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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.17.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
We will have an even chance of snow this Tuesday morning, with a high for the day of twenty-nine.
Whitewater’s Alcohol Licensing Review Committee meets at 6:10 PM, and Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1903, the Wright Brothers achieve a technological triumph: the first ‘controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight.’
Here’s Puzzability’s puzzle for Tuesday:
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This Week’s Game — December 16-20
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Do You Hear What I Hear?
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Hark, the puzzling angels sing. For each day this week, we started with a well-known lyric from a Christmas carol. Then, for the day’s clue, we broke it down into a series of words that, when said in order, sounds like the original lyric. You’ll probably need to say the words out loud to get the answers.
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Example:
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Easy, shoe, veinier, cell, he, pink
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Answer:
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He sees you when you’re sleeping (from “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”)
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What to Submit:
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Submit the lyric (as “He sees you when you’re sleeping” in the example) for your answer.
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Tuesday, December 17
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City, Corporate Welfare, Local Government, Open Government, Politics
It’s Not a Communications Problem
by JOHN ADAMS •
A few months ago, during a public meeting, a commissioner mentioned that an applicant and the applicant’s neighbors might have done more to communicate with each other. (I thought that was true, too; as it turned out, there was a great deal of communication in the weeks afterward, all to the good.)
It’s not true, though, that Whitewater – generally – has a communications problem. Nor do residents have a relationship-building problem.
Whitewater has email and telephones and the Internet. We don’t lack for the ability to communicate, nor are people incapable of forming relationships, bonds, and alliances once having become acquainted.
When public agendas don’t contain enough information, when public meetings are held at inconvenient times or places, when public men treat their boards, commissions, and organizations as though they were private clubs, those are not communications problems.
Those are problems of law and governance, of policy and politics, of primary principles not secondary means. Their causes run deeper than mere ignorance or poor socialization. Policymakers know very well how to communicate the messages that they want, and to build the relationships that they want.
Admittedly, many of these messages are ill-considered, contradictory, and easily refuted, but they are messages, delivered as their speakers intended. The last generation knew how to communicate and relationship-build just fine, thank you. Their problem has been that their content and choices have been poor.
Our supposed communications problem is really an ideological problem: the use of public things for private ends, the exaltation of personality over policy, and hopelessly exaggerated claims in the place of simple achievements.
These real, underlying problems will vanish when a more competitive, principle-based majority comes to the fore.
They will vanish no sooner, but also no later, than that.
Music
Monday Music: Spandau Ballet, Communication
by JOHN ADAMS •
Public Meetings
Tech Park Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Public Meetings
Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
Public Meetings
Alcohol Licensing Review Committee
by JOHN ADAMS •
Public Meetings
Library Board
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.16.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday brings snow, about an inch or two, and a high of seventeen.
There’s an overwhelming response to the question whether a market should be in the business of Reselling Stolen Meat? — 89.09% of respondents said no, the market should not resell.
On this day in 1773, there’s a Boston Tea Party.
Puzzability begins a Christmas-themed series this week:
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This Week’s Game — December 16-20
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Do You Hear What I Hear?
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Hark, the puzzling angels sing. For each day this week, we started with a well-known lyric from a Christmas carol. Then, for the day’s clue, we broke it down into a series of words that, when said in order, sounds like the original lyric. You’ll probably need to say the words out loud to get the answers.
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Example:
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Easy, shoe, veinier, cell, he, pink
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Answer:
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He sees you when you’re sleeping (from “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”)
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What to Submit:
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Submit the lyric (as “He sees you when you’re sleeping” in the example) for your answer.
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Monday, December 16
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Animation, Film
Sunday Animation: 108 years of Herman Miller in 108 seconds
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.15.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday will be partly sunny with a high of fifteen. Northwest winds at 10 to 15 mph with lead to wind chill values of five to ten below.
It’s Bill of Rights Day, as the Bill of Rights came into effect as the first ten amendments to the Constitution on 12.15.1791, following ratification by three-quarters of the states.
On 12.15.1847, Wisconsin’s Second Constitutional Convention convenes:
1847 – Wisconsin’s Second Constitutional Convention Convenes in Madison
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]
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.14.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday brings a near-certainty of snow to Whitewater, with a high of twenty-seven. Accumulations may amount to two inches or so.
On this day in 1911, Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first person to reach the South Pole:
Amundsen, born in Borge, near Oslo, in 1872, was one of the great figures in polar exploration. In 1897, he was first mate on a Belgian expedition that was the first ever to winter in the Antarctic. In 1903, he guided the 47-ton sloop Gjöa through the Northwest Passage and around the Canadian coast, the first navigator to accomplish the treacherous journey. Amundsen planned to be the first man to the North Pole, and he was about to embark in 1909 when he learned that the American Robert Peary had achieved the feat.
Amundsen completed his preparations and in June 1910 sailed instead for Antarctica, where the English explorer Robert F. Scott was also headed with the aim of reaching the South Pole. In early 1911, Amundsen sailed his ship into Antarctica’s Bay of Whales and set up base camp 60 miles closer to the pole than Scott. In October, both explorers set off–Amundsen using sleigh dogs, and Scott employing Siberian motor sledges, Siberian ponies, and dogs. On December 14, 1911, Amundsen’s expedition won the race to the Pole and returned safely to base camp in late January.
On 12.14.1893, Frederick Jackson Turner delivers an historic – and in this case historical – address:
1893 – Frederick Jackson Turner Delivers Frontier Address
On this date Frederick Jackson Turner delivered the “Significance of the Frontier in American History” address at the forty-first annual meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. [Source: SHSW Proceedings, 1893, pg. 79-112]
Cats
Friday Catblogging: Cat High-Fives
by JOHN ADAMS •
Poll
Friday Poll: Reselling Stolen Meat?
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Canada’s Charlottetown, a man pled guilty to stealing high-priced chicken and steaks from a supermarket. The market, however, wasn’t about to take that loss:
Jeffery Arthur Feehan, 29, appeared before provincial court Chief Judge John Douglas in Charlottetown Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to six charges, including stealing from two Superstore grocery stores in Charlottetown and failing to attend court.
Douglas sentenced him to a combined 94 days in jail on top of the 28 he already served while in custody awaiting sentencing.
During one incident, Feehan went to a Superstore where staff watched him put food in a basket, then take it into the bathroom where he stuck it down his pants.
The food included chicken breasts, bacon and steaks worth $71.32.
Crown attorney Valerie Moore said the store was able to recover the food for resale.
“That sounds strange. They must have been well wrapped in plastic given that they were down his pants,” she said.
So, should the market have resold the meat? Although it must have been wrapped in plastic, I’ll say no (if for no other reason than bad inevitable publicity about reselling it).
What do you think?