Curdistan

The Curdistanis Attend the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival

2009-06-06T18:21:00.004-05:00

Dear Readers (if indeed any remain),

So, we haven't posted a word since Inauguration Day, you say. What kind of a blog is this, you ask.

Well, readers, it's a blog that is deeply affected by the academic calendar and something called the "spring semester," followed by something called the "interim term," which entails teaching a semester's worth of material in three weeks.

Now, however, I have been jarred out of blogging complacency by two events. 1) The interim term ended yesterday, and I am done teaching for the year. 2) Today, I have seen truly stupendous, wondrous sites of cheese. How could I NOT blog about this? Our blog is named Curdistan, for the Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake.

And so, today, after Indian brunch in Appleton (and the discovery of a small Indian grocery store-YES!), we attended The Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival in Little Chute, Wisconsin. Despite the soggy weather, a good time was had by all.

Cheese curds? Present. Squeaky. Check.

Cheese carving? We saw talented folk carving Mr. Potato head, a football, a cow, the Brewers' logo, and, most amazing of all, a detailed replica of Miller Park out of good 'ol, gleaming yellow Wisconsin cheddar. Check.

A giant buffet of cheese to sample? Check. (At one point, someone asked members of our party "where we got the cheese," which is kind of hysterical).

Rides and other carnival fare? Check. (I mean, what better thing to do, after eating a bunch of cheese, than to go on RIDES?)

Cheese curd eating contest? Check.

What better way to usher in the summer in Wisconsin than a cheese festival? (Even if the current temperature is, yes, 48 degrees).

"In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun"....

2009-01-20T16:15:00.010-06:00

I never wrote about the day we heard Barack Obama speak. He wasn't President Obama yet (President Obama!), but it was a winter day so much like this one, last February, before the Wisconsin primary. We heard Obama at a small-ish "town hall" gathering in Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee. Obama actually came to Oshkosh later that week. But I had a meeting I couldn't skip for the speech, so on February 13, down to Waukesha we drove. We stood in the cold, talking to a woman who had brought her husband-- a Republican-- who was more worried about reactions to his Chicago Bears hat than about his party affiliation. We listened as Obama gave his stump speech-- which I think I practically had memorized after watching the campaign on tv for weeks-- and as he thoughtfully answered questions from the audience. We remained impressed. We were happy.

Above are two pictures from that day-- one of our gorgeous drive back home through snowy fields, the other of then-Senator Obama himself. I've been thinking about photography and history-- and the seams where personal memory and national memory meet-- as I watched the inauguration events this week. At the town hall, I was seated a few rows back-- maybe 50 feet from Obama-- and I probably raised my camera to take a picture about 10 times as he spoke. It felt invasive. It felt a bit rude. As many theorists have noted, there is a kind of violence in "fixing" someone in the camera's gaze. And yet, it was hard NOT to take a picture-- this was my only chance. And so, above, I have the photographic proof that I Was There, for one tiny stop of the 2008 campaign.

I'm not alone. Every television image of Obama working a rope line, or shaking hands after an inaugural celebration, shows people raising their cameras and cell phones high above the crowd, clicking away. Even Malia Obama has been busy recording what she sees, fixing things in time.

Photographs remind us where we are, where we've been. I have missed New York and DC a bit this week. I've thought of all of the people I knew there, the places I have stood there. In the online edition of the times, I looked at an image of the Columbia campus in the snow, students gathered on the steps, watching the oath. On flickr, there was a picture of our old neighborhood in Washington Heights.

It's sunset here in Oshkosh, on a day that was crisp and cold-- very similar temperatures to what was reported for DC, except that here, this weather feels good and like a bit of a thaw to me. I watched the ceremonies with a mix of emotion and a critical gaze. But it was hard to remain aloof when I heard the strains of "Air and Simple Gifts"--because that folk melody reminded me of what it was like to be a teenager, listening to "Appalachian Spring," thinking of ideas that I thought were new and simple and grand (they are old things, really, and not simple or necessarily grand). It was hard to be cynical about the inaugural address, even while I mentally tried to "unpack" it, hard not to be moved by "our patchwork heritage," by the return of science, by the idea that now perhaps our government at least will not torture, will not kill so much as it does. It was hard not to think of my grandparents, those I knew and those I did not meet, and all of the others before them... the ones who crossed oceans, as Obama said today, or, in Tony Kushner's phrasing, "the ones who crossed the ocean, who brought with us to America the villages of Russia and Lithuania," the woman "who carried the old world on her back across the ocean, in a boat....You can never make that crossing that she made, for such Great Voyages in this world do not anymore exist."

I cried hearing Elizabeth Alexander's luminous "praise song for the day." In my head, I try to balance "Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce..." with "A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

But most of all, I was moved by the imagery of winter: by the evocation of Washington in winter at the end of President Obama's speech, by the "sharp sparkle" in Alexander's poem. This second winter in Wisconsin I have tried to embrace the winter, to take in the cold, and to remind myself that it is both beautiful and finite. On campus today, surrounded by snow, I had to take a picture.... to mark the day.... of my own memory-object in the sparkling snow. I don't have any illusions that the country is suddenly ok, that any president can meet emotions and expectations as grandiose as those we place on this one. Still, I hope, mingling my memories of last February's cold drive with the cold brisk air I inhaled today, that we can ....begin.

Or, as Naomi Shihab Nye writes: "it's late, but everything comes next."

Pizza by the Slice

2008-12-22T21:37:00.003-06:00

To a New Yorker, the phrase "by the slice" after "pizza" is entirely redundant. It's not only the standard unit of sale, it's a well-documented economic indicator of when the price of a token is about to go up. Wisconsin however has barely heard of the concept.

There are three ways to get a pie in Oshkosh. The first is buying frozen from the supermarket. The selection at even the small supermarkets is larger than the entire freezer section at a NYC market. Then there take-and-bake stores, both chains and local. I guess this offers the illusion that it's healthier, since you apply your own home-made heat. Finally, there are a ton of pizzerias for eat-in and delivery, our favorite of which is Glass Nickel. Red's makes a good thin crust. But really, with as much pizza as people eat up here, you would think there would be a few places that really serve up a perfect pie. I've found nothing yet that matches the best pies from Manhattan and Brooklyn. And the offerings here are mostly deep-dish style; nothing really looks like a New York pie.

But in the last month or two something new has come to Oshkosh -- pizza by the slice! Polito's was opened by an Italian guy from New York, and the slice looks and tastes like what you would expect: crispy crust, good sauce and the right shape and size! (There was already one chain in town that serves by the slice, but it's a fast-food style rectangle and it sucks.) It's still not perfect but it's the best we've found.

It helps to pretend they don't actually offer a mac-and-cheese slice.

How has this place managed to make a dent in the mindshare of hungry Wisconsinites? By challenging their competitive-eating manhood! They offer a 28lb "monster pizza" for $50, and if you and a buddy finish it an hour you win $500! The local newspaper (a crappy Gannet rag which admittedly has not much else to cover) ran a continuing feature on the various attempts to win the prize, all of which ended in failure. Until last week, when the prize was finally won by a pair of Army soldiers, who were competing against their fellow Marines and Navy men. USA!

The pie normally has pepperoni and sausage, but "vegetarians call for special instructions". Hmm...

Autumn Retrospective

2008-12-03T20:18:00.000-06:00

Naturally, now that snow has already fallen and the autumn colors are long gone, I'm finally getting around to posting some foliage pictures. For the second year in a row, I've taken some lovely pictures of the autumn leaves here, and, for the second year in a row, the fall semester has been so jam-packed (packed with jam? what kind of jam? Grape? Strawberry?) that I had no time to blog or post them when they were actually timely.

Nonetheless, here they are-- shots of yellow and gold and brown hues from October and November. The first few images below are from Election Day, which was a strangely warm Indian Summer sunny day, which I think changed the light on the trees a bit. The final image is also from that week-- it's not of Oshkosh, but of Grant Park in Chicago, where the trees had turned an awesome yellow just a few days before Obama's acceptance speech). It's funny looking at the leaves in retrospective, now that the landscape has changed over to assorted grays and whites.

Santa Claus Has Already Come To Town

2008-11-28T18:29:00.000-06:00

Oshkosh kicked off its holiday festivities a couple weeks ago with a big gathering in Opera House Square. There was caroling, kid games, and food from some local restaurants (including my favorite new downtown cafe). Apparently this was the biggest party going on in the world that night, because Santa chose to stop by our town to meet the kids! Unfortunately I had only my crappy cellphone camera to document the scene. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the party, despite it being one of the first really cold days this year.

The next day Jodi and I stopped at the Fox Valley Mall in Appleton for some shopping. It's a fine mall if you need something that's there, but not really worth a trip unless you're in the area. But I guess Santa had a layover before heading back to the North Pole, because there he was again! I hate to say it, but he looked a little bored until a kid came by to chat a few minutes later. He must have been doing some market research, but he should really get back to the office to oversee production. No wonder there still aren't enough Wii's.

I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T19:49:00.003-06:00

Today was our second Thanksgiving in Wisconsin, and also the second Thanksgiving for which there is snow on the ground. On Monday morning, we woke up to this:

Yup, that would be 4.5 inches of snow, the first real snow of the year. I must say, the true sign that we have lived in WI for some time is how I was only briefly moved by how beautiful the snow was-- I just kept thinking, "here are the four months of the year when I try to avoid re-spraining my ankle on the ice." Still, the town and campus did look aesthetically pleasing in the snow, and I'm finding that temperatures in the 30s really don't feel that cold anymore. I enjoyed inhaling the crisp snow smell while I walked across campus.

We are having a very quiet Thanksgiving weekend, mostly cleaning, grading, and getting some much needed rest. This morning I ate a bagel with lox (for nostalgic purposes) while watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and missing New York a bit. I never actually went to the parade but did go the night before the parade to see the balloons being blown up, which is an awesome experience. The parade is sheer commercialism and kitsch but I'm a total sucker for it (although I am concerned about the current relaunch of the Muppets-- I'm excited to see them getting some exposure but thought the cheesy Christmas song was so earnest that it desecrated the long history of Muppet irreverence).

This afternoon we went to some friends nearby for The Meal, and their table looked very fine indeed:

After the main meal and before dessert, we all went for a walk in the local park, which is still snow-covered. The annual winter light display throughout the park was already set up and we wandered around looking at the lights and throwing snow balls (always an excellent thing). At the top of this post is my favorite image: a man ice-fishing, in lights, right beside the lake where people will soon be ice fishing. [Note: the lake is not yet frozen. The top of the Fox River IS frozen, but it's not "safe" for ice-fishing the way the lake eventually will be]. A good, frozen time was had by all. We also ran into some friends who live in the same part of town and their extremely adorable daughter.

As we walked, we all talked about how Wisconsinites really have all of these structures in place to make the winter fun and more bearable; some people embrace the winter whereas some just muddle (or drink) their way through it, but there is really quite a lot to do here even once it gets bloody cold out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.

Chicago Hope

2008-11-24T19:56:00.006-06:00

At the end of October we spent a long weekend in Chicago; while Jodi attended a conference, I got my own work done in the beautiful public library. I like to see the main library buildings of the cities I visit, and this is the first time I had made it to Chicago's, although I didn't take the time to really tour it properly. But check out this scene, which shows only a small portion of the public computers they have available! And look how packed they are -- anyone who thinks libraries are still just places to find a book hasn't been to one for a while.

The reason I was working at the library rather than the very swanky hotel hosting Jodi's conference is that they charged $60 for Jodi's wi-fi and I didn't feel paying again for my own laptop. But I'll say one things for fancy hotels -- if they're really good, they manage to integrate modern amenities into their "classy" decor. Witness the Badgers above on a pair of beautiful flat screens. The best thing about the hotel is that it was literally right next to the park where the city was preparing for Obama's victory speech the following night. Heidi blogged about our tour of the scene (and what she got to see the following night!). We would have stayed the extra night, but we booked it well in advance and wanted to make sure we got home in time to vote. This is before we heard about early voting. D'oh!

Election Day is for Luzers

2008-10-24T20:48:00.009-05:00

Today we voted!

Wisconsin is one of the 31 states where you don't need an excuse to vote early. In New York you still do, and "I don't like waiting in long lines" doesn't count. We figured that this way we can vote on our own schedule, do whatever we like on election day (get-out-the-vote, perhaps...) and encourage high turnout by reducing those lines.

Today we found basically no lines (about 1 minute wait for the ballot request form, and another minute for the ballot itself) but there was a steady stream of people going into and out of the polling place. And because Wisconsin is a swing state, our votes actually matter!

Another local voter advantage: I didn't commit a crime by taking that photo! Apparently cameras are prohibited in the voting booth in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and possibly elsewhere. In Colorado, the Secretary of State says

There is no state statute that prohibits videoing or photographing one's ballot. However, it is illegal for one to then disclose how one has voted.

WTF? Anyway, since felons are prohibited from voting in most states, I'm glad I didn't just become one. Take this, Colorado!

Wherein I Meet the Sausages

2008-10-16T18:07:00.006-05:00

We've posted previously about the sausage race at Miller Park, and about PETA's quixotic crusade to get them to include a sixth contestant. Well today the sausages came to Oshkosh to appear at the homecoming game, and I got my picture taken with them. Actually only Stosh Jonjak (Polish sausage), Cinco (chorizo) and Brett Wurst (duh) were there; maybe Guido (Italian) and Frankie Furter had another engagement.

I was also in a big group photo with the chancellor of the university today, but really, which would you rather see?

To the Lighthouse

2008-10-10T14:50:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday we took a short day trip to Sheboygan. (Because, hey, now we can say we've been to SHEBOYGAN). Who knew that a city which, much like Oshkosh, is typically the butt of middle-of-nowhere jokes could be so pretty? There was a lovely park right on Lake Michigan with a long walk on a jetty out to the lighthouse pictured above.

We also ate at a tasty (and very meat-heavy) restaurant on the bay, where we watched the beginning of the Brewers' game on big flat screen televisions. Once the Mets were out of it, we were rooting for the Brewers in the NL and are glad that at least they won that one game-- sort of a moral victory, if you will.

When going to the lighthouse, it's important to know how to get there. One also has to know how to squash it from afar:

I am squashing your lighthouse!!!! I am squashing your lighthouse!!!

I continue to really like Lake Michigan. The great inland sea is quite blue and lovely.

Gastronomic Fandom

2008-10-05T22:25:00.003-05:00

It was a terrible day today for Wisconsin sports-- but on Friday afternoon at Pick 'n Save, great hope was witnessed amidst the bakery section.

RIP, Brewers' 2008 season. Your one postseason triumph, yesterday eve, is duly noted. Well done. As for the Packers... we did not see the game due to a Time Warner kerfuffle. Yes, that's right, some of us here in Northeastern WI did not get the Packers' game today. The horror!

At the moment, my beloved Boston Red Sox are in extra innings against the Angels. Let's go Papelbon!

Is that an Egg Roll in your canvas bag, or ....

2008-09-11T20:29:00.004-05:00

Summer is waning, and we haven't yet posted about one of our favorite things about the summer and early autumn here: farmer's markets. Aside from the obvious "yum" factor (yum!), there's the beauty of buying local produce, supporting local farms, and seeing other folks from town when we go to the Oshkosh farmer's market. (The Madison farmer's market is a paradise unto itself, but at a 90 mile drive it's not precisely "local"-- very awesome, though).

Most beautiful of all, in Maccabee's eyes, is something rather unique to our local market: the Hmong egg roll stand. After all, what's fresh produce if it's not accompanied by a hot, crispy egg roll? Funniest of all, there are two stands right next to each other and both do a brisk business; both now offer a veggie option.

I think I may have just though of a new theoretical lens: the Eggroll Gaze.

When it was still summer (sniff!) we did a lot of successful cooking with the produce (including a splendid quinoa salad and two successful risottos). Now that the school year has started, life is very, very hectic, so cooking has fallen to the back burner (no pun intended). I just realized that the farmer's market pictures were over a month old--so here they are!

Wisconsin Crime Wave, Part II

2008-08-20T21:00:00.003-05:00

The local summer crime wave I reported on earlier continues unabated. As a public service, please be alerted to this criminal act reported in a mass email I received at work today. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

Missing Greenhouse Plant

During a recent research stay at Missouri Botanical Garden, I obtained a very rare member of the family of plants upon which I work, Brighamia insignis:

http://www.botanik.uni-karlsruhe.de/garten/fotos-knoch/Brighamia%20insignis%201.jpg

It was placed with my other research plants in the greenhouse atop Halsey Science Center.

Sometime between the afternoons of Wednesday, 13 August and Friday, 15 August, it disappeared from the greenhouse. This plant is not commercially available to any extent. If you see one of these, it is likely mine.

I want the plant back. If it magically reappears in the greenhouse by Wednesday, 20 August, no more will happen. After that date, I will file a formal theft report with campus police. Only so many people have access to that greenhouse. No civilian walked in off the street and took it; this clearly was an inside job.

The sooner the plant is returned the better. This species has no resistance to red spider mites and if not regularly treated with pesticide, will be dead within the month.

Please report any sightings to your nearest botanical law enforcement.

Civics Lesson

2008-08-04T17:23:00.004-05:00

Today we visited the Barnes & Noble in Appleton to buy some fun stuff with Jodi's gift certificates. Jodi noted later that while our old B&N on 82nd St & Broadway specialized in psychology and Judaica, there is a bit more of a conservative focus in northeastern Wisconsin. These two books were prominently displayed on the welcome table.

I think I was offended not so much by the titles (it's fine to have a "case against Barack Obama", and despite his objective qualifications he has gained a cult of personality) as by the super-evil-looking pictures used on the front covers. In any case, I vented my political rage with an act of minute civil disobedience, turning one of the books over so you couldn't see the front cover.

A few minutes later, walking through the bargain stacks, I found this book:

Someone had apparently felt a similar call to political protest from the other side; whether an Obama or McCain supporter we can't tell, but I have to guess a Republican since Obama supporters should have stopped focusing on her by now. But this person had taken a slightly less agressive approach, turning the target book not backwards but simply upside down. This strikes me as simulataneoulsy less rude and more effective, since a customer can now immediately see the object of dissent. It also matches the only vandalism we've received thus far to our own Obama bumper magnet.

Having been taught a valuable lesson by my conservative neighbors on effective First Amendment expression, I returned to the anti-Obama books and turned them simply upside down.

Edit: By the way, Mom, I turned the Hillary book back right-side up.

My Car Is a Northeastern Liberal

2008-07-12T22:02:00.003-05:00

With its Red Sox World Championship bumper sticker (2004 edition) and Obama car magnet, the back of our little "Galaxy Grey" Mazda 3 does look a bit like a Northeastern liberal stereotype. (True, Obama is "from" Illinois, but that Harvard Law School part is quite New England). We've never had a car magnet of any kind before (ok, we've only even had a car for one year) and Maccabee maintains it will eventually get stolen. I initially thought that was unlikely, but on a recent day, we returned to the car (parked in a university lot) and someone had turned the Obama magnet upside down.

Charming people. Really enlightened and educated of y'all.

Even more charming was the car I happened to park next to at the doctor's office one day:

That would be a gen-u-ine confederate flag sticker in the window there. Really friendly, eh?

Sigh.

In general, politics are heating up in Oshkosh, with the fall election approaching... tomorrow is the grand opening of the Oshkosh/Winnebago County Democratic/Obama headquarters, with Senator Feingold (yay anti-FISA man!!) in attendance. I wish I could be there but I'm headed off quite early tomorrow to a very cool workshop at the Jewish Women's Archive in... my beloved Boston. M. might get to the go.

At the moment, we've in the Milwaukee region because of aforementioned early flight (didn't want to chance missing it or get up ridiculously early to drive down here). We had a pleasant visit to the fancy-schmantzy Bayshore Town Center outdoor mall, which is.... well, it's a really nice mall, with a lot of high-end stores, a cute water fountain, and tasty restaurants. The Joisey girl part of me enjoys a good mall; the part of me that doesn't want to acquire too much stuff finds them less fun than they used to be. Based on the stores, actually, it felt quite a bit like what the Upper West Side has (sadly) become. But we had a really nice evening nonetheless.

Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in the Oshkosh Floods of 2008

2008-07-02T10:48:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, Oshkosh had some fairly major flooding due to the torrential thunderstorms spread across the Midwest. While we were in decidedly better shape than Iowa, much of Oshkosh did end up underwater. We're personally lucky here-- we don't have a basement-- but most people weren't.

We had the interesting fortune to be driving home from work when the thunderstorms hit, and had to pull over as soon as we noticed that, well, on previously clear streets, our car had an actual WAKE (don't drive through standing water, people). The car is just fine and we're fine too, but for an hour or two we were treated to a view of the student revelry on flooded streets.

Here's what we learned:

1. Budweiser floats in floodwater

2. In the worldview of the frat boy, ANYTHING is cause for drinking (this isn't really news)

3. Someone actually ordered Chinese takeout in the midst of the storm. As the delivery vehicle floated by, frat boys flocked around it, chanting "kung pao chicken! kung pao chicken!" as they splashed away

4. Trucks have really big wakes

5. If there is a thunderstorm watch, check the damn radar online before you leave work

6. Don't drive when there are massive thunderstorms on the radar

At a certain point, this starts to sound like Into the Woods: "When going to hide, know how to get there. And how to get back. And eat, first."

Definitely, eat first.

Also: consider living in a town with better drainage.

...but did He have a tattoo?

2008-06-09T00:22:00.002-05:00

And if so, what did it say?

Above, a storefront on North Main St. I've been meaning to photograph it for months now.

Wisconsin Crime Wave, Part I

2008-06-02T16:26:00.003-05:00

Ah summer, when criminals get antsy and start making trouble for good people everywhere. We neglected to post last year about that summer's biggest crime story, the lemonade-stand robbery saga. To remedy this omission, I now begin an occasional series on local crime reported unironically in the Oshkosh Northwestern.

‘Consentual hickies’ prompt police call
TOWN OF BEAVER DAM — A Dodge County woman called police Sunday afternoon to report that her 17-year-old son had been assaulted by a 36-year-old woman.

The alleged assault apparently involved “consensual hickies only” and was over a week old, according to the Dodge County Sheriff’s Department dispatch log.

Police will follow up on the report, according to the log.

From the Northwestern.

Green East and Green Upper Midwest

2008-05-30T11:59:00.005-05:00

Well, we're back. This time, we've returned from a trip to NYC for my official graduation from Columbia. Pictures of that are over here, and further thoughts are on Paideia's Closet (link left).

As you can see above, both New York (Riverside Park, top) and Wisconsin (County Route A between Oshkosh and Neenah, bottom) are now gloriously green and all leafed out. In Wisconsin, when we pass farms we can see crops starting to grow, just a few inches off the ground. Farmers Markets can't be far behind!

New York is gloriously green.... if you are in one of the parks, of course, or on a college campus. Wisconsin is just green everywhere, even in our "downtown" location, with its nice big sky.

Both places have their delectable local fish cuisine: smoked in New York (finally, really good lox!) and decadently fried here in the Badger State. In New York, however, we finally had good (still-Americanized-but-vastly-better) Chinese food again, at our old fave local place, Columbia Cottage.

Oshkosh has Lake Winnebago and the Upper West Side has the Hudson River.

New York has traffic. Oshkosh does not!

New York has everything you could possibly need within walking distance. Plus the subway. Oshkosh has its own adorable public buses (until 6 pm).

Really, it's not about comparisons...both places have enormous benefits and costs. But it's always interesting seeing them in relief next to each other.

Below, a bit of Manhattan granite. This is a rock in Riverside Park right near where Maccabee grew up (and where we lived for one year), the site of many previous climbing expeditions. (You can also see a pic of Maccabee in situ). I love New York's giant rocks in the city's many parks-- they were my favorite thing in Central Park when I was little. In Ft. Tryon park the granite would glitter in the sunlight. When we left nyc, one of our going-away presents from some very dear old friends was a small piece of "Manhattan schism."

Tofu Dog in the Sausage Race?

2008-04-27T00:40:00.006-05:00

One of our great neighbors across the hall, who moved to Wisconsin a year ahead of us, is a vegetarian. Being one myself, I was naturally relieved that another of my unusual persuasion could survive in the land of bratwurst. After all, we've posted before about The Bratzooka at our local minor league park, and about the famous sausage race at the Brewers' Miller Park. I naturally assumed that my arrival would simply double the state vegetarian population, approximately.

Of course I've since discovered that we herbivores are not quite that rare up here; Woodman's has a great selection of vegetarian products (actually most local supermarkets do a decent job), and most restaurants have at least a couple of things on the menu, which is about what I used to find in Boston. In fact the most "local" restaurant in town, the Delta diner, has a whole vegetarian section with about 20 choices for us strange folk.

But if someone had told me that there was a vegetarian player in Major League Baseball, the last place I would have looked would be the Milwaukee Brewers. Nonetheless, Prince Fielder, the Brewers' star first baseman, has apparently joined me in the great cult of the carrot.

Everyone must read this article from today's New York Times.

For one thing, it's just good writing. Hilarious, at least to someone who is a vegetarian (me) and someone who is familiar with our strange kind (Jodi). But it's also a great look at the difficulties even a celebrity vegetarian occasionally has finding something he wants to eat when dining out, and the different reactions of his fans and co-workers.

General Manager Doug Melvin said he had no concerns, then or now, about perhaps his team’s strongest player drastically changing the fuel he put in his tank. Melvin is so unmoved by the situation that he said: “Is he still a vegetarian? I don’t even know.”

...

Several spaces down, [tailgaiting fan] Dan Ricksetter of Milwaukee added: “It was a bit disheartening when he decided to become a vegetarian. Brats are intrinsic to our culture. They’re the breakfast of champions. I’m not sure which sport.”

I will say, in defense of our subspecies, that Fielder may be an unusually picky eater. Personally I'm always up for trying new things; today I ate cactus for (possibly) the first time ever at our favorite local tex-mex place. But sometimes you just want a PB&J sandwich, and there's nothing wrong with that. I hope Fielder has better luck in the future.

One minor quibble with the article: it claims that "a tofu dog has yet to be invited" to the Sausage Race. Had the reporter done his homework, he might have added that PETA actually suggested the idea to the Brewers in 2002. At the time, they said they had no plans to add to the four existing sausage contestants (Hot Dog, Brat, Italian and Polish). In 2006, however, they added Chorizo. Maybe with this latest news about Fielder, it's time to break down another barrier in our nation's long history of sausage discrimination. Only time will tell.

P.S. Apparantly OnMilwaukee.com joked about this on April Fools.

Little Seder on the Prairie (for real this time)

2008-04-25T10:42:00.004-05:00

Happy Passover to those of the persuasion! Our first set of little seders out here in Wisconsin was successful, tasty, and of course a bit tiring. It's been a busy week since, but here is a picture from last weekend.

Matzah always tastes so good for the first day or two and then starts to get a bit old.

The Public Enemies filming is all done and the town is finally returning to normal. Over the weekend while they started to strike the set you could walk around it again and take more pictures of the fabulous props. I'll post those on flickr eventually. It was also amusing to see the spatters of fake blood remaining on the bank building.

I did not meet Mr. Depp (or, sadly, David Wenham), but a friend did and reported that he was very nice and had "small, delicate hands."

So Oshkosh had its day in the sun, and now we have (literally) pouring rain and thunderstorms. I fear our minor-league baseball plans for this evening are now in danger.

Hag Sameach! Off to work.

The Celebrity Wave

2008-04-14T22:05:00.004-05:00

So today after work I wandered over to watch some of the filming, which has begun downtown. (A crowd was already gathering when I went out this morning). They're not using the totally awesome, really dolled up part of downtown yet, but were shooting a nifty little escape-and-car-shot near our very own library (the escape building was the Masonic Lodge next door). Despite the fact that I felt kind of silly, I stuck around for three takes, until my feet got cold.

After each take, as the car rolled back down the street, Johnny Depp would wave hello to the very, very large crowd (for Oshkosh) that had gathered to watch, which must get old after six or seven takes. On the middle take, he walked back down the street and spent a fair amount of time waving and such, which led to generalized pandemonium. By the third take, a lot of teenagers had arrived and there was really major, Beatlemania-esque screaming and a lot of "I love you Johnnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyy!!!!!" (You will note that at this point all of Oshkosh is apparently on a first name basis with Johnny Depp; people kept referring to him in that fond possessive way one sometimes refers to their hometown first baseman-- "has Johnny come out yet?"

All of this leads me to ask: What do we see when we see celebrity? Why the hysteria over a wave from someone 100 feet away? (And why was I the only person among the folks I chatted with who cared about seeing the other members of the cast, or knew who most of them were?) I think celebrity is a reaching out for the transcendent (while everyone simultaneously wants to see papparazzi pictures of celebrities with their kids, pumping gas and being "just like us"). What are we expecting will happen, really, though? Do we expect to be transformed, or healed, or what?

Or are we just really curious?

In New York I had comparatively few celebrity sitings. One year we saw the opening night red carpet for the "42nd St" revival, which included the late Jerry Orbach and the now-fired Star Jones. My most notable nyc celebrity occasion involved seeing Simon Cowell in the Plaza Hotel lobby while friends and I were waiting in line to try to get into afternoon tea. I hadn't watched American Idol at the time so I was vaguely aware of who he was and would have walked right by if there weren't a huge crowd of women mobbing him (and to his credit he appeared to put up with it with a good deal of patience, even posing for pictures).

And, yes, he was wearing a black tee-shirt.

(We also went to a taping of the Daily Show, which I will admit was an all-out fangirl worship experience for me).

Really, though, being a New Yorker is supposed to be about leaving the celebrities the hell alone and letting them go about their business. If I had ever really seen someone I doubt I would have wanted to bother them.

But in Oshkosh--Oshkosh!!--well, there will probably never ever be another Big Movie Star here, so I guess I can really understand everyone going bananas.

Just go bananas for David Wenham too please if you see him (for all I know I DID see him, I didn't have binoculaurs and they're all wearing hats)

It's also funny having a lot of "out of towners" descend. Oshkosh has tourists now. I say to them what I always thought about tourists in New York: come, enjoy our town. SPEND MONEY.

Also: when you've had a bad day at work, watching filming with a lot of gunfire is strangely cathartic.

There he is! Itty bitty in the center of the photo above.

Passover at Woodman's

2008-04-13T23:11:00.011-05:00

Somehow it seems that we have not yet posted in this space about the glory that is Woodman's Food Market in Appleton. Granted, NYC dwellers are used to small supermarkets and narrow aisles, but there are plenty of decently-sized, big box supermarkets up here. Festival Foods majors in fresh produce and Packerphilia, Pick 'n' Save has a huge selection of junk food, and the Piggly Wiggly has Broccoli Wokly. But Woodman's has everything. For example, everything includes this:

But for the moment, I just want to point out what a freaking huge Passover section there is for a state with a grand total of 28,330 Jews, most of whom seem to live 90 minutes south in Mequon. On the other hand, the two biggest celebrities featured at Appleton's nearby history museum were both Jewish.

Anyway, here is the usual "Jewish" section of the first (of two) "international" aisle:

here's some more holiday stuff including some giant boxes of matzo

and here's a whole section on the side of the aisle for holiday junk food! 4 kinds of macaroons!

More on the wonder of Woodman's (employee-owned!) at some future date.

Rob this bank, Johnny Depp!

2008-04-12T18:18:00.003-05:00

Well, he's he-ere. The Deppster has landed, to much generalized excitement and, it sounds like, some stalking. I think it's great that they're using so much of Oshkosh, with the initial filming taking place down at the airfield and making use of some of the cool old planes. Makes you realize we're really a strangely logical place to film a period piece. So things are still relatively "quiet" here in the downtown, although I saw a plane flying low out near the lake with a helicopter right above it, so that may have been film-related.

The downtown construction looks quite amazing--people were out wandering around (despite the fact that it's freakin' 30 degrees out!) and taking pictures of the buildings-- and of themselves WITH the buildings, like Disneyworld. It's kind of like we have a small and very temporary theme park with no dudes in dog suits. (And hey, Mouseketeers, this is no coincidence-- the whole Disney-thing "works" because they use lots of movie tricks and touches. Same attention to detail). Even though I know Oshkosh wasn't constructed with forced perspective, sometimes it really does seem that way.

Below are a bunch of pictures of our wee little 1930s town, and there are more in the full and on-going set on flickr. The pictures start with shots of construction and conclude with some local "welcomes." :-) Enjoy!

[In other news earlier this week-stomach flu! so! not! good!]

The Dream Factory

2008-04-01T21:08:00.004-05:00

Talk about the two worlds of this blog colliding. After seven years in New York, I got used to tripping over film crews. I never lost all curiosity, but it did become quite commonplace, particularly at Union Seminary, where the assorted Law and Order shows set up shop constantly and lots of other productions troop through.

So I get an academic job and move to a small, quiet town in the Midwest, and what happens? Oh, just a giant Michael Mann 1930s gangster movie starring-- wait for it--JOHNNY DEPP--comes to town.

Privately, I've always thought that Oshkosh looked like a movie set (though I usually pick the 1950s); I'm glad to have my opinions vindicated by some of Hollywood's finest (We really liked Collateral in this house). And, of course, as all of Northeast Wisconsin knows by now, Mann's film Public Enemies will be shooting here sometime in the next few weeks. Crews are already busy turning back the proverbial clock on Main Street. You can see the coolness they've worked elsewhere in Wisconsin (specifically, Columbus). The general mania surrounding the filming so far in Wisconsin is being documented on Dane 101 and many other blogs, including in this funny piece.

I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not excited. In addition to Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, the film stars David Wenham. Yes, that's right, geeks. Faramir is in Wisconsin. Dude. I'm darn excited, and so are my students (they're not as geeky as I am about LOTR though).

In reality, I know that I'm probably not going to be seeing any movie stars (they won't all film scenes here). It's not like I have the kind of job that I can skip out on and go watch them film all day, and if I learned one thing from living in New York, it's that making movies (from the bystanders' perspective) is mainly about people setting up lights and sound equipment and I'm not too likely to trip over them filming scenes. Still, I'm giddy about the production being here because I'm excited by the craft of movies-- knowing that someone had to decide what color green to paint on the exterior of what is usually a local coffee place so that it will show up in a few seconds of film, watching all of these little details come into place, is pretty darn neat.

One funny side effect is that the town's dissafected youths (or "yout'" if we are in West Side Story), who usually congregate around the sundial on the green and smoke cigarettes, now have nowhere to go because the sun dial is being surrounded by a false front they're building for the movie (I can see how the modern sculpture would be a tad out of place). Today we saw them wandering on Algoma Blvd., looking a bit confused about where to stand.

Our town's quaint little Main St.-which has such a Disneyworld, simulated, set-like quality already-- is now literally being painted over into a movie set.

More to come in the days ahead, methinks.

You're Gonna Make It After All

2008-03-30T20:19:00.004-05:00

(With apologies to Mary Tyler Moore).

This weekend we went to Minneapolis for a couple of days because I was giving a paper at the Upper Midwest regional AAR/SBL. Aside from that bit of business, we walked around the city, enjoyed being in a city, and ate some very good food. We were particularly impressed with the skyway system, pictured above-- even though it's now quite temperate (in the 40s), very sensible way to get around a cold weather city. I wish Oshkosh had a skyway :-). Nice uniform signage, good times all around.

I did think that the elevator we took up to the skyway looked like it belonged on an episode of Star Trek(TOS):

I guess it's that charming vintage 60s look.

Before we left, someone tried to stowaway:

But she did not meet with success.

Good eating was had at Rainbow Chinese Restaurant,Brit's Pub, and Duplex. Very good stuff. I particularly liked Duplex. Next door to Duplex is Namaste, which is billed as home of the best chai in city (or twin cities?), and it did not disappoint, nor did the mango pudding.

Librarian friends, if you are reading-- Public Libraries Association was holding a meeting this weekend and our hotel was filled with drunken librarians. I can only imagine what the ALA is like. Goodness. (Not that the big AAR is lacking in cordials, mind you).

Further images below. On the long drive home, of course, we made the requisite stop for cheese and emerged.... victorious!

Spring?

2008-03-27T21:12:00.003-05:00

Well, kind of. We're getting there. For the past couple of weeks, we've had a lot of days where the high is around 40 (or even 45! crazy!) and much of the snow has indeed melted. As you can see in the picture above, there are still piles-- and in this case, there had just been another storm that dropped an inch or two-- but the snow is definitely going away.

Lake Winnebago is still frozen, BUT the Fox River is flowing--it's kind of funny to watch it flow down into the lake until there's a point on the horizon where it just-stops.

It's spring "break" if a "break" means writing a conference paper and grading some exams. It is definitely nice not having to prepare for class for a week. Sort of heavenly, actually. We also went to an awesome cooking class at one of my favorite restaurants in the region, the very smashing Big Tomatoes of Neenah. Chef RC made many delights, including gnocchi, pan-cooked pork (ok only I ate that part), a polenta cake topped with strawberries and the best cabbage we have ever tasted. Yum! They were really nice about M. being a veggie, leaving the bacon out of various dishes that might have had some and the bone marrow (mmmm, bone marrow!) out of the risotto until his portion had been served. Good times.

So, early-spring in Wisconsin-- a slight, gradual wake-up. No flowers or birds or blossoms or anything crazy like that, but the sight of the actually ground, and one's face no longer hurts when you go outside. Happy Ostara, everyone. Happy start of the Major League Baseball Season! And, as one of my students noted to me, we had a week with BOTH St. Patrick's Day AND Purim-- two of the drunkest holidays there are, a mere four days apart. Now, if there are more convincing arguments out there for interreligious optimism and the brotherhood of man, I'd like to hear them.

Play ball!

Chocolate Wars

2008-03-05T16:47:00.004-06:00

The New York Times recently noted that the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin is noted for its many independent chocolate manufacturers. Oshkosh in particular has two family-run chocolate businesses, Oak's and Hughes. We discovered Oak's rather quickly, as they have a store (one of three total) just a block from our home. We've probably shopped there a half-dozen times since we moved here, and they're always good.

Recently I discovered the existence of Hughes, so last month Jodi and I took a trip there to experience the competition. Hughes is run out of just one location, the basement of a family home, and sells its chocolates almost exclusively in one-pound boxes. We got some nut clusters, and wow, I think they were even better than Oak's. While we were there, I asked the clerk about the the intra-city competition -- what was the difference between the two stores? She didn't have much to say in terms of comparing them. When I asked "So Hughes is better, right?" she smiled and said yes, but she refused to elaborate.

Today I stopped by our local Oak's again on the way back from some downtown errands. After buying some coconut clusters and raspberry truffles, I asked the Oak's clerk about the rivalry and to compare the two stores. She wouldn't say much, except to mention one product that only the competition carried, even though it was obvious that Oak's has a larger selection overall. When I asked her which store was better, she wouldn't venture an opinion, except to say that people just ate what their families grew up with. I tried once more, saying that I was relatively new in town and without chocolate allegiances, but she refused to engage.

Is this a lot to write about two chocolate stores, or rather the non-battle going on between them? Yes it is. I just wish that somehow the Democratic primary battle still had this level of cordiality.

The Winter of Packers' Fans Discontent

2008-03-04T10:37:00.003-06:00

Well, the news broke this morning while I was proctoring an exam: Brett Favre is retiring. I suspect there will be considerable rending of garments here in the Badger State. It was a great year for Favre and the Packers, despite the pain of the overtime loss to the Giants... wow.

And, fittingly perhaps for this news, the weather just keeps staying cold, cold, cold and snowy, snowy, snowy. I've had it. I'm the kind of person who actually likes winter-- getting out the sweaters, drinking hot beverages, tromping around in the snow, etc.-- but even I have completely had it. It's March. This morning when I got up it said "10, feels like -1."

I'm not asking for 75 and sunny, although I'm so desperate I actually starting looking at California airfares (v. high) the other day. (Those palm trees in Florida on the Red Sox spring training broadcasts look sooooo good). All I want is 45 degrees and no ice on the sidewalks or roads. Seriously. I know there won't be flowers and puppy dogs and short sleeves here for a long time. That's ok. Just 45 and easy walking. That's all I want.

On the other hand, I could live in the world's darkest town and only be seeing my first sunrise since the fall this coming Saturday. That would be worse.

Super Tuesday in Wisconsin

2008-02-05T18:36:00.000-06:00

Despite the fact that Wisconsin doesn't vote for two more weeks and that I may or may not have a vote that really matters here, I am more excited by this Super Tuesday than I have been by American politics since, oh, watching election night returns in 1996 (the first year I was eligible to vote), or possibly even since 1992.

I'm not sure why. It's not just my man Obama, as exciting as he is. It's not just the prospect of a non-Bush presidency, as exciting as that may be, because I truly won't believe that until I see it.

I think it's seeing actual Americans excited, the giddiness of seeing votes slowly trickle in from all over the country in so many regions, the incredibly high turnout rate, particularly among the 18-24s, etc, that have been happening for this whole election season. My greatest shame as an American has always been our atrocious low voter turnout rate. We preached democracy but Bush was actually "elected" by 1/4 of the American populace--- not half, because barely half of us usually vote. Elect who you want, disagree with me on politics, as long as you've read about the person you're voting for, fine, I respect you. Just vote.

Today all of the states in which I have previously lived, even for just PARTS of weeks-- New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts--- have voted, and all I did was bring in my proof of residence to REGISTER to vote. Now here I am in the Badger State and I have to wait two more weeks.

But we'll be a swing state in the general election. Won't you all be jealous then :-)

Above, the blazing sky over Wisconsin on Christmas eve when we went out for a scenic drive. Even though I know what time it was, I'll muse, like Ben Franklin, on whether it is a rising or a setting sun for America.

And that's about as patriotic and schmaltzy as I get.

New York ... Oz? London? Middle Earth? Home?

2007-12-21T23:32:00.000-06:00

Just finished reading Adam Gopnik's Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York. In this memoir-ish essay collection, Gopnik, who writes for The New Yorker (lucky him!), discusses, among other sundry topics: the raising of children in New York; parakeets and psychoanalysis (although, alas, not in the same essay); touch football; jazz; his daughter's imaginary friend Mr. Ravioli; his son's varying preoccupations, ranging from chess to Lord of the Rings figurines; and most of all, the city. (You can read an excerpt from the book over here.] I now feel slightly drugged, as I tend to feel when I've finished a book in essentially one sitting, a bit (pleasantly) inhabited by the author's voice and a bit more in search of my own.

(I am also, quite literally, still a bit drugged, having been fighting off a migraine for several days, a migraine which coincided with the otherwise lovely visit of my good friend H.... more on that to follow).

The time range of Gopnik's book overlaps almost precisely with the first five of my seven years living in the city: from 2000-2005 (He organizes the book by "Thanksgivings" but these chapters often zig zag merrily back and forth across autumns and winters; he briefly mentions "The Gates," which were early 2005, and felt, to me at least, like a moderate closure on this particular span of time). In this way, reading the book was a little bit like reviewing a bit of my own history, and there was much to identify with here. There was also a lot here which certainly does NOT map on to my own experience: during 2000-2005 I was not 1) employed by The New Yorker, 2) a resident of the Upper East Side, or 3) the parent of two small children. The first two are circumstances of privilege and talent; the third is primarily a matter of age and, also, a demographic characteristic which Gopnik notes in the book: the typical New York 10-year delay of having children (when compared with the rest of the country). Gopnik is (I think) aware of the privileged space from which he writes, and I, with a Columbia degree and with temporary (1 year) residency on the Upper West Side, certainly cannot cry "poor me!"-- but it was still, at times, a bit frustrating to read his odes to the joys of raising children in New York.... we left for many good, career-not-child reasons, but if I were in New York and I DID have children, I very likely could not afford to raise them in Manhattan.

That aside, I loved the book. Gopnik captures the spirit of the once-outsider who comes to New York well, jumping off from his memories of a childhood visit:

.....We ate dinner at a restaurant that served a thrilling, exotic mix of blintzes and insults, and that night we slept in my aunt Hannah's apartment at Riverside Drive and 115th Street. A perfect day.

I remember looking out the window of the little maid's room where we had been installed, seeing the lights of the Palisades across the way, and thinking, There! There it is! There's New York, this wonderful city. I'll go live there someday. Even being in New York, the actual place, I found the idea of New York so wonderful that I could only imagine it as some other place, greater than any place that would let me sleep in it-a distant constellation of lights I had not yet been allowed to visit. I had arrived in Oz only to think, Well, you don't live in Oz, do you?

Ever since, New York has existed for me simultaneously as a map to be learned and a place to be aspired to-a city of things and a city of signs, the place I actually am and the place I would like to be even when I am here. As a kid, I grasped that the skyline was a sign that could be, so to speak, relocated to New Jersey-a kind of abstract, receding Vision whose meaning would always be "out of reach," not a concrete thing signifying "here you are." Even when we are established here, New York somehow still seems a place we aspire to. Its life is one thing-streets and hot dogs and brusqueness-and its symbols, the lights across the way, the beckoning skyline, are another. We go on being inspired even when we're most exasperated.

New York is the ultimate mathematical limit, the line you can ALMOST reach, but not quite, it's never really there, and that, of course, is its value.

And there, for the second time in a month, is Riverside Drive in the one-hundred-teens, also prominent in Enchanted... am I missing something? Is Morningside Heights actually some sort of cosmic center?

I appreciated Gopnik's lyrical sense for New York and its absurdity, for life and its fragility, and most especially, his passing on of the loftiest moments of Jewish humor to his son ("Waiter, what's this fly doing in my soup....", etc). This is certainly a major part of my own family's New York heritage. I deplore his eventual turn to rooting for the Yankees (Freudian slip-- I accidentally just typed "rotting"), even though, yes, his son turning to the Yanks in autumn 2001 has great poignancy, and was probably the only time I've ever laid down my own Yankee-hatred.

Early in the book, Gopnik draws humorously on a school production of Peter Pan and the question of children flying to bring out a good deal of parental angst (and meaning). Towards the end of the book, and following the evolution of his son Luke's hobbies, he leans heavily on Tolkien metaphors, which worked well for me, and makes sense, given how heavily the books (thanks to the movies) were running through the zeitgeist of 2001-2003, and beyond. Some might find this stuff cloying, but I dug it just fine.

I'll admit it: before I noticed Gopnik's name (I adored "The Real Thing," which appeared in the New Yorker and was a reading selection when I taught University Writing), I picked this book up on a bookstore shelf because I was drawn to the title and the cover-- Central Park's Children's Gate is not far from the Alice in Wonderland statue, which figured heavily in my own childhood memories...growing up in New Jersey, spending time in the city, but not of it (and still not as hard to impress as Maccabee, who really grew up there), time spent in the city remains extremely vivid, childhood echoes I wrote over with grown-up shoes: playing on the Alice Statue and by Belvedere Castle with our friends the S. family (their daughters are now all mothers, aunts); seeing the Met with friends from junior high; having my parents coax me down the subway stairs when I was scared of the noise the trains made (the truest sign that I was NOT a New York Child).

Reading this book here in Wisconsin evoked both nostalgia and a pleasant sigh of relief. It's not that I'm "done" with New York-- I don't think the city is ever DONE with you. Reading about the city, and those TIMES in the city, is quite pleasant from here--- look, I did that, I lived some of that, now here I am in the proverbial Connecticut (except much, much farther away than Connecticut, to which Gopnik's wife occassionnaly suggests they depart), away from all that possibility and diversity, yes, but also away from the high rents and the imaginary playfriends with assistants and the private school children and, yes, the slight lurking fear of terrorism. The whole human condition, "mortal coil thing," to quote a Whedonism, is still present here in the Midwest, so much of the book's pathos and humor is as true, reading here, as it is anywhere.... and yet, here, I can see sky. I can tell what the weather is, as he notes, by looking outside, not by checking the newspaper.

In short, reading Through the Children's Gate, which was both thoughtful and extremely funny, became emblematic of the gap in the subhead of this blog: I am an expatriate New Yorker, living in Wisconsin. (Perhaps I need to go back one book and read Gopnik as an expatriate New Yorker living in Paris? That's quite an analogical stretch). To my students, New York is the big city they see in movies (we screened Keeping the Faith in my American Judaism class), and when they visited the city as tourists, some of them went to Ground Zero.... as tourists. (Respectful ones, as any Midwestern student would likely be.... my women's studies students asked me if New Yorkers were offended by all of the souvenirs sold near the WTC site). (There's also the philosophical question--- are we all in some way tourists at Ground Zero?--- but i'm not going there this eve, and I think M. Sturken has in one of the books I bought at the AAR, besides).

For good or for ill, far more of the country is like Wisconsin than like New York (and there are a whole vast swath of regional variations to be explored, all of them gradually being over-run by the homogenizing forces of the big box stores.... I think this is part of the appeal of sports loyalty. SOME things must remain local). New York, seen from Wisconsin, remains for me part fairytale--- did I REALLY ever live there??--- and part reality-- oh, yes, I lived there, with plenty of stress and roaches and small living spaces to show for it... Now I need to find ways to read the America in-the-between, in a Midwestern place that is certainly not (just?) the soul-less car and mall culture that New Yorkers always think lurks beyond the Hudson, or that my students mistakenly think I, as a former New Yorker, must see here.

(Below.... the Alice statue and the pond, seen last spring; the campus behind my office building, seen last week)

Go, Pack, Go!

2007-12-21T15:20:00.000-06:00

In honor of last weekend's win and Brett Favre's breaking the all-time passing yards record, I bring you..... my long-awaited post about the Green Bay Packers. (What, you haven't been eagerly awaiting it? Obviously your life is far too interesting).

(Alternate post title: "Have Yourself a Very Packers Christmas.")

The thing about the Packers is that they're pretty central to understanding Wisconsinites. They're kind of the life-force of the state, particularly here in Oshkosh, just 45 minutes away from the sainted grounds of Lambeau Field. In this way, Packers fans are a lot like Red Sox Nation: fanatic, kind of kooky, steeped in history, and prone to traveling to away games. Perhaps cold, snowy climates fuel sports fever? Interestingly, just as the BoSox won the first World Series (1903) and lay claim to names like Cy Young and, yes, Babe Ruth, the Packers won SuperBowl I (and SuperBowl II), and lay claim to names like Vince Lombardi and, well, Brett Favre.

And, unlike the BoSox, the Packers are publicly-owned.... the only publicly-owned major sports franchise in the U.S. Score one for the Pack.

The fan base (aka Cheeseheads) is nothing if not devoted. On Sundays, everywhere you go, you see people dressed in the green and gold. Bars are packed; stores are empty. One Sunday I went into the cavernous Best Buy up in Appleton to find it echoing and bare of customers... except for the small group gathered around the game on a widescreen t.v. Even when I went over to the Fox Valley Mall, which was filled with shoppers (mostly women and girls.... football widows), in every store, the workers asked me if I knew the score. When Favre went down with an injury in a big Thursday night game against the Cowboys earlier this season, I swear, I heard a rending of clothing throughout the state (this provided excellent fodder for my lesson on the Book of Job the next day. You can't make this stuff up). Before the last home game, the local papers reported a call for anyone with a shovel to go up to Green Bay and help shovel out Lambeau Field for $8 an hour. That, I think, is the Midwest at its finest--- the image of hordes of folks convering to collectively dig out their stadium--- and I mean that with all due seriousness.

Prior to living in Wisconsin, we were really a one-sport household: if it wasn't baseball, it didn't matter. Upon moving here, we were told that our baseball teams (Red Sox, Mets) would be ok "as long as we didn't mess with the Packers." Since we had no major football loyalties, this wasn't really a problem. I had at times nominally rooted for the Jets, in honor of my dad's heritage, or, while in New England, for the Patriots, but really, I never "got" football. Compared with the finesse and nuance of baseball, it really did just look like a bunch of guys in tight pants crashing into one another. Homoerotic delights aside, it just made no sense, and I could never figure out where the damn first down line was.

Now I've gotten pretty thoroughly swept up in the Pack, and, to a slightly lesser extent, so has M., although the ironies of a vegetarian rooting for a team named after meat packers abound. The fact that they now show you both the direction of the drive and the first down line on t.v. really helps. I'm starting to get the difference between a passing game and a running game (Lesson Number One: the Packers lack the latter, although Ryan Grant (RB) has been doing well lately), to understand why you often punt for a field goal if you haven't converted on the third down; and I've also learned, during the exciting color commentary on last week's game, that Atari Bigby (S) hasn't had a haircut in 11 years (a fact M. took in with great respect). Football can be really exciting, even if I/we still find the penalty system obtuse and at times bizarre.

So, the signs are in.... we really live in the Midwest now. We watch football.

(In any event, it will get us through until about a week before pitchers and catchers report...)

Below, scenes of Packerphilia from around Wisconsin this fall..... the stuff came out in early August and has only multiplied since....

(Seen in Festival Foods when Favre broke the touchdown pass record in September)

Two Words...

2007-12-05T08:50:00.000-06:00

Polartec socks. Those are my two words. Bliss. Lands' Ends' "Weatherfield Shoes" also live up to their catalog description, at least so far.

Just a quick note that we're alive and well and it's winter in Wisconsin. The photo above is actually from last week, and it's the second snow that came through (the first was Erev Thanksgiving). This morning I shoveled the fourth snowfall (so far) off the car. Happily last night's snow was light and fluffy, it's very dry and in the teens right now. This weekend's storm ended in ice. Less fun.

Polartec socks.

I have a long backlog of stories and pictures but the semester has been extremely hectic.... it ends in two weeks, so look forward to a plethora of posting over the holidays.

Cedarburg

2007-10-27T23:16:00.000-05:00

Life in the land of the Cheeseheads has been a very busy one for both of us. The school year has been off to a very, very busy first two months, as has the community in general. So the adventures have been limited, although we have many pictures and scenes of quotidian life to share.

I'm writing this post from Cedarburg, WI, where we've been staying this weekend, at the lovely Stagecoach Inn, which actually was once a stagecoach inn on routes between Milwaukee and Green Bay. It's our 2-and-9 anniversary this week so a change of scenery seemed in order. Unforunately, I sprained my ankle on Thursday night so we haven't done much walking around, but the town is extremely cute, filled with stores and great architecture. (It is a bit uninspired from a culinary standpoint, although we had some yummy crepes at lunch).

Above is the side of the former wool mill that has been restored and filled with a restaurant, galleries, and shops; below is Cedar Creek itself. When we got out of the car we noticed that it does, indeed, smell sort of like Cedars here.

..... and the Red Sox are doing well in the World Series.

So, life here is generally good, but extraordinarily busy.

Wisconsin Wilderness

2007-09-02T12:27:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went on a lovely hike in High Cliff State Park, which is one of the Wisconsin state parks that is closest to us (it's basically on the other side of Lake Winnebago). Really beautiful--- I can't wait to see what it looks like in about a month when the leaves have turned. Actually, a few leaves are beginning to turn, but I'm told peak here is around early October.

I like water and Maccabee likes trees, so we took a trail that cut through the forest directly next to the lake, where you could hear the water lapping at the banks, then climbed a bit uphill [puff! puff!] to even more green glens, and turned back around.

My favorite thing about this forest was all of the lovely, rich green moss. The recent rainstorms probably contributed to its abundance. Wisconsin is a truly beautiful state.

Then we went over to the picnic area closer to the lake and collapsed in the grass for awhile. Ultimately, since we were right near Appleton and starving, we wound up at our favorite restaurant here, Sai Ram Indian, which has countless delicious vegetarian (and non-vegetarian delights)-- and, oh yes, you can turn anything on the menu into a $14 massive thali.

Enjoy the Ent-ish pictures below....

The Mets at Miller Park

2007-08-20T19:27:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, we spent a few days in Milwaukee attending every single game the Mets played against the Brewers at Miller Park this year [that would be three games]. A splendid time was had, despite the fact that it was quite a heat wave. We were hoping to see Tom Glavine pitch win number 300 on the first night, but alas, that had to wait until a few days later at Wrigley Field [no, we didn't drive down, but we thought about it], which I'll admit was quite a classy place to do it.

Miller Park is a gorgeous new-ish stadium, and the baseball was great, but what's really important there isn't the baseball. No, it's the sausage. As pictured above, we finally saw the world famous Miller Park sausage race. This event, which takes place before the seventh inning of every game, consists of a noble, valiant contest, pitting .... people in giant sausage costumes against each other, as they race around the infield warning track. The sausages represented are: the hot dog, the bratwurst, the Polish sausage, the Italian sausage, and, the most recent addition, the chorizo. And let me tell you, they take this seriously. During one of the races, they actually disqualified the hot dog for straying outside the track. Really.

At various concession stands, you can indeed purchase the represented sausages. I saw very few people ordering hot dogs-- everyone went for the good stuff instead. I sampled the brats and the polish sausage; the kielbasa was definitely my favorite (I've had a taste for the stuff since my youth, when my dad would cook it for the Superbowl; in Prague, where I spent one summer, it's the common street food). There are also veggie hot dogs at one stand on the field level, and kosher dogs, too. Since it's Wisconsin, they also serve things like fried cheese curds, fish fry, and Midwest airlines chocolate chip cookies. And of course, a lot of beer.

[A digression: I realized the other day that it's now been 10 years since the summer I spent in fair Praha. Time flies!]

And boy, do those sausages get stuffed:

You can watch one of many YouTube videos of the sausage race over here, and you can also read a history of the race and biographies of its esteemed athletes.

Another kooky Miller Park thing is Bernie's dugout, which is this spot in Left Field where the mascot, Bernie Brewer, hangs out and-- again, I am not making this up--- jumps down a big yellow twisty slide if the Brewers hit a home run. We used to see this, along with bits of the sausage race, on tv whenever the Mets visited Milwaukee, and say to ourselves, wow, Wisconsin is one wacky place. We gotta see that someday.

And now, we live here.

Also, can anyone tell us why there is a clock tower on the side of Miller Park?

SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The most important event of the visit occurred on the last day, when we sat in the fancy seats-- some very good loge seats more of less behind home plate. The walkway behind our seats went right under the press boxes, which had their windows open, and we were literally about 20 feet from Gary Cohen and Ron Darling. So we stood on our chairs like idiots and yelled "Gary!!!!! Ron!!!!!!" From Ron, we got a half-hearted wave; from Gary, M. got a good point and a smile. Ron Darling was, of course, a great pitcher, but it's Gary Cohen who turned us into a shameless fanboy and fangirl. Cohen, an alum of Columbia, is probably one of the smartest, funniest, most intelligent sportscasters ever, and I say this with all due respect for Jerry Remy and many others.

Here they are:

In sum, we really enjoyed Miller Park, the Mets won 2 out of 3, and Milwaukee, what we've seen of it so far, is a fine (if small) city. As always, you can click on the "Curdistan Cam" to link to more images.

As y'all may have noticed, I've been a much less frequent poster as the school year approaches--- tons to do-- but do stay tuned, plenty more is on the way in cyberspace.

A Tale of Two Fan Bases

2007-07-23T15:02:00.000-05:00

Actually, this past weekend was also a tale of two cities [and no, there are no spoilers of any kind in this blog post].

Friday was, of course, Harry Day (which I began to think of as Release Day, which means something entirely different in Lois Lowry's The Giver ). Various Oshkosh institutions and businesses sponsored "Harry Potter's Main St. Magic," which entailed various activities nearby. We took an afternoon walk to the library, where the lions on the front steps had wizards hats and you could go in the "old" [read: front] entrance directly into the library's older wing, which was completely decorated and filled with screaming, excited children, as well as musicians and costumed folk. I was most impressed by their recreations of the house seals on each wall, as seen below:

It's not until this week that I realized the Hufflepuff mascot is the Badger; coincidentally, Wisconsin is the "Badger State." Does this mean that all Cheeseheads are de facto Hufflepuffs? I've always wanted to be Ravenclaw, myself, despite my Gryffindor scarf.

Then we walked around Main St., which was supposed to be "Diagon Alley" and where there were some quality signs and window displays:

More pictures, as always, are over in the Wisconsin set.

The actual book pick-up was a bit dissapointing; it wasn't clear where the final countdown was and we didn't quite find it in time for the New Year's-esque celebration [also, most of the people there had kids in tow or were in packs of teens]... I dunno, it's still a bit strange being in a new place sometimes. However,in the end, I had my book, and the next day we were off to Chicago, where we visited my friend H. and, ultimately....

The Kwik-E-Mart!! In honor of the Simpsons movie, several 7-11s have been "transformed" [err, transfigured?] into Kwik-E-Marts. Here was more merchandising, but a fan base of an entirely different sort. We relished our chance to buy some Buzz Cola, passed up the Squishees, and had a grand time with the pink donuts, just like Homer's favorites:

This promotion is obviously quite a windfall; this was seriously the most crowded 7-11 we had ever seen. They had many funny signs and characters:

More pictures are over in the Kwik-E-Mart set.

So, as I said, no spoilers here, but I've finished the Deathly Hallows and seen many fans of assorted series over this weekend....prompting further ruminations on the communal power of fandom, and its ongoing resemblances to religious practice...yet another way in which we are always in dialogue with our stories.

Timberrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-07-19T20:28:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, Maccabee, Epherika, and I attended our first ever Wisconsin Timber Rattlers game. The Timber Rattlers are a single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, and they play in nearby Appleton at a relatively new little field.

I must say, minor league baseball is quite fantastic. Aside from the great seats [see below-- we were right behind home plate], the intimate setting, and the extremely frugal prices, there are countless fun things going on to Keep the People Entertained. Chief among these is The Bratzooka, pictured above-- as promised by other profs on my campus visit, they do, indeed, shoot bratwust [wrapped in foil] out of an air gun at the waiting crowd. My, oh my, Toto, we're really in Wisconsin.

There are also lots of family friendly things, like everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday kids standing on the home team's dugout, and the kid "inning card holder," a little girl who got to walk around the infield track [with an employee], holding a card that said what inning it was. There was also an [adult] go card race around the track, and various players were designated for various items to be thrown at the crowd if they got a hit; this included, yes, more sausages [mini-ones this time].

It was all very Bull Durham, only Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins did not make appearances.

Speaking of baseball movies, I really want to drive to Iowa because of the following well-known line from Field of Dreams :

Is this heaven?
No ... it's Iowa.

Anyway, I highly recommend minor league baseball, and I highly recommend the Timber Rattlers and their mascot, Fang. Of course I'm still a Red Sox fan at heart, but it's nice to have a local team that I can root for without any conflicts, since it is SINGLE-A, for crying out loud. [Also: the Timber Rattlers have an important Red Sox connection, David Ortiz once played for them. There are Ortiz bobble-head dolls in the gift shop]

It's a cool summer night here in Wisconsin [apparently going down to the 50s], all the windows are open, and Phoebe has been sitting on my arms, refusing to budge, while I write this entry.

Geeks and Wanderers

2007-07-13T15:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had two cultural encounters in Oshkosh that might be of interest. Both were pleasantly surprising.

In the early afternoon, I walked over to the Oshkosh Public Library, which is by the way a beautiful building, inside and out, that we have to post some pictures of. Aside from picking up the other half of the first season of Weeds, I had a nice conversation with the library technical director. Jeannie has started a weekly one-on-one computer tutoring program for the older folks in the area, to which she volunteers her time (after work hours) and I may also. But mostly we just discussed geek stuff. Jeannie, who I would vaguely guess is around 40, told me that she's a pretty heavy World of Warcraft player. We joked a bit about novices who wave the mouse in the air expecting it to do something. (Which maybe, post-Wii, it will.) Generally, she seems like a smart, friendly geek whose type it's nice to encounter here outside of the comic book store. So that's good.

On as side note, her last name is McBeth (an Elizabeth offshoot I hadn't heard before) and the library administrator who referred me to her is a Lisa. I know it's a common name-group and two people in the same small organization is just a very minor coincidence, but still, I wonder if we need to start a Wisconsin Elizabeth count.

Later on, with all the windows open, I began to hear a band playing the weekly Waterfest event at the amphitheater a few blocks away. They were not particularly good, but energetic, and covering lots of great 80s rock. I listened to a few songs from the balcony and then decided to walk over for a better view. Then, as I was bummed about missing the 1/2 price early-bird by 20 minutes and too cheap to pay $15 to get in, alone, to a concert I could hear just fine outside the gates, I decided to walk around the downtown area in a radius where I could still hear the music clearly. This led me down the waterfront first just outside the amphitheater itself, which is rather new and nicely developed. The concert, incidentally, was packed, and although I could see plenty of food and drink vendors inside, the only drunk person I encountered was on her way in.

Once I passed that vicinity, and literally just across the tracks (a freight rail route), I found the bad part of town. Not bad in any mega-urban sense that I'm used to, just the obviously low-property values neighborhood with a few rickety-looking houses and one or two Goodwill-type places. The sidewalks were mostly empty, other than a few people sitting on stoops or heading to the concert. On one street, a guy walking on the opposite sidewalk was wearing a wrinkled t-shirt and exercise shorts and looked a bit strung-out.

On the next corner I heard some loud voices and walked over to see a pair of police cars pulled up to a corner house where an obviously domestic dispute was going on. (Interestingly, just one cop per car.) A middle-aged woman was talking to the cops and occasionally shouting at a someone who was probably her daughter, sitting on the stoop. They had an audience of a few curious people across the street. But the mother was not yelling at the cops themselves, she was really more agitated than out of control, and the cops were simply standing there and listening to her. In short, this would have made a very boring episode of Cops, as it was obviously going to be resolved when the woman had her say, and without any violence or car chases.

Then, walking back towards home, I saw Strung-Out Guy walking towards me on the same side of the street. As we passed, I was giving him the usual polite head-nod when he surprised me with a friendly and completely sober "Hello". The New Yorker in me was expecting something else, either bizarre/drunk/angry or a solicitation, but he kept on going. Keep in mind that although this kind of friendliness is typical for the Midwest, I hadn't gotten it from any of the concert-goers I'd passed a few minutes earlier. And sure he was walking aimlessly in a loop around the neighborhood for no apparent reason, but then so was I. So, score one for the vagrant community as well!

Caffeination A La Oshkosh

2007-07-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

When I tell people here that I've just moved from New York, they inevitably look at me as if they're expecting me to implode at any minute, as if a New Yorker could not possibly survive here in the Midwest. We first heard it from the rental car lady last March when we came out looking for apartments, "Ohh, that'll be a big change, now."

In many ways, however, the quality of life-- including the quality of retail life within walking distance-- has actually improved. It's true, we do have to drive to the grocery store now. However, in the realm of coffee places nearby, we're talking major amelioration. [Keep in mind that I'm a caffeine addict and that I'm one of those people who likes to work in coffee shops]. In our old neighborhood, the closest coffee shop was a Starbucks down the hill on 181st St. OR another shop, two doors down, which did have great coffee but also had table service-- which can make you feel funny about sitting there forever. Neither had free wi-fi, and the Starbucks was generally mobbed.

Now I have two lovely independent coffee places right here. My favorite of the two, Planet Perk, is pictured above. I first got coffee there when I was here on my campus visit and it's one of the places that sold me on the area. Good lighting, delicious coffee, yummy sandwiches and soups, Kashi cereals and other healthy things, plenty of tables, and a decent background music selection, too--yesterday I was treated to both the Creek Drank the Cradle and Rufus Wainwright. Much happiness ensues here. Planet Perk also has a nice outpost in nearby Neenah. Below is the view from my book:

The other nearby coffee place, which is also excellent, is the New Moon Cafe, which has a somewhat hipper vibe, wine and beer, and often hosts music in the evenings. This is a cafe I could see pretty much transported straight to Brooklyn. It has big comfy couches and is generally lovely.

Oh yeah, and BOTH shops have free wi-fi. How 'bout that.

Further great places abound elsewhere in Oshkosh and in nearby Appleton, where Brewed Awakenings is particularly fantastic [try the artichoke panini!]

It's true, I've moved from a city of 8.-whatever million to a city of 65,000, but a reviving downtown is a reviving downtown, and the coffee is good.

Before the Parade Passes By...

2007-07-04T12:29:00.000-05:00

It wakes you up in the morning.

This is what I saw outside our window at 7:30 this morning:

It was very, very loudly playing tape-recorded sounds of train whistles and "all aboard" sounds. Since we actually do live within hearing distance of some train tracks, I thought it was just the loudest freight train ever.

So, evidently our parking lot is either the staging ground or landing point for every local parade-- and they do seem to love parades here in Wisconsin. The other day, I had trouble driving home because the Miss Wisconsin pageant was taking place across the street, and was opening with a parade [really]. This morning, I was feeling anything but patriotic, what with the recent "commuting of sentence" [cough! pardon!] and all.... I'm just not a great big 'ol American these days. However, standing on our balcony I found myself somewhat hypnotized by all of the hullabaloo, so I decided to go out and do some participant observation at the big town Fourth of July Parade.

I appeared to have stumbled into a production of the Music Man, or else onto Main St., USA. People were lined up all over the street, flags waving, etc. The parade opened with bagpipes and firemen and continued with a wide assortment of participants-- local political folk, local businesses, local dance and karate teams, and a whole lot of local military and veterans. There is a widespread culture of participation in the Armed Forces here, and there was a massive show of respect-- people stood for every float of veterans or army folk who went by.

Aside from that civic ritual, the primary purpose of the parade seemed to be to dispense candy to small children. Every group that marched by had buckets of candy, which they threw at the kids lining the parade route. I can see how kids grow up to be proud Americans-- if patriotism=candy, then they'll keep coming back for more.

[I know, I know, this is kind of a cynical post].

My favorite part of the parade by far was the "Precision Briefcase Drill Team" put on by one of the local realty firms. They made me positively giddy:

The local Republican party had an elaborate float:

Evidently the only Republican they could really get behind was.... Eisenhower. Hmmmmmm.

[Actually, the theme of the entire parade was the 1950s-- also telling-- but it's still funny].

A sidenote: we actually drove through Ripon, Wisconsin last week on our way to Minnesota, and there are indeed signs as you enter town proudly proclaiming its place in national history. It's a cute little town. My question is: which GOP is being celebrated? The Party of Lincoln, or its more recent incarnations?

The Democrats were there, too, but, perhaps typically, they couldn't seem to get it together to do anything interesting and just walked with some signs for local candidates.

But enough politics for now. On to ...

That's Miss Oshkosh Centennial, 1953. She appears to have held up pretty well. The current Miss Oshkosh [as well as the current Miss Rural Winnebago] was also present.

There are more pictures of the parade over on flickr in the Wisconsin set. Speaking of pictures, I have tons of photos from the past month or two that are not yet up on flickr, there will be more to come over there in the future, so stay tuned.

I'm not sure how to feel about my morning adventure. On the one hand, it was this strange throwback to small-town Americana. On another hand, it was a celebration of militarism [the biggest hand went to the marines and soldiers in camouflage], which is not my favorite thing [this is an understatement]. There was something very sweet about all of the little families out to enjoy the parade, and something very disturbing, to me at least, about the parade's messages. I wish that I could be proud to be American like I was when I was a little kid, but I just can't. Of course, this all begs the question: what is America, anyway? This goes closer to academic discussions than I'd like to on this blog, so I'll just wish everyone a happy and safe day with family and friends, wherever you may be on the little blue planet today.

A Tale of Two Seasons

2007-07-04T12:21:00.001-05:00

Those of you who view my pictures on flickr may remember this picture:

Well, that's the view of Lake Winnebago from last March.

Here's how it looked two weeks ago:

What a difference a few months makes! Prior to moving here, I had only seen Oshkosh in the winter [although I did not experience truly severe winter weather]. The first time we drove over the Fox River on one of the many local bridges, I freaked out because the water was moving . It seemed unnatural to me :-)

Here's another nice view of the lake, also from Menominee Park, which is a really, really nice spot and one of the biggest local parks:

Well, They Were Here First

2007-07-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

I've just had my first encounter with Wisconsin's infamous lake flies and learned several interesting things:

1) Lake flies are very easy to kill. Most flies in my experience are very hard to swat; they fly away right before you manage to strike. I've just killed 30 or 40 of these guys, most on the first try, a few on the second try, just a couple requiring more than two attempts. They don't seem to know enough to get out of the way of my hand and its Threatening Tissue Power.

2) Lake flies are very easy to kill, emotionally. Even as a vegetarian I don't usually care about insects, but I try to take them outside when I can, and some (see below) are particularly worthy of my mercy. Not lake flies. Maybe it's their lack of survival instinct; if they don't care, why should I?

3) Most of the tiny stains left on our walls from my brute-force attacks are of the predictable reddish/brown color, but a few are distinctively forest green. A different species? Some different organ emptied out? Perhaps a Vulcan lake fly or two?

4) We need to buy bug spray.

5) Oh yeah, don't open the screen door to let a spider safely out onto the balcony, even if it has just made the coolest, totally invisible, impossible to detect proto-web from the Weeds DVD on the top of my CRT over to the bar holding up our window blinds, about a 45 degree angle upwards for at least 5 feet. At least not at night with lots of lights on inside.

Go West, People

2007-06-15T10:49:00.000-05:00

Here's how we really knew we were in Wisconsin: the randomly lettered roads. Wisconsin's many counties have many, many, funny lettered county trunk highways . When we saw this road sign, even though we'd been in Wisconsin for several miles, we really felt that We'd Arrived.

The great westward migration went pretty well-- we arrived last night [Thursday] and are ok but tired, and, also, excited to be here. I cursed at the traffic for almost the entire state of Illinois, and Mr. Paideia drove through some brief but torrential thunderstorms in Pennsylvania, but otherwise the trip was uneventful and generally pleasant. Phoebe was really a good sport; she meowed for the first twenty minutes or so, then settled down, realized she was in for the long haul, and generally went to sleep in her carrier [which had water and a little bed for her], or looked out the window. On the second day we set her up carefully so that she could look out the front seat from between us:

In general, although we took a few pictures from the road, I took a lot of pictures of Phoebe... they're all in this set on flickr.

Funniest signage of the trip: on the marquee of an exterminator's shop, somewhere in the Poconos...."Pest of the Week: Carpenter Ants."

[Funny, of course, as long as you don't have Carpenter Ants]

Despite the traffic that soon ensued, I got very excited when we passed by Gary, Indiana , entered Illinois, and saw the Chicago skyline from afar. When we got closer, I made Mr. Paideia take a picture:

I really do like Chicago, but not its traffic. I think that cities I have encountered mainly as a teenager or adult [Boston, Chicago] are very exciting for me because I feel that I've "learned them" myself.

The Red Roof Inn of Elyria, Ohio was pleasant enough as our midpoint. Phoebe had a blast in the hotel room and tried to claw up the furniture [she was dissuaded from doing so]. It's so interesting traveling with a cat. I think Phoebe has got to be one of the most adaptable little kitties out there.

People in the Midwest seem to be really into fireworks, at least based on all of the billboards we saw advertising their sale. [L, what's up with that?] Abby, if you're reading this, on our way up US-41 in Wisconsin we passed the Mars Cheese Castle and I thought of you [but didn't get the camera out in time for a picture]. We also passed an enormous adult entertainment store smack in the middle of a HUGE farmfield.

I-80 was a good straight road. Very straight. It was really quite beautiful across much of Pennsylvania, entailed much construction in Ohio and Indiana, and then we were on 90, 94, and 41 the rest of the way. Indiana is very, very flat-- flatter than Wisconsin--but looked pretty enough in its own way. On the Ohio turnpike, they're putting in new rest areas west to east and they almost all look like UFOs that have just landed, but they're quite nice.

I think I want to go on a long drive again someday when we don't have the cat and many valuable possessions stuffed into the car, so that we can really take detours and small roads and explore. The car was indeed stuffed:

Note the cheesehead, which was one of our going-away gifts.

Phoebe's thoughts on the trip: "Meow. Meow meow meow. The humans entrapped me in a strange blue cage, then further entrapped me a in a large humming machine that moved. Meow. We went across the George Washington Bridge and I was very upset to leave Manhattan. Meow. At times there appeared to be three humans in front of me, one of whom spoke in a strange, mechanical voice with an Australian accent. Other mysterious voices sang for our entertainment; I found the bass lines too loud. At times the female human being would yell loudly at some unseen foe beyond out big cage. Occasionally the humans would look at me or pour water [wet! meow!] into a small plastic doohicky on my cage. The cage did make for decent sleeping. In the evening I was removed from the cage and permitted to roam around a large space with a large red couch, which I was not permitted to scratch. My arch nemesis, the Small Bit of Cardboard at The End of the Black Wire, has followed me lo this long journey and I have vanquished it. Now I have been removed from the cage for some time. There is strange fuzzy grass upon the floor here, which is pleasant for rolling. The humans sit on the floor with me. There are copious windowsills, so I suppose it will suffice. Meow.

Now we're here on the floor of our [mostly] empty apartment. We arrived last night and are now officially residents of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. More about Wisconsin to follow, of course. We are tired and a bit disorganized-- our stuff arrives tomorrow-- but happy to be here. And, it's 90 degrees outside, so the theme of the "Go Away and Dress Warmly" party, while accurate for winter, does not apply at the moment :-)

And, it's a whole new world of chain restaurants, most of which we just passed, some of which [something called Fagioli] we ate at. Country Kitchen Buffet, Longhorn Steakhouse, Eat 'n Park, Hometown Buffet, Cracker Barrel, White Castle, Texas Roadhouse, and countless, countless others. It's a brave new world out there, folks. [But in the meantime, I'm patronizing our nice little local coffee shop, and today we found excellent thin crust pizza]

Quote of the Day : Elderly Man: Damnit Mona, this isn't the fastest way to Country Kitchen Buffet!
Mona: No, but it's the shortest. I save the most gas that way. [back at the pond the fisherman casts his line and looks back at the car]
Elderly Man: You save the most gas if you take the highway to Country Kitchen Buffet!
--- South Park 710, "Grey Dawn"