Along The Ad Routes

by Mike Reilly

We received a note from Bridget Dickler the other day along with her new subscription for the Dodgeville Chronicle for her son, Ethan, who lives in Madison. She said, “I cannot believe it! My son Ethan wants to keep in touch with his hometown news! Please sign him up to receive the Chronicle on me.” Bridget is a former teacher at St. Joseph School and is currently the Dodgeville Women’s Club president. Ethan is a graduate of LaFollette School of Public Policy and is a state auditor. He says he want to make sure those state agencies are spending our tax dollars correctly!

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Last week, Kira Runde, the Communications Director for Dodgeville School District, asked me if I wanted to observe the projects for one period at the DHS STEAM room. I’m not too familiar with the STEAM projects so I said sure. I said that I would come for the 8:40 a.m. class. When I arrived at DHS she took me to the room and said I was going to be a judge! I still didn’t have any idea what STEAM was. The projects were logoes that three students had created and had a visual on the screen. Also, two metals students showed their welding projects. After the fact I googled STEAM and found out it was Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. It was very intriguing! Once upon a time it was STEM. They had since added “arts”!

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Saturday morning breakfast took us to the southeast a little as we headed to Hollandale and Stroz Inn. We had been planning to go there a couple of times earlier, but the weather changed that big time! I had the veggie omelette with ham and hash browns. I was hungry and it was great. I even sampled some of Dewey’s pancake that was way too large for him to eat - but I could handle it! It was Bob, Terry, Dewey, Dave and Potsie there with me - Tom was dog sitting in Platteville! Sarah Dannenberg was our waitress and she was very good. Jen (originally Strozinski), the owner, even popped out of the Kitchen to say hi! I guess my veggie omelette with ham tipped her off that we were there!

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We don’t know what the weather will bring us on Tuesday. There is supposed to be snow, but there could be rain and some ice with temperatures around freezing. That kind of weather, especially rain before snow, we don’t need in the winter!

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The Annual Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Championships will be here before you know it. They are held at Harris Park right here in Dodgeville on Saturday, April 20. We are really, really looking for people to compete and to volunteer so take a look at the Dodgeville Chamber of Commerce website to be a part of it! We really do need people to sign-up in both spots, especially as a competitor as the VIP tickets that are sold and given out depend on the number of competitors!

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Kudos to the Green Bay Packers football team. They have been near the  bottom of the NFL in a lot of categories this season, but made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs only to lose a heartbreaker 24-21 to the top seeded San Francisco 49ers Saturday. Hopefully, being the youngest team not only in the playoffs but in the league will mean nothing but good things ahead!

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Today (Thursday, January 25) is MacIntosh Computer Day. That’s what we use at our offices to bring you our three papers each week! On Jan. 22, 1984 in a Super Bowl ad the MacIntosh got introduced. The Super Bowl is later in the year now - maybe the MacIntosh will be on an ad this year with its 40th anniversary!