JR Manning

The very best oldies station in the state of Wisconsin is WOLX out of Madison. Their transmitter is in Baraboo and covers a great deal of the state.

When I used to commute between Milwaukee and Chippewa Falls, on the way home, I could pick up the signal just south of Eau Claire, somewhere around Black River Falls, and I had the signal until about a mile from home, sometimes all the way into my driveway. During a heavy ice storm one year, the tower in Baraboo fell over and they were forced to rent time on another, shorter tower, cutting their range. After the tower was restored, the signal seemed to get stronger and, in fact, I can actually pick up WOLX in the house, and in the car, sometimes on the west edge of Milwaukee County, down as far south as the zoo. That’s quite a journey for an FM signal!

On Saturdays, the offerings on the Milwaukee radio dial are abysmal. Wisconsin Public Radio goes from good to claptrap, back to good to claptrap again, so once Calling All Pets, Dr. Zorba, Car Talk and Whadya Know? are over, WPR reverts to awful, so I can’t stand to leave that on. (Incidentally, Dr. Zorba’s announcer is a bonehead, so I only listen to the good doctor.) Except for sports broadcasts, AM offerings are wonderful if you happen to be a gardener, have an investment portfolio bigger than a breadbox, if you’re a PC bit chaser or you’re planning on remodeling or building a house. For the rest of us? YAWN.

I was so pleased to find that the new radio that I put into the kitchen could pick up WLOX, so that became the standard Saturday radio station, when they usually pick a year and play everything that made the charts that year. It’s grand!

Until today - WOLX has shifted to all Christmas music, all the time.

C’mon, Guys, it ain’t even Thanksgiving yet.

PS - Wisconsin Public Radio has two networks, one for classical music and one for yak. We have at least three public radio stations in the market that carry the yak network, but none of them carry the classical music network. After WFMR went away, you would think the management of one of those stations would see a nitch that needed to be filled, but no, they insist on competing with the other public stations with the very same yak network. It’s a perfect example of how government has no concept of running a successful business. One of the public stations offers the classical network on their digital broadcast, like anyone actually owns a high definition digital radio.

On October 18, 1767, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed a four year project that was designed to end a bloody border dispute between the colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Using astronomical devices, (One called the Zenith Sector was designed especially for the project) and precision surveying instruments, they set out to define the boundary between the two colonies. They were also contracted to survey the boundary between Delaware and Maryland, which is part of the Mason-Dixon Line, but today, it is mostly overshadowed by the Pennsylvania line.

Approximate Location of the Mason-Dixon Line. Right-click to view the entire map.

The line was set from a point 15 miles south of Philadelphia and headed 243 miles west to a point that is between Pennsylvania and modern West Virginia. Every mile along the line, the Mason and Dixon crew placed large, cube-shaped stones with a P engraved on one side and an M on the other. Every fifth stone, in the shape of an obelisk, spelled out the names of the colonies and also bore the coats of arms. 241 years later, many of the stones are missing, but many are still there.

Mason and Dixon faced uncountable obstacles, marshes, mountains, rivers, weather and hostile natives, not to mention hostile colonists, but laid out the line in a four year project. It remains a monumental feat.

Two modern day surveyors, Todd Babcock and Dilwyn Knott, began to document the line in 1992. Armed with modern surveying tools and a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, they went looking for the stones laid by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Some were surrounded by iron fences, some had sunken into the earth, some were stolen or otherwise missing, most were badly deteriorated and some were damaged as a result of target practice. Each stone weighed between 300 and 500 pounds, so lifting one and taking it away was no small feat. (Today, many of the extant markers are on private property, so if you want to see any of the markers, you might want to avoid getting a butt full of buckshot and look for the ones that have public access. There is a link at the end of this post.) They actually found one that was long ago reported missing - by using their calculations of where the stone should be, they went digging in a plowed field and located it well below grade.

While the effort of Mason and Dixon was a monumental feat, Babcock and Knott’s accomplishment of finding the markers is no small feat, either. They seem a little embarrassed that their project of locating and documenting the line took far longer than the original surveying took. “It’s a hobby for us, they got paid,” one of them said to the National Geographic.

The Mason-Dixon Line is the traditional dividing line between slave and free states, the demarcation of southern and northern states, and the punchline of an old joke that calls it the boundary between “Y’all” and “Youse guys.” It is still a most interesting piece of American Colonial history.

There is an excellent website about the line and their project out there, it is a little hard to find unless you follow this link: Mason Dixon Arrive Magazine. You’ll find information about Babcock and Knott and photos of the markers.

A couple of weeks ago, Barack Obama told us that we are an embarrassment because people come to the United States and speak English, but when we go to their countries, all we can say is, “Merci beaucoup.”

He gave a speech today in Berlin. He delivered it in English.

Bitte?

So said River City, Iowa’s Mayor Shinn in Meredeth Wilson’s The Music Man. How right he was, because you never know when your phraseology will come back to bite you in your butt.

State Senator Alberta Darling has served in the Senate since 1992 and has been re-elected three times. (She won a seat in the Assembly in a special election in March, 1990, and won the seat the regular Election that Fall.) Her Senate seat comes up again this Fall, and her seat has been targeted by the Democrats, a risky proposition in a very conservative district. Senator Darling is a cancer survivor, she exercises regularly and promotes fitness.

Her opponent, Sheldon Wasserman, started a rather smarmy campaign a few weeks ago, a whispering campaign claiming that Senator Darling was ill and too sickly to serve the rigors of the state Senate.

Besides being despicable, the whispering campaign is just untrue.

Yesterday, at the US Bank Championship, several celebrity events were held prior to the start of the golf tournament today. Amongst other events was a golf ball driving contest.

Sheldon Wasserman drove the ball 135 yards.

Alberta Darling drove the ball 153 yards.

Oops.

The entire state of Wisconsin has been under attack by weather the last several days. It seems like just about the time one storm center passes over, another one arrives. The ground is saturated and there is nowhere for rainwater to go anymore.

The Kickapoo River is completely over its banks. I-94 was closed for some time because the Crayfish River was within inches of the roadway. A berm gave way near Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton is completely drained - seriously impacting the tourist industry there. A dam is threatened in Mukwanago, forcing the closing of a state highway. Incredible flood damage is being cleaned up all over Milwaukee County.

Photos by Mark Parmalee

And where was the leader of the emergency government yesterday, the Governor of Wisconsin, Diamond Jim Doyle?

Playing golf at his campaign fundraiser.

Link: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, although, the story was broken by Mark Belling on his WISN Radio program this afternoon.

Milwaukee recently unveiled a $15.8 million overhaul of the poorly designed and ugly “union station” that was built back in the 1960’s. It was built to be a “union station,” that is, one station to replace the beautiful old Chicago & Northwestern station that morons tore down, and to replace the Milwaukee Road station so everyone could board all trains from one inconvenient spot. It was clean, shiny and new when it was built but despite all that, it was ugly, too. It didn’t get any better with age. Most of it was unused when multi-road passenger service degenerated, in more ways than one, into Amtrak.

The new station has been dubbed an “Intermodal Station” which means that they also crammed the bus terminal in with the trains. “Intermodal Station” is one of those new, feel-good terms, like “vertical transport engineer” or “sanitation technician” which are still just elevator operators and garbage collectors.

The designers and operators of the Internodal Station have 3,487 square feet of space reserved for “retail space.”

Who actually uses the Intermodal Station? It’s people who can’t wait to get to it so they can get out of it. Someone is either dropped off in front to get on a train or a bus or, if they arrive on a train or a bus, they can’t wait to get out front and catch their ride or a cab - their goal is to get in and get out as quickly as possible.

What does someone between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 AM want in an Intermodal Station, besides to catch the Hiawatha to Chicago? A cup of coffee. A donut or two. Maybe an Egg McHockeypuck. Just hurry it up, give me my coffee and a donut, so I can get on the train already.

What does someone between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM want in an Intermodal Station, besides to catch the Hiawatha to Chicago or maybe catch a bus? A sandwich. A can of soda. A bag of chips. Let me grab something and get on the train, and I’ll have a nice, leisurely lunch on the 90 minute ride to Union Station in Chicago.

Speaking of Union Station in Chicago, what does one pass on the way to the Hiawatha? A newsstand that is combined with a convenience store and a McDonalds. If one walks a little out of their way, they can find a coffee place, a donut place, an ice cream place, a shoe shine rack and, surprise surprise, a couple more newsstands combined with convenience stores.

All just exactly what a traveler wants.

But not Mayor Tom Barrett and Alderman Bob Bauman. Nope. They want a fancy, sit down restaurant to make the beautiful new Intermodal Station a destination. A train station or a bus station has never been a destination and never will be a destination. Are these two guys nuts?

“You don’t spend $15.8 million to build an iconic structure and have a Dunkin’ Donuts as your primary food service,” Bauman said. “This should be a destination restaurant location.”

Mayor Tom Barrett agreed, saying, “C’mon, we can do better than this. . . . This is our building of first impressions for people who get off the train. We don’t want our first impression to be, ‘Is this all there is?’ ”

An “iconic structure?” It’s a train station, for crying out loud. This is not one of the Union Stations in Kansas City or Cincinnati, where the beautiful old buildings have been restored to better than former glory and house lots of destination places like museums and special events. Milwaukee blew that opportunity 40 years ago when the Northwestern station came down.

As beautiful, shiny and new as this building is today, let’s face it. Buses are dirty. Trains are dirty. Exhaust is dirty. Winter salt and dirt coming off the 6th street bridge is dirty. This shiny, white building will become just another downtown building in 10 years.

Forget the sit-down restaurant, anyone dumb enough to try to operate one in the Intermodal Station will go broke with no customers. Why? If I’m going to a nice restaurant for dinner, I’m not going to the airport or the train station or the bus station. I go to the Intermodal Station for one reason - to get on or off the Hiawatha. Just let me get my donut, my coffee or an egg-filled hockey puck and let me get on the train.

A sit down restaurant in a train station? That’s about the dumbest idea to come out of Milwaukee since Kilbourn and Juneau lined their streets up on different grids.

Forget the destination restaurant, Tom & Bob. A place for coffee, donuts and maybe a bagel are all we need.

When many of today’s movers and shakers were little kids, they were enthralled with a PBS Television show that was supposed to teach them how to be wonderful citizens. The show was called Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. One of the regular features of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood was the Neighborhood Trolley, the device that made the show transition from one scene to another - from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, through the wall to the Neighborhood of Make Believe, where benevolent King Friday ruled.

The little trolley, which resembles a San Francisco cable car, well, sort of anyway, was kind of a generic model of a public transportation vehicle that used to be popular in the United States. Even though Mr. Rogers’ little trolley seemed to have a mind of its own, it was tied to its tracks and traveled only between the two destinations - a fact that seems to have been forgotten. After all, a trolley can only go where its tracks go, a severe limitation at best.

While trolleys were a major component of public transportation at one time, trolleys are virtually extinct in the United States today. They fell out of favor with the rise of automobiles and buses, because trolley tracks run down the middle of traffic lanes in major thoroughfares. Trolley tracks still exist in many cities, long since paved over.The last operating trolley in the United States is in New Orleans. If you’ve ever driven in New Orleans and been stuck in the traffic that piles up behind the trolley, you instantly know why the rest of them are all gone.

Another type of trolley, often known as an interurban railroad, has also pretty much disappeared from American life. In Milwaukee, interurban lines once ran north to Sheboygan, west to Waukesha and Oconomowoc, southwest to East Troy and the North Shore ran to Chicago. Most of them failed in the 1940’s because no one was riding them. The North Shore, the interurban line that ran to Chicago, lasted into 1963 but it, too, succumbed to low ridership. When the Edens expressway opened in 1951, the first nail was in the coffin, and when the Northwest Expressway, now known as the Kennedy opened, the line hemorrhaged riders until there was just no one left to ride the rails.

Even though the interurbans and trolleys all failed, for some reason, the movers and shakers who grew up with Mister Rogers seem to think the Neighborhood Trolley is a good idea. They cannot believe a trolley is just a cute anachronism. Sadly for trolley fans, their day is past. Trolleys are useless, fixed to an inflexible route and unable to change once built. Regardless of the romance of building a trolley, the ignored fact is that far more people will not ride it than will ride it. Despite the millions of dollars that such a boondoggle would cost to build, the millions of dollars that it will require to subsidize the operating expenses, and the much more attractive alternatives offered by rubber tires, the fans of the trolley insist on installing one in every major city.

Well, why not? The real trolley will be just like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood trolley. Both will have the very same destination. The only difference is that the real trolley will carry millions upon millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars to the very same place as Mister Roger’s trolley:

The Neighborhood of Make Believe.

In my little neighborhood, development is finally slowing down, mostly because there’s not much open farm land left to develop. The subdivision next to me was the start of the ludicrous when they advertised the development with the catch phrase, “Leave the city behind, come to the country.” Of course, all the streets have gutters and sidewalks - so very rural.

The one that still drives me crazy was the development on either side of Division Road. There is a rise on Division Road, whether you are driving north or south on Division, you come to a hill that is high enough that you cannot see the top of it until you are almost to the top. You travel on a short plateau that is there, and then you go back down the hill.

The new developments enter from the top of the hill, on the short plateau, effectively creating a crossroads at the top. It’s a really dumb place for an intersection, but so it goes.

Division Road, long a divider between cornfields, had a speed limit of 40 MPH when the subdivisions were opened. Not long after the subdivisions opened, residents went to the village and complained that the speed limit on Division Road was too high. When attempting to pull out into traffic, the cars cresting the hill could not be seen until they were right on top of the poor driver trying to pull out.

In agreement, the village lowered the speed limit to 35 MPH, and although it took time to get used to it, I travel 35 MPH on Division Road. It’s better than having one the of subdivision residents for a hood ornament. Now, granted, I’m probably one of the more aggressive drivers you’ll encounter on freeways, but on local roads where there may be children around, I’m a speed limit kind of driver. It’s safer and in the long run, a lot cheaper in avoided fines and raised insurance rates.

As you might guess, I am often tailgated on Division Road by impatient drivers who wish to drive much, much faster. Invariably, they turn into, or out of, the very subdivision for whom the speed limit was reduced. Last week, I was traveling my usual 35 MPH on Division Road, the speed limit I would like to remind you, being tailgated by a moron in a green Toyota. The moron in the Toyota was being tailgated by a bigger moron in a Pontiac. At the far southern end of Division Road, it curves and widens with an extra southbound lane.

Where the road widens, the two morons almost hit one another trying to get around me. The moron in the Pontiac cut me off, slammed on the brakes like he wanted me to hit him, then he waved at me. He didn’t use all the fingers on his hand. I believe his horn also has a malfunction, because it seemed to be sounding for an unusually long time.

Of course, I also carry a pen and paper. I have his license number. So does the local police department. The police assure me that they’ve already had a conversation with him about his driving habits and are watching for him, as am I.

Of course, you know which subdivision the moron lives in, right?

Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a political operative and former power broker from Illinois, has just been convicted on 16 of 24 federal corruption charges. Link: Daily Herald.

Why is this of interest? Rezko is a friend and close associate of Presidential Candidate, Barrack Obama. The conviction follows closely on the heels of Obama claiming the Democrat nomination yesterday.

Rezko allegedly has numerous connections to both Obama and to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat who ran on a reform platform after former governor, George Ryan, was convicted of corruption charges. Blagojevich claims no involvement with Rezko and claims he has done nothing illegal, however, he is under federal investigation himself.

It will be very interesting to watch, over the next few days, how this story will play out. Pay attention to how the Obama campaign will shift spinmeisters into overtime to distance the candidate from Rezko. Let’s see how the McCain campaign handles this conviction or what they may, or may not, do with it.

Even more interesting to see is what Hillary Clinton does with this story.

Nothing even close to this has ever happened before. This story is big, it is going to get bigger, and we’re all in a position to watch history being created.