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Inbox: Reader Mail

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Here are summaries of a few of the questions or email messages that I’ve received recently. It’s a brief part of a larger correspondence, with no particular theme. I’ve summarized them, but they accurately reflect the questions and my original replies.

Why don’t you write much about the school issues? Don’t you realize that schools are the biggest topic in town? Well, perhaps schools are the biggest topic in town; I’m not sure. I’ll agree that they’re among the biggest. I’ve written mostly on other matters, but just last week I had a post about an upcoming candidate search for our middle school.

(As I’m the one who publishes this website, I’ve the advantage of posting about schools before using that post to reply to a reader’s contention that I don’t write about schools enough. An advantage, I know.)

I’ll follow the district more closely this year.

Aren’t you worried about the direction of the city? I’m an optimist: we’ve had tough times, we’ll yet have more, but reliance on the ineffectual policies of the last decade cannot (and so will not) continue much longer.

I’m convinced that the New Deal failed to produce a better economy, but there is one way in which I admire and respect the New Dealers: they cared about the condition of common men and women. They enumerated the problems they saw around them – copiously – because they rightly understood that a better tomorrow required a candid today.

We have significant afflictions of poverty and stagnation. I’ve no respect for those who address these real problems by not addressing them.

Happy talk in these circumstances is mostly self-serving, sometimes laughable, and always unworthy of us.

We’ll have a New Whitewater, and sooner than many realize.

Don’t you feel sorry for Ryan Braun? Although his mistakes are his own, I do think that’s sad. I feel worse, though, for the team that will struggle either with his role on the team, or with trying to trade such an expensive player. There’s no good news for Braun or the Brewers in any of this.

Is all government spending really bad? No. There’s too much of it, though.

How much work is blogging? It’s not any, because it’s not work. I’m (mostly) a watchdog blogger, but that’s a not job, it’s a commitment. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook pages, and dozens of other new media with which I’m unversed: they’re all means of political or social commentary.

All things are limited by time and cost, but some seemingly less so, as one readily and happily commits to them. They seem, in this way, almost without effort, as the things one truly loves seem effortless.

All people have pursuits like this; they simply differ in which pursuits.

From a discussion with a fellow blogger this morning, about blogging: what’s important for a blogger? There are several important things, but I mentioned a certain point.

One should be one’s own publisher (or one’s own editor, if one thinks of editing principally as the selection of topics and ideas.) This really comes down to writing what one would like to write – what one enjoys – and having control over one’s own agenda.

Bloggers should think of themselves as writers, editors, publishers, all of those roles. This characteristic underlies them all: to be one’s own man or woman.

Let’s have more dog videos. Well, sure: here’s one of a dog who has better ideas than simply fetching. (It’s not a fail – he’s simply focused on a different goal.)

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 8.4 to 8.10

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.12.13

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s week begins with a partly sunny Monday and a high of seventy-seven. There’s a twenty percent chance of isolated showers in the later afternoon.

The Planning Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

On this day in 1898, an armistice ends the Spanish-American war:

The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty.

On this day in 1939, the Wizard of Oz has its world premiere in Wisconsin:

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

Puzzability starts a new weekly puzzle series, Tourist Traps:

Tourist Traps
We’re crossing a lot of bridges on our summer vacation. For each day this week, fill in the two-word name of a U.S. tourist destination so that a familiar phrase or compound word is formed by the first word in the clue followed by the first word in the tourist site, and likewise a phrase or word is formed by the second word in the tourist site’s name followed by the second word in the clue.

Example:
GRIND ___ ___ GOAT

Answer:
Stone Mountain

Here’s today’s puzzle:

Monday, August 12

BETTY ___ ___ ARREST

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.11.13

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Good morning.

Sunday presents a one-third chance of thunderstorms during the day, but a ninety percent chance for tonight. The high temperature for today will be seventy-four.

Some creatures just won’t share the road, as an enduro rider recently learned:

On this day in 1929, Babe Ruth becomes the first major-league player to hit 500 home runs.

But on August 11, 1919, an even more significant sports moment:

1919 – Green Bay Packers Founded
On this date 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 team. [Source: Packers.com]

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.10.13

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Good morning.

Saturday will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise was 5:56 PM and sunset will be 8:04 PM. The moon is a waxing crescent with 14% of its visible disk illuminated.

A bit of dog and human teamwork:

On 8.10.1945, Japan accepts the Potsdam terms:

On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.

Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from the daily decisions of prosecuting the war, rubber-stamping the decisions of his War Council, including the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, finally felt compelled to do more. At the behest of two Cabinet members, the emperor summoned and presided over a special meeting of the Council and implored them to consider accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. “It seems obvious that the nation is no longer able to wage war, and its ability to defend its own shores is doubtful.” The Council had been split over the surrender terms; half the members wanted assurances that the emperor would maintain his hereditary and traditional role in a postwar Japan before surrender could be considered. But in light of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, as well as the emperor’s own request that the Council “bear the unbearable,” it was agreed: Japan would surrender.

Tokyo released a message to its ambassadors in Switzerland and Sweden, which was then passed on to the Allies. The message formally accepted the Potsdam Declaration but included the proviso that “said Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as sovereign ruler.” When the message reached Washington, President Truman, unwilling to inflict any more suffering on the Japanese people, especially on “all those kids,” ordered a halt to atomic bombing, He also wanted to know whether the stipulation regarding “His Majesty” was a deal breaker. Negotiations between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.

Poll

Friday Poll: Dog or Spouse?

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Yachtsman and Beloved Terrier

So one reads that a yachtsman first saved his dog from his sinking boat, and only thereafter swam back to rescue his wife:

Graham Anley, his wife Cheryl and their 9-year-old Jack Russell Rosie were sailing from East London to Madagascar for a holiday when their yacht hit a reef in the early hours of Sunday morning, the National Sea Rescue Institute’s Geoff McGregor said.

Anley and the dog swam to shore before returning for his wife whose safety line had snagged on the steering gear.

The Jack Russell was wearing a specially tailored dog life-jacket which has its own emergency strobe light attached to it.

In that situation, which would you rescue first: spouse or dog? I’ll answer spouse.

What’s your pick?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 8.9.13

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Good morning.

Friday in town will be partly sunny, with a high of seventy-eighty. We’ll have west winds at 5 to 10 MPH, and just a slight chance of isolated morning showers.

On this day in 378, a bad day for the Roman Empire:

In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians.

Crowned in 264, Emperor Valens initiated warfare against the semi-civilized Visigoths in 364 and by 369 had defeated them. Visigoths under Fritigern were given permission to settle south of the Danube in the Roman Empire but, subjected to oppressive measures by Roman officials, they soon rose in revolt. In 378, Valens marched a Roman army against Fritigern, and 10 miles from Adrianople the Romans came upon the massed barbarians. As the Visigoth cavalry was off on a forging mission, Valens ordered a hasty attack on August 9. The Romans initially drove the barbarians back, but then the Visigoth cavalry suddenly returned, routing the Romans and forcing them into retreat. The horsemen then rode down and slaughtered the fleeing Roman infantry. Some 20,000 of 30,000 men were killed, including Emperor Valens.

The decisive Visigoth victory at the Battle of Adrianople left the Eastern Roman Empire nearly defenseless and established the supremacy of cavalry over infantry that would last for the next millennium. Emperor Valens was succeeded by Theodosius the Great, who struggled to repel the hordes of Visigoth barbarians plundering the Balkan Peninsula.

Puzzability‘s series about mythology concludes today:

Myth Takes
For this week of freaks and Greeks, we started each day with a mythical creature. Then we hid it in a sentence, with spaces added as necessary. The answer spans at least two words in the sentence and starts and ends in the middle of words. The day’s clue gives the sentence with a Greek column in place of the creature.

Example:
I am not rising from this comfortable socolumntil I’ve finished this fascinating myth about the early days of Mt. Olympus.

Answer:
Faun (sofa until)

What to Submit:
Submit the mythical creature (as “Faun” in the example) for your answer.

Friday, August 9:

My daughter only likes love stories, so if a myth isn’t rocolumnotional, she won’t finish it.