Sawyer County Record

22/07/2025

STORM TRACK WEATHER ALERT! As of 3:30pm Monday afternoon heavy rain leading to flooding through Wednesday could become a major issue. Amounts and locations can change so stay tuned for future developments at www.wdio.com/weather

19/07/2025

Editor's column:

A reader on our page wrote a nice note about my last column that she enjoyed the use of humor.

Good thing she doesn’t know me personally.

Those who do note that when I’m not working, I try to be funny all the time. That only works about 20 percent of the time but as my daughter notes, if her jokes only land 35 percent of the time, that’s a baseball hall of fame rate.

And that’s the opinion of a professional.

You see, my kid has an actual degree — with honors — in comedic arts from Emerson College. The school is only one of two in the country with the degree, competing with Columbia College in Chicago.

A huge chunk of Hollywood’s funny people come from Emerson, going back to the 1950s with Norman Lear.

But I think I’d like a little credit for my kid being a professional smart-ass. You see, I was raised by unprofessional comedians who always searched for a punchline to something I said. When I was a kid, I felt a great joy in my heart when I could make mom or dad laugh. When I was in second grade, my dad bought me a collection of the great radio comedians so I grew up on those. Bob and Dave remain my favorites for their surrealism years before Monty Python showed up.

If there was a comedy show on TV and I somehow had control of the TV with three brothers, we’d watch comedy. Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Laurel and Hardy topped the list.

When my kid was about 10 years old, she made a funny comment to me in front of a store clerk. He said, “You have a funny kid.” I told him I was trying to teach her the history of comedy. He said, “I hope you go all the way back — to The Smothers Brothers.” I said calmly that I was going to take her back to Aristophanes, the ancient Greek who parodied Socrates and others 300 BCE.

But kid wasn’t ready until she was 13 because there are more mature themes.

“Dad,” she said. “The ancient Greeks were dirty.”

Look up “Lysistrata” if you want to know what I mean.

Classic comedy, I said. Blue is easy. Classy is tougher.

She went to comedy camp in Los Angeles when she was 16. Killed.

She started college at 17 because I entered her into the public school system early — I honestly didn’t know what else I could do with her.

My favorite story of her in grade school, in fifth she had a gifted-and talented-class where part of the process was creating a product. She made a Rasputin Pillow Pet.

Now she’s in Hollywood, working on a show where she’s assistant show runner and learning the process of making a TV show. She was asked to read for a part on the show of a 35-year-old ugly woman. HBO executives said she was too young and too pretty.

I love her much.

Rich Jackson is regional manager for newspapers
in Hayward and Spooner. He can be reached [email protected] or at 715-718-6445.

19/07/2025

FIRST ALERT: Here's the latest Air Quality Forecast from the MPCA. The smoke will move in Saturday afternoon from north to south. The smoke will linger Sunday as well.

17/07/2025

See you tomorrow Hayward!

16/07/2025

15/07/2025

* WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible. * WHERE...In Minnesota, Pine County and Wisconsin, Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Sawyer and Washburn Counties. This ...

12/07/2025

[7/11 4:40PM] 13 FIRST ALERT: An Air Quality Advisory has been issued for the entire state of Wisconsin as well as Minnesota from 12am Saturday to 12pm Monday. After our cold front Saturday, air quality is expected to worsen as wildfire smoke will be drifting southeast out of Canada and lasting through the weekend. Levels are expected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups. weau.com/weather

11/07/2025

HOLY SMOKES! Behind a line of thunderstorms there is a "wall of smoke" that will move in tonight. The smoke is coming from Canadian wildfires and it will cause 'Very Unhealthy' Air quality for the region tomorrow. You will be able to smell the smoke. Keep windows closed and avoid strenuous activity outside this weekend.

10/07/2025

Rich Jackson column, July 9 Sawyer County Record

We’ve had some changes at the newspaper recently.
The biggest is we’ve hired a new reporter, Celia Hiorns, a graduate of UW-Madison. Maybe you saw Kathy Hanson’s article about her recently.

The second is, although we’ve been unable to hire an office manager, we have re-opened the office two days a week.

I wonder if Celia is getting the correct nature of Hayward, though, as two of the weekends since she arrived have been nothing but big downtown parties.

(I’ll confess: When my friends from Chippewa Falls ask what it’s like to work in Hayward, I tell them it’s a party every weekend.)

This last weekend, it was apparently a record weekend as Hayward had the perfect storm for visitors. First, Fourth of July fell on a Friday making a three-day weekend. Second, rain and wind made Saturday too rough to be on the water so the vast majority of visitors made their way downtown.

A couple of business owners told me they had record days or near-record days Saturday when people were shoulder to shoulder on Main Street. Then we had a party on Second Street that provided live music, beer, brats, face painting — everything you should expect from a party, I went into work that morning for four hours and when I left at noon to take photos downtown, I had to wait for a line of cars on Highway B. Then I had to wait for another line of cars on Highway 27. All those in the cars were headed downtown.

No one was crabby or unhappy as can be in crowded places.

Everyone was just happy to be in downtown Hayward on the Fifth of July.

As for the opened office, we’ve brought over Jean McShane from the Spooner Advocate on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when we’ll be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Jean knows how to fix everything from classifieds to subscription issues so stop in and she her. Honestly, she always has a smile on her face.

As for office manager candidates, please send them our way. The upside? They get to work with me. The downside? They have to work with me.

That can be burdensome, my human relations manager found out recently.

In a zoom meeting, I noted some people suggested we were going to close because our doors were locked. I said this newspaper was going to be here for my obituary — where I’ll get 10 percent off employee discount even if it’s my kid who gets that 10 percent.

And I said my doctor has given me four to six months before that obit is ready.

The HR manager said, “I hope that’s a joke.”

I said I told my doctor I couldn’t pay his bill — so he gave me another six months.

Now that’s the joke.

Rich Jackson is regional manager for newspaper in Hayward and Spooner. He can be reached [email protected] or at 715-718-6445. He would like to thank Rodney Dangerfield for the last joke.