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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.3.12

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Good morning.

It’s a cloudy day with a high of seventy-nine, and likely thunderstorms, ahead for Whitewater.

The History Channel recalls that it’s Machiavelli‘s birthday (born in 1469) today.

Often misunderstood, always compelling.

In our history, from the records of the Wisconsin Historical Society, a birthday of a famous Wisconsin resident:

1898 – Golda Meir Born

On this date, Golda Meir (nee Mabovitch) was born in Kiev, Russia. Economic hardship forced her family to emigrate to the United States in 1906, where they settled in Milwaukee. She graduated from the Milwaukee Normal School (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and joined the Poalei Zion, the Milwaukee Labor Zionist Party, in 1915. In 1921, she emigrated to Palestine with her husband, Morris Myerson, where they worked for the establishment of the State of Israel. Meir served as Israel’s Minister of Labor and National Insurance from 1949 through 1956 and as the Foreign Minister until January of 1966. When Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly in 1969, Meir assumed the post, becoming the world’s third female Prime Minister. She died in Jerusalem on December 8, 1978. [Source: Picturing Golda Meier]

Google’s daily puzzle takes us to Italy long before Machiavelli: “What document changed the familial status of the Roman emperors associated with Quinctilis and Sextilis?” more >>

Elections, Politics, Recall

Video for the Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater

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I posted earlier about the Democrats’ recall forum on 4.25.12 at UW-Whitewater. I’m not a Democrat, but it was an event well-worth attending. All four Democratic candidates for governor, and other office-seekers, were there.

For my posts on the evening, see The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater and The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas and Jorgensen edition).

If you didn’t have an chance to be there, you can still see the presentations. Democrats can get another look at their candidates, and Republicans can see the field that’s striving to take on Gov. Walker. It’s always better to see something in the original than rely solely on newspaper or television accounts. (You’ll also be able to check my assessment of the night against your own opinion.)

Beautiful Whitewater, City, Nature

Go Native!

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Whitewater has many well-manicured lawns, and on a few of them, some honey bee hives. The lawns are lovely, and the honey bees (despite depleted aggregate numbers from colony collapse disorder) are good pollinators.

But what if there’s something different, perhaps even better, than conventional lawns and common honey bees? There is something different — and perhaps even better — if one would only go native.

In place of a regular lawn, however carefully kept, one could grow a natural lawn. Whitewater’s municipal code includes provisions allowing natural lawns at less than 50% of one’s property not covered by buildings, or more than that subject to review and aproval. (There are also provisions for what sort of plants one may have within a garden of whatever size.)

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Best bets: Review the ordinance fully, take note of the prohibited plants list, and keep the garden under 50% of your unoccupied property, thereby avoiding review from Whitewater’s Director of Public Works (who should have better things to do with his time in any event).

I’ll establish a natural lawn someday – I think it would be lovely, and I’ve marked it as a longterm goal.

But there are other native possibilities one can pursue, including raising highly-efficient native bees in place of honey bees. I’ve thought about this now and again, and a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) about native bees rekindled my interest. See, Urban Buzz: A New Bee That Sips Sweat.

Acompanying the story is a short video about urban bees —

Although the story’s about a new species of sweat bee, Lasioglossum gotham, it also considers the general benefits of native bee species —

We’ve neglected the native bees because the honey bee was so successful,” said entomologist Anne Averill at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who is conducting a $3.3 million federal study of native bees in 10 states. They hope to expand the role of native bees in agriculture.

Not a single native plant in North or South America actually needs a honeybee to survive, so long as native bees thrive, museum and university entomologists said. Untended and largely unnoticed, native bees play a role in pollinating cash crops such as tomatoes, cranberries, alfalfa and squash. They are more prevalent among farmers’ fields than previously believed, often more effective than honeybees as pollinators and more resistant to the problems that have decimated honeybees in the U.S. and Europe, several studies show

For more about orchard mason bees – a good choice — see Denise Shreeve’s account of those bees, a native species. Shreeve writes that

Orchard mason bees are native to the entire North American continent and are amazingly efficient pollinators, especially of early fruit and nut trees. (It takes only 250 OMB’s to pollinate one acre of commercial apple orchards. It would take 25,000 honey bees to accomplish the same task.)

After completing a honey beekeeping course a few years ago, and realizing how many chemicals it takes to keep them alive [she’s referring to supplements, medications, etc.], I decided to research native bees as an alternative. It’s been a fascinating project and I know that our native bees (there are over 20,000 different species in North America alone) can certainly take up the slack as our honey bee populations decline. Since they are cavity nesters like blue birds, and cannot drill their own nesting holes, I decided to help grow their populations by designing bee houses for them, similar to blue bird trails that are so popular now.

So, why not consider orchard mason bees?

Push a bit farther from the conventional, into a world of natural lawns and native bee species, and the city would look even better (and pollination would be more robust) than now.

Well worth undertaking.

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.2.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s rainy Wednesday will give way to occasional afternoon thunderstorms and a high near eighty.

Today at 4:30 PM, Whitewater’s  Community Development Authority meets.  

On this day in 1957, recalls the Wisconsin Historical Society,

Joseph McCarthy died of liver failure at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Born in 1908 in Outagamie County, McCarthy studied law at Marquette University. After graduation, he set up practice in Waupaca until WWII broke out; he spent most of the war at a desk as an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater. Following the war, McCarthy used false and exaggerated statements about his military record to create a public image of “Tail-Gunner Joe” and launch his career in politics.

On February 9, 1950, Sen. McCarthy gave his first public speech against communism. and for the next three years he and his staff investigated government departments and questioned a large number of prominent people about their political pasts. Being accused of possible communist beliefs by his highly publicized committee ruined the careers of hundreds of individuals in government, industry, and the arts. On December 2, 1954, after he had terrorized American public figures for several years, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to censure McCarthy for “conduct contrary to Senatorial tradition.”

He died less then 3 years later, spurned by his party and ignored by the media. More than 100 pictures from all phases of McCarthy’s career are online at our Wisconsin Historical Images site, and relevant documents are provided at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.[Source: Oddball Wisconsin, Jerome Pohlen, 2001, pg. 33]

Are dogs really people’s best friends? Yes, and one Golden Retriever in China seems especially so:

Some physics, some music, from Google’s daily puzzle today: “The theory that explains a train whistle’s changing pitch as the train passes by was first tested using a group of musicians. What instruments did they play?”

City

Whitewater’s present, future

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I’ve had a good bit of email asking about possible changes in Whitewater’s municipal administration, and whether I think her city manager will take a job elsewhere.

On Friday, I wrote an initial reply to the news of City Manager Brunner’s candidacy for a post in Fond du Lac: Qui-Gon Jinn’s Sound Advice for Whitewater.

Obscure and overly-dry, but my way of teasing about a 128-point, screaming red headline published elsewhere announcing the candidacy as though it were a schocking development.

A shocking development, by the way, would be something like MARTIANS SPLASHDOWN IN CRAVATH LAKE or WHITEWATER COW REALLY DOES JUMP OVER THE MOON.

Qui-Gon offers solid advice: no point in looking too far ahead, “at the expense of the moment.”

How this candidacy will go I cannot say. Private-sector employees switch jobs without much fuss; publicly-paid leaders do so with predictably more notice, and less certainty.

About Whitewater, though, one can be confident: whether easy or hard, Whitewater’s destination awaits, where she will be a different city from the one in which we live today. (See, along these lines, New Whitewater’s Inevitability.)

We’re part way toward that different city, and well-past the point of return. The principal questions for us are ‘how long?’ and ‘how easy or hard?’ There will surely be bumps – and perhaps obstacles — along this road.

Yet, for it all, there will be no going back.

Elections, Politics, Recall

The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas and Jorgensen edition)

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I wrote yesterday about the Democrats’ recall forum, focusing on the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. (See, The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater. )

Below is a summary of two other candidates’ presentations: Lori Compas, running in the 13th Senate District against Sen. Maj. Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Rep. Andy Jorgensen, now representing the 37th Assembly District, but running this fall against Rep. Evan Wynn in the 43rd District.

(A representative for Congressional candidate Rob Zerban also spoke, but I’ll confine my remarks to Compas and Jorgensen.)

Lori Compas.

I’ve written about Compas previously, including her attendance at an open-office session that Sen. Fitzgerald held.

On this evening, she began speaking before the college-hall audience by mentioning that she’d earlier had dinner with some students, and that her husband is a professor at the university.

Compas is, I think, in her early forties, but she seems younger than that (as Fitzgerald, conversely, seems older than his real age).

She read from prepared remarks, rather than extemporaneously, but spoke well and easily. Her remarks were obviously her own, and Compas read them with a familiarity that made looking at them necsssary only briefly.

In this way, she would step back from the lectern, and then occasionally move toward it, in a kind of gavotte. I’d never coach someone to do this, but it was surprisingly innocuous, and almost effective.

She’s smart, but here’s her great strength: she’s evidently and manifestly sincere. If one comes away with a single impression, it’s that she means what she says. That doesn’t make her right, but it does make her politically effective.

When Americans watch Frank Capra films, or enjoy Norman Rockwell depictions of our civic life, it’s not simply because they like that art: it’s because Americans deeply admire what lies beneath, in our sincere hopes for a good and simple politics. I well-understand that the clever and sophisticated shun films and art like this, but the loss of understanding is theirs. Americans are, as H.L.A. Hart once described us, noble dreamers.

I’m sure Fitzgerald resents her candidacy, her imposition on his time, his moment, his influence. She must seem something between impertinent and alien to him. That’s part funny, part sad, because from this conclusion one may say that Fitzgerald cannot recognize his own people, his fellow Wisconsinites and fellow Americans. They are no Other; they are his neighors.

From the video to which I’ve linked above, one can see that he’s uncomfortable in her presence.

On principle, Fitzgerald should debate Compas at least once. Tactically, he should stay as far away from her as possible, and speak of her only in a matter-of-fact and level way, lest he say something boorish.

She, on the other hand, need only get close in the polls, and then rattle him. She’ll not have to say anthing other than what she’s saying now; it’s simply that anything she says must seem provocative to Fitzgerald.

To debate the challenger would be to elevate her candidacy, and that Fitzgerald will not wish to do. Ideally, any debate should be a simple matter, two people across a small table, with perhaps a moderator seated there, too. No need to stand up, or give formal speeches — just a back-and-forth. (As in a 2010 debate between Walker and Barrett.)

And yet, and yet, why not debate Compas this way? My own disagreements with her would be different from his, surely, but is the 13th District not owed that debate, or those debates? I think so.

From a debater’s point of view, it’s not winning or losing, it’s just setting forth the best case one can, there and then. Afterward, one goes on, adjusts where needed, but recognizing that there will be other debates, other contests. It’s not as though Compas and her supporters don’t live in the district, or will be moving away – they’ll be there, one way or another, on Wednesday, June 6th.

They’re worth acknowledging and engaging, simply as residents, before and after the election.

Andy Jorgensen.

Rep. Andy Jorgensen now represents the 37th Assembly District, and lives in Fort Atkinson. Redistricting took that district apart, and he will challenge Rep. Wynn of the 43rd in the fall.

Jorgensen will be running against a freshman Republican of uncertain strength within the 43rd. Although the district has been re-configured from the 2010 race, Evan Wynn won in a very red year, and it’s unclear how rooted he’s become within the politics of the area. I’d guess not well.

Jorgensen spoke to the forum in a three-button suit, and delivered good, but rushed, remarks. He has a solid speaking voice, but spoke too quickly. (He was probably unaware of the time limit for speakers; it would have helped to be clear in advance.)

He’s likely to debate Wynn along a table, at a candidates’ forum, but that’s not to Jorgensen’s best advantage – he’d be at his best at an open-air forum between the candidates. Wynn’s a mostly phlegmatic, monotone speaker: he’s better suited to a subdued atmosphere.

Jorgensen’s points were interesting, as he hit Wynn on some issues (including signing a confidentiality agreement on redistricting) that local papers have allowed signatories to excuse away. There’s Jorgensen’s challenge: the press will be of no assistance to him. He’ll be on his own.

[Update, 5.1.12: The confidentiality agreement that Wynn foolishly signed was subsequently made public by court order. Looking at it, every so often, one is reminded how unsuited for public office a candidate may turn out to be, sunny campaign promises notwithstanding.]

The 37th’s incumbent will have to speak more slowly, directly, and concisely – and raise questions of Wynn’s record and suitablity for the 43rd.

This race, based on the history of the old district, the composition of the new one, and the expected turnout in November, will be one of the most competitive in the state.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.1.12

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Good morning.

Tuesday will be a warm day for Whitewater, at 70 degrees, with a slight chance of rain.

Whitewater’s Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that John Bascom, noted educator, was born on this day in 1827:

On this date John Bascom was born in Genoa, New York. A noted educator, university president, and author, Bascom received his B.A. (1848) and M.A. (1852) from Williams College in Massachusetts. In 1855, he entered the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.

He was appointed president of the University of Wisconsin in 1874. A leader in college education, he devoted his career to improving university standards by encouraging improved high school instruction. Bascom also advocated co-educational instruction, a rarity in the nineteenth century. During his tenure as president, the first Agricultural Experimental Station and the School of Pharmacy were created, and new buildings such as the Washburn Observatory, Old Science Hall, the Library, and Assembly Hall were built.

Bascom was a strong supporter of women’s rights, was a leader in the Prohibition party, and advocated the right of workers to join trade unions and strike for decent wages. He resigned from his university presidency in 1887 and returned to Williams College to lecture in sociology and political science. John Bascom died on October 2, 1911. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, pg. 29]

They had me, right up until the membership in the Prohibition Party (no solution for over-drinking that).

Google’s daily puzzle asks about the US Postal Service: “How much more do you pay to mail a first-class letter by U.S. Postal Service today than your great-grandfather would have on November 3, 1917?”

What if someone actually built ‘The Greatest Machine Never Built?” Charles Babbage (1791-1871) proposed a mechanical form of a computer over a century before anyone first began building one. What if someone actually built that proposed, but never constructed, machine?

Here’s a talk about Babbage’s achievement, and what it would be like if someone built the machine:

Elections, Recall

The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater

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Below are remarks originally published on 4.30.12 at Daily Adams. I’ll post separately with remarks on other candidates who attended, but are not seeking statewide office.

On Wednesday night, 4.25.12, Wisconsin’s Democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor (and a few other Democratic candidates) attended a forum at UW-Whitewater, in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

I’m a resident of Whitewater, Wisconsin (population 14,622), where I also publish a city blog, FREE WHITEWATER, and a blog of news squibs, Daily Wisconsin. I would have attended even if the forum had been farther away, but the trip required only a bicycle.

Below are observations on the night, focusing on the gubernatorial candidates. I’ll begin, though, with a news account from WKOW that nicely summarizes the event. Thereafter, observations on the evening.



The Audience.

The large, modern auditorium was packed for the event. Although on a college campus, most of the attendees were middle-aged, with a fair number of senior citizens. Only a minority of those attending were of conventional college age.

In the back of the room, one saw a row of television cameras (six by my count), with print reporters and still photographers in other parts of the auditorium.

Nearly all were dressed casually, as is common for Wisconsin, with a few older attendees in coats, and an even smaller number of younger men in coat & tie.

The event was well-organized, with each candidate or speaker receiving an introduction from a college student. The program was set for 7 PM, lights were dimmed at 7:05, and the night began.

The Gubernatorial Candidates and the Lt. Gubernatorial Candidate.

Wisconsin has four Democratic recall candidates: Tom Barrett (mayor of Milwaukee), Kathleen Falk (former county executive of Wisconsin’s second largest county), Doug La Follette (current Wisconsin Sec. of State), and Kathleeen Vinehout (a state senator from Alma, a small town in northwest Wisconsin).

Barrett.

Barrett spoke first, followed by a few candidates for down-ballot races, and then the other gubernatorial candidates. The program was set this way to accommodate his schedule, but it also reflects the current state of the race – Barrett leads other Dems by double digits in polls. When he entered, a few minutes before he spoke, a steady stream of well-wishers greeted him and shook his hand (more, I’d gues, than any other candidate).

The audience greeted Barrett, in coat, blue shirt, and blue-gray tie, warmly. Not a rousing ovation, but the steady and strong applause leading candidates typically receive.

Barrett is a sold speaker, if not a dramatic one. All the candidates emphasized the same themes, but Barrett by speaking first introduced them to the attendees: that Walker’s campaign promses were different from his actual governance, that this actual governance overturned years of settled labor law, that Walker was unduly divisive (creating a ‘civil war in Wisconsin’), and that while job creation has been mediocre social issues have receive too much attention.

Barrett made no mention of an ongoing corruption probe into the conduct of Milwaukee County officials during Scott Walker’s tenure as Milwaukee County Executive.

Some have wondered if Barrett’s feisty enough. I can answer that he’s feisty – how much, and whether enough, Wisconsin will see if he faces Walker between May 8th and June 5th.

But here’s what Barrett’s offering: that he’ll end the ‘civil war’ in Wisconsin. That he’s reasonable enough, calm enough, and agreeable enough to restore a less contentious state politics. For some, that’s a step back. But it begs this question: has Scott Walker been worth the candle? If one could do all this again, would one still encourge it be done as Walker has done it? Will Wisconsin voters ratify these last eighteen months?

It depends on how many eggs one can break and still serve an omelette people will eat.

Walker’s doing well enough in polls, and trading as of the morning of 4.30 on Intrade favors a Walker win in June.

Mahlon Mitchell.

The Democrats have one candidate for lieutenant governor, to face incumbent Rebecca Kleefisch. Mitchell’s a lieutenant with the Madison Fire Department, and after listening to him for only a few minutes three things become clear: (1) he’s a fine and engaging speaker, (2) although he’s not run for office before, he’s obviously been thinking about Wiscosnin politics for years, and (3) if the Democrats win in June he’s certain to be a major force in Wisconsin Democratic poltics. (He’s in his mid-thirties, so it could be a long career.)

Mitchell’s three main goals are job creation, restoring education spending, and a focus on Wisconsin’s poverty.

Of all the candidates who spoke, no one received stronger applause than Mitchell. He ended his adress with “God Bless Wisconsin,” to an enthusiastic response.

The Walker campaign, though, would gain nothing in a head-to-head forum between Kleefisch and Mitchell. Both second-chair candidates will tour the state, but if there’s to be any forum or debate, it won’t involve Kleefisch and Mitchell.

Doug La Follette.

Wisconsin’s current Sec. of State, Doug La Follette has been in that job for thirty-five years, winning the low-demand office in both blue and red years. He’s an older gentleman, and former chemistry and ecology professor.

Smart, ones guesses, but slightly dotty, too: at one point he began to veer into a history about how the Kochs have exterted influence in Amercan since Goldwater’s defeat. Whatever many problems the Koch Briothers present, there’s no one familiar with their history who thinks they were remotely as they are now immediately after Goldwater’s defeat. (As libertarians know, theirs has been a gradual, now complete, transformation into former libertarians and current Republicans, however dishonestly they now describe themselves.)

La Follette has the manner of a smart, slightly batty uncle: sincere and well-meaning, but one suspects he just might think that extraterrestrial technology is behind America’s aerospace achievements, for example, or that the Bermuda Triangle is a gateway to another dimension.

It’s hard to tell if La Follette thinks he might win, although he talks about his track record of success in GOP years. One does come away believing that La Follette truly believes he’s the best candidate to face Walker.

There was an intermission before La Follette spoke, and during it, he walked the aisles, asking if anyone wanted a Doug LaFollete button. That’s Wisconsin politcs: a candidate for governor, an older man in a gray suit, handing out his own buttons.

We still have good things others haven’t had for generations.

Kathleen Falk.

First of the Democrats to declare, Dane County’s former county executive now runs behind Barrett, and it must be frustrating. She describes hers as a ‘big tent’ campaign, but what she’s describing as a big tent is really the big, well-furnished house of many left-of-center organizations and unions in the state (Barrett has the support of most left-of-center incumbent politicians in the state).

It wasn’t supposed to be this way – first in, organizationally-backed, she was supposed to sail to the nomination, with Barrett too afraid to enter the race.

It hasn’t been as she expected, and her willingness to take Barrett to task by name (the only Dem to do so), was met with silence. She received applause after she was introduced, and when she finished, but when she criticized Barrett by name (“Unlike Tom, I was…”) — only silence. No applause, no cheers, not even any words from the audience — nothing.

If she were a more intuitive candidate, she would have responded to the silence, and put her criticism in context for her audience. She didn’t, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps she interpreted the silence as tacit agreement (athough it wasn’t), or perhaps she’s too scripted to gauge her audience moment-by-moment. Either way, it’s hard to see why Big Labor felt so sure of her as their path to success.

I’ve thought that as long as Falk doesn’t finish Barrett, her criticism only make him stronger in a general election, by reminding voters that he’s not Big Labor’s first choice. I still think that’s true.

Kathleen Vinehout.

A state senator from a small, northwestern Wisconsin town, Kathleen Vinehout is a former academic (it’s Dr. Vinehout) with an organic dairy farm. She was one of the Left’s Fab 14, those Dem senators who went to Illinois in 2011 to prevent a quorum for restrictions on collective bargaining.

Vinehout’s no libertarian, but I’ll admit that it’s hard not to admire a strong, fesity woman with clear point of view (there’s nothing evidently feisty in Falk’s more reserved, measured manner).

Vinehout’s behind in the polls for the May 8th primary, but her staff was easily the best of the evening: they had Vinehout brochures on the arms of chairs in the auditorium, and were soliciting names for campiagn email, etc., as attendees left the hall. (Vinehout was the only one of the candidates to distribute flyers like this.)

Her presentation centered on changes to Medicaid payments in Wisconsin, and the number of residents who were to be removed from the public roster.

But her delivery — impassioned, with a raspy voice but confident delivery, seemed to catch people’s notice.

I’d guess this will end on May 8th like this: Barrett, Falk, La Follette (on name recognition), and Vinehout. That’s where the polls are now; they’ll not shift much, I think.

That’s not a bad outcome for the Democrats (there’s a part of me that thinks if Vinehout had enough general election money, she could do as well as Milwaukee’s Barrett).

That primary result would, however, avoid the inauspicious selection of Falk or La Follette, who may be sincere, but seem incapable of matching a governor unlike any other in the history of the state.

Music

Monday Music: Ella Fitzgerald, Anything Goes

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Fear not the modern! Here’s Ella Fitzgerald singing Anything Goes. The Cole Porter 1934 song’s superficially a lament about permissive modern ways, but the playfulness of the song (and in this rendition in Miss Fitzgerald’s voice) belies that starched view.

We survived the new of ’34, ’64, and ’94 – we’ll survive the new of ’24, too.

Enjoy.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 4.30.12

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Good morning.

Whitewater’s Monday will be cloudy, but mild, with a high of sixty-five. I’m sometimes asked why I lead with a simple weather prediction (from the National Weather Service). There are two reasons.

First, weather’s worth considering as the backdrop to the day, so to speak. For many, in this agricultural state, it’s directly and immediately important to their livelihood. For many more, it’s an unalterable truth beyond our reach: No matter what we do, or hope to do, during a day, the weather goes on all around and beyond our undertakings.

Second, though, thinking about the weather is a holdover from a comparison between the long-range forecasts of the Farmers’ Almanac and the more supple forecasting of the National Weather Service. Although one typically thinks of government agencies as more rigid and less supple than private actors, that’s not true in this case: the NWS can adjust in a way that a year-in-advance plan of the FA obviously cannot. Flexible typically wins, and that’s true of the NWS over the FA.

In 1864, quick and practical thinking saved the day for the a Union fleet, thanks to Joseph Bailey:

1864 – Joseph Bailey Saves Union Fleet

On this date Joseph Bailey began to direct the men of six regiments, including the 23rd Wisconsin, in a dramatic attempt to save the heart of the Union fleet during the Civil War. Bailey, who was from Wisconsin Dells and an experienced lumberjack, served as an engineer in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry. In a doomed campaign against the Confederates on the Red River in Louisiana, Union warships found themselves trapped by low water and the rocky river bed. As Confederate soldiers approached, Bailey employed water control techniques used by loggers to construct a series of dams that successfully narrowed the river, raised the water level by six feet, and provided enough surge to free the trapped fleet of gunboats.  For his role in this rescue, Bailey was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He also received a Tiffany punch bowl from his fellow officers. [Wisconsin Lore and Legend, pg. 18.]

Source: Wisconsin Historical Society.

Google’s had lots of unusual daily puzzles, but none yet so odd as this one, I think: “After in utero cannibalization, what’s the maximum number of pups born at one time to the only shark that swims to the surface to gulp air for buoyancy?”

 

 

 

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 4.22 to 4.28

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26 Apr @DailyAdams
So maybe these scandals can get worse: Brazilian prostitute plans to sue US Embassy http://bit.ly/JH8eb0
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

25 Apr @dailywisconsin
Dem candidates forum: older man walks aisles, asks if anyone wants La Follette button – It’s Doug La Follette himself!
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

25 Apr @dailywisconsin
Full house at UW Whitewater Dem candidates forum for all 4 candidates Barrett Falk Vinehout La Follette #wirecall
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

25 Apr @bensommer
“Government is not reason or persuasion – government is force” ~G Washington
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

24 Apr @FREEWHITEWATER
@DailyAdams: And up is down @reason: Former Drug Czar Advisor Paul Chabot: Alcohol Prohibition “Actually Worked” http://ow.ly/1j3O5f

24 Apr @DailyAdams
RT @mercatus: Economic news has been so bad for so long that we now regard mediocre news as good: http://bit.ly/I6QJyz
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

24 Apr @FREEWHITEWATER
50th out of 50: WI posts largest percentage job loss in U.S. over past year http://JSOnline.com http://bit.ly/I8LqQZ

24 Apr @DailyAdams
The rarity of effective multitasking: What Cocktail Parties Teach Us http://on.wsj.com/JDv2pc
Retweeted by FREEWHITEWATER

23 Apr @FREEWHITEWATER
The Landmarks Commission’s Sensible Proposals for Transparency & Best Practices « FREE WHITEWATER http://bit.ly/I9zFc5

22 Apr @FREEWHITEWATER
Falk’s done: Labor group’s pro-Falk TV ads vanish – JSOnline http://bit.ly/JYZIxZ [Adams, 4.29 – but maybe not, as there’s now a subsequent, $1 million-dollar ad buy for her in her battle w/ Barrett for the nomination.]