Thanks for that; I feel so much better about your cuisine now.
Via WISN.
Monthly Archives: February 2012
Animals, Nature
Six more weeks of winter
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a recording of Punxsutawney Phil’s 2012 prediction that six more weeks of winter await us.
I know that there are local groundhogs in the forecasting biz, but here at FW only the most reputable, established, and celebrated groundhog will do.
That’s Phil.
Okay, for those who insist on something local, here’s Jimmy the Sun Prairie groundhog calling for an early spring –
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2.2.12 (Groundhog Day Edition)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a day of dense fog with a high temperature of forty-four for Whitewater.
In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of prognosticating groundhog Phil, today will be mostly cloudy and thirty-five.
This morning, Phil saw his shadow, and so predicted 6 more weeks of winter.
The Wisconsin Historical Society remembers a sporting advance from this day in 1905:
Professional Baseball Arrives in Wisconsin
On this date the Wisconsin State League was formed, bringing professional baseball to five Wisconsin cities. The six-team league began play the following summer with franchises in Beloit, Green Bay, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Wausau, and Freeport, Illinois. The league lasted through 1914, although its named was changed to Wisconsin-Illinois in 1908.
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a life-changing decision: “What job did Poor Richard’s first-born son take that effectively ended their relationship?”
America
Underestimating America’s Influence: Why America’s Not in Decline
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s been much talk, from generation to generation about the rise of the next global power to supplant America. The Soviet Union (yes, for many, this once seemed certain), Japan, and now China: in each instance, an insistence that America is in decline. (For a post that addresses myths about China, see Overestimating China’s influence: ‘Five myths about China’s power’.)
At the New Republic, Robert Kagan examines and debunks the (persistent) theory of American decline, in a lengthy article entitled, Not Fade Away: The myth of American decline. It’s not that decline is impossible, but that it’s improbable, for the many reasons Kagan offers.
Generations ago, to many, the Great Depression must have seemed not merely a present hardship, but proof of enduring ruin and eclipse. The lingering, near-aftermath of the Great Recession surely seems this way to some, today. Yet, for all our many and serious difficulties, we are a creative, industrious, and productive people.
Kagan’s article is a useful corrective to pessimism.
Foreign Affairs
Overestimating China’s influence: ‘Five myths about China’s power’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing at the Washington Post, Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College lists exaggerations and distortions about China.
As with now-discarded theories from the ’80s about Japan’s supposed economic indomitability, there’s been much foolishness about China’s actual prospects.
See, Five myths about China’s power – The Washington Post.
See, also, an online chat on the same topic.
(From the chat, Pei on the biggest myth about China: “The biggest myth about China is that the country has learned to do capitalism better than the West. You hear this from Western business people all the time. The reality is that China has learned to do “raw capitalism” or “crony capitalism” much faster than people can imagine. But I don’t think people in the West could tolerate that kind of capitalism.)
History, Wisconsin
When a woman calmed enraged, potential draftees with crackers, refreshments
by JOHN ADAMS •
The draft wasn’t popular in 1862, and it wasn’t so critical, as the overwhelming number of Wisconsinites serving to preserve the Union were volunteers.
Still, there were angry residents to be assuaged…
History, Recall, Wisconsin
History of Recall Elections in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Wisconsin Historical Society offers a history of recall elections in the Badger State.
It’s an informative summary of all that’s come before all that’s before us now. They’ll need at least another page to describe our present recalls to posterity.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2.1.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s another warm day for Whitewater, with a high temperature of forty. In Reno, there’s a slight chance of rain or snow, then temperatures rising to the fifties later in the day.
In Whitewater, there’s a Landmarks Commission meeting at 5 PM, and a Zoning Rewrite Commission meeting at 5:30 PM.
The Wisconsin Historical Society records that on this date in 1860, “Charles Ingalls and Caroline Quiner were married in Concord, Wisconsin. They were the parents of noted Wisconsinite Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” series. [Source: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum].”
For Google’s daily puzzle, something European: “Europe’s largest parliament building displays an item that’s depicted on its country’s coat of arms. What is it?”