A Billion Dollars a Week

The Art Walk is this Saturday from 6-9pm downtown. Amidst all of the holiday activities this stands out as one of my favorites. Art is such a subjective thing. What appeals to one can be hated by another. I have an online contribution for the Art Walk. Here it is: http://home.comcast.net/~wizardofwhimsy

Fireworks and celebrations...
Oshkosh has fireworks Sunday night. Omro has theirs on Monday the 4th. The BIG ONE in the midwest is in Madison Saturday night. For the thrill of a lifetime go to Madison Saturday. They expect 300,000+ for one of the best displays in the country. They call it Rhythm & Booms since they combine the fireworks with music. The music is being provided this year by the Madison Symphony Orchestra with noted singer Sandi Patty. The music is broadcast live on WOLX-the oldies station there. People are encouraged to bring boom boxes to the fireworks. Imagine 75,000 boom boxes all tuned to the same station. They traditionally end the program with the bombastic '1812 Overture', complete with authentic Civil War cannons in the gala ending. For more go here: http://www.rhythmandbooms.com

Sawdust Days should be a good time. I have one concern regarding this. It's strange to go to an Oshkosh event and think that you are in St. Louis. That's right. St. Louis. Why are we Wisconsinites promoting beer from Missouri? The signs are everywhere for that cheap rice beer which I refuse to name. It's time to get Wisconsin beer sponsors for Sawdust Days if we have to drag them kicking and screaming into the fold. Do your part. If you imbibe, try to keep the money in Wisconsin. If you have visitors coming from out of town offer them a taste of Wisconsin. We've got some damn fine beer here: Point, Leinies, New Glarus, and my all time favorite any time of the year Huber Bock. Huber's premium brand is Berghoff. I'm impressed with the Huber Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin which in part is owned by its employees. http://www.huberbrewery.com



Mill Rate. There has been a lot of talk about this in the last week. Ever ask someone what a 'mill' is? A mill is 1/10 of one cent. It is that '9' at the end of the price at the gas pump. $229.9 is simply Two Dollars and 29 and 9/10ths cents a gallon. Do they teach this in school anymore? An old timer told me many years ago that when he was young the general store would make change RIGHT DOWN TO THE MILL. He said that the mill was a wooden coin, but couldn't verify if it was government issued or just used and made locally for the business. Do museums and coin collectors have these?

On freedom...
Bloggers in China had until Thursday of this week to register with the government. Some are already in jail for questioning China's government on a variety of issues. Here in the Untied Skates of America the issue de jour is flag burning.

FLAG BURNING should be kept legal. Anyone who wants flag burning to be a crime should move to Cuba where they have a wonderful law against desecrating the Cuban flag. Fidel locks them up for years. The changes in the last week here regarding "Eminent Domain" is going to breed a whole new group of folks willing to burn the flag. I say: put the flags on the graves on Memorial Day, if you need a few for Flag Day on June 14-the cemeteries have lots of them, and if the spirit moves you-burn a few on the 4th of July.

A BILLION A WEEK
Over one $billion is spent each week on this Iraq quagmire. What could we do if we chose to do something else with that money? What would it buy? That's the question I'm going to leave you with today. Think about it and write a line or two.

Happy 4th!