Big shoes to fill …

in the Wisconsin 8th district blogosphere.  Todd Lohenry has closed up his part of the bunker over at THE Right Side of Wisconsin.

Best of luck in whatever the future holds.  Your voice will be sorely missed.

Don’t worry though Dr. Kagen, there are others in the 8th who will keep up the heat by reporting what the MSM fails to.

Wednesday Hero 06/24/09

Yes I know it is Thursday but it’s the Wednesday Hero series.

Band Of Brothers

Something a little different this week. Instead of profiling a service member, Wednesday Hero will be profiling a movie. Band Of Brothers. It was a miniseries tha aired on HBO in 2001. It follows Maj. Richard Winters, Cpt. Lewis Nixon and the men of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, aka E-Company or Easy Company on their march to Germany. From their training to their battles at Normandy and Bastogne, their liberation of the Kaufering IV concentration camp to their taking of Hitler’s Eagle Nest. A great cast and great writing make this one of the best war movies ever made. But it is graphic in visuals and language. And parts of it may be hard to watch, but it is worth it.

What the men of E-Company did will never be forgotten. They are the heroes that helped the cause of freedom.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

R.I.P. Ed McMahon

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A “Tonight Show” legend and Johnny’s famous sidekick has passed away.

Ed McMahon, the loyal “Tonight Show” sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86.

McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

Bragman didn’t give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.”

McMahon and Carson had worked together for nearly five years on the game show “Who Do You Trust?” when Carson took over NBC’s late-night show from Jack Paar in October 1962. McMahon played second banana on “Tonight” until Carson retired in 1992.

“You can’t imagine hooking up with a guy like Carson,” McMahon said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1993. “There’s the old phrase, hook your wagon to a star. I hitched my wagon to a great star.”

McMahon, who never failed to laugh at his Carson’s quips, kept his supporting role in perspective.

“It’s like a pitcher who has a favorite catcher,” he said. “The pitcher gets a little help from the catcher, but the pitcher’s got to throw the ball. Well, Johnny Carson had to throw the ball, but I could give him a little help.”

“And now h-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” was McMahon’s trademark opener for each “Tonight” show, followed by a small, respectful bow toward the star. McMahon’s style was honed during his youthful days as a carnival hawker.

The highlight for McMahon came just after the monologue, when he and Carson would chat before the guests took the stage.

“We would just have a free-for-all,” he said in the AP interview. “Now to sit there, with one of the brightest, most well-read men I’ve ever met, the funniest, and just to hold your own in that conversation. … I loved that.” (Source: “Tonight Show” legend Ed McMahon dies at 86 – Green Bay Press-Gazette)

Condolences to the McMahon family.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A Look Back At ‘Tonight Show’ (npr.org)
• Ed McMahon hospitalized (cnn.com)

Earthquake jolts Alaska

Image via Wikipedia

Damage minimal but scares residents.

A strong earthquake in Alaska‘s most populous region has scared a lot of people but caused almost no damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the 5.4 magnitude temblor struck about 24 miles from the town of Willow. The rumbling lasted several minutes in Anchorage, about 58 miles away.

The shaking sent residents and office workers diving under desks and huddling in doorways and was felt as far south as Kenai and north to Fairbanks, a span of 300 miles.

Janet Herr, an employee of the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center says the quake was 26 miles deep, a reason for both the minimal damage and the vast area over which it was felt.

Anchorage has about 285,000 residents, most of the vast state’s population.

Alaska is seismically active, and has frequent earthquakes although most can’t be felt.

Which is why it’s rare to hear about them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Earthquake shakes Alaska urban area (msnbc.msn.com)
• Earthquake jolts Alaska; USGS says magnitude is 5.4 (ctv.ca)
• Southern Peru hit by Strong Quake (netnewsdaily.com)