Daily Bread for 11.20.13

Good morning.

A quick note about a post later today —

Last night, Whitewater’s Common Council voted 4-2 for reduced funding for the now-renamed ‘Janesville-Milton-Whitewater’ bus for 2014. I’ve argued against any funding, but reduced funding is still a gain for better policy. In a city that’s now overcoming some truly debilitating past mistakes, movement in the right direction is welcome.

Update: You’ll see in the comments below that someone notes that 2014 comes in at higher funding than 2013. That’s right. I’m referring above to reduced funding compared with the requested amount. Candidly, even a reduction over a request is hard for some on Council to make. The pressure to yield to proposals from institutional advocates is huge for some – they’re more comfortable saying no to less established requests.

One takes one what one can get (or not get), having limited confidence that a bad idea from a big institution will ever be rejected.

And yet, I’ll be the first to say that last night’s discussion was revealing in ways that I did not expect. Captivating, almost, but really in the uncomfortable and morbid way that an accident scene is captivating. Indeed, part of the discussion last night concerned the implicit charge that public officials in Janesville lied to Whitewater’s Common Council about the origins and intentions of the bus program. I’ll address that charge, and other topics about the bus, in an upcoming post.

Wednesday will bring a forty-percent chance of rain tonight, with a high of forty-three.

On this day in 1859, a sports first for Milwaukee:

1859 – First Baseball Game in Milwaukee
An impromptu game of base ball , as it was spelled in the early years, was played by two teams of seven at the Milwaukee Fair Ground. The game was organized by Rufus King, publisher of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and is believed to have been the first baseball game played in Milwaukee. In spite of cold weather, two more games were played in December, and by April 1860 the Milwaukee Base Ball Club was organized. View early baseball photographs at Wisconsin Historical Images, and read about baseball’s first decades in Wisconsin at Turning Points in Wisconsin.

Here’s Puzzability‘s latest daily puzzle:

This Week’s Game — November 18-22

First Editions

This week, we’re summarizing books in just one word. Each day’s answer is a book title whose initial letters spell a three- or four-letter word. The day’s clue includes information about the book and a clue to the word.

Example:

Joseph Heller novel about a professor who has a chance to be the first Jewish Secretary of State, if he can just get that bandanna out of his mouth

Answer:

Good as Gold (GAG)

What to Submit:

Submit the book title (as “Good as Gold” in the example) for your answer.

Wednesday, November 20

John Knowles novel about a boarding school friendship cut tragically short by a snake