Tubby's Too - Richmond, Wisconsin - Friday Night Fish Fry

25 May 2007

Tubby's Too - Richmond, Wisconsin - Friday Night Fish Fry

This entry was posted on 5/25/2007 1:30 AM and is filed under Taverns Wisconsin, Friday Night Fish Fry.

Years ago, when I got out of the Army, I told a friend I just wanted to sit in an old Wisconisn tavern for a bit to reconnect with my Wisconsin.  He took me to a tiny old bar out on Higway A between Richmond and Elkhorn.  That was 30 years ago, I believe it was called Tubby's back then too. 

After we sat for a bit and had an adult beverage or two, my friend said, "Happy now?"

Last Friday Cool Dadio and Heide headed out on the teal and cream Harley to Tubby's Too Bar & Grill. Tubby's is the consummate Wisconsin Tavern. It is out in the lake country of Southern Wisconsin in Walworth County. It is a small place but the peoples' presence gives it a big heart. Try to get there earlier because it is usually busy and you may have to wait a bit. 

They start dishing up the fish on Fridays about 5:00 p.m. and serve 'till about 9:00 p.m. They offer deep fried Walleye or Cod. The two-piece is $6.50 and the three-piece is $7.50. This price I think is very fair considering the cost of transportation of sea food these days. Also, some places charge extra for Walleye just because they can. At Tubby's you get a fair shake for your buck. You will get a choice of potato pancakes or fries. You get a cup of cole slaw and some tender dark bread with butter. The tarter sauce is my style - just tart enough to know it is there, yet creamy. The potato pancakes do not look like the traditional homemade cake, but they taste like homemade. Every time Heide and I go out there to Tubby's Too we clean every crumb off our plates. That's probably the final seal of approval in the world of tavern fish fry. On Friday they also offer a 16 ounce T-Bone for $14.95 and Butterfly Shrimp for $8.95. 

Tubby's is owned by Tubby Brewer. He used to bartend there and has been the owner for about seven years or so. The origin of the need-a-second-look name according to Mark the Bartender and a couple patrons is that it was chosen because there is a bar "up nort" with a similar name. So Tubby had to improvise a bit. Tubby's dad was also called Tubby so the current owner is a Tubby too.

Their other special night is on Tuesdays. They offer Steak and Shrimp; Steak and Lobster; Steak, Lobster & Shrimp; 16 oz. T-Bone; Butterfly Shrimp; and Prime Rib. The prices vary from $10.95 to $15.95. 

Tubby's Too is cool with Cool Dadio

To get there from Janesville, take County Highway A out past Highway 89 in Richmond. Cross over 89 and stay on A and Tubby's is a mile or so down on the right. W8497 County Road A, Delavan, WI 53115.  Folks may also refer to it as being in Richmond, Wisconsin.  Phone (608) 883 - 2909.

Note: You can find a chronological list at the Cool Dadio Media Fish Fry Page of these fish frys as we have visited them.  The list presents the most recently visited fish fry at the top, in lieu of alphabetical order.

                    Wisconsin Military Person Special Mention of the Week

    (each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person or military connected person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)

This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Specialist Eugene A. Uhl III, 21, of Amherst. Uhl was with Battery C, the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Eugine was Wisconsin's seventh soldier to die in Iraq. Uhl was his family's only son, the youngest of four children, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted his mother as saying he would have been the last male family member likely to pass on the Uhl name. He was scheduled to be married in June of 2004. According to the Journal Sentinel his mother also said he would have turned 22 on Thanksgiving. Uhl had been stationed in Iraq since February. He entered the regular Army in June 2002 after first joining the Army National Guard in 1999 and he expected to make the military a career. Eugene was killed when two 101st Airborne Division UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collided in mid-air over Mosul, Iraq, on November 15, 2003. This was the same crash that killed Army Sgt. Warren S. Hansen, 36 who was last week's Daily Dadio honored Wisconsin soldier.

3,435 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,378 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

75 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

102 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Boorish Billboard

9 May 2007

Boorish Billboard

This entry was posted on 5/9/2007 1:30 AM and is filed under Marriage, Assignment of Meaning.

The Chicago billboard advertising divorce legal service is a treasure trove of social commentary. See: Divorce Billboard. Coincidently the law firm that put it up is an all female firm - not sure if that is relevant. The billboard simply says: "Life's short. Get a Divorce." The words are flanked only by a picture of a man's bare chest and a woman's cleavage. The talk radio stations are salivating with analysis, other attorneys groan that this is just the latest bad-taste advertising for their profession, and the religious right is sure to note, "see, we told you they are all cretins of debauchery."

Other than the usual suspects' ruffled feathers mentioned above, the analysis of this simple message is a gold mine in the assignment of meaning. Everyone seems to put a deep meaning in the two sentences with five words total. Clearly the offending law firm has struck a sour nerve. Advertising that gets a little too close to the truth is sometimes dangerous for the advertisers. Radio talk show hosts have been asking, "What does it say about our society?" Well, for one it cuts to the chase that marriage in today's America is a ruse. People and society have been holding marriage up as a sacred cow while in reality beating marriage to death for decades. 

Sociologists should agree that modern marriage has nothing to do with raising children, perpetuating society, or love. It instead has everything to do with entertainment. Couples get married either by subconscious or design to simply be amused by the latest pop culture, entertainment value of marriage. Any children can be cared for by nannies, relatives, neighbors, or grand parents. An economy relentless in its deconstruction of the middle class leaves the unassuming couple unable to attain the entertainment pop culture life that was implied was at their finger tips when they got married. Once a couple is locked legally in the contract of marriage, society adds insult to injury and seems to work diligently in a collective hive to make sure they are economically beat to death - day care, school fees, insurance, taxes, mortgages, car payments, and on and on. The billboard simply suggests if you want out of that marriage construct, be sure and go for it.

That idea of getting out of the modern entertainment marriage so easily makes all parties uncomfortable. Perhaps it is not that the offending attorneys are all female that is relevant at all, but rather perhaps, they are showing their youth and naivety about advertising. We all play patty cake in the big American play house - but you have to be more nuanced when you advertise about tragic realities. The morrow of the story is, beat around the reality bush and people are cool with the ad - wink, wink, nod.

This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Private First Class Rachel K. Bosveld, a member of the 527th Military Police, V Corps.  Pfc. Bosveld was killed Sunday October 26, 2003, in a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib Police Station in Baghdad.  Rachel would have turned 20 on November 7, 2003.  She was a 2002 graduate of Waupun High School.  Rachel Bosveld was the fifth Wisconsin resident to die in the Iraq War.  She was the state's first female soldier to die since Sgt. Cheryl LaBeau-O'Brien, of Caledonia, who died in a helicopter accident during the first Gulf War in 1991.

3,377 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,245 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Lesley Stahl vs Lou Dobbs

8 May 2007

Lesley Stahl vs Lou Dobbs

This entry was posted on 5/8/2007 1:30 PM and is filed under Journalism, Journalists become the news.

Lesley Stahl should know better after 40 years in journalism to take on an old curmudgeon like Lou Dobbs. She started in journalism as a write for New York mayor John Lindsay in 1966. She railed on Dobbs on the 60 Minutes piece on May 6, 2007. The subject Stahl pressed was that Dobbs attacked certain issues like illegal immigration over and over again. Some of the dialogs is as follows:

"Reporters don't 'take on' issues. Reporters 'report' issues, and there's a big difference there," Stahl says. "Do you think you're a journalist?" 

"Absolutely," Dobbs says. "I may be an advocacy journalist, but I'm a journalists."

"The idea that a reporter should be disqualified because he or she actually cares, actually isn't neutral about the well-being of the country and its people, that's absurd," he says. (cbsnews.com)

Had Ms. Stahl majored in journalism rather than zoology, she might know journalism has no hard and fast rule other than to be mindful of slander and libel. One can be:

A "fly-on-the-wall" journalist or an "observer" journalist

An "undercover" journalist - infiltrating the mafia for example

An "advocate for an agenda" type journalist

A "corporate" journalist - writing for the boss

A "political journalist" - writing speeches (Lesley?)

A press secretary or public relations spokes person - giving out the talking points

A "news reader" journalist - reading someone else's stuff

A "news presenter" journalist - letting the audience decide if the class is half full or half empty

Also, one can be captured or injured and actually become part of the story one reports on

There are probably many other possibilities

The above things speak to philosophy, none address journalistic niches such as: sports; food; kids; weddings; death; entrainment; theater; cinema; opinion / editorial; law; medicine; farm; business; travel; war; etc.; etc;

I can't believe someone like Stahl could be so out of touch with the job she has had for decades. Unless of course, she was falling on the sword for CBS. Lou Dobbs has just been hired by CBS News to join The Early Show as a weekly commentator. This story also reminds me of the phenomena of journalist becoming the story. Is Lou the story or are the illegal immigrants he rants about, the story? Stahl has made Dobbs the story. The one thing I do think that one should watch out to avoid as a journalist is that of actually inserting oneself in an event or issue and stealing the show and veering attention toward yourself rather than the story you should be investigating.

This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Private First Class Rachel K. Bosveld, a member of the 527th Military Police, V Corps.  Pfc. Bosveld was killed Sunday October 26, 2003, in a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib Police Station in Baghdad.  Rachel would have turned 20 on November 7, 2003.  She was a 2002 graduate of Waupun High School.  Rachel Bosveld was the fifth Wisconsin resident to die in the Iraq War.  She was the state's first female soldier to die since Sgt. Cheryl LaBeau-O'Brien, of Caledonia, who died in a helicopter accident during the first Gulf War in 1991.

3,377 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,245 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Learning about Iraq four years too late

7 May 2007

This entry was posted on 5/7/2007 2:01 AM and is filed under Iraq vs Vietnam, Presentations of Bob.

I had a chance to speak to around 75 students at the Janesville Academy of International Studies on Friday. They had some speakers come in to talk about Iraq.  I was lucky enough to be one of them.  There was a professor from Beloit College, Congressman Paul Ryan, and myself.  It is an honor to speak about my media work in Iraq because as an independent journalist, I am shoved under the rug - at least that is what it feels like.  The kids were from the Janesville school system and were probably between 13 and 18 years of age.  They asked intelligent questions and tough ones too.  I love tough questions - as a journalist I do not have to take ownership of "most of" the things I have seen - I only have to relay them to others. And, I do not remember the kids of my generation being so polite and thoughtful when addressing adults, especially those adults who discussed the Vietnam War.  Now these kids of today were giving due diligence to a contentious topic - Iraq.  

Paul Ryan our Wisconsin Congressman from the 1st District spoke to the kids just before me.  He had been to Iraq recently on a fact finding mission.  He had done his home work on the war and Iraq and the people.  He patiently explained the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite Muslim to the students.  Ryan put together some things he thought the United States had done wrong in the war there.  Now all this I thought, is a good thing to be pontificating about.  But something came to mind as I sat and listened.  This is what we had done in Vietnam - decided to learn about a region we are warring in four years into it.

When I took a class on the Vietnam War at Madison Area Technical College, Mr. Rosebury the teacher and who had actually been in "Nam" often noted that the soldiers did not understand the county they were in.  And now, like in Vietnam days, here we were four years later, Mr. Ryan and myself talking about what we just recently found out about Iraq - four years into the war.  Congressman Ryan was not even born until 1970, after the United States had began to unravel its commitment to be in the Vietnam War.  In 1975, our South Vietnamese allies collapsed.  

For someone like me who lived in the Vietnam Era, served in the military at the end of the Era, and now watches as we make many of the same mistakes in Iraq, it is almost unconscionable to bear.  Are we just that stupid as a people, or is our system simply so inept it is inherent for us to make the same mistakes over and over again?  You can bet our enemies have not let this nuance about our system go unnoticed. 

This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Private First Class Rachel K. Bosveld, a member of the 527th Military Police, V Corps.  Pfc. Bosveld was killed Sunday October 26, 2003, in a mortar attack on the Abu Ghraib Police Station in Baghdad.  Rachel would have turned 20 on November 7, 2003.  She was a 2002 graduate of Waupun High School.  Rachel Bosveld was the fifth Wisconsin resident to die in the Iraq War.  She was the state's first female soldier to die since Sgt. Cheryl LaBeau-O'Brien, of Caledonia, who died in a helicopter accident during the first Gulf War in 1991.

3,377 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,090 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Third Job of Bob - Gas Station Jockey

4 May 2007

Third Job of Bob - Gas Station Jockey

This entry was posted on 5/4/2007 at 01:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.

In my senior year of high school it came to my attention that the gas station down from the high school was looking for a gas jockey.   A gas jockey was a guy who pumped the gas into your cars.  This was the days before self service.  Anyway, the lady who sold eggs to the gas station (they had a dairy cooler) knew my mom.  Mom bought our eggs from the egg-lady also.  The egg-lady said the station manager was looking for another guy to help out.  Mom dropped the tip to me and I stopped in the station after school. 

Those were the days before human resources rules.  Expecting to get grilled by the manager, I brought notes to help fill out the application.  Ol' Ray the manager just asked if I was the kid who had worked on the farm since I was 12, took a puff on his cigarette, and asked from a veil of smoke, "can you start tomorrow?"

Ol' Ray was a chain smoker and sent me down to the bank sometimes with a bag of money.  He had me use his own pickup truck.  The ash trays were always spilling over and he had one of those bean bag ash trays on the dash too - also over flowing.  The ash trays in the store were alway bulging too.  Ray was a Korean War era veteran and always took a big drag on one of his lit cigarettes when he would mention he spent the time in France not Korea.  He mentioned things he had a chance to do in France but never did. "What would it matter now," he always would say.
I will never forget the smell of old ash and window cleaner.  You see we pumped the gas and cleaned the car windows.  Ray insisted we have all our money bills facing the same way with face up, and small bills to the inside of the roll with the roll stuffed in our work shirt pocket.  The people paid us at the pumps.  Every so often we would come in the store and ring up some of the cash.  To this day I always carry my extra bills that way.  

The drinking age was 18 and after work me and the assistant manager Dave who was about 23 hit the college bars.  Dave had been in the Army during Vietnam.  Some of his stories inspired me to make rather reasonable decisions about my own military time. Dave was also picking away at college - he seemed to know everyone in town and the college.  Just before I shipped out that fall, Ray asked me if I could work the day before I would be leaving. Of course I said yes.  Mom said if he did not count on me he would never have asked.  That logic still seems Wisconsinish.  

The one regret I have is that after I came home after three years, now myself a Vietnam era veteran, I can't remember checking in on Ray.  I spent my time in Germany, not Vietnam just like Ray had spent his time in France and not Korea.  I know Ray died a while after I got home.  I remember Mom bringing it up.  I remember going into the station after I got back but I never caught up with Ray.  I have since learned you can't re-do things like that.  Now in retrospect I sure would have liked to chat with Ray a bit when I got back.  Dave too, but he had left town I heard.  

The lasting image of Ray I have is of him on every Friday night pulling into the station to fuel up his truck.  His pretty wife always smiled and chatted with the employees politely.  Side note: Ray had a beautiful daughter also who was only a year or so behind me in school.  When I got out of the Army she asked me once why I had never asked her out.  I did not admit it but I just assumed she was too pretty for an old farm kid like me - lost chances - but I digress.  Any way Ray always pulled in the station with a crisp, clean gas station uniform on.  The name  Ray was proudly displayed over his shirt pocket.  He worked there seven days a week - he always opened about 4:30 a.m. and left after the evening shift had settled in about 6:00 p.m.  It was also the beginning of the days when places like that were open seven days a week for long hours.  The one pleasure he allowed himself was to take his wife out every Friday night to a tavern for the traditional Wisconsin fish fry. 

I hope they have fish fry where every you are Ray.

This week's soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound.  He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq.  He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.  Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq.  Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper.  He went to Iraq in March 2003.  Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.

3,361 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,090 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Expensive gas - dead pets

Two tragic realities in the United States drive home why we are playing with Third-World status. Travel is another word for freedom.  Pets are the last line of happiness in an increasingly happyless appearing society.

The Marginal Class (those that used to be Lower Middle Class) is further driven to quasi-Third-World status by simply making it hard for them to travel.  I have noticed people in Vietnam a new-and-improved Third-World county, define us in America as rich simply because we can travel at the drop of a hat.  

I don't know whether to be mad at the oil players or at us rabble for letting the constant raising fuel pricing happen to ourselves without a whimper.  I can see with my own eyes it is causing people to curb their travel (freedom). I struggle to hold back the cynicism that says, "we are getting what we deserve."

As far as I can tell from my work in Vietnam, the Vietnamese don't trust the Chinese (currently the People's Republic of China) - apparently never have trusted them. This is something we did not pick up on during our Vietnam War.  Is it not poetic we learned nothing to relate to Iraq from our long war in Vietnam and now as quasi-friends with Vietnam we learn nothing from their thousands of years dealing with the Chinese? We don't believe them when they warn in subtle innuendos, "sleep with the Chinese - bury your pets." 

Today's comments inspired by blogs "Waxing America" and "Rocknetroots."

This week's soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound.  He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq.  He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.  Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq.  Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper.  He went to Iraq in March 2003.  Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.

3,355 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

25,090 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Another Day in Vietraq

I walked up on a couple of friends of mine today engaged in an obvious lively discussion.  Charles was talking about the unpopular President and his even more unpopular Vice President.  The Executive he insisted, was at grid lock with Congress about how to fight the war.  The President had lost the people's confidence.  There was a call for the Vice President's resignation.  

Robert Lee insisted the Congress was trying to micro manage the long war.  He said the two political parties seemed to have no distinguishing characteristics any more either.
Charles said the President's expansion of the war was ill advised, and in fact the original premise of the war was flawed.  

Robert Lee said, "If the enemy was clever they would just wait about seven years and the whole American war construct would collapse."

"Just like George Washington's strategy with our long war for independence against the British," I chimed in uninvited.  Neither friend paid me any mind.  

"Our system is inherently flawed in the means to fight a long war," said Robert Lee.  "The people eventually lose interest and Congress always tampers with the funds for the war," he continued.

"Yes, and the soldiers keep dying and languish in the middle of an Asian civil war while the two political parties fight and flounder about in the big American political play house," said Charles in a mocking tone.  

"The war was affecting the economy," Robert Lee said and frowned.  "Gas and groceries were outrageous.  Schools were being closed.  Can you imagine what we could have done with all the billions spent on the war?" he then asked. "People needed health care, and the money is being dumped down a hell hole in Asia."

"The people are cynical and disenfranchised from the political system," returned Charles.  "And  the wisdom of the war has our allies in the World second guessing our international leadership."

The two friends shook their heads together and bid one another good-bye until next time.  I followed Charles as he was going my direction.  "Man," I said.  "You two sure are despondent about the War in Iraq."
Charles stopped and turned and looked me in the eyes and shock his head.  "Boy!" he said with an incredulous look on his face and a perturbed tone.  "We have been talking about the Vietnam War!"

This week's soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound.  He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq.  He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.  Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq.  Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper.  He went to Iraq in March 2003.  Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.

3,352 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

24,912 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"Motor cycle season" sounds like "Duck Season"

Motorcycle season - sounds like "duck season." Or, "deer season." It means, pilgrims are'a gonna die Slim! A peripheral co-worker of mine years ago always called them, "murder cycles." However, when did it enter the culture of our language that in every crash, we must note if the person had a helmet or in the case of cars, a seat belt on? Language is funny that way - all of a sudden those notations are in every crash report in every paper across the nation. I love the one that said:

       "Joe Buckyucknuck slid off the road to avoid a deer and was thrown from his motorcycle. He flew 100 feet, hit an electric pole, was slung back out to the street and was run over by an 18-wheeler. Buckyucknuck was subsequently electrocuted when the wire snapped from the pole he hit and landed on his body in the road. Buckyucknuch was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers on the scene said Buckyucknuck was wearing a helmet."

Ah, did it really matter at that point? Think about it the next time you hear a crash report on the radio or read one in the paper. They do the same thing for seat belts. Does it really matter if they have to use four body bags to carry parts of you off the crash scene? Is the news you had a seat belt on, relevant at that point? Being a communication junkie I like to take notice of the language foisted down our throats by the self annotated language Nazis.

Ah, the weekend warriors are out with their big machines. They never rode a motorcycle until they turned 35 and got a job finally, that paid more than five dollars an hour. I have always had a motorcycle since I was twelve because I never really broke out of the five-dollar-an-hour-job culture. I have had almost every brand of "bike." And they all got good gas mileage - my latest machine gets almost 60-miles-to-the-gallon - something one must be cognizant of if you make five dollars an hour. Experts in social psychology (and paid apologists for norms and mores and kin to the aforementioned language Nazis) tell me that five-dollar-an-hour thing is my fault - something about refusing to be beholden to society's backside every day - but I digress. Anyway, I have had to ride them to work. A couple of times I even got stuck in snow - something the new age, power marketed, once-a-month-weekend-riding, yuppie, leather-clad, motor cycle fashion-disciple can't comprehend.

I have a Harley, it is teal and cream - girl colors. I don't wear leather - I wear the same thing I wore to Iraq as a journalist - cargo pants, tennis shoes, and a t-shirt. People usually give me a perturbed look at the intersection stoplights but then turn back to the light when they realize I am sitting on a Harely with more horse power under my torn cargo pants than is in their new hybrid and getting better gas mileage to-boot. Hmmm, I lived through Iraq in casual wear and was toured around there by maniac taxi-mafia drivers, but it was close a couple of times. The cars I rode in over there did not even have seat belts.  And, I haven't been killed in 40 years of gonzo motorcycle riding - but it came close a couple of times. Is there a pattern here, can you guess if I wear a helmet? You might be surprised. Right now one of those social psychologist, mores defending, language Nazi types is taking a Valium tablet and a shot of Jack Daniels and cursing me I think. Cheers Doc!

This weeks soldier to remember is Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake who died on September 22, 2003 from a non-hostile gunshot wound.  He was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division and was in an area south of Mosul in northern Iraq.  He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.  Sturino was the fourth Wisconsinite killed during military operations in Iraq.  Originally with a tank detail based in Lawton, Oklahoma, Paul transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper.  He went to Iraq in March 2003.  Sturino had re-enlisted for another year as a member of the 101st but his tour of duty was subsequently extended because of the war.

3,351 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

24,912 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week and military casualty information sources: cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.