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All-in-all, what a crappy month, huh? Cold, colder, coldest, snowy and one week to make the rest of the bad feel even worse. Get thee behind me and summon February: the calendar’s shameless tease. Cold, but not as cold. Maybe more snowy, but periods of meltage which makes an old man think of younger days.

Yes, that’s from “Brick House” by the Commodores. It’s the best I could do. I don’t write these things in advance. What you see is what I’m thinking this morning. This is A+ stream of consciousness stuff.

  • Duelling UFO shows on last night. SCI-Fi had “UFO Hunters” from the producer of “Ghost Hunters” and the History Channel had … um … “UFO Hunters” from the producers of something else. Can’t we all just get along? The Sci-Fi version was mostly made up of the NY-SPI (New York Strange Phenomena Investigators) interviewing witnesses to UFOs which might have been extra-terrestial. The History Channel version was made up of the owner of “UFO Magazine” wearing sunglasses and finding everything just a little too coincidental for belief. Actually, they roamed around and picked up rocks or rusted metal which “shouldn’t have been there”.
  • Are there UFOs? By definition, yes, there are things flying which people can’t identify. The problem is that there are people who can identify those things, they just didn’t see them. Is there intelligent life in the universe other than here? Yes, but there is no reason to believe they would ever or have ever come here. We are the North Prairie of the galaxy.
  • In the ghost investigation shows I watch, there’s always a chance that they’ll catch an EVP or an unexplained light. The UFO shows will never show us any metal that wasn’t fabricated on Earth. They can’t. Hence they will fail to hold anyone’s interest.
  • I’ve been stopped by a train in Waukesha at least three times in one day. Yes, it’s annoying, but it’s part of living here. Plan accordingly. I wonder why I can remember only being stopped by a train maybe twice in Milwaukee and never when I lived in Chicago. Certainly there are more trains there than here. What’s different?
  • The Lopez Bakery is closed, Rose’s Subs is closed, the Gather House is closed, Katavinchy’s closed, that place next to Dave’s closed. It looks like the temporary revival of Waukesha’s downtown is closed until further notice. Still the 36th best city between 62,036 and 64,748 north of the 42nd parallel but east of Jefferson and west of Calhoun and north of Big Bend and south of Lannon in the U.S. of A. according to the mayor.
  • I don’t know if this was the writer’s aim but I feel better that the government is at least planning for any contingency. Wouldn’t you feel better if there was an actual Jack Bauer and CTU?
  • What would Jack Bauer do to this guy?
  • There’s an British guy named Nigel on CNBC talking about pizza, Papa John’s and Super Bowl Sunday. It doesn’t sound right. Pizza and British don’t go together. It’s like gin and coke.
  • Speaking of food, Waukesha’s restaurants are inspected. Much to all of our relief. I never actually questioned the cleanliness of any of our establishments except once. I was lunching in one of my favorite spots and the cook was swatting flies over the grill/deep fryers. That sort of put me off.
  • Is anyone inspecting this restaurant? Robin Kasch, the owner says, “Everything is combustible.” Sounds dangerous.
  • I don’t always have a lot of good to say about her but Alderman Cummings is at least looking for ways to save money. I haven’t heard any other alderman propose any cuts.
  • Wigderson’s column is on Waukesha’s school superintendent and referendums.
  • The Freeman says that it might be hard to find a new superintendent for Waukesha Public Schools. I don’t care if she’s qualified, I just hope she’s blond and pretty.