Jim Glynn Dead at 64

Just two weeks ago milwaukeeworld.com visited the birthday party for Jim Glynn. Glynn, 64, died Monday morning, according to his brother, Atty. Steve Glynn, who called shortly thereafter. Few of the hundreds who visited with Jim at his birthday – celebration of life party at the Quaker Meeting House could possibly have sensed how advanced Jim’s illness was, so great was his natural radiance. When I first saw him back in town a few weeks ago, I was glad to see him back in Milwaukee after his sojourn in Portland.

We talked about his return to radio – why, maybe the impending changes at WYMS might open an opportunity for him, I said. After I had planned his future for him, Jim told me he had come back to Milwaukee to die, and it would be sooner, rather than later.

I had no idea it would be this soon.

A memorial for Jim will be held at Turner Hall, 1034 N. 4th Street, Sunday, October 24th, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Engineering Women

The Society of Women Engineers held its “National Conference 2004” in Milwaukee on October 14-16. This was a large event for the Midwest Airlines Center – over 3,500 women engineers and their associates pre-registered for the event, which included numerous receptions, workshops, and a giant job fair for newly-minted women engineers.

The workshops included such improbable activities as 6 a.m. aerobics, followed by 7:30 a.m. “Coffee Shoppe,” followed by sessions on “Women Leaders Leading Change: Navigating Career Paths,” “e-Enabling Aerospace Technical Advancements,” and my favorite, “The ‘Woman Problem,’ The ‘F-Word’ and Engineering: Feminist Engineers Leading Change in Higher Education.”

The job fair featured many scary organizations, including the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Jet Propulsion Lab, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Halliburton.

These companies had booths throughout the exhibition hall, and I visited them Friday, while enjoying a free box lunch.

A particularly severe woman engineer in blue jeans made sure nobody sneaked an extra lunch, which would have been unlikely once one had eaten the first one (or tried to.) But if you think the only thing defense contractors do with our tax money is to pay exalted salaries and pensions to the Rumsfelds and the Cheneys among us, and to buy shiny gifts for middle-eastern despots, you are wrong, since these corporations are propping up the China trade by their purchase of any number of desktop doodads that they hand out at job fairs like this one.

Space prohibits me from listing all of the pens, staplers, notepads and other goodies I hauled out of the place, but they include playing cards (Bechtel and Caterpillar), calculator, (Accenture), staplers (ExxonMobil, Halliburton), pens (Kimberly-Clark, CIA, Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, Brookhaven National Laboratory, ChevronTexaco, Kohler and many, many more).

I also made a haul of executive tools, including screwdrivers (Honda, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory), duffel bags (Schlumberger) and just piles of other goodies, including “executive stress relievers” – little squeezy penguins, racing cars, smiley face balls, hackeysacks and suchlike.

My office larder is stocked, all of my friends have brand-new T-shirts, and if you ask me, the Women Engineers are welcome in Milwaukee any time.

Kerry’s Visit to MATC

It is remarkable, given the number of candidates, candidates’ wives and candidates children swarming our streets lately that I did not bump into John Kerry when he popped into town Friday, October 15th at the Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Susan Stein did, and has been showing friends “the hand (her hand) that shook the hand of the next president of the United States,” as she puts it.

Stein, who has long been active in the Kerry campaign, said the event featured an audience mostly of MATC types, which are not hard to come by since the place has an enrollment of tens of thousands.

Stein says Kerry appeared with about forty others on stage. His hosts included Sen. Herb Kohl ( a fellow member of the World’s Most Exclusive Club), Gwen Moore, and Mayor Barrett.

Moore introduced the audience to Bill Hall, who was recently laid off from a factory job he had long held. Hall then had the opportunity to introduce Kerry.

Lake-Toberfest

The Lake Michigan Federation held a little get-together at its offices in the Milwaukee Environmental Consortium from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Thursday, October 14, 2004. Cameron Davis, the executive director of the organization, introduced Susan Campbell, its new Communications Manager and Erika Jensen, its Outreach Associate.

He also announced that the Brico Fund, the philanthropic enterprise of Lynde Uihlein, had contributed a grant so the group could continue its study and advocacy of water issues.

And, there are many issues, including international agreements on watershed issues that have a particular impact for thirsty Waukesha and sodden Milwaukee.

The public had until Monday, October 18th to submit its comments on the plan to the Council of Great Lakes Governors.

Jim Rowen, former reporter and official in the Norquist administration, said he is also doing work with the Brico Fund. Marilyn Goris of Citizens for a Better Environment said she still hears from Susan Mudd, her old boss. Marilyn said Susan describes her new Rogers Park house as a plain, working class residence. Susan stays active emailing friends and associates on the many issues that interest her, she said.

Davis, the director, noted the event was co-sponsored by Goose Island Beer Co., which provided cases of brew for the attendees.

He also noted that Goose Island is a Chicago concern. But then, Miller is owned by South African Brewing Co.

Look at it this way: Chicago is in the same watershed as Milwaukee – except that the Chicago Sanitary Canal is the greatest diverter of Lake Michigan water.

A number of the environmentalists at the meeting commented on the then-announced plans to build a submarine fence to repel the invasive Asian Carp.

Wouldn’t this fence prevent desirable marine life from access to Lake Michigan?

“The Sanitary Canal is in such rough shape that there is no desirable marine life there,” he said.

Cameron is from Chicago and was a litigator, he said. His connection to Wisconsin is strong since his family has long owned a place in Vilas County.

Sally Leiser said she has been working with the Community Food Security Coalition, a nationwide network of community gardens and similar enterprises like Will Allen’s Grow Power.

The eight Annual Conference of the coalition ran from October 17 – 19th at the Midwest Airlines Center.

The group’s website is www.foodsecurity.org

On a related note, Hoe Down! A benefit for Milwaukee Urban Gardens will be held November 9th, from 5:30 – 9 p.m at Onopa Brewing, 735 E. Center Street. Music is by the Western Box Turtles, and Western Swing lessons will be available. The price is $40 a couple. Call 414 431-1585 for more information.

Big Weeks Ahead for Milwaukee Art Museum

If you live in a community that is sufficiently civilized to offer “I Voted” stickers to those who exercise their franchise, then head on down to the Milwaukee Art Museum November 2nd, to receive free admission.

The $12 value includes access to its feature exhibition “Masterpieces of American Art, 1770 – 1920: From the Detroit Institute of Arts.” The show will be in previews this week, and is curated by Glenn Adamson, once again on loan from our friends at the extravagantly wealthy and powerful Chipstone Foundation.

The Masterpieces comes from a museum that has a bunch of them, and are here for us to enjoy while their home is being renovated.

The Milwaukee Art Museum is rehanging its own rather nice American collection, so we will be able to get an eyeful of Copley, Sargent, Cassatt, Homer, Church and Henri paintings. The show runs until January 30th.

Planned Parenthood Pulls Advertising on Milwaukee’s Sinclair-Owned Television Station

Planned Parenthood has invested heavily in the current election, even sending mailings with self-addressed reply cards.

The cards contain an application for an absentee ballort. Those who fill out the cards mail them back to Planned Parenthood, which arranges for the ballots to be mailed to the respondents.

It is a modern example of an outside party running a voter registration drive, with an ostensibly non-partisan aim. Which is not to say that Planned Parenthood supports George W. Bush.

On Saturday, October 16th, the group pulled its advertisements from local Sinclair Broadcast Group station UPN 24 because the parent company is forcing all affiliates to broadcast “Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,” an anti-Kerry documentary.

According to the group, ‘the decision was made because the local network is being forced by its parent company to adhere to its right-wing agenda.”

According to Planned Parenthood, Sinclair “has told its television stations to pre-empt regular programming to run an anti-John Kerry documentary as part of an hour-long program in the days leading up to the Nov. 2.”

The show is expected to air sometime between October 21 and October 24, the group says.

“We have supported our local station, UPN 24, by purchasing advertising and have enjoyed working with them,” said Lisa Boyce, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin (PPAWI). “However, we cannot in good conscience support the outrageous agenda of its parent company going forward.”

Boyce added that PPAWI believes in free speech, but views this action as an illegal in-kind donation to the Bush campaign. “This is a stealth attempt to influence the upcoming election, and we refuse to be associated with it in any way,” Boyce concluded.

More Interesting News (With a showbiz twist)

Marie Kohler is working on a play about Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose 18th century dictionary was the original spell-checker for the English language. Who does she have in mind for the title character? Husband Brian Mani. … If today is Tuesday, you have a chance to see a performance of “A Stoop on Orchard Street,” at the Pabst Theater, 144 E. Wells St.The show is about life in the Jewish tenements of New York City in the 1910’s. It is an Off-Broadway hit and is on a nationwide tour. Performances are at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. For more information contact www.pabsttheater.org. … I ran across Pabst Theater owner Michael Cudahy a couple of Sundays ago at Café 1505, the impossible-to-remember name of the old La Boulangerie in Mequon. (At 1505 W. Mequon Road, wouldn’t you know it.)I told him his shoe was untied, and that it wasn’t safe to walk around like that. He tied his shoe and said he needs another $5 million (or was it $15 million) for the Pier Wisconsin Center, and where was my checkbook? … Peter Allen Vogt and Shane Partlow are in their final week of presenting “The Queen of Bingo!” at the Northern Lights Theater in the Potawatomi Bingo Casino. The play is an amusing one-hour trifle. Curiously, though, the actors, for whatever reason, did not adapt the play for the local market, and throw in little Wisconsin references. Partlow is a producer with Theatre A Go-Go, Inc. and has appeared on Will and Grace and has a resume full of other activities, including producing the “Evening with Jack Klugman,” cancelled in Milwaukee earlier this year, when Klugman returned to New York to grieve the death of his friend Tony Randall. … The Brady East Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic (BEST-D) celebrated its 30th anniversary Sunday, October 17th, in the parking lot behind the Brady Street facility. Mrs. Fun filled the air with its wonderful music, mere hours after they packed the house at Gallery H20 during Gallery Night. … Alberta Darling could have saved her campaign some money in a recent mailing. My mother got four identical mailings. Here’s how they were addressed: “to the “Rita K.Horne Household,” “Rita Househould,” “Patrick Household,” and “Michael Household.” I think a certain mailing list company should be doing some house cleaning of its clearly useless addresses.