Fans face two-minute warning
With clock ticking, shoppers miss game
The Green Bay Packers demand a lot of their fans, and Christmas Eve of 2016 put some of them to the ultimate test.
Do they watch the Pack as they continue to run the table on their way to the playoffs or do they complete the crucial shopping they had put off over the past few weeks?
The last time Packers’ fans faced the perfect storm of a playoff run and a Christmas Eve game was 2004 in a game at Minnesota, but that was a 3 p.m. start, which gave procrastinating fans three more hours to get their shopping in.
They also played a Christmas Eve game in 2000, but they didn’t make the playoffs that year, so watching the game was optional.
This year’s confluence of events created a huge dilemma for the Mielke family of Muskego.
They are big Packers fans. But for the past 25 years, the Mielkes have stuck to a tradition of shopping together on Christmas Eve.
“It stinks,” said son, Eric.
At game time Saturday, the four adult kids — all wearing Packers jerseys — and their parents walked around Brookfield Square mall. The siblings also posed for a picture with Santa.
Their makeshift solution: Son Austin streamed the first half of game live on his cellphone and, with a little luck, the family hoped they would get home in time to watch the second half.
The Mielkes also had tickets to the game, but gave those up for another tradition — Christmas Eve dinner with the grandparents.
Packers fan Autumn O’Connell was drawn to the mall for different reason.
She had done all her Christmas shopping, but her fiancé had not.
So she agreed to go shopping with him, but put him a short leash. He had 15 minutes to find a gift so they could get home and watch football.
O’Connell was especially antsy because she also is a big fan of the Seattle Seahawks, who also were playing a Christmas Eve game.
O’Connell, who grew up in Seattle and now lives in Pewaukee, cheers for both teams unless they they play each other. Then, she is all Seahawks.
Saturday, as her fiancé shopped, she walked around the mall wearing leg warmers, one decorated with the Seahawks logo and the other with the Packers logo.
She was annoyed that she had to be shopping on a day when her two favorite teams were playing important games.
“I don’t want to be shopping,” she said. “I want to be in front of the TV.”
So, too, did Tyrelle Perkins of Milwaukee.
He said he had been so busy at work that he was not able to do all his Christmas shopping.
He left Brookfield Square shortly after the kickoff of the Packers game and headed to Mayfair Mall.
“I’ve have one more gift to get,” he said.
He recorded the game and planned to watch it when he was done.
Brian Schimmels also recorded the game so he could look for a gift for his daughter.
“Family comes first,” he said. “The game is going to end up the same way, regardless.”
Rovaniemi, Finland — There’s good news for Rudolph and his friends — an app is helping officials reduce the number of reindeer killed in traffic accidents in Finland.
Some 300,000 reindeer freely wander the wilds of Lapland in Arctic Finland. An estimated 4,000 are killed every year through road accidents, officials say, and compensation to reindeer herders can be expensive.
Several methods to cut roadkill have failed, including spray-painting antlers with fluorescent colors, hanging reflectors on reindeer necks and using traffic warning signs.
In their latest attempt, officials are using a smartphone app called “Porokello,” Finnish for “Reindeer Bell.”
And it seems to be working — at least last month, when there were 300 fewer reindeer accidents on the roads of Finnish Lapland compared to the same month in 2015.
A simple, one-button interface allows drivers to tap their smartphone screens to register any reindeer spotted near roads.
Using GPS technology, it creates a 1-mile warning zone that lasts for an hour and warns other app users approaching the area.
“If there are reindeer, (drivers) reduce speed,” said Jaakko Ylinampa, head of a local business center in Rovaniemi, the biggest town in Lapland near the Arctic Circle. “When they have passed the warning place, then they can get back to the normal speed again.”