If you’ve not seen this, then you’re not prepared for the monstrous, terrifying, mutant spider-dog. I’ve abbreviated the clip to load at the first appearance of this foul hell-hound from beyond.
You’ve been suitably warned…
This is a YouTube video that’s been played over 58,753,857 times. The figure may represent millions of people watching a few times, or a few people watching it an awful lot.
Amy Goldstein, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at the Washington Post, is writing a book about Janesville after GM’s departure, entitled, Janesville: An American Story.
I’ve been awaiting the book, and recently (also happily) discovered publishing information about it, from PublishersMarketplace.com:
Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter Amy Goldstein’s JANESVILLE: An American Story, following three families as the GM plant that has sustained their town and their middle class lives closes and they suddenly must reinvent themselves while facing near-impossible choices and a fracturing community, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster, in a pre-empt, by Susan Rabiner and Sydelle Kramer of Susan Rabiner Literary Agency.
(Hat tip to Slushpile for the information.)
Film-maker Brad Lichtenstein also looked at Janesville from the view of families affected by the GM plant’s closing in As Goes Janesville. (See, about that documentary, What a Film About Janesville Really Says.)
What’s sure to be true about Goldstein’s perspective (considering her earlier work) is that it will be free of the self-promotion and self-justification so common among local politicians, developers, and the reporters who flack for them.
That’s one reason that a few Janesvillians are uncomfortable about Goldstein’s upcoming book.
It’s also a reason for those serious about policy, owing to Goldstein’s independent perspective, to look forward to the book’s publication.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Monday in the city will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 6:27 AM and sunset 7:17 PM. There’s a full moon this evening at 8:38 PM. It’s the thirds and final supermoon of summer:
Common Council and the Community Development Authority will hold a joint meeting at 6:30 PM this evening.
On this day in 1974, Pres. Ford pardons Richard Nixon:
On September 8, 1974, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he might have committed against the United States while President.[61][62][63] In a televised broadcast to the nation, Ford explained that he felt the pardon was in the best interests of the country, and that the Nixon family’s situation “is a tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must.”[64] On September 16, shortly after he announced the Nixon pardon, Ford introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada as well as for military deserters. The conditions of the amnesty required that those involved reaffirm their allegiance to the United States and serve two years working in a public service job.[65] Full pardon for the draft dodgers, however, did not come about until the Carter Administration.[66]
The Nixon pardon was highly controversial. Critics derided the move and claimed a “corrupt bargain” had been struck between the men.[9] They claimed Ford’s pardon was granted in exchange for Nixon’s resignation that elevated Ford to the Presidency. Ford’s first press secretary and close friend Jerald Franklin terHorst resigned his post in protest after President Nixon’s full pardon. According to Bob Woodward, Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig proposed a pardon deal to Ford. He later decided to pardon Nixon for other reasons, primarily the friendship he and Nixon shared.[67] Regardless, historians believe the controversy was one of the major reasons Ford lost the election in 1976, an observation with which Ford agreed.[67] In an editorial at the time, The New York Times stated that the Nixon pardon was “a profoundly unwise, divisive and unjust act” that in a stroke had destroyed the new president’s “credibility as a man of judgment, candor and competence”.[39] On October 17, 1974, Ford testified before Congress on the pardon. He was the first sitting President to testify before Congress since Abraham Lincoln.[68]
After Ford left the White House in 1977, the former President privately justified his pardon of Nixon by carrying in his wallet a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States, a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.[69] In 2001, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award to Ford for his pardon of Nixon.[70] In presenting the award to Ford, Senator Ted Kennedy said that he had initially been opposed to the pardon of Nixon, but later stated that history had proved Ford to have made the correct decision.[71]
On this day in 1958, Janesville lets women drink at the bar:
1958 – Janesville Women Belly Up to the Bar
On this date the Janesville city council voted 4-2 to finally end a paternalistic and discriminatory ordinance that prohibited women from drinking at the bar. Since the end of Prohibition in 1933, women had been banned from being served while standing at the bar in Janesville taverns. [Source: Janesville Gazette]
Google-a-Day asks a history question:
What city, that became a capital in 1991, saw protesters gather to oppose the elimination of a fuel subsidy that doubled the cost of gasoline in their country?
Joseph Bennett took an audio track from an old, overly-dramatic documentary about Bigfoot and other legendary creatures, and animated the events described. He gave his finished animation to his grandfather (with whom he had watched the original documentary years earlier) as a birthday present.
Animation makes the old documentary seem even nuttier, and it’s great fun:
A Birthday Card from Joseph Bennett on Vimeo.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 6:26 AM and sunset is 7:19 PM. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase with ninety-seven percent of its visible disk illuminated.
It’s the birthday, from 9.7.1860, of Grandma Moses:
Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), better known by her nickname of “Grandma Moses,” was a renowned American folk artist. Having begun painting in earnest at the age of 78, she is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Her works have been shown and sold in the United States and abroad and have been marketed on greeting cards and other merchandise. Moses’ paintings are among the collections of many museums. The Sugaring Off was sold for $1.2 million in 2006.
Moses has appeared on magazine covers, television, and in a documentary of her life. She wrote an autobiography of her life, won numerous awards and was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees.
The New York Times said of her: “The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed homely farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter’s first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring… In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild. “[1]
On this day in 1977, Wisconsin saw her first judicial recall:
1977 – Wisconsin’s First Judicial Recall Election
On this date Wisconsin’s first judicial-recall election was held. Dane County citizens voted Judge Archie Simonson out of office. Simonson called rape a normal male reaction to provocative female attire and modern society’s permissive attitude toward sex. He made this statment while explaining why he sentenced a 15-year-old to only one year of probation for raping a 16-year-old girl. After the recall election, Simonson was replaced by Moria Krueger, the first woman judge elected in Dane County history. [Source: Initiative & Referendum Institute]
Via skydesign360.
It’s time for some sprucing up around here. Over the weekend, I’ll be updating the FREE WHITEWATER theme to take advantage of new features that my older theme could not manage. There’ll be tweaks over the next two days, and perhaps a bit thereafter.
This site started over seven years ago, and the software that powers the site (WordPress) has outgrown the original theme (one that I modified a few times during the site’s history). My other sites (Daily Wisconsin, Daily Adams) use up-to-date themes, and it’s time for FW to do the same.
These seven years at FREE WHITEWATER have gone quickly, and there are far more yet ahead.
A remodel, for readability and more advanced publishing features, is just the thing to begin what’s sure to be a busy autumn.
Good morning.
We’re in for a sunny Saturday, with a high of seventy-four.
So a drone pilot pesters a ram, and the ram takes revenge by smashing the drone and then chasing & butting the pilot. Who’s at fault. Readers to yesterday’s FW poll overwhelmingly placed blame on the drone pilot, with 89.47% saying the drone pilot had it coming.
On this day in 1522, one of Magellan’s ships successfully navigates the globe:
One of Ferdinand Magellan’s five ships–the Vittoria–arrives at Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the world. The Vittoria was commanded by Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano, who took charge of the vessel after the murder of Magellan in the Philippines in April 1521. During a long, hard journey home, the people on the ship suffered from starvation, scurvy, and harassment by Portuguese ships. Only Elcano, 17 other Europeans, and four Indians survived to reach Spain in September 1522.
Google-a-Day asks a question about art:
In what kind of building will you find the 15 x 29 ft. mural created for the husband of Beatrice d’Este?
During the mid 1940s, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid made films together as a husband-and-wife team. Who did what and who deserves the credit for directing or shooting their films remains disputed scholarly territory, but suffice to say, they were great together. The first film they created was the 1943 short epic, Meshes in the Afternoon, which attempted to capture the movements of the subconscious in its repetitions and startling shifts in perspective and scene. It’s gone on to become one of the most recognized and cited American experimental movies of the period. After hanging around the New York arts scene with people like John Cage and Anais Nin In 1947, Hammid and Deren joined together for another artful production, the last before they split.
They made a film about cats. And it is so, so good.
This is not a joke. The film they produced, The Private Life of a Cat, is dramatic and intense. It begins with the introduction of the two main characters: the male and female cats that lived at Deren and Hammid’s apartment. After some head licking by the cats, we are told that the female cat is pregnant and we see her jumping into a box where she remains for a good portion of the rest of the film….
In New Zealand, a hobbyist uses a small drone to film a ram, piloting the drone close to, and even into, the ram. The animal becomes irritated, and first butts the drone, and later the drone’s pilot.
Who’s the guilty party here? The drone pilot for irritating an animal, or the ram for smashing property and butting the pilot?
Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday in town will be mostly cloudy, with a probability of morning thundershowers, and a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 6:24 AM and sunset 7:23 PM. The moon is in a waxing gibbous phase with eighty-four percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1774, legislators gather:
…in response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all of the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams and John Jay were among the delegates….
Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, called the “Intolerable Acts” by colonists, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British….
On this day in 1864, Wisconsinites serving the Union remain in a standoff:
1864 – (Civil War) Standoff at Lovejoy Station, Georgia, continues
Actions at Lovejoy Station in Georgia began to wind down. The 12th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 24th, 25th and 32nd Wisconsin Infantry regiments along with the 10th Wisconsin Light Artillery took part. For three days the two sides had faced off and parried without actually engaging in a significant battle.
Google-a-Day asks a question about film:
What comedy filmed in black and white in the 1960’s in less than 7 weeks, featuring a “clean old man”, was rated by Time magazine as one of the all time great 100 films?
