Dead Right
It’s going to be dynamite. Get your condos now.
– Third Ward President Jack Gardner, August 1986.
Love him or hate him, [Mark] Belling appears to be more than a passing fad.
– Writer Mary Van de Kamp Nohl, February 1991.
Bud’s daughter is moving fast at Foley & Lardner, but her future may be in baseball.
– “Predictions for the New Decade,” on Wendy Selig-Prieb, January 1990.
Likely to mature into a successor to John McCullough as dean of Milwaukee’s broadcast media.
– Same story’s forecast for WTMJ-TV anchor Mike Gousha.
Light rail is dead and someone should drive a stake through its heart.
– Joe Greco, village president of Menomonee Falls, February 1998.
Look at County Stadium and what a valley location has done since 1953. How much spin-off has there been – a couple bars?
– Then-state legislator Margaret Farrow, on why Miller Park should be Downtown, April 1996.
The next mayor… I’d say Tom Barrett. He could run for governor, lose, and still be a very viable candidate.
– Politico Fred Kessler, July 2001.
The hope is that it will not only get Milwaukeeans into the museum, but make the site a destination, a gathering place and a cultural icon.
– Milwaukee Art Museum President P. Michael Mahoney, on the proposed Calatrava addition, April 1996.
There are a lot of kids who are going to have a lot of trouble in the classroom.
– Marquette University education professor Robert Fox, on the impact of lead poisoning, January 1991.
Once the three-year honeymoon period on a new stadium wears off, only one thing will keep attendance up: a competitive team.
– January 2004 story. (The Brewers, now very competitive, set an attendance record in 2007.)
Hotel Metro… could start a mini-revival of a street [Milwaukee Street] that for a long time looked nearly abandoned.
– Best of Milwaukee, August 1997.
It’s going to take some time to work this thing out.
– A U.S. Marine from Milwaukee on the war in Iraq, March 2005.
Dead Wrong
We thought it would be fun for a few months, that nothing else would come of it.
– Drummer Victor DeLorenzo, July 1994, on starting the Violent Femmes, which is now an internationally known band.
In 10 years, it will be the symbol of the city.
– Milwaukee Art Museum curator Russell Bowman, on the di Suvero sculpture, October 1983.
It could be the biggest traffic jam in the history of Milwaukee… certainly the longest.
– Bruce Murphy, April 1987, on a Marquette Interchange fix-up, predicting a traffic pileup that never happened.
East Coasters will stop mistaking Milwaukee for Minneapolis.
– “Predictions for the New Decade,” January 1990.
The overall cooling trend is unmistakable.
– UW-Madison climatologist Reid Bryson, boldly predicting a looming ice age rather than global warming, May 1990.
Dwellers on the frantic coasts are desperate for what the Midwest has enjoyed all along… Milwaukee … is becoming a torch, beckoning these huddled survivors.
– Writer Stephen Filmanowicz, January 1992, predicting a wave that never came.
Eight to 12 years out, I wouldn’t be surprised if [businessman Tom Hefty] runs for governor.
– Anonymous observer in “Power Brokers,” February 1993.
I think Theatre X will survive us.
– Theatre X artistic director John Schneider, May 1994. (Infighting between Schneider and others killed the group in 2004.)
I’m not going anywhere. I love this job.
– Journal Sentinel Editor Mary Jo Meisner, October 1995, two years before she left the paper.
[Mike] Deane may be the closest thing Marquette has had to [Al] McGuire.
– Writer Pat Fitzmaurice, January 1999. (Deane was soon fired.)
In 10 years Charlie [Sykes] will be more liberal than he is today.
– Public relations man Evan Zeppos, July 2000.
If it were done in war, the people who subject their enemies to treatment like this would be tried as war criminals.
– Writer Bill Lueders on the Supermax prison’s treatment of inmates, August 2000.
I wouldn’t mind some minor movie roles. But if I don’t make that, I could always go back to playing colleges.
– TV comedian Frank Caliendo, while assessing his career prospects, March 2001.
* * *
The More Things Change…
[After] its seemingly endless search to find a ‘conservative columnist’… The Journal announced it had failed.
– Pressroom, December 1984. (The Milwaukee Journal Sentinelhad to pull Patrick McIlheran from the design desk to get a conservative columnist in 2005.)
Bob Habush … wins points for high visibility, thanks to his massive advertising campaign.
– Best Lawyers story, February 1985.
By God, if we don’t get that younger audience, we’re doomed.
– Journal Editor Dick Leonard, September 1985.
Where oh where are the Saks Fifth Avenues and the Neiman Marcuses?
– February 1987 story on shopping malls.
A city without quality, first-run movies playing Downtown looks like a dead city.
– Writer George Gonis, January 1990.
There is a greater market for large-size clothing in Milwaukee than in other parts of the country.
– Department store manager in “Fat City,” October 1995.
The Shepherd Express has … internal squabbles that can be more interesting than the newspaper itself.
– Pressroom columnist Peter Robertson, June 1997.
Huh? Quotes from Left Field:
Racine will be turned into a parking lot, which is okay.
– Charlie Sykes, January 1986.
Most agree that the House of Correction is an ideal place to make a movie.
– Writer Perry Lamek, on the filming of Major Leaguein Milwaukee, March 1989.
I don’t think there will ever be another… You might see something like it in Asia some day.
– Al McGuire on the MECCA floor, October 1989.
Maybe somebody’s wife comes up with the pattern at the kitchen table.
– A state bureaucrat explaining how freeway sound barriers are designed, November 1994.
Gray hair has more body.
– Mary Van de Kamp Nohl on aging baby boomers, February 1998.
I can’t go right off the dribble – too much left hand.
– Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, September 2002.
