Good morning, Whitewater.

Our year ends with morning clouds, afternoon sunshine, and a high of twenty-four. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset 4:30, for 9h 05m 33s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 65.3% off its visible disk illuminated.

Google has a doodle to send off ’15, and welcome ’16:

It’s Matisse’s birthday:

Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse …

31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.^[1]

Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.^[2][3][4][5] Although he was initially labelled a Fauve(wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting.^[6] His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.^[7]

….The decline of the Fauvist movement after 1906 did not affect the career of Matisse; many of his finest works were created between 1906 and 1917, when he was an active part of the great gathering of artistic talent in Montparnasse, even though he did not quite fit in, with his conservative appearance and strict bourgeois work habits. He continued to absorb new influences. He travelled to Algeria in 1906 studying African art and Primitivism. After viewing a large exhibition of Islamic art in Munich in 1910, he spent two months in Spain studying Moorish art. He visited Morocco in 1912 and again in 1913 and while painting in Tangiers he made several changes to his work, including his use of black as a colour.^[24][25][26] The effect on Matisse’s art was a new boldness in the use of intense, unmodulated colour, as in L’Atelier Rouge (1911).^[15]

On this day in 1967, an unforgettable Packer’s win:

Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will be cloudy with a high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset is 4:30, for 9h 04m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 74.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Behold, from among the wonders of the deep, a rare and beautiful creature in Toyama Bay:

On this day in 1922, Prohibition leads to confiscation in Madison:

1922 – Authorities Confiscate Illegal Alcohol

On this date authorities in Madison confiscated 1,200 gallons of “mash” and fifteen gallons of moonshine from the home of a suspected bootlegger. As the illegal liquor trade flourished in Madison’s Greenbush neighborhood during Prohibition, two rival gangs, one on Regent Street and the other located on Milton Street, fought to gain control until the “Rum War” erupted among these factions in 1923. [Source:Bishops to Bootleggers: A Biographical Guide to Resurrection Cemetery, p.189]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be cloudy high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:25 and sunset 4:29, for 9h 04m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 82.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1879, Gen. Mitchell is born:

1879 – General William “Billy” Mitchell Born

On this date aviation pioneer Billy Mitchell was born in Nice, France. Mitchell grew up in Milwaukee and attended Racine College. During World War I, Mitchell was the first American airman to fly over enemy lines.  He also led many air attacks in France and Germany. Upon return to the U.S., he advocated the creation of a separate Air Force.

Much to the dislike of A.T. Mahan, Theodore Roosevelt, and other contemporaries, Mitchell asserted that the airplane had rendered the battleship obsolete, and attention should be shifted to developing military air power. Mitchell’s out-spokenness resulted in his being court martialed for insubordination.

He was sentenced to five years suspension of rank without pay. General Douglas MacArthur — an old Milwaukee friend — was a judge in Mitchell’s case and voted against his court martial. Mitchell’s ideas for developing military air power were not implemented until long after his death. In 1946 Congress created a medal in his honor, the General “Billy” Mitchell Award. Milwaukee’s airport, General Mitchell International Airport, is named after him. [Source: American Airpower Biography]

It’s also the birthday today, from 1936, of Ray Nitschke:

1936 – Green Bay Packer Legend Born

On this date Green Bay Packer Legend Raymond Ernest Nitschke was born in Elmwood Park, Illinois. Nitschke graduated from high school in 1954 and passed up a professional baseball contract from the St. Louis Browns in favor of a football scholarship at the University of Illinois. Nitschke was a fullback and defensive linebacker for the Illini.

His prowess on defense drew the attention of pro scouts, and he was drafted in the third round by the Green Bay Packers in 1958. Nitschke was named All-Pro in 1964, 1965 and 1966; and selected for the Pro Bowl in 1964. He played middle linebacker for the Packers from 1958 to 1972. Nitschke ranks second in the Packers record book behind quarterback Bart Starr for most years as an active player.

Nitschke was inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame in 1975. Nitschke retired after the 1972 season, having played 15 years as a pro in 190 games. He finished with 25 interceptions, 20 fumbles recovered, and two touchdowns scored. His dominance at middle-linebacker throughout the 1960s was recognized in the many awards he received. Nitschke’s celebrity brought offers for movie and television commercial appearances. In 1974 Nitschke played a tough prison guard in the Burt Reynolds comedy “The Longest Yard.” Nitschke’s most famous commercials were in the Miller Lite All-Star series, in which he appeared with other sports stars such as Ben Davidson and Rosie Grier. Nitschke died on March 8, 1998 in Venice, Florida. [Source: Packers.com]

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our last week of 2015 begins with a forecast of three-to-five inches of daytime snowfall, with a high of thirty. Sunrise is 7:27 and sunset 4:28, for 9h 03m 38s of daytime. (Our days are already getting longer.) The moon is a waning gibbous with 89.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1898, brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean Lumière screen one of the the earliest motion pictures – a documentary:

Workers Leaving The Lumière Factory in Lyon (French: La Sortie de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon), also known as Employees Leaving the Lumière Factory and Exiting the Factory, is an 1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed and produced by Louis Lumière. It is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made,^[1] although Louis Le Prince‘s 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years….

This 46-second movie was filmed in Lyon, France, by Louis Lumière. It was filmed by means of the Cinématographe, an all-in-one camera, which also serves as a film projector and developer. This film was shown on 28 December 1895 at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, along with nine other short movies.

As with all early Lumière movies, this film was made in 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.^[3]

On this day in 1938, Joe McCarthy announces his candidacy for circuit judge, and begins a campaign that prefigures later and worse lies that became McCarthy’s routine political practice:

1938 – McCarthy Declares Candidacy for Judgeship
On this date future senator Joseph McCarthy announced his candidacy for the Wisconsin 10th Circuit Court judgeship, a position that had been held for 24 years by Edgar V. Werner. The 30-year-old McCarthy used Werner’s age against him, claiming that Werner was 73 while secretly knowing he was 66. In the election, held in April of the following year, McCarthy earned 15,160 votes to Werner’s 11,154. Although McCarthy’s campaign tactics and spending practices were investigated, he was cleared of wrong-doing.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be cloudy and dry with a high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 7:24 and sunset 4:27, for 9h 03m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 94.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

In the week ahead, FW will have weekly topical posts (on music, When Green Turns Brown, film, a cartoon, food, the Friday poll, and Friday catblogging), with additional posts on the UW System’s approach to sexual assault, a check on last January’s predictions for 2015, and new predictions for 2016.

On this day in 1900, the property-destroying temperance fanatic Carrie Nation smashes a bar in her violent crusade against alcohol:

Nation continued her destructive ways in Kansas, her fame spreading through her growing arrest record. After she led a raid in Wichita her husband joked that she should use a hatchet next time for maximum damage. Nation replied, “That is the most sensible thing you have said since I married you.”^[2] The couple divorced in 1901, childless.^[12]

Between 1902 and 1906 she lived in Guthrie, Oklahoma.^[13]

Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women she would march into a bar, and sing and pray while smashing bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. Her actions often did not include other people, just herself. Between 1900 and 1910, she was arrested some 30 times for “hatchetations”, as she came to call them. Nation paid her jail fines from lecture-tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets.^[14] In April 1901 Nation came to Kansas City, Missouri, a city known for its wide opposition to the temperance movement, and smashed liquor in various bars on 12th Street in Downtown Kansas City.^[15] She was arrested, hauled into court and fined $500 ($13,400 in 2011 dollars),^[16] although the judge suspended the fine so long as Nation never returned to Kansas City.^[17] She would be arrested over 32 times—one report is that she was placed in the Washington DC poorhouse for three days for refusing to pay a $35.00 fine^[18] One hotel she did not smash was the St James of Minneapolis^[19]

In Amarillo, Texas, Nation received a strong response, as she was sponsored by the noted surveyor W. D. Twichell, an active Methodist layman.^[20]

Saloons “visited” and Jail sentences of the “Saloon Smasher”:

• Wichita Kansas Carey Hotel Bar December 27, 1900^[21][22]
• Wichita Jail April 29, 1901^[23]

On this day in 1831, Gov. Fairchild is born:

On this date Lucius Fairchild was born in Kent, Ohio. Soldier, diplomat, and Wisconsin Governor, Fairchild arrived in Madison with his family in 1846. After a trip to California in search of gold, Fairchild returned to Madison and studied law. He was a soldier in the “Iron Brigade” and lost an arm at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He was elected as a Republican to the post of secretary of state and in 1865 was elected governor. He served for three terms. As governor and as a private citizen, Fairchild was active in promoting soldiers’ aid.