Blog entries for jfoust

Concern for the environment takes many forms

jfoust — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:32:43 GMT

You may have heard about Rep. Jim Ott's talk on global warming titled "How Much of Global Warming is Hot Air," held in Fond du Lac and sponsored by the local Republican Party.

There's another opportunity to hear interesting speakers on the larger topic of the environment. The Edgerton Book & Film Festival, held October 13 and 14, 2007, has the theme "Responsible stewardship of the global and local community."

The keynote speaker is Madison's Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of "Deep End of the Ocean" and many other bestsellers.

She's followed by Dr. Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, Scientific American columnist and author of "Why People Believe Weird Things" and other titles, speaking on the topic "The Flipping Point: The Conversion of a Global Warming Skeptic."

Next is Jon Waterman, author of "Where the Mountains are Nameless" and the creator of an upcoming National Geographic Society Channel documentary on the effects of global warming in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. He will speak on "Global Warming: Oil Versus Wilderness & Climate Change in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

This year's recipient of the Sterling North Award for Excellence in Children's Literature is Wisconsin's distinguished Ben Logan, author of the classic book "The Land Remembers". Logan will speak as part of a panel with other Wisconsin naturalists.

The spiritual side of the natural world will be addressed by author Dr. Vigen Guroian, a theologian and author of "The Fragrance of God: Reflections on Finding God through the Beauty and Glory of the Natural World" and other books. Another speaker will be Dr. Russ Veitch, author of the classic college textbook "Environmental Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Perspective." There are many other authors on less environmentally-focused topics, too.

Sunday features several films, including Waterman's "Where the Mountains are Nameless", "Who Killed the Electric Car" and "An Inconvenient Truth." There's also two tracks of kid's films, plus the indie film winners of the Film Festival.

The festival is free. Speakers spend time autographing books. Audiences are small and intimate, so you may get a chance to shake hands and ask questions. There's another hall full of dozens of other local Wisconsin authors selling and signing their works as well. See the link below for the festival web site.

Edgerton is just off I-94 north of Janesville (exit at Newville where you cross the Rock River / Lake Koshkonong). It's 90 minutes from downtown Milwaukee (94 to 26 to N west), or less than 40 minutes from Madison or Beloit.

Give thanks for all the Mr. Wizards

jfoust — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:57:07 GMT

June 12 marks the passing of Don Herbert, best known as "Mr. Wizard."

Mr. Wizard was a teacher shared by millions. His career spanned six decades, first enriching the baby boomers in black-and-white and then color on NBC, then another wave of their children on Nick, then another wave into the 90s on DVD and a TV series for educators. We can all name a teacher who influenced us greatly, one whose demonstrations inspired and shaped the path we walk today, one whose explanations made clear what was once opaque. (I'm still having recurring nightmares about my high school physics teacher throwing chalk and erasers at me because I wasn't paying attention, but I'll be darned if I don't hear his voice every time I perform an equation's estimate in my head.)

Herbert's calm yet fun demeanor can be traced back to the Midwest. Although born just outside Minneapolis, Herbert graduated from Central High School in La Crosse in 1935, then from the La Crosse State Teacher's College in 1940, which became UW-La Crosse. With degrees in general science and English, he actually wanted to be a drama teacher. Moving to Chicago, he played on NBC radio in shows such as Jack Armstrong and Captain Midnight, then wrote dramatic scripts, then became a science reporter.

The first episode of Mr. Wizard appeared on Chicago television in March 1951, quickly growing in popularity. Within two years, it was required homework viewing in 290 schools. Within three years, there were more than 5,000 Mr. Wizard school clubs with a membership of more than 100,000. The series ran until 1965, revived again in '71-72, then again in the 80s on Nickelodeon, then again in the 90s as a series for educators.

Mr. Wizard begat Bill Nye, Beakman and Alton Brown, but more significantly, he spurred an interest in science and its application among millions of boys and girls. Hebert credited the success of the show to the one or two kids who'd join him in conducting the demonstrations.

Inspiring kids has such profound effects; the smallest thing can stick with them for the rest of their lives. I know I still have the slice of dino bone given to me by a Milwaukee Scout leader at least 40 years ago. I still have the manual from my favorite chemistry set - an old 50s set I used in the 70s, bought at a Shorewood rummage sale. I treasure my collected volumes of the Boy Mechanic books. They're kind of a cross between Mr. Wizard and the Boy Scouts, published in 1915 by Popular Mechanics magazine. Back then, the corner drugstore carried all sorts of dangerous chemicals for some hairy experiments that'll singe your eyebrows.

That's why I take great pleasure in giving presentations to elementary school classrooms on science-related topics. I cart my array of microscopes into classrooms, showing kids the critters in pond water. I was stunned to hear they'll teach a unit on microscopic life, yet there wasn't a microscope to be found in the entire school. I schlep tubs of my fossils to the summer library program to show kids what lived in Wisconsin millions of years ago. I give them packets of small fossils. I say it's to help start their own collections, but what I'm really hoping is to plant a seed for an appreciation of science. They don't need to grow up to be scientists, but they do need to know about how science is done. I've done less than a dozen presentations in a decade, but I regularly hear from kids who remember presentations I did at the start.

Last fall, I had a chance to thank one of those Mr. Wizard types in person, too - a professor Robert Greenler from UW-Milwaukee who organized the "Science Bag" series of demonstration lectures for the public for many years. He was autographing copies of "Chasing the Rainbow: Recurrences in the Life of a Scientist", his latest book. Another great demo-ing Wisconsin professor is Bassam Shakhashiri of UW-Madison and his "Science is Fun" lectures.

"Science" isn't a just noun used as the name of a class that some kids dread. Mr. Wizard showed how "science" is a verb. Seeing science done is fun!

Something special about the Milwaukee cruller

jfoust — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:36:35 GMT

Ask for a cruller, and you never know what you'll get.

In Milwaukee, it's a long dark cake-like fried doughnut.

Anywhere else, you might get a wispy pâte à choux like a cream puff in a ring, or a knotted or twisted bready doughnut, or a boomerang, or something that looks like one of the above but tastes like another of the above.

Check out my web page for pictures, close-ups and detailed explanations.

Video and cable debate heats up in Madison

jfoust — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:17:32 GMT

On March 27, 2007, a joint hearing took place at the Capitol to discuss a proposed "Video Competition" bill AB-207/SB-107. The hearing room overflowed with citizens deeply concerned about the threats posed by this bill. Most were associated with small-town "public access-governmental-educational" (PEG) channels. The proponents of the bill were associated with AT&T, their lobbyists, large business organizations like WMC, or the unions of workers who'd get the jobs associated with new video build-outs.

I parked myself in the hearing from 9:30 until 4:30. It dragged on for about ten hours. It's frightening to watch the sausage being made. It was horrifying to hear bill sponsor Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon) describe how they'd written the bill over the course of many months of meetings with AT&T, and how he deliberately excluded others from that process. Not good government in my book.

This video debate has been largely absent from the Wisconsin blogosphere. I guess they’re too busy with their blue-versus-red Rock’em-Sock’em Robots. There’s been a few guest posts about it on "Waxing America," Paul Soglin’s blog, the former Madison mayor. The posts are by Prof. Barry Orton, a UW-Madison professor with nationally-known expertise in telecom law.

There's plenty of spin in this debate. Another blogger aptly described it as a "full employment act for lobbyists." The money flood started last summer, from AT&T and the cable companies, and some of the most well-connected I’ll-do-anything-for-money PR flacks lined up with their hands outstretched. Slick web sites and TV commercials were born.

Take "TV4US" for example, funded by AT&T. Over and over in press releases and news bites, they call themselves a "non-profit, grassroots organization." How stupid do these Astroturf groups think "US" are? It was hilarious to watch them at the hearing trying the old "Miracle on 34th St." trick of hauling in the dolly with 30,000 postcards from "people who want choice". They declined to pour them on the table, which greatly reduces the dramatic effect. Who paid to print and mail those pre-paid reply cards? Or the millions for all those commercials?

AT&T and its sock puppets spin this as "video competition." I think that’s bull. Look at the facts. Since 1984, the FCC has prohibited cities from granting exclusive franchise agreements. If you have Time-Warner Cable, there’s nothing to prevent Charter or AT&T from entering your neighborhood. All they need to do is work with your city to create a franchise agreement. FCC rulings already require cities to give every provider the same terms.

Spinmeisters quickly contradict themselves, too. In one sentence they’ll cry about monopolies, in the next they’ll remind us that 30% of us are using satellite. Spin, statistics and lies. That counts all the satellite customers in our rural areas who don’t have a choice of a wired provider and who probably never will.

No monopolies are possible, yet the sock puppets and sponsors of the bill use that word all the time. The very definition of "monopoly" implies a sole supplier of a good without reasonable substitutes, and in which there's some barrier to entry into that market. If there are alternatives and no barriers to entry, there's no monopoly. Cities often have one provider because the other providers apparently didn’t like the idea of actually competing nor with the prospect of capturing only half or a third of the market. Go for it, AT&T, we’re not stopping you. Give me a choice.

Take a look at your cable bill, down in the section with all the taxes. We tend to ignore the fine print on our utility bills, don’t we? You’ll find a "Franchise fee" that’s roughly five percent of the your non-Internet-related services.

Your municipality worked out a contract, the franchise agreement, with your cable provider. Think of it as a building permit that lasts about a decade. The FCC allows cities to grab up to 5% of the cable provider’s gross revenues as an administrative fee to oversee the contract and the duties connected to allowing the cable provider to use city right-of-way for its wires and boxes. City Hall handles the first line of complaints about outages and poor service, too. They’ll deal with the cable provider for you, particularly if everyone in your neighborhood as the same problem.

The definition of "gross revenues" is spelled out in the franchise agreement. Cities might calculate it in different ways. It always includes what you paid for cable but it probably also counts the money the provider made in selling commercials. The bill includes a new definition that’s less inclusive than what most cities use, so most cities can expect 15-25% less franchise fee revenue.

Yes, franchise fees are in effect a local tax, allowed by the FCC and approved by city councils across the state. Yes, the franchise fee smells like pork when you cook it. Cable companies pass them along to us. The FCC did not restrict how they can be used. Some cities use it all for PEG, some use a little, and some keep it all as "general revenue." When they collect money and don't tag it for a purpose and use it for general spending, cities often refer to this as "tax relief" - and I do see the contradiction in that. Yes, cities are still reeling from the limits and reductions in shared revenue from the state, so they're eager to take any allowed revenue source up to the maximum - in this case, 5% of gross revenues of franchise holders.

Five percent of everyone’s cable bill ends up being quite a chunk of change in most cities. I live in Jefferson, pop. 7,800, in the space between Madison and Milwaukee. They harvested about $72,000 last year in franchise fees from about 2,000 subscribers, or roughly 1% of the city’s annual budget. Add zeroes as appropriate in your larger city.

Mind you, those state legislators knew better than to slaughter the golden calf. The new bill preserves franchise fees as-is. If Rep. Montgomery really wants to shave the bottom line consumer cable bills by 5%, he should convince city governments to reduce their franchise fee to zero percent. If he'd proposed to eliminate them, cities would have screamed even louder than they did. There's always the possibility that AT&T has written themselves a loophole or plans a larger court case that ultimately exempts themselves. Again, more disappearing revenues for cities. It’s a zero-sum game. Pick one: higher taxes or fewer services.

Depending on your city’s franchise agreement, you might also find a "PEG Fee" item on your bill. This is a separate percentage they’ve negotiated to explicitly support your public access channels in some way. In Jefferson, it’s 15 cents a month per subscriber. It slowly pays back a $30,000 loan from Charter that was used to purchase equipment to start the PEG channels. Again, you pay it, not the cable provider. This specifically disappears under the bill.

The bill has a half-dozen loopholes and exclusions that in effect would not require any video provider to broadcast our existing PEG channels. For example, the bill says video providers can drop PEG channels if they’re "underutilized," defined as less than 12 hours a day of new, non-repeating programming, 80% locally produced. This loophole alone eliminates all PEG channels. No consideration for program sharing between communities or the community announcement slideshow channels. No definition of "locally produced". By the same definition, every ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox channel in the state is "underutilitized."

Coupled with the reductions in franchise fee revenue that supports them, and the elimination of separate PEG fees, it could mean the death knell for PEG. Without local franchises, growing communities can’t negotiate new PEG channels, either. That’s why the hearing was packed with PEG supporters.

I am fully aware that PEG channels are considered comic relief. As a public forum open to all, they can attract the homegrown nutcases. On the other hand, I think of them like local volunteer fire departments. They run on a shoestring and they provide a valuable public service. An informed citizenry makes better decisions about government, no matter where you stand on the political spectrum. Where else can you watch local government in action? Or your kid’s band concert? Or church services? Where else can the Kiwanis advertise their next fundraising dinner for free? Yes, some PEG programs are cheesy, or heaven forbid boring, but I don’t hear people praising the intellectual qualities of "Fear Factor."

Chances are, your PEG channel is a cooperative effort with your school district, so kids learn video production there, learning life-long communication skills and perhaps even growing up to make the next "Chad Vader" or Mystery Science Theater 3000. Rep. Montgomery rolled his eyes at yet another PEG producer giving testimony about the "wonderful" high school programs they produce, but he also said his 17-year-old son made shows at his local PEG station. Sorry, son, they’re gone.

PEG is the raw feed of your community, goofy or not. Or would you prefer to read the pre-chewed version in your local newspaper or watch the 30 second summary from a talking head who wasn’t there, if you’re in a city big enough to have that?

I’m willing to weigh the burdens of negotiating a franchise agreement. The proponents of this bill suggest that the franchise process is an unfair obstacle to entry. TV4US repeats that a new video provider would need to negotiate with 1,850 towns, villages and cities in Wisconsin. Again with the spin. They damn well know perhaps only 300 have any franchise now.

In reality, AT&T could offer their product to the greatest number of customers by negotiating franchise agreements with less than one-one-hundredth of the 1,850. Hit Milwaukee, Madison and the Fox Valley, and that’s most ‘Sconsinites, aina? And that’s what AT&T plans to do - cherry-pick the most profitable spots. Jefferson won’t see it for a long time. I’d be happier if AT&T could figure out a way to deliver DSL to more than half the town. It doesn’t now.

From the perspective of a video provider like AT&T, they will be spending millions of dollars to enter a new market, hiring subcontractors, launching marketing campaigns. They’re complaining about the cost of sending one more middle manager to a city to hammer out a franchise contract that’s probably 99.8% the same as the last one. Sure, their lawyer will review it. It’s not rocket science. It is a tiny, relatively inexpensive task in a much bigger process. The bill wants to eliminate local control of franchises. It wants to simplify the process so much that the state Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) can’t even reject an state-wide franchise application or even make a rule to change the process.

From the perspective of a city, they’re accustomed to retaining local control over decisions over who gets to dig up their streets and fasten boxes and wires to their poles. AT&T’s U-verse / Project Lightspeed brings high-capacity fiber optic connections to your neighborhood in the form of a fridge-sized box for every 200-300 homes. They pose questions of safety and visibility, not to mention the digging. If there was one in front of your house or at the street corner where your kids cross, I bet you'd like your City Hall to have a say about it. With the bill as-is, they don't. No one would, except AT&T. Who’s in charge when the AT&T backhoe hits a sewer pipe? Madison or City Hall?

Competition? Lower prices? Doesn't everyone welcome that? I still haven't met a single person who says they're opposed to competition and choices. Level the playing field? Sure, why not. Except for those closet-sized AT&T boxes at first base and third base that we can't control.

To me, satellite is an apples-and-oranges comparison. They don’t pay a franchise fee because they aren’t using our public right-of-way. They don’t carry PEG channels. For years, the cable companies have actively supported PEG channels because it gives them an edge in selling their product. They’re local content with broad appeal. If you want to watch your kid’s band concert or the city council meeting, you need cable. What’s not to like? On the other hand, cable companies have also complained about franchise and PEG fees, because a smart consumer might realize that $30-a-month satellite doesn’t include the franchise and PEG taxes they’d get with $30-a-month cable.

City reps spoke at the hearing to complain about the loss of local control in the bill. The Dept. of Consumer Protection reps were there to tell the lawmakers that the bill erases existing consumer rights and protections, like getting a refund if your service goes out for four days. This bill - as-is - throws out several babies with the bathwater. Let’s hope it’s heavily amended to protect important local controls, not kill PEG, and preserve consumer rights.

Rep. Montgomery said there were lots of "gets and puts" with AT&T but given the language and loopholes in the bill, it's hard to imagine how that was done. When AT&T asked for the clause that said that DFI couldn't reject any application for any reason, or to ever make a rule to control a franchise, what exactly was Montgomery's response? Did he think it would be a good idea to eliminate existing consumer protections? When AT&T asked for a half-dozen excuses to never carry an existing PEG channel, what exactly was the give and take? Over and over I imagined an AT&T lobbyist slipping a pre-written bill into Montgomery's coat pocket along with a campaign contribution.

It was scary to hear Rep. Montgomery laugh about how he'd first learned what YouTube was just a few weeks ago. We can't expect every lawmaker to be smart about technology, but I think we should expect them to seek experienced advice. I don't know how any guy from Ashwabenon can be expected to understand a century of telecom law, but he does seem confident that he's smart enough to write a law that'll undo decades of complicated and subtle court precedents, hundreds of contracts made between cable providers and cities, eliminate existing consumer protections, and decimate PEG channels all around the state.

Busting Heads for Character Ed?

jfoust — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:11:06 GMT

Does your school district have a Character Education program?

Five school districts in the Jefferson County area - Jefferson, Fort Atkinson, Palmyra, Milton and Whitewater – planned to hold school assemblies on March 23 and 24. The students were to watch "The Power Team," a group of body-building athletes who present a message of positive character traits, giving advice on morality, drug abuse, teen pregnancy and violence.

Sounds boring? It’s actually quite a show. It might also include ramming their heads through blocks of ice, smashing stacks of flaming cement blocks, swinging large broad-swords, exploding soda cans in their bare hands, ripping telephone books, breaking baseball bats, and bending steel bars in their teeth.

Yes, I’m sure the kids would love it. If we asked, they’d also love Twinkies and Coke for lunch and ideally the assembly should keep them out of class all day.

But like the junk food, what else would they get with the message? The show would have an amplified sound track playing only Christian rock and rap music. Why? The Power Team is also a team of ordained ministers! They were lured to the schools by the efforts of Faith Community Church in Fort Atkinson.

On the same days as the planned school assemblies, as well as the weekend, the Church rented the facilities at Fort High School at night. There, the Power Team will lead a five-day series of evening revival meetings, featuring the same circus stunts mixed with tent-show evangelizing. The Power Team’s primary goal and business, as stated on their web site and in their literature, is to boost attendance at churches. They are a marketing firm for their brand of religion.

As you might be able to tell by this point, I was no fan of the Power Team.

I created a web page describing what I found in a few hours of research on the web, with links to video clips on YouTube, links to other news stories, and more. (Link below.)

In other communities, controversy has erupted after Power Team assemblies. Many people didn’t like linking positive values with cartoon testosterone as if “might makes right”. Some didn’t like the blatant promotion of religion in public schools. They use a “scared straight” approach with tales of incest, abortion, suicide and murder. (Read the news stories.) Others didn’t like the way they promoted the evening religious events, either with verbal invitations or paper literature.

I spoke once during public participation at a school board meeting. I sent emails to school board members in all five districts.

And amazingly, all five districts cancelled their planned assemblies a week later.

I can't help but wonder if the Power Team plans assemblies in other schools in SE Wisconsin.

Sheboygan? Nah. On the web, brats center on Jefferson

jfoust — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:35:06 GMT

I live in Jefferson, pop. 7,800. When you’re traveling along I-94 from Milwaukee to Madison, we’re five miles south of the Johnson Creek outlet mall you encounter about fifty miles west of Milwaukee. We’re in the bare spot between the sprawl creeping out from Waukesha and Madison.

Like Milwaukee, Jefferson has many citizens of German descent. In fact, our city’s self-imposed nickname is “The Gemuetlichkeit City.” If you’re from Milwaukee, you know it translates roughly as “friendliness”. Mayor Maier liked the word.

In September we host “Gemuetlichkeit Days,” a parade and festival with plenty of German food, polka, dirndls and leiderhosen. Think of it as German Fest without the crowds. We’ve been doing it since 1971. Why, Milwaukee’s German Fest only started in 1980. Some Jeffersonians have wondered where they got the idea.

It’s hard to think of a German festival without brats. For that matter, it’s hard to think of Wisconsin summer without brats. A fellow Jeffersonian staked a claim on this Wisconsin staple. My friend Jim Schroeder created a web site devoted to the bratwurst. Click the link below to visit "The Bratwurst Pages.” What’s there? A complete run-down on brats: how to cook them, how to serve them, and the side dishes you’ll find at a Wisconsin picnic or dinner. “Wisconsin’s Soul Food,” he calls it.

As a web designer and writer, I’m completely envious of the popularity of his web site. Enter “bratwurst” in Google and the first hit is Wikipedia’s brat page. The second hit is Jim’s site. In web terms, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Our mutual friend Kevin Wenzel makes his own contribution to brat culture on the site. He’s trying hard to introduce a new nickname for the beer used to soak the brats and the beer used to assist in eating the brats. If he had his way, “bratwash” would be in the dictionary. Kevin prefers Leinenkugel’s beer. His devotion is so great it has attracted the attention of Jacob Leinenkugel himself in the form of bar-quality promotional materials. Enviable too, aina?

Last May Jim got a call from the food and wine reporter of the Chicago Tribune. The reporter wanted his opinion about the proper wine to pair with brats. I can’t help but imagine how this conversation went. I know Jim well enough to know that he could stifle a chuckle and reel him in. He’d speak extemporaneously with authority, and chances are, he’d say something sensible. Indeed, the reporter used his recommendations: a hearty Wisconsin pork brat matched with a red, a European veal brat with a white. The reporter asked another Milwaukee sausage expert for her opinion, too – someone by the last name of Usinger. She suggested a Riesling.

A few months after Jim appeared in the Trib, the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune picked up the story, too. Their food writer, longing for real brats, reproduced a recipe or two from The Bratwurst Pages and promoted the “bratwash” meme.

I’m shocked at how many poor brats I’ve been served in the Gemuetlichkeit City. I’ve been offered brats at outdoor functions with only ketchup and yellow mustard. What, no brown? And don’t get me started on the buns. White-bread hot dog buns might be able to handle a skinny chicken dog for my kid, but they can’t stand up to even a weakling brat.

If I ran the zoo, I’d generate positive PR for Jefferson with a Mayoral proclamation about the nature of a proper brat. I’d impose token fines for serving a brat in a squishy hot dog bun, for serving yellow mustard and not offering a brown mustard, or the absence of decent kraut. Top off this law with a mention of “bratwash,” too. The story of this quirky ordinance would be picked up as filler by the wire services and travel around the globe. It would help put Jefferson on the map when it comes to brats.

Japanese know Milwaukee not for beer, but a raccoon?

jfoust — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:55:59 GMT

Step aside, Gertie the Duck. Did you know that a generation of Japanese might know Wisconsin and Milwaukee not for beer, but for a raccoon?

If you attended grade school in Wisconsin decades ago, a teacher might've guided you to the charming story of Rascal, a pet raccoon. The book "Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era" was published in 1963. It is the semi-autobiographical story of author Sterling North's adventures in adopting a baby raccoon at the turn of the century. It won several awards for children's literature in the years that followed. Walt Disney even made a movie version in 1969. You might've seen it on the "Wonderful World of Disney" a few years after it played in theaters. Sterling North grew up in Edgerton, pop. 4,000, roughly 75 miles west by southwest of Milwaukee.

If you were a kid in Japan back then, you knew Rascal, too. Japan's rough equivalent of Disney is the Nippon Animation Company. In the same way a Milwaukee family gathered around the big color TV on Sunday nights to watch the "Wonderful World of Disney," if you were a kid in Japan, your family was watching Nippon Animation's "World Masterpiece Theater." For more than two decades, each year Nippon Animation picked a classic children's book and serialized it as 52 episodes of a cartoon series.

In 1977, they chose "Rascal". The series was wildly popular. It was number one in its time slot, watched in almost 22% of Japanese homes. Rascal became the mascot of the company. Hundreds of Rascal spin-offs are still actively sold today: stuffed animals, lunch boxes, key chains, ringtones, Nintendo video games, even Rascal toilet paper. An editor of a major Japanese newspaper said recently that Rascal is more popular in Japan than Mickey Mouse. Rascal's popularity even led to a present-day ecological disaster outside Tokyo, as pet raccoons escaped and multiplied to ravage crops. The cartoon was translated to Spanish ("Rascal, el Mapache"), German ("Rascal, der Waschbär"), Italian, Chinese and even Tunisian. It is still played on children’s television throughout the world – but never in the United States due to Disney licensing prohibitions.

What's the connection to Milwaukee? In his book, North disguised Edgerton as "Brailsford Junction." In the Japanese cartoon, they mentioned a city name that was more familiar to Japanese ears. For years, the Sapporo Beer Brewery had an advertising catchphrase of "Munich, Sapporo, and Milwaukee." You can see this in episode four of the cartoon series, titled in Japanese as "Miruuookii no otsukisama" - which translates as "Milwaukee Moon."

Edgerton hosted a Sterling North book festival in the fall of 2006. For even more info, pictures, audio and movies, visit my "Rascal" web page as linked below.

(Oddly enough, the Valentine's Day 1978 episode of television’s "Laverne and Shirley" entitled "Bus Stop" includes a song called "Milwaukee Moon" as written and performed by Michael 'Lenny' McKean. If Lenny Koznowski was singing about the Allen-Bradley clock, I do not recall.)

Kooky Cooky House memory web site

jfoust — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:57:24 GMT

A few years ago, spurred by Jim Stingl's column in the Milwaukee Journal, I created a site about the Kooky Cooky House.

Once a highlight for kids at Capitol Court at Christmas, my web site at www.kookycookyhouse.com now tells about what happened to the pieces of the House.

It also features pictures and advertisements that I've collected, as generously preserved by people who visited my site. For example, you can download and print a copy of the Kooky Cooky House coloring book and view old advertisements that appeared in the Journal and Sentinel.

I hope to preserve even more. If you have pictures or memories, please visit and send them to me. Gino Salomone of WKTI, as mentioned in Stingl's article, said he had movie footage of the House. I'd like to get a copy and place it on the site.

- John