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Tags: Football Travel / Sports Travel / Sports / Wisconsin Travel / → All Tags

World's Biggest Waffle To Welcome Brett Favre Home

Even the most causal sports fan knows about Brett Favre and the problems he has making up his mind. Earlier this year, Favre was all about retirement, then all about playing football, and then back to dreaming of 365 days of golf. Well he finally decided to toss the pigskin around for one last season—we’ll see if one last season turns into more next year—and has led the Minnesota Vikings to an undefeated start. In about two weeks, Favre will return to Green Bay to play the team he led for many years, and the city’s citizens want to ensure that Favre has a warm welcome back home.

Mayor Jim Schmitt of Green Bay is asking for public suggestions for respectable ways to welcome Favre back to town. One of the best suggestions so far is to cook up a giant waffle in the shape of a number four—Favre’s uniform number. This will be a somewhat subtle dedication to the player’s reputation for indecision regarding his retirement. Another idea was to play a reel of all Favre’s interceptions while in a Packers uniform before the game.

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Tags: Museum Travel / Art Travel / Milwaukee Travel / Museums / Andy Warhol / → All Tags

The Milwaukee Art Museum Dares Reveal Warhol's Later Years

You've seen Andy Warhol's classic Campbell's Soup cans and his bold, bright Marilyn Monroe silkscreen works, but you probably haven't seen the Pop master's art from the latter part of his life, which veered away from glamour and beauty. The Milwaukee Art Museum gives you a peek at those works with "Andy Warhol: The Last Decade," the first U.S. museum exhibit to examine the artist's final years through a survey of painted pieces.

Although Warhol received most of his acclaim from his '60s Pop Art, his output during decade before his death in '87 was far more prolific. The Milwaukee museum shows pieces from this period, including collaborations with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente that inspired the artist to return to painting by hand; abstract works, black-and-white ads, works examining death and religion, self-portraits, camouflage patterns and oxidation paintings—also known as "piss paintings" because he peed on them...nasty.

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Tags: Tourism Advertising / Tourism Boards / Tourism Marketing / Travel Ads / Wisconsin Travel / → All Tags

WTF, Wisconsin?

WTF, yo? Poor Wisconsin; their tourism board obviously doesn't employ any youngsters who are familiar with the hip, internet lingo of the day. Perhaps they should have run their name by an intern first? The "Wisconsin Tourism Federation," or WTF, is a little late to realize that their own acronym is also a popular abbreviation for "what the f*ck."

So instead of continue on the path to permanent jokedom, the WTF sat down and decided to give in to the web change their name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin, or TFW. CNET has the scoop on their reasoning: "'We didn't want it to detract from our mission,' said Julia Hertel, a spokeswoman for the newly renamed TFW."

Aw, isn't that cute? But you see, what they didn't count on and probably still haven't realized the value of, is all this publicity. Now, thanks to their slip-up and unfortunate association with a cussing internet slang term, the WTF TFW is known outside of Milwaukee. The jury is still out on whether or not this incident will attract tourists to the dairy state.

Related Stories:
· WTF? Bloggers cause Wisconsin Tourism Federation to change name [CNET]
· Wisconsin Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: WTF or is it TFW?]

Tags: Food Festivals / Food Travel / Fall Travel / Wisconsin Travel / Events / → All Tags

Cran Fans Head For Mecca: Wisconsin's Cranberry Festival

Now that fall is officially here, our minds—and stomachs—start to yearn for the tastes of autumn. Pumpkins, apples, and even cranberries all start to take priority over corn-on-the-cob and baked beans. Although we are fans of cranberries, especially with a generous side of turkey, we have a lot to learn before this year’s Warrens Cranberry Festival in Wisconsin.

It’s the world’s largest cranberry festival and they want everyone to know about it. There’s over 1000 booths on display with people selling their arts and crafts, flea market finds, and probably just some junk from around the house. All together the vendors make up over three miles, so you probably want to fill your water bottle up with some Ocean Spray for a little extra energy. They are expecting over 100,000 fans of the cran this weekend as things run from September 25 to 27.

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Tags: Television Travel / Milwaukee Travel / Travel News / → All Tags

A Must-See In Milwaukee: The Award-Winning Bronze Fonz Statue

Just when you think you're cool, a Bronze Statue of The Fonz from Happy Days goes and accepts an award for being exactly that: really darn cool. Over the weekend, Milwaukee accepted the award on behalf of the Fonzie statue they erected back in August 2008.

Officially, the reason for the honor from the National Council for Destination Organizations (whatever that is) is that the city has done such a great job of marketing the statue and the city as a tourism destination because of it, that they've raised over $17,000 for a literacy program from sales of autographed cast posters and contributions. Of course Henry Winkler was on hand to pose with his metal doppelganger.

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Tags: Accidents / Wisconsin Travel / Automobiles / → All Tags

The Wienermobile Makes A Bun Of A Wisconsin Home

After weeks of grieving for various celebrity deaths, a nation was finally able to laugh again this weekend when we learned of a Wienermobile crashing into a Wisconsin home.

The 22-year-old driver of the iconic Oscar Mayer promotional car, one of six such vehicles nationwide, was trying to turn around in a private driveway and accidentally shifted into drive, according to the Associated Press. No one was hurt and the owners weren't home, which isn't to say they didn't have a massive shock at seeing their home turned into a bun.

Twelve Weinermobile drivers are chosen yearly from a pool of over a thousand applicants, but the job requirements don't specify that would-be hotdoggers know how to drive at all, let alone handle a 27-foot-long, 7000-pound fiberglass lunch. The Hotdoggers write on their official blog that they are back on the highway, which means homeowners in St. Louis should put down the portcullis before leaving for work.

This is the second recent Wienermobile accident to make the national news, following a 2008 mishap on a snowy highway in Pennsylvania (albeit, again, with no casualties). Ironically, former chairman Oscar G. Mayer (the grandson of the founder) died two weeks ago in Wisconsin at the age of 95. His main request for the funeral? No Wienermobile.

Related Stories:
· Wienermobile crashes into Racine County home [JS Online]
· Franks For Your Concern [Hotdogger Blog]
· The Troubling History of Wienermobile Traffic Incidents [Wizbang Pop]
· Retired chairman of Oscar Mayer Foods dead at 95 [Jaunted]

[Photo: JS Online]

Tags: Midwestern Summer / Best Tubing Spots / Tubing / Rivers / Apple River / Water Sports / → All Tags

Tubing The Apple River: Slow Speeds, Fast Sunburns

Someday when the ozone layer has become more hole than layer, summer will be ruined for open-water activities like tubing, because the risk of skin cancer will be too great. So we'd best live it up while we're young and there is still SPF enough! That's a pretty dire way to characterize the best tubing spot in Wisconsin, but no man-made lazy river can compare to the Apple River's natural sloth.

The allure of this tributary of the St. Croix close to Minneapolis is passed around every summer among circles of would-be road-trippers. A few gentle rapids keep tubers moving along, and while the scenery isn't the greatest, the wide, slow rock of the Apple that once made it perfect to float logs downstream from virgin forests to busy sawmills attracts boaters from all over.

The tubing "scene" isn't for kids on the Apple -- online reports indicate a preponderance of casual nudity and beer cans -- but you can always placate them with a later-summer visit to Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells.

Related Stories:
· Summer Vacations With an Edge: Rockin' and Rapids [Jaunted]
· Dominica Rides Year Of The Pirate [Jaunted]
· More Active Travel: Rafting Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: chris-williams]

Tags: Celeb Travel / Jimmy Fallon / Milwaukee Travel Guide / → All Tags

Jimmy Fallon's Guide To The Best Bars in Milwaukee

While some stars were jetting off to the Cannes Film Festival last weekend, Jimmy Fallon took the road less traveled and spent a few days in Milwaukee. The Late Night host performed his stand up act at the Pabst Theater on Saturday, no doubt trying out some of the jokes we’ll be hearing on his show this week.

Jimmy’s weekend wasn’t all work and no play though. He did get a chance to take in some of Milwaukee’s finest drinking establishments and, of course, Tweeted all about it, saying "Bye, Milwaukee. So fun. Pabst theater is gorgeous. Great people" and "Jo Cat (pedal pub crawlers),Bryant's (crazy good cocktails), Club Brady (not a club - but dudes moshing to Pantera) and Wolski's (cold beer)."

Here’s a break down of Jimmy's Tweet about the best bars he visited in Milwaukee.

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Tags: C.R.E.A.M. / Weird / Money / Middle America / → All Tags

Fistfuls Of Foreign Currency... In Milwaukee?

Two neighborhoods in Milwaukee have had it with the US dollar--and are planning to print up their own cash to be used at local businesses. Amazingly, it's totally legal as long as they don't mint coins.

Community organizer (ewww!) Sura Faraj tells the Chicago Tribune:

You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores. They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store.

But why would you want to use locally grown cash if you can just as easily spend US dollars in Wisconsin? Shops in Riverwest and East Side, Milwaukee might build in favorable exchange rates, so an item that would cost, say, US$11 would go for just $10 worth of local scratch.

Related Stories:
· Milwaukee Neighborhoods Could Print Own Money [Chicago Tribune, via]
· Dollar-Euro Exchange Rate Totally Killing Us [Jaunted]

[Photo of funny money: sixsixsixismoney]

Tags: Midwest Death Watch / Midwest Airlines / Timothy Hoeksema / → All Tags

Midwest, Angry Pilots Headed For Arbitration

Pilots and flight attendants working for Midwest Airlines have been picketing and protesting the carrier's September decision to hire Republic Airways to operate a number of flights on Embraer 170s instead of Midwest's signature 717s. As a part of that contract, 270 jobs were cut, though Midwest says the 125 pilots that were let go will be re-hired after they are trained on the smaller jets. The pilots aren't buying that.

But starting today the pilot's union and the airline will enter arbitration to sort out the mess. A different union representing flight attendants will sit down for similar talks starting Saturday, the Journal-Sentinel reports. Will this be the end of the animosity between the airline and its workforce? Doubtful. And no matter what agreement is made, it likely won't fix the rapidly eroding quality of the Midwest product.

Still, at least one person must be welcoming this news: CEO Timothy Hoeksema has been enduring pilot picketing at his house.

Related Stories:
· Midwest Union Grievances Go to Arbitration [MJS]
· Midwest Death Watch coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of a protest at Casa Hoeksema: Dontoutsourcemidwest.com]

Tags: Midwest Death Watch / Midwest Airlines / Wisconsin / Airline News / → All Tags

Midwest Death Watch: Rallying Pilots Say, Outsource This!

Struggling now-basically-regional carrier Midwest Airlines is hardly the only carrier trying to cut jobs these days to stay afloat. But Midwest may have got more than it bargained for when its deal with Republic Airlines eliminated 270 jobs, including the positions of 125 unionized pilots whose jobs will be taken over.

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Tags: Possible-Presidents-Map / John McCain / Barack Obama / Sarah Palin / Joe Biden / → All Tags

Possible Presidents Map: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast

Right now the McCain faithful are rallying in Waukesha, Wisconsin, home of that Wisconsin woman who lost to the naked guy on the first season of "Survivor."

Neither has endorsed a candidate so we can't speculate whether they will be attending to catch a glimpse of John McCain or running mate Sarah Palin--much less whether they're friends with the Alaska governor, even in the Bill Ayers sense.

Palin splits from the top of her ticket tonight to take the "Road to Victory" in Wilmington, Ohio. We're dying to know what she's got in her moose tote bag!

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