Don’t fiddle around with namby pamby heated bean bags to toss this weekend.
– There are two ways, both good, to look at the cold-weather bean bag tournament outside “Kozy” Korner in North Hudson on Saturday, Jan. 24 — featuring a 1 p.m. start that might be the warmest part of a day that’s likely to be balmy by recent standards. The other perspective is that we are Wisconsinites, and our ability to accurately toss with cold fingers a bean bag that I guarantee will be fully inflated is not hampered by frigid temps, even though Kozy has noted that this is an outdoor event, “so dress accordingly.” That precision is important because the top-five two-person teams get cash prizes, with the winner guaranteed something else, a $200 windfall even if there are gusts. And the entry fee for this chance is only $20 per person. Officially, the event is named the second annual SCV Rotaract “Frosty Bags” tourney. It adds free beer and importantly, heaters for participants.
– You can’t keep a good fiddle down, especially when its twice. For the second time in recent months, a fiddle-based act, named aptly Fiddlin’ John, will show his wares at the Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt, this time on Friday night, Jan. 23. Last fall there was an act much like this, named simply The Fiddler, who also graced the stage at the Willow, being made up of some members of a group that plays there as a whole periodically, although longtime band watchers say this is much more than a one-instrument endeavor.
– The TV screens at Buffalo Wild Wings that announce their beer of the month for January list it as Guinness, and add a historic footnote — the proprietor years ago signed a 9,000 year lease for his brewery site. That’s interesting, because by my estimate, that gives you about 9,000 more minutes left this month to enjoy the Irish brew at a discount. This also brings to mind other things at B Dubs, like the fact that seconds before the airing of that promo I’d jokingly told the bartender that I wanted not my usual Miller Lite, but actually a Guinness Lite, which of course does not actually exist. Then popping up on the screens were the trivia player of the same month, named Bobcat, who I must say looked like a trivia nerd with his turquoise shirt and orange tie. And lastly, the screens then showed the other top recent players, some of whom listed their abbreviated home site as Buffalo WI, and brought to mind that orginally I’d thought this “WI” referred to a place in western Wisconsin, not “Wild” Wings. See, you order Guinness and (eventually) you learn.