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Culture

Anecdotes About Politics in a Small Town

I posted last week about how it’s mistaken to think that most leaders in a small town are direct, forthright (see Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders). Here are two stories about how politics sometimes works in a small town. At a candidates’ forum last year, I had the pleasure of seeing a…

Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders

There’s a quaint – but false – notion that people in small towns are uncommonly plain-spoken, even blunt.  One sometimes sees examples of this in films or books, where residents are depicted as folksy straight-talkers (“shucks, I don’t cotton to no one abusing nobody,” etc.).  I’ve never heard anyone in Whitewater speak so colorfully, and I’ve…

Twenty-Five Years On: School Board & City

Alternative title: Culture Advances While Beyond Politics Far Lags Behind. Over at the Banner, there’s a new feature entitled, “A mini-look at local history – a new Banner Monday project!”  The 10.10.16 entry is about two public actions from twenty-five years ago. I’m all for history (local or otherwise), but the entry is telling coming from a…

Origins of the ‘Comic Book Font’

Comic book culture is mass culture — even lacrosse moms and field hockey dads who’ve never been in a comic book store can recognize the “comic book font.” But calling it a font is a misnomer — as the above video shows, this distinctive style of handwriting is an aesthetic shaped by culture, technology, and…

Dorm-Construction Isn’t the Big Story

Karen Herzog of the Journal Sentinel has a story about delayed dorm construction at UW-Whitewater. At least, that’s how she’s framed the story, how many will understand the story, and how both UW-Whitewater and Herzog would, no doubt, like readers to understand the story. Here’s what’s more significant even than the need for additional sleeping…

Culture Without Grandiosity Works Best 

Whitewater’s best accomplishments are mostly social ones, and they are most effective when they’re held simply, without grandiose local claims.   The Independence Holiday events, City Market, Farmer’s Market, Discover Whitewater Series, semi-annual Science Fair, Make a Difference Day, art fairs, and Christmas parade, among other events, are much to Whitewater’s credit in-and-of-themselves.  They showcase…

Culture, Economy, Fiscal

The approximate number of working age adults, from 25-64, in the City of Whitewater proper is 4,134. This working age population is nestled among a total, estimated population of 14,801. See, American Community Survey, 2010-2014, 5 year estimates http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_5YR/DP05/1600000US5586925. One can draw three broad but reasonable conclusions from these numbers. Culturally, local publications present a…

Ad Hoc Policy is Debilitating 

A municipal policy of addressing problems as they crop up, principally on an ad hoc, piecemeal basis, will wear local government down, and only produce worse policies. (Ad hoc policy, that is, literally a for this [purpose] policy.) One should begin each discussion and problem from the vantage of a fundamental philosophy of government, adjusting…

Words of Advice from One of Britain’s Finest Philosophers

Someone mentioned to me today that she would like to play Pokémon Go, but that she was worried that she’d seem silly to others. I replied that as long as she enjoyed the game, and walked about safely, others’ views of silliness shouldn’t matter.   She needn’t have accepted my word for it, however.  Noted British philosopher…

The Art Market (in Four Parts): Patrons

The Art Market (in Four Parts): Patrons from Artsy on Vimeo. What motivates patrons to fund artists’ wildest dreams? How has the concept of art patronage changed over time? And what’s behind the dramatic rise of private art museums? In the third installment of “The Art Market (in Four Parts),” we explore how and why…

Do you remember when Gen. MacArthur called for dedication to ‘Duty, Honor, Country, and Local Government’?

Do you remember when Gen. MacArthur called for dedication to ‘Duty, Honor, Country, and Local Government’? Neither do I. He called, of course, for dedication to Duty, Honor, Country. It wouldn’t have occured to him to exhort a commitment to municipal government. America speaks – when she speaks most movingly – in the language of…

The Colors of a Rubik’s Cube

Imagine that one sees a Rubik’s Cube for the first time, on a table nearby.  Three sides of that six-sided object are visible, displaying small squares of red, blue, and white. Consider this initial puzzle: What colors are the other three sides?  How would one determine, with confidence, the colors on those sides obscured from…

Two States of Mind in Whitewater

There’s an easy way to see two different states of mind in Whitewater.  Draft a list of eleven people for an athletic honor.  Make nine of the honorees athletes or coaches, and two of them an administrator and his spouse.  Now, watch and see which people receive the most prominent attention.  Some will pick one…

The City Never Sleeps

In the broadest, figurative sense, Whitewater never sleeps.  Like any other place, she’s constantly changing, either to her benefit or detriment, but changing nonetheless.  (It’s only the parochial myth that she’s already achieved a level of perfection that obscures the obvious truth of constant flux.) Glance away, for one day or forty, and when one…