Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be cloudy with a high of forty-two.  Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:21, for 9h 02m 51s.  The moon’s a waxing crescent with 17.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1791, ten amendments to the Constitution become law:

On June 8, 1789 Representative James Madison introduced a series of thirty-nine amendments to the constitution in the House of Representatives. Among his recommendations Madison proposed opening up the Constitution and inserting specific rights limiting the power of Congress in Article One, Section 9. Seven of these limitations would become part of the ten ratified Bill of Rights amendments. Ultimately, on September 25, 1789, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment to the Constitution and submitted them to the states for ratification. Contrary to Madison’s original proposal that the articles be incorporated into the main body of the Constitution, they were proposed as supplemental additions (codicils) to it. Articles Three–Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution December 15, 1791, and became Amendments One–Ten of the Constitution. Article Two became part of the Constitution May 7, 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment.^[1] Article One is technically still pending before the states.

Originally the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government. The door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.^[2]

On 12.15.1847, Wisconsin convenes her second constitutional convention:

On this date the first draft of the Wisconsin Constitution was rejected in 1846. As a result, Wisconsin representatives met again to draft a new constitution in 1847. New delegates were invited, and only five delegates attended both conventions. The second convention used the failed 1846 constitution as a springboard for their own, but left out controversial issues such as banking and property rights for women that the first constitution attempted to address. The second constitution included a proposal to let the people of Wisconsin vote on a referendum designed to approve black suffrage. [Source: Attainment of Statehood by Milo M. Quaife]

Here’s the Tuesday game from this week’s Trimming the Tree Puzzability series:

This Week’s Game — December 14-18

Trimming the Tree

We’re adding the decorations to our Christmas tree this week. Each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the eight letters in ORNAMENT, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.

Example:

Feral; aged personification of the coldest season

Answer:

Wild; Old Man Winter

What to Submit:

Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Wild; Old Man Winter” in the example), for your answer.

Tuesday, December 15

Brand that used to make Chinese food swing … American; current New York Knicks star

Good morning, Whitewater.

Our week in town will begin with warm temperatures and rainy skies. The high for today will be fifty-eight. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:21, for 9h 03m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 10.5% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1911, Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole:

The first expedition to reach the geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four others arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911,^{[n 1]} five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova Expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey.

Amundsen’s plans had focused on the Arctic and the conquest of the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Fridtjof Nansen‘s polar exploration ship Fram, and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when, in 1909, the rival American explorers Frederick Cook and Robert E. Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only when Fram was leaving their last port of call, Madeira.

Amundsen made his Antarctic base, “Framheim”, in the Bay of Whales on the Great Ice Barrier. After months of preparation, depot-laying and a false start that ended in near-disaster, he and his party set out for the pole in October 1911. In the course of their journey they discovered the Axel Heiberg Glacier, which provided their route to the polar plateau and ultimately to the South Pole. The party’s mastery of the use of skis and their expertise with sledge dogs ensured rapid and relatively trouble-free travel. Other achievements of the expedition included the first exploration of King Edward VII Land and an extensive oceanographic cruise.

The expedition’s success was widely applauded. The story of Scott’s heroic failure overshadowed its achievement in the United Kingdom, unable to accept that a Norwegian had been the first person to set foot in the South Pole, but not in the rest of the world. Amundsen’s decision to keep his true plans secret until the last moment was criticised by some. Recent polar historians have more fully recognised the skill and courage of Amundsen’s party; the permanent scientific base at the pole bears his name, together with that of Scott.

Puzzability begins a new series entitled, Trimming the Tree:

This Week’s Game — December 14-18

Trimming the Tree

We’re adding the decorations to our Christmas tree this week. Each day, we started with a word or phrase, added the eight letters in ORNAMENT, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.

Example:

Feral; aged personification of the coldest season

Answer:

Wild; Old Man Winter

What to Submit:

Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Wild; Old Man Winter” in the example), for your answer.

Monday, December 14

Goes all ditzy; “Princess and the Pea” musical

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday will be unseasonably mild and rainy, with a high of sixty-one. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:21, for 9h 03m 49s of daytime. The moon’s a waning crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked whether readers preferred a real or artificial tree. Among respondents, there was a 2-1 preference for real trees.

It’s a busy week ahead, with weekly topical posts (on music, When Green Turns Brown, film, a cartoon, food, the Friday poll, and Friday catblogging), with posts throughout the week on UW-Whitewater’s administration.

If you’ve batteries, magnets, and tin foil, then you’ve the ingredients for a simple motor:

On this day in 1981, Poland’s communist leadership imposed martial law:

Martial law in Poland (Polish: Stan wojenny w Polsce) refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian communist government of the People’s Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition. Thousands of opposition activists were jailed without charge and as many as 100 killed.^[1] Although martial law was lifted in 1983, many of the political prisoners were not released until a general amnesty in 1986.

On this day in 1864, light artillery arrives for battle in defense of the Union:

1864 – (Civil War) 3rd Wisconsin Light Artillery Reaches Savannah, Georgia

The 3rd Wisconsin Light Artillery arrived at the front lines for the Battle of Savannah, Georgia.

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be cloudy, with a high of fifty-one, and showers this evening.  Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset 4:21, for 9h 04m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent, with 1.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

In Montana a few days ago, the temperatures dropped, and the tumbleweeds arrived:

Frank Sinatra was born a century ago:

Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra (/s??n??tr?/; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American jazz and traditional pop singer, songwriter, actor, producer and director, who was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.^[2] Born in Hoboken, New Jersey to Italian immigrants, he began his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. He found success as a solo artist after being signed by Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the “bobby soxers“.

He released his first album, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, in 1946. Sinatra’s professional career had stalled by the early 1950s, and he turned to Las Vegas, where he became one of its best known performers as part of the Rat Pack. His career was reborn in 1953 with the success ofFrom Here to Eternity and his subsequent Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums, including In the Wee Small Hours (1955), Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! (1956), Come Fly with Me (1958), Only the Lonely (1958) and Nice ‘n’ Easy (1960)….