Appleton Sports the 101D!

So life in Appleton continues, and the 101D machine continues to chug along healthily.  We are playing the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center downtown, just up the street from Lawrence University; a beautiful and historic school that opened it’s doors in 1847… and of it’s first 7 students, 3 of them were women.  Alriiiight.  Not bad Wisconsin :) 

Right off of campus sits the grand Castle-Looking Local History Museum (also known as the Houdini Museum because of a permanent exhibit upstairs dedicated to the legendary hometown Hero.)  Interestingly, Harry Houdini was not born here and he actually only lived here for 4 years from age 3 to 7, when his father, the first Rabbi in Appleton, was fired for not speaking English well enough.  YoUCH!  So the destitute family made their way to New York where  “Harry”, originally named Erik Weisz, eventually became world famous.  Even though he was born in Budapest he always told people he was born in Appleton… so I suppose that goes a little ways toward justifying a town claiming a hero who only lived there for 4 early years.  Otherwise it’s a bit of a stretch.  Sorry Appleton, LOVE you :)  Anyways, the OTHER exhibit at the History Museum was… you guessed it.  SPORTS, and the impact on local culture!  Nice, NOW we’re back on track…

The exhibit was very cool.  It featured lots of interesting local sports history... like a pic of an 18 year old Alex Rodriguez, who played his first professional baseball game here as a member of the Appleton Foxes, a minor-league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.  Like Houdini, I’m sure Alex didn’t stay local very long either!  

Surely, one day, A-Rod will be enshrined upstairs, next to Houdini, as the great Post-Season CHOKE artist!… aw, I kid my Yankee-fan friends.  Actually, I feel like he’s ruining his legacy by being GOOD in this year’s playoffs.  C’mon Alex, where’s the consistency?  Ugh.  Enough about baseball, it’s still dead to me… Heck, if we get a Yankee/Phillies world series I’m gonna cremate it!  (I know, I know… enough sour grapes, silly Mets fan.) 

Aaaaanyways, the museum also featured a look at the evolution of Cheerleader cheers from the 1920’s (hilarious), a tribute to a Local Green Bay Packer fan who only missed 11 games in 71 years!  Wow.  Good job GUY!  Also there was a giant picture of The Lawrence University 1901 Football team (which went undefeated that year!) with interesting related artifacts (Including some archaic headgear they used back in the day that looked kinda like something from the

Hannibal Lecter collection.)  AND, my personal favorite, a 1901 letter from concerned University brass claiming that football was simply too dangerous of a game and that colleges should not continue sponsoring teams!  How about that??  Could you IMAGINE a world withOUT college FOOTBALL???  The world as we know it would be COMPLETELY out of WHACK!!  “Marty, MaRTy!!!”

Oh and speaking of College Football, it’s Saturday again and the Gators are on in 2 minutes.  UnFORtunately, I have to head back to the theatre 20 minutes after THAT!  WHAT???  :(  See I told you that life on the road can be tough!  I mean, c’mon people!  GATORS!!!???  UGH.  WHO schedules these shows???  Oh well :)

Hope all is good Y’all.  And hopefully wherever you are you have as much BRATwurst as you desire… kind of like we have here in Wisconsin.  MmmMmmmmmm  :) thanks for chillin!

Jeff