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Racine mourns the passing of one of its self-made sons this week with the death of Dan Milaeger, the patriarch of the Milaeger's garden centers which he carefully tended and built - literally - from the ground up. Our condolences go to his wife, Joan, and to his family. In today's age, we wonder if a single person could replicate such a success story in creating and building such an enterprise in a single lifetime from such a simple start as a hobby greenhouse. Some of Dan Milaeger's success was based on his personality. Some of it was based on old-fashioned hard work. Through much of his life, Milaeger held multiple jobs - working one in the morning and then growing his garden business. That ethic and drive was no doubt part of his commercial success. But he gave us so much more to emulate in his lifetime - his dedication to family, his emphasis on quality goods and honest dealings with his customers, and the joy he had in just being in the greenhouses and doing the work he loved. That's what he grew in Racine.

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"We deserve a break today…. a break in the letter-writing campaign that has clogged our e-mailboxes and those of newspapers around the country by people who are upset over what they see as a salacious and demeaning Hardee's and Carl's Jr. commercial. The ad features a short-skirted, gyrating teacher who dances on her desk while rappers in her classroom talk about her "flat buns" - a pitch for a patty melt with flat sided buns. We didn't even know such a commercial existed until the generic letters started landing here at the rate of 10 to 20 per day this week. The generic on-line letter-writing protest was engineered by the American Family Association. The letters note The Journal Times is "licensed to serve the public interest in our community" and asks us to "refuse to air these ads" and to put a copy of the email into our public file to be readily available to the Federal Communications Commission. As a newspaper, however, we are not government licensed, nor are we subject to the FCC. Nor do we air the controversial ads. The GOOD NEWS is that CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of the hamburger chains, said this week it will edit the teacher out of the ads after receiving loud complaints from educators. Hooray. For the record, we don't run these generic letters generated by social and political interest groups. We do run letters of protest as long as they are original. Now, please, turn off the e-mail machine.

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The proliferation of communication devices -iPhones, cell phones and now they're whispering about Gphones (for Google) is having its predictable effect even in the remote regions of Wisconsin. They're filling up the area codes. The 715 area code serving close to half the state from Eau Claire north to Ashland and all along the Michigan border are expected to be full up in two years. Ditto for the 920 prefix which serves an area south and west of Green Bay almost to Madison, which will be full up by 2010. Next week the state Public Service Commission will hold hearings on "relief" plans that would add new prefixes - either by splitting the areas geographically or by doing an overlay which assigns a different prefix to new numbers in those zones. Geographic splits make business redo their stationary, business cards and advertising. Overlays require people to dial ten numbers to call someone - even next door - who have new numbers. Tough choices. The good news, though, is that southeastern Wisconsin's 262 code should still be good for almost another decade. Now doesn't that make your feel connected?

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What am I bid for this shining icon? You've had the fun of checking out all the public art lighthouses Downtown all summer and now's your chance to take one home - or home to your business. The annual auction of the sidewalk art displays is set for Saturday at 3 p.m. at Memorial Hall. Twenty-six lighthouses will be offered in the voice auction at 4 p.m. and 52 will be on the block in the silent auction that starts at 3 p.m. Top artists in the "Lighten Up! In Downtown Racine Racine" contest will be recognized at the auction. Admission to the auction is $3 and proceeds from the Downtown Racine Corp. event go to enhance the city's Downtown.