Though frequently referred to as “little Chicago” by folks from Illinois, the “Cream City” (so called for the hue of the local brick) has a distinct culture and identity. A case in point, Milwaukee water fountains are called “bubblers”.   And the local NPR radio series answering listener questions in Chicago called “Curious City” (on WBEZ) in Milwaukee entitled “Bubbler Talk” on WUWM.  The origins of this odd term and public radio series offers an interesting dive into Milwauke history. Read More

That’s right, “Milwaukee or Bust”.  So, while not literally driving a beat-up Model-T cross-country for the promise land, echoing back to 1930s Dust Bowl days, the metaphor helps dramatize my move and internal travails to find a new home.  Temporarily living in “God’s Country” (as my cousin’s refer to Wisconsin) shifted my mindset, which has evolved over the past couple months as a post-pandemic, 50s-something. My June blogpost “Exit Chicago” detailed uprooting myself from Chicago to try out Wisconsin while still buzzing back to the city one-day a week for appointments with Back to Natural Health and catch friends.    Read More

I contracted Covid in March of 2020.  I was never hospitalized but I experienced four weeks of fatigue, difficulty breathing, tightness in my chest, malaise, exhaustion, brain fog, and a complete loss of productivity. I am a 57-year-old writer and athlete.  Feeling better, I got back on my road bike and four weeks later had logged 520-miles.  Then BAMM!  With no warning—on May 15, 2020—Covid returned and laid me out.  Month after month I struggled to manage life’s basics, occasionally able to accomplish some half-days of work.  Read More

Fast approaching a year of dealing with Covid I am finally starting to feel better thanks to a friend of a friend and a Nobel prize winning substance, known in medical shorthand as IVM.  My journey is not over, but IVM has offered a major path to recovery which has been thwarted from the start.  This is my story… Mid-morning on March 23, 2020, I was knocked down with fatigue, slept for 2-1/2 hours and awoke to a growing malaise and brain fog.  Read More

I am not going to get all “soap-boxy” about what should have been done to combat this pandemic.  Plenty of that can be found elsewhere, but suffice it to say face masks are a good idea.  In Czech Republic they have used them quite successfully to curb the spread of the Coronoavirus (COVID-19). In my case, I believe (without readily available tests, still unconfirmed) I came down with Coronavirus last Monday (3/16).  I have no idea where or how I got it.  Read More

In creating a podcast on Chicago history, co-host Christopher Lynch and I have discovered quite a few place and street names with origins reaching deep into the city’s past, often going back to Native American people and languages.  These fascinating tidbits were sprinkled into the podcast to spice up our storytelling. This adventure began by learning about the word Chicago, or as the French recorded the Algonquin pronunciation “Chicagoua” which means “skunk,” and was also used to identify the wild onion growing in the area known as ramps, and detailed in the first episode of the podcast.  Read More

Questioning the origins of everyday things saved my a**! Christmas had rolled around again and as usual I was scrambling and out of time.  Thankfully I remembered the dozen or so scarves I had bought while traveling last January, but unsure my niece (age 13) and two nephews (ages 11 & 13) would really appreciate “a stupid scarf.”  My attempted solution (and in the spirit of home made gifts, which were not out of the ordinary when I was growing up) I created the following to go with each gift . Read More