This Just In...

Samir Patel, a 13-year-old Texan favored to win the National Spelling Bee didn't even make it to the nationally televised final round Thursday night. He slipped up on "clevis" (which he spelled in an entirely sensible way: C-L-E-V-I-C-E).

"I just outsmarted myself. It was an easy word. I just made a stupid mistake," he told reporters afterward.

Samir, known for his hyper-happy displays of emotion when he spelled words correctly, was denied in his fifth attempt to win the title. He's finished as high as second -- and finished third another year.

His mother appealed his ouster, but officials turned it down.

About that appeal, a person identified as Ladyjo wrote in to USA TODAY:

his mother appealed? because her kid spelled a word wrong?? Whats the matter with people accepting failure???? Why cant she just admit and accept her kid made a mistake and stop the blubbering and boo hooing like some spoiled little baby? Next thing you know its going to be some racial thing why he lost and there will be some lawsuit or some stupid thing like that, just so he can 'succeed'. Success cant be bought, or earned through lawyers and pouting. You get it through hard work and truthful determination. So the kid missed a word. DEAL WITH IT!!!!


Ladyjo may have a point.

Isabel Jacobson of Madison was one of the last three finalists in the National Spelling Bee contest tonight, but stumbled on the word, “cyanophycean.”

That’s okay. Heck, even Greg Kowalski would have had trouble with that one.

Before being eliminated, Isabel nailed her first two words. I’m told by some colleagues that the public address announcer was giving updates during the Madison Mallards minor league baseball game tonight in Madison.

Congratulations, Isabel for an outstanding performance!

I’ve been asked to weigh in on tonight’s important Plan Commission meeting.

Since it starts in less than an hour, I’ll be succinct.

1) Months ago, I was the first local blogger to express disappointment in a Target being selected for the Shoppes of Wyndham Village development. Not horrible, but not great. Target isn’t a Macy’s, Younker’s, Nordstrom’s, or Crate and Barrel. But it won’t turn Franklin into a ghetto.

2) Franklin is getting not one, but two Sendik’s stores. That’s a coup. Sendik’s is big stuff. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that a quality retail outlet will be included.

3) I understand people want a representative site that is environmentally sound and pleasing. But we need to be reasonable, and I hope that will be the tone tonight. Getting noses out of shape because there might be too many parking spaces or people will hear the slamming of car doors is not reasonable.

4) Unreasonable is the angst about the breakdown this week of the city of Franklin web site. Some people smelled a big controversy and a future Oliver Stone movie. Time to relax, folks.

5) I consider Mark Carstensen to be an honest, committed businessman who genuinely wants this project to succeed and fulfilling of the needs of Franklin residents.

6) And finally, I have to shake my head at all the consternation about this development just not being good enough, not upscale enough. Where was this crowd when a gas station, yes, a gas station was selected and is now going up in record time at the corner of 51st and Rawson? Not a peep out of anyone about aesthetics, the environment, noise. Not a single concern or question raised about whether a gas station is the wisest economic development choice for a prime location in Franklin’s future downtown. Go figure.

Be reasonable everyone, and here’s hoping for a productive meeting.

Little Isabel Jacobson of Madison has made it to the finals of the National Spelling Bee. The 14-year old is one of the 15 finalists in the annual spelling contest.

The finals will be televised live tonight on ABC from 7:00-9:00.

If you are not attending the special Franklin Plan Commission meeting at 7:00 tonight, you may want to tune in.



HAVE YOU VOTED IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY?

That's I-S-A-B-E-L......J-A-C-O-B-S-O-N.



HAVE YOU VOTED IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY?

I know you’re upset about high gas prices, but who do you blame?

Are you mad at the evil oil companies?

Governor Doyle thinks oil companies are worse than the devil. He wants to impose a tax on oil companies that he’s confident will get back at them for making so much doggone money. Never mind the fact that anyone who’s taken an Economics 101 course will tell you the oil companies will either reduce their supplies in Wisconsin or just pass the tax onto consumers. Doyle poses for holy pictures, grandstands by blasting BIG OIL, and hopes that ticked off motorists will see him as their knight in shining armor.

So how evil are the oil companies? How justified are consumers in wanting to see executives boil in their own oil?

Let’s analyze, shall we….

Credit for what I’m about to write goes to an old friend, Steve Baas. Baas used to work with me in the state Capitol on the state Assembly side. He now works for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

"Oh, sure," you left wing liberals are bellowing. "He’s one of those business guys, looking down their noses at the little people."

Sorry to disappoint the lefties but Baas did his homework, he did the research, and unlike the liberals who Johnny Carson used to joke are to “the left of mayonnaise,” he has actual facts to back up what he found and what I’m about to tell you. The lefties, like my colleague on Channel 10’s InterCHANGE, Kathleen Dunn, like to throw up their hands and shout, “You know, those no good oil companies just make too darn much money. It isn’t fair! It isn’t fair! It isn’t…….sniff…..fair I tell you!”

If we can dispense with the crying towel and go to the substantive facts, please.

When Governor Doyle wanted to subpoena executives from five major oil companies to testify about their operations, Baas found out that according to Standard and Poor’s, the five companies’ current average profit margin (at that time, the end of 2005) was 8.15%. Today, it’s about 9%.

Now some of you might be hollering and cursing that 9% is just too damn big of a profit. Oh really. Is it?

At the time Governor Doyle started going after EVIL oil companies with their roughly 9% profit margin, guess what………….?

McDonalds’ profit margin was larger, you might even say supersized at 11.8%. Funny….I’ve not seen protests outside any Golden Arches. I still see lots of vehicles in the drive-thru (idling and burning up $3-plus fuel).

How about Milwaukee’s pride and joy, Harley Davidson. While big, bad, evil, good for nothing greedy oil companies were grabbing a 9% profit, Harley was earning…..cue Steppenwolf……a profit margin of 16.93%! How dare they! Shut ‘em down! Let’s boycott Harley!

What about another local firm that does quite well that we can and should be proud of……GE Healthcare. Oh my God! They had a profit margin of……… (lefties are going to have a heart attack)…….17%!!

THAT’S TWICE THE PROFIT OF EVIL OIL COMPANIES!!!!!!!!

Oh the pain, the pain, the pain, it’s not right, they should have given it all to homeless shelters.

And now, another…..(the lefties hate this)………FACT.

The oil companies make 22 cents on each gallon of gas sold in Wisconsin. Jim Doyle and the state of Wisconsin make……..39 cents on each gallon of gas sold in our state.

So, WHO is gouging WHOM?

Businesses are in business to…what? I’m sorry, liberals. The answer is not to provide workers $50 an hour or a minimum wage of $20 an hour.

The answer is …………………..TO MAKE A PROFIT.

The oil companies are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. So are McDonald’s, Harley Davidson and GE Healthcare. They are to be congratulated for a job well done.

They can use their profits to invest, expand, create more jobs, put more money in the pockets of their employees who will then enjoy a higher quality of life.

So you see, you shouldn’t be mad at the oil companies. Be angry with a Governor whose ill-advised tax on oil companies would increase the state’s horrendously high gas tax by 5-7 cents, making it even more expensive to drive.

Again, my thanks to Steve Baas for supplying factual information that I could use against the oh-so clever argument….………………….” They’re just so big and greedy!”




DO YOUR CIVIC DUTY. SHOW SOME COMMUNITY PRIDE. VOTE IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY

Yesterday I posted that ethanol would cause the price of margaritas to go up.

It gets worse.

If you didn’t hate ethanol before, this might change your mind.


HAVE YOU VOTED IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY?

You can’t smoke here. You can’t smoke there. Ban smoking here, there, and everywhere.

Wouldn’t you love to put Governor Doyle in a room, tie him to a chair and make him look at this, just to drive him nuts….

During a webcast Tuesday afternoon, there was quite an exchange between Midwest Airlines investors and analysts and Midwest chairman Tim Hoeksema.

Richard Hurowitz, who runs Octavian Advisors that owns six percent of Midwest stock, urged Hoeksema to start negotiations with Air Tran. Air Tran is involved in a hostile takeover attempt of Midwest.

"Why are you reluctant to negotiate?" Hurowitz said to Hoeksema, pointing out that 56 percent of Midwest shares have been pledged to AirTran.

Hoeksema wouldn’t budge. He told Hurowitz AirTran's latest offer of $13.25 per share isn’t good enough. He also said Midwest’s improvement plans will net around $30 million annually to the airline in the future.

Hurowitz kept at it, but Hoeksema reportedly kept his cool.

You can read more of the details here.

We know ethanol has led to a big increase in the price of corn. Grocery prices have gone up, too, because of the demand to use corn in the production of ethanol.

But hold on to your sombrero.

Looks like the price of margaritas will now go up.

Why?




WHO HAS THE BEST BAR FOOD IN THE AREA? VOTE IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY

Going postal: An American English slang term, used as a verb meaning to suddenly become extremely and uncontrollably angry, possibly to the point of violence.

I do not condone violence, but a recent trip to the Greendale Post Office made me pause and feel some sympathy for postal workers who possess a collective reputation of having never attended a Dale Carnegie course.

A customer with a heavy accent was at the counter, and I was next in line. There was only one postal worker on duty at the counter at the time.

The customer asked for a flag.

The puzzled government employee (Yes, I realize that goes without saying) replied, “You want a flag?”

“Yes, flag.”

The customer then proceeded to explain the last set of stamps he bought had flags on them.

“Ohhhhhh,” said the no longer as-confused postal worker. He reached into his drawers, (okay, stop that chuckling) and pulled out a sheet of stamps with American flags.

All better, right?

Uhhh, no.

The postal worker understood, but his customer was now baffled.

“That’s not it, that’s not right,” the customer mumbled.

“What do you mean?” said the employee, who went into a state of agitation in an instant. “You asked for flags. Those are flags.”

“They’re different,” shot back the customer.

“Different…different how?” asked the worker.

These stamps had a different stamp design from the customer’s last set because the previous set was purchased before the rate hike went into effect. As the worker attempted to explain this to Mr. Befuddled, (“Stamps are now 41 cents, they used to be 39 cents”) the line of blue-hairs behind me, the postal worker and I weren’t ready for what was about to come next.

“Stamps are 41 cents? When did that happen?”

(Palm of my hand slaps my forehead).

“Two weeks ago.”

“When?”

“TWO WEEKS AGO.”

“They’re 41 cents now?”

“Yes, 41 cents.”

The guy obviously doesn’t get CNN.

He then proceeded to confirm his order of a sheet of stamps with the American flags, and pulled out a credit card to pay for them, signed the receipt, and took his stamps.

Story over, right?

Uhhh, no.

The customer now was transformed back into perplexed mode.

He explained that he had two letters at home that needed to be mailed.

Postal worker with eyes rolling in his head looked at him and said the plainly obvious.

“Well now you’ve got stamps to put on the letters you ignoramus!”

Okay.

I admit.

I added the words, “You ignoramus.” The worker didn’t say that, but you know he had to be thinking it.

“No, no, no,” replied the Rhodes Scholar. The letters he had back home already had the 39-cent stamps on them and he hadn’t mailed them yet. (Why, I have no idea. The genius didn’t fill us in on that).

“Well you can’t mail them,” said the worker.

“I can’t.”

“No, you can’t! You need two cents more on each letter.”

“Ohhhhhhhhh…..”

I wasn’t sure if that was a light bulb slowly going on or the poor guy simply realized it was his turn to keep up the scintillating conversation.

“Do you want some two cent stamps?”

“Uhhhhhh, yah.”

“You want two of them?”

“Yah yah.”

“That’ll be four cents.”

Pause.

Pause continues.

Pause has now become lengthy pause as customer stands motionless.

Oh no, I say to myself.

“I have no money.”

“You have no money?!”

“I have no money.”

“Well then you can’t have the stamps.”

“No, I pay them for with card.”

“You want to pay for them with a credit card? You want to charge four cents?”

“Yah, I leave home without any money, ha ha.”

Yep, real funny.

When the customer finally said, “Tank you,” the exasperated worker didn’t even wait until the customer had walked away. He looked at me, as if thanking the Lord Almighty for a new customer and said imploringly, “Can I help you?”

“One stamp,” I answered back without hesitation.

I plunked down 51 cents on the counter. All that waiting allowed me plenty of time to prepare.

The employee couldn’t help but smirk as he gazed at the two quarters and a penny, put the single stamp down, looked up at me and inquired in a semi-sarcastic tone, “You wanna charge that?”

“No, I don’t want to charge it.” I heard the blue hairs giggle. He placed the stamp on my letter and I offered this before I walked away that brought a chuckle from the postman:

“The day I use a charge card to pay for a postage stamp, just shoot me.”

It was only when I finally got to my car that I realized what I had said to that frustrated postal worker.

The Franklin-Oak Creek sports rivalry continues this Thursday when the two schools meet in the next round of the WIAA girl’s soccer tournament.

We now know where the teams will play. The game is scheduled Thursday afternoon at 4:30 at Oak Creek High School. This makes sense because Oak Creek is the #1 seeded school in the bracket, Franklin is seeded #2.

This rivalry is probably nowhere near as intense as football or basketball, but hey, it’s Franklin vs. Oak Creek, #1 vs. #2. And it’s the state tournament. That makes it a big game.

During the Miss Universe Pageant last night held in Mexico City, Miss USA Rachel Smith of Tennessee slipped and fell.

Watch the video of her fall and later, during the interview segment, hear the boos and heckling from the idiots in the Mexican audience.

Ignorant fools.

Barry Bonds just keeps giving more reasons to root against him. His latest “Mr. Congeniality” quote:

“I take care of me.”

Read about the details of his remark here.

Could Miss USA have fared better in the Miss Universe pageant if not for a "slip-up?"

How many points/positions do you lose for what happened to Rachel Smith?

The name Ben Weisman is probably not very familiar, but Wiseman was one of the most important figures in popular music.

Weisman composed or co-wrote more than 50 songs for Elvis Presley, many of them songs for his films. The story goes that whenever Elvis was to do another movie, the call went to Weisman to crank out some tunes.

Because I’m an Elvis fan, I was sad to learn that Wiseman died on May 20. Here’s the obit from the LA Times:


Ben Weisman, 85; helped write many songs for Presley
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
May 23, 2007

Ben Weisman, a classically trained pianist who helped write nearly 60 songs for Elvis Presley, including many for his movies, has died. He was 85.

Weisman died Sunday of complications of a stroke and pneumonia at a long-term care hospital in Los Angeles, his family told the Associated Press.

Weisman, whom Presley nicknamed "the mad professor," wrote or co-wrote a string of gold- and platinum-selling songs for Presley, including "Follow That Dream" and "Fame and Fortune."

Among the 57 songs are "Got a Lot O' Livin' to Do" for the movie "Loving You," "Wooden Heart" for "G.I. Blues," "Rock-a-Hula Baby" for "Blue Hawaii" and "Crawfish" for "King Creole."

"It seems like a long time ago that it all got started," Weisman said in a 1993 interview with The Times.

"But I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was 1956, and I was writing songs for Hill & Dale Publishing in the Brill Building in New York City.

"At the time, even though my background had been in jazz, pop and classical music, I was writing a lot of country songs — sometimes two a day — for people like Lefty Frizzell, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb and Red Foley.

"One day my publisher, Jean Aberbach, called me into his office, told me that we had a new artist named Elvis Presley, and asked me to write some songs for him.

"So I watched Elvis on 'The Tommy Dorsey Show.' I didn't think it was anything special at first. I approached it the way I would any songwriting assignment, trying to figure out his range, and tried to get a feeling for his style. Then I sat down to write something for him."

He also wrote for other pop stars, including Barbra Streisand ("Love in the Afternoon"), Reba McEntire ("Silly Me"), Bobby Vee ("The Night Has a Thousand Eyes"), Conway Twitty ("Lonely Blue Boy") and the Beatles ("Lend Me Your Comb").

Weisman was born Nov. 16, 1921, in Providence, R.I., and raised in Brooklyn.

He studied classical piano as a teenager and at the Juilliard School and served as a music director for the Army Air Forces during World War II.

Services were pending.



Weisman wrote “Rubberneckin’” in 1969 for Elvis' film, “Change of Habit.” A few years ago, a remix of "Rubberneckin’" produced by DJ Paul Oakenfold became one of the most acclaimed remixes in music history. (Now remember, "Change of Habit" was a movie about nuns).

I think Weisman and Elvis would have loved the remix, and the video.


MORE ELVIS NEWS

Tonight the Miss Universe 2007 pageant takes place in Mexico City.

Miss USA is Rachel Smith of Tennessee.

Here she is at the Miss Universe fashion show, displaying her Elvis spirit.

I went to the Majestic theater in Brookfield for the first time this weekend.

Nice, very nice!

Great atmosphere, neat places to eat, very clean and comfortable.

It’s been referred to as a palace, a description that’s apropos.

As I enjoyed my first experience at Majestic, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be wonderful for the Marcus Corporation to open a facility like this in Franklin?

But then I got to thinking some more…..

That would mean three meetings in front of the Planning Commission.

And public hearings, at least two or three, where we could grill the developer over and over again.

Would there be a bike path on the property? By God, there better be.

How about plants? Got to have plants. And just the right kind of plants, and the correct amount, too. Bushes and trees and mulch as well.

I suppose there have to be those doggone…….GULP!!!.......parking spaces.

BUT NOT TOO MANY YOU UNDERSTAND! You create too many parking spaces, well, people will have to……. look at them and……..(trembling and quivering) walk on them.

To protect exposing innocent Franklinites to the evils of concrete, maybe we shouldn’t have parking spaces at all. Just set up a system where movie patrons would drive to the nearest park and ride lot, and we could just shuttle them in! That way we wouldn’t have so many people driving around in our fair community. All those cars and traffic……how nasty!

And if just one person could see the theater and/or its parking lot from their home, that’s too darn close and another site will have to be chosen.

Same holds true if someone can hear or see traffic from their backyard. Time to search for another location.

It probably would be a good idea not to have outside lights around the theater. That might be too distracting and too urban for Franklin.

Sure, a Marcus movie palace like Majestic WOULD and COULD be nice in Franklin……………………..until the Marcus Corp. decides to build somewhere else. Gee, I wonder why?

Police officer. Firefighter. Nurse. Paramedic. Public school teacher.

They’re all quite common. Tough, difficult, thankless jobs. I could never do what they do, so thank God for them.

How about one more profession taken for granted. How about military chaplain.

Norris Burkes, formerly a military chaplain, is now a hospital chaplain at the Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, California.

In an article in Christianity Today, Burkes writes about the unpleasant flashbacks of having to inform military families that their loved ones will not be coming home.

”They were flashbacks of barking dogs protesting our late-night arrivals on moonlit porches. Flashbacks of contorted people blurred by screen doors that they refused to unlatch. Flashbacks of the midnight screams of spouses, children, and parents as they were informed of their new reality.”

He writes about the fear known by every person who has served our country.

”It is a fear reenacted hundreds of times in the mind of the service member and their families. Despite the fear, they go, they do their jobs, and most of them come home. And yet some won't return.”

The chaplains go through extensive training, even exercises to prepare them on how to properly give military families the worst of news. Despite all the preparation and rehearsals, there’s no easy way to do it, yet they must.

You can read Chaplain Norris Burkes’ entire article here.




HAVE YOU VOTED IN OUR BEST DINING IN THE FRANKLIN-AREA SURVEY?

Sunday afternoon, I was hitting my remote control quite a bit, switching from the Indy 500 to the Brewers to the Phillies-Braves game.

The Phillies were smashing the Braves in Atlanta in the bottom of the ninth, 13-3. The Braves, who are in Milwaukee to begin a series with the Brewers this afternoon, quickly loaded the bases with nobody out in the hopes of a miraculous comeback.

That prompted Braves announcer Skip Caray to say the following:

”Why not………………….there’s nothing to do in Milwaukee on a Sunday night.”

In other words, so what if we have to catch a plane to fly to Brew City. Nothing exciting going on in that sleepy town, anyway.

Apparently Skip Caray forgets where the team that signs his paychecks came from.

Now I’ve always hated the Braves since they left Milwaukee. And to be clear, I use the word, “hate,” in a sports-sense.

I hate the Braves, I hate them calling themselves America’s team, I hate Ted Turner and Jane Fonda leading their fans in the not so-PC tomahawk chop, I hate wife-beating Bobby Cox (Braves manager), wife-cheating Chipper Jones (Braves third-baseman), etc., etc.

Skip Caray, understandably, was trying to be comical. But he was doing so at the expense of our hometown.

The Brewers and Braves both are suffering losing streaks. It’s time for the Brewers to bust out of theirs and extend Atlanta’s misery.

C’mon Brewers, kill the Braves!!! (Of course, I only mean that in a sport-sense).

Barry Bonds hit the 746th homer of his career Sunday. Bonds is now 9 home runs away from tying Henry Aaron’s all-time home run record of 755.

Here are some more #’s about Bonds, from a recent column in Newsweek by George Will:

”According to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports," Mike Murphy, equipment manager of the San Francisco Giants, testified that since Bonds became a Giant in 1993, the size of his uniform jersey has gone from 42 to 52. His cap size has expanded from 7 1/8 to 7 1/4, even though while it was expanding he shaved his head. (Bonds reportedly shaved his head because his hair was falling out as a result of steroid use.) And Fainaru-Wada and Williams also say Murphy testified that Bonds's baseball shoe size has changed from 10½ to 13.

Steroids, human growth hormone (HGH) and other performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) can cause gradual enlargement of bones in the feet, hands, face, jaw and skull. Bonds has never failed a steroid test, but there is no reliable test for HGH, and chemists concocting PEDs also devise masking ingredients to defeat tests.”

Here’s the entire column.