Autumn Retrospective

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.

I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

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.

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

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!

My Car Is a Northeastern Liberal

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

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?

And if so, what did it say?

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

Green East and Green Upper Midwest

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."

Little Seder on the Prairie (for real this time)

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

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.

Rob this bank, Johnny Depp!

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!]

Chocolate Wars

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.