Wisconsin Journal

Number 18

18 January 1998



We've experienced our coldest weather so far here. Sent the kids off

to school last week in -10 degree weather (-25 with the wind chill).

It's moderated some from then, with most of the temperatures being

in the twenties during the day.  Hasn't been aboving freezing in

a while, though we may see that this week. The lakes have finally

frozen, and we saw ice-fishing tents and shacks on Lake Monona on

our way to church this morning. Still, it has been a mild, wet

winter for Wisconsin. It's actually snowed 30" this winter, which is

a foot above normal, but only about 6" of it is on the ground right now.



Life has slowed down a bit since Santa Fe. Classes at the university don't

start up again until Wednesday, and it hasn't been great weather to

drive anywhere. Sarah had a friend from Oregon visit over New Years,

and had a belated celebration of her birthday with a sleepover on

the 2nd. She also now sports pierced ears. Luke just turned 16, and

starts drivers ed classes on Tuesday.



So the excitement has mostly been the Packers. While I've watched some

of their games on TV, I decided it was time to get a more complete

experience. So, I headed down to a neighborhood bar to watch the playoff

game with Tampa, the weekend after New Years. The place was much less

crowded than I figured it would be. Maybe it was because the game was

considered a shoo-in, maybe all the fans had tickets or maybe it's

just hard for Packers fans to get up by 11:30. (The situation was

quite different last weekend for the game with San Francisco. I

took Kaye along that time, and we ended up standing.) I watched the

Tampa game in the back room with the twin big-screen TVs, but was

disconcerted that they played the radio coverage over the PA system

at the same time. It still startles me to see little kids in a bar---

a couple of families with little kids were at the table next to me

for part of the game. Interesting picture seeing a bartender carrying

a tray with seven milks and a gin and tonic. The bar was offering free

shots of peppermint schnapps with each Green Bay score, which makes

you realize that two field goals is sometimes better than a touchdown.

The most avid fans had lined up a row of tables right in front of

the big screens. There were exactly twelve of them. I stood in front

of them to get a better look during the third quarter break, and

speculated that had the Last Supper been in Wisconsin, communion would

be beer and fried cheese curds.



Kaye and I did get out one Wednesday this month, after a streak of 40

degree days melted most of the snow. We headed west-northwest to the town

of Richland Center, which is the birthplace of Frank Lloyd Wright. The

one Wright structure in the area is the A. M. German Warehouse, designed

around 1915 in what Wright called his "Mayan" style. It is the only

instance of his use of this style outside California and the southwest.

The bottom three floors are mostly just red brick, but the fourth floor

has a concrete facade with Mayan motifs. Most of the buildings he

later did in similar styles used precast blocks to make the designs,

but in this case it was cast in place. German ran a mercantile

store, and reportedly took plans for the warehouse in payment for

debts Wright had run up for supplies for his Spring Green enclave.

German started the building, but ran out of money to continue construction

during WW I. He later got some investors to back finishing it, with

thoughts of using it for a restaurant, gift shop and apartments.

At that point Wright did a modified design, which also added a music

studio for the German family, who lived next door. Right now someone

uses part of it as small musuem and gift shop, but it was closed the

day we were there. We could see inside a little, and saw the

flaring support pillars with decorated captials that hold the whole

thing up.



We walked around downton Richland Center a bit. The downtown seems to

have been well maintained, but hasn't been prettified as with other

nearby towns seeking the tourist trade. From there we headed south

over some serious hills to Muscoda, on the other side of the Wisconsin

River, then followed the river back west to Spring Green. We'd

been briefly through the town on our visit to Taliesin, but hadn't

looked around much. This time we stopped for lunch, at the Posthouse,

which is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state.

Good pot roast and pies. While the dining room is fairly traditional,

the bar is quite "Wrightish". We also looked a medical center, a church

and a bank that had been designed by students of Wright. The bank

was done by his stepson-in-law, and is round, made of textured cast

concrete blocks and painted a saturated orange-brown color. You can't

miss it.



Old and New: I had yet to be inside the UW Fieldhouse, and the free

alumni basketball game seemed a good opportunity to have a look inside.

Affectionately called The Barn, it's a big brick and steel girder

box, with a wood roof. It reminded me some of Mac Court at the University

of Oregon. However, at Mac Court, the hallways leading to the upper

level and balconies are closed in, where as in the Fieldhouse, you

can see through to exterior walls in all directions. In particular

there's no floor beneath the balcony, meaning any dropped soda or

popcorn filters through onto the crowd below.



The two squads for the alumni game both had about 20 players, and they

used platoon substitution to give everyone a chance to play. Five-at-

once substitution has some problems, such as one group of replacement

players not knowing which end was their basket. The players progressed

from oldest to youngest during each half. While some of the 60-year-olds

still had their shooting touch, speed and jumping were mostly absent.

I saw several 5-on-1 plays (both offensively and defensively) and

one of the older players decided he was only going to play defense.

The halves got progressively more exciting, as the younger players

came in and the pace picked up. The last batch of players clearly

overlapped in their years on the team, and still rememberd some

plays. The game went pretty fast, given there wasn't much fouling

and only one time-out was called. That came with 3 second left,

with the red squad down 78-81. While they were putting together

their 3-point play, the white squad put all 20 players on the court

to defend. Anyway, Wisconsin won.



This game in the fieldhouse wouldn't be so notable, except that the

new UW sports arena, the Kohl Center, was dedicated this weekend.

Kaye and I went to the open house this afternoon. Quite a change.

Seats instead of bleachers, two balconies, no pillars to block

sightlines, luxury suites, and 26 restrooms, where there were 2

in the Fieldhouse. The "Kohl" is Senator Herb Kohl, who donated $25

million of his personal fortune towards the $78 million cost.

Kaye and I have dubbed it the "Cabbage Patch". (Kohl is German for

cabbage, get it?) Remember, you read it here first. The main reason

we wanted to go was to see the Mendota Wall, a glass installation

by Seattle artist Dale Chihuly, who attended UW. It's actually a

series of pieces, in his current "tentacle" style, along the

front interior wall. Interesting, be we thought it looked out of

place in a sports arena.



>From there, Kaye and I went over to the Historical Society museum,

because she hadn't seen the exhibit on the Arts & Crafts movement

in Wisconsin. (Realized an error from a previous report. The Wisconsin

designer whose furniture I liked was Niedecken, not Niedecker.)

I took some time to look over an exhibit about the political history

of Wisconsin. Wisconsin was the cradle of the Progessive movement

in American politics in the early part of this century. In the

1890s, much of the populace of Wisconsin was getting disgruntled with

the political cronyism they saw between the big industrialists and

the political parties. The lumber companies, railroads, and utilities

had monopolies in some areas, tax breaks and were seen as a source

of political corruption. The spearhead of the movement was a Republican

politician, Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette. Much of his support

came from the farmers, who were thought they were getting gouged

on rail transport, and Scandinavians, who as recent immigrants felt

left out of the political process. As governor from 1901-1906 he

worked towards replacing political appointments with a civil service,

and also pushed through a direct primary law in 1903, so that all

citizens could decide on party candidates, rather than leaving the

selection to backroom conventions. Wisconsin also introduced the

first state income tax in 1911. Fighting Bob went on to be US Senator

for around 20 years.



Also around this time the "Wisconsin Idea" was articulated, which was

that the state university and the state government should work together

for the benefit of people in the state. One manifestation of the

idea was that legislative bills should be decided on the basis

of fact and expert opinion, rather than on the basis of lobbying.

To that end, the state established a legislative research library.

Another way the Wisconsin Idea was carried out was through the

agricultural extension service. The extension service used the

university radio station WHA (started in 1917 as experimental station

9XM) to reach the rural population with farm reports and home

economics broadcasts.



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Wisc. Misc.

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I've seen cacti with miniature cheeseheads in several stores.



Next to the hamburger and hot dogs buns in every supermarket, you

will find brat buns. Usinger's seems to be the standard against which

other sausages are judged, and we just finished up the stash of

special Usinger's Octoberfest brats that we bought last fall. Cooked

them on the charcoal grill in the snow.



My sister, Martha, says she heard another Lutheran minister recounting

my story of the guy who woke up sober on Sunday and decided to go to

church, at a Bishop's Convocation in Oregon. While I'm flattered my

reports get such wide circulation, it's a bit disconcerting to think

that everything I write is being scrutinized by the Lutheran clergy in

Oregon.



Ad from a special issue of the Chicago Tribune Magazine on weddings,

promotion purchase of a tuxedo: "Who knows, maybe one day your son will

have the opportunity to throw-up in it at the prom." (Kaye thought it

was disgusting. Everyone knows "throw up" doesn't have a hyphen.)



And a couple wedding announcement quotes:



"They said their vows in the deer stand and observation tower that belongs

to Chris' father. Chris also brought an outdoor element to his proposal:

He tied an engagement ring onto a fishing pole while the couple fished."



"The reception at the Stoughton Country Club was spiced up when the groom,

groomsmen and ushers dropped their pants and danced in their Packers

boxer shorts."



Brrr,

Dave