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Illinois native John Prine is an American folk singer-songwriter, composer, recording artist and performer.   He’s known primarily for songs mixed with social observations and commentary and both sadness and humor from his own life experiences.  The album - Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings - was produced by Tom Petty and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein.  The song Lake Marie is a favorite of mine – inspired by Prine's failing marriage and a string of gruesome murders dredged-up from his childhood memories.

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A Flat Land To Cross

A 2013 survey asked Americans which state is flattest.  Roughly a third of the respondents suggested it was Kansas but the flattest state happens to be Florida - easily explained by its low coastal plains and the early sign of trouble with rising sea levels.   

Nevertheless, Illinois is flatter than Kansas.  Illinois owes its flatness to the gift of the glaciers.  The glaciers plowed it flat – obliterating every mountain, hill and piece of topography in their way.  And when the ice eventually melted in their retreat the melting ice sheet left a rich deposit of glacial till and silt loam that constitutes some of the best farmland in the world.   

I’ve taken a pile of road trips in my day and I always considered Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana and the Dakotas to be flat lands to cross.   

Nope – Illinois beats them all.  Raising a toast to road trips and global warming.

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More On The Downgrade

Only about one in four states (26%) enjoy the top AAA rating from Standard and Poors.

The two states with the lowest credit ratings are Illinois - rated at A+ and California with an A- rating.  I happen to think both of these states are train wrecks on their way to happening.

Source: Standard and Poors

Ice Drinking

My buddy Sid stopped by to borrow my ice auger.

I'm going ice fishing tomorrow. How about you join us? I'll bring the beer.

To which I replied - Nope. No way. In fact - you can keep my auger. I haven't used it for years. You interested in some slightly used tip-ups?

I've gone ice fishing a handful of times and just don't understand he attraction. Furthermore, it's dangerous.

Just last week a couple of Flatlanders had to be fetched from the ice. According to the Door County Sheriff report these two guys walked out on the ice testing it every ten yards or so. They felt they were safe because they had fished there before.

That is until they looked and discovered the ice appeared 'shiny' behind them.

A crack had formed stranding them on an ice floe in open water.

The Coast Guard had to use their airboat to rescue the guys and their gear.

Flatlander Credit

Josh Barro at RealClearMarkets draws attention to Illinois’ severe credit crisis.

Illinois has overtaken California as the worst credit risk among American states.

As of Monday, the credit default swap spread for Illinois general obligation bonds climbed to 313 basis points for a five-year contract — meaning a bondholder must pay over 3% of the bond’s face value per year to be insured against default.

That’s a higher price than for all but seven sovereign entities tracked by CMA, and slightly higher than California, whose five-year CDS spread sits at 293. Investors rate Illinois’s debt as slightly riskier than Iceland’s or Latvia’s, but not quite as big a gamble as Iraq’s.

Read more about it here.

Monday Morning Music

Outdoor concerts are a staple of Door County's summer fare and the line-up at The Peg Egan Performing Arts Center in Egg Harbor is pretty hard to beat.

Since they're free.

My lovely wife suggested that we take in the opener last night.

Inasmuch as I desired to remain as incognito as possible I got dressed in my tourist attire and off we went.

Here's a tip - if you plan to attend one of these concerts - get there hours ahead of time and put your camp chairs or blanket on the grass so as to claim a prime location.

Then go and blend-in with the tourists.

You might go shopping like my wife did.

Or you might do as I did and sip a couple of pints of Guinness and watch the tourists go by.




















If you really want to blend-in you and your spouse should wear matching Chicago Cubs jerseys.

See what I mean about prime seating?














Anyway, I'm not generally given to concert reviews but this has my unqualified endorsement. You can find more information here about the summer schedule.

Last night's concert featured Harry Manx. Do you like the blues? You like awesome guitar work?



And Richie Havens.

If you're old like me you have many fond memories of his soulful guitar work.
When Richie launched into Freedom the Woodstock Gods were angered and the skies opened-up and the rain poured down.

Aside from the soaking it was a terrific evening.

What's In a Name?

The thought might possibly have crossed your mind about how this blog came to acquire such a strange name.

I mean really - Verrückter Deutscher Campingplatz?

And what's all this about the strong killing and eating the weak?

Truthfully, if you were to stop by the farm you would actually see a sign that says: Verrückter Deutscher Campingplatz.

These are professionally-made signs by a real sign manufacturing company. They are made with the official government park service reflective brown paint and have an official-looking park service campground tent logo. They look very much like what you would find at the entrance of a State Park. They are very cool.

Anyway, when we posted them a number of years ago some rumors began to circulate in the neighborhood that this crazy German guy was going to build a campground. I had to circulate an alternate rumor that it was an inside joke.

The story goes like this.

Both my wife and I have German surnames. Everyone thought we were crazy to purchase this tired and worn farmstead. Furthermore, they thought we were even crazier to stop farming it and plant all these trees. That is the crazy German (verrückter Deutscher) part of the equation.

Back in the early days we did a great deal of camping here on the farm. Those were the days predating the trailer home. (The trailer home era is another story altogether).

The ancestral campsite is still here. Including a fire ring complete with homemade tripod and fire grate and an outdoor crapper too. That completes the camping (or campingplatz) part of the equation.

As for the part about the survival of the strong and the weak being killed and eaten that's simply my snide attempt at poking Door County's seasonally-adjusted visitors in the eye.

Nothing makes me more nuts than silly tourists. I remember bumping into one of them at a store in Sturgeon Bay not too many years ago. We were engaging in a nice chat and he struck me as a reasonably intelligent individual. That is until he said to me with a perfectly straight face...

Hey, are you on your way up to Door County?

Huh?

This geographically-challenged chap had no notion that he was already in Door County. In a word he was clueless.

You see, these tourists think that Door County is all about waiting in line on a hot July day to purchase an ice cream at Wilson's. Or queuing-up by the hundreds to purchase a pumpkin in the fall. For them it's all about vast crowds, no place to park all of their cars, massive condo developments (accompanied by condo-envy), speeding on the highways and annoying the fishermen with their wave runners replete with scantily-clad, hot-looking women.

And shopping.

To top it all off they think that the damn county line is somewhere north of Sturgeon Bay.

They certainly have no problem finding a place to shop so buy some clothing for those women.

Sheesh.

But Swamp, isn't that what Door County is all about - tourists, the service economy and all that?

I'm not sure that it's all about just that.

To be fair there is so much more.

For instance, there is the quiet rural character of the county. The side of life where hunting and outdoor sports are popular, guys race stock cars, you get the local gossip at the town dump, the Packers rule and the Bears drool and everyone gives you a friendly wave from their pick-up truck.

That's why our official deer camp t-shirt sports this polite bit of tourism incorrectness.

Incidentally that shirt is one of a kind and not to be found in a tourist store. Only people in deer camp (or those I like) can have this shirt.

One more thing about this blog.

What I learned about starting up the other blog was that there is nothing like a unique name to differentiate yourself from everyone else in the blogosphere.

Think about it. Do you think there is anyone else in Door County, Wisconsin, or even the rest of the North American continent with the same blog title?

I sort of doubt it.

But don't take my word for it. Plug it into Google or Google Blog Search and see what you get.