Pass the fried cheese curds, please.
We fired up the Inc.-mobile for a trip to the North Woods to see how a lot of Chicagoans spend their summer vacations.
Grrrrrrr: Reports of 50-pound mosquitoes are highly exaggerated. But sightings of more deer than we could count and one black bear ambling across the road made us pretty sure we weren’t in Chicago any more.
What big teeth you have! An early stop was the studio of local artist and woodsman Art Long, who has lived all of his 50 years in the Arbor Vitae area. We’d been captivated by the enormous 15-foot-tall muskie (with ferocious teeth) Long carved in nearby Woodruff. He told us he fashioned the monster fish out of a dead white spruce tree in only three weeks (using a chain saw, chisel and knife) for the 100th anniversary of the Art Oehmcke State Fish Hatchery. The hardest part of the fish job, Long told us, was being careful to not fall off the high scaffold.
You’re out: Imagine our disappointment to have missed the weekly snowshoe baseball game at the athletic field at Tomahawk Lake. And, yes, you read that right. Players strap on the snowshoes and play ball every Monday night in the summer. We had better luck with the Minocquabats, the water ski show down by Bosacki’s Boat House at dusk three times a week.
Just how far north were we? Well, the young water skiers were wearing wetsuits in the middle of the summer. Thank goodness we got back to Chicago in time for the heat wave.
Speaking of the temperature: A worker on Chicago’s Wacker Drive reconstruction project was CNN’s heat poster child as correspondent Jeff Flock interviewed a hard hat there to illustrate stifling weather in the Midwest.
Freebie alert: Who knew? It’s the 20th anniversary of the appearance in the U.S. of the thong, that scanty innovation in ladies underwear. To mark the occasion, a spokesman for Frederick’s of Hollywood tells Inc. that the company’s 180-plus retail stores (seven in the Chicago area) will give away free souvenir white cotton thongs marked with the store’s logo, beginning Friday. Frederick’s Seth Jacobson says that nationwide, thongs account for 70 percent of panty sales but they’re 90 percent of panties sold at Frederick’s.
Sign here? Labeled “worst signers,” here’s a list compiled of celebrities least likely to sign an autograph, compiled by Autograph Collectors magazine: Tobey Maguire (“absolute unwillingness”); Cameron Diaz; Edward Norton (“mean about it!”); Britney Spears; Winona Ryder (says she only signs for kids); Christy Turlington; Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas; and Katie Holmes.
Inc.-lings: Big Sisters Big Brothers gets a share of the proceeds Sunday at KidsStore at the SCD SportsFest at Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont . . . Dogs are welcome at the Sept. 9 Chicago 5K Liver Walk, with registration at 8 a.m. at Randolph Street and Lake Shore Drive. Channel 7’s Andy Shaw emcees.
He said, she said: “At first it was titillating, then it was odd, and ultimately it was boring.” That’s actor William H. Macy on attending a porn movie shoot to research his role as a porn film camera operator in the movie “Boogie Nights,” to World Entertainment News Network.
. . . but who’s counting?
Thursday birthdays: producer Wes Craven 62; actor Peter O’Toole, 69; actress Mary-Louise Parker, 37. And a special shout-out to Al Booth, who turns 85.
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Send comments to Warren and Armour at chicagotribune.com/inc or e-mail them at inc@tribune.com. Catch them each Thursday on the “WGN Morning News.”
