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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Food, Restaurant, Review

Restaurant Review: Jimmy’s Classic Italian Beef

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A new year, a new month, and an unexpectedly happy find: that’s how the resumption of restaurant reviews starts off.

20160204_073417 At 535 E. Milwaukee Street in Whitewater one finds Jimmy’s, a sandwich shop with a more robust and satisfying menu than one might have expected from driving past. On so many trips along that street, and despite the colorful signs outside listing diverse items, the view through the window always seemed, somehow, to show a sparse interior. In fact, in menu and quality, Jimmy’s has much to offer.

Consider some items from the menu: Italian beef (of course), but also sausage, meatball, and tuna fish sandwiches, with hot dogs, or salads. The shop advertises fresh ingredients, and they are, including fresh-cut french fries.

There are for each of these items small, considered variations – sweet peppers, provolone, onions, mozzarella, and the Italian beef sandwiches may be had dry, juicy, or dunked. That’s the stuff: someone’s though about how the same offering may be changed just slightly to suit different tastes.

Order the ample-portion of beef juicy or dunked, with provolone and peppers, and the fresh-cut fries. You’ll need a few napkins or even a paper towel to manage exactly how juicy it all is: simple, fresh, and simply delicious.

The whole shop is an expression of variations: sandwiches one way or another, ice cream one way or another, hot dogs one way or another. Even different days of the week have different specials (Monday for Italian beef, Wednesday for hot dogs, Friday for fries, and students specials with a coupon.) Someone had to think of these options, plan for them, and write them down. A lot of care went into this shop.

The decor is a mix of red, white, and green, in vivid shades, with seven tables (seating four per table), with signs displaying the offerings, and a television to one’s left. One can see into the kitchen easily, and there you’ll be able to watch fresh ingredients become fresh sandwiches. There’s a drive-thru, and although I have not tried it, I saw a patron using it, successfully, on one of my visits.

I love Americana, and a shop like this – although selling signature Italian beef sandwiches – is, of course, much a part of American culture. Nothing at Jimmy’s strikes me as an imitation of an Italian sandwich shop; it strikes me a genuine effort to bring a shop like this to life in Whitewater.

Happily recommended.

LOCATION:535. East Milwaukee Street, Whitewater, WI 53190.  (262) 458-5467.

Online:
jimmysclassicitalianbeef.com
https://www.facebook.com/jimmysitalianbeef

OPEN:

Open Seven Days a Week
Dine-in 11 AM – 10 PM
Drive-Thru and Delivery 11 AM to 10 PM or later (‘until we are done’)

PRICES: Sandwich, soda, drink for about $10.

RESERVATIONS: Unnecessary.

DRINKS: Sodas, Shakes, Italian Ice (called water ice in my childhood).

SOUND: Quiet.  There’s a television, but no music on my visits.

SERVICE: Friendly counter service on my visits.

VISITS: Two (lunch, dinner).

RATING: Recommended 3.25 of 4.

GoldStarGoldStarGoldStarGoldStar25

RATING SCALE: From one to four stars, representing the full experience of food, atmosphere, service, and pricing.

INDEPENDENCE: This review is delivered without financial or other connection to the establishment or its owner. The dining experience was that of an ordinary patron, without notice to the staff or requests for special consideration.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.4.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will give way to sunshine and a high of twenty-eight. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset 5:12 for 10h 06m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Today, not yesterday: Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM, and there will be a Zoning Code Update meeting at 7 PM.

Martin Creaney is quite the craftsman, as Popular Mechanics observes:

We’ve featured custom built Star Wars woodworking projects before, but nothing like this masterpiece from Martin Creaney, who hand-built the iconic Millennium Falcon over a year using more than 3,000 individually carved pieces of wood.

He had previously built an R2D2, an AT-ST Walker, and an X-Wing Fighter, but wanted to go big on his next project. His initial thought was to build the project using medium-density fiberboard (MDF), an engineered wood project that looks flat, which would require paint. But that would have hidden the detailed woodwork so he decided to leave it natural and make the body from real timber.

On this day in 1863, the 1st Wisconsin sees action:

1863 – (Civil War) Skirmish at Batesville, Arkansas
The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry fought a skirmish at Batesville, Arkansas.

For today from JigZone, it’s a 48-piece Mockingbird puzzle:

Newspapers, Open Government, Public Records

The Newspaper-Caused Public Records Problem

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Not far from Whitewater, Janesville’s local newspaper finds itself in an access-to-information conflict with the Janesville School District.  There’s no surprise in any of this.  (Quick note: I’m using that paper as an example because it’s close-at-hand.  One could find other examples easily enough.)

For years that paper has ridiculed citizens’ petition efforts, toadied to business insiders, pushed government spending for those same business factions, included itself in a supposedly elite group (oh, brother!) of Janesville movers-and-shakers, all-the while producing some of the weakest editorials of any paper in Wisconsin.

It’s no wonder that Janesville’s school superintendent shows no respect to that paper: public records requests are either ignored or answered with what seems to be a laughable inadequacy. Having spat on so many who exercised free speech in that city, Janesville’s waning paper now finds itself without the clout to assure full compliance with public records requests, requests that are, after all, a matter of law.  Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31-19.39.

It seems unlikely that the paper will spend the time and money to litigate public records requests to assure full compliance.  This unwillingness to commit the time and effort is no doubt evident to Janesville’s school district – they can probably spot a paper tiger (yes, it’s an awkward play on words) when they see one.

That’s unfortunate, but it’s more than a Janesville problem – it’s a problem for others nearby.  Officials’ ability to brook lawful requests there will likely influence policymakers nearby, and encourage them to provide inadequate answers, too.

That leaves the rest of us – residents, bloggers, etc. – starting at a disadvantage: the Janesville paper’s toothless response will lull policymakers in other communities to assume falsely that they’ll be able to disregard requests as Janesville’s policymakers have done.  One will have to begin every step with the commitment and expectation to enforce those rights at law.

In this environment, it won’t matter what one says, hopes, or expects – it will only matter how one proceeds.  Proceeding may be inconvenient,  but the alternative is far worse: enduring passively the infringement of one’s right to open government.

What a mess it is that print is leaving left behind, that others will have to clean up.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.3.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will bring snow showers in the morning with a daytime high of thirty-four. Sunrise is 7:06 and sunset 5:10, for 10h 04m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 27% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this date in 1865, Pres. Lincoln meets with representatives of the Confederacy:

…President Abraham Lincoln meets with a delegation of Confederate officials at Hampton Roads, Virginia, to discuss a possible peace agreement. Lincoln refused to grant the delegation any concessions, however, and the meeting ended within hours.

New York Tribune editor and abolitionist Horace Greeley provided the impetus for the conference when he contacted Francis Blair, a Maryland aristocrat and presidential adviser. Greeley suggested that Blair was the “right man” to open discussions with the Confederates to end the war. Blair sought permission from Lincoln to meet with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and did so twice in January 1865. Blair suggested to Davis that an armistice be forged and the two sides turn their attention to removing the French-supported regime of Maximilian in Mexico. This plan would help cool tensions between North and South by providing a common enemy, he believed.

Meanwhile, the situation was becoming progressively worse for the Confederates in the winter of 1864 and 1865. In January, Union troops captured Fort Fisher and effectively closed Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners. Davis conferred with his vice president, Alexander Stephens, who recommended that a peace commission be appointed to explore a possible armistice. Davis sent Stephens and two others to meet with Lincoln at Hampton Roads.

The meeting convened on February 3. Stephens asked if there was any way to stop the war and Lincoln replied that the only way was “for those who were resisting the laws of the Union to cease that resistance.” The delegation underestimated Lincoln’s resolve to make the end of slavery a necessary condition for any peace. The president also insisted on immediate reunification and the laying down of Confederate arms before anything else was discussed. In short, the Union was in such an advantageous position that Lincoln did not need to concede any issues to the Confederates….

On this day in 1959, bad weather leads to the deaths of three musicians and a pilot:

1959 – The Day the Music Died
Bad winter weather and a bus breakdown prompted rock-and-roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper to rent a plane to continue on their “Winter Dance Party” tour. Icy roads and treacherous weather had nearly undermined their performances in Green Bay and Appleton that weekend, so after a show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, they boarded a four-seat airplane. The three performers and pilot Roger Peterson perished when the plane crashed about 1:00 AM on Monday, February 3rd (“The Day the Music Died,” according to singer Don McLean in his song “American Pie”) . [Source: Mark Steuer; Wikipedia]

Here’s JigZone‘s daily puzzle, Straw Rainbow, in a 62-piece tetris cut:

Space, Technology

SpaceX Tests a Capsule’s Ability to Hover

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Eight SuperDraco thrusters, positioned around the perimeter of the vehicle in pairs called “jet packs”, fired up simultaneously to raise the Crew Dragon spacecraft for a five-second hover, generating approximately 33,000 lbs of thrust before returning the vehicle to its resting position. This test was the second of a two-part milestone under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The first test—a short firing of the engines intended to verify a healthy propulsion system—was completed November 22, and the longer burn two-days later demonstrated vehicle control while hovering.

Via SpaceX at YouTube.

Education

Roaring or Yawning

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33cscreenshotPost 4 in a weekly series.

A deaf man walks across the savanna, and spots a lion. The lion has its mouth open, and teeth exposed. It could be roaring, or it might be yawning. The sound the lion’s making is imperceptible to the man, so he’ll need some other way to be sure about the lion’s intentions.

Last week, in a post about the lack of videos to show school life to the community, I mentioned that the reasons one does not see more videos are both cultural and political. The cultural part involves relying on a single publisher with an apparent aversion to some media. Relying on the most traditional methods to get something done is a declining, yet lingering, cultural aspect of life here. Using newsprint, perhaps a website that simply imitates the most traditional styles of newsprint, is easier than doing one’s own work. Easier, and likely somehow more reassuring to older, or old-minded, policymakers. (As a self-interested matter of blogging, by contrast, nothing could have been more advantageous these last nine years than very traditional newspapers, a website that imitated that style, and policymakers who sought to live as though that were all the world. One could not have asked for better foils than those.)

Bu there’s almost certainly a political calculation, too: what if one walks outside, and encounters a lion? After all, from the point of view of Central Office, there have been lions in the past, and there might be some now. Worse, they might start roaring, and after roaring, then eating. Better to be cautious, in this way of seeing things, than to find oneself in a lion’s stomach.

I don’t know if there be political lions within the boundaries of the Whitewater Unified School District. It’s possible, but I’m not convinced (at least by the definition of lion one would derive from, let’s say, events of a decade or so ago). One would have seen more movement over the last referendum (and I, too, thought it would be closer than it was) if there were lions in the tall grass. In any event, this area doesn’t have anything like a single major political player. (That pleases me, but it would equally be true even if it didn’t please me.)

There’s so much caution, calculation, etc., in Central Office. Much of it seems designed as a roaring-lion-avoidance policy.

What if the lions (should there be any) or the many other animals of the area are not roaring at all, but yawning? Tired of a this-is how-we’ve-always-done-it approach – perhaps that’s closer to where we are as a community.

I’ll tell you a story about exhaustion. A few years ago, I attended a journalists’ banquet, not because I think of myself that way, but because I wanted to see how they thought of themselves. (By chance, I found myself seated at the guest speaker’s table, something I thought funny: the blogger had one of the best spots in the house.) But what I saw that night surprised me, too: prominent journalists, seeming tired, old, worn out. Many were my own age, but no one of similar age in my family looked so tired and uncertain as many of the invited, investigative journalists did. It was upsetting to see people this way. My father, when he was by age a generation older than most in the room were that night, was easily more focused, intense, energetic in his manner. I left the dinner concerned over what I saw: people committed to the right things, but weary, almost prematurely old.

Perhaps the challenge of this community in the next few years is not roaring, but yawning, not of energy, but of exhaustion.

Here one thinks not of a few officials, but of many within the community.

THE EDUCATION POST: Tuesdays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.

Animals, Weather

Happy Groundhog Day

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Punxsutawmey Phil made his prediction early today —

How do people know what Phil’s predicting? Here’s how –

Via PennLive Groundhog Day 2016.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.2.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be cloudy with something less than one inch of snow, and a daytime high of thirty-six. Sunrise is 7:07 and sunset 7:09, for 10h 01m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 36.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets tonight at 6 PM, and her Common Council at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1887, Gobbler’s Knob celebrates its first Groundhog Day:

…Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.

Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal–the hedgehog–as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State….

In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America’s most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.

On this day in 1846, Beloit College gets its charter:

On this date Beloit College was chartered by the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin. It is the second  the oldest college in Wisconsin, Carroll College in Waukesha having been chartered two days earlier on Jan. 31, 1846. [Source: Beloit College Archives]

Fifty-nine years later, on 2.2.1905, Wisconsin gets its first professional baseball league:

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.

JigZone‘s puzzle for the day is entitled, Red Rope Blocks:

Nature, Space

When Galaxies Collide

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It’s so far in the future, it scarcely matters, but if one were to speculate from present conditions, the collision billions of years from now between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies would not disturb Earth, but would change the night’s sky (in a lovely way):

Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN

The Contentions Made in a Single Meeting

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WGTB logo PNG 112x89 Post 59 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.

On 12.15.15, Whitewater, Wisconsin considered both upgrades to her wastewater facility and as part of those claimed upgrades a waste-importation plan, bringing in waste from other cities. The December 15th meeting was a cornucopia of contentions about the entire project, slightly more than two years’ time from when the city’s wastewater superintendent presented publicly the possibility of waste importation to the city. (By his own account, he had been discussing the idea from months previously, and found encouragement for the idea from, of all people, a medical doctor on the Whitewater Common Council.)

Today, an outline of the contentions as recorded at the 12.15.15 meeting to consider over the next several weeks:

  • On ‘heavy truck traffic’ that the project contemplates (10:27 on video.)
  • On a backup mixer on the second, existing digester, that would be available when the second digester would be ‘more utilized.’  (11:00 on video.)
  • Repetition again of the oft-refuted claim that others in the community are concerned about adding digesters.  (25:30 on video.)
  • Volume of supposed ‘food waste’, ‘grease trap’ contents, and ‘spoiled salad dressing’ to be processed at the plant. (26:12 on video.)
  • Defining hazardous waste. (26:29 on video.)
  • The enumerated calculations – not the mere assertion – on a claimed payback of six-years. (27:23 on video.)
  • The claim about the safety of microorganisms that one finds in a human stomach or colon.  (27:58 on the video.)
  • The contention (from City Manager Clapper) that what does not ‘glow’ does not – would not – injure.  (28:00 on video.)
  • The contention (from Mike Gerbitz of Donohue) that prior expenditures for an existing digester justify additional use & expenditures for the same.  (29:33 on the video.)
  • The contention (from Mike Gerbitz of Donohue) that other communities have programs like the importation proposal for Whitewater.  (30:25 on the video.)
  • The contention that use of a digester is the ‘one way’ to reduce costs.  (31:00 on the video.)
  • Implications of promises of the project’s cost underestimating actual costs with engineering fees.  (35:45 on the video.)
  • Actual supplies of so-called high-strength waste.  (37:24 on the video.)
  • The contention (from Wastewater Superintendent Reel) that Rockford has a similar program to the one proposed for Whitewater (37:24 on video.)
  • Contention that long-distance haulers travel long distances because only some cities have capacity.  (38:40 on the video.)
  • Contention that the waste processed elsewhere would be similar to the waste that Whitewater would process.  (39:30 on the video.)
  • Contention (from Reel) that there is no order omitted from an anaerobic digester.  (40:49 on the video.)
  • Contention (from City Manager Clapper) that bad press, etc., comes from operating aerobic digesters.  (41:00 on the video.)
  • Contention about the contents placed conventionally with anaerobic digesters (41:15 on the video.)
  • Discussion about the actual conditions at the Waunakee digester.  (41:45 on the video.)
  • Discussion about how tipping fees are calculated.  (45:15 on the video.)

This is not all that’s there in the 12.15.15 meeting, of course – as much of the discussion involves millions for plant upgrades elsewhere – but after two years’ consideration it’s a good set of points to consider before collecting all questions thus posed.

WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Appearing at whengreenturnsbrown.com and re-posted Mondays @ 10 AM here on FREE WHITEWATER.

Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN

Answering Three Questions

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WGTB logo PNG 112x89 Post 58 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.

I received an email over the weekend which posed a few questions about this series (and then veered into topics unrelated). I’ll post a summary of the questions and my replies (sent via email already, in greater detail).

1. Shouldn’t city leaders receive the benefit of the doubt in what they do? It’s a political organization, not a child, that one’s considering when one considers municipal policy.

Look around Wisconsin, whatever one’s politics, and then contend with seriousness that government deserves the benefit of the doubt in long-range policies with fiscal, economic, environmental, health, and business culture implications (like this one). If you’re a Republican, do you feel that policies enacted by Democrats necessarily require the benefit of the doubt? If you’re a Democrat, do you feel that policies enacted by Republicans necessarily require the benefit of the doubt?

There just aren’t many people who see things so trustingly. Perhaps once, but events have a way of sobering one’s views.

The implication, as the emailer posed it more fully, is that it as disrespectful to question this city administration’s proposal. On the contrary, it’s a measure of respect to consider the proposal in detail, as presented.

2. Does this series depend on Whitewater going forward with waste importation? No, I’ll write about what happens when it happens, and focus on events where they happen. If Whitewater goes forward with waste-importation, then I will continue to focus on that local project. Having the project close-at-hand makes some work easier, and offers a long-range project to consider.

Still, there’s no reason to write about what’s not happening. If Whitewater’s government ceases the effort, then I will redirect the series to other communities, and related topics, in the state.

But what happens, here or elsewhere, is out of my hands. I’d guess that Whitewater will proceed with the project, but it’s just a guess. (The fact that as recently as 1.19.16 a member of Whitewater’s Common Council described the likelihood of passage as a ‘squeaker’ shows that a full-time staff can get just about anything it wants locally.) There’s not, to my mind, the slightest chance that this project will look like a close-call, or a squeaker, to a wider audience. That’s part of my interest: why do some communities reject these projects, and why are some willing to swallow them?

3. Why do you think city government is doing this, except to make money for Whitewater? I’m not certain of the motivation, but the question implicates revenue-generation for the government, not for residents. These two are not the same. One can confidently answer: some projects cause more harm than good. This seems likely to be one of those projects.

Next up: The Contentions Made in a Single Meeting.

WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Appearing at whengreenturnsbrown.com and re-posted Mondays @ 10 AM here on FREE WHITEWATER.