FREEWHITEWATER published a poll previously about readers’ favorite newspapers for Whitewater news, with choices from among the Daily Union, Whitewater Register, and Janesville Gazette. Today’s poll is a version of that one, asking not for favorites, but simply for those newspapers one reads (like them or not). Multiple answers are possible, too. The poll’s focus is only on traditional newspapers (so new media websites, blogs, or Facebook pages aren’t included).
Results of that previous poll of favorites, from March 2009, are available here.
Comments will be moderated against profanity and trolls; otherwise have at it. This post will be open until Sunday morning, and the posts on the press series will appear Saturday and Sunday. Those posts will be below this one until Sunday morning.
Ahead for Whitewater today is a day in the low eighties, with a chance of rain this afternoon.
This weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, I’ll post a series on newspapers, in our area, and farther away in the state. Today’s poll and comment forum will ask which papers you read, whether you like them or like to dislike them.
Today’s a memorable day for film in Wisconsin: on this day in 1939, the Wizard of Oz premiered in Oconomowoc (of all places). The Wisconsin Historical Society reports that
…according to the fan site, thewizardofoz.info, “The first publicized showing of the final, edited film was at the Strand Theatre in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939. No one is sure exactly why a small town in the Midwest received that honor.” It showed the next day in Sheboygan, Appleton and Rhinelander, according to local newspapers. “The official premiere was at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, attended by most of the cast and crew and a number of Hollywood celebrities.” [Source:thewizardofoz.info].
Update, 6:57 PM. The Phantom Stranger passes along a persuasive theory (many thanks, as always!) for the Oconomowoc showing:
One theory is that the film premiered in Oconomowoc due to fact that one of the midgets in the film, Meinhardt Raabe, was a native of Farmington, neraby. He passed away a few years ago, and was buried in Farmington. The Daily Union, Watertown Times, and Oconomowoc Enterprise all had stories about this passing. Oconomowoc had a big street showing of the film in 2009.
I’ve posted this short video before, about the film’s casting of the Wicked Witch of the West. Enjoy.
At least, it’s Adel Zakout’s list of the top ten. See what you think. I like Slide 7, of Ricardo Bofill’s abandoned-cement-factory-turned-office-gallery-guest-space-and-residence.
It’s a sunny day in store for Whitewater, with a high temperature of eighty-two.
Today’s a memorable day for Wisconsin sports, as the Wisconsin Historical Society notes that in on this day in 1919
the Green Bay Packers professional football team was founded during a meeting in the editorial rooms of Green Bay Press-Gazette. On this evening, a score or more of young athletes, called together by Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun, gathered in the editorial room on Cherry Street and organized a football the team. [Source: Packers.com]
Not every voter got what he or she wanted last night. Many got far less than they hoped. But it’s not last night; it’s this morning.
Here’s the sometimes-grating but inescapable truth: another day is another chance to fight on (or, alternatively, to bask in the afterglow of success). There’s great strength in carrying on, to the next campaign, debate, or test. Churchill was right: In defeat, defiance.
Now it doesn’t have to be that way. One could give in, relent, and remain docile. One could jump from one belief to its opposite, hoping for more security among an apparent majority. Some are like this, those who give up, give in, and espouse today everything they rejected yesterday. They’re not ill, disabled, or impoverished; on the contrary, they’re often established and comfortable people who want to ‘find themselves,’ ‘sort things out,’ or ‘step back for a while.’
These feelings aren’t the result of careful, deliberate reflection; they’re capitulation to a sudden reversal. Capitulation for these reasons is both unnecessary and embarrassing.
People admire those who stand their ground on first principles: men who are steadfast, and women who know the value of forming their slender fingers into a fist.
Borrowing from an old cigarette campaign, on matters of principle, it’s better “to fight than switch.” Many candidates or causes one supports may fail (especially if one’s a third-party voter). So they may; their supporters can yet go on. A majority will often proceed heedlessly, favoring assertion of authority over persuasion. For it all, I’ve never wished to trade principles for a chance to sup at the table with stodgy, declining, self-professed ‘people of influence’ and ‘dignitaries.’
In fact, the idea of doing so is simultaneously foolish and funny.
Americans rightly admire those who fight on. It’s so much better, all round, to fight than switch.
New space-based images show the same tsunami that devastated Japan also caused a series of giant icebergs to break off halfway around the world in Antarctica.
On March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan. Combined with the tsunami it unleashed, the event led to the deaths of at least 15,000 people and inflicted damage costing upwards of $235 billion.
Yet the destructive wave didn’t just crush Japanese shores. The tsunami rippled through the Pacific Ocean, bent around New Zealand and hit Antarctica after a little more than 18 hours, according to an upcoming study in the Journal of Glaciology.
“This [is] the first observational evidence linking a tsunami to ice-shelf calving,” the authors wrote in the study, released by NASA today.
Impressive, both the force of nature and research about it.
A portion of yesterday’s Monday message from the LP appears below, from that party’s executive director. I’ve included the portion that would stand out even if not posted by itself: the role of municipal governments in profligately issuing public debt (as bonds) for local projects.
It’s true that increased indebtedness occurs under Republicans as much as Democrats. In fact, there’s a species of small-town Republicans who become big-spenders as soon as they get in office, wasting money on self-aggrandising efforts, favored businesses, or both. They oppose federal expenditures, but then embrace local versions of the same national programs they decry. Excerpt immediately following —
For example, I’m dismayed by how frequently local bond measures pass, putting local governments further into debt. Those measures seem to pass whether local politics are dominated by Democrats or Republicans.
