Student Loan Forgiveness and the Shortsighted Objections to It

Whole lot of fake Christians coming out online  I see, lashing out against loan forgiveness.

May I remind you all that the federal government created the rapid inflation of college tuition by giving universities a blank check .  I paid $1800 a year for tuition in 1992; it's now $10k per SEMESTER now at the same college. Outside of the university, those $1800 1992-era dollars would be worth $3939.00 now - roughly $16k less of inflation than on campus. 

The government has birthed a class of indentured servants and you're cool with it.

The trades are wonderful. I'm a descendant of a welder, a carpenter, an upholsterer, and two lathers. But trades alone don't create the world around us. 

Every union contract is written and enforced by a lawyer.  Every workplace injury is treated by a doctor.  Your children are taught by teachers. The parts a factory worker makes are designed by engineers.  And yet you act like your life is so removed from college. 

As I said above, the interest I paid on my loans has no doubt paid for many a program I don't choose to gift out of an "abundance of my heart," some of which have probably helped you. Fair is fair - kindly reimburse others for the "entitlement" you stole from me. 

Breakfast at the Copper Kitchen

On the surface, chicken and waffles qualifies as an unhealthy late breakfast at the Copper Kitchen. Lisa and I did split the meal tho, as you can see here, ordered it sans cheese, and . . . and it's none of your business anyway bub.

Happy, um... what month is it anyway?

Look what Smiley and Lulu did to our house - "because we should do it while I'm in the mood" he said - on this 15th of September, 46 DAYS before Halloween.

Yes, we're those people.

Stay tuned for our Christmas tree next week.

White Castle

Most of you probably live near a White Castle, but alas there are none within Milwaukee county. The nearest is down in Kenosha, two counties and 35 Freeway miles away.

So when Lisa and I found ourselves in Kenosha on this bright and sunny day, we stopped in for some yum-yum get you some. 

I texted these pictures to a friend who's never been to a WC, and he responded that it didn't look appetizing at all. 

Perhaps. 

But as I replied to him, it tasted "divine."

Da Doggos

The doggos. And the head of a broken broom inexplicably left on the floor. But whatever, look at the doggos.

Mitski Listening Party

In celebration of one of his favorite artists, Mitski, releasing a new album "The Land is Inhospitable and So are We," Smiley went to a listening party at Lilliput records, along with Junie and one of her Core Four, Kevin. 

Does it Ring a Bell?

Ok, I've long forgotten the name of a book I read and I need some help finding the title: 

I read this maybe 30 years ago. but to be safe lets say somewhere between 1986 and 1995, but probably right in the middle of that span. 

Science fiction paperback, average length. I don't recall anything about the cover. 

There are two planets, neither one Earth, existing in the same solar system; one might have actually been the moon of the other. 

One of the globes is filled with human colonists, the other with a race of bipedal deer-like creatures that are our equal in intelligence. The two sides go to war. At some point the protagonist becomes a POW and develops a quasi-friendship, or at least a mutual respect, with the warden. This was NOT a children's book; at one point a POW caught raping his fellow inmates is dispatched by the protagonist with the wardens approval. 

Any ideas?

A Seagull in Flight

While the seagull pictures on my Laborfest post were taken by me, Junie took some stunning pictures of her own that day. Here are a few. 

On Aaron Rodgers injury and the moral failure of (too many) Wisconsinites

I don't think Wisconsin is hick or hillbilly or whatever other pejorative haters use to describe my home state. Granted, I'm from Milwaukee, which is hardly typical of what is a largely rural state, but still - Bleep the Haters. 

But I have to admit, the reaction here to Aaron Rodgers' season (and possibly career) ending injury in his first game in NY made me a little ashamed of my fellow Wisconsinites.

 While the rest of the NFL fandom, even those down in Chicago, were publicly reacting with well wishes and regret, here in Wisconsin local Facebook posts were filled with laugh-reacts and utter bulllshit. 

Bullshit like "I called it! He's always getting injured and leaving his team high and dry. He's a carton of eggs."

Really? Odd that he played 230 games for the Pack, (223 as a starter from 2008-2022), which breaks down to 14.5 games a year. 

Yeah, she responded, but he liked to play hurt and and sucked for the last five years. 

Well, Thats' so doofus-y it was barely worth responding to, but WTF lady, he earned back to back MVP's when you say he "sucked."

She did not reply again. 

Now, obviously there were plenty of people who thought/said the right things, and even more who didn't feel the need to comment in the first place. 

But then there were: 

#NotOurProblem

Sweet Little Drama Queen 

Karma

So glad you left the Pack

Maybe the Aliens he saw can fix him

The man gave you 15 seasons as a starter, a Super Bowl victory, multiple MVP's, and frankly, was often the only reason we were a marquee team.  And this is how you treat him? 

This is how you treat ANY human being that is injured so severely they may never play again? 

Shameful.

Now

While Junie and her friend continue to . .. whatever this is,  I'm out on a walk with Sawyer . There may or may not be Pokémon involved 

Laborfest 2023

On Labor Day, despite temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit , Junie and I went down to the Summerfest grounds to visit Labor Fest.

Our first activity was to play the musical fountains outside the Summerfest grounds but I did not think of taking a picture of that. That's a shame cuz it was actually a lot of fun. Once inside the festival grounds the heat was pretty darn incredible and the sparse population reflected that. We quickly got  some ice cream - black cherry for me, double chocolate for Junie

We wandered over to the Miller Light stage to listen to a band from the comfort of the severely limited shade available. I felt bad for the musicians as there were only a dozen or so people listening to them, but again that was because of the heat. In fact my ice cream cone melted so quickly, even in the shade, that I wound up having to throw more than half of it away. 

Then we grabbed some free popcorn courtesy of Local 139 and went and sat along the lakefront where a cool breeze and some shade made for some wonderful accommodations.

The seagulls made quite a beautiful sight as well, floating just overhead.

We sat there at the lake for quite a while and I must say I wish I could bottle the perfection I felt in those moments. Afterwards we attempted to go get a slice of pizza for lunch and so bought a prepaid card (no cash was accepted on the grounds but there was a booth where you could exchange cash for a prepaid Mastercard).  Alas it did not work at the restaurant and I didn't give enough F's to go through it all again. 

So I gave the card to Junie to buy herself a new Olivia Rodrigo shirt at Target, where we stopped after the festival (and after a trip to Walmarts pharmacy)

Heat wave be danged, it was a good time and we had fun together. 

Inga Swenson

Time and again I've meant to memorialize Inga Swenson, and each time I have dropped the ball. She deserved better. 

Swenson, age 90, passed away July 23rd, with her husband of 70 years at her side. 

I knew her as Gretchen Kraus, the sharp tongued German housekeeper on Benson, whose battles of wit with the titular character eventually grew into mutual respect and friendship. By the end of show's run Kraus had become the state budget director, and Swenson herself had received 3 Emmy nominations. 

Swenson also played Hoss's late mother on Bonanza.  

RIP

A Walk With Huckleberry

I took Huckleberry for a solo walk this morning, and at the end of it stopped at the local bakery. I left him outside while I ordered, then sat and ate on their sidewalk patio. Huck did great. Elderly women who felt the need to praise and pet him without permission or caution, they weren't so great. But no harm no foul. 

And the Answer is . . . what exactly?

I don't mean to pick on Google, or the internet as a whole, because it is a FANTASTIC source of information on every subject you can imagine. It's just that sometimes the information needs . . . um...well, some double-checking. 

I can understand the one day difference in the calculations below (18,068 and 18,069) because of inclusive vs exclusive counting, but explain the rest.  And *don't* say "well, they must have forgotten leap days  because I assure you, I haven't been alive to see 55 leap years, much less 101 of them! LOL

A Walk with the Boys

Smiley and I went on for a walk with the doggos, in large part to gather Pokemon lol

Bon Appetit

Let it be known throughout the land:

This meal, imagined and financed by Lisa, and cooked by Smiley, is the bomb diggity.

Smashed red potato drizzled with oil and baked with fresh parmesan, a side of grilled mushrooms and onions, and hand to heart, cube steaks so tender you could have poured them into a cup and drank them like wine. 

Bravo!

Gooodbye to Southgate and Showtime

Yesterday was the last day of operation for three Marcus theaters, two of them in the Milwaukee area. To my knowledge, it has more to do with Covid-era changes than any fallout from the current Hollywood strike. 

Southgate, pictured above, was where Lisa and I first saw Titanic on its opening night in 1997, and many other films over the years. In the last decade or so it had become a little wild for my taste, and so we had moved on to Southshore, but we still occasionally saw a film there. 

Showtime, another casualty, was a bit of a drive but once it was absorbed by Marcus and became a budget priced showhouse, it became my go-to with the kids every Monday night in the pre-Covid years. 

Unfortunately, after Covid Marcus made it a first-run, full price theater again. That was a curious call, since it lacked the Dreamlounger seating of other showhouses and was forevermore the odd man out. Even so, I saw John Wick 4 there with LuLu earlier this year. 

I enjoy the experience of watching a film on the big screen, in the presence of a full room of people. I cringe when I hear of theaters closing, and I hope this is the last of the losses for the near future. 

RIP

Lunch with Nolan and Throh

Recently Smiley pressured me to download and start playing Pokémon Go again, as he and YaYa are pretty avid fans. I acquiesced and brought up my old Level 5 account from 2016 - which was really Smiley's at the time, because he was too young for a phone - and I've already advanced to level 20 in a short time. 

Today at work I took lunch on the patio with Nolan, and look who decided to join us - my boi Throh!