Point Made

If there ever is a conversation with my wife Maria that frightens me, it's one that slowly gets around to how much better life might be if we lived in (fill in the blank). The pull-down choices could be; another state, city or house, but they all require multiple trips to Lowes for boxes and tape. Happily, I haven't heard much of this kind of talk, as we will celebrate one year in our W. Commercial Street abode next month. Note, I said, I haven't heard much of this kind of talk. With Maria, there is always a stream of conscious, speaking out loud, musings about the potential benefits of places and homes in which we do not live. Let me illustrate. Imagine you are on a cross-country road trip. You see a rest stop and pull over to use the bathrooms and buy a soda from the vending machine. Next to the vending machine is the "you are here" map and next to that is the rack of tri-fold brochures that extoll, things to do, local sites to see and events to atten...

Imagine, you have a spring football workout. On the field, you have athletes that rank from outstanding college players to possible draft choices in the NFL. They are all broken down into different positions. Each position has a specialty coach. The playbook for the offense, defense, and special teams is sitting in each players locker along with their uniforms, helmets and protective gear. The coaches expect the players to be in top physical condition, which entails hours of conditioning. The various teams work on their game simulations. There is the classroom work "putting it up on the board"play description, film review of past performance and player grading. Then imagine the head coach saying that he is proud of the effort the players and coaches are putting out and he is hopeful they will actually get to play some games next season, but so far nothing has been scheduled. Top flight athletic programs don't exist that don't have the...

My wife, Maria and I write a monthly column about theater for Appleton Monthly magazine. The theater is one of the areas of common interest that we have shared from the beginning of our relationship. We went to Attic Theater here in the Valley. Often we traveled to Milwaukee, Chicago and NYC for performance. When we moved to Milwaukee we were season ticket subscribers to Next Act theater and we also went to selected performances at the Rep, In Tandem and so many storefront theaters, I can't even remember all of their names. Why live theater? I 've heard many of the reasons why not. I just rather watch TV. I don't like crowds. It's too expensive. If the actors were any good they would be in Movies or TV. It's downtown at night that's dangerous. While all of these excuses sound dismissive they are at their heart just excuses. The funniest reason I've ever heard of about going to the theater is that it's like going to an automobile race. It's possib...

Do you remember getting a Driving under the Influence? One of the possibilities that confronted me for years was being charged with drunk driving. I'm an admitted alcoholic. I started drinking when I was about thirteen. At that time it was with the tacit permission of my elders. My journey began with the glass of 7up with a little wine at the holiday or the sip of beer at a picnic kind of initiation. My father was an alcoholic. I actually quit before he did, but his experience and the model all of the important men in my life gave me permission to drink. I will always remember Robin Williams discussing his drug problem. He told the interviewer, "First it was fun. Then, it was fun with problems. Then it became just problems." Well said. It applies to any addiction. It is a statistical fact, many if not most drug and alcohol addictions are an attempt by the addict to self-medicate for other problems. I quit to quit. I didn't lik...

A lot has been written about the movements that seem to be gaining momentum in our nation. I have, as I'm sure many of my progressive friends have wondered when Joe Sixpack would realize that Prayer in School is and always was optional. Did it make a difference if everyone in the room said the same prayer to the same God? Or was it possibly more important that no one would get persecuted for saying a silent prayer asking for divine guidance on the math exam? How long would we have to wait until pro-life people would realize that in their families they had some control over the reproductive process and that it was clearly no business of theirs what went on in other families? There is no law that says you have to have an abortion. It is a choice. Not everyone is a math major or an economist, but sooner or later the concept of giving more money to the rich and hoping the benefits would trickle down should have disproved itself in the free market. And now, we...

"Ah, she knows me so well.'" Some of you know that I have this new gig. It started when the publisher of Appleton Monthly Magazine called on my wife Maria at the Paper Discovery Center. Maria is the Executive Director of this museum and learning center in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the course of the conversation, he asked if she knew anyone who might like to write about theater in the Fox Valley. She told him she thought that she and I might be up to the task. Her thinking was we could collaborate on the ideas for the column. After which, I would write she would edit. A good choice, given her schedule, wouldn't allow the time to research, interview for and compose the columns. Reversing the roles would be a disaster. She can write as well if not better than I can but my copy editing skills...? Let's just say, thankfully there is Grammarly. We have been doing this six months. I have to say for me, it has been a great learning experience. I've interviewed so...

Taste Article for Appleton Monthly May 2018 Breakfast Anyone? By Jeffrey Jordan The history of the sparkling clean and friendly Apple Valley Pancake House restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue in Appleton, Wisconsin, starts in a mountain village in the Balkans. A young man migrates to a city and learns to be a welder. His friends invite him to join them as they migrate to the United States. His boss tells him,”Stay here, I will pay you more. Besides, you won’t like it there.” He thanks the man, but he packs up his wife,   three children and he moves to the US ending up in Chicago.   His first job was washing dishes for ten or twelve hours a day seven days a week. At this point he agreed with his former employer,   he didn’t like it here. But he saved some money, got some help from a relative and opened a restaurant in Edgerton outside of Madison Wisconsin. Content to make maybe a thousand dollars or so a month, he was surprised when he made thousands of dollars per ...