Throwing Sticks At Sticks: The US Kubb Championship (Hour 2)

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Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alba, along with Pat Critello.

A morning to Pat Critello.

We are live here in Chippewa Fall in northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds.

Oh, we're going to tell her, tell them why we're playing the Carol Burnett music.

It's because of, of, of.

We've got our first tragedy.

We've had our first accident and I caused it.

I tipped over and spilled my lemonade and Carol Burnett showed up with her mop bucket.

That's right.

Better known as

my sister Heather Galoy.

Heather, how are you?

Well, it's a tough job.

Oh, hang on.

Hang on.

Hang on.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Maybe maybe the microphone got unplugged.

This is terrible.

All right, let's try this again.

Literally literally the microphone is not working.

Well, it's uh, but you you are here with a mop and a ring mop a roto mop It's

a roto mop It

looks like it should

be there's a

spinny thing in there, but there's nothing to spin it but more importantly

She's doing it and not making me do it because we have a radio show to do.

That's right.

We have a radio show to

do.

We've just turned it into a canvas.

Thank you, Heather.

We appreciate

it.

I should have taken a tutorial before I picked this up and pretended I knew how to use it.

It's like a spin mop.

There's got to be a trick to it.

We'll figure it out.

You know

what, more, I'll bet somebody's selling them around here sometimes.

I bet, yes.

Gadget, you didn't know you needed it.

This is the exact spot you want your mop to go out, because you could buy one here than other Wisconsin state.

That reminds me, that's one of our brooms.

It's not really a broom,

it's like

a squeegee, and it's one of those fancy little rubber brooms, and we got that here.

Didn't know we needed it until then.

Could use that right about now, too.

All right, well, not only did you help us set up the tent, which we greatly appreciate you and your husband, my brother-in-law, Mike.

You helped us bring in the stuff, but now here you're even

clean up Kraitlo's message.

So thank you.

Well, mostly because we've been watching people, you know, come in and out and the last thing we want to see is one of them just go right on their keyster.

Right.

Don't slip on Kraitlo's message.

You'll end up on your keyster.

That's no good at all.

Well, thank you, Heather.

We appreciate you.

We'll check back.

Don't mind me in the background.

No, just ignore

the person behind the microphone.

Well, we'll

check back in later.

So thank you very much.

We appreciate that.

Well, Patrick, we're off to a great start.

It's part of the fun of the Wisconsin State Fair.

You never know what's going to happen next.

Yeah.

Look, this is far from the first food accident that's ever happened at the fair.

Right.

Usually they happen down by the rides if you know what I mean.

But yes, it's rare that you get out of here and your hands aren't a little sticky and, you know, you

It's a sign of a good time.

You've had some good food and drink.

What did you get any?

Well, I've got a pretzel here.

It's got a little coal, but you got a pretzel.

It's a first stop.

Look

how

big that is.

It's got a little cheese, a little frosting.

I was nibbling on it earlier.

And like you, I have some lemonade here.

Yeah, but you put yours a safe distance away.

You know, so I kept the cup because it's a $5 refill.

Yes, that's a

great deal.

Which is good because I just spilled $10 worth of lemonade.

I'm really getting a cup of lemonade for $15.

Don't let that keep you from coming to the fair, folks.

No, it's about the

experience.

You know, don't put a price on an experience.

But actually, in all seriousness, it's a pretty, if you want to bring the kids, the entry is, you know what, 10 bucks, 10, 15 bucks, it's not like a huge deal.

No,

not at all.

It's very reasonable.

And again, you can do the arm band thing for the rides.

You know what, there's certain specials on certain days.

So, you know, it's

It's a full family experience.

Did you did you do any rides last year?

Are you going to do any rides while you're here?

We didn't do rides.

The only thing we did other than the show and eat was because it was

the

water gun.

Trigby has challenged you and I to the water gun challenge.

And and he was complaining that his gun was broken

or something.

Oh, yes.

My gun is broken.

My aim is off.

No.

Did you win or did I forget?

One of us won.

It was Pat.

I forget.

Oh, it's Pat.

Very

good.

I just re listened to that.

There he goes.

Aaron Zommer's historian of the time.

I had

just re-listened to that show to use part of it for a holiday show that we did.

And yeah, Trigby was complaining.

He's like, my gun didn't even work.

And Pat creamed us over there.

I believe that's an accurate retelling of the story.

Yeah, absolutely.

So maybe I'll do a

ride.

Did you have a favorite ride at the Ferris

Wheel?

My favorite ride here is to hold my grandkids hands while they walk along and tell me what ride they want to ride on next.

I do like the Ferris Wheel.

They have a big Ferris Wheel here.

We're up on a bluff here.

Down below the bluff is the Lion and Cougar Brewery, and then all of downtown Chippewa Falls.

And so from up on this bluff, if you're at the top of the Ferris Wheel, you get just a magnificent view of Lake Wasow.

and everything else all around town.

Well, that's that's fantastic.

It's all part of it.

So get up here to the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

If you can this weekend, you will not be disappointed.

Coming up at the bottom of this hour, we're going to talk to you.

Eric Anderson, who is the director of the US Coupe Championship and editor of Coupe Nation magazine.

Again, we're up here last year with a friend, Jane McNair, and I know she had some folks along from Coupe.

We did as well.

But Pat, I know just tell us that the quick overview for people.

like what the hell it looks like cub k u bb is pronounced kube you know what what is this now why is it important to the area

you're asking me

well i mean you you better i told you what i knew about it well it's basically it was invented uh well it has influences from scandinavia but it was really this tournament was originated here in the chipwall valley specifically eau Claire

It's a big deal.

I'm afraid that if I say and I get it wrong, your next guest will throw you a glass of lemonade onto me.

So I don't want to.

All

right, we'll let them tell it.

Yes.

But it's a big, not just a local thing, but regionally and internationally.

They have people come in all over the world this weekend.

I'd put it on par with like, you know, ultimate Frisbee, you know, these kinds of obscure sports.

And I mean that in a good way.

You know, there are niche sports that some people like to play and others have not even heard of.

Right.

And this is most.

definitely one of them and I'm glad that they have this big tournament here because there will be folks who wander by and see it and only grow the game.

I've got a neighbor who would like to play it more often.

He keeps asking me and Sherry if we want to play it.

I played it with Heather

Michaels.

It's a lot of fun.

I played it at Boy Scout Camp years ago.

And the camp counselors would always get the kids hooked, because they'd be like, let's go play coob.

And they're like, what's coob?

And they're like, you throw sticks at sticks.

And the kids are like, what?

What could that mean?

And it just intrigued.

It hooks you.

And then my dad and I made a coob set for the troop after that.

Wow, that's super cool.

I've had no course honors on one of our resident eagle scouts.

All right, it's 13 minutes past the hour of three o'clock here with the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Time once again to play what's worse.

Let's go.

Time once again to play once worse.

No prize money involved.

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All right, Patrick, the category today, and this is appropriate, timely, timely indeed, because when you're at the fair, sometimes people are yelling on rides, they're terrified.

You have carnival barkers who might be yelling, but in today's world,

On the old phone.

This is this is a great one.

I like this what's worse all caps when people type something all caps or Actual yelling

What's worse?

All caps are actually

yelling 855-752-4842-855-752-4842.

Give us the calls.

Let me know when you're on the air.

We'll put you on.

Or you can text us on the Civic Media app.

Simply go to your app store, Apple or Android.

On the search bar, type in Civic CIVIC Media.

It'll come up, takes less than a minute.

It is free.

It's what Gail King at CBS calls.

a deal.

The Civic Media app and you're going to want it tomorrow because joining they can join Pat tomorrow morning from six until nine and then Jane McNair show, our show and Maggie Dawn show and you can pick up yourself four tickets to a future Milwaukee Brewer game on Free Ticket Friday.

You have to use the app.

How about

that?

And you have to be able to go to that particular game.

It's game specific, although all of the games would work right now.

Pickets

to any brewer game.

They're hot.

That entire pitching court that I spent the first two months of the season going, what is the matter with our pitchers?

Oh, it's our doom.

Our pitchers are doomed.

Pitchers have caught on, man.

A couple have come back from injuries.

And then there's this Jacob Mizekarovsky.

Where'd he come from?

It's been amazing.

It's

they're

off today after after the I think Mike Clemens our great sports reporter first time the Brewers have ever swept the Dodgers at the walkie

I believe ever done that in franchise history and then they pick it up tomorrow against the lowly Washington Nationals who come to town for three

and it's the all-star break looking forward to that you can hear those games on select stations across civic media including

WBZH, the buzz of the north, up here not too far from us, just north of us here in Hayward, also WISS in Oshkosh, WRCE in Richland Center, and down there Racine Kenosha as well, so part of the lineup across the state, across civic media for the Brewers, ready to network.

All right, Patrick, what's worse?

All caps are actual yelling, 855-752-4842, 855-752-4842.

My first question is, you're a couple years older than me, but we're,

Not that far apart.

Do you ever use all caps in like a letter or a text or an email to get your point across that you're upset?

No.

Have I put one word in all caps to emphasize the word?

Yes.

That predates, you know, the internet form of yelling.

But typing something in all caps, I guess I knew from the get-go.

I mean, you don't do that unless, like, you know, your name is Karen or,

you know,

somebody like

that

who would yell in IRL, as the kids say, in real life.

Well, you look at it every so often.

That is not 90 years old.

You know, obviously what's worse is the yelling, the vocal, the vocal yelling, because a lot of times the yelling in all caps sometimes can be funny.

Right.

It's amazing, especially in memes and things where you're mocking somebody who would be yelling out loud with their voice.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

What's worse?

All caps, in other words, typing or texting in all caps or...

actual yelling.

eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two.

I'd like

to combine the two.

I'd like to take like the time when Derek Van Orden yelled at those pages in the Senate under the Capitol Dome and just put him in like a cartoon bubble next to his head in all caps.

That's good.

I like that.

We're right across from the Chippewa County Republican Party booth.

Van Orden made, you could trap a Van Orden by putting up a keg and he just shows up and then you're off to the races.

listening to beautiful Spooner on WBZH says, oh, what's the weight of the largest pig this year?

I'm not sure that's a good question.

Well, it's a good question.

And kids, the four-inch kids, they put a lot of work into these to raise a good pig or a steer or whatever.

And then they auction them off, and the kid gets part of the money.

And it's a great fundraiser.

So participate in those.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

All caps are yelling.

What's worse?

Patrick,

did something prompt us?

Did somebody yell at you in all caps in

one of

the comment sections?

The image here.

Uh, the graphic we have, for actually yelling, it just shows a person yelling, but for all caps, it's an email addressed to Todd Albaugh that says in all caps, Chris Paul must go.

I cannot work with Chris Paul's one second longer.

It's him or me.

I mean it.

Terry.

And I have no idea who Terry

is.

It signed Terry?

Terry T-E-R-R-Y.

I have no idea who that is.

Chris Paul is the guy who comes up with what's worse.

He writes the what's worse, yeah.

OK,

of course,

it would be something mailed to you.

I should know.

Yeah, exactly.

I don't know what you have before break.

You want to give your answer?

We'll come back to the other side or

yelling, yelling, actual yelling is much worse.

Like I said, the all caps can at least you can mock it and there ain't no better thing than mockery when it comes to somebody yelling at

you.

We'll take your phone calls in Texas.

Well, 855-752-4842.

What's worse, all caps are yelling back with Pat after this.

The northern Wisconsin State Fair of the Civic Media Radio Network.

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started.

It was so CSI Miami.

It was David Caruso.

Yeah, David Caruso.

And nearly every show would start.

They'd go to a murder scene, and it was beautifully shot.

One of my favorite shows of all time.

And somewhere in Miami.

And there'd be somebody who had been killed, obviously, and he'd look at it, and he had some pithy little thing like that that was written and delivered better than I did.

The last word was usually, it was murder.

And he had these...

cool sunglasses he'd put on and just as he put them on and go, wow.

And that's how the show would start

every time.

Let's talk to Todd's mom.

Todd's mom, how's he doing?

How's your boy so far?

Oh, another thumbs up.

Thumbs up.

Although I actually played that because it starts with a yell.

I know.

I know.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing us back to where this should have been the whole

time.

What's worse?

Thank you.

What's worse?

Acts are all caps, all typing, texting or writing a letter in all caps or

actual yelling 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 8 5 5 7 5 2 4 8 4 2 or you could text us on the civic media app or on the socials on YouTube.

Tony is watching and he puts in all caps yelling.

See what you did there, buddy.

Well done.

Well

done.

Well done.

I appreciate that, Tony.

Who else we got here on the old text line?

We have Sean, listing in the old hometown of Richland Center, VWRCE, says, when I see all caps, I can, all I can think of is Trump and truth social or whatever that nonsense is, all caps is worse.

That's true.

There is, yes, yes, that's a very, very fair point.

When you look at any Donald Trump post.

where it's in all caps.

And I come back to the memes, though.

Whenever he does anything in all caps, invariably, somebody will grab that photo.

Remember the kid with the lawnmower?

He wanted to mow the White House grass for Donald Trump.

And there's Trump trying to yell at the kid over the sound of the lawnmower.

And you can put anything to that photo in all caps.

And it's funny.

It is.

It is really funny.

Our own Jenna, one of our great marketing people here at Civic Media List, and we appreciate that, Jenna.

on WMDX.

And she says, hi, Todd.

This is Jenna.

Hope to set up well.

Yes, Jenna.

We got the Ted Tumper all set for us and our great partners at WCF W105.7 on the music side as well.

And she says, all caps, texts were funny until this dude did it.

And then she included that text from Donald Trump that is in all caps.

So, yeah, well done.

Yeah, everything Trump touches dies.

Yeah, absolutely.

8-5-5-7-5-2.

Is there like a big speaker outside pattern in some of the UTV?

I hear a bunch of like a deep bass going on.

I wondered if it was a thunderstorm or is the earth opening up?

We'll get back to you on that one.

We'll find out.

8-5-5-7-5-2, 4-8-4-2.

Oh, you know what it is.

Sound check for hairball.

You're absolutely right.

which let me say this about the musical acts and I'm going to date myself here for a second.

Now, Johnny Rivers, he had his hits back in the early 60s, right?

He played here, I mean, it's over 10 years ago now, but you know how some singers like, you ought to hang it up, you know?

He sounded...

just, I mean, and it wasn't a, you know, any kind of a voice track you would not carry open.

He was live.

And he was, I was really impressed by that.

And I saw a bunch of that last weekend at Summerfest.

There was Gary Lewis from Playboys singing This Diamond Ring.

How'd it sound?

Not so good.

You know, fans were there and they loved him.

Same goes for.

Oh gosh, John Wait, missing you and he was from the babies and all that.

And again, he's in his 70s.

But Chicago, those guys, 77, 78, 79 years old, but of course they're blowing horns.

But still the armature to have that at that age.

Yes, so anyway, all it is to say to come back to, we had a country act last night, Montgomery Gentry, got a hairball tonight, Flo Rida.

It's going to be great and foreigner and I see the folks at the music station 105 7 CFW are giving away tickets to for

four years to

stop by

sign up for tickets and also a chance to go to the beautiful Chula Vista resort in Wisconsin Delos or give her that away if you want to sign up here at the booth as well.

Tony apartment.

Pardon me.

Troy, our friend Troy from Mount Horam blessing that to be MDX on the line.

Troy, thanks for calling in all caps or actual yelling once we're.

worse.

Actually yelling is worse because I'm at an age where all caps means I can just see it better.

Well said.

Think of it that way.

Yes.

Yeah.

I like that Troy.

Thanks for listening to my friend.

Have a great day down there.

Beautiful.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

We saw we saw a foreigner and lover boy last summer.

Mike Reno still pours himself into those leather pads.

I appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

At some point people should just not wear leather pants probably.

Our friend Troy Everson, listening down there in Burlington via YouTube, says, listening from Burlington, I don't know about the caps versus yelling, but a thumbs up from Linda has to be counted as a win.

How about, say, Troy?

Absolutely.

But again,

I had to coax it out of her.

Right, you had to coax

it out.

She wasn't going to give it to you, unsolicited.

Troy, longtime friend.

He's the main science teacher.

at Burlington Public Schools now, but we went to school at Platfield together, and we did this little TV show, Sunday Night at Platfield for years, and

it's like, oh yeah.

He was like, can I see some of it?

It's

on three-quarter tape at mom's basement, that's where

it is.

But maybe there were three-quarter inch tape players.

Sadly, there's not, which is why nobody can see anything from my TV career

either.

I

was going to ask if you had one somewhere.

All right, well, come on back up.

We'll deal with Zommeritz and I on the other side are what's worse answers and also come back as well.

And we will talk.

Coob with Eric Anderson.

You're listening to the title ball show along with packed quite low from northern Wisconsin State Fair on the civic media.

Ready to.

Live from Chippewa Falls at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Performing live tonight, ACDC.

No, no, no.

No, no.

I guess that's not true as it turns out.

Welcome back, Todd Albaugh, along with my colleague and co-host for today and tomorrow, Pat Krightlow.

A morning to Pat Krightlow.

It's not ACDC tonight, Pat.

It's not.

It's hairball.

Oh, it's hairball.

Hairball.

Very good.

That's the actual show tonight.

We are here live at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

to have you along so much great fun here at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair today tomorrow and then through the weekend we're going to be back here Pat and I tomorrow as well but there is another major event going on in the Greater Chippewa Valley this time in Eau Claire and joining us just down the road taking time out of a very

busy day is Eric Anderson, the director of the U.S.

Coupe Championship and editor of Coupe Nation Magazine joining us via StreamYard.

Eric Anderson, Eric, thank you so much for coming on and

making time for us.

Thanks a lot, and I love my walk-up song.

You guys asked me what song I wanted, and you guys delivered.

That was awesome.

That was that.

That's all Aaron Thomas,

our great producer back in Madison.

And one of our other friends that comes on the pat by a lot, Trig Vilsen, who grew up in River Falls, he's a big metal guy as well.

So he would have

really

appreciated that.

I love it.

You absolutely would.

So tell us a little bit, Eric, a little bit about yourself before we get into Kube.

Yeah, so my name is Eric Anderson, live here in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

My wife and I moved here in 2007, started the championship in 2007.

When we moved here, board and race in Rockford, Illinois, moved around a little bit and moved to Eau Claire, like I said, in 2007, side unseen.

and have been loving it ever since we moved here.

Wow, that's incredible.

I mean, I think that as Pat, as I've gotten to know him more since we started working together almost three years ago, we came up here to the Northern Wisconsin State Fair the first time.

And so many people, Pat, you hear stories like this, as you and your wife, this part of the state, this part of the country draws people here.

Yeah, I mean, I talk about Chippewa Falls a lot living here, but the community of Eau Claire consistently ranked on best places to live, places that young people want to move to, kinds of things that, again,

for somebody my age, really refreshing because you remember the Rust Belt years, and not every community has been able to reimagine itself the way that Eau Claire has, and that includes activities like these.

Yeah, absolutely.

So, Erica, you relocate here.

How did you first, well, let's start at the beginning.

For those, Jane McNair, our other colleague of McNair on air every morning from 9 to 11, we did her.

She did her show up here with us last year and we talked to a little Coug.

But for those that might not have heard that show, it might be new.

They're like, what the heck is Coug?

Tell the unknown, the unheard, what Coug is and how it's played.

Yeah, it's the greatest game in the world, right?

So it's an old Nordic game.

So.

It was founded on the island of Gotland.

It's a Swedish island out in the Baltic Sea.

So the first reference of the game is probably a little over 100 years ago in this Gotland sport book.

So there's the mention of that game there.

Real specific to that area and it started just spreading to the Swedish mainland, started spreading to Europe.

And it's a game with wooden blocks.

There's five blocks on each side of a field.

The field is for tournaments that's eight meters long.

So there's the five blocks, those are the five cubes.

There's two teams on each side.

And then you throw these wooden batons or wooden sticks, and you throw them, and you have to try and knock over the cubes on your opponent's side.

Whatever cubes you knock over, that team then has to throw them into your half of the field.

You put them up vertical.

Now that team has to put, knock over those field coobs down before they can knock over the baseline coobs.

So there's different strategy in regards to how you throw the coobs, how you throw the batons, where you throw the coobs.

Here at the U.S.

Championship, there's a minimum of three people on a team.

So there's strategy involved in regards to who throws first, the first two, the second, you know, the batons three and four, then five and six.

And then there's the king, he's in the middle.

He's kind of like the eight ball.

So if you knock him over during the game, you lose.

But once you've knocked over all the cubes on your opponent's side, then you can knock the king over and then that's how a team wins.

That's a great explanation, of course.

A guy that doesn't know it any better than you do, of course.

And for me, some people are like, what?

But I think...

This is an oversimplification, Eric.

It's almost like a wood version of horseshoes a little bit and bowling.

I think it's what Pat said earlier.

And

my sister and brother-in-law who lives just down the street from you, they're the ones that taught me, and we've played at camping and other places.

It's a heck of a lot of fun.

Oh, it's a blast.

I mean, it's so much fun.

And one thing that I love about it is that there's like a easy entry into it in regards to skill level.

You don't have to be like a triathlete to do really good or playing basketball or whatever.

It's a fun game.

You play outside.

You can play in the grass.

You can play in the sand.

Obviously, the championship most tournaments are in the grass.

But the saying says it takes about 10 minutes to learn.

And then I got a lifetime to enjoy.

So in the beginning, like when we do, we do tons of outreach here in the Chippa Valley.

So just tons and tons of outreach.

And when we go and we introduce people again, you can talk to first fibers, you know, five or six minutes of it.

People are just a little bit like a little cloudy and everything.

But once they start playing and then they get a hang of it after they've been playing about 10, 15 minutes, it just, it just becomes like clockwork.

And it's just a lot of fun.

It's, you know, there's a lot of teams that are.

intergenerational.

So you got grandpa, you know, kid, you know, grand kid or like me, like my team that I play with here in Eau Claire, I play with both my daughters and one of our best friends.

So it's just, it's a great game that you can play with all, with all different ages of people.

I didn't realize you could play it outdoor.

I just play it as an app

on my

smartphone.

No, that's what's so nice about this is you actually

have to play it.

You can't just play it on a screen.

This is another one of those touch grass moments that we've talked about.

No, it really is.

And

I think that's what makes it so fun.

Like you say, Eric, it doesn't cost a whole heck of a lot to start playing.

And we play it with my mom.

She's sitting right over here, by the way.

A woman of a certain age will see her citizen.

She could play it, but

also my nieces and everybody.

In between for sure for sure 100% and it's and and the one thing that I found and like when I see people playing it's like let's just say people that are a little bit older like you know my mom and my stepdad you know they're in their 80 you know pushing 80 or 80 and it's something that they can do with their kids and grandkids and it's just it's just like that's what we want to do right like we want to play games and do things with with all generations and that's that that's one thing that I really love about the game

We're talking with Eric Anderson, the director of the U.S.

Coupe Championship and editor of Coupe Nation Magazine.

All right, Eric, so tell us what this big event is and why people should get up here to Eau Claire and check it out this weekend.

Yeah, come and check it out.

If it's not this year, please check it out next year.

It's our 18th U.S.

Championship, so we started it in 2007.

15 teams, about 32, 33 players.

It was the first tournament ever in the US, and that was here in Eau Claire.

This year, last year, we set a world record for 144 three-person teams.

So you have to have at least three people on a team.

Some people have five, six, seven on a team, but we have a minimum of three.

So last year, we set a world record for 144 teams.

This year, we filled up in 38 hours.

So within 38 hours, we filled up.

We have players coming from

at least 25 different states.

We have a

player coming back from Belgium.

He came last year from Belgium and loved it so much.

He just won the singles competition in Europe.

So he's like, as of last weekend, he's the best singles player in Europe.

He came back the second time this year because he wanted to participate again.

We're a non-profit, but our event also is a fundraiser for girls on the run.

So that's a lot of you listeners might be familiar with girls on the run.

So this is their second largest fundraiser for the girls on the run of the Chippewa Valley.

They have a concession stand and so what we call Swedish brats.

What's a Swedish broad?

So it's wrapped in left saw and I know lefts is Norwegian, but but game is from from Sweden, right?

But wrapped in left side and abroad.

All right, what?

But then wait, wait, then then you put some put some mustard in there.

So you put some like spicy broad mustard in there.

And then what you do is you sprinkle fresh dill in there.

And then you know, like those fried onions, you put on a casserole or hot dish or something.

What is going on here?

You put that in there too, and they sell like 500.

They sell out.

They sell like 500 plus a year.

They're so good.

They're so good.

I feel like

we've

crossed some

culinary streams.

I know.

I'm about to cancel my chicken plans.

They're

so good.

Zommer says

he's coming up.

I've never heard of

this number one.

And number two, I'm extremely intrigued.

I've got to have one.

Yeah, you've got to

have

one.

But one reason why people should come is they've been calm.

And they're going to see total, like if you've never played before, you're going to see recreational teams out there playing.

And you're going to be like, that's me, right?

There's 144 teams.

maybe let's say let's just say half of them are there just to have a good time to you know just to be outside like Pat said just just be outside touch the grass you know be together with people uh like maybe the other half or just over half it's it's it's it's a sport right and these are some of the best players in the world that are playing there so

what is it that would be uh what's the thing about it that somebody

gets really good at but only after a lot of practice I mean what kind of a is it aiming necessarily to to knock over the the king I mean what's

what's

the equivalent of you know like being able to put that spin on a bowling ball for

yeah yeah I don't know if everybody's asked me that question before that's a great question I would say two things first of all when you throw the cubes back the goal is to get them really really close together because you want to knock those over you want to knock over as many as you can with like one or two of your batons

because you want to attack the ones in the back line.

So getting good at that, at that tossing those cubes to your opponent's side.

The top players, like if you come out on Sunday, so on Sunday around 1130 is going to be like the semifinals as well, like two, 300 people watching that.

The people there, they're going to throw 10 cubes and you guys have played, they're going to throw 10 cubes and they're all going to be in this size.

They're all going to end up in an area this big.

And so that's that's one thing.

You hold up your

hands with people on radio what that's about

one and

a half foot by one and a half foot.

Yeah, literally one and a half foot by one and a half foot.

And then the other thing is when you throw your batons, most of the top players know exactly how many times that baton is going to rotate before it hits that coup.

So maybe it's better to rotate half or maybe one.

Pat knows that.

Well, I was going to say that just reminds you of pitchers.

And you know,

you took it towards

our moment.

Again,

you know, the slur versus the slur versus, you know, everything.

I

just think of

like slow pitch softball.

I mean, you know, people that can really, you know, get up high and then get it down to the plate like that.

You're not going to put the cube up that high.

Again, it's the toss, that wrist or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's a lot of

and Pat, again, to your earlier point.

And look, we travel all over the state with this show.

And Milwaukee has a great cultural ethnicity area.

Other parts, Green Bay, of course, as well.

But I think one of the under-talked-about stories is the Chippewa Valley.

Here's yet another event international bringing people into this area.

And there's a reason for that.

Oh, yeah.

Again, you have to put the effort into it.

And for Eric and others to...

put in the effort to do this kind of organization to put something on like this.

I mean, these things don't just happen.

Eric, is there anybody else you want to shout out in terms of who's helping make this thing the success that it is?

I mean...

We have a lot of volunteers that help out a lot.

If it's okay, I'll tell two quick stories.

I went to the city manager in 2011.

Mike Hogan, he was the city manager at the time, I said, and I couldn't believe that I could even go speak to him, right?

We had just kind of started being here four years, everything.

And I was like, hey, Mike, I like to, you know, I was a little nervous.

I was like, hey, I like to be the Coupe Capital of America.

You know, there's like capitals of everything, right?

And he looked at me and he goes, no.

He said, how about Coupe Capital of North America?

And it's just like, and it's that, and I think it's that mentality, right?

It's that mentality of, of like embracing something's different.

Like I've told people, if I had moved to Eau Claire with a boomerang and I had like had this passion to start a boomerang tournament, everybody knows what a boomerang is.

Like everybody, nobody in Eau Claire had known what a coup is.

So like just that, just that mentality, I think of, of, of the city in regards to really embracing that.

Second of all is like visit Eau Claire, like after we hosted that first tournament, I went to visit Eau Claire and I was like,

How can you help me?

How can you help us promote this, do these different types of things?

And since day one, they've been huge proponents and supporters of that.

And then you guys talked to John Ellison, last time you were in Eau Claire, in the Eau Claire Kube League.

That's the largest weekly Kube League in the world.

And just to have that is just great as well.

Tremendous

participation.

Not a

civic spirit here.

It really is.

It makes me feel great.

Eric Anderson, thank you so much.

The director of the USA US Coupe Championship.

You can find more information.

We'll put it on all of our show notes.

People can check it out this weekend.

Thanks for being with

us,

Eric.

Thank you so much.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Welcome back to the Top All Ball show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

We're live on location at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair in Chippewa Falls, along with Pat Crichtlow, host of mornings at Pat Crichtlow every morning from six until nine across most of the stations in the Civic Media Ready Network.

Glad to have you along.

Pat, how cool is that for me?

People want more information.

on the Kube Championships go to USA Kube that is spelled K-U-B-B dot O-R-G.

USA Kube

dot org, that was a lot of fun.

What did you say, 134 teams?

Yes.

Do you know how long it's taking me to fill out these brackets?

I mean, fan duel, you can bet on anything nowadays, you know?

But you can.

But again, it's a really cool thing, as you talked about earlier, community in the Chippewa Valley, and there's just a spirit here.

that the propels, there's a reason why it finishes at or near the top of Greatest Places to live.

And as you know, you've talked about the closing of the Union Royal Tiger Factory in Eau Claire.

And the closing of the big factory in town has been the death knell for God only knows how many cities, especially across the Midwest.

And some of them do, they just roll over and die.

And when Uneral closed up here, it felt like that was maybe going to happen.

And it just seemed like, and I don't want to leave anybody out, but there were just a few voices that were like, no, not on our watch.

We will do something.

And it led to a little bit more development downtown.

It led to some higher high technology businesses coming in.

That wouldn't have continued if, again, you didn't have people dedicated towards civic engagement of one sort or another.

And it's really made the Chippewa Valley such a special place.

It really has always enjoyed getting up here.

I have a family up here, obviously, but I get to come up with

a seat pad.

Obviously, not for much longer.

You just likened your mom's shirt to a tequila

bottle.

If you're familiar with Azul tequila, and why

would you

be?

Well, you have to introduce your pad.

Mom's dress is a high-end tequila bottle thing.

She has a great...

is dressed as a high-end if there's usually there's no right way to finish that sentence and you come up with tequila bottle it's beautiful

I only wish you want to come over here mom you want to come over just stand there a second no she's not no maybe in

the third hour well

yeah exactly if we only had a third hour

right I'm not two hours am I still the only guy doing three hours around this cheek we are now

as it turns

out.

So, yeah, I think you are.

You're the only three hour program.

Okay, well, we won't see her in our third hour then.

No, but maybe tomorrow, but she'll have a different top on tomorrow.

If you're familiar, Google up Azul Tequila and she has this beautiful shirt on.

She looks very,

very Mexican.

Nice a break has this been not to have to talk about the news today.

Right?

Right.

Take a little time off.

We all have to do it sometime.

Absolutely.

Many thanks to, by the way, speaking of you know,

Unor oil tire

we had

finally I know exactly.

Thank you very much B. J. Hollers was one of the filmmakers.

Thanks fireside productions I think is the name of his company based here Eau Claire and we were here.

What was a year?

We were reunited Pat with his former on-air anchor.

Yes from WEAU and we were at the Pablo Center and talked to to B. J. Hollers on that documentary about the Unor oil tire shutdown and the success that followed in

in downtown Eau Claire.

BJ is going to be back on this program tomorrow.

He is working on a brand new documentary.

In fact, he's shooting tomorrow, but he's going to take time on to join us.

Guess what?

Pat on Kube.

He's doing a documentary on Kube.

That's amazing.

Especially if he adds the Swedish Brat thing made with Norwegian Lefse and German Brats.

I'm sure there's something Swedish in there someplace.

I probably missed it.

The Swedish chef.

Anyway, we're going to talk to BJ Hollards tomorrow.

Also, we're going to be talking to a local author, Ken Samanski, on his new book coming out.

And part of it is on the northern Wisconsin State Fair.

In fact, the cover, I believe.

has a photo of the northern Wisconsin State Fair to talk more about the history of this great organization and Ken Samansky, a great public educator here in the Eau Claire school district, and he gives these morning announcements and he has a compilation of these like what's good basically and he leaves his students with that every morning and so maybe we'll get him read a couple of those because they just they inspire me.

It was nice to hear that somebody has taken those school announcements and done something really nice with them because I did not.

They picked me in sixth grade.

Well, of course, a future broadcaster.

A future broadcaster and all that.

But I did not yet understand that with a microphone, you did not have to project as if you were trying to talk to the whole building.

So I'd be like...

314 is ready.

They'd be like, don't shout into the microphone.

You just need to talk into the microphone.

And I just could not grasp that.

And after a couple more shouts into the microphone, I was, I was replaced.

But

I

really, you got fired from

your first

podcasting job for

being a

loudmouth.

There

is nobody shocked by

this.

An award-winning broadcaster

in New York.

I figured out how projection works.

Yes, he says that.

That's exactly right.

Well, that'd be great.

So Ken Salanski is going to be here tomorrow.

And you heard it here earlier in the show.

Fair Executive Director Rusty Volk has given us permission to have a live animal and a kid on the show.

So that's our assignment tomorrow to have a live animal on the show.

Are you going to search this out?

Are you going to make your sister?

We'll go together.

Is your mom?

Well, all good.

It'll be a field trip.

No, I think they ought to be

able to surprise you.

I hope the live animal is a kid also, like a goat.

No.

If it's a goat, I'm taking it home with me because I got some buckthorn that I really need to get rid of.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

On the hillside there, yeah.

All right, well, it's been a great show.

Many thanks again to Rusty Volk, the executive director of the Northern Wisconsin State Fair.

Also Eric Anderson, director of the U.S.

Coupe Championship and editor of Coupe Nation Magazine.

Also many thanks to Aaron Zommer as a great producer down at the World Headquarters in Madison,

Wisconsin.

And by the way, he ordered the rain that we're getting right now because he was jealous.

Otherwise, Todd, now we're going to go for a pontoon ride and instead it's over to the beer garden.

Oh,

no.

Exactly.

And many thanks also to Heather Michael.