Good morning, Whitewater.

Today in Whitewater light morning rain gives way to partly cloudy skies and a high of forty-eight. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset 4:22, for 9h 02m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.8% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1773, Patriots display their feelings for the Tea Act of 5.10.1773:

While Samuel Adams tried to reassert control of the meeting [of protestors], people poured out of the Old South Meeting House to prepare to take action. In some cases, this involved donning what may have been elaborately prepared Mohawk costumes.^[61] While disguising their individual faces was imperative, because of the illegality of their protest, dressing as Mohawk warriors was a very specific and symbolic choice. It showed that the Sons of Liberty identified with America, over their official status as subjects of Great Britain.^[62]

That evening, a group of 30 to 130 men, some dressed in the Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the three vessels and, over the course of three hours, dumped all 342 chests of tea into the water.^[63] The precise location of the Griffin’s Wharf site of the Tea Party has been subject to prolonged uncertainty; a comprehensive study^[64] places it near the foot of Hutchinson Street (today’s Pearl Street)….

Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is disputed, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it.^[65] He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights.^[66]

By “constitution” he referred to the idea that all governments have a constitution, written or not, and that the constitution of Great Britain could be interpreted as banning the levying of taxes without representation. For example, the Bill of Rights of 1689 established that long-term taxes could not be levied without Parliament, and other precedents said that Parliament must actually represent the people it ruled over, in order to “count.”

On this day in 1864, Wisconsinites win a victory over the Confederacy:

1864 – (Civil War) Battle of Nashville, Tennessee

The 8th, 14th, 24th, 33rd, 44th, and 45th Wisconsin Infantry regiments and the 6th Wisconsin Light Artillery were engaged in the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee. By the end of the day, 6,000 Confederate troops were killed, wounded or missing and Union forces had largely destroyed the Confederate ability to wage war in the region.

Here’s the midweek game in Puzzability‘s Trimming the Tree 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.

Wednesday, December 16

Military shoulder decorations; Oscar winner for acting in Reds

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