My Dad served in the Pacific during the war. His brother-in-law, my Uncle El, served there also. One of the photos that I had restored is a shot of Dad and Uncle El smoking cigars on an island after V-J Day. You can tell by the look on his face that the canteens did not have water in them.

Later on Dad enlisted in the Army and we ended up in Vienna, Austria. One of the items that Ma brought back was a very old statue, a warrior with a breast plate and a sword on his hip. She had her neighbor Harold convert it into a lamp. It ended up broken and in three pieces in a box in the basement of The Parsonage in Upsala. Ickler Company in St. Cloud soldered it and through my connections at The Paramount Art Trust, I found a “bronzer” in Howard Lake, INNOCAST Execuline, to finish it. It turned out that the tip of the shaft and the feather were gold leaf. I have attached a picture. Check out www.ickler.com

The nausea is back with a vengeance, so I will be out for at least a week, maybe more. I thank all of you who expressed your concern and I hope to be back soon.

The show this week is live from the State Theater in Minneapolis. Special guests include singing idol Pop Wagner, Minnesota folkie, Charlie Maguire and bluesman Tony Glover along with harmonica legend Howard Levy, flat picker Dean Magraw and singer Andra Suchy. Enjoy the show, better yet go to the show.

“Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What other say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinion and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” The second agreement from “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz

I am back. On leap day, we had a heavy snow storm here in central Minnesota. My parking lot at the loft was plowed, so I headed in to work. The campus was closed due to the storm, but I was able to get help from a SJU worker with a Bob Cat and together we got the car unstuck and into a safe spot. In the afternoon I headed for my car carrying my briefcase in my left hand and a shoe bag in my right hand. I hit an icy spot and I really think that my head was the first to hit the pavement. I saw stars and headed to the drug store to purchase some Tylenol.

The next morning I felt nauseated and I had a stiff neck. For six weeks, I could not read a newspaper or use a computer without getting sick to my stomach. This week I started back part time, but I still have to go for physical therapy once a week. They are working on my “traumatized Vagus nerve”. Wear a helmet.

The show this week is another live show from “The Mother Church”, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Special guests include Suzy Bogguss, guitar player Steve Wariner, Chuck Mead and His Grassy Knoll Boys plus Robin and Linda Williams. Enjoy the show.

There is a new Italian restaurant open under my loft at the corner of College Avenue and Minnesota Street in downtown St. Joseph. Bello Cucina serves lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday. They offer a full bar and the Butternut Squash Ravioli is wonderful. There is patio seating along with a fire pit. Call for seating status.
363-4534. They also have restaurants in Morris and Fergus Falls. www.bellocucina.com

“Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love” Don Miguel Ruiz from “The Four Agreements” www.100mustreads.com

On Leap Day, I fell in the parking lot and hit my head on the pavement. I have a “mild concussion” and so reading and using the computer makes me nauseated. I hope to be back at 100% soon.

The show this week is a compilation of a couple of shows from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Special guests include Emmylou Harris and Sara Watkins in an episode of Lives of the Cowboys plus Grammy-award winning Civil Wars singing “Barton Hallow” and The Dave Rawlings Machine. Enjoy the show

“If you can do more, you should.” Robert Redford

It still may be called the “winter that wasn’t”. For the first time, I did not zip the liner into my leather jacket. The flu bug has not been as serious, however, I do have a sore throat today. Daylight savings time starts two weeks from Sunday. Spring can’t be far behind.

If you are looking for something to do tomorrow, you may want to venture out to Saint John’s to take in the “Living in the Avon Hills” conference. The Great Hall will be full of a variety of booths and there are many sessions to choose from.
Space is limited, so you will want to check their website, www.csbsju.edu/arboretum

On Sunday, the Youth Chorale of Central Minnesota will present a concert with the St. Cloud State University Concert Choir at St. Francis Xavier Church at 4 PM. Details at www.youthchorale.org

The show this week is live from the DECC Auditorium in Duluth. Special guests include rocking acoustic pickers Trampled by Turtles and the magnificent Grand Rapids High School Jazz Ensemble. Tickets may still be available Their website is www.decc.org

“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen

I heard the first cardinal call from afar here on campus this morning. It seems to be right on schedule. No Bishop calls yet.

This week I attended a Waite Park Chamber event hosted by MinnWest Bank. The speaker was Jill with Express Employment Professionals. Her opening statement concluded that, on average, we will have three careers and 27 jobs in our lifetime. At first, it sounded a bit much, but then I started counting.

My first job was working at Ramlo Grocery in Upsala, (my grandparents owed the store) for fifty cents an hour. I worked for my step-grandfather, Francis Johnson, as a house painter in Little Falls the summer after high school graduation. In 1962 I broke into the drafting field thanks to my sisters boy friend, Barry Larson. I worked my way up to being the last General Manager of the very first computerized drafting service bureau in the US. After the founders were let go, the two guys that worked for me in production went on strike until the new President, Ron Crew, agreed to hire me back as the sales rep. One of the two guys was Eckart “Butch” Herter, who took me aside to tell me that my hand shake sucked and that I had to read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. He was right.

I joined General Office Products in 1971 and moved from the Office Furniture Industry to the Energy Management industry in 1979. That lasted 3 years and I lost a small fortune. Back to the Office Furniture Industry in 1982 and then on to the Office Equipment industry with Cyberstar in St. Cloud selling Canon and then Albinson selling Xerox. In 1999 Albinson decided they did not want to be in the small Xerox copier business, so I got laid off. It took me seven interviews and two months to get this job with MPR and they will have to drag me out of here feet first.

In summary, I had four careers and 26 jobs, very close to the national average. Shucks, I always thought I was above average.

The show this week is the last broadcast from The Fitzgerald Theater for this season. Special guests include, flat picker of fiddle tunes and alumnus of the Powdermilk Biscuit Band, Adam Granger and vocalist Heather Masse. Enjoy the show and remember we are still rebroadcasting twice on Sunday on the news network. First from 11 am to 1 pm and then again from 6 pm until 8 pm. Enjoy the show.

Check out the ice fishing contest in Brainerd on www.theoutdoorreport.com

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient evidence.” Samuel Butler

It is zero degrees out there, according to the on-board display this morning. We have been spoiled by the warm temps and the lack of snow. I have yet to hear the first Cardinal, but the amount of day light is on the increase. At least the rattle snakes are not sunning themselves on the rocks.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the St. Cloud Times was in the process of selecting ten objects to represent the area. We submitted the original telegram that is framed and on display in our lobby here at the Collegeville studios, authorizing KSJR to go on the air. It was chosen as one of the ten. There will be an article in this Sunday’s edition of the St. Cloud Times. Look for it.

I have often thought about what modern invention has most impacted productivity in the workplace. One that came to mind was Windows by Microsoft. When Jimmy Dorr and I opened a Knoll showroom at International Market Square in 1985 we had a desktop computer, but we had to shut down the word processor program in order to have access to the financial spreadsheet program or any other program. It was very time consuming. Now you simply minimize one ap on your desktop and you can switch from one program to another in a second.

Another candidate would have to be the bar code scanner. Can you imagine the time that we would be spending in line at Target if the check out person had to enter each price after reading the package? The first patent for a bar code type product was issued to Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952. It was a “bull’s eye” symbol, made up of a series of concentric circles. In 1970, the American company Monarch Marking began producing bar code equipment for retail trade use. George J. Laurer is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973. In June of 1974, the first UPC scanner was installed at a Marsh’s Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a bar code included on the package was a packet of Wrigley’s Gum. The St. Joseph Meat Market still uses the old fashioned way.

The show this week is another live show from The Fitzgerald Theater in frosty downtown St. Paul. Special guests include folksinger Ann Reed, otherworldly chamber-pop chanteuse ‘My Brightest Diamond’ and vocalist Heather Masse.
Enjoy the show.

Mason Jennings is at The Paramount Theater in frosty downtown St. Cloud both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Go to www.paramountarts.org

“My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy”. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

Stepping outside this week, it is hard to believe it’s February in central Minnesota. At this rate, we will be trading in our cross-country skis for water skis on Lake Sag pretty soon.

Fifty-three years ago today will forever be known as “The Day the Music Died.” Rock and roll pioneers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P Richardson were killed when their plane, headed for Moorhead, MN, crashed into a frozen cornfield near Clear Lake, IA, just six miles from take-off. Holly chartered the flight after his tour bus broke down and fellow musician Carl Bunch ended up in the hospital with severe frostbite. Perhaps if the weather was like it has been lately, we never would have lost so much incredible talent.

Fans of the late, great musicians call the plane crash “the first and greatest tragedy rock and roll has ever suffered.” Over the years several memorials have been created in their honor, including a steel guitar and three records bearing the three performers’ names, a giant pair of Holly’s famous Wayfarer-style glasses marking the crash site, and Don McLean’s hit song “American Pie.”

Fittingly titled “A Place Where it’s Nice and Warm,” this week’s show is another live broadcast from St. Paul at The Fitzgerald Theater featuring special guests vocalist Heather Masse and the sister-act Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele. Also making appearances are Butch Thompson on piano and clarinet, and the Royal Academy of Radio Actors sitting in with The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band. Enjoy the show!

“One kind word can warm three winter months.” Japanese Proverb

The Times Writers Group is looking for 10 Objects to tell the history of the St. Cloud area. Our intern Ellen Newkirk helped me to draft the following submittal. It was edited by Bill Gray with MPR.
The final list will be determined by February 6th.

“At first glance, the Western Union telegram hanging near the entrance of the original studio of Minnesota Public Radio at St. John’s University may not seem like much. But more than a yellowed copy of an extinct form of communication, the telegram is actually one of the most important pieces of MPR’s history, and it helps tell a unique story in the history of St. Cloud itself. Dated January 20, 1967, it grants authority to St. John’s University to commence broadcasting on KSJR-FM as Minnesota Educational Radio. Two days later, on January 22nd, KSJR-FM went on the air for the first time.

Minnesota Educational Radio was the brainchild of Fr. Colman Barry, OSB, who at that time was president of the St. John’s University. Fr. Barry saw the opportunity to bring classical music to the region as part of the Benedictine tradition of promoting arts and culture. Barry approached St. John’s student Bill Kling with the idea, and together they forged a plan.

In the years that followed, the station hired some of its most familiar names – Gary Eichten joined the organization in 1968, and in 1969 Garrison Keillor came on board as morning drive time host. In 1974, the name was changed to Minnesota Public Radio, and in 1980, MPR moved its headquarters to St. Paul and added its news and information service.

Since its humble beginnings as a college radio station in Wimmer Hall, Minnesota Public Radio has expanded over the last 45 years to become one of the most influential news and entertainment sources in the country. None of this success would have been possible without the authority granted to St. John’s University by the humble telegram.”

The show this week is another live performance from The Fitzgerald Theater. Special guests include the graceful violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, singing sisters of soul Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele and saxophonist Kenni Holmen. Enjoy the show.

“In this world, you must be a bit too kind to be kind enough.” Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763)

We had a cold snap this week. My on-board thermometer read minus 13 one morning. They say it will warm up a bit on Sunday. It was bound to happen. Think spring.

Today is Gary Eichten’s last day hosting the MPR News Midday program. Gary started here at Collegeville as a student employee. I found his Student Time Card from March of 1967. That month he logged 225 1/2 hours. When would he have had time to study?

On today’s Midday show, the 11 a.m. hour will be a rebroadcast of last night’s discussion at The Fitzgerald Theater between Gary and Minnesota’s most famous living statesman, Walter Mondale. During the noon hour, Gary will be interviewed by Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer and will answer audience questions from the UBS Forum at our St. Paul headquarters. It will be historic. It will be great radio.

Gary Eichten has agreed to continue lending his talent and experience to MPR News in two ways: Gary will host a series of conversations at The Fitzgerald Theater called “The Political Condition”, a terrific event MPR will be offering later in this presidential election year. In the series, Gary will interview nationally prominent political figures to better understand the political process and the issues that the nation faces. The schedule of events and guests is being finalized. Gary will also serve as “editor at large” in the newsroom, a role where Gary will engage with our journalists and reporters on a regular basis and continue to give feedback on news coverage, events and how MPR handles them from the ground up. In addition, Gary will a mentor to new talent.

On a related note, Sunday will mark the 45th anniversary of our first broadcast on KSJR 90.1 from Collegeville. Now we are one the nation’s premier public radio networks, operating 43 stations and serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of the surrounding states plus Sun Valley, Idaho.

The show this week is another live show from The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. Special guests include the original renegade guitar picker Leo Kottke and vocalist Andra Suchy. Enjoy the show.

If you are used to listening to APHC on the news network, you may want to switch over to the classical network broadcast, because the news show will be interrupted at 6 PM by the South Carolina election coverage from NPR. The entire show will be re-broadcast on the news network on Sunday at 11 AM and Sunday evening at 6 PM.

“Genius is seldom recognized for what it is: a great capacity for work.” Henry Ford

Friday the 13th. This is the first of three “Friday, the 13ths” for the year of 2012. According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, NC, an estimated 17 to 21 million people in the United States are affected by a fear of this day. Some people are so paralyzed by fear that they avoid their normal routines in doing business on this day. “It’s been estimated that $800 to $900 million is lost in business on this day..” source John Roach.

According to Wikipedia, the actual origin of the superstition appears to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.” source: Charles Panati, Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things.

The show this week is a live performance from the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. Special guests include Nashville idol, Brad Paisley and soul stirring men’s vocal ensemble Cantus. Andra Suchy will be there to help Garrison to carry a tune. Enjoy the show.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J.R.R. Tolkien