Back in the 70’s, when I was doing a lot of travel as a musician, I got a surprise visit to Iceland and will never forget the adventure. The recent volcanic activity that’s messed up air travel all over Britain and Europe brought back memories of my unexpected vacation in Iceland.
I was on a European tour with a band and we’d finished up in Munich, and were aboard a DC-8 charter headed back to the States. Because the British air traffic controllers were on strike at the time, we were told we’d be headed around the British Isles to the north, to avoid flying through their airspace. We were supposed to fuel up at Shannon Airport in Ireland, but the new plans meant we’d have to make a quick stop at the NATO base in Keflavik, Iceland, to fuel up for the trip over the big pond.
We landed in Keflavik, were able to spend about an hour off the plane in a lounge at the base, then got back aboard for the long trip. We taxied to the end of the runway and started the take-off roll. Just before the plane became airborne, we head a loud “CRACK!” and a few seconds later, I noticed hydraulic fluid starting to coat the windows on my side of the plane.
I said to the guy sitting next to me – a bass player from St. Peter, Minnesota, “this can’t be a good thing.”
What we didn’t know was that the bang was caused when the landing gear of the DC-8 clipped a chain at the end of the runway. We weren’t high enough to clear the chain, and later were told by the pilot that he thought they’d taken a load of bad fuel, and he couldn’t get enough power to get the plane up fast enough.
A moment after the big bang, the pilot got on the intercom and said “we’ve had a problem on take-off and we’re going to circle for a while and dump the fuel, and then come back to Keflavik and land.” As we flew circles over the North Atlantic venting fuel, we’d picked up an escort of NATO fighter planes. As we prepared to land again, the pilot told us to brace, that we were going in without landing gear, and as soon as the plane stopped, we should get off right away.
The runway was foamed and we came in on the belly of the DC-8 stretch jet. It was noisy, but the plane slid straight down the runway and stopped. The cabin attendants opened the doors, deployed the slides, and out we went.
We ended up spending four nights and three days at the Loftleider Hotel, after bussing about 30 miles from the NATO base at Keflavik to Reykjavik. We were wined and dined by the airline, which was slow in deciding to send another plane to take us from Iceland to the US, and was dealing with complications of the British air controllers strike.
The locals were intensely curious, and the Reykjavik newspaper sent reporters to interview the “American heroes”. I still have a copy of the paper, but of course can’t read a word of it. Icelandic is a strange language. We were taken on bus tours of the countryside; saw the volcanoes; saw the steam vents; visited the Althing, the national parliament of Iceland; and absorbed the breathtaking beauty of Iceland.
I remember Iceland as a country of fiercely desolate landscapes, dotted by colorful cities and very friendly people. Reykjavik was a very modern city, with geothermal heating the principal way of keeping the inside warm. It’s that same “geothermal activity” that caused all the problems the last few days.
Mother nature is an awesome force. I’m glad she was calm when I was in Iceland, years ago.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Tommy and Tea: The Two Don't Mix Well
The tea party people are a curious lot. They have selective memory when it comes to history, and their slogans are sometimes unintentionally ironic – like the well-publicized one about keeping the government out of my Medicare. That’s why at first, I was surprised to hear that the tea-sippers had invited Tommy (or, perhaps he “volunteered”) to talk last Thursday.
Along with the likes of Vicki McKenna and that shadowy group that calls itself “Oath-Keepers”. Why would these people who claim to abhor big government tolerate – much less invite – Tommy G. Thompson to their party? It bothered me for half the weekend, until I thought a bit more about it.
As my friend and YourNews colleague Bill Wineke has pointed out, Tommy is a dinosaur, from the era when the two major political parties respected each other and worked with each other, and the kind of politics Tommy practiced when he governed Wisconsin resemble the current policies of the Obama administration. Tommy, as Bill points out, just doesn’t fit with the Republican Party any more.
We like Tommy because he has the aura of the regular fellow about him. While he is a highly educated man, with a Juris Doctor degree from the UW, he talks like a man who struggled to get through high school. As governor, he taxed the living daylights out of people. (How do you think Miller Park got built?) He’s a cheerleader. He loves to say stuff like “where Eagles soar and Harleys roar and the Packers score”. And we know he loves our state.
This is a man who broke down in tears when he announced that he was answering President Bush’s call to Washington to run Health and Human Services. He loves Wisconsin. But now, he’s a Washington power-broker, who makes literally millions of dollars a year trying to help clients get millions of dollars from the federal government.
How on earth does a man with Tommy’s record fit in with the tea party people?
He doesn’t. But they seem not to know it. This is a group that reveres Sarah Palin. She railed at President Obama’s plan to reduce our nuclear stockpile, saying we need a return to the Reagan days. Yet Reagan suggested repeatedly, 25 years ago, that we reduce our nuclear stockpile by a third – the same thing President Obama is proposing.
Wasn’t Tommy the man behind Medicare Part D – which the tea party people should be calling another example of a “socialist government program”? And what about the huge bureaucracy Tommy made even bigger with his “W-2” Welfare-to-Work program in Wisconsin? Isn’t he one of those socialists the tea partiers hate?
Why was Tommy at the tea party? Because there’s no real place for him in what the Republican Party has become in this state, even though he’ll still be prominent at all their gatherings. And because he has a born politician’s love for giving speeches to crowds. He can still whip ‘em up.
Even if, like last Thursday, his very presence mocked the event.
Along with the likes of Vicki McKenna and that shadowy group that calls itself “Oath-Keepers”. Why would these people who claim to abhor big government tolerate – much less invite – Tommy G. Thompson to their party? It bothered me for half the weekend, until I thought a bit more about it.
As my friend and YourNews colleague Bill Wineke has pointed out, Tommy is a dinosaur, from the era when the two major political parties respected each other and worked with each other, and the kind of politics Tommy practiced when he governed Wisconsin resemble the current policies of the Obama administration. Tommy, as Bill points out, just doesn’t fit with the Republican Party any more.
We like Tommy because he has the aura of the regular fellow about him. While he is a highly educated man, with a Juris Doctor degree from the UW, he talks like a man who struggled to get through high school. As governor, he taxed the living daylights out of people. (How do you think Miller Park got built?) He’s a cheerleader. He loves to say stuff like “where Eagles soar and Harleys roar and the Packers score”. And we know he loves our state.
This is a man who broke down in tears when he announced that he was answering President Bush’s call to Washington to run Health and Human Services. He loves Wisconsin. But now, he’s a Washington power-broker, who makes literally millions of dollars a year trying to help clients get millions of dollars from the federal government.
How on earth does a man with Tommy’s record fit in with the tea party people?
He doesn’t. But they seem not to know it. This is a group that reveres Sarah Palin. She railed at President Obama’s plan to reduce our nuclear stockpile, saying we need a return to the Reagan days. Yet Reagan suggested repeatedly, 25 years ago, that we reduce our nuclear stockpile by a third – the same thing President Obama is proposing.
Wasn’t Tommy the man behind Medicare Part D – which the tea party people should be calling another example of a “socialist government program”? And what about the huge bureaucracy Tommy made even bigger with his “W-2” Welfare-to-Work program in Wisconsin? Isn’t he one of those socialists the tea partiers hate?
Why was Tommy at the tea party? Because there’s no real place for him in what the Republican Party has become in this state, even though he’ll still be prominent at all their gatherings. And because he has a born politician’s love for giving speeches to crowds. He can still whip ‘em up.
Even if, like last Thursday, his very presence mocked the event.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Friday Special: Logomania
Anyone can see why a Native American would be disgusted by the mascot, logo, whatever you want to call it that represents the Cleveland Indians baseball team. It’s a horrible caricature and should have been retired decades ago. And the Washington “Redskins?” Good Lord.
At the risk of offending those who take the First Amendment as an absolute with no grey areas, might I suggest the formation of a Committee Of Good Taste which would be tasked with pointing out mascots or logos or nicknames which should never have come to be in the first place. I think they could complete their task in a day or two, and then disband.
In their typically weasely way, our politicians took a crack at the issue this week, and decided to let the State Superintendent of Public Instruction be the arbiter of taste and offensiveness in these matters.
Whatever.
My high school mascot was the Polar Bear. Don’t ask me why the folks in Hortonville decided on that unusual, though not quite unique mascot. Mascots at the colleges I’ve attended (or been employed by) include the Badger, Titan, Green Wave, Matador, and Gold Rush. Not a controversial one in the lot.
No one can tell us how we should feel about things. That’s a decision we make for ourselves, but we can change our feelings about things, sometimes, when we assimilate new information. Nothing I’ve heard or read has changed my feeling that there’s not a single Indian-themed mascot in the nation that was created to offend Native Americans.
And I’m really not sure what all the fuss is about. I’m of Irish and Austrian extraction, and I take no umbrage whatsoever concerning the Boston Celtics or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I know the outdated term “Paddy Wagon” came from the drunken Irishmen the New York City cops transported to jail. Some say it came from the fact that so many Irish were cops in NYC. They couldn’t get any other jobs…”no Irish need apply”. If somebody calls me a “mick”, I’m not offended. I have a pal of Prussian extraction who refers to me as “the drunken mick”. No problem.
But that’s just me. And maybe it’s why I don’t understand all the noise being made because Waunakee chose to name its teams the Warriors or Berlin calls its teams the Indians. Oshkosh West High, my parents’ Alma Mater, used to be the Indians, but now they’re the Wildcats. Apparently Oshkosh is more politically correct than Berlin.
I’m actually still not sure what the official nickname of Marquette University is. I had to google it to be reminded that it’s now “Golden Eagles”, but I don’t think anybody calls them that. Several years ago when they were flip-flopping back and forth with their nickname, I called them the “Warriors” on a sports report I did for a local country radio station. The program director passed me in the hallway a few minutes later and said “please refer to Marquette by its correct nickname.” On the next sportscast, I referred to them as “the Marquette Bloodthirsty Savages”.
No wonder I’ve been fired from every radio job I’ve ever had.
When I think of “Native Americans”, I think of nothing but positive attributes, and how horribly we as a nation treat them. So if enough of them want us to stop using their names as sports mascots, I guess it’s OK. But…as the saying goes…I don’t think any offense was intended.
At the risk of offending those who take the First Amendment as an absolute with no grey areas, might I suggest the formation of a Committee Of Good Taste which would be tasked with pointing out mascots or logos or nicknames which should never have come to be in the first place. I think they could complete their task in a day or two, and then disband.
In their typically weasely way, our politicians took a crack at the issue this week, and decided to let the State Superintendent of Public Instruction be the arbiter of taste and offensiveness in these matters.
Whatever.
My high school mascot was the Polar Bear. Don’t ask me why the folks in Hortonville decided on that unusual, though not quite unique mascot. Mascots at the colleges I’ve attended (or been employed by) include the Badger, Titan, Green Wave, Matador, and Gold Rush. Not a controversial one in the lot.
No one can tell us how we should feel about things. That’s a decision we make for ourselves, but we can change our feelings about things, sometimes, when we assimilate new information. Nothing I’ve heard or read has changed my feeling that there’s not a single Indian-themed mascot in the nation that was created to offend Native Americans.
And I’m really not sure what all the fuss is about. I’m of Irish and Austrian extraction, and I take no umbrage whatsoever concerning the Boston Celtics or the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. I know the outdated term “Paddy Wagon” came from the drunken Irishmen the New York City cops transported to jail. Some say it came from the fact that so many Irish were cops in NYC. They couldn’t get any other jobs…”no Irish need apply”. If somebody calls me a “mick”, I’m not offended. I have a pal of Prussian extraction who refers to me as “the drunken mick”. No problem.
But that’s just me. And maybe it’s why I don’t understand all the noise being made because Waunakee chose to name its teams the Warriors or Berlin calls its teams the Indians. Oshkosh West High, my parents’ Alma Mater, used to be the Indians, but now they’re the Wildcats. Apparently Oshkosh is more politically correct than Berlin.
I’m actually still not sure what the official nickname of Marquette University is. I had to google it to be reminded that it’s now “Golden Eagles”, but I don’t think anybody calls them that. Several years ago when they were flip-flopping back and forth with their nickname, I called them the “Warriors” on a sports report I did for a local country radio station. The program director passed me in the hallway a few minutes later and said “please refer to Marquette by its correct nickname.” On the next sportscast, I referred to them as “the Marquette Bloodthirsty Savages”.
No wonder I’ve been fired from every radio job I’ve ever had.
When I think of “Native Americans”, I think of nothing but positive attributes, and how horribly we as a nation treat them. So if enough of them want us to stop using their names as sports mascots, I guess it’s OK. But…as the saying goes…I don’t think any offense was intended.
Tax Day - Tea Day
I don’t know what to call myself any more. I’m not a Kennedy-style liberal or “Janesville Democrat”, as my old pal Sly calls it. I’m not the same young man whose first real political involvement was to campaign for the late Republican Bill Steiger, in his successful 1967 run for Congress in the seat Tom Petri now holds. I wasn’t old enough to vote for Steiger, but even in ’67 he looked younger than me.
I used to think I was a libertarian, believing it was the role of government to deliver the mail and defend the shores and leave me alone. And I’m not a tea party person, and don’t really fit in with the Americans For Prosperity movement. So I’ll stick with “independent”. Some would say “curmudgeon” fits best.
Today, tax day, is as good a day as any to try and figure out which label, of the many available, fits you best. A number of years ago, during my WTDY days, Sly asked everybody at the station to take some sort of “test” that would tell you just how liberal or conservative you are. Answer 40 questions and find out what label fits. Sly, of course, was as far left on the spectrum as you could get. Chris Krok, the controversial mid-day talk show host, who’s been (like me) fired in every market he’s ever worked in, and has just landed a new gig in Dallas, was somewhere right of Attila the Hun.
Two staff members scored right smack dab in the middle of the liberal-conservative spectrum: Pam Jahnke (the “Fabulous Farm Babe”), and me. No one was surprised. We’re both small-town ‘sconnies who believe you determine your own fate based on your effort, that you give a hand up but not a hand out, that you have to give an honest day’s work to get an honest day’s pay, and all that stuff. Neither liberal nor conservative values, to be sure, but compatible with “independent”.
Today from 11:30 to 1 the Taxpayer Tea Party will be held on the capitol square, sponsored by the group Americans For Prosperity. I’ve lived in Madison long enough to know who’ll be up there on the square at noon, drinking in the rhetoric from Vicki McKenna and Tommy Thompson and that crew. They’ll talk about deficit attention disorder (sort of an intriguing re-arrangement of words), bailouts, and socialism. And we’ll find out if Tommy’s running, I guess.
I don’t fit in with that crowd, even though I think the biggest blunder in recent history was the bailout of the “too big to fail” financial houses. I think Sarah Palin is the most dangerously stupid person on the planet. And if word got out that I favored a single-payer health insurance system, the tea party folks would run me off the square. Even if I told them I think “the great train robbery” is the biggest government boondoggle in Wisconsin history.
I’m not like former Madison School Board member Bill Keys, who claimed to be happiest when he was writing out his check to pay his property tax bill. But I think the current crop of politicians has failed us horribly in making education a real priority in this state – and paying for it.
And I don’t want any government – federal, state, or local – to bail out one more thing, with my tax dollars or money borrowed from my kids’ grandchildren.
So I guess the label “independent” still fits pretty well. Happy tax/tea day.
I used to think I was a libertarian, believing it was the role of government to deliver the mail and defend the shores and leave me alone. And I’m not a tea party person, and don’t really fit in with the Americans For Prosperity movement. So I’ll stick with “independent”. Some would say “curmudgeon” fits best.
Today, tax day, is as good a day as any to try and figure out which label, of the many available, fits you best. A number of years ago, during my WTDY days, Sly asked everybody at the station to take some sort of “test” that would tell you just how liberal or conservative you are. Answer 40 questions and find out what label fits. Sly, of course, was as far left on the spectrum as you could get. Chris Krok, the controversial mid-day talk show host, who’s been (like me) fired in every market he’s ever worked in, and has just landed a new gig in Dallas, was somewhere right of Attila the Hun.
Two staff members scored right smack dab in the middle of the liberal-conservative spectrum: Pam Jahnke (the “Fabulous Farm Babe”), and me. No one was surprised. We’re both small-town ‘sconnies who believe you determine your own fate based on your effort, that you give a hand up but not a hand out, that you have to give an honest day’s work to get an honest day’s pay, and all that stuff. Neither liberal nor conservative values, to be sure, but compatible with “independent”.
Today from 11:30 to 1 the Taxpayer Tea Party will be held on the capitol square, sponsored by the group Americans For Prosperity. I’ve lived in Madison long enough to know who’ll be up there on the square at noon, drinking in the rhetoric from Vicki McKenna and Tommy Thompson and that crew. They’ll talk about deficit attention disorder (sort of an intriguing re-arrangement of words), bailouts, and socialism. And we’ll find out if Tommy’s running, I guess.
I don’t fit in with that crowd, even though I think the biggest blunder in recent history was the bailout of the “too big to fail” financial houses. I think Sarah Palin is the most dangerously stupid person on the planet. And if word got out that I favored a single-payer health insurance system, the tea party folks would run me off the square. Even if I told them I think “the great train robbery” is the biggest government boondoggle in Wisconsin history.
I’m not like former Madison School Board member Bill Keys, who claimed to be happiest when he was writing out his check to pay his property tax bill. But I think the current crop of politicians has failed us horribly in making education a real priority in this state – and paying for it.
And I don’t want any government – federal, state, or local – to bail out one more thing, with my tax dollars or money borrowed from my kids’ grandchildren.
So I guess the label “independent” still fits pretty well. Happy tax/tea day.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Marine PFC Thomas Leon Armitage, KIA Viet Nam 2-12-69
Just west of Appleton, a couple hundred feet south of where Highway 96 crosses Outagamie County Trunk Highway M in the tiny town of Medina, there’s a small and neatly-kept little sanctuary called Armitage Park. It was set up by Tom Armitage’s parents, who lived in the house next door to the park, in memory of their son who was killed in action at age 20 in Quang Tri Province, Viet Nam, on the 12th of February 1969.
Tom was a grade-school pal who died, they say, when he threw himself on a grenade to save the lives of his rifle squad. Tom was born the 4th of April, 1948, was drafted in ‘68, sent to Viet Nam, and died on his first tour. He was a Rifleman with G Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines.
He was one of the many unsung heroes of that horrible war.
I got an e-mail Monday from another of my grade school pals, Mike, pointing me to Tom’s page on the “Virtual Wall”, which commemorates each of the 58-thousand-plus who died in Viet Nam. You can find it at www.virtualwall.org and look up the name of any soldier who died in the war.
My friend Mike and I have similar memories of Tom. He was of average height and weight in grade school, but he got picked on a lot. He was a fun kid who had some unusual mannerisms and ideas. It’s the same now as it was back in the late 50’s – grade school is very much a place where conformity is currency. Mike and I were both bigger and taller than the average grade school kid. We both liked Tom, and often came to his defense when other kids picked on him or tried to bully him.
One of Tom’s favorite phrases was “Smarter than the average bear”….and he’d say it just like voice actor Daws Butler (a contemporary of, and collaborator with Stan Freeberg) did, as the Yogi Bear character on the Huckleberry Hound TV cartoon show. Tom just liked the sound of it, but I think the other kids thought he was trying to tell them he was smarter than them.
As near as we could tell, Tom had a little container of shoestring potatoes for lunch every day. Once in a while, one of the kids would make a quick trip to one of the stores on the main drag of Hortonville over the lunch hour, and Tom would always ask whoever was going to bring him back a 5-cent bag of Planters Peanuts. More than once Tom borrowed a nickel from me to get his peanuts, and he always paid me back.
Invariably, after the promised peanuts were delivered, Tom would stomp on the bag and smash the peanuts to small pieces. His explanation was “you get more for your money that way” - the sort of harmless eccentricity that most grade school kids abhor.
I lost track of Tom after grade school. He didn’t go to Hortonville High; I’m not even sure where his folks sent him for high school. But I remember the day my dad told me Tom had been killed in action in Viet Nam. My dad, a decorated WW2 vet, was no fan of that Asian war, and groused about good soldiers being killed by bureaucrats trying to run a war from thousands of miles away.
That rotten war that ended 35 years ago this month and took the lives of so many of the young men I grew up with or knew as a college student. It still angers me. What a horrible, horrible waste.
Marine Rifleman Thomas Leon Armitage, decorated war hero, rest in peace. Your friends still remember you, and we thank you for your service to our nation.
Tom was a grade-school pal who died, they say, when he threw himself on a grenade to save the lives of his rifle squad. Tom was born the 4th of April, 1948, was drafted in ‘68, sent to Viet Nam, and died on his first tour. He was a Rifleman with G Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines.
He was one of the many unsung heroes of that horrible war.
I got an e-mail Monday from another of my grade school pals, Mike, pointing me to Tom’s page on the “Virtual Wall”, which commemorates each of the 58-thousand-plus who died in Viet Nam. You can find it at www.virtualwall.org and look up the name of any soldier who died in the war.
My friend Mike and I have similar memories of Tom. He was of average height and weight in grade school, but he got picked on a lot. He was a fun kid who had some unusual mannerisms and ideas. It’s the same now as it was back in the late 50’s – grade school is very much a place where conformity is currency. Mike and I were both bigger and taller than the average grade school kid. We both liked Tom, and often came to his defense when other kids picked on him or tried to bully him.
One of Tom’s favorite phrases was “Smarter than the average bear”….and he’d say it just like voice actor Daws Butler (a contemporary of, and collaborator with Stan Freeberg) did, as the Yogi Bear character on the Huckleberry Hound TV cartoon show. Tom just liked the sound of it, but I think the other kids thought he was trying to tell them he was smarter than them.
As near as we could tell, Tom had a little container of shoestring potatoes for lunch every day. Once in a while, one of the kids would make a quick trip to one of the stores on the main drag of Hortonville over the lunch hour, and Tom would always ask whoever was going to bring him back a 5-cent bag of Planters Peanuts. More than once Tom borrowed a nickel from me to get his peanuts, and he always paid me back.
Invariably, after the promised peanuts were delivered, Tom would stomp on the bag and smash the peanuts to small pieces. His explanation was “you get more for your money that way” - the sort of harmless eccentricity that most grade school kids abhor.
I lost track of Tom after grade school. He didn’t go to Hortonville High; I’m not even sure where his folks sent him for high school. But I remember the day my dad told me Tom had been killed in action in Viet Nam. My dad, a decorated WW2 vet, was no fan of that Asian war, and groused about good soldiers being killed by bureaucrats trying to run a war from thousands of miles away.
That rotten war that ended 35 years ago this month and took the lives of so many of the young men I grew up with or knew as a college student. It still angers me. What a horrible, horrible waste.
Marine Rifleman Thomas Leon Armitage, decorated war hero, rest in peace. Your friends still remember you, and we thank you for your service to our nation.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Good Guy: Brewers' Owner Mark Attanasio
Mark Attanasio said when he bought the Brewers back in 2005, the payroll was 39 million, and he never thought there would be a day when it would be over 90 million, and approaching a hundred million dollars a year.
But that day is here.
Attanasio says the Brewers payroll is over 90 million right now, and he’s still trying to figure out a way to sign Prince Fielder to keep him with the Brew-Crew. Milwaukee is the smallest media market in the big leagues, and Packers fans understand very well the implications of trying to run a big-time team in a “small” town.
Because Attanasio has opened his wallet pretty wide the past few years, making sure slugger Ryan Braun is secured, and bringing C.C. Sabathia here for that wild ride a couple years ago, the attendance at Miller Park has topped 3 million the past two seasons. That’s a LOT of ‘sconnies through the turnstiles, and the owner, bless his heart, is committed to keeping a Brewers game affordable for the fans. He will not raise ticket prices through the roof just to sign Fielder or keep a stable of high-quality players on the team.
The Brewers average ticket price this year is $22.10, below the major league average of $26.79 and less than half of the average Cubs ticket price of $52.56…which is the highest average ticket cost in the majors this year. Veteran baseball fans know that if you want really good seats at a Brewers game, it can cost you 75 to a hundred bucks at StubHub or one of the other broker sites.
But a primo seat at Wrigley field can set you back 3, 4, or 5 hundred bucks….for a “regular” game. That’s one reason so many Cubs fans invade Miller Park when the Brewers host the Cubs. You can get a really good seat for a fraction of what it would cost to buy one at Wrigley when the Brewers are there.
The National League Central Division is not one known for spending New York City kind of money on payroll, and despite the skyrocketing Brewers payroll over the past few years, the Brewers rank fourth in spending in the division. The Cubs are on top with a payroll this year of 144 million, and the Pirates are on the bottom, with a payroll of 39 million. The Cards spend 94 million to hold the #2 slot, the Astros 92 million, then comes Milwaukee at 90 million and the Reds at 76 million.
Like any smart business man, Mark Attanasio praises his customers, and credits the fans with terrific support of the team. And, because he’s been willing to spend money to keep the team in contention, the fans return the love and keep buying tickets.
As a born-and-raised ‘sconnie, I think a lot of our state’s sports fans are like me. You don’t have to win the division pennant or the World Series or the Super Bowl every year. You just need to put a competitive team on the field, give them the coaching they need, and treat the fans with respect.
I think all those elements are in place again this year for the Brewers, and I’m proud to wear my Brewers blue and cheer for them.
Now, if we can just BEAT the Cubs tomorrow....
But that day is here.
Attanasio says the Brewers payroll is over 90 million right now, and he’s still trying to figure out a way to sign Prince Fielder to keep him with the Brew-Crew. Milwaukee is the smallest media market in the big leagues, and Packers fans understand very well the implications of trying to run a big-time team in a “small” town.
Because Attanasio has opened his wallet pretty wide the past few years, making sure slugger Ryan Braun is secured, and bringing C.C. Sabathia here for that wild ride a couple years ago, the attendance at Miller Park has topped 3 million the past two seasons. That’s a LOT of ‘sconnies through the turnstiles, and the owner, bless his heart, is committed to keeping a Brewers game affordable for the fans. He will not raise ticket prices through the roof just to sign Fielder or keep a stable of high-quality players on the team.
The Brewers average ticket price this year is $22.10, below the major league average of $26.79 and less than half of the average Cubs ticket price of $52.56…which is the highest average ticket cost in the majors this year. Veteran baseball fans know that if you want really good seats at a Brewers game, it can cost you 75 to a hundred bucks at StubHub or one of the other broker sites.
But a primo seat at Wrigley field can set you back 3, 4, or 5 hundred bucks….for a “regular” game. That’s one reason so many Cubs fans invade Miller Park when the Brewers host the Cubs. You can get a really good seat for a fraction of what it would cost to buy one at Wrigley when the Brewers are there.
The National League Central Division is not one known for spending New York City kind of money on payroll, and despite the skyrocketing Brewers payroll over the past few years, the Brewers rank fourth in spending in the division. The Cubs are on top with a payroll this year of 144 million, and the Pirates are on the bottom, with a payroll of 39 million. The Cards spend 94 million to hold the #2 slot, the Astros 92 million, then comes Milwaukee at 90 million and the Reds at 76 million.
Like any smart business man, Mark Attanasio praises his customers, and credits the fans with terrific support of the team. And, because he’s been willing to spend money to keep the team in contention, the fans return the love and keep buying tickets.
As a born-and-raised ‘sconnie, I think a lot of our state’s sports fans are like me. You don’t have to win the division pennant or the World Series or the Super Bowl every year. You just need to put a competitive team on the field, give them the coaching they need, and treat the fans with respect.
I think all those elements are in place again this year for the Brewers, and I’m proud to wear my Brewers blue and cheer for them.
Now, if we can just BEAT the Cubs tomorrow....
Monday, April 12, 2010
Local TV Weather Nannies Push Back!
Fighter and bomber pilots say if you’re taking flack, you must be close to the target. Commenting on the YourNews version of this rant, Perry Boxx, the News Director at Channel 27, said it was “absolutely the dumbest article I’ve ever read about severe weather coverage” and took issue with me calling myself an “insider”. Brian Olson of the Channel 27 weather staff posted a long rebuttal, saying I don’t understand what those little rotating thingys they put up on the screen mean; he doesn’t like my trivialization of weather warnings; says “Severe Doppler” is not named to scare people; and claims Sioux Falls SD is an even bigger weather-nanny market.
I’ll get to that stuff in a moment.
I had about ten responses on the YourNews blog; YourNews Publisher Glen Gardner posted a link to my rant on his Facebook page Friday morning, and later in the morning I re-posted Glen’s link on my Facebook page. That generated about 40 more responses, via Facebook postings, confidential messages, comments to this blog, and direct e-mails to me from people who didn’t want to be publicly identified as commenting. (Those people really ARE insiders…every one of them a TV news employee.)
Mike L. posted on the YourNews blog that Bob Lindmeier was the only one who told people in Stoughton to take cover immediately, just before the tornado hit in August of 2005. Not counting what Perry Boxx and Brian Olson posted, Mike’s comment was the only one generated which did not further ridicule the excesses of local TV weather.
A sarcastic Madison man, J.A.K., posted “Severe Doppler will no doubt be replaced by Osama bin Terror Doppler in a year or so.” One well-known local reporter, P.S., posted “I loved this story…severe weather Doppler indeed!” Another friend, M.T., said when the local TV folks go into the wall-to-wall severe weather coverage, she mixes up a pitcher of margaritas and invites her neighbor over to watch. She also said she misses the late Jim Mader’s great, calm presence on local radio during storms.
My friend T.T. of Madison pointed out the excesses and scaremongering coverage have a "cry wolf" effect, which makes a lot of people simply ignore them.
D29 decried the over-the-top “severe” weather coverage in Milwaukee, and said “No kidding – it RAINS in spring here?” Two pals of mine who work in TV news in Green Bay, J.B. and B.K., opined that the severe weather coverage in their market HAS to be worse than Madison, and went on to describe the excesses. Another fellow I used to work with, S.B., said he learned a long time ago that you couldn’t trust the hype put out on local TV weather, and another former colleague, R.S., said TV goes into the “sky is falling” mode in his market whenever there’s a storm within 200 miles.
A Madison pal, M.M., said “we interrupt this post. A severe sarcasm alert has been issued for all of south central Wisconsin. High winds may carry away your sense of humor!”
That’s the thing. These TV weather folks do NOT have a sense of humor about this. They are on a mission to save lives, and there’s nothing remotely humorous about that. And, that’s why you cannot reason with them, and why they are convinced beyond challenge that their excesses are justified. They’ll never admit, and perhaps do not even acknowledge to themselves, that it’s all driven by marketing hype and it’s gotten out of control.
Some unsolicited advice to Brian Olson: you’d never make a good lawyer. Your post is full of what lawyers call “admissions against interest.” You admit that “Severe Doppler” is no more than a marketing tool; and saying Sioux Falls is worse than Madison is like saying “OK, I killed a few people, but Hitler killed more”. And those rotating thingys still look like tornado symbols to me. The point it makes is that your whiz-bang presentation is so arcane that only an “insider” can decipher it.
And Mr. Boxx, my sarcasm about being “an insider” is lost on you, but that happens a lot with me. I tend to be more sour than sweet. Any time you want to compare broadcast credentials, radio or TV, let me know. I’ll be glad to submit my national, regional, and local awards and recognitions from groups like the NAB, RTDNA, OCRB, WBA, and many other broadcast and print organizations in all the states I’ve worked in, to an independent judge for review. You might ask the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation who it hired last year to write its Kidder Broadcast News Resource Center website.
With a little research, I think you’ll find I have the credentials to be a broadcast critic.
I’ll get to that stuff in a moment.
I had about ten responses on the YourNews blog; YourNews Publisher Glen Gardner posted a link to my rant on his Facebook page Friday morning, and later in the morning I re-posted Glen’s link on my Facebook page. That generated about 40 more responses, via Facebook postings, confidential messages, comments to this blog, and direct e-mails to me from people who didn’t want to be publicly identified as commenting. (Those people really ARE insiders…every one of them a TV news employee.)
Mike L. posted on the YourNews blog that Bob Lindmeier was the only one who told people in Stoughton to take cover immediately, just before the tornado hit in August of 2005. Not counting what Perry Boxx and Brian Olson posted, Mike’s comment was the only one generated which did not further ridicule the excesses of local TV weather.
A sarcastic Madison man, J.A.K., posted “Severe Doppler will no doubt be replaced by Osama bin Terror Doppler in a year or so.” One well-known local reporter, P.S., posted “I loved this story…severe weather Doppler indeed!” Another friend, M.T., said when the local TV folks go into the wall-to-wall severe weather coverage, she mixes up a pitcher of margaritas and invites her neighbor over to watch. She also said she misses the late Jim Mader’s great, calm presence on local radio during storms.
My friend T.T. of Madison pointed out the excesses and scaremongering coverage have a "cry wolf" effect, which makes a lot of people simply ignore them.
D29 decried the over-the-top “severe” weather coverage in Milwaukee, and said “No kidding – it RAINS in spring here?” Two pals of mine who work in TV news in Green Bay, J.B. and B.K., opined that the severe weather coverage in their market HAS to be worse than Madison, and went on to describe the excesses. Another fellow I used to work with, S.B., said he learned a long time ago that you couldn’t trust the hype put out on local TV weather, and another former colleague, R.S., said TV goes into the “sky is falling” mode in his market whenever there’s a storm within 200 miles.
A Madison pal, M.M., said “we interrupt this post. A severe sarcasm alert has been issued for all of south central Wisconsin. High winds may carry away your sense of humor!”
That’s the thing. These TV weather folks do NOT have a sense of humor about this. They are on a mission to save lives, and there’s nothing remotely humorous about that. And, that’s why you cannot reason with them, and why they are convinced beyond challenge that their excesses are justified. They’ll never admit, and perhaps do not even acknowledge to themselves, that it’s all driven by marketing hype and it’s gotten out of control.
Some unsolicited advice to Brian Olson: you’d never make a good lawyer. Your post is full of what lawyers call “admissions against interest.” You admit that “Severe Doppler” is no more than a marketing tool; and saying Sioux Falls is worse than Madison is like saying “OK, I killed a few people, but Hitler killed more”. And those rotating thingys still look like tornado symbols to me. The point it makes is that your whiz-bang presentation is so arcane that only an “insider” can decipher it.
And Mr. Boxx, my sarcasm about being “an insider” is lost on you, but that happens a lot with me. I tend to be more sour than sweet. Any time you want to compare broadcast credentials, radio or TV, let me know. I’ll be glad to submit my national, regional, and local awards and recognitions from groups like the NAB, RTDNA, OCRB, WBA, and many other broadcast and print organizations in all the states I’ve worked in, to an independent judge for review. You might ask the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Foundation who it hired last year to write its Kidder Broadcast News Resource Center website.
With a little research, I think you’ll find I have the credentials to be a broadcast critic.
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