Good morning, Wisconsin. Morning, world. It's a new day. Thanks for kicking it off with
us at WFHR.
Your host, James behind the mic. Join by our head of news, our co-host, Melissa K.
Good morning. Good morning, can you hear me? Yeah, now we can. Now we can. And of course, the
best listeners of radio joining us. Thanks for being here, everybody. We appreciate
the company. Let's kick things off the way we like to with our friend, Bernie Merlot,
talking a little more on the nature. How's it going, Brett? Good morning. How are you guys
doing? What's it looking like out there? Well, my weather bingo is almost full. I've
got, I had some sun. I had some rain. I've almost got it. I almost got a full bingo.
The humidity is now moving down. What's going on? You guys are seeing the clouds, the rain,
the fog, and some spots too. And I'm looking at sunshine not too far away from you guys before.
So get down the way. I promise. There we go. Good to hear. Good to hear.
Offend it your way. So you are going to get the moments of some sunshine. It is going to
feel nice today. We are going to hit highs of about 80 degrees. But then we've got the
cold front moving through. So this right now is the warm front. The cold front hits
later this afternoon. Probably around three or four or so. Now that moves through,
it's going to spark up some showers and storms. Those could stay just east and south of
us or they might start right above us, right on that line. If they're south and east
of us, we don't have to worry about them tonight. Of course, if they're over us,
we'll get them a little bit earlier. They'll clear on out of here earlier in the evening.
It should be gone by the time dark settles it. So actually we dry overnight, a high
pressure system settles in and we've got a nice comfortable sunny Wednesday and
Thursday with highs still about 80 degrees. So really a gorgeous week rain holds
on until Friday. We'll talk about that later.
All right. That's a nice tease right there. That's a good preview. That's great.
We appreciate it, Brittany. Thank you so much. You have a great morning.
You too. Thanks, guys. Best in the business right there. Brittany, we're
low joining us every morning right in this time. We appreciate her so much. Good to
have her back. Melissa, I got good things lined up for you. We got the L.
Cafe birthday anniversary club coming up for you. That'll be around the corner.
Also, companies are trying to kill off the idea of work-life balance. Melissa and
I will stop them. I don't know. Well, we'll get into that a little bit later.
We'll talk about it. I hope so. We're going to get into that. We got a fun one
a little bit later. Items left on British buses, different weird items left on
buses. We've talked about this with cabs before. We've done that one. Or the,
you know, at the end of the year, we did the weirdest Austin found. Yeah.
We're asking like airports. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get into all that in the top or airports.
At the top of the 10 o'clock hour, we're going to be joined by Bob Berkhauser from
Assumption High School. Talk a little bit about their golf scramble coming up,
looking forward to that. Join Bob's joined us for years. It'll be great talking to him.
We'll do that and we'll also get into a little bit of entertainment news. Got
something interesting on Dolly Parton audio book. I want to talk about that. And who stars,
who was Brad Pitt star struck by? I want to touch on that one along with some local
events going on, local theater happening and some other fun stuff. And we're going to
also get into a some other topics in the 10 o'clock hour. We've got a bunch of fun
things lined up for you, everybody. I even know all of this. But I wanted to,
did you have some of this? No, I think we have a slight delay.
Is that what's going on between us? All right. I don't know what that is.
But that is driving me insane. We're in two minutes. No, it's probably me.
No, it's okay. No, that's all right. Just wanted to make sure that it wasn't me
in my weird brain. Everybody, it's that kind of thing when you see something
and like everybody else saw that, right? Like everybody or it's usually a sound.
Like you all heard that too, right? And of course there's the one person usually me.
No, I didn't hear anything. What are you talking about?
I heard about this. And I got to know what you think, Melissa.
General Mills has a new breakfast option. Is it good or gross?
You decide out there and let us know what you think. 715-424-2600.
Call up or touch Texas through the Civic Media app.
Cinnamon and toast crunch and Hormel have partnered up with a new bacon flavored cereal.
Ooh. You can get it at Walmart starting today.
It still has the same cinnamon taste. They just added the bacon flavor on top of it.
So it's a savory and sweet. They say it's a limited time only thing.
No, no, no, no.
The two brands partnered last year with cinnamon flavored bacon.
And the fans said they say the fans loved it.
So they decided the bacon flavored cereal was the next logical step.
There's no actual bacon in it, by the way.
Bacon bits would have been fun, but they say it made it with artificial bacon flavor.
A guy who tests it out.
A guy who tests out new foods on TikTok.
Got his hands on it early and described the taste as not terrible.
So I don't know how great of an endorsement that is, but yeah.
So I don't know, Melissa.
I have long said that I'm not great at combining foods.
I love bacon. I love cereal.
I even like cinnamon toast crunch, but this is not made for me.
This is definitely not made for me.
I think that might be a little out of your comfort zone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm not, I also, I don't know if this is, this is made for really anybody, you know, 25 and up in many ways.
Because a lot of the stuff that you're seeing now with new flavors and new brand or new tastes or anything,
it's this savory and sweet thing that they feel the younger generations are really into.
Well, because there is precedent for that.
I mean, like the French fries dipped in Wendy's Frosties.
Good example.
Those are fantastic.
Those are excellent.
The salted caramel is also a fabulous sweet salty.
But you know what this reminds me of James.
Any other people who grow up in the seventh day of in his church are going to,
or maybe in the Jewish religion.
Also, would maybe remember this eating imitation bacon bit BLTs.
Yes.
Because they have this product that is imitation bacon bits.
And it's there like little, little crunchy bits that taste kind of like bacon.
And I mean, you slather the mayo on the toast.
Usually if you can manage it, white toast.
Sprinkle those little crispy salty bits on there.
And some iceberg lettuce and fresh garden tomatoes.
And man, that is a flavor I would go for right now.
Yeah, that's in the style.
There's something about that, especially this time of year, a belt.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
But it's not a real BLT.
No, no.
But.
It's that nostalgia meal.
That's a good one.
Man, that threw me back.
I didn't know where you going.
That threw me back.
That's a good one.
Normal cereal boxes are 12 ounces.
But they're selling six ounce bags of it at Walmart for about five bucks.
That's pretty smart.
Yeah, I don't know if, you know, just maybe not the best idea to go all in on this one.
See how it goes and everything.
But you just said six ounce bags for five dollars?
Yeah.
That's ridiculous.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, six ounces, maybe in cereal form, that's going to be more.
But I mean, six ounces is less than a cup.
I don't think we've ever seen more, and I don't have the numbers to back this up.
I'm going off of the observation and stuff.
But I don't know that we've ever seen a bigger imbalance of price and quantity of anything.
I don't care what we're talking about.
But what do you get a deal on anymore?
What out there is affordable?
And when it comes to, yeah, it's about it.
It's really it.
And wait for them to try to charge that.
Throw that in the beautiful.
Well, I mean, we are paying for it in some ways, you know, our air cleanliness.
It makes it difficult to, for one, do a light morning show content.
You're doing a great job.
It's just, you know, when I think about, it's not so much home living now.
My life now isn't as bad as it was.
I'm making more than I've ever made my life, or more than I haven't a long time,
my life, and a lot of those things.
I'm thinking about what it was like when I was younger and people that are in,
we're in those situations.
And how tough it's got to be, families, how tough it's got to be.
And for every person out there that wants to bite back,
well, they have this funding.
They have this funding.
They got food stamps and blah, blah, blah, whatever.
If you haven't lived that life, you don't know what it's like.
For one, you don't know how little that actually does.
Right.
You don't know how much work it is to even be qualified for it.
And how many of you out there like asking for help?
Please raise your hands.
Everybody, raise your hands right now.
Or please call right up right now.
How many of you like to ask for help?
How many of you feel real proud when you ask for help?
Yeah, when you ask for help.
How good does that feel?
Now try to do that because it's how your family survives.
It's how you can get by.
It's how you feed your kids.
Yeah.
I mean, that's hard.
You can miss me with that.
I want to hear people complain about things they don't know nothing about.
Talk to me when you've walked a day in those shoes.
And then I will listen.
And I would love to have the conversation with you.
You know, it's always helpful to be able to have conversations about these things
and talk about the real facts and the real implications of what that means for families.
What that means for kids.
You know, what it means to not have to go a day not being hungry because you don't have the food.
I will share something this weekend.
I saw something that threw me.
And it takes a lot at this age and growing up in the many different places I did
to see something that really shocks me and really throws me and that I've never seen before.
And on the road, I saw a kind of a maybe 80s, maybe late 70s style van.
On the back, they had an old school air conditioner.
Like when I was big old heavy ones.
Like a window unit?
Yeah, yeah.
Who jumped to the back?
Okay.
I've never seen this before.
It wasn't that I did a double take.
I did a quadruple like 15,000 takes.
Am I really sure I saw that?
I'm watching it.
I'm looking at it.
And because of the way my brain works, I'm immediately thinking, well, do they have it hooked up to the battery?
Does it suck out of there?
Do they have a generator in there to do that or whatever?
And I'm thinking about all those things.
You know, you drive past and I look in a little bit and it's a family.
Like a mom, a wife, a mom, a dad and a kid.
And they're laughing.
They're smiling.
They look happy and all that.
And they just kept going.
And of course, you go about your day and on the road, you're thinking about on the road and all that.
It was until later I started thinking about the idea of them maybe they may be they live in that van.
Maybe they're they own that kind of thing and stuff.
And it just it shows you, you know, it's not that this is new.
We've had people doing this all the time.
But I've got friends in other rural communities that are asking me, you know, what do I do when I see a homeless person?
Because I've dealt with that my whole life.
But now rural communities are starting to see it more.
And we're just we're at the beginning of a lot of this stuff.
So I think that they, well, we don't know always what tomorrow might bring or what, you know, our government might bring or some of those things.
We know how we can we can control how we handle this.
We can control how we the grace we give each other and certainly what we do with our vote.
And what we do with our conversation and how we treat people and and having empathy and kindness and honestly talking, just talking to people who don't have the same kind of life as you.
And the same kind of of even interests and political beliefs and, you know, religious beliefs, all of that.
The more we can come together and have these conversations, the better we're going to make our communities and the better we're going to make our society.
I mean, do you think that they had a generator in their ballistic?
It was hooked up to the generator or I mean, you could hook it up to the battery, I suppose, but that's just going to suck all the battery out of you.
I don't think it was running. No, that was.
So I would, I would theorize that they, when they park, they have to plug in somewhere.
Yeah, it seems to make more sense.
That does seem to make a little more sense because that would really run your battery down unless you have a separate battery.
Yeah, because you could be their homemade RV.
Fascinated by it.
Just fast.
Can't stop thinking about it.
We noticed.
Take a time out.
We'll come back with the Elcafe birthday anniversary club.
It's Melissa and James.
Take it a three-room morning here at 97-5 FM WFHR.
You heard pit bull.
Time to do some celebrating with our great friends over at Elcafe at 221 Market Avenue and beautiful port Edwards.
We encourage you to treat yourself.
Get on over there today.
Their doors are open for the week.
And it's a good time to treat yourself because they have gourmet items on their specialists today.
Robi, James.
Robi nachos.
Yeah.
I don't know how to say this.
Theresa's steak skillet.
That's how I have always said it.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then the Dusty's skillet also.
The Dusty skillet I was looking at.
That sounds really good.
Yeah.
A delicious mix of carnita, chorizo, peppers, onions, served over potatoes, then topped with two eggs and cheese.
You can have it with cakes or toast and adavo for $2.
Encourage you to check that out.
You can see what we're talking about by going to their Facebook page.
Everybody encourage you to go there.
Subscribe to that page.
You can also check out their website, elcafewi.com.
And stop by and talk to them and find out how great it is over there.
The atmosphere, the people, the food, the prices, all great.
Check out Elcafe.
Bye, local, support, local.
But, you know, Robi is my favorite steak.
Is it?
And they have, yes.
And they have two ribeye options for lunch today.
The ribeye nachos.
Look at them.
I never thought about putting ribeye nachos.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
Or the chorizo steak fajitable as well as ribeye in it.
So, yum.
Yeah.
But we know where Melissa's going today.
We know where that is.
Head there.
Meet her there.
Everybody.
And enjoy some Elcafe and by local support, local.
And of course, get us your birthdays and anniversaries so we can celebrate with you.
We love live birthdays and anniversaries.
Mm-hmm.
Get them to us.
Or you can, of course, email us infoetwfeature.com.
You can direct messages on our Facebook pages or you can call out up.
You can.
715-424-2600.
Or by using the Civic Media app, you don't even need to remember a number.
Just remember your station.
And click the call button.
I encourage you to do that, everybody.
We look forward to talking with you.
Reach out any chance you get and join us.
Join the conversation.
It's going to be fun.
We look forward to it.
And, of course, I want you to...
Feel confident when you call in.
Feel good when you call in.
No matter who you are or how you might think you sound or anything like that.
I want you calling in.
We support you.
We appreciate you.
We want you calling in.
I heard from listeners the last couple of weekends that there's been some hesitation with that,
because they're worried they're not going to sound good on the air.
You will.
I told them right away.
You will.
You'll sound great.
We'll make sure.
Well, and see the thing is, is that you and I both know this James,
because we work in radio and audio, and we have to hear our own voices often.
But for people who worry that, well, he's sound weird.
You only sound that way to yourself.
Yep.
To everybody else, you sound exactly the same as you always sound.
It's just because of how our ears work.
With recordings.
Yeah.
It's kind of a really weird twist.
That no human being really likes their own voice.
It's almost like a really bad trick.
James Earl Jones famously didn't get it.
Did not understand what people liked about his voice.
Did not understand it.
Just went with it and rolled with it his whole career.
It's just as an example.
That guy didn't like his old voice.
That guy didn't get it.
You got to wonder how he sounded to himself.
Yes.
Yes.
Well, that would be a really interesting if you could recreate that.
You know, like, okay, this is what you guys think James sounds like.
This is what James sounds like to himself.
Right.
Right.
And just as a little look inside.
I don't like this.
No.
It's what I hear.
It's what I hear.
It's what Melissa hears.
That's what she, we want to hear from you.
Go ahead and give us a call.
Everybody, 715-424-2600.
Call up and join the conversation, Melissa.
I need a one or a two.
Hmm.
Let's go a two today.
All right.
Give us that qualifier.
And first up, we want to wish you a very happy birthday to Larry Grosscoff.
Happy birthday, Larry.
Enjoy the day, Larry.
Hope it's a good one for you.
We wish you a good one, sir.
And our qualifiers today celebrate in their 58th anniversary.
Awesome.
Dave and Nancy Mankousi.
Dave and Nancy, happy anniversary.
Enjoy your 58th year too.
Hope it's a great one.
Enjoy all week long, right into the weekend.
Yeah.
Wishing you guys nothing but a great day and a great week.
Enjoy your anniversary and your qualifiers.
Bragged all your friends and family.
And get over to Elle Cafe and have some pie.
It's the best way to celebrate.
I agree.
They have such good pie.
Taking a look at who you share your anniversary or birthday with for today.
Maya Hawk is 27.
She is Robin on Stranger Things
and the voice of anxiety in Inside Out 2.
Do you know what I just actually listened to the audiobook of the first Stranger Things?
audiobook?
Very different than the show.
I bet.
Also really good.
Yeah, that's something my sister talked a lot about.
And she, I don't know if she was disappointed in the show, but I think she expected something different or?
Well, and I mean, I got the, I got the first book on Libby and that's the only one that's available so far.
So I'm not sure when the books came out, but I might be thinking of something.
I might be thinking of something else.
No, I might be thinking of something else.
Yeah, but I will say she's one of the more, I don't want to say side characters,
but she doesn't have a huge lead role necessarily like the kids on there,
but she's been very good on that show.
I think she does a really, really good job.
Jaden Smith is also 27.
The young accomplished actor and a musician.
Of course, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
David Cornuswett is 32, your new Superman.
He is the star of the new Superman.
It's going to be out next week, I believe, or is it this week?
Actually, I think it's coming out this week.
He was in the miniseries lady in the lake.
Many of us might remember seeing him in Twister's last summer.
So he's got two, you know, presumably two blockbuster summers here.
In Twister's, he was the guy with the glasses and kind of reserved.
He had a hat on most of the scenes.
I can't remember, I only saw it the one time,
but I remember him in it and he was very good.
He's got very chiseled features without glasses.
He's one of those actors that you see him,
I mean, just in the trailer for Superman.
And he has got all the charisma you could ask for.
He has got that look that you're talking about there.
And you're kind of like, wow, where do they find this guy?
And then you're like, oh, yeah, he's been in this and this and this.
But he looks a lot different.
Like you said, preparing for Superman that he did for Twisters.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I think he is a fantastic, a fantastic, you know, choice for this.
I don't know if he's going to be good at it or not.
But I do like the choice by James Gunn.
I think James Gunn is incredibly good at casting.
So I'm really interested to see how audiences are and how this movie does.
The new Superman does.
Especially in like week two, week three.
And then when the Fantastic Four movie comes out,
that will still be in theaters and to see how those two movies do.
It's going to be an interesting month for the movies.
And I do just looking at it briefly,
like the fact that it's only two hours and nine minutes.
Like, I mean, still the hour and a half I think is long enough for a movie,
but at least they're keeping it really close to two.
Yeah.
I think that's something you're going to see a lot more in movies going forward.
Yeah.
And the three hour epics are just, ugh.
I'll say, you'll see that from young-ish to younger directors.
The older directors like your score says you use your copulas
and that you're still going to get three hour movies from them
because they're not going to change.
Well, and sometimes they're worth it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sometimes a movie plot is worthy of three hours,
but also maybe it should have just been broken up into two.
Yeah.
Milo Ventimanjalia is 48.
He was Peter on Heroes,
Rocky Sun and Rocky Bell Boa as a kid.
But most people will remember him as Jack Pearson on this is us.
Good actor.
Good actor.
Good actor.
I never saw it either, but he's a good actor.
I like that.
I heard a lot of buzz about it.
Oh, he was in Gilmore Girls.
Oh, that's right.
Yeah, he was.
Yeah, I never saw Gilmore Girls,
but I've never seen it on his IMDB.
Oh, he played Jess.
Oh, okay.
Now I know who he is.
Yeah, he's good.
He's good.
Beck is 55.
Beck has had hits since high school for us,
and great singer, songwriter.
Very, very versatile.
I would have never guessed how versatile he is,
but he can go.
He can do just about every type of style of music.
He's very good.
Yeah.
Billy Crudup is 57.
Stillwater's lead singer in almost famous.
He is Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen movies.
Both incredible performances.
I'm a really, really big fan of his.
He had a spot on the morning show
with Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston
that Apple Plus TV show that I really liked him on.
But I think maybe his best work is the movie Big Fish
that is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen
and one of my favorite, like,
if you're in that mood, kind of movies.
It's a fun one and his performance
is so good.
He is such a good actor.
He's very solid.
I haven't seen that one.
That's one that's...
It's on my list of one love that I want to see,
but it's just like it's never the right moment.
Yeah, that's it.
No, that's good, though, I think,
because I think that's the movie The Watch.
Well, because it's a tip-button film,
and you've got to be in the right headspace to really take that in.
Agreed.
Agreed.
I think that's a good...
That can make a movie that you would like a bad movie for you,
if you're not in the right mindset.
I agree.
Kevin Bacon is 67.
Really?
And that's young.
That's young.
My dad's older than Kevin Bacon.
And that throws me.
That's just...
He's been a part of our lives since we were kids.
I mean, footloos and so many others,
but I don't think we...
A river wild?
Yeah.
Every time.
With Kevin Bacon,
I don't know that he's gotten...
This is weird to say.
I don't know that he's gotten the respect
that I think...
I don't know that he deserves.
I will say he deserves.
I don't know about, you know,
as much as I study acting
and I'm interested in acting
and know all those things.
I don't pretend like I know anything more than the next person.
To me, I feel like it's a little like he's underrated
just because it feels like any time you bring him up,
he is so associated with footloos or something like that.
When a few good men
or a mystic river
or some of these other performances of his
that I've seen him do,
where I don't even recognize him.
He can go so deep and so dark
and I don't think a lot of people realize that about him.
Well, at the same time,
he's had a lot of fun with his career
and he does the yes.
He has a lot of fun with the six degrees of separation
with him and a lot of that.
I love a lot of the stuff he's doing with his daughter
and social media and everything.
Yeah, he's living a good life.
Some of his more lighthearted films are also good.
I mean, he's just...
I think he's a solid actor.
The great, the wonderful Angelica Houston is 74.
One of the most wonderful and beautiful
and intimidating actors I've ever seen.
Angelica Houston could shut Jack Nicholson up.
Like that's the level of confidence
and strength in that woman.
And I just watched the Ballerina movie,
a side movie with the John Wick movies
and she's in that.
And it's just so wonderful to see her in movies,
in modern movies and everything.
I would say, is a great one for her.
There's no bad movie.
Angelica Houston didn't do bad work.
Because she can play almost like any character.
I mean, she does kind of like the Adam's family
or the witches or ever after.
I think she played the villain in that.
Yeah, that's right.
But yeah, she's good.
She's iconic.
She really is.
I definitely want to see that Ballerina movie.
Is it worth watching?
Yes, yes.
Oh, I love it.
Well, because I got stuck on chapter three of John Wick
and I haven't moved past that yet.
Oh, I don't blame you.
Oh, it's the same way.
It's out of my mere obsession of Keanu Reeves action movies
that I kept watching.
Otherwise, I'm 100%.
But it gets good.
It gets good.
I'll say that.
And I've heard that from other people too.
And so I will get back to it eventually.
I mean, you know how many movies I watched.
Yeah, yeah, you got a list there.
And as far as people no longer with us,
Toby Keith would have been 64 today,
taken way too soon.
As Seth and I were talking about on the sunrise show today,
a guy that, whether you agree with or didn't agree with
or anything like that,
I don't know how you could really dislike him.
You may not always agree with or anything like that.
But a guy I felt like really lived life
was a, you know, had some,
was incredibly vulnerable at the end of his life.
You know, sharing what he was going through
was stomach cancer and a lot of those things.
Hey, we just got done doing a story about him
about his golf charity,
Raising 20 Mill or something like that.
And I think a really good example of human beings in many ways,
where there are things that you could,
I don't know how you couldn't root for songs,
you couldn't get into, even if you weren't a country music fan.
And then there's stuff about him you might not like.
And might not have agreed with that.
We're all human and we all have different paths in life.
Yeah, yeah.
And just somebody that I feel like I enjoy more and more
as time goes on and definitely missed.
And if somebody told me,
Marty Feldman was the greatest character actor of all time,
I would not fight them on it.
Marty would have been celebrating his birthday today,
born in 1934, passed away in 1982.
I go in young Frankenstein.
If you watched any Mel Brooks movie,
you've seen Marty Feldman.
And two Mel Brooks is credit.
And one of my favorite things about Mel Brooks,
casting people like Marty,
that would not get a lot of work otherwise.
But also putting him in roles that weren't just eye-gore,
that weren't just in roles like that.
Oh, he's got a funny face.
So I'm going to put him in this.
Mel didn't just see that.
Mel saw the whole human being and gave Marty chances
that no director in human history ever would have.
It's not only a credit to Mel Brooks,
but a big credit to Marty Feldman
and the actor that he was.
That is going to do it for our birthday and anniversary club,
but we wish great birthdays and anniversaries
to all of you out there.
Enjoy, celebrate, and be listening to Mel for another edition.
We'll get to...
Get over to Elle Cafe and get some food
because, man, their specials look good today if you like ribeye.
Get on over there, everybody.
We'll get to Melissa's news.
Mike Sports, Pete's entertainment,
and plenty more coming up for you.
On the morning show at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
We hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday out there.
Thanks so much for being with us.
Dive into this one, Melissa.
Remember when companies were trying to cater
to the idea of a work-life balance?
Yeah, that didn't last long, did it?
Did they ever?
Yeah, I don't know.
I feel like it was lip service, if anything.
And, you know, this is certainly a context matters
and the case by case.
Yes, just putting that out there.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
there is a surge of job listings that specifically say
they do not offer any balance
and only have a ton of work to be done.
The postings may say they're looking for someone
who can, quote, keep up with an unrelenting pace
or that they want someone who's, quote,
eager to be in the office as much as possible.
They also may stress, quote, long hours,
a competitive business environment
and the importance of hustle.
One healthcare company ad even says, quote,
if you're looking for work-life balance, this isn't it.
So basically, and that's a healthcare company again.
So basically, they're raining in flexible schedules,
remote work, and, quote, perks.
And are openly warning applicants to get ready for the grind.
One expert says they're testing the limits
of what they can ask of their employees
knowing how hungry people are to work.
So the pendulum has swung and companies are in control again.
That's, I'd love to have a conversation with that expert
because I don't know if they're on the ground level.
Because on the ground level, this is one of the problems
with living in bubbles and the problems with people
with money and with power and that they don't talk to real people.
Real people are finding ways, are making things work.
Real people are opening Etsy accounts
and having a part-time job on the side
or a side hustle or something.
Now, I will say, I have no problem
and kind of appreciate a business being very honest
with people. I think that that's one thing.
What it sounds like they're trying to do
is figure out where their power, but this is a negotiation.
You haven't even been hired yet.
You haven't even sent in your application
and they're already trying to negotiate with you.
That's not right.
Sign in blood.
That's horrible business.
That's horrible business.
What is our grandmothers, our grandparents used to always say.
You attract more flies with honey or whatever.
More bees with honey.
I don't know any fly that likes honey.
Oh, yeah, no flies like sweet stuff.
I do there again.
I can remember the phrase.
I'm not saying that you can necessarily,
because we've also seen the other side of this
where business is lying to employees and everything.
Again, guess what?
Balance.
There is a balance to this and a way to not lower people
and not trick people any more than scare them.
How about just being honest?
And like, hey, this is a crazy job.
There's a lot that goes on with this job.
It's very busy.
But what person is sitting out there,
especially what young person is sitting out there
and saying, you know what?
I don't want to life.
I just want to work myself to death for the rest of my life.
That sounds like something I want.
And the negotiating part of this,
where that's expert, and I say this in parentheses,
is talking about, well, businesses are just trying to see
what they can get away with.
They're willing to work with people or whatever.
That's not good business.
That's not good practice.
You are never putting the genie back in the bottle
when it comes to citizens feeling empowered.
People feeling empowered that are working.
They want to work at a job that they feel like they matter.
They're not just a number.
Well, and that's part of the problem here, James.
In particular, what they're trying to do
is to tell you how it is.
But what they forget is that we, the people, have the power.
But they are trying to take that away from us
and say, no, this is how it is.
This is how you need to live your life and work for us
and work to death.
So we make all the money and you are the lackeys.
You're the ones that are going to make our pockets richer.
We're just going to recreate reality the way we want to see it.
We don't care what you think.
Yes, what?
We have the power.
I don't think it's smart to go into any negotiation
or any kind of conversation like this, really.
I have the upper hand or you have the upper hand
or anything like that.
It is a balance.
There's a way to do this and it's not this.
It doesn't feel like a good way.
It feels like you're scaring even somebody that is interested
in working it.
And I'm using this healthcare company
because that's the one that they're using as an example.
Even if your whole life have wanted to work at this company
or work in the healthcare industry,
what better way to scare somebody off than this
and not finding the right people for the right jobs?
Well, and the difficult thing in healthcare
is that we know there's a shortage.
We know that people are working themselves
to the bone in our healthcare industry
because there's not a whole lot of other choices.
But again, the people have the power.
We've seen it with the nurses strikes in Madison
and saying, no, we demand pay.
We demand compensation for what we're putting out
and hours that don't make us exhausted and bad at our jobs.
Yeah, I'm not saying any of this
as far as employees having power
and not changing or anything like that out of opinion.
We've got enough evidence of this.
This has been going on since even before the pandemic
and the pandemic just accelerated it
and got us to where we are now.
I'm done with this job.
Take this job and shove it whole thing.
And I'm going to work because we all have to work
in one way or another.
But I'm going to do a job that I want to do.
I'm going to make money doing this or that.
We've seen this enough.
It's happened so much.
And that's why you're seeing a lot of these industries
freaking out.
And this is going on all around.
All around the world.
You're seeing all of this where you're seeing people
that are used to having power, used to having control
and they're freaking out because they're losing
some of that power.
And what do people who, you know, they get scared?
They act like babies and children.
But it's not like they're, you know, in danger or threatened
or their lifestyle is in any way going to be diminished.
It's just money, hungry.
I don't know.
It's an addiction.
Yeah.
Well, there's an addiction for these people
who have enormous amounts of it.
They could never possibly spend it all.
You know, the way of doing this, like doing this like this,
I don't, I love to see how this goes.
And if this is, if I'm wrong, I'll eat a hat.
I will, I will have no problem doing that.
You get me a nice fedora.
I'll salt it for you.
A one sauce or something.
I don't know what goes with a fedora.
But I'll figure it out because I feel very confident on this one.
That there's, this is not going to end well
for these businesses doing this this way.
Well, I just hope that nobody tries to go for those jobs.
And really do.
And think about the type of people that will Melissa.
Like are those the kind of people you want
necessarily in a healthcare industry?
Somebody, there's one thing about being obsessed with your job
or working too much or anything.
A lot of that usually stems from passion and enjoyment
and, you know, just a care of the work in the product.
Or a drive or wanting to, you know,
get to that next step on the ladder
and progress through your career.
That all goes into, all that energy goes into a specific job usually.
What they're looking for is people who are just obsessed with work.
Not, it doesn't matter necessarily the job.
Just work in general.
And I don't know that you get the right employee for that.
I don't know that you're going to get,
you're going to find what you're looking for there.
Well, and I hope that that mindset in America
because we've definitely had that mindset for more than one generation
in the past here is starting to go away.
And, you know, a quick note to this too,
especially for those in your head that are mad at this
or get frustrated with the idea,
well, what are they, I did this, I did that.
That's you.
We're talking about, you can't look at this through your lens
and your eyes.
You have to try to look at this from the world perspective
from other people's perspectives.
And not everybody is like you for everybody that is crazy
and saying about work like I am or something like that.
There are plenty of people out there that that's not their whole life.
They don't want it to be their whole life.
And they, you know, that's okay too.
There's no wrong answer necessarily about this other than what's,
you know, what we've been told through.
Studies and surveys countless times for over three decades now
that the work life balance is vital to good work and productive work.
If you care about the job, if you want to make a good, you know,
you want your company to finish into black or all these things.
That work life balance is how you get there.
Like we've got so much overwhelming evidence to tell us this,
whether it's science or it's surveys or whatever.
Well, and also, you know, times have changed.
We can't, you can't support a family on one income anymore.
You're used to be able to and buy a house and a car.
That's not possible now.
Yeah, I'd like to message any of these companies that are kind of,
you know, doing this on the job sites and everything.
Are you going to be just as aggressive about my pay?
Right.
Because you want me, look, you're going to give me a good paycheck.
Go ahead and ask Sage what you get for the money you pay for somebody like me.
I'll work my tail off.
I'm going to make sure that I earn every penny of that.
I think a good majority of people out there are like that.
So you really want this.
Are you going to pay for it?
Yeah.
Because that's the other part of this.
A lot of these companies, they want that out of you.
They want that loyalty, that unblinking loyalty,
but they ain't willing to pay for it.
That's the problem.
Yeah.
Where's that balance?
Show me that.
Because that's a whole different ball game.
Well, and, you know, here's an interesting statistic for you, James.
And I saw this somewhere else and I just googled it quick.
But to live comfortably in Wisconsin,
a single adult needs an annual salary of $87,194.
What single person do you know makes $87,000, James?
I don't.
Although, if I do, I have a script I'd like to have them produce.
For a person family, $225,000.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know who can make it.
And we're one of the more affordable states to live in.
That's just it.
Yeah.
That's, that's crazy to think about it that way too.
Yeah.
Melissa and I are going to take a quick time out when we come back.
Items left on British buses.
What kind of weird, funny items there are.
And have you ever gotten into a cab or a bus and come across a weird item?
We want to hear from you.
We want to hear about it.
Yes.
We're on the morning show at WFHR.
Good morning, everybody.
Welcome back to the show.
Morning show at WFHR.
Melissa and James hanging out with you.
Hope you're having a fantastic Tuesday out there.
Bob Berkhauser from Assumption High School is going to join us at the top of the 10 o'clock hour.
Talk about their golf scramble coming up and some other fun stuff.
Right now, items left on British buses that were found.
British transport company Megabus is sharing some of the most unusual pieces of lost property
left on its buses.
That includes hay bales, a frozen turkey, a cooking walk, and false teeth.
The bus operator said that items found left behind on buses in May included a winning the
poo stuff toy, a jar of honey, a guitar, a radio head vinyl record, insulin, an electric razor,
a Neil Diamond CD, and a single shoe and a collection of historic coins and stamps.
Wow.
Does it really sound like things that you don't want to forget?
Yes.
Somebody's missing every one of those.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The company said some of the more unusual items left on buses in years past include three
bales of hay, family tree documents, a frozen turkey, false teeth.
How do you leave three bales of hay?
How do you forget it?
As much as the false teeth one throws me a little bit because it just seems like something
you wouldn't forget, or the documents or some of these things, I can't get past the bales of hay.
Because they're not light.
The bales of hay aren't light and somebody took the effort to put them on the bus.
Where did I put those bales of hay?
I just had them when I got out of the bus.
Did I leave them on the bus?
I can't believe I did that again.
Megabus said about 95% of lost and found items are eventually returned to their owners
and those that go unclaimed after 28 days are usually donated to charity.
Oxfam, could you use three bales of hay?
We went to the local boys' girls' club and gave them these false teeth.
Have you ever gotten into a cab or anything and had something like this?
Because I know I think I've brought this up before the last time we talked about something similar to this.
I've taken so many cabs in my life.
There's been a lot of the times where there's been weird items.
But one of the things that I find weird is usually when a caby picks you up and there's already somebody in the cab.
And that balance, there we go, a balance again.
Do I talk to this person? Do I make eye contact or any of that?
It's one of those things where it's taken or miss.
Usually I tend to just kind of keep to myself.
But I actually recommend people make eye contact.
Not only because I think it's...
Give a greeting.
Yeah, it's healthy.
Also, I got into a cab once and there was a mannequin in it.
I did not make eye contact. I did not look.
I did not know it was a mannequin until it was pretty much getting dropped off.
It was a real person the whole time.
It's in Chicago. It's downtown and he stops suddenly.
I was not in the seatbelt.
So I moved a little, whereas the mannequin went flying up against his window.
It wasn't until that I realized, oh my god, that's a mannequin.
And then by that point, and I'm having a chance to have this sit in
and everything, we're already at my stop at Second City and stuff.
So I'm running late for class and I got to pay for my fare.
But the whole time I'm wondering, did he put that back there?
Was that his mannequin? Did somebody forget it?
I have no idea.
So many questions. And you could have asked him because it wouldn't have been awkward.
No, a mannequin.
In my luck, of course, it was one of the few cabbies I've ever had that wasn't talkative.
So I spent the rest of my life wondering what that story is.
Have you ever had anything like that?
No, because I haven't really ridden in a whole lot of cash.
Just because I've never lived in a big city.
Most of my cab rides were like ride share coming home after a night at the bar.
You get catching a ride.
Not a lot of stories.
Well, I guess it's a little different than if they found an old school air conditioner
in the backseat or something like that.
Might be that.
I'm trying to think of what maybe the weirdest item would be to find back there.
And I feel like we might have already hit on it.
The bales of hey, that really has thrown me.
I mean, you wouldn't find that in the cab because a bus wouldn't be interested in that big.
But yeah, I don't know.
Something food-wide, food or a lot of life, I say would be.
As far as buses go, I would easily say the weirdest thing that I've ever come across is the people.
That by far and away is the people on buses.
And that goes for the L train or anything like that.
And I actually say that with a lot of love.
I love that about people and how weird a different week can be.
I just wish we had more public transportation.
Agreed. Agreed.
We'll take a time out.
We'll come back after the top of the hour break on Morning Show at WFHR.
