody, you can email us info at WFHR.com.

You got, of course, direct messages on our Facebook pages.

And you can call out up.

That's right.

715-424-2600.

Courage, you'd use a civic media app.

If you got it, text us if you'd like to as well.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Diving into our list for today, man.

You guys, I don't know the last time we had a Monday like this.

One, two, three, four, five.

Six possible qualifies.

Wow.

Nice.

Nice.

Pretty sweet, pretty sweet.

Yeah.

Seth, give me a one through six.

Five.

All right.

Get us that one right there.

We get our qualifier so we can get it.

All right.

All right.

So first up, we want to wish a...

I do want to remind everybody that we will be pulling the drawing tomorrow for the qualifier for June.

Oh, that's right.

It's the first.

Because half the year is over.

It's nuts.

Geez.

Why did you say that, Seth?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I can't stop you upset with you this morning and now.

I can't stop thinking about it, to be honest.

It's just...

I don't know what happened to June.

And there's something about...

It's one thing in the winter, like almost like like or thankful when a month goes blind by.

Yeah.

In summer, it's not fair.

It's not.

I haven't even been swimming yet.

I have not even gone.

It's not fair.

Half a summer's gone.

It's not right.

But we will be drawing our June winner tomorrow.

We'll be listening for that, everybody.

First up, want to wish your very happy birthday to the civic media.

Naticon...

How do you say Naticon's last name?

I don't know.

I just always call that one.

Say Naticon.

Yeah.

There's no, they're not a con in the company.

Is it cool?

It's close.

It's wonderful.

It's a wonderful name for him.

Say it before.

And he is fantastic.

Oh my gosh.

Isn't he?

Patience of a saint.

Yes.

Yes.

So patient.

Very good at his job.

I'm telling you.

He makes the whole payroll thing so easy.

We have no weak links here at civic media.

I'm very proud to say that.

I feel very good about saying that.

And I could not always say that.

I feel very good about saying that.

He is one of the people I think of when I say that.

Yes.

Yes.

Absolutely.

If there is something...

If there's something...

The payroll is such a hard job.

Yes.

It really is.

We appreciate you.

Have a good day, Matt.

And we take a look at our local list here.

First up, we want to wish a very happy birthday to Lacey Nicole.

Happy birthday, Lacey.

Happy birthday, Lacey.

Lacey's great.

We wish you good one.

Lacey, enjoy your day.

We also want to wish a very happy birthday to Alexis Johnson McNought.

McNoughton.

Woo.

Nice name.

Alexis.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Yeah.

Enjoy the day, Alexis.

We wish happy birthday to Jerry Klingforth.

Happy birthday, Jerry.

Happy birthday, Jerry.

Hey, happy birthday to Dave Urban.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Enjoy your day, sirs.

And a very happy 18th anniversary to Bo and Sandy Sapalina.

Oh, Bo and Sandy.

Congratulations.

Happy 18th anniversary.

Yeah.

18 years.

Nice.

They've shared their anniversary with us for many years now and everything.

I always think that those names sound so good together.

Bo and Sandy.

They do.

That sounds a good, really good to Sandy.

And our qualifiers, let's all wish a happy 41st anniversary to Patrick and Kim Young.

Patrick and Kim.

Wow.

Congratulations.

Happy anniversary.

Happy 41st year too.

Yes indeed.

Congratulations.

And you're our qualifiers.

Congratulations.

Let's see who you're sharing your birthday with.

Well, none other than I feel like you can pretty safely say the greatest Olympian of all

time.

Michael Phelps is 40 today.

Wow.

40.

Certainly the most decorated Olympian of all time.

128 gold medals.

23 gold.

One of my favorite pictures is him with all of his gold medals.

Oh, my God.

How heavy is that?

And we got to live it.

We got to see the whole thing.

Man, man.

Oh, my God.

I like swimming.

It's one of the sneaky sports I enjoy.

And part of what I like about it is that I understand it.

And I've known a lot of swimmers that have really broken it down in the art of it to you and everything.

And then you see a guy like Michael Phelps and it's like, okay, well, how does this?

Some of what he is shouldn't work for swimming.

Right.

And then other parts of it are like, okay, this man was born in a lake.

He was born to do this.

It's webbed feet.

He is part fish.

Yes.

It is something to be able to see, you know, Carl Lewis and so many of the great, you know, the great Olympians that we've gotten to see.

And then there's him who just, I don't know if I've ever experienced this as a sports fan where my guy was going in.

I'm like, we got this.

It didn't matter if it's rare.

It's very rare.

It doesn't matter if it was relays or what it was.

Michael Phelps was out there.

You felt confident as an American.

We're winning this.

We got this.

Because 23 of his gold medals are more than double the count of his nearest rivals.

Which is just astonishing.

Yeah.

And oh, God, forgive me.

I'm not remembering his name, but the great swimmer before him.

Mark Spitz.

Mark Spitz.

So I could say, I was just about to say, well, nobody will ever break this or anything.

But when Mark Spitz was doing what he was, nobody thought anybody would break what he did.

Yeah, that's right.

So, yeah, but a happy birthday to 40th.

The greatest, the greatest of all time.

I think you're safe to say that.

Yeah.

Yes.

Happy 41st birthday to Fantasia, the third American Idol winner.

She had a run there.

She had a run there.

She did.

Wow.

Cole Swindell is 42, a country singer.

Let's see here.

Molly Parker is 83.

Marine Robinson, lost in space and a good character actor.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

She's space.

Another good actor.

Monica Potter is 54.

Christina on parenthood.

She was Laurie and Boston legal.

Oh.

She was great in patch Adams and some other stuff too.

Very cool.

Phil and Samo is 57 lead singer of Pantera down at least one or two other bands.

I'm a big Pantera guy.

I saw them.

Busy man.

Four or five times.

I saw them live.

One of the greatest MCs I have ever seen and will ever seen.

That's cool.

I don't think a lot of people, I don't even think he would think that or anything.

But I'm telling you, that guy, anything you look for out of a great lead singer, anything

you want to put your hat on as far as well.

A showman or a guy that can make everybody in the audience feel like it was just them or

any of these traits or anything.

Phil has it in spades, man.

I've seen very few people on stage that are more just natural.

That's what that guy is born to do.

Just incredible.

He's an all-round entertainer.

And everything you hear on a record or a CD or whatever, it sounds even better live.

Cool.

Him and dime.

Oh my God.

It's not even my style of music.

But they brought it out to me, man.

A lot of fun too.

Very funny.

Very funny guy.

I didn't get to see Ali at his prime, but the greatest boxer I've ever seen and maybe the

great, when I'm talking about athletes and greats and we talk about Michael Phelps.

The greatest at what they did.

Michael Jordan at what he did and stuff.

Mike Tyson, 59 years old today.

Oh.

It's hard press to say that you saw a better boxer in your lifetime if you got to see Mike Tyson fight.

You know, I'm looking back at where we've come with boxing.

That was the last great moment, I would say, in boxing because since then it has really,

it's just not what it was in terms of popularity, in terms of all that kind of stuff.

It's been kind of eclipsed by, you know, mixed martial arts and a few other things, right?

So the sweet science is not what it was, but I do remember when Tyson was coming up and when he was

winning and knocking people out in 17 seconds, it was something and it was news for everybody.

And that was, it looks like it was the last great moment for boxing.

There was a time where a boxing headline could outrank football, baseball, basketball, anything.

The big fights, you know, formal Lee, you know, or any of them.

Name all the ones from the 60s and the 70s.

Yeah.

This is the time of Jordan.

This is the time of Michael Jordan.

Yeah.

Everything in Tyson is even more popular than him.

Yeah.

We, as somebody who grew up in a boxing household with a box or study boxing, all these things, the sweet science.

People look at Tyson and they don't realize how intelligent he was.

One of the smartest fighters in human history.

Tyson was so good.

So there's a couple of great stories of Tyson of people talking trash and thinking they had Tyson's number and everything.

And a couple of these fights, Tyson could have ended him in the second round.

He didn't.

He played with his food.

He knew how to.

He knew how to get drag a match out so that that guy, everybody in the world would see this guy for what he was.

Like Tyson had a respect for boxing.

So there was a guy that fought Ali in his last fight.

And Ali was just getting some money and everybody knew it.

And you should have taken it easy on him.

But this guy saw a chance to make a name for himself and beat up on an old man.

Tyson fought him next.

And watch that fight, everybody.

Tyson could have ended it in the first round.

He didn't.

He made that man.

He punished that man for 10 rounds and just played with the guy.

Mike Tyson had some horrible, horrible things in his past.

Yeah.

That he is, that he is no, it should not be, you know, taken lightly or anything like that.

And he is owned.

Mike Tyson has taken this and has been a, it's now a Broadway star.

Like Broadway.

Yeah.

He's famous on and everything.

There are a few human beings in human history that will have more up and down and a more gray life than Mike Tyson.

More human life, I would say.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And arguably the greatest fight, greatest right hand you'll ever see.

Yeah.

Incredible.

Vincent D'Onafrio was 66 today.

One of my favorite actors.

I love Vincent D'Onafrio.

Kingpin and the MCU, Daredevil recently you've seen him.

Famously private pile in full metal jacket.

Head security and Jurassic World Detective Goran and Law and Order Criminal Intent.

God, I love Vincent D'Onafrio.

The first men in black, the alien.

He was really good in that.

He was funny.

Dad always referenced that whenever I bring him up.

Sneaky good movie.

I think it's The Newton Boys, him Tom Hardy, Shyla Buff based on a true story.

He's so good in that movie.

He's so wonderful in that movie.

David Allen Greer is 69 in living color superstar and had some other great roles as well.

Awesome.

Yes.

And wrapping up, people no longer with us.

Like Lena Horne born in the state of 1917.

And Natalie Legendary actress singer, but civil rights activist.

Stormy weather.

Stormy weather.

Yeah, that's right.

That was sort of signature.

That's a signature song.

Also played Glinda the Good in the Wiz.

In the Wiz.

Yes.

I want to go back and watch that movie.

Oh, it's good show.

It's a good show.

I love the Wiz.

I love that one.

Honestly, as a kid growing up, that was just as popular as a Wizard of Oz where I was from.

That's cool.

The just as popular.

Is that the like horror one though?

No.

No.

No, no.

No, I'm thinking of the return to Oz.

Yeah.

You're thinking of the Wiz.

You got Diane Ross in that Michael Jackson.

You got a bunch of young men.

That one I've never seen.

Oh, you should see that one, Liz.

I'm Melissa.

I think you'd like that one.

It's a good one.

And Florence Ballard born in this day in 1943.

One of the original Supremes.

Yes.

She was.

And that's going to do it for our birthdays and anniversaries.

But we got plenty of time for tomorrow and keep in mind tomorrow.

We're drawing our June winner.

Woo.

Qualifiers should say.

Oh, no, June winner.

June winner.

June winner.

From the qualifiers.

I'm sorry.

That's okay, James.

A few days you say qualifiers.

Yeah.

We're allowed.

We will be back after our news, sports and entertainment break.

Everybody will have some fun.

We're going to talk a little bit about the 4th of July.

And I've got a good one here about patriotic states.

What's the most patriotic state in America?

All right.

America.

We are coming up on the morning show at WFHR.

Welcome back, everybody.

97-5 FM WFHR on your radio dial.

Or your streaming service.

Or your civic media app.

That's right.

You used to just be on your dial.

Yeah.

Just to be able to say that.

Put a ball on there now.

Melissa, Seth and James hanging out with you.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Everybody.

Hope your Monday is going smoothly.

An annual study ranked the most patriotic states in America

by looking at 13 different factors, like voting rates,

how many veterans and active members in the military are there,

jury duty participation, civic education,

and how many people volunteer for things like Army Corps?

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

So not a wide variety of things.

Yeah.

Not a perfect list or anything like that.

And I'm going to be honest, I don't want to start any fights here.

Or anything.

You'll get the fourth of July coming up this week.

Yeah.

I thought this was a fun topic for that and everything.

And I think that every state has plenty of patriots in it

and plenty of people that care.

And I think you're hard pressed to find anybody who isn't proud

and happy to be in this country for various reasons,

or it may be just some.

Yeah.

That's right.

You're right.

This year, the 10 most patriotic states are Virginia, Montana,

Vermont, Colorado, Oregon, Washington,

North Dakota, Maryland, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

Wow.

Interesting spread.

Yes.

I like that.

Not a real pattern.

There is no pattern.

No, there's a lot of like a Northwest states in there.

Yeah.

Oregon, Washington, right?

Yeah.

And we got, you know, Northeastern.

We got Vermont in there, Virginia.

That makes sense.

Kind of a famous state, you know, for the early part

of our country's history, right?

Virginia being right at number one,

did seem a little bit out of the nose.

Yeah, it does a little bit.

So coming in last this year is Arkansas, followed by New York,

Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Indiana, New Jersey,

Rhode Island, and West Virginia.

Okay.

So Virginia is up there.

West Virginia is not.

That's funny.

That's kind of funny.

And could you go, could you see a bigger swing

than Arkansas to New York?

I mean, wow.

Yeah, seriously.

At the one and two spots there, that's pretty,

that's a pretty big swing right there.

It is, yeah.

They did not include Washington, DC in the count.

Right.

So keep that in mind.

And overall, and I really distaste these terms.

Blue states and red states.

I get so sick and tired of these terms and everything.

I'm with you on that.

Guess what, everybody?

If you live in a red state, you got blue people.

You got a lot of blue people.

And you got blue people.

A blue state, you got plenty of red people in there.

It's not making that a category.

It's all it does is divide us.

Yeah.

All it does is divide us.

Yeah.

And I'm done with things that divide us.

Overall, quote unquote, blue states are more patriotic

than red states, at least according to how they voted

last year's presidential election.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah.

And the two states that are dead center in the Patriotism ranks

are South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Really?

You will not find two more different states

than South Carolina and Wisconsin.

Yeah.

I have a good knowledge of both states.

And it's like, no, those are very different, very different.

And I do think that as far as just speaking,

and I've spent a lot of time, I shouldn't say,

I spent a couple months in the Carolinas.

Right.

But I will say that I agree with you, Seth, on that.

But also that it's not surprising to me

to see Wisconsin right in the middle.

Right in the middle.

Yeah.

Right in the middle.

Yeah.

Nobody shocked there that Wisconsin,

which is a very purple state and has been for a long time,

you can go back multiple presidential elections

and see that we are all oftentimes that beacon for that.

And just as far as the exact numbers here,

Wisconsin ranked 26th, right behind North Carolina

and South Carolina.

Okay.

Sandwich by the Carolina.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't think that's too surprising.

No, really.

It's not.

It's not like it.

But it is also something I think that more and more

and please understand, I am not trying to speak

for Wisconsinites here.

But it does seem like more and more Wisconsinites

are taking pride in that.

Regardless of where you vote politically,

you're taking pride in the fact that Wisconsin

is a purple state.

The idea that it's kind of a, it's become,

and maybe for good and bad, like a bellweather

of the country as a whole in a lot of ways.

I don't know.

I'm not saying it should be or anything like that,

but it seems to have become that way.

During several of the last election cycles.

It has.

Yeah.

So as goes Wisconsin goes the rest of the country, right?

Yeah.

Kind of thing.

Well, and you know, there's something to be said too

for being an example of, for good or bad.

Right.

Exactly.

The whole gamut.

Yeah.

Well, because I don't, you know,

I talk to people in a lot of different states

and I don't think that there is, that we're out of the norm

here of being tired of the divisiveness.

It's one of the first things, the last two presidential,

not just presidential elections, last two elections.

It's one of the overall things we've heard is,

people asking if their politicians

no matter who you're voting for,

hey, we're tired of the finger pointing.

Hey, we're tired of the whining.

Like, I heard of not getting anything accomplished.

Right.

Look, there are certain politicians

that the moment they open their mouths,

all I hear is whining.

All I hear is wap, wap, wap, wap, only in a whining sense.

And I'm done.

And we're not alone in that.

Yeah.

And that's just in this state, let alone in others.

Yeah, there's plenty of that to go around.

There is.

I don't think that it's everything in life

whether we're talking about fashion, music, or politics,

they go in ebbs and flows.

And I think we're more and more getting into a time of,

hey, wherever you're voting, that's fine.

Or wherever your beliefs are, that's fine.

Just don't be divisive.

Don't be wine.

Don't try to separate me from my fellow Americans.

All right.

That's the way I'm putting it.

Yeah.

Like that, take.

Don't separate me from my fellow Americans.

That's a really good line.

And I think that's something people should think more about.

And I will say this doesn't come from me.

This comes from being partially raised by military members.

Where it wasn't, you think that in my grandparents,

my grandfather's platoons, that they all agreed on everything,

that they all voted for the same person,

or they all had the same favorite sports team

or anything like that?

No.

No.

But they fought together.

They sure did.

But they trusted each other with their lives.

Exactly.

That's why we should be approaching this.

We can vote for different things.

We can root for different sports teams and all of this.

But we cannot not have each other's back.

That's right.

Right.

And lose.

Go ahead.

We cannot let anybody divide us.

Yeah.

And lose the sight of we the people have the power.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's very important.

We will take a quick time out.

I feel very patriotic now.

Yeah.

Yes.

Who did we move Wisconsin up then in the rankings?

Oh, we did.

We did.

Just from that conversation.

Cool.

Take that North Carolina.

Yeah.

Be back after this.

Welcome back everybody.

Morning show at WFHR.

Got into the James Brown a little bit there.

Hope y'all are having a good one out there.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Melissa Seth and James here with you.

We're going to take you to the top of the hour.

Kick off the 10 o'clock hour with some CBS news.

An update from Melissa.

And of course, the kitchen's open with Beth.

Yeah.

Got a good one for you lined up today.

We're looking forward to diving into that.

That'll be fun.

And then after that, more Beth.

Beth threw a great article to me.

And she thought, hey, this will be really fun for you guys

on the morning show.

I'm like, well, why don't you stick around.

We'll do it right after the kitchen's open.

Yeah.

You're a fun one.

So we will get into 20 old school sayings we still love

and what they actually mean.

Ooh, that's good.

Nice.

Beth knows her audience.

Beth knows her audience.

Yeah.

Beth knows her audience.

Beth knows her audience.

Beth knows her audience.

But right now, how much does the average 4th of July cookout cost?

OK.

The American Farm Bureau Federation released its annual report

on the cost of an average 4th of July cookout.

And it's actually down a tad from last year.

Ooh.

But not much to move the needle that is.

So basically, it's the same basic.

Right.

Right.

The average, quote unquote, average backyard barbecue for 10 people

will cost 70 bucks or technically $70.92.

That is down 30 cents from last year.

And just over $7 per person.

OK.

That's not bad at all, actually.

Seven can handle that.

That surprises me.

Yeah.

It's...

Now, just...

OK, I was surprised by that.

Two Melissa for me.

I was surprised that it was that low.

Were you surprised?

Right.

Oh, yeah.

I'm with you, too, yeah.

Totally.

Because I mean, I don't know if each of us were paying for ourselves

going to a fast food place.

I don't know if it would cost less than that.

Oh, heck no.

I didn't think so.

You can't get a meal at a fast food place for less than $10.

Yeah, very close.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They say inflation and lower availability for some stuff has kept prices stubbornly high.

Again, I'm...

For wearers.

I'm also curious of what they are all including.

Yes.

You know, because...

Let's look at the raw data.

Does it include buying the condiments?

Yeah.

Or that's...

That's fair.

Does it include...

And if so, then yes, the cost is going to be lower with more people.

Right.

Because you're buying in quantity.

That's true.

Very true.

If I want to have a cookout for two people, it's going to cost me more than $7 per person.

That's right.

Getting into the little bit of the article, you can go to fb.org to find that.

They're talking a little bit about...

With specifically talking with farmers and that the...

Their share of food retail dollar is just 15% and that that is down.

That the...

Just as an example, the retail price of two pounds of ground beef has increased 4.4%.

Similar with pork and beans.

Okay.

That's interesting.

But just touching on these because it sounds like they included them in the meal.

And just touching on what Melissa's saying there.

But I think that's a really good point.

If you're just doing burgers and dogs, it might cost even less.

And if you're doing rib eyes, obviously more.

Obviously.

They eat 12 very happy guests though.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever been to a fancy barbecue.

I don't know if I had a rib eye.

Whoa.

You're going to wear a tie to the barbecue.

You're going to...

You've got a ballet.

I feel under-adressed.

I've got to almost want to see like a fancy barbecue.

I want to see somebody try to pull that off.

And then the kids all run out with the water balloons.

Right.

Yeah.

Trying to do anything.

I've never seen somebody try to eat ribs quote unquote properly.

Like delicately.

Yes.

Actually, I have...

There's videos that are these like British young men going around to and trying American food.

Oh my gosh.

And they're at this barbecue place and they have a fork.

And the server comes over.

He's like, okay, hold on.

Sorry.

No.

Just pick it up with your hands.

Because they have like a fork and a knife and they're like, how do we even...

Oh my God.

Let me help you, boy.

They offended the servers.

Oh dear.

No, no.

He was trying to be nice.

I'm sure.

He was nice about it.

I have to watch that.

Oh my gosh.

And then they bit into the ribs and you should have seen their faces.

They're like, oh my God.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is like...

This is amazing.

It's so tender.

Yeah.

I love ribs.

Fantastic.

There are few foods that bring out the carnivore like cavemen and like ribs do.

When they're good, I had some ribs that were like, you know, this is like trying a

not beef jerky off a bone.

I didn't.

I think of my grandfather made some amazing ribs.

I think actually still the best ribs I've ever had are still the type of my grandfather made.

Nice.

And it was a big deal to him that we ate him.

You couldn't have any utensils on the table.

No.

They were banned.

My grandmother though, God, I'd miss her.