Good morning.  It’s a rainy day for Whitewater, with showers and a high temperature of thirty-nine degrees.

Today is a proud day in our history.  It’s the birthday of Eugene Shepard, of whom the Wisconsin Historical Society offers an account —

On this date Eugene Shepard was born near Green Bay. Although he made his career in the lumbering business near Rhinelander, he was best known for his story-telling and practical jokes. He told many tales of Paul Bunyan, the mythical lumberjack, and drew pictures of the giant at work that became famous. Shepard also started a new legend about a prehistoric monster that roamed the woods of Wisconsin – the hodag. Shepard built the mythical monster out of wood and bull’s horns. He fooled everyone into believing it was alive, allowing it to be viewed only inside a dark tent. The beast was displayed at the Wausau and Antigo county fairs before Shepard admitted it was all a hoax. [Source: Badger saints and sinners, by Fred L. Holmes, p.459-474]

The hodag’s become the mascot for Rhinelander, Wisconsin,  and  a music festival, the Hodag County Festival, that carries the animal’s name (34th annual festival to be held this July 7-10).

Good morning,

It’s the first full day of spring, and Whitewater’s forecast calls for an increasingly sunny day, with a high temperature of fifty-six degrees.

The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that yesterday, March 20th, was the Republican Party’s founding, in Ripon:

1854 – Republican Party Founded

On this date Free Soilers and Whigs outraged by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, met in Ripon to consider forming a new political party. The meeting’s organizer, Alvan E. Bovay, proposed the name “Republican” which had been suggested by New York editor Horace Greeley. You can see eyewitness accounts of the meeting, early Republican campaign documents, and other original sources on our page devoted to Wisconsin and the Republican Party. Though other places have claimed themselves as the birthplace of the Republican Party, this was the earliest meeting held for the purpose and the first to use the term Republican. [Source: History of Wisconsin, II: 218-219]

Good morning,

It’s a partly sunny and mild day ahead for Whitewater, with a high of fifty degrees.

In our schools today, it’s Coffee with the Principal at 8:30 a.m., and Spirit Day at the middle school.

Quick note: I’ve had a fair number of questions about the possibility of new contracts for district employees.  Just as a charter school is measured by its charter, so a contract is measured by its terms; there’s not much to say without those details.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1954,

Parker Pen Employees Win Wage Increase
On this date employees of Parker Pen in Janesville won a 5-cent-an-hour wage increase in contract negotiations. After the raise, male employees made a base pay of $1.95 an hour while their female counterparts were paid $1.62 an hour. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Parker no longer has a factory in Janesville; the company dominated American pen manufacture for decades in the middle of the twentieth century.