(Before we could even consider rolling out the barrel and getting the economy via businesses opened again, things essential still were in need of want. Foremost among them — food. With ongoing record unemployment levels, it was all the more important to do things like feed your family, for cents on the dollar, so you could pay the rent or the mortgage. As part of an ongoing series of tips you won’t find anywhere else, to help you do such vital things, from the frugal/cheap German, see the fourth and fifth posts below on this page. And tell them HudsonWiNightlife sent you.)

The rollout to reopen Wisconsin’s businesses, with the bar end basically leading the way for good or bad and volume or no volume — and we’re talking not about music decibel level, but how much customer traffic comes forth and can bring risks in itself — and has been described as a virtual viral Wisconsin Wild Wild West, but in Hudson we are only talking, golly, Festus style severity, and that terming comes from the guv himself whose order was struck down to open the floodgates as right here is defined beer on tap. So it also has been characterized as slowly unfolding, mostly, with the bigger crowds in early-on-days being met with checkered weather, creating a patchwork of couple-hour busy spurts then famine, with the bar-belly-up people — and we’ll deal with that issue in a soon-coming post since the bar scene in the two-state area has been called the now defining factor in how we beat the virus — showing up at times you’d least expect in the tavern day, say really early at Guv’s Place, prior to even their well-known dart league starting. When factoring in brunch considerations and the happy hour hosting that is an independent kettle of fish; or is it, St. Croix County is just now on board to be a prime offender/originator as when its comes to partying, it’s only a couple of weeks now that the Mask People have fully appeared, and hopefully that also will keep viruses from rampaging across the border like some invisible Zebra Mussel, and this has really spurred the noticing and interest of visitors from the Milwaukee area. They spy the downtown Hudson sidewalks whether early or late, and the people interspersed between the vast number of promotional chalk signs — being from a southeast point that has been more of an incubation center.

<<Those who belly up to the bar may be the crux of a second wave, and this will be fully explored later as a popcorn-machine-meets ATM-machine crunch.>>

And some food venues have elected (purposely chosen word) that it might have been too early to open up at all, and they may have been Prophet, Priest (in the Judas sense) and King (in the Crimson and Diamond and Elvis sense). Every report you see has a far different take on the matter, largely dependent on location, location, location and the patchwork of health and what’s-allowable-where rules from different of those jurisdictions that differ widely by again, location, and can be at odds with each other. And some businesses have elected to stay the course further before fully opening their doors again, and not in any conceivable way put at-risk their customers and staff, and that decision can be driven by simple need for cash flow to start up again, and can you afford to wait it out. Here we go, local, and there are some rare but basically rich enclaves where there is simply enough money around in the mix to buy you a bit, or more than a bit, of time before you are finally forced to act. Uhm, where do you think Hudson fits in? And there you have it, another take in writing on why everything can be seen as ying or yang, this time from HudsonWiNightlife. And you think I’ll stop there? OK, some local businesses in the bar, food (broadly considered) and even salon focus have seen a full-fledged boon a couple of days ago, and some not nearly as much, and maybe that is a factor on a fast, whole-hog reopening when finally allowed, and for some not as much of a reason to rush. Part of this no doubt is the dependence on favorable weather and even on what days and even time of day it finally hits, as when there was that first warm day and timed around a three-day holiday, it looked like days or yore when magic filled the air downtown. We will ferret this out further.

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This newly contracted guru of how to chemically Keep The Country Clean and virus at bay — that’s the hand with the bottle — did the unthinkable with the other and obviously should have known better than anyone, HE SHOOK THE TRAINEE STYLIST’S HAND! A voice inside my head that said don’t look back, you can never look back, silently screamed NOOO! Where is Mr. Bill when you need him. Or maybe just Eddie, and save the fair maiden.

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So of all the oodles of tidbits that are telling about this whole reopening situation, even now that its been here, sorta, for a bit, how does this scribe who has all kinds of virus stories backing up in the stack and just can’t find the virtual space to print it all just like that, pull a rabbit out of the hat (hey, dated Easter reference) and dig up lots of newer news to keep things from getting trite? He has to act soon, we realize, as the soon-to-be second wave brings up all kinds of new contingencies, and what was old becomes new again, but will for a second go-round, majorly, require much more tweaking to work around that time snag, but that kind of redact is what HudsonWiNightlife is made for (we hope).
So what do many men of a certain age and ilk do — and we are not talking Viagra and all its counterparts, soon to be bought up by one company and create a monolopy, we are told, but not sure by whom or where. HudsonWiNightlife finally goes to the barber and gets a haircut for full throttle verification that also includes accurate scraping of the neckline, as much like bartenders, stylists know what the latest is, and most will freely share it, and even moreso if they are a female as talkative as the well-to-do ladies drying their hair.. Just check out any number of scenes in something like a Spike Lee joynt.
With that color of celluloid brought up, we must realize that how one sees that type of Protesting Light done in Hudson, until lately now when the shit-has-totally-hit-the-very-fancy-fringe factor and in this conservative white community and meant more outrage, is often: A middle-aged white guy standing outside at the curb, and not right on the edge, of his work at Accounting by St. Croix or such, semi-politely holds and wafts but not really waves a protest sign that features a watered-down paraphrase of an old Who song, while on his lunch hour. And this we must emphasize this is NOT the worker, in accounting I think, at a local drug store who lives in Oakdale and is much closer to the full force of the protests and who unwittedly inspired this admittedly very generic attempt at sarcasm. More gleaming is the sign in a vacant looking storefront in New Richmond, close to the now exploding bar scene in this now burgeoning city, on the following day, that stated the simple truth about the simply horiffic death in that simple three-word slogan. Or as my buddy would say: Horrendifying. So when the inevitable march with protest signs took place in Hudson, but was far less likely to shut down even a lane of main street then the lack of luck The Cities have had with closures of major highways, comparisons are readily apparent: To wit, the photos in the local paper showed exclusively young white women not screaming but chanting as one mass, shoulder-to-shoulder and kickin’ tha’ distancin’ thang to the curb. But as a slightly barbed counterpoint, without ever leaving the building as per Elvis, read on:
If you want something also timely and even a bit more biting, this from the pharmacist, who made the I think hilarious if not long remark when starting to work his 16-hour days, seven days a week, and said humor will get us all through, even though once he started wearing down from this grind, for the first time and then many more to come, I recall he looked very stressed and found it very difficult to laugh at our silly jokes, but here’s one that flew like, well you’ll see: I m going to talk to any of my older customers who are bearing a cough, then immediately catch a flight out while they still were being offered each night, to of all places Hawaii and their still-getting-rich hotel owners who put up a couple of cashiers as the first wave of defense, and then I’m going to let it be known that I might be one of those people they’d been fearing, and offer for the cost of a cheap domestic beer and an uhm $1,000 deposit, to go to the next place over instead to keep safety first for a few minutes and do the repeat of the same, and so on. Then by Sunday night he’d lay out plans to buy half the island. Why only half, you say, and the east half to boot? Ever hear of social distancing, mainland boardroom style? When the virus ebbs just a bit, its off on a cruise to Bermuda! Cash and carry.
The salon was now again open, but still could not shave off my mustache, much to my mother’s chagrin but my wife’s past delight, as that type of snipping can only be done in a licensed way by a barber, due to precious health concerns that existed prior to the era of the virus. Thus a good old boys network? She could at least be allowed to trim. And thus she did, prior to the ultimate botch of social distancing. In that case a man came around with a bleach bottle that was far more than could be handled by any blonde, in one hand, so what does he do with the free one? OK, get your mind out of the gutter, as this is a salon not a porno set. This newly contracted guru of how to chemically keep the virus at bay — that’s the hand with the bottle — did the unthinkable with the other and obviously should have known better than anyone, HE SHOOK THE TRAINEE STYLIST’S HAND! A voice inside my head that said don’t look back, you can never look back, silently screamed NOOO! Where is Mr. Bill when you need him. Or maybe just Eddie, and save the fair maiden.
I thought this was a hoot but still a glitch, and in the light of changing the subject matter around asked how the common good could be protected by taking the extreme lengths of cut hair that abound and can be donated to those who have little or none, when it would fall to the floor, like The Bodies Hit The Floor, and that could be literal if the virus abounds in the stray hairs. Perhaps You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, since just then stage right there was one of the many guys these days who have created a style so it could be followed, the football length beard mastered by the musician in ZZ Top of that name, then call James Hardin, and even the lead singer for Slayer of all people right before the gray caught up and they hung it up while still on top. Everyone seemed to be sporting such these days, and the ladies of the houses who might be holy will come by with a pruning sheers and say, Get Out Of My House If You Don’t Cut That Hair! And there are places she could go with that, ugg, that you don’t want to mess with.

<<We are newly open for business in the broadest sense, but that can at times exclude those ill and infirm, kids, the time challenged and nail-biters.>>

The concerns that are crucial, as we carry forth in the consummate conditions of kicking the virus to the curb, and here is a clearinghouse of the best and brightest and boldest. You can only stay as a patron for 90 minutes before it is kindly suggested that you depart, and that long trip to the bathroom will not save you. We love children, but kindly keep them at home before you come in and have your nails done, saved by a sitter who is biting the bullet and cannot partake in the same as far as the state of her nails, long getting scruffy from dealing with your Terrible Two, as in the original stay-at-home vernacular, stated with specific verbage, there were no restrictions on travel to get to some places where you would child-sit if a “nanny,” but a teen needing some “baby-sitting” dough is cut no such slack, as hey she is being proactive to get together her cash BEFORE the student loan death knell hits. Don’t Call Us Child, We’ll Call You, as if you want to order takeout at parts unknown, or at least undisclosed, you are being asked to kindly wait in the reserve seating area right inside the door, until your number is called, and that burger thus must be good. Social distancing being enforced in a gentle manner by signs of multiple variations of the famous Six-Foot, as in signs on the counter spaced about every two yards in a rounded bar-rail, (is that a contradiction in terms?), to say where you can plop yourself safely, As Perpetual And Keep The Country Clean. At Wal-Mart they right you all the way and around Six Ways From Sunday to get in just the right tack of their multiple doors, but the greeter is overtly smiley to make this bearable, or sometimes not, where luck of the virus draw kicks in or not. And then there are the signs using stick-ish figures, like you’d see on bathroom doors, spaced apart so there was no way they could hold hands, thus illustrating the point.
Decorations you can see on the dash-food-holding-area, to steer you inside for steak and such so you can order takeout, were the stock and trade of the people at Agave Kitchen and Bullpen Cantina, forming two parts of the same multi-level eatery, and showed with the cattle head that’s full-on like their food and not just the boney skull like in the Westerns … The point? Someone, and I suspect the Zoning Police, told them to Take Down Your Country Club and put the horns elsewhere. Fear not, another same-size version of that item was soon up, lower on the stick and further away from the main hub.
Wow on that first night open, a fave bartender at Starr’s was really decked out in makeup, unusual for her, hair fashioned incredibly up — and those ruby lips that would put The Eagles and Witchy Women to shame, or would they be Lipps Inc, although that dance music reference is before her time, when such tunage was first getting going. Young lovely meets Old School, (I love that phrase). Why? My idol of throwing out there a quaint reference to music lyrics, Chris Berman, was the guy who started this vehicle. I’ve tested the waters he parted by going deeper into the more obscure, as I’m sure you have noted.
Lastly, so many stores, largely in the realm of big retailers, which might make it make sense because of overall means, there are many an offering for people disabled, elderly or at-risk medically, of special shopping hours once or twice a week that are free from crowds — unless there are too many there from the disadvantaged community that the aisles have swallowed up them and any extra room. And what may such people be finding in observance of June Dairy Month, now extended into another J word(s), that being July journalism? The worship locally of Ellsworth cheese curds that abounds and is shown in such a way at Kwik-Trip with a special on both a full, near-pound package of these precious nuggets, (again mind out of the gutter), and for just a two-spot more — and that term is my word, re-enacted — you can add the butter to slather on the cheddarish curd, by cheddarish curd and keep the dairy lobby happy. And the special service, not sauce, populace time-frame served, is usually more along the line of one hour, and held in almost all cases at opening, on the days when it also can serve a business purpose for bringing in patrons at generally slow days. So everyone wins a bit, and especially the makers of Mongo-Plus-Clean-It-All products (just kidding, my wife just bought two).

• With that build-up, insert the possibility of various green teas and other such shades and strengths of ale and beyond (lots of them) that go with being an Irish Entrepreneur, and throw in two pounds of sauerkraut that can be sold at a grocery just down the highway as a family pack, respecting Erin and her bountiful precious ilk, at a price half as what is also named here as fare, that being corned beef flats to complete a cool sandwhich. This can be done with Paddy Ryan’s or purveyors who could learn a thing or two from them, and they schooled both me and my lovely Irish wife, also on now-again dining-in ways to make the overall experience way above par. So, go to it with them as we did, between 4-9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, as new hours of opportunity (the newer Irish Catholics put it that way) under these times that call for us to be all-in with respecting social distancing, and owner Kirk himself comes on the phone message and strives to describe the degree of safety needed (go all out), complete with appropriate pauses now and then in his well-formed sentences. Think I (awkwardly?) embellished there; just check where you are routed to now, up above and even heavenward from above, and you can tell my wife and you can groan with her:

With very few entertainment options currently, read a book? Or a cookbook? During times when docs say even your local, low-grade newsprint daily, after being handled by dozens of people before it gets to you, can carry a virus much worse than an annoying stomach bug?
So what to do, when even your vaunted asparagus in the freezer could start getting a little vile, stemming from the very day the virus itself took your appetite from you and kept you from kicking your Irish up, for maybe the first March in time? Always wanted to unlock your true culinary self, and get healthy to boot, and certainly not give in to the desire to binge on ice cream during Dairy Month, and too much German chocolate cake as a dessert during its dedicated week? Whip through a Fresh and Natural store flyer, ready for your taking right when you walk in the door of what is a spacious foyer for social dining considerations, that cuts to the chase and doesn’t give you loads of of unnecessary verbage to sift through. After all, these days we seem to be having more and more constraints on our time, and at Fresh and Natural there’s a store design that smacks of functionality, not being a monument for some architects to themselves. The aisles are well arranged, little wasted space, although social distancing will always be respected here, and unlike the big box stores you don’t have to cover an area the size of a football field to pick up what you need. And the food is healthy for all sorts of reasons, and today more than ever we all need to be watchguards of that for ourselves on various fronts, and its great to get a little help to steer you the right way, and that also includes but is not limited to the Stairmaster, if you are going stir crazy.
So when did all this extra need get going?
Just a wee bit ago on St. Patrick’s Day proper, and quickly into the early evening, reams of stores of all types were told they must shut down pronto, as in the usual start of places having half-price appetizers. (See an inside column for a coming out and/or going away party, using an “arrangement” that’s not half bad. Across departments there are many more tips to not only entertain, we hope, but be recipe and cost-cutting bonanzas for all different ethnic varieties of food). So why not get much healthier food to boot, and at the same time take an absolute, total pass for that day on the chance to unveil your Irish? Go home and go to bed before any of the cool Irish musicians even start setting up their stages, for naught. Your full 24 hours of Erin simply has to wait for another day and might be quite off into the future. So how did and does the green go forward from here and triumph?
It thus starts with food, and enter the picture the Fresh and Natural locations in Hudson and Shoreview. Like birthday parties that become lengthy observances, like a virtual fulltime job, and I know this from some friends who seriously do want it to be all that, things extend with regular ongoing celebrations in what becomes an — official they’ll tell you — bonafide birthday month. The Irish emulate that when their favorite holiday is on a Monday and thus into Tuesday morning, and St. Patrick’s Day actually starts for them with corned beef and cabbage — or a host of lesser hyped meals that I myself will hype in a minute via Fresh and Natural — on the previous Thursday or early Friday for sure, with dinner, lunch or even breakfast, (and yes Virginia, of the dozens of intriguing Irish eats you can easily make yourself, there are even quite a few for when you rise in the morning and need a boost to hit the very ground running as to dodge all those newly enabled leprechauns who don’t ever seem to be more than knee-high. Plenty more such yarns of leprechauns acting up in future posts).
Local nightclubs have followed suit with their St. Patrick’s Day revisited drink specials, hardly any need to dig into your pockets for anything but a wee bit of change on your dollar — and each and every O’Donnell loves that — where even the most stout beer cost is slashed on the 17th of each and every month. So everyone is Irish an additional 12 days a year. And add another such food date when Paddy Ryan’s, not far down the highway from Fresh and Natural, pulls out all the stops not only in March, but also exactly six months later for a half-St. Patrick’s Day. And the food is bountiful, never a “half paddy.”

<<And if you can’t tell just why you couldn’t make it then, and now to finally cut to the chase of cheddar and chowder for chow, here’s how that Fresh and Natural flyer saved that day, through extending the window to the time it will need a bug screen, and then be by all means Irish.>>
— Colcannon is a long-back traditional dish made with mashed potatoes and cabbage, milk and butter, and sometimes with leeks and bacon added for flavor and just for fun, or a primer for cooks who shop then chop for a veganized version. It is called just as delicious as the meatier version above, including the middle two items of the six, which is expected to be central to cooking plans for June Dairy Month. And come that time, you can even find a whole boatload of filed-card recipes range of things, some of which I had not heard of before, and smack dab in the middle of that in a veritable laundry list of how you can use the aforementioned leeks. But as far as the colcannon, the whole recipe is featured in the March version of the Fresh and Natural newsletter, and even now that its summer there is the option of 10 percent off on certain days — which could get you an extra quaff of kiefer (a full quart?) Colcannon is said to make great comfort food, now and later. Options are to use tempeh bacon, and coconut butter for a creamy consistency, according to Fresh and Natural, for a great plant based dish.
— Now is the time for homemade sauerkraut with garlic dill, as the Irish meet the Germans — they had their food week too — as my family used to say and ponder. Not only is it called nice and easy, it is filled with probiotics, which are vital to keeping everyone’s bodies healthy, as the immune system is in our gut, and healthy bacteria from those probiotics is an aid to keep the good flora of bacteria in the stomach area at a good count. Uhm, probiotics in the form of pills? It’s also beneficial to add them to diet in the form of fermented foods. Homemade sauerkraut keeps well in the fridge for a few months. Add it to salads as a tangy topper, (and then can do without too much cheese, or heavy sauces), or use it in various sandwiches (don’t rely, again, too heavily on cold cuts).

At Fresh and Natural, assorted ice teas based on green bring on-board raspberry in healthy recipe and also cool style, to pair with so many others, and rest assured its indeed organic and dairy free, (HudsonWiNightLife uses two different verbal enhancers).

Its time for the booster of days that’s of a bunch of buys to step in with their body of work, as in fireworks and save the local celebration both this day and especially this evening and into the night, as the City Of Hudson fireworks display appears to be a cancellation, as of Friday morning.

But the show must go on, even if the traditional of the two major components, classic rock and country bands, and the weekend municipal fireworks show, is a no show during Booster Days. But the flash over the St. Croix River on the Fourth holiday, and virtually any other park, backyard or byway that can legally be host, is something everybody flooding into Hudson from the Twin Cities and virtually anywhere else beyond in a self-described several-county area, can be emulated by the help of SomePlace We Can All Go. Its just off of Exit Four to the north, and everyone can still love Saturday night, with the help that’s been there and very well used all along, that being locally owned and operated, and we night add staffed, Venture Fireworks.
So as people made their way down the freeway, they could have noticed what is a sign of things that were happening at the moment and still a few more days to come, a beer van with an apparently hot-blooded-by-its-blazing colors, T-Rex painted on the the back, and breathing fire. That could be symbolical of what What Is and What Will Be as an entertainment option, so scarf up one of those Toppling Goliath brews and see what awaits as part of your Venture. This is in the hundreds and hundreds of equally brightly colored boxes filled with lines of soon-to-be-producing sticks that will blaze big, and just as many stacks of circular shaped orbs that will do the same, and on and on. The dozens of large flags greet you at Venture Fireworks, large blowup figures that are even larger extend the welcome, and the encumbering and huge lines of people at the Big Box Fireworks places, well they simply are not to be found at Venture Fireworks. They’ve got the volume covered.
And the price is nice, too. Other vendors give you the two-for-one rates on oversize items and other such cost gimmicks, but Venture Fireworks prides itself on foregoing the trickiness and giving true value in the options for various volumes of What We Really Really Want. For this kind of stuff, there are deep, double-digit discounts that take account considerations that can fit almost anyone’s situation.
If you trek four minutes up the freeway after crossing the St. Croix River, you can exit to get stuff that goes boom in the night and be back in the time it takes to play a couple of favorite songs on the radio, then celebrate more of the loud bang or the subtle pop. The full and friendly staff is studious, and conversant about the many fireworks they sell. This makes it a mid-summer night’s dream, as they are open until 9 p.m.
There are military and cash discounts available. Venture Fireworks can be found at 631 Commerce Drive, Hudson, WI 54016, just north of Interstate 94 off Exit Four in the town of Hudson. Contact them at (715) 386-8757, or at www.venturefireworks.com, or on Facebook. Please mention this article if you patronize Venture Fireworks.

It is almost time for a weekend update, provided as a snap, crackle and pop, as the date on which July Fourth falls allows those cooped up indoors since the start of spring to experience in a renewed way those sounds and sights that fireworks invariably bring. The Big Bang brightness can blaze up the bluffline airspace of the big river — but at a safe enough height above the tree line to with seemingly boundless beauty supply, up high, a special spirit to social distancing — even from hundreds of oaks and their countless colors that evolve dependent on how far up they rise, and point the way while climbing to a realm usually seen only while in hot air balloons. And then when completely over land, the trees can yield to fireworks that reflect, glow and shimmer, starting at the edge of the wide St. Croix River and lasting to be viewable from town, whether they’re fired by amateurs or pros, from a big municipal park or a moderately sized backyard.
This view of, if one over land, or two over water, means there’s a lot more to be seen on a steady basis all through the holiday weekend, than just when the city sets theirs sky-rocketing. Now that the-stay-at-home edict has waned almost to non-existence, and people don’t have to watch from their houses, only one at every window please, and many individual people are again shooting off their own as part of the Fourth weekend, it’s indeed the time of the season for lovin’ your own special ‘works.
So yes, Virginia, there will again be the blasts and flares, and certain high exploding shells that feature circular patterns up where eagle dare, done to the taste and specs of everyone in your family, and your city. But this year people will be trying to cram all this into a much smaller window of time because the possible presence of that nasty virus that’s also exploding in magnitude, at least prior to this holiday. So the streaking multiple paths of mini-missiles have not been seen too much yet. But wait a minute …
In somewhat recent times, well before the month has turned, this is where Venture Fireworks has found their venue a vital part of what’s to be obtained in the Hudson area. For the bulk of June and before, only by appointment made in advance at the store, small groups of shoot-to-thrill revelers found they could get all things going bump in the night, that visitors and local fireworks fans could visualize as a substitute for part of their own Dream Theater, which would have to get them by for a time. But if your group’s been for a wedding party, engagement, birthday, anniversary, retirement, promotion, or even — make sure you’re pointing the right direction — divorce party. And the staff at Venture Fireworks is knowledgeable and experienced but careful to listen to your own ideas, professional with terms bantied about but still friendly in explanations, and patient with newcomer clients but still right there when you need them to answer a question, no matter if you’re both in a different section of the long aisles, in part aided by an open midpoint to walk through and see even more. The Venture Fireworks ownership says they strive to be Johnnie on the Spot as much as possible to meet the needs and in particular the schedules of all who make the trip over Interstate 94 to the Exit Four, then north and curving around the back of truck stop, then proceeding a few blocks. And if the staff can be that attentive with the quite close to full house bunches of people around July 1, the observance of the midpoint for 2020, think how much facetime they will be able to give you if being part of that earlier, appointment-based time.

A Paddy here and a Paddy there, and include the greenbacks that may come through May and Beyond, and this old pot of gold brings you up to a Lucky 13, when considering the recent Green Light on what you can do when out.
It only starts with The Beef. Corned Beef that is, and you will certainly be on board with the rest after I have spoken my piece. I recommend the well carved and shredded layers of the corned beef and cabbage at Paddy Ryan’s just off the freeway in the town of Hudson, which will freeze well and could be a total-taste and money-saving substitute for ham in your main meal of Easter and beyond, perhaps teamed with pastrami if there are such leftovers. Their red potatoes are also a draw, but as far as spuds go, there are also Yukon Gold and big white baked varieties, so why not put them all into a sure-to-please-all-tastes medley that can accommodate as far as the recipe, whatever number of ounces happen to be left in the fridge of each type. They can flow as seamlessly into any level or variations of degree, as a System of a Down guitar solo coasts from thrash to ballad, just ask Hudson’s own Taeja about her soul and instrumental mates who used to stop by the coffee shop, and save enough for a lot more than a latte. And while you’re at it, why not consider the five main forms of onion — white, yellow, green, Bermuda and pearl — in a manner where regardless of their mix of flavor, they will be joined with Wisconsin’s own butter and parsley for an appetizer. And that above-mentioned meat could be rested on a bed of rice, again with multiple mix-and-match money savers of white and brown, and for the adventuresome, Wild and even Spanish forms. And about that cabbage, hey it was not nearly as much of a hit as the CBC, but even hitting well over .300 says you have arrived as a chef, I’d say this: Cole Slaw. With finely sliced carrots. With red cabbage. With a bit of celery, and maybe even the leafy stems well cut — but that’s only my taste, and don’t spare the green sticks that make up the onion stem. Just a few sweet peas and half-inch green beans on the side. And don’t forget broccoli (as part of the base) and cauliflower (one or two florets only please), to taste, and that means just a sprig. All this makes for an empty refrigerator and a full wallet. And yes, you will need dressing, but we’ve got you covered even if you don’t want to go out and buy the expensive Neuman’s Own. Think regular mayonnaise, and it doesn’t have to be Miracle Whip, topped off with regular sugar and mixed. Pour in a little sugar at a time, until you can no longer notice an aftertaste. And even that lettuce salad where the top leaves are fading toward brown, peal them off and you still will have 90 percent of the head left, and use the salad croutons that remain from the turkey stuffing mix, topped off with olive oil and just a bit of the stuffing mix into a bag — spreading any remaining liquid, or light vegetable oil or even a pinch of corn syrup — and then shake and bake “around like you used to,” for Stones-style Satisfaction, although not stone dried — and flavor an on-top-at-dish-width garnish. Consider on the four corners of the main bowl, placing some of the slaw for variety, and other salad greens such as the buttery kind with a twinge of Russian dressing (you can mix honey with a variety of tomato sauces and tiny sweet vegie bits, but your honey will really appreciate it if heavy on the honey.
<And butter, and not much of it, with honey>
First, the rest of the many foods with which to celebrate the various holidays of spring, which kind of morph into each other as the applicable edible items move forward on the calendar, to start with being the St. Patrick’s Day that wasn’t and related offerings of Easter, which was also a no-show if you wanted to dine-in at a diner with the family of all ages — including those with no excuse this time around to bolt from the company of, and tolerate the family that includes strange Uncle Sid, while in the realm of any year but 2020, where you might be nursing a weeks-old music and more hangover. At least for Easter brunch such as it was, you might be feeding on some killer drive-up ham that might even rival your mom’s recipe that’s been around since before you did your first Easter Egg hunt — ouch! — but this time she won’t have to be slaving away at the stove to make it just right, and at best grab a few bites on the fly for quality control of both lean meat and not so lean champagne. And yes mom, we know about Mother’s Little Helper in its various forms. Hey, in those past years, mom might not even be able to bite into her creation(s) until every buddy else is already at her various desserts, and they are always pots of gold pieces in number, the price of listening to Uncle Sid be the ham that he always is. Mom of course was too busy getting all the last side dishes going and maybe there was a reason — mom knows best — for being in the kitchen rather than the dining room, and she never even did find time to munch in short order, as a short order chef and much more, while seated at the table itself, rather being on the move past the pantry because that last scrumptious dessert was still to be served and — Heaven Help Us! — she still can’t find the vanilla extract. So what is her method? She won’t have to pretend to laugh at the bad punch line that often doesn’t even make sense, if Uncle Sid remembers it at all after a lengthy build-up about walking past telephone wires on poles that when a wee lad were almost buried by snow drifts even at Easter, and for sure were “that high” on St. Patrick’s Day, not to mention the now infamous 4-20 that wasn’t around when Uncle Sid would only get juiced on his famous stogies … and then fall soundly asleep. And what do you think he would have done with a turkey and its enzymes instead? And yes, you would rather treat in mom’s way, and to be sure its always over-the-top, that Irish redhaired honey you met in mid-March, and go for the gold even at the end of April.
So what’s the moral to this long story? The aforementioned holidays that include Earth Day and Passover, and you can throw in some motorcycle rallies and even April Fool’s Day, are all about green, and were not talking dollar bills — just a single one of them being Uncle Sid’s usual tip. Its about all the great food, drink, clothing and decor that didn’t take place fully just before the start of the spring, so all of the St. Patrick’s people did, I’m willing to guess, what people do if their 21st birthday is on a Wednesday, not celebrate a birthday only, but even a birth week and birth month. So even when Easter came hopping along, the Irish were still in celebration mode for almost another full week. And stores knew this and for the rest of the spring forward and unto summer focused, intentionally with their specials or not, on fare that arguably would sell very well into April, May and into Xfinity and beyond. They say that everyone is indeed Irish, at least for an (extended) time. And maybe that Earth-Day-health-focus on lean meat mom chose could have been thin flat corned beef, not chunky hunks with fat/gristle connecting them. (More of that later). And her lean (maybe) drink, could be some “smooth” Irish whiskey, or a 99 cent frappe that’s basically is a legal self-service (gasp?) smoothie at Kwik Trip. And not to get further started on all the green husked, ripe or not, produce out there, (hey make it all of the spring quarter with a plus when farmers markets soon open, and we recommend the each weekend one that’s “a friendly” at Plaza 94, maybe before other competing businesses reopen), here’s one example to pick from among the many ‘cuz we know jack too: tropical Jack Fruit, which looks like a kids toy not quite as big as a self-respecting pineapple, having many hundreds of little arms springing from them. Looks cool. It could be a great centerpiece for a fruit plate that’s not just the usual melon-mania, and even if you don’t know jack about it, its still just a matter of giving a few slices to what’s still available at the grocer. Which one(s) you ask? Do you think I’m going to give all my secrets away that easy? Stay tuned. OK, that was long enough. Just suffice it to say, my college readers can get it almost between classes, once they are held again. But they might want to lobby their dean of student fruit affairs, Take Consumer Education 101, for another Two Minutes To Midnight, but day tripping version. But then it might be “bumped” up to CE 301. Bummer, and it is pass/fail if you know what I mean …

— 15 — But not quite as bad off as your stomach and indeed your soul will be if you ignore, CE 101, and the rest of the story on these long-ballyhooed 15 tips on the ways to get by in virus land, and fail to put them into play. So finally now, you gotta Give Me Three Steps plus a dozen, with the first category of that 15 being what I just hit on already, with the later addition of plenty of specifics to offer your palette and its Appetite For Destruction; then keeping up via the next paragraph, 14; and now 13, (and that’s a baker’s dozen in this countdown, of the different ways you can save even more than the equivalent of a postage stamp, for that Easter Day is the main subject of the feared family letter in which your kid took and ate the last jelly bean after ripping it out of the dog’s mouth, which in turn made Uncle Sid so nauseous that he bolted carrying a Wal-Mart bag with him for, you know … Won’t see him again until all that’s left of the ham is that part which is wings; but wait a minute …) And didn’t Reagan do the same thing, when Nancy couldn’t convince him that the dog drool, some of it was already caked on the Red Button, is not the same as turkey gravy?
<Anyway, and this is a long overdue anyway>
— 14 — What all the hospitality industry dine-in or drink-in closures really mean for the dozens of categories of venues that had the main part of their business shut down, as there are noteable exceptions (lapses?) in the close-to-Big-Brother executive orders that could be unintended loopholes used to keep your business running, and how it would seem that the very number of workers involved in these occupations would bring political attention, (read as voters). But I will tell you about how these volumes of people, and in which job categories they roll, now form an undesired new underclass severely impacted by the Still Runnin’ lawmakers-on-steroids and the magnitude on which they have wrought their powerful decisions. Seen especially at the gubernatorial level of our two states, they have done very well on a no-sleep-till-Brooklyn Park type of demanding schedule, with the multi-layered hand they were dealt, and needed to respond to almost overnight, in what makes my early-morning deadlines seem like a piece of cake, or at least hard to handle in an economic market that for most all communications businesses literally died on the vine in 2001. And who was it that tried to move into his Washington Office at about that time, but was betwixted and between on just what an Oval was? If he or Trump would have been at the helm from that year on; my God there would be no underclass or even middle class existing, unless the Dems stepped in like a seasonal Messiah all over again and paid down the hideous beast that’s our now-by-far-highest-and-growing national decifit, you know the one where Trump basically bolstered his popularity by simply printing more money with nothing to back it, (said reportedly, by his printer/dungeon master who is Overlording the migrants under his thumb, and getting them to man the presses well before sunrise, or even moonrise, so they can produce In What Only Trump Would Consider An Essential Service). Much better to be designated by the likes of Walz and Evers, who have simply done a bang-up job. Did I say that? I will say this, I had been confident for a time now that when I dropped my five dollar bill and one dollar bill at the bank”s teller counter, they would not bounce. After all, I’d just printed them up that morning in the downstairs of my one room flat, but the bank wasn’t open its regular hours, and there was no counter to be found anyway in the drive-through. Biting humor? Well of course. Sometimes satire is the best teacher. A tough job but somebody’s got to do it, and hope it will start an open exchange of ideas that goes far beyond the hopelessly vague We Will Make America Great Again. So back to the state level, here’s an example of what oversights, (or are they, as money breeds power and influence?), do exist in greater Minnesconsin, as determined by a thorough reading of Executive Orders and what jobs and activities are singled out for stay-at-home and travel exclusions, (or leave silence because they are not specifically listed, where others in the same scope are. The only difference I can see is why such choices, except for the sheer light speed at which they needed to be made, which limits a long examination, are impacted mainly by socio-economic status). Are you ready? If you want to go anywhere across town to be babysitter for pay, you are simply out, as far as being able to legally travel. A single mom working her way through college? Don’t care. Unless you have a hefty student loan you want to refinance, and then our people will be calling your people, if they haven’t already. The flip-side as an exclusion from bans, is the St. Croix River effect. You want to buy a great big cruiser of a ship, not too much smaller than the deck where that annoying hip-hop video, “I’m On A Boat,” was filmed, “And Come Over Here, Dear Boy Have A Cigar, You’re Gonna Go Far,” you might even be set up with a cushy Small Business Loan. And you can house your brand new toy at the local marina or boat launch, and pay to drive it to the other side of town to be serviced. All these water sports are Essentially Services? I’ll let you figure that one out.
— 13 — A point by point synopsis of how we got to this juncture with all the viral rules weighed in on and voiced, starting on St. Patrick’s Day itself, as I’ll fork over the hour by hour breakdown on how decisions to cancel the three main local parades were made, and then chime in like dominos about even the the rockers being left out in the cold about The Day The Music Died, as one entity waited to see what others that included those in The Cities would do, then act in a clump in what became a wierd but very understandable game of chicken that ended up effecting virtually all activities. But these things green were kept in view and continued to unfold into the following days, and lime shadings were everywhere you looked, with again a key exception, the week-or-so long observance (as shown by the Sunday paper inserts on the immediately following weekend), of What I’ll Call German Week.
— 12 — The spiritual end is still being valued, even by lawmakers, as a Near-Essential Service, (I’m thinking it’s termed something like therapeutic enhancement), placing it in a same odd category as part of a Chosen Few types of venues, which are adapting the communion end of their services to conform to Social Distancing, “I’m Gonna Drink That Wine Because It’s Right There In Front Of Me.” We know the theology you’re getting at, Brother Cain, but its hard to get any wine-in during these days of only delivery and take-out, even for a church, and we might need to get even more Rock Steady and echo the local Catholic Diocese as it reaches up north and often needs to run a priest around a big circuit of clustered, small parishes to pre-consecrate communion hosts. Not ideal, but better than not having any type of Eucharistic celebration at all, some state Catholics think. But there are many more ways to get what you need as far as religious worship, if you are willing to again, adapt a bit as far as format, delivery method and hours of operation available for prayer, which these days is not always with the whole community, but maybe that’s an opportunity, on various fronts that include making virus spread very unlikely. Why could you not meet the requirements by having your flock seat themselves in only one to a pew, and every other pew. Or check in with various other faith communities that are relatively new, but all are within a block or two of each other, so see what makes them different enough to not only stay in business so to speak, but even thrive. (I know there is a certain amount of penance involved with worship, but if your belief system holds that there need be such a type of self-reflection in the immediate forecast, hey, if you have to walk a block in the cold, rainy weather of this two-state area, rather than brave in the cold and wet for Another Mile, I think God would understand. Doesn’t he see this as yet another form of being One with his Congregation(s), and at the same time lead the way in not spreading the virus? I have scoped out for you the best ways, although admittedly obscure at times, to find the spiritual in these days where it was hard enough to access already. I will list as many dates and times of options as I can.
— 11 — How the various workplaces and management styles are dealing with the crisis. And yes, this web site is after all about music, entertainment and nightlife broadly, and these businesses and their workers cumulatively are some of the hardest hit. All the hours they are open, and coming and going almost by the day, with how they are coping and indeed just trying to survive week to week, are taking new form almost hour to hour. I will describe all the manners of making their way in a time that our forefathers, and even the local Chambers of Commerce, could not even have dreamt about. Hours in this end are changing (being shortened, especially when the evening comes) the most of any industry than possibly in retail and fast food.
— 10 — How the businesses in the Hudson area fell apart, literally overnight, following the governor’s midweek decree. And what the local business scene was like that day at the 5 p.m. cutoff and immediately following. Why did a burgeoning city heading toward medium-size fall prey to the virus and its ramifications just like that, at a speed basically unheard of anywhere else in the country? We here are enslaved to the fickle leanings of one dominant industry, which when considering its few separate branches as offshoots, impacts almost every business in town. The effect was not unlike putting all your 401K money into one very risky stock and not diversifying, so it all crashed down. I’ll explore this factor at length later on down, and what’s being done right now and building on month’s past, and pieced together very fast, by successful management that can adjust on the fly and right the ship. That’s a hint about the unwitted culprit that became horrific everywhere, but in a special way the Hudson horror, (from as The White Stripes with such symbolic purity of color sang and somehow knew well in advance how the virus does not respect money and powerful positions, no matter how much of those you have. To wit: “From The Queen Of England To The Hounds Of Hell).
Hey, all this and the real meat of it, in the form of my virtual (or literal) top 10, is still hanging on the vine, so to speak: A hint, some of the best and most creative, and at the same time most obscure and nether-reaching, sources in low places are still to come with a chime in:

<And here are the rest of the Lucky Seven stories that are coming, to make it a total of Lucky 13, and hey, if I can’t count, it may be only my Irish Charm Lucky that cuts muster>
Admittedly, the charms are in the cases where pubs could only serve breakfast from remote. But they are actually part of my synopsis that even as such carries forward, and as I said Back In The Early Days, from long ago when I was not so strong you know — social distancing will bite everybody’s butt — but as we move forward to The Summer, skipping past what was a spring monumental for all the wrong reasons. So be they spiritual, disabled in all the wrong forms of this set of holidays, and where several-word lawn signs become the substance of communication, even via Joe’s tales of his own crypt:
— You can have your religion fix, in whatever way you determine that to be, and HudsonWiNightlife will help you! If you want simple prayer time, you can get it in a chapel at a local church for a full baker’s dozen hours each day, and go up the street a bit more and there is a full-fledged prayer/meditation/walking path of a thoughtful labyrinth that even becomes more bountiful when you consider there are others like it, the brainstorm of an area prayer “partner” that has done it in an even more whole-hog way in the Stillwater area and has become a veritable leader nationally in reconstruction of such an Old School effort. And if Catholic, you can confess your sins, such as they might be, now that the bands are back open for listing/viewing, just make an appointment with Fr. John at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church. As I refer to music and also communion status, which can be an option of thus, as the rock band Brother Cain and what they say when chiming in about the needs of a particular person over the arbitrary “rules” of it you are divorced More on all of that later, not be be coy, but. … More later
— If stir crazy, new (and past) exercise options are now abundant, and I swear the hotties are making the most of it. You know the ones of whom I speak, who are out at dawn showing off their 110-pound eye candy and manage a pace to be much more than those pudgy middle aged guys out walking their dog for the umpteenth time out of stir craziness and hey a chance to wink at that other referenced women. How does this play out as far as social distancing? Read on for more later … And where are my friends in the on-again, off-again band New Skinny, these days. Luv you guys …
— People having disabilities, and with my Tourette Syndrome I am speaking from the trenches, as things as far as suspicions have gone over the roof, but there are also lots of new opportunities. Read about the many, many ends of both, as they are unfolding, in scads of info you will only find here, and how law enforcement can be your best friend — and worst night-mare.
— All things as far as coping mechanisms have been taken away, as far as one disabled man’s story tells with poignancy, and how he is getting it back peace by piece. He’s more like Josh Turner as far as listening, and you may even see a column of his in the near future, but he can resonate with Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind …
— And them there is Joe’s future picks, not bands necessarily but all things as far as how people’s wants and needs get met/or not in the coming weeks and months, (lets hope its not years), as far as prognostications, that are not pure doom. Poignant again is a band reference, going back to the mythology of the river Styx, which was my first rock concert, back in the days of the Lincoln County Fair in Merrill, of all places — right before they broke it big (as is underscored by the fact that they were equally billed with old Black Oak Arkansas, “Woah Jim Dandy, Woah Jim Dandy,” of Southern Rock fame. So then Styx moved up the “river” and came on with their plea: “So many things I need to know … Crystal Ball.”
— The lay of the land is in lawn signs, as apparently homeowners are getting stir crazy and/or either doing projects themselves to save every hard-earned dollar, or paying up the ante for it. One ace in the hole if you quality, are coming from the local school district, and its extension-based classes, which favor the end of wellness, which is primo at getting the job done these days — think weight training. There are also signs everywhere, including the green lawn area by the former Freedom convenience store, one for a sign for home sales, one for gutter cleaning and even one for mole and gopher removal. As I say as a representative of the new gig economy, stay tuned …
— Lastly, there are a group of Joe’s silly stories, where like the old Tim Conway’s skits, the harder one tries to be frugal/cheap, the much, much worse it gets. Again, only here. And what else is here for food and all the fixings, as mama would do? See the Notes of the Beat Department, or also read on below later:

First, the rest of the many foods with which to celebrate the various holidays of spring, which kind of morph into each other as the applicable edible items move forward on the calendar, to start with being the St. Patrick’s Day that wasn’t and related offerings of Easter, which was also a no-show if you wanted to dine-in at a diner with the family of all ages — including those with no excuse this time around to bolt from the company of, and tolerate the family that includes strange Uncle Sid, while in the realm of any year but 2020, where you might be nursing a weeks-old music and more hangover. At least for Easter brunch such as it was, you might be feeding on some killer drive-up ham that might even rival your mom’s recipe that’s been around since before you did your first Easter Egg hunt — ouch! — but this time she won’t have to be slaving away at the stove to make it just right, and at best grab a few bites on the fly for quality control of both lean meat and not so lean champagne. And yes mom, we know about Mother’s Little Helper in its various forms. Hey, in those past years, mom might not even be able to bite into her creation(s) until every buddy else is already at her various desserts, and they are always pots of gold pieces in number, the price of listening to Uncle Sid be the ham that he always is. Mom of course was too busy getting all the last side dishes going and maybe there was a reason — mom knows best — for being in the kitchen rather than the dining room, and she never even did find time to munch in short order, as a short order chef and much more, while seated at the table itself, rather being on the move past the pantry because that last scrumptious dessert was still to be served and — Heaven Help Us! — she still can’t find the vanilla extract. So what is her method? She won’t have to pretend to laugh at the bad punch line that often doesn’t even make sense, if Uncle Sid remembers it at all after a lengthy build-up about walking past telephone wires on poles that when a wee lad were almost buried by snow drifts even at Easter, and for sure were “that high” on St. Patrick’s Day, not to mention the now infamous 4-20 that wasn’t around when Uncle Sid would only get juiced on his famous stogies … and then fall soundly asleep. And what do you think he would have done with a turkey and its enzymes instead? And yes, you would rather treat in mom’s way, and to be sure its always over-the-top, that Irish redhaired honey you met in mid-March, and go for the gold even at the end of April.
So what’s the moral to this long story? The aforementioned holidays that include Earth Day and Passover, and you can throw in some motorcycle rallies and even April Fool’s Day, are all about green, and were not talking dollar bills — just a single one of them being Uncle Sid’s usual tip. Its about all the great food, drink, clothing and decor that didn’t take place fully just before the start of the spring, so all of the St. Patrick’s people did, I’m willing to guess, what people do if their 21st birthday is on a Wednesday, not celebrate a birthday only, but even a birth week and birth month. So even when Easter came hopping along, the Irish were still in celebration mode for almost another full week. And stores knew this and for the rest of the spring forward and unto summer focused, intentionally with their specials or not, on fare that arguably would sell very well into April, May and into Xfinity and beyond. They say that everyone is indeed Irish, at least for an (extended) time. And maybe that Earth-Day-health-focus on lean meat mom chose could have been thin flat corned beef, not chunky hunks with fat/gristle connecting them. (More of that later). And her lean (maybe) drink, could be some “smooth” Irish whiskey, or a 99 cent frappe that’s basically is a legal self-service (gasp?) smoothie at Kwik Trip. And not to get further started on all the green husked, ripe or not, produce out there, (hey make it all of the spring quarter with a plus when farmers markets soon open, and we recommend the each weekend one that’s “a friendly” at Plaza 94, maybe before other competing businesses reopon), here’s one example to pick from among the many ‘cuz we know jack too: tropical Jack Fruit, which looks like a kids toy not quite as big as a self-respecting pineapple, having many hundreds of little arms springing from them. Looks cool. It could be a great centerpiece for a fruit plate that’s not just the usual melon-mania, and even if you don’t know jack about it, its still just a matter of giving a few slices to what’s still available at the grocer. Which one(s) you ask? Do you think I’m going to give all my secrets away that easy? Stay tuned. OK, that was long enough. Just suffice it to say, my college readers can get it almost between classes, once they are held again. But they might want to lobby their dean of student fruit affairs, Take Consumer Education 101, for another Two Minutes To Midnight, but day tripping verison. But then it might be “bumped” up to CE 301. Bummer, and it is pass/fail if you know what I mean …

<<But do I pass or fail: Hey maybe I’ll get it totally right the second time!>>
— 15 — But not quite as bad off as your stomach and indeed your soul will be if you ignore the rest of the story on these long-ballyhooed 15 tips on the ways to get by in virus land, and fail to put them into play. So finally now, you gotta Give Me Three Steps plus a dozen, with the first category of that 15 being what I just hit on already, with the later addition of plenty of specifics to offer your pallete and its Appetite For Destruction; then keeping up via the next paragraph, 14; and now 13, (and that’s a baker’s dozen in this countdown, of the different ways you can save even more than the equivalent of a postage stamp, for that Easter Day is the main subject of the feared family letter in which your kid took and ate the last jelly bean after ripping it out of the dog’s mouth, which in turn made Uncle Sid so nauseous that he bolted carrying a Wal-Mart bag with him for, you know … Won’t see him again until all that’s left of the ham is that part which is wings; but wait a minute …) And didn’t Reagan do the same thing, when Nancy couldn’t convince him that the dog drool, some of it was already caked on the Red Button, is not the same as turkey gravy?
<Anyway, and this is a long overdue anyway>
— 14 — What all the hospitality industry dine-in or drink-in closures really mean for the dozens of categories of venues that had the main part of their business shut down, as there are noteable exceptions (lapses?) in the close-to-Big-Brother executive orders that could be unintended loopholes used to keep your business running, and how it would seem that the very number of workers involved in these occupations would bring political attention, (read as voters). But I will tell you about how these volumes of people, and in which job categories they roll, now form an undesired new underclass severely impacted by the Still Runnin’ lawmakers-on-steroids and the magnitude on which they have wrought their powerful decisions. Seen especially at the gubernatorial level of our two states, they have done very well on a no-sleep-till-Brooklyn Park type of demanding schedule, with the multi-layered hand they were dealt, and needed to respond to almost overnight, in what makes my early-morning deadlines seem like a piece of cake, or at least hard to handle in an economic market that for most all communications businesses literally died on the vine in 2001. And who was it that tried to move into his Washington Office at about that time, but was betwixted and between on just what an Oval was? If he or Trump would have been at the helm from that year on; my God there would be no underclass or even middle class existing, unless the Dems stepped in like a seasonal Messiah all over again and paid down the hideous beast that’s our now-by-far-highest-and-growing national decifit, you know the one where Trump basically bolstered his popularity by simply printing more money with nothing to back it, (said reportedly, by his printer/dungeon master who is Overlording the migrants under his thumb, and getting them to man the presses well before sunrise, or even moonrise, so they can produce In What Only Trump Would Consider An Essential Service). Much better to be designated by the likes of Walz and Evers, who have simply done a bang-up job. Did I say that? I will say this, I had been confident for a time now that when I dropped my five dollar bill and one dollar bill at the bank”s teller counter, they would not bounce. After all, I’d just printed them up that morning in the downstairs of my one room flat, but the bank wasn’t open its regular hours, and there was no counter to be found anyway in the drive-through. Biting humor? Well of course. Sometimes satire is the best teacher. A tough job but somebody’s got to do it, and hope it will start an open exchange of ideas that goes far beyond the hopelessly vague We Will Make America Great Again. So back to the state level, here’s an example of what oversights, (or are they, as money breeds power and influence?), do exist in greater Minnesconsin, as determined by a thorough reading of Executive Orders and what jobs and activities are singled out for stay-at-home and travel exclusions, (or leave silence because they are not specifically listed, where others in the same scope are. The only difference I can see is why such choices, except for the sheer light speed at which they needed to be made, which limits a long examination, are impacted mainly by socio-economic status). Are you ready? If you want to go anywhere across town to be babysitter for pay, you are simply out, as far as being able to legally travel. A single mom working her way through college? Don’t care. Unless you have a hefty student loan you want to refinance, and then our people will be calling your people, if they haven’t already. The flip-side as an exclusion from bans, is the St. Croix River effect. You want to buy a great big cruiser of a ship, not too much smaller than the deck where that annoying hip-hop video, “I’m On A Boat,” was filmed, “And Come Over Here, Dear Boy Have A Cigar, You’re Gonna Go Far,” you might even be set up with a cushy Small Business Loan. And you can house your brand new toy at the local marina or boat launch, and pay to drive it to the other side of town to be serviced. All these water sports are Essentially Services? I’ll let you figure that one out.
— 13 — A point by point synopsis of how we got to this juncture with all the viral rules weighed in on and voiced, starting on St. Patrick’s Day itself, as I’ll fork over the hour by hour breakdown on how decisions to cancel the three main local parades were made, and then chime in like dominos about even the the rockers being left out in the cold about The Day The Music Died, as one entity waited to see what others that included those in The Cities would do, then act in a clump in what became a wierd but very understandable game of chicken that ended up effecting virtually all activities. But these things green were kept in view and continued to unfold into the following days, and lime shadings were everywhere you looked, with again a key exception, the week-or-so long observance (as shown by the Sunday paper inserts on the immediately following weekend), of What I’ll Call German Week.
— 12 — The spiritual end is still being valued, even by lawmakers, as a Near-Essential Service, (I’m thinking it’s termed something like therapeutic enhancement), placing it in a same odd category as part of a Chosen Few types of venues, which are adapting the communion end of their services to conform to Social Distancing, “I’m Gonna Drink That Wine Because It’s Right There In Front Of Me.” We know the theology you’re getting at, Brother Cain, but its hard to get any wine-in during these days of only delivery and take-out, even for a church, and we might need to get even more Rock Steady and echo the local Catholic Diocese as it reaches up north and often needs to run a priest around a big circuit of clustered, small parishes to pre-consecrate communion hosts. Not ideal, but better than not having any type of Eucharistic celebration at all, some state Catholics think. But there are many more ways to get what you need as far as religious worship, if you are willing to again, adapt a bit as far as format, delivery method and hours of operation available for prayer, which these days is not always with the whole community, but maybe that’s an opportunity, on various fronts that include making virus spread very unlikely. Why could you not meet the requirements by having your flock seat themselves in only one to a pew, and every other pew. Or check in with various other faith communities that are relatively new, but all are within a block or two of each other, so see what makes them different enough to not only stay in business so to speak, but even thrive. (I know there is a certain amount of penance involved with worship, but if your belief system holds that there need be such a type of self-reflection in the immediate forecast, hey, if you have to walk a block in the cold, rainy weather of this two-state area, rather than brave in the cold and wet for Another Mile, I think God would understand. Doesn’t he see this as yet another form of being One with his Congregation(s), and at the same time lead the way in not spreading the virus? I have scoped out for you the best ways, although admittedly obscure at times, to find the spiritual in these days where it was hard enough to access already. I will list as many dates and times of options as I can.
— 11 — How the various workplaces and management styles are dealing with the crisis. And yes, this web site is after all about music, entertainment and nightlife broadly, and these businesses and their workers cumulatively are some of the hardest hit. All the hours they are open, and coming and going almost by the day, with how they are coping and indeed just trying to survive week to week, are taking new form almost hour to hour. I will describe all the manners of making their way in a time that our forefathers, and even the local Chambers of Commerce, could not even have dreamt about. Hours in this end are changing (being shortened, especially when the evening comes) the most of any industry than possibly in retail and fast food.
— 10 — How the businesses in the Hudson area fell apart, literally overnight, following the governor’s midweek decree. And what the local business scene was like that day at the 5 p.m. cutoff and immediately following. Why did a burgeoning city heading toward medium-size fall prey to the virus and its ramifications just like that, at a speed basically unheard of anywhere else in the country? We here are enslaved to the fickle leanings of one dominant industry, which when considering its few separate branches as offshoots, impacts almost every business in town. The effect was not unlike putting all your 401K money into one very risky stock and not diversifying, so it all crashed down. I’ll explore this factor at length later on down, and what’s being done right now and building on month’s past, and pieced together very fast, by successful management that can adjust on the fly and right the ship. That’s a hint about the unwitted culprit that became horrific everywhere, but in a special way the Hudson horror, (from as The White Stripes with such symbolic purity of color sang and somehow knew well in advance how the virus does not respect money and powerful positions, no matter how much of those you have. To wit: “From The Queen Of England To The Hounds Of Hell).
Hey, all this and the real meat of it, in the form of my virtual (or literal) top 10, is still hanging on the vine, so to speak: A hint, some of the best and most creative, and at the same time most obscure and nether-reaching, sources in low places are still to come with a chime in:

<The scribe will now school you, and we are not talking cafeteria food; but we may once more get into a tease or two, while at the same time chiming in with a cheap joke (would I do that?)>

OK now, me being the useless scribe on the other end of the communications system, and in the back row of the Target Center waiting for THE NAME band to come on, and,with notebook readily at hand and the pencil, for some reason — even with all these info possibilities remains tucked well behind the ear to the point of wax buildup (see a reference on that well-connected, namesake New Richmond Irish band of yore in a previous post), here is how you can find JUST WHAT YOU NEED for food and drink — read beer — but especially if you are in a quasi-suburban, enclave well to the south and north of Interstate 94 along THE RIVER, and in these cases, YOU NOW HAVE NO OPTION for the stuff you really want, but New Richmond in good ‘ol Wisconsin, the fast growing city in the country because of the new Stillwater bridge. WHY is this, among the many options in the driveable parts of the Beer Capital Of The World (U.S. dollars) and the NEXT NEAREST PLACE OVER? I have simply said, none of this is a sound byte, but with that mentioned, here goes: The only places still remaining, for all practical purposes, where you can get-whatever-you-need-short-of-brain-surgery, for Walmart type goods, is well, Walmart. So, big deal, there are Wal-Marts everywhere, but Wait A Minute, Wait A Minute, not everywhere has a Super-Walmart. They are not quite as prevalent as rats in the Black Plague, (I retract that comparison), but these are truly special, if only via The Church Lady who removes the bubble gum from one end of the napkin, then stows the rest in her 40-degrees-and-above jacket pocket, where she forgets about it until sneezing the next Sunday, (involuntarily?), when the sermon on the mount exceeded Everest in length/height, and her jaw finally dropped in what was a massive yawn. So, it has been said that in a rush to Hudson, via County Market next door, you can get certain food items you simply can’t find elsewhere, including the Master of Food Monopoly, Cub, (collectively gasp?) So you go to the nextdoor Walmart and they might not have your hot-pepper-spiced-banana-(pepper?)-parsley-eggplant dish either, so what to do? (It needs to be pointed out that, as says a friend of mine who is now with Walmart after jumping ship from Kwik Trip, even Target with its produce of the week and not much more pricewise, may not be immune to possible eventual closure as per the definition of essential business, as the rub is are you a “grocery store” or a “store that sells groceries?” We will let you know, as there is an appeals process, that as you are well aware may reach well beyond the court of the ying-yang-Righty Superemacy that might as well be on the Trump Post-Stormy-Daniels payroll, if only in-kind if you know what I mean about great nachos, (blatantly self-serving Cinco De Mayo reference), and possibly includes the Interplantary Justice System, (it was tie 50-50, with Mars opting out because of “size issues,” again if you know what I mean, but as a man with a plan, I can subpeona that tenth planet, wait more size issues, and I was trying to raise (From the Dead?), its publicist but he was busy weighing Hollywood scripts, two or three of which were from the Star Wars people, with a sequel or two already promised, but Don’t Call Us Yoda, We’ll Call You. There are more of these “people” around, I swear, then those governing the local Smilin’ Moose.
OK, Hudson is for the first time since-the-Pre-Dick’s-Bar-era, defunct so where to go now? Head northeast to New Richmond. And what will you find there? The mecca of the all things consumer, a Super Walmart, and where did this special bit of info come from? None other then a friend who goes to the grocery store and uses coupons to actually get paid to shop, if you know what I mean, but I can only give her intials, JM, for fear of exposing her cover to the WalMart Secret Shopper Police? Hey, alright, they might not actually exist, but maybe they should, but that would Take The Smile Right From The Face of VM, her husband, who can beemingly and with a certain pride announce that she paid else than a dime for T-Bone!
So why the New Richmond SuperWalMart, over all else, in Badger, Gopher and yes even Prairie Dog Country? TAKE HEED AND BE THIRSTY MY FRIENDS! Here’s Joe trying to do his version of a GPS analysis, and pack away the women and children. Oh, we’ve already done that. There is the Woodbury WalMart, but take away the aisles and aisles of snacks, there is barely one beer shelf and not much more, was probably 60 percent NA and 40 percent low-grade 3-2. Wisconsinites scoff forever! The few Beer and Beer is, and Beer and Beer is, repetition from withdrawl? And forcing run-on sentences? The handful of legitimate 12 packs still available were so scattered around the nearly barely dozen-or-so spaces, you couldn’t tell by the assigned pricing tags on the front plastic thingee that excuses me while I kiss the shelf (thank you for the borrowed referennce Jimi), if any of them were under, say 12 bucks. So the only draw is the food that may or may not be available in coming days and even hours, can you say eggs and salads, and can’t be gotten basically this side of St. Paul, if even then? Falling prey to diversity sucks.
To wit or should I say witness: BEER VAULT. Pack all the kids in the car and give them their sugar so that stay occupied in the employee lounge and beyond, bothering people on their 4.5 minute break, and maybe snag some classic Italian homemade grub of hot peppers and such if you are Badger enough to stand it and to wash down the, did I say it, Beer? Hundreds and hundreds of varieties to pick from in the way cool Coors-type temps hawked on so many Big Brew commercials, much better prices, and yeah, all the comfort food you want too — do the brat people hold a lein on the property? I don’t know firsthand, but according to my buddy a couple of stools down, who remains planted there as a virus vigil until the rest of the regulars come back, its a frothing brew too come back to, if he ever left …
Again, why? To badly quote the big box food stores anywhere on this side of St. Paul, don’t offer it and they will not show up. Sunday used to be the have to run day across the border, now its close to 365, virus withstanding.
So now what young grasshopper, or maybe not so young, or with wings clipped Buffalo style for serving in the modern economy: You can venture all the way toward the warehouse District you love to hate, and it would be shorter, maybe even far shorter, then the folks living — FINALLY now that the guitar solo ran on like Free Bird, bikers close your ears, WE ADD THE DRUM KIT KERNAL OF CLASSIC COUNTRY and beyond: If you are unfortunate enough to live up by extreme-west-end Scandia, or down by Afton and want to combine margarita mix and Smirnoff vodka to go with your bloody, and all the fruit and vegies that are so cooold drenched with that 80-or-so proof clearinghouse of clear booze, will save close to a gallon of gas to go a few miles across the border, and encounter more extremes. These include, under better then Minnesota highway conditions, to New Richmond rather than St. Paul, get all your groceries too that include everything from corned beef to what my dad would call real beef, (both with the obligatory seasoned or much better yet mashed potato and quarts of gravy, which is why most German men never live beyond the full maturity age of 30). But then there is my dad dispensing the wisdom of such red meat and more while gleaning nothing more than watching his bottom-of-the-TV-laden stocks scroll by, but that’s for another full-fledged father patriarch story. But the bloody Mary’s, as people slog off the wide river to local “restaurants,” often are in the form of a big burger sitting on top of the big glass of tomato — juice and vegetable versions and maybe even ketchup and the like — with Woody’s in Bayport leading the way for a long haul, and also Mallory’s with a more expensive but even more loaded making-a-meal. And there’s more to be had in the ol’ NR, as this and the favorites from nowhere but here will still abound, virus or no virus, as this is the beer capital of the known world, (give or take parts unknown from Germany). Can you think of an option that is better than this Beer Central, although we admittedly are in the Gopher-going-gang per where Hudson is, A PLUS YOU GET THE OL’ OLD MILWAUKEE AND MORE CRAFT BEERS FOR SALE, THEN THE NOW-SHUT-DOWN CHURCHES. You might even encounter Old School and see John Madden gang-tackling Adrian Peterson, as John is of a pound per poundage total that rivals a full offensive line and even then had trouble making weight. But while I Do Indeed Take Them To The River and beyond, where you yence can quaff Legitimate and Bountiful Millers, not to mention enough (LEAN?) brats to kill all the Budweiser horses, as they come from — gasp — St. Louis … You get the point that crossing the border that’s only a stone’s throw away, even if only on RARE occasion, can leave you a little fatter and MUCH MORE jovial, and you don’t have to step on a scale until next-time. So indulge a bit my friends, and don’t forget a quick run to the bathroom when it is 2:28 a.m., although you may have to give both the bartender and bouncer a bit more of a tip then your usual 50 cents. ‘Nuf said.

Joe, put your money where your mouth is, and were not talking about the Friday fish fry that will simply not die down. These are the 15-or-so different categories as promised, of dozens and dozens of consumer tips that run the gamut, as only I have deciphered, and the best may be the last. When formerly under-employed, by my 60-hours-a-week once rigid standard, Joe could only watch so much of Everyone Loves Raymond reruns, (and I’ll give you many more such options that you probably haven’t thought of yet), when twiddling his thumbs through entire well-plopped-in-front-of-the-TV commercials no longer counts for exercise, so exercise your brain! How, your brain asks, and if you can hear he or she, you have greater problems then where to find a good but cheap treadmill, but I’ll cover that too. But in these stay-at-home times that should allow for leisure-while-respecting-kiddie-disinfecting, Joe is otherwise wired, and he starts to think and rethink, and analyze re-and analyze, and then gruevel and re-gruevel, (can you tell I’m 100 percent German?) and what does he come up with? Such brainstorming can be good or very bad, much like tricky brain surgery, and you don’t even want to hear my beloved, long-suffering wife chime in.
Thus without further ado, I go where no one has gone before and at length, listed in order of priority, much like the logic Mr. Spock would apply, but the following is a mere summary of what’s coming in each of this web site’s categories in the next weeks and days:
— If you look, there are still good deals on meals around, and not just rabbit food, and even steak for less than the price of hamburger. You can reduce your grocery costs to pennies on the dollar, like I have, if you follow some simple but also separate rules. I’ll let you in on what they are! One to watch is the special hour-or-so offered by many grocers and Big Box stores have first thing in the morning when they open, specifically for people who have disabilities, are elderly, (they often are early risers if retired), are in a high-risk group of those who could contract the virus, and who serve as EMTs or fire-fighters, etc. To the best of my ability, I’ll tell you where to find these places, what the hours are, as they change frequently, usually for the cut-cutting measure of closing earlier at night, and what specifically are the criteria for what jobs and life status qualify, as it is different by location, although I doubt they would kick you to the curb while asking for curbside, or to go inside, if your status is reasonably close to any of those criteria. One thing to add up, some diners will offer 20 percent off the entire bill, even for the take-out option that has taken over, and this beats the heck out of even something like $5 off a $20 purchase, or 50 percent off an entree with purchase of one of equal value. How so? That bill also includes beverages, (even Coke and Pepsi aren’t cheap in many of these venues, although you can sometimes get these “comped” if not using another discount, or if they know you well), and tax and tip, which are not included in the latter example, and therefore are extra cost.
— And for dining, too, there are newer deals, as places still open are competing for a smaller dollar. Yes we all know all about the beauty of coupons and hunting through flyers, watch the expiration dates, but that can be tedious not to mention time consuming, (I’ll look for you in an ongoing way while having an eye for holiday specials). There are places that have always been overlooked who have killer prices, even before the outbreak, but still good food, if only downhome. A key: Get a food co-op of sorts that can include couponing going in your neighborhood, church or business, or more than one such grouping. As much as can be allowed by stay-at-home rules that make it dicey to even cross the neighbor’s threshold, so try to choose one that’s closeby and without the huge lot sizes, and the way this is enforced might vary from city to city, county to county, so be extra sure these days to look both ways when crossing the street … you never know who might come around the bend and lurk your way. And I have to add, just because its silly and so easy a joke, you might give such an officer one of your doughnuts, as things always seem to be about bakery. Come on, didn’t you at least think of such a thing a few months ago on Halloween, with all your excess candy, when the various PDs were making runs that lasted for hours around neighborhoods to ensure the safety of trick-or-treaters until they were at home dreaming of sugar plums dancing in their heads, (holidays mix together these days, more of that later), spreading good will and even better PR by giving out glow sticks, not so much citations and tickets, as key ambassadors for their departments. The extra time on this one night, is worth more than a month of manning the speed traps. I challenge them while on patrol across various jurisdictions, and it seems the units scratch each other’s back like this anyway while late at night, to supplement each others need. We’ve all noticed that, but now there is no bartime scene to babysit, so wouldn’t that free up time for more of this “glow stick” kind of service, much like the proverbial cat who was stuck in a tree, as the very definition of community based policing, to hopefully be done on other holidays too, where the festive nature can make this type of monitoring necessary; think Cinco De Mayo if the partying comes back, the three-in-number Memorial Day weekend, or big gasp, even the ma and pa days if the old folks act up for the first time in … nevermind …
— Conserve and creatively utilize what’s in your refrigerator right now. Even if you’re already a whiz at that, and if you’re only an item or two away from making a killer casserole, I will show you how to use a number of logical substitites for each recipe, using only basic ingredients almost everyone has around, and do what I’ve long done, that’s reducing your food waste to almost zero. That can almost pay the rent, and the more times you wrap your own head around it, you’ll find it becomes second nature, an easy win, and the entree you’ve invented cannot only cut waste because the family helped choose what favorite stuff is in it, but by trial and error, be quite tasty too. Monitor the freshness of perishable items in your fridge with a quick check each day, plan a bit ahead for a time the produce or meat likely be too far gone, and use this as a primer to nip it in the bud, whipping together the aformentioned casserole now. Keep lids on and label them by a date to make, and group various food types into one shelf or half of a shelf, for an easy check on what to make first then second concerning freshness, what date you want to make it, and what search you still need to create a fab entree or appetizer that will rock your dinner party … and yes, you can still have a small one if you follow a group of guidelines, and you might require these double-down tips for a gathering that’s in any way bigger — again see more tips on this from me in coming days. Most styles of ethnic foods have use-by tips that are much in the same mode, for easy monitoring and efficiency in selections that make useful the moving of your favorites, as the first choices to cook, to the front of the shelves or door compartments in the fridge, so they are the first your eyes see. Again, group the ingredients of the same style next to each other, side by side, so logical substitutions are quickly evaluated, and seeing all the possibilities lined up Right In The Front Row might stir the create process and open the door to a whole new type of redacted recipe. Also, place the taller items in a second row, and those medium size on top of any in the front that are short or could be laid on their side.
— Make the final meal prep a family affair. Notice I said final. Whip up the things you know are best for them, but aren’t always a clear choice the kids usually make, and get that in the hopper first, so its set. Then depending on the age of the children, bring them into the process with say, the final three or four ingredients that aren’t expensive, and let them choose their fave(s), and maybe lick the bowl if its their first try. Or if the stuff is really gooey, there might even be a bit of a food fight, but you might have time now more than ever to cleanup after the kids are left to be kids. Staying strictly at home while working and living makes homemakers into home business operators. And maybe dad will be drawn to the clamor, get out of his easy chair, and throw in as a marinade JUST A BIT of the beer, wine or liquor he might be holding — and then be spurred to get out the grill, but check with the public health department first to see if its kosher these days, and that assessment might change by the day — and all the while keeping an eye the game on TV, (hey, dad could find a sport that’s Still Running, to name a local country and rock band he might find classic, all being basically on furlough. However, contests are likely be on an amateur level, but these athletes are prized by man for putting their whole effort and soul into it, playing for the love of the game, not excessive glory). That goes double for the Badger marching band that stops by the village annually at Kozy Korner. The strength of this kind of character is especially needed, and valued, in today’s world. Remembering back, how many rock icons from decades ago were “just ordinary, average guys?” I met, interviewed and even photographed some of these top guns when they played Hudson — yeah you right that right — back in the day, and was surprised to find that many were just your regular, blue-color-like workers, doing a job for a paycheck, and humble to the core. They know their audience is built by person-to-person off-the-cuff introductions and bits of conversation. But there are some on the flip side, who are not necessarily evil, as all those old stereotypes would suggest, but quite quirky in their own slight-bit-of-charming way, if only dealing with one facet of their work and social life. I will tell their names, on both sides of the fence, and specifically what their quirk is, which I gathered while they were here in Hudson of all places to play their instruments, or to play out in the audience, and I’ll throw in the experiences other local people have had while stars border hopped then partied on by, living after midnight, rocking to the door, loving to the morning … Most important, we can learn from their lyrics in this crisis time and beyond, even if some don’t agree with their lifestyles, ditto for my old boss Doug. All in all, teachable moments among chaos, and productive family bonding.
— Along the lines of where to find what, and at the cheapest price, you would need days to sort it all out, especially for people who are from Minnesota and unlike myself don’t have the lay of the local land, so I’m doing it for you, drawing on decades of experience as a reporter, local consumer and food and drink junkie of all aspects — I come from a meat and potatoes family, but still love my salad and stir fry, and even those last two unlock a bounty of different possibilities, so once a base that takes up all of the bottom of a dish and thus is substantial is chosen, or more than one, the combinations of ingredients that can be piled on top of it is endless. More on that soon. Hey, experiment yourself, that’s how the French got crepes and soufles. I don’t know that firsthand, but I wouldn’t doubt it.

This just in, or call it breaking news. Can someone please give me a break, and not put the brakes on, if trying to locate these activities themselves, as the Easter week is well upon us. As far as holiday church services, the few that are still “open” to the public because of virus concerns, the following is how you can have your religion Fixx and eat it too — if just using a little creativity in finding it — to dole out the jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and perhaps via the band by that name, So One Thing (or should I say Thong) Leads to Another, so to Place Your Bid In, that came within an Irish lasses blink of an eye from playing a concert at the Hudson half-outdoors Band Shell — these contingencies just might end up being your ticket to one of the few remaining live music options that could still be available, if certain strict rules are complied with. It’s just a stone’s throw away from the beautiful St. Croix River on the north end of Lakefront Park. Did I mention lass? In the post-St. Patrick Day download, the Irish Eyes aren’t quite smilin’ as they feel the sting of now having their own holiday, in its various forms and done in their way, taken away from them as fast as other viruses turn your corned beef and cabbage into mush, literally overnight; the time it took Hudson’s economy to tank then float down the St. Croix before anyone knew what hit them. So what do all things Erin do when they truly get their Irish up? They just extend the holiday — go for it Guinness — maybe all through the official 40 days of Easter, as counted by the Irish Catholics who love and live their religion, so both holidays can Come Together, Right Now. Items pulled from various local menus show that Irishness prevails, one of the few times in its history, and all things green, St. Paddie’s Day, Easter and then even Earth Day, take command of the kitchen and what ends up on your plate. Mix and match this type of this food with the Easter favorite goodies that now abound, and you can still double-down and have a two-for-one, or more, although possibly only via the Facebook offerings.
So this entry point for allowing you to max-out on today’s holiday happenings, and really place Saturday night llve, (OK, maybe not “live” in all cases), is the Easter Vigil as practiced by Catholics and most Episcopals. Especially, if revelers have the means to look beyond virus considerations and icy snow now falling and elect to travel, (hey, I know this isn’t really OK), thus taking advantage of the ever-falling gas prices. and stop by for a quick but very filling, in-and-out big meal made by, say, both your grandma in Forest Lake and your mom in Woodbury. Shepard’s Pie versus apple pie?
Now the stage is set for a description for the first-viewing Easter observance of 2020, as done locally, with others still hanging on to get the bugs out of their audio-visual technology, now needed more than ever by them. That can cost money, especially in a smaller-sized, tight-knit church building and possibly more seriously, a potentially big financial hit because of lack of money in the collection basket

<<Ahead of the curve concerning the rest of the Village, and their ‘great big neon broadway sign’ from above>>

With the flood of messages that have been put out as eatery ads, and we won’t even include the remnant of those old once-a-mile, small-cardboard scrims, Village Inn has been way ahead of the curve in what they are putting on, what’s essentially their “great big neon broadway sign,” to reference Bon Jovi. It even had offered, mostly-earlier-than-any, customers the service of a go-to special is for the time-being out; hey must taste fantastic to be that well purchased, in what has not been the case for so many other places. Everyone has a new twist on what they offer these days, why they are different from all the rest. I was schooled a few weeks earlier on this, by two guys out in the enhanced, give-them-what-they-now-want-and-need and partly enclosed patio. When talking to these vintage village people, who actually are Minnesotans who thus now accompany the old school Italians, and are only the start of people who kept coming and lotsa loving such things as the especially caring-for-cars drive-through line, for great fried and broasted chicken (called Californian as well as southern fried and even on to Chicago, to team with themes above and below). It’s almost within a waddle of the place you pulled in, where there in addition have been the No Quarter of 25 for $25 wings, or 25 and Six to Four, with change. The Village led others by being open 15 or then 17 or then 19 hours. There of course is the Triple Threat of Walleye, Walleye, Walleye, quite well marketed when considering that the other go-to-place for such food closed a few months back, Tuesday tacos and max mex, and other fantastic items that include many burger choices that go far behind just a paddy, and will no doubt create consumer traffic well into 2021.

Also in place st St. Patrick’s Church on Saturday around 8 p.m. All the Mass times, as they have always been in place throughout Sunday mornings, call be live-streamed on Facebook, or use something such as an On Demand function later Sunday and so on. Big Catholic churches in River Falls to the southeast, and New Richmond to the northeast, are doing much the same thing, and the two in Stillwater that form the end of the triangle also have vigils.
— Likewise, in my typical walks around scenic North Hudson, (I’m nearing 60, so better make that number singular, and only once around the block, or I might end up Meeting My Maker prematurely. This came to mind, as I made the swing out in the Boonies as part of Phase Two, “When I Came Across a Young Man, With a Fiddle, Playing It Hard,” and I know Charlie Daniels is more than just some ol’ country preacher). The church I encountered halfway in Phase Two is called Bible Baptist, smack dab in the middle of the village. and they also have set up a similar option, to access the service via Facebook and beyond, starting at 10:30 a.m.

With very few entertainment options currently, read a book? Or a cookbook? During times when docs say even your local, low-grade newsprint daily, after being handled by dozens of people before it gets to you, can carry a virus much worse than an annoying stomach bug?
So what to do? Always wanted to unlock your true culinary self, and get healthy to boot? Whip through a Fresh and Natural store flyer, ready for your taking right when you walk in the door of what is a spacious foyer for social dining considerations, that cuts to the chase and doesn’t give you loads of of unnecessary verbage to sift through. After all, these days we seem to be having more and more contraints on our time, and at Fresh and Natural there’s a store design that smacks of functionality, not being a monument for some architects to themselves. The aisles are well arranged, little wasted space, although social distancing will always be respected here, and unlike the big box stores you don’t have to cover an area the size of a football field to pick up what you need. And the food is healthy for all sorts of reasons, and today more than ever we all need to be watchguards of that for ourselves on various fronts, and its great to get a little help to steer you the right way.
So when did all this extra need get going?
Just a bit ago on St. Patricks’ Day, and quickly into the early evening, reams of stores of all types were told they must shut down pronto, as in the usual start of places having half-price appetizers. So why not get much healthier food to boot, and at the same time take an absolute, total pass for that day on the chance to unveil your Irish? As go home and go to bed before any of the those cool Irish musicians even start setting up their stages. Your full 24 hours of Erin simply have to wait for another day and might be quite off into the future. So how does the green go forward from here and triumph?
It thus starts with food, and enter the picture the Fresh and Natural locations in Hudson and Shoreview. Like birthday parties that become lengthy observances, like a virtual fulltime job, and I know this from some friends who seriously do want it to be all that, things extend with regular ongoing celebrations in what becomes an — official they’ll tell you — bonafide birthday month. The Irish emulate that when their favorite holiday is on a Monday and thus into Tuesday morning, and St. Patrick’s Day actually starts for them with corned beef and cabbage — or a host of lesser hyped meals that I myself will hype in a minute via Fresh and Natural — on the previous Thursday or early Friday for sure, with dinner, lunch or even breakfast, (and yes Virginia, of the dozens of intriguing Irish eats you can easily make yourself, there are even quite a few for when you rise in the morning and need a boost to hit the very ground running as to dodge all those newly enabled leprechauns who don’t ever seem to be more than knee-high. Plenty more such yarns of leprechauns acting up in future posts).
Local nightclubs have followed suit with their St. Patrick’s Day revisited drink specials, hardly any need to dig into your pockets for anything but a wee bit of change — and each and every O’Donnell loves that — where even the most stout beer cost is slashed on the 17th of each and every month. So everyone is Irish an additional 12 days a year. And add another such food date when Paddy Ryan’s, not far down the highway from Fresh and Natural, pulls out all the stops not only in March, but also exactly six months later for a half-St. Patrick’s Day. And the food is bountiful, never a “half patty.”
<<And if you can’t make it then, and now to finally cut to the chase, here’s how that Fresh and Natural flyer saved that day, through extending the window to be by all means Irish.>>
— Colcannon is a long-back traditional dish made with mashed potatoes and cabbage, milk and butter, and sometimes with leeks and bacon added for flavor and just for fun, or a primer for cooks who shop then chop for a veganized version. It is called just as delicious as the meatier version above, including the middle two items of the six, which is expected to be central to cooking plans for June Dairy Month. And come that time, you can even find a whole boatload of filed-card recipes range of things, some of which I had not heard of before, and smack dab in the middle of that in a veritable laundry list of how you can use the aforementioned leeks. But as far as the colcannon, the whole recipe is featured in the March version of the Fresh and Natural newsletter. It is said to make great comfort food, now and later. Options are to use tempeh bacon, and coconut butter for a creamy consistency, according to Fresh and Natural, for a great plant based dish.
— Now is the time for homemade saurkraut with garlic dill, as the Irish meet the Germans — they just had their food week too — as my family used to say and ponder. Not only is it called nice and easy, it is filled with probiotics, which are vital to keeping everyone’s bodies healthy, as the immune system is in our gut, and healthy bacteria from those probiotics is an aid to keep the good flora of bacteria in the stomach area at a good count. Uhm, probiotics in the form of pills? It’s also beneficial to add them to diet in the form of fermented foods. Homemade sauerkraut keeps well in the fridge for a few months. Add it to salads as a tangy topper, (and then can do without too much cheese, or heavy sauces), or use it in various sandwiches (don’t rely, again, too heavily on cold cuts).

One, two, three, four, Cellar’s as a liquor store has all the numbers and sheer size to be your sum-total of each and every holiday revelry. The local “Cellars” is intruigally named since it is “up “on The Hill instead of being “down” at at your friend’s basement man cave. And unlike that place and its few couches, Cellar’s has a showroom the size of full basketball courts, and not Down There at your guys limited bar. But we all have changed our habits because of virus impact, so all to be viewed at his home is King James footage from back in the day when he got started, and Cellar’s at that time was already open, then known as Hudson Liquor. But hey, we need more than dribbling, sorry about the pun, and this is when you go to Cellar’s and can get bottles of wine for as little as $3.99! So we draw from all of these spots, their celebrations and more, as virus considerations mean things like St. Patrick’s Day revelry are compromised and have to be regaged and rescheduled for later, even much later. Which of course — and yes I am finally getting around to a point — is where the selection and pricing at Cellar’s comes to the rescue as the summer holidays continue to unfold, had already been a prime seller at their store of all things that started Irish, think enough different whiskey brands from that isle to fill a space equal to that huge freezer in your buddy’s man cave, then also Easter. (And I’ve thus went to “edit” and added this part of the content on a holiday theme for Cinco, mom and pop day and believe you me their faves are very different and cross a gender gap beyond which flavor of champagne they should sip as dad, sorry to say, slinks to the end of the counter and orders all those ingredients for a Bloody from a hottie). Then Cellar’s redacted these and other offerings to fit a patriotic festival from below the Rio Grande, led by well, Rio herself and Duran Duran? And hey, tit for tat, that will carry forward to later on the Independence Day of another sort, ours. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, possibly the first time since Washington’s presidency that HudsonWiNightlife has been not only on time but before it … To that end, you can get a bottle of wine for just $3.99, for that post-Easter toast, or later for a hot summer night on the river. And to be kosher in this huge facility, there is Mogan David to boot. The people at this store have teamed up with Hop and Barrell on a far-afield trek to taste their own special brews, and pick the ones out for sale especially at their places business. And they have had the drinks of Cinco de Mayo covered too with cupboards full of brews.
— The “Casanova” himself as part of the Hudson Historic Liquors name would love it, so Irish as to be traditional or even rare for St. Paddie’s or redacted to make it American for the Fourth, as in American Irish? Shelves and shelves of many brands of Irish whiskey, some with often long names I can’t even pronounce — and adding choices well beyond the Jamison everybody knows about, although to be clear there are a few of these varieties that sport flavorings and subtle color tints — and fill shelves by the dozens in a dedicated area toward the back, and having been there for months, to extend the window for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations that were cut short, to the length of a potato growing season, regardless of the weather. Irish whiskey is usually batched in a truly original way as far as number of steps, and the window to try them in the U.S. and all over predates the days of colonization, so when the time comes, use and indulge them with patriotism in mind (that’s convenient). And as far as things go, no immigration no Irish whiskey here. Things to be grateful for. The recipes go back almost 700 years. So get you and your taste “buds” going …
— The Northern Liquors store along Crest View Drive has been doing great business, and even though its not quite going viral per se, has a big beer and liquor vault to offer that in a rectangular sense rivals the size of the entire rest of their facility. One whole side of shelving going up front near the cash register is devoted to the dozens of very dynamic varieties of different tomato-juice infused ingredients, that are brewed, distilled and yes even grown and harvested, to welcome in a Cinco summer and meaningful Bloody Mary mantra and indeed keep it going through July Fourth and further, aided by little four-packs of themed drinks, some bottled and all quaint as can be, for far less then the fingers on your hand. Again, the numbers game, and if Johnnie is not careful with the fireworks and his fingers, then they’d be fewer and symbolize even more of a discount … OK we won’t go there.

This just in, or call it breaking news. Can someone please give me a break, and not put the brakes on, if trying to locate these activities themselves, as the Easter week is well upon us. As far as holiday church services, the few that are still “open” to the public because of virus concerns, the following is how you can have your religion Fixx and eat it too — if just using a little creativity in finding it — to dole out the jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and perhaps via the band by that name, that came within an Irish lasses blink of an eye from playing a concert at the Hudson half-outdoors Band Shell, But One Thing Leads to Another — these contingencies just might end up being your ticket to one of the few remaining live music options that could still be available, if certain strict rules are complied with. It’s just a stone’s throw away from the beautiful St. Croix River on the north end of Lakefront Park. Did I mention lass? In the post-St. Patrick Day download, the Irish Eyes aren’t quite smilin’ as they feel the sting of now having their own holiday, in its various forms and done in their way, taken away from them as fast as other viruses turn your corned beef and cabbage into mush, literally overnight; the time it took Hudson’s economy to tank then float down the St. Croix before anyone knew what hit them. So what do all things Erin do when they truly get their Irish up? They just extend the holiday — go for it Guinness — maybe all through the official 40 days of Easter, as counted by the Irish Catholics who love and live their religion, so both holidays can Come Together, Right Now. Items pulled from various local menus show that Irish-ness prevails, one of the few times in its history, and all things green, St. Paddie’s Day, Easter, Passover and then even Earth Day, take command of the kitchen and what ends up on your plate. Mix and match this type of this food with the Easter favorite goodies that now abound, and you can still double-down and have a two-for-one, or more, although possibly only via the Facebook offerings.
So this entry point for allowing you to max-out on today’s holiday happenings, and really place Saturday night llve, (OK, maybe not “live” in all cases), is the Easter Vigil as practiced by Catholics and most Episcopals. Especially, if revelers have the means to look beyond virus considerations and icy snow now falling and elect to travel, (hey, I know this isn’t really OK), thus taking advantage of the ever-falling gas prices. and stop by for a quick but very filling, in-and-out big meal made by, say, both your grandma in Forest Lake and your mom in Woodbury. Shepard’s Pie versus apple pie?
So now the stage is set for a description for the first-viewing Easter observance of 2020, as conducted locally, with others in their support team, as whole industries are still hanging on to get the bugs out of their audio-visual technology, or rolling it out anyway to essentially make a product that sells and brings in revenue before its ready for market, and the consumer loses either way. But wait a minute, way a minute! Give their design, production and marketing crews, and yes also sales and management, some leeway to do those final fixes toward efficiency, now needed more than ever before. That can cost money, especially in a smaller-sized, tight-knit congregation and possibly more seriously, a potentially big financial hit because of lack of money in the collection basket. Parishioners vote with their wallets, and this might be a unique opportunity for spiritual growth from the bottom down, but it will take the role of a lifetime to dig down and make this work. So this long homily is ended, go in peace and joy, and the Lord  is with you as you  praise and serve him …
<Here is the first stop locally on the Jesus, Resurrection World Tour>
— The Easter Vigil is being held, to kick things off, (or accurately, can be viewed), at St. Patrick’s Church in Hudson on Saturday around 8 p.m. All the Mass times, as they have always been in place throughout Sunday mornings, call be live-streamed on Facebook, or use something such as an On Demand function later Sunday and so on. Big Catholic churches in River Falls to the southeast, and New Richmond to the northeast, are doing much the same thing, and like the two in Stillwater that form the end of a Trinity-like triangle also have vigils.
— Likewise, in my typical walks around scenic North Hudson, (I’m nearing 60, so better make that number singular, and only once around the block, or I might end up Meeting My Maker prematurely. This came to mind, as I made the swing out in the Boonies as part of Phase Two of There, “When I Came Across a Young Man, With a Fiddle’, Playing It Hard,” and I know Charlie Daniels is more than just some ol’ country preacher). The church I encountered halfway in Phase Two is called Bible Baptist, smack dab in the middle of the village. and they also have set up a similar option, to access the service via Facebook and beyond, starting at 10:30 a.m.

— I soon will list all kinds of last minute Easter buys, boy I know that one, that be made easy and fun enough for your entire family to enjoy, and find yourself being the minder of the keys, seven I think that is, swimming pools, movie stars. OK, we’re much more simple than that, and far less of that money the shifty leprechaun stole, took while exiting up the chimney. which uses a backup heater that keeps on going and going and going, so he and his bottle gained the pricey freedom found in the roof. But his smokin’ butt won’t heal until, well, the real cooler Christmas, 2020 comes, (Santa had to go on the DL, or AA, or on furlough, take your pick, and had to yield on this dry run to that little green man, who rolled at a 45 degree angle and picked up speed to angle past the rood gutters, giving a poor squirrel more of a fright than eating those nasty, sometimes moldy acorns. Better to get to the Dollar Tree, in Plaza 94 in Hudson, before the Dollar General in Roberts buys it up in a hostile takeover to purge western Wisconsin of all pennies. Oh you get it, all this is an April Fools Day prank, but my lawyers said the joke could be taken too far. I think I should cease on it. But no, there was Santa in my sleep, then stepping in front of him was a member of the Anti-Irish-Short-People Disability Corp. who read an official decree that negated the transaction … Anyway, dollar for dollar, you can get every last trinket, thick laces and beads, and don’t forget big hats that would remind you of the color of a Guinness  you would need as a true leprechaun, as long as they’re decidedly Futball-turf-green. And all these things are now repeated in white for Easter, but whole the Dollar Store is on the verge of closing for the night (there is always the competition more than a mile away even under no-travel rules, with their own hours and little twist of Emerald to the Shamrock, and much more pure then off-white, as observances come and go, but there will always be on shelves, and ourselves, here of the key color in question, representing the whole of every holiday.