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City, Culture, Politics

On a Clear Day, One Can See Far Ahead (and Far Back)

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The longer I write, the more sensible it seems to me to take a longer view of life in town.

Comfort in a longer view doesn’t come from doubts about our future,  but from confidence in it, whatever work we yet have ahead. (We do have difficult choices ahead, in these next few years.)

Seeing this allows one to see farther ahead,  and farther back, and see in each direction more clearly.

What strikes me more each season is that tactical machinations of government, organizations, and companies in town often amount to less than the effort supplied. 

A few simple principles or goals,  not perfect but sincerely held, carry people and groups farther than political positioning and grand declarations. 

There are many steps toward a project, but if the goal should be good,  and the principles sound, one can go very far.

Good is neither perfect nor always right; there may be more than one good path,  and of those some may have a comparative advantage over others.

It strikes me how enervating and debilitating it must be to chase,  as quickly as possible, every rabbit that hops by.  There must be a lot of worry in that, a lot of stress, along the lines of ‘what have I missed today?’

Since last year,  I’ve outlined specific policy topics that seem of interest in the city for the immediate months ahead.   (See, most recently,  Policy Topics for the Fall.)

That’s not because there’s less about which to write,  but because there are issues about which to write in greater depth.

Other issues may intrude on one’s list, as life seldom follows a neat outline.  More significant still,  many of the most significant events in the city aren’t political or policy-oriented; so much that’s important sits outside politics and policy.

Of policy and commentary,  however,  there’s effectiveness to be found in the methodical,  broader view of events.   Confidence inclines toward a broader view,  and a broader view increases confidence.

Cats

Friday Catblogging: Monkey the Cat Works for His Supper

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Wild cats hunt for their food, and one cat owner decided to recreate, in a way, the hunting experience for his cat. In the video below, Monkey the Cat fetches balls located around an apartment, and takes them to an automatic feeder that dispenses cat food when he retrieves a ball.

Poll, Weird Tales

Friday Poll: The Mysterious Lizard Man of South Carolina

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One reads that in South Carolina, a resident insists that she spotted a lizard man – a large bipedal reptile – walking about:

BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — The fabled Bishopville swamp creature known as Lizard Man appears to have surfaced again Sunday afternoon.

Sarah, a Sumter woman who says she went to church with a friend Sunday morning, stepped out of the sanctuary to see the Lizard Man running along the tree line.

So she did what anyone else would do — took a picture with her phone.

“My hand to God, I am not making this up,” she wrote in an email to the ABC News 4 newsroom. “So excited!”

She says they were just a mile or so from Scape Ore Swamp, the site of a similar spotting of what may also be the Lizard Man in May.

See, Has Bishopville’s ‘lizard man’ returned? New video surfaces in case.

The video the story’s title mentions was recorded in May:

A man who asked not to be identified submitted a short video of what he thought was the Lizard Man Monday morning. He said he took the video in May while coon hunting but kept its existence quiet — until he saw the reports of Lizard Man outside a church.

“I saw your lizard man story and it’s given me the courage to send you a video I took in early May,” the man wrote. “Though my wife believes me that it’s real, she said she would be embarrassed that everyone would think I was a loon so I kept it a secret.”

WCIV-TV | ABC News 4 – Charleston News, Sports, Weather

It’s of course possible that both these people did see something, and that it was someone in a lizard-man suit. Alternatively, perhaps there are lizard people in South Carolina.

What do you think?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.14.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be hot, with a high of ninety-two, and partly cloudy skies. Sunrise is 6:00 and sunset is 7:57, for 13h 57m 11s of daytime. We’ve a New Moon this evening.

On this day in 1945, after years of war across all the Pacific, the Japanese Empire admits defeat:

Washington, Aug. 14 — Japan today unconditionally surrendered the hemispheric empire taken by force and held almost intact for more than two years against the rising power of the United States and its Allies in the Pacific war.

The bloody dream of the Japanese military caste vanished in the text of a note to the Four Powers accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945, which amplified the Cairo Declaration of 1943.

Like the previous items in the surrender correspondence, today’s Japanese document was forwarded through the Swiss Foreign Office at Berne and the Swiss Legation in Washington. The note of total capitulation was delivered to the State Department by the Legation Charge d’Affaires at 6:10 P. M., after the third and most anxious day of waiting on Tokyo, the anxiety intensified by several premature or false reports of the finale of World War II.

Our good, present relationship with Japan did not come easily, to say the least, but that good relationship is so much to everyone’s advantage that we don’t even think of slipping back into conflict with her.

On this day in 1935, a Wisconsinite plays a key role in bringing Social Security into being:

1935 – Social Security Act Signed Into Law

On this date the Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. The act, originally proposed to Congress under the name “Economic Security Bill” was drafted by the Committee on Economic Security, whose Executive Staff Director was Edwin E. Witte, economics professor at the University of Wisconsin and prominent social insurance expert. [Source: Social Security Online] User submitted entry!

Puzzability‘s series this week, Logical Deductions, concludes with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — August 10-14
Logical Deductions
This week, we’re bringing order and disorder at the same time. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the seven letters in LOGICAL, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Greasy stuff used for massage; what masseurs do to the greasy stuff (or, make someone feel worse about something)
Answer:
Lubricating oil; rub it in
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Lubricating oil; rub it in” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, August 14
Holder for your margarita as served at a bar; tall piles of drink holders or coasters at a bar

City, Culture, Local Government

The Solution to the ‘Same Ten People Problem’

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What happens when, as is sometimes true in Whitewater, the same several people keep showing up on municipal committees? That’s a question city officials considered at a July 21st strategic planning meeting.

The goal, of course, isn’t to discourage ten people; the goal should be to attract twenty, thirty, etc.

One proposal would be simply to reduce the number of committees. (Common Council Meeting 07/21/2015, https://vimeo.com/134219394 beginning @ 1:04:56.)

That would reduce the duplication of attendees, of course, but it would also mean that there would be fewer opportunities for anyone to participate. That kind of approach would only trade one problem for a worse one.

Our better solution is to expand the range of our perimeter fence, and to make that fence more permeable. A wider fence includes more people; a more permeable fence is more welcoming to newcomers.

In a post from yesterday I wrote about how cultures have perimeter fences, figurative boundaries marking the divide between what they consider acceptable and what they don’t, between those of the community and those outside of it.

Whitewater’s maintained a perimeter fence that is too circumscribed, and by design too impermeable.  It’s more than generational change that limits participation. 

We’ve a fence that’s too close and too high. 

There’s still too much thought about finding the ‘right’ people for some committees, for safe choices, and like-minded outlooks.

That close and high fence will crumble. Even now, however, one sees that what passes for all Whitewater is often only a part of it. Rather than acknowledge that we are a diverse and multicultural city, there’s still an insistence that part of Whitewater is all of it.

In this way, the old perimeter fence has a limited circumference, and so actually circumscribes only part of the town. When some talk about Whitewater, they’re only talking about the approximately 7,600 or so non-students in town, rather than the actual population. That actual population includes an additional 7,000 or so resident students.

Talking about Whitewater in this way describes half the town in the name of all the town. Even within each of these larger populations, there are differences of age, gender, political party, religious views, ethnicity, and countless other important differences.

When government looks out and worries over participation, government’s answer isn’t exclusively administrative, it’s also cultural. It’s not enough for a few leaders to talk to each other, from across different institutions, and thereafter proclaim dialogue among all the city’s thousands of residents. Fifty or so political, school district, and university officials do not this city make.

Leadership discussions are only a prelude, if they are even that, to genuine discourse and positive interaction among residents of different vocations, backgrounds, etc.

The not-so-well-concealed secret of Whitewater is that the organizational leadership class in town is only a small part of the whole community. Those really animated this way are only a few hundred, I’d guess. The city’s much larger than that.

As the city is larger than the city’s leadership class, so America is larger than the city.

To our great advantage, to the benefit of three-hundred twenty-one million here and billions abroad, America by law and tradition is a diverse and (still) welcoming place.

Now, Whitewater can expand her perimeter fence sooner or later, but expansion is inevitable.

That’s not an administrative change; it’s a cultural one. Those who try to forestall this (for their own pre-eminent place in a partial community, or by simple confusion about the future) cannot alter the social change, however slow, that moves through the city.

I’m an optimist about Whitewater, because the expansive horizons of many people matter vastly more than the narrow horizons of a few. We can and should be open to those many, however different their views and backgrounds.

Tomorrow: On a Clear Day, One Can See Far Ahead (and Far Back)

City, Food, Recipe

A Recipe for Grilled Corn

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If you’ve had the chance to purchase some fresh, locally-grown produce from the Whitewater City Market (Tuesdays, 3-7 PM) or Saturday Farmers Market (8 AM – Noon), perhaps you’ve picked up some corn.  (A longtime reader kindly suggested doing so at the City Market, and it was an excellent recommendation.)

If corn, then a recipe for corn.  There are many, but here’s one that you may find to your liking:

PREPARATION
Prepare a grill, with heat medium-high and rack about 4 inches from the fire. Put corn on grill and cook until kernels begin to char, about 5 minutes, then turn. Continue cooking and turning until all sides are slightly blackened.
Mix together mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder and some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more lime juice or chili powder if you like. Serve corn with chili-lime mayo.
INGREDIENTS
4 ears of corn, husked
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, or to taste
¼ teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
Salt
freshly ground black pepper

(The link below includes nutritional information on this recipe.)

Via Grilled Corn, Mexican Style.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.13.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be partly cloudy and warm, with a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 5:59 and sunset 7:59, for 13h 59m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with just 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1961, to prevent residents from feeling to greater freedom in West Germany, the East German state closed its Berlin border. The New York Times reported the closure to readers:

Berlin, Sunday, Aug. 13– East Germany closed the border early today between East and West Berlin.

East German troops stood guard at the Brandenburg Gate, main crossing point between the Eastern and Western sectors.

The East Berlin City Government banned its citizens from holding jobs in the Western part of the divided city. This will affect tomorrow the thousands of East Berliners who daily commute to work in the Western sector.

The Communists’ orders do not affect the Western Allies’ access routes to Berlin along the 110-mile passage from West Germany. Especially they do not affect Allied military trains, which are under Soviet jurisdiction.

Action Comes in Night

The quietness of East Berlin’s deserted streets was shattered in the early hours of the morning by the screaming of police sirens as police cars, motorcycles and truckloads of police sped through the city….

Here’s today’s game from Puzzability, in its Logical Deductions series:

This Week’s Game — August 10-14
Logical Deductions
This week, we’re bringing order and disorder at the same time. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the seven letters in LOGICAL, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Greasy stuff used for massage; what masseurs do to the greasy stuff (or, make someone feel worse about something)
Answer:
Lubricating oil; rub it in
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Lubricating oil; rub it in” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, August 13
Unofficial nickname for a Texas NFL team cheerleader; speaking styles for people from Texas

City, Culture, Politics

The Perimeter Fence

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Historian Francis Bremer’s study of Puritanism, First Founders: American Puritans and Puritanism in an Atlantic World, offers insights for our own time, apart from early American history.  (I know that Whitewater’s founding had a Puritan influence, but that’s not my point, today.  Bremer’s observations on Puritanism are useful far from his particular study, and apart from sectarianism.)

Bremer observes that the Puritans had – and by extension many peoples have – within their cultures a figurative perimeter fence:

One of the challenges faced by the first colonists was how to determine the precise nature of a godly order and how to discern between free discussion that promoted their goal and ideas that threatened it – in short, how and where to position the perimeter fence dividing what was acceptable and what was not…..

Most communities, organizations, and cultures have their own perimeter fences. 

For the Puritans (although there was some dissent within their community) the perimeter fence was of narrow circumference and near impermeability.  They defended their way of life by restricting both the boundaries of the community and access to it from the outside. 

For other settlers to North America, this was less the case – other settlements had a wider perimeter fence, with greater penetrability, and so offered a warmer welcome to newcomers and dissenters. 

The question for a community is what circumference and what strength its perimeter fence will be. 

If all communities have perimeter fences, of one kind or another, then for Whitewater this question presents itself: How wide and how high should this small town’s perimeter fence be?

The answer to this question has shaped, and will continue to shape, Whitewater’s prospects. 

Tomorrow: The Solution to the ‘Same Ten People Problem.’ 

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.12.15

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Good  morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town offers increasingly sunny skies with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 5:58 and sunset 8:00, for 14h 02m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1898, a peace protocol brings to an end fighting during the Spanish-American War:

With defeats in Cuba and the Philippines, and both of its fleets incapacitated, Spain sued for peace and negotiations were opened between the two parties. After the sickness and death of British consul Edward Henry Rawson-Walker, American admiral George Dewey requested the Belgian consul to Manila, Édouard André, to take Rawson-Walker’s place as intermediary with the Spanish Government.[78][79][80]

Hostilities were halted on August 12, 1898, with the signing in Washington of a Protocol of Peace between the United States and Spain.[81] After over two months of difficult negotiations, the formal peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris, was signed in Paris on December 10, 1898,[82] and was ratified by the United States Senate on February 6, 1899.

On this day in 1939, Oconomowoc hosts a world premiere:

1939 – Wizard of Oz World Premier — in Oconomowoc

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/

Here’s the Wednesday game from Puzzability in its Logical Deductions series:

This Week’s Game — August 10-14
Logical Deductions
This week, we’re bringing order and disorder at the same time. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the seven letters in LOGICAL, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Greasy stuff used for massage; what masseurs do to the greasy stuff (or, make someone feel worse about something)
Answer:
Lubricating oil; rub it in
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Lubricating oil; rub it in” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, August 12
Judicial proceeding, as a suit brought against a prohibited gambling den; poker chip to help start the pot

City, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous

Today @ the Whitewater City Market, 3 – 7 PM

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If you’ve not had the chance, today would a fine day to visit the Whitewater City Market, at the Cravath lakefront.   They’ve an impressive lineup, and you’re sure to find something you’ll enjoy.

MUSIC

Andrus & the Mariners  5:30-7 p.m.

VENDORS

BeefN’Beaks  grass-fed beef, farm-fresh chickens and eggs

Bluff Creek Nursery  plants, produce, painted trellises

Chippy’s Kettle Corn  popped-on-site kettle corn, fresh-squeezed lemonade

D&B Yarn  hand-spun yarns

D&D Enterprises  wooden birdhouses, feeders, dream catchers, jewelry

Doug Jenks Honey  honey, maple syrup, beeswax, sorghum

Drews Designs Jewelry  jewelry

Grischow’s Produce  produce

Ground to Table  jams, jellies, chutneys, bruschetta, salsas, kimchi, bread

Jazzed-Up Marshmallows  gourmet marshmallows, apples in the fall

Life Giving Nook Goat Milk Soap  bar and liquid goat milk soap; plants and veggies

Malone’s Produce  sweet corn

Morningside Farm & Orchard  chicken, goat meat, eggs, goat milk products, jam, produce

Morsels by Marly  fruit pops, granola, baked goods

Murphy’s Farm Produce produce

Nani’s Nook  handsewn baby bibs, burp cloths, crayola caddies, aprons, eye pillows

New-Age Peasants Field of Dreams  organic produce, all-natural body scrubs, rustic furniture

Number One Dime  crocheted items, jewelry, sculptures

Ron’s Tin Roof Garden  produce, handmade signs, birdhouses

Schoenfeld Family Farm  sweet corn, beans, potatoes, onions, carrots

Shia Shakes & Co. Jewelry  jewelry and jewelry holders

Soap of the Earth  goat milk soaps infused with organically grown herbs

Spark Spices  spice blends

SpinMeKnots  hand-spun hair clips and yarns, knitted headbands, spirit locks

Steffen’s Cherry Orchard  local tart cherries (frozen), jams, honey

Sunny Brook Farm  produce, eggs

Taco Fresco  salsas, picos, pickled Mexican and southern-style veggies

Takou’s Produce  fresh-cut bouquets, sunflowers, seasonal veggies

The Vegetable Stand  produce

Uncle Steve’s Creations  homemade jellies, jams, sauces and relishes

Tony’s Honey  honey, soap, and beeswax items

Vang’s produce  produce

Yang’s produce  produce

FOOD CARTS

Casual Joe’s  pulled pork sandwiches, barbecue sauces, salad kits

Flying Cow Pizza  wood-fired mobile pizza oven

Primetime  burgers, wraps, cheese curds, fries, snow cones, sodas, and more

SweetSpot  coffee, baked goods, bread, lemonade