If you guys listen to Garrison Keillor I'm gonna have to find myself another bulletin board, dontcha know.

Tara (And Wolf...the potholes are IN ADDITION to the lakes out here in the state of just two seasons--winter and road construction. I counted as I listened for my hub caps to be knocked off in deep ones this spring. Someone could do a brisk business out here, replacing hub caps.)

Tara,

Dem pot holes are sumpin else der. I seen whole logging trucks disappear into dem, an never be seen again. I caught me a whole mess of walleyes in o dem o'er near Stillwater one time.

I always taut dat da only two seasons in Minnesoter, nordern Wisconsin, and da yooper peninsula of Michigan were da 4th of July an winter. Goes to show ya. I fergot about dat road construction season.

Wolf (Who actually did enjoy some of Keillor, but not as a steady diet. I prefer "What do You Know?" on Wisconsin Public Radio... )

[ 11-19-2001: Message edited by: Wolf ]

O dear, oh dear..... What has happened to the standard of English on this board? The spelling has fallen apart and my old teacher would have called it attroshus, atroci.... er ...terrible, I mean. Did you people all work on the movie Deliverance? Do you play a banjo, Wolf?

Anchovy,

Not much in-breeding in northern Wisconsin. Not too many young people stuck around after they graduated from high school to breed.

I'm always reminded of a guy who was two years ahead of me in high school, who went to the big city (Milwaukee - ), and came back telling us that the young ladies there actually shaved under their arms, and their legs! He just couldn't believe it!

Of course, his family wasn't exactly at the top of the "Who's who" in town. His three sisters all looked like they should have been named George, Ralph, and Herman, not April, May, and June, like they were...

Gawd! Could you imagine what would have happened if two of those girls had been born in the same month?

I do remember one guy I went to school with, he joined the Navy within a week after graduating from high school - spent four years traveling with them, went home, got a job in a saw mill, and has worked there ever since. His furthest journey away from the area since he got home (41 years ago), has not exceeded 60 miles. As for what he recalls about being in the Navy, he told me once that he would actually "refuse to take shore liberty" in foreign countries. He never saw anything, and didn't step on foreign shores. In fact, I get the impression he thought that California was a foreign land...

So much for the geographical/history lesson for today...


As for the weather (getting back to the topic just in time, phewwww!!!!, it can get pretty darned cold up there. In fact, on the coldest night in the area's recorded history (back in the 70s, it got down to -72 degrees Farenheit), I ended up walking over 7 miles through the woods, when my car broke down away from civilization. By road, it was a 15 mile walk, or more, and there weren't any homes along the route, and no automobile traffic. I was lucky. I could have died in those woods.)

Wolf (Who doesn't take short-cuts in the winter, and avoids going to northern Wisconsin when it's cold outside!)

Wolf - Is it possibly time to abandon Wisconsin and retire to Spain? No matter how much snow Anchovy sees on the hills behind Estepona - it's gotta be less than what you see every winter. It was your reference to -72 F ... ****** - how awful!

Puna (who is cold when it gets below 75 F)

[ 11-20-2001: Message edited by: Puna ]

Wolf, I am right there with you listening to Michael Feldman. My husband always says that we need to make it over to WI for a taping, because he wants to read the quiz instructions on the air.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving lutefisk and lefse!
Tara

Tara,

My wife and I listen to Feldman every Saturday. I've been up to the show twice, and haven't been tapped yet for any of the on-air hijinx, but I keep hoping.....

The funny part of it is, I know about 75% to 80% of the answers to the quizzes... Now ain't that a kicker?

Our last trip up we nearly got snowed in. It took us over three hours to get home (normally a 1 1/4 hr drive) to Rockford. (He-he my "weather" inference)

The show is fantastic. He keeps everyone entertained even between segments. He's a tremendous host for a show like that. I've listened to it all over the U.S., since it seems to be a 10 AM central time staple Saturdays everywhere...

Wolf

Ya Ancho-vee, we don'ave any problum wit'da Sowth, but we don'ave nunna dat deliv'runce stuff eeder. Al dat purty mouth is fer Arkansas, not the Northland. I dunno anyone named Billy Bob, but me an my pal Ole wer talkin' abowt dis jus de udder day, don'cha know?

An hey Kurt, you go right ahead and do da barbecue, I'll be cuttin a hole in da ice lookin for lunch. Da Lions aren't worth the time spent, and there's fish ta be had. I'll be sittin in my shanty on Mille Lacs givin' my potato lefse a workover with my purly whites. Then we'll have what we always have for da holidays: Hot dish and brats. Umm.

Happy Tanksgivin to all of ya.

Yuz Minnesoter guys got da gall to eat da brats on Tanksgivin. Dat's turkey day ya know? Da brats are for da tail gatin, an stuff like dat. An for special events like da weddings at da bowling alley.

In our neck o da woods da turkey an da venison is da real deal on Turdsday comin.

An Ole tol me da udder day dat he got one o dem new fangled TV gadgets which ya jus use da battery wit, an can watch da Packers dump da Lions into Canada wit.

I don go ice fishin no more. By da time I cut a hole in da ice big enough for da boat, I'm all tuckered out, and need a nap.

U'z right about us not bein like dem southern folk. Dey don't have da class we does. We got better english an stuff, ain't it so?

Do you know how you can tell which guy is the Groom at a Wisconsin wedding?

Ans.: He's the guy with the clean bowling shirt on.

Wolf (Whose gonna end up talkin like dis if he ain't careful.... Damn! I already do... )

Okay, guys, this New Jersey-born, North Florida-raised, Minnesota-educated girl is losing it. Just what accent am I supposed to be able to understand here?

And my heart goes out to los españoles on the board...most of whom probably can't understand this! Of course, one would hope they won't try too hard, either!

The Minnesota expression I like best (I don't know if they do it in Wisconsin or the U.P.) is "Oh, for cute!" about kittens and 4-year-old girls with pigtails.

At this point, my Long Island transplant parents (who've lived in Florida for 20 years) say that I sound like a Minnesotan. My Minnesota friends say that I sound like a Southerner. My Long Island cousins can't understand anything I say, and I can't understand them either. I say "y'all" and "you guys" interchangeably.

And my kid calls small injuries "owies" and soda "pop," which I swore would never happen.

I wonder how easy/hard it is for our Spanish friends to pick out these differences among American accents/dialects? I can't tell the difference between Spanish regional dialects at all, though I notice that the "theta/zeta" is very pronounced in Castilla y Leon.

Enough babbling...back to work for me!
Tara