Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, July 10, 2008
Marc Wehrs: Motorcycles are a big hit in Tribune photo gallery
Looking for a quick dose of fun? Then check out the motorcycles at www.lacrossetribune.com.
Even a week and a half after La Crosse calmed down in the wake of S&S Cycle’s huge 50th anniversary celebration, the gallery of 120 photos by Tribune staffers and Web site visitors is drawing thousands of clicks a day.
The gallery has received hundreds of thousands of page views since Web guy Eric Roellig set it up and seeded it with the first few dozen photos on the opening day of the event.
To check it out, go to the Tribune’s home page, scroll to the Hot Links section in the middle of the page and click on S&S Anniversary Gallery.
Where to put those felonious women ...
North Siders were no more welcoming than their South Side counterparts as La Crosse County took its sights off a Cameron Avenue site for a women’s jail facility and eyed up a spot at Kane and St. Paul streets. Here’s a sample of the comments people left with that story last week at www.lacrossetribune.com:
Double A wrote: “I am perplexed that officials would be swayed by the neighbors near Cameron Avenue and then expect the North Siders to take it. ...”
dbl lung wrote: “A better idea would be to buy a small farmstead outside of town. The neighbors would be a more comfortable distance away, and there would be extra room to expand when the county cannot find extra room for the 40 or so female inmates they have now. ...”
Myturn wrote: “All I cared about on Cameron, and care about on Kane Street, is that the city contact the neighbors in a timely fashion about the project. Then it is up to those neighbors to show up and accept or work against this placement. Get out of your recliners!”
joeemt wrote: “It is too bad we have to split the city into north and south sides. I thought we grew out of that years ago.”
laxreader wrote: “I live near this neighborhood and would not oppose this project if there was more information available to back up the claims. ... This alternative, as they call it, should be heard out and given a chance. Let’s reform these people!”
it takes a village wrote: “I know for a fact that justice sanctions only means ‘out of sight out of mind’ for offenders and law enforcement. The best thing would be to make room in the men’s jail for these women until they can update the conditions in the female jail. Then they need to start sending the worst to prison.”
Critic at Large cuts a wide swath
Jimmy Gillman, whose popular Past Picks movie column appears in Friday’s Tribune, continues to draw visitors — and their reactions — with his blog touching on broader media phenomena at www.rivervalleyblogs.com.
Here are some of the comments readers attached to recent observations by the Critic at Large about baby boomers’ pessimism:
Lee Bowers wrote: “The generations I feel sorry for are the present one and all future ones because the boomers have mucked things up so badly. As Field Marshall Montgomery would say, they’ve made it a complete dog’s breakfast.”
gimme some truth wrote:
“Let’s see now. What, as a boomer myself, did I get to see? 30,000 H bombs pointed at me, JFK dead, rfk dead, mlk dead, Biafra, Manson family, Vietnam, My Lai, Nixon, ’70s stagflation, ’70s oil shock, Cambodian genocide, East Timor genocide, Reagan recession, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s outsourcing overseas of two-thirds of American economy, ghw Bush recession of ’92, Rwandan genocide, 9/11, oil wars I and II, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, nsa wiretaps, gwb depression now in progress. Gloom comes from seein’ truth.”
Audifan wrote: “The last six years of my life have been great. All in all, the Bush years were very good to this middle class baby boomer and his family. Everyone is healthy, salaries are growing rapidly and my sons Little League team is undefeated. NObama can keep his change.”
By the numbers
With pro tennis’ American fan base in the doldrums, our just-for-fun daily online poll asked which was the greatest tennis rivalry of all time, and visitors at www.lacrossetribune.com went to the 1990s and ’80s and even ’70s to pick their favorites.
Twenty-eight percent, or 288 of 1,038 respondents, said Jimmy Connors vs. John McEnroe was the greatest rivalry, followed by Sampras-Agassi at 14 percent, Navratilova-Evert at 11 percent and Borg-McEnroe at 10 percent.
The best that present players could muster: Williams-Williams at 6 percent and Federer-Nadal at 5 percent.
Marc Wehrs can be reached at (608) 791-8218 or mwehrs@lacrossetribune.com.
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