Stoogey

My father and uncle began attending Green Bay Packers games at the Wisconsin State Fair Milwaukee Mile racetrack in the early 1950s. The Pack wasn't doing very well financially and split their home games between Green Bay and Milwaukee. Watching the game on Sunday afternoon was a family tradition. My little sister's first words were, "Go Packer!" Since 1995, homes games exclusively at Green Bay. It must have been 1999 when my father asked me if I wanted his tickets. I don't know how long the wait is for season tickets. It's common for a father to register his newborn son hoping that by the time the kid is fifty, he'll have tickets to the game. Somewhere I read it was estimated at three hundred years. Most people inherit theirs. I told him no. If I wasn't going to the game with my dad, I wasn't going. Sell them to Uncle Ken. That way they'll still be in the family. As an aside note: My wife and I were visiting a friend's family. He asked if I'd like to go to the football game. "Sure, do you have tickets?" "No, we can pick some up at the box office." Whaaaaa .... I asked my dad why was he no longer interested. Partly because he could not justify the ticket prices and player salaries. He grew up during the Great Depression. When he started going to games, tickets were a couple of bucks. Players had jobs during the off season and worked after their NFL careers. Bart Starr owned a Lincoln Mercury dealership. Fuzzy Thurston and Max McGee owned a string of supper clubs. Dad said he was getting too old for winter games at Lambeau. At a December game at the old Milwaukee County Stadium, he asked me if I wanted to go "inside" for a hot chocolate. This was a guy who spent two years camping out during the Korean War. Then there was Brett Crybaby Favre. A prima donna. On the sidelines either he was constantly talking a stream of crap or clammed up and sulking. I remember him walking on the field for Super Bowl XXXII and the camera zoomed in. He had that petulant look about him. My dad said, "Damn it to hell. The Packers are going to lose." Only time I heard him swear. Turned off the TV and left the room. Only Super Bowl / AFL–NFL World Championship Game we didn't watch. Denver Broncos 31, Packers 24. Then Brett started that off season retirement or leaving for another team trashtalk. Sayonara, pal. Don't let the door hit you. My father passed away. Been to a few games with my uncle or cousins. I am getting to the point where I cannot justify spending as much on a football game as on a Rolling Stones concert.

The guy says, "That can't be my wife, sheriff. Betsy doesn't have guts coming out of her mouth." - Hustler cartoon, 1974.

Whoever is responsible for casting Jungle Boy deserves an award.

Interesting. It's been forty-five years since scouting; don't remember anything unpleasant other than the fine bones making it difficult to fillet. If you have the opportunity, try a fish boil. Found on the Door County peninsula. Seasonal and touristy but it is worth it for the whitefish. You may want to ask your server for less butter. As long as you are in the neighborhood, eat booyah at Kroll's West and then take a tour of Lambeau Field and visit the Green Bay Hall Of Fame across the street. The view from the top of the scoreboard is beautiful. They've been on the decline since the seventies. Many supper clubs started by GIs returning from WWII. Family lived above the club which is why some look kind of homey like a substantial residence. Dad was the chef, mom was the hostess, the kids were kitchen help. Usually a destination restaurant. If a supper club is in a city, it's usually due to population expanding. Dad and mom decide to retire and the kids don't want all the work involved. Two of my favorites bit the dust years ago. Club 113 and The Pyramid. Can't see it in the photograph - the family's living quarters were in the top of the Pyramid. Fox And Hounds downgraded to nice restaurant status. The Hob Nob looks promising. I'll give it a test drive this weekend as long as the wife is available. She's the brandy old fashioned sweet tester. I'm a dry martini man.

Supper clubs don't have fish fries. They're jacket and tie places. And it looks like we can downgrade Ishnala from supper club status. The white linen tablecloth was under a sheet of glass. Relish tray was crudités. Surf 'n' turf was steak and shrimp - not lobster. There were people who'd been to the Indian casino and were too loud and wearing tennis shirts. I've never seen walleye at a fish fry. Pike are considered more of a sport fish. I think the only time I've eaten it was at Boy Scout camp working on my fishing merit badge and that would have been one of those from the hook to cleaning to frying pan operations. When I was a kid, restaurants and taverns didn't have fish fries. Fish fries (or fish boils in the Green Bay area) were exclusively Catholic parishes on Fridays during Lent because of their religious dietary restrictions. Big chunks of whitefish from Lake Michigan. Lobster-like in texture and flavor. Commercial fishing was very important. Then foreign ships entering the Great Lakes via the new St Lawrence Seaway introduced invasive species by dumping ballast. Now fish fries have Atlantic cod and aren't limited to Fridays. Sometimes you'll have a choice between cod, bluegill or smelt. Instead of potato pancakes, usually served with french fries. No cherry cobbler for dessert.

Ellen.

Written by Cat Stevens. The original is by P P Arnold released May 1967. Stevens' version was released six months later. P.P. recently released her new solo album which is almost fifty years old. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/02/the-unlikely-return-of-pp-arnold-i-put-myself-in-gods-hands

Not a real nigga but my guess is some prison commissary delicacy.

I think the word we're looking for is gweilo. JAL is orderly and polite.

Hawkeyes. Based on the guy's shirt he was in the navy. The Edinburgh Diner. Off I-65, south of Indianapolis.

Because they can't afford Courvoisier.

Top ten pork producing states: Iowa - $4.2 billion Illinois - $1.54 billion Minnesota - $1.47 billion North Carolina - $1.46 billion Indiana - $1.04 billion Oklahoma - $952.7 million Missouri - $791 million Nebraska - $657.5 million Wisconsin - $605.2 million Ohio - $542.7 million The restaurant is off I-65 south of Indianapolis.

In associated news, fire raced through a Showbiz Pizza killing Rockafire Explosion keyboardist Fatz Geronimo.

The state drink is the brandy old fashioned sweet which has very little to do with an old fashioned except the glass. Served with two pimento stuffed green olives. The orange slices and cherries are not a garnish. They're muddled with the sugar cubes, gomme syrup and bitters. BOFS predates 7 Up or Sprite. Ideally sparkling water to avoid the sodium of club soda. Supper clubs, a special type of restaurant often confused with northwoods tavern by people from Illinois, are almost extinct. Similar to a fancy steak house but with a relish tray (four-story lazy susan with appetizers from crudité to hors d'oeuvre included free with the supper so think twice about the shrimp cocktail and bleu cheese wedge salad) entertainment with dancing and ice cream drinks for the ladies for dessert. Brandy Alexander, Grasshopper, Golden Cadillac, Pink Squirrel. Typically open Wednesday through Saturday late afternoons until 10:00pm. A couple was expected to spend the evening. If the menu didn't include surf 'n' turf (lobster and steak) or asparagus with hollandaise, it probably wasn't a supper club. No kiddie menu. The closest thing to the Madison area would probably be Ishnala. Deer hunting. At Packer games there are those weeks when the stadium is blaze orange. Fishing. Minnesota only has 10,000 lakes. Unusual glaciation. The Statue Of Liberty. USA most drunken cities based on percent of binge drinking, percent of driving deaths involving alcohol, premature death rate: 1. Appleton 2. Oshkosh-Neenah 3. Green Bay 4. Madison 5. Fargo, North Dakota 6. La Crosse – Onalaska 7. Fond du Lac 8. Ames, Iowa 9. Eau Claire 10. Mankato-North Mankato, Minnesota 11. Wausau 12. Sheboygan 13. Missoula, Montana 14. Grand Forks, North Dakota 15. Racine 16. Janesville-Beloit 17. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis 18. Lincoln, Nebraska 19. Iowa City, Iowa 20. Corvallis, Oregon Unfortunately, Wisconsin regularly places in the top ten for drunk driving. Alcohol is definitely part of the culture. Lots of places with names like Oconomowoc, Waukesha, Wauwatosa, Fond du Lac, Butte des Mortes. Always fun to watch a new anchor on the evening news screw up. In restaurants, butter is served. Margarine by request. America's Dairyland. Tiger meat or cannibal sandwiches. Cheese curds. Butter burgers. Frozen custard. Door County cherries. Poutine (technically Canadian but close enough). There are e few orchards with many different varieties of heirloom apples. Worth seeking out. Knowing the lyrics to Build Me Up Buttercup and Sweet Caroline.

Wives and the Stupid Shit They Say/Do is over there, Sam Shit. Yet every other sport I can think of every playing surface is the same measurements. What a stupid fucker.