SCEDC Blog

Holy Cow! Back to School Shopping

Wiki is the source of all things obscure. Really, really obscure. Take the term, Holy Cow! Wiki reports Holy Cow! is linked to other Midwest expressions like Holy Buckets!, Holy Cats!, and Holy Mike! – – all being euphemisms for a biblical reference to a certain Savior with the initials J.C.

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A Guy, a Truck, and Good Roads

There’s a story that goes back to 1935 and involves an enterprising guy named Norman. He had a truck and a vision. Norman loaded up a team of horses and hauled them from Hudson, Wisconsin to Trempealeau, near the end of the Earth, but also in Wisconsin.

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Lifetime Skills: Lemonade

The fast talking economic development guy in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley has some curious habits. He tracks the date, time and location of the first robin, usually sighted in mid-March. The same process is followed…

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Father’s Day 2023: Consumers Meet Atlas

U.S. consumers are a lot like Atlas, the character in Greek mythology. Atlas was a Titan and they ruled the universe until Zeus, a fellow Titan, joined the Olympians and defeated the Titans for control. Except for Atlas, all Titans were banished to a faraway placed called Tartarus….

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Brown Eyed Girls – Dairy Month

At last count, Wisconsin was home to around 1.28 million dairy cows and 6,000 dairy farms, thus ensuring its place as America’s Dairyland, as noted on every ’sconnie license plate. The number of cows a/k/a brown eyed girls may surprise a few folks …

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Congrats Grads: You Have Crossed The Bay

A bay in any body of water – lake, sea, or ocean – is a safe harbor. Waters are calmer. Breezes are lighter. Leave the safe harbor and the water is deeper, the speed of the wind is stronger, and the waves roll with a predictable cadence.

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No IOU’s to Moms

Sunday, May 14 is a big day for moms. It’s an even bigger day for sons, daughters, in-laws, and outlaws to come through in the clutch. The term clutch is as subtle as Effort vs. Results, meaning the difference between trying and accomplishment.

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Ant Versus Grasshopper

An old timer named Aesop has a favorite fable that involves resourceful ants storing food ahead of winter and a grasshopper that spent the summer singing and dancing. When winter arrived, the grasshopper was in need of food and the ants had a stockpile. The moral: Work today for what you’ll need tomorrow.

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Prom: Still Da Bomb

For better or worse, another rite of passage for senior high students is prom. Just like the first robin in mid-March, residents of Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley will soon witness well-dressed young adults filling up tables and booths at high-end restaurants. For those on a budget, Culver’s, Mikey D’s, and Arby’s are just fine too.

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Public Works Departments – The Miracle Workers

Many know The Miracle Worker as an acclaimed three-act play that premiered on Broadway in October 1959. It’s based on the true story of Helen Keller, a blind and deaf girl from Alabama and Anne Sullivan, a Bostonian, who teaches her language.

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Danny Boy, if only for a day

With the Luck of the Irish, St. Patrick’s Day 2023 falls on a Friday. Write your own punchline. There could be two- and three-day celebrations. Write your own itinerary. Parades. Toasts. Cabbage. Irish soda bread. Corned beef. Toasts. Shephard’s pie. Toasts. More Toasts.

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Penny Here, Penny There

It may be a sign of impending old age, but a few residents in Wisconsin’s St. Croix Valley still get excited finding a wheat penny. In fact, a fast talking community booster recently freed a penny from an icy tomb in a parking lot. Too shiny for a wheat cent, it still found a place in a coat pocket.

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Rodeoing in Madison

Wiki says George Strait is one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. His authentic cowboy image and back-to-roots sound earned him the title, King of Country Music.

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Census Bureau: Urban, Rural, Country, Rock ’n Roll

Star Wars has nothing to do with Donny and Marie Osmond and neither has anything to do with the U.S. Census Bureau. Until now, that is.

The opening crawl of the Star Wars film series begins, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…..”

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Days are Long; Years Short

With the refrains of Auld Lang Syne still fresh, political cartoons will continue a tradition of depicting a sash-wearing Baby New Year morphing into a haggard Father Time over the course of 365 days, 52 weeks, or 12 months. The days are long but the years are short.

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Shop, Drop, and Roll

Before the wishbone from the Thanksgiving Bird was pulled in two, the National Retail Federation (NRF) released its forecast of record breaking holiday spending in America this season, to the tune of $942.6 – $960.4 billion.

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