by Cheryl Mathis on November 14th, 2008
Our questions this week come from a serial CW commenter, oldwoodchair. If you would like to submit questions of your own, please contact Cheryl at Cheryl at this domain dot com. Thank you, Terry!
1. If a statue were built of you, where would you want it to be placed?
2. Is the “400 Block” a good name for the 400 block? Or should we come up with something more defining, like maybe “Indecision Square”? Other ideas?
3. If you could start over again, would you go into a different line of work? What is your dream career? Is it ever too late to start over?
4. I have a specialty license plate…do you? If you don’t, what would you put on it that describes or identifies what you want to portray to the world. (It can have 8 characters, including spaces, total.)
5. Do you believe we’re alone in the universe, or is there intelligent life out there somewhere?
by Tom Neal on October 27th, 2008
This week Citizen Wausau explores the considered updates to Wausau’s City Square on the 400 Block. For your reference, have a look at these plans. They are not final, but they give a good idea of what is to come.
The city has announced plans for implementing “improvements” to the downtown 400 Block. They say they work will start in fall of 2009 and finish up in spring 2010. Right now, cost is estimated at about $500K (with the city ponying up $274K and planning to fundraise for the rest). The WDH came out in an editorial saying this was a bad time (i.e. recession) for such things. But, to me, it doesn’t seem like a huge expense, even in these troubled times. (more…)
by Citizen Wausau on March 10th, 2008
[This post comes to us from one of our newest bloggers, Alex. While he is new, he is surely becoming one of our most prolific. This post highlights young love, and we think it is a good tale. We hope you enjoy it.]
March 6th, 2008
I was talking with a virtual friend today. Virtual in that I know virtually nothing about this person, yet for some odd reason have absolutely no problem telling them anything. Anyway, after the conversation was over, I felt compelled to write something about my first. No, not that first, but close. It’s my first love, that rara avis, the girl that started the proverbial ball rolling.
I won’t mention any names. You know who you are. Name dropping would just be wrong and uncomfortable, or for that matter just downright wierd (yes, I know this is spelled wrong, there is a method to my madness dear broccoli lovers). So names aside, let me say she was one unique little gal.
I was a sophomore in high school, and she was a senior. Need I say more? For a young man of sixteen, this is equivalent to floppin’ a royal flush … twice in a row. Fittingly, she was blonde, and had what was a smoking car at the time. It was one of those really weird Subaru’s they came out with in the late eighties, when Subaru decided to morph their all wheel drives with some kind of futuristic sports car looking thing. Regardless, I pretty much thought it was perhaps the coolest object on the entire planet. Now I know this all sounds shallow at this point, but hey I was sixteen. I will make up for it in the near future.
Firstly, to bring everyone back to earth while shedding a little perspective, this story doesn’t take place on the football field, or during the prom, but rather in that pit of popularity known as the high school band room. At this time anyway, there hadn’t been an avalanche of girls showing interest in me and I’m not sure that this one really did either, but I assure you I was going to give it a Boy Scout try despite the consequences.
The whole “how we met” part gets a little muddled at this point, and in general my memory is fair to middling at best. But, in the grand scheme of things I suppose it really doesn’t matter. What do matter are the lessons she taught me, starting with the most important one. Look for a girl with brains.
Don’t take that the wrong way; she was a great looking girl. Outside of that, she was extremely intelligent, unusually witty, and equally creative. We used to spend inordinate amounts of time sitting in her basement watching Monty Python and listening to the Nylons. To this day I cannot listen to a Nylons song without starting to tear up.
New found emotions like these are quite powerful, and they made lasting impressions on me long after we had parted ways. I received my first love letter from the aforementioned female. I kept it for probably ten years or so, until I lost track of it. It was the kind of letter that really tugged at a young man’s heart strings. She told me, “when I saw you my day brightened like a thousand suns had spawned from one.” To this date, that is one of the most romantic things anyone has ever said to me. Coincidentally, I then proceeded to parlay that line into many a one night stand, and possibly (gasp) may have even used it to rope in the current and permanent love of my life. Once again, I say thank you.
So, if you’re out there, three cheers for all of the above. I hold those memories in the highest regard, and truly value that brief moment in time we got to share. You were instrumental in forming my belief in romance. You were my first love and my first heartbreak. Sorry about that whole puppy thing.
by Tom Neal on December 17th, 2007
(Editors Note: When we started the individual blogs, we mentioned pulling some forward to the front page…at random, or because we really dug them. So we are going to start with this post from Tom Neal about WNRB. I have heard of this WNRB thing, and I bet it is fun.)
Thought I’d take this opportunity to promote something I do and where I do it. On Thursday nights, from 7 to 9, I host a radio show (Roundtrip with Neal at the Wheel) on commercial-free WNRB-LP, 93.3 FM. It’s a kick, groove, self-indulgence that allows me to delve into my preoccupation with music. (more…)
