The pup is a year old today...

I've wondered several dozen times in the past twelve months ..."What in doggy heaven's name am I doing--at my age-- with a new puppy in the house". And the bride just grins and says "relax".

She's right.

This critter is smart, well-behaved, quick to learn, anxious to please, incredibly energetic, a helluva herder (He helps me get where I'm going by gently nipping at my heels in true sheep dog style). He's a mix of Australian Shepherd (high energy/mega smarts/lightning speed) and Poodle (doesn't shed).

Both of his forbearer breeds are working dogs. The dog's owners (that's us) need to supply the dog with a job or sufficient exercise to compensate for the lack of one. Lacking outside employment, the enterprising and energetic pup will get his own job. And it will invariably involve somebody's shoes.

Which leads Waterblogged to say, once again, "What in doggy heaven's name am I doing--at my age, and with a worked-over pair of Bjorns--with a new puppy in the house?".

He's here; he's staying; the bride is happy.

And--truth to tell--he's gotten to me , too.

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Just a piece of furniture...

This is, perhaps, an offbeat way to re-enter the blogosphere after an eight week absence, particularly in light of this blog's raison d'etre, that being a focus on water and the politics of Waukesha.

The bride read, from the MJS, an obituary of sorts: Porter's of Racine is absolutely going out of business , finis, no mas, going to close it's doors at the end of business tomorrow.

"...Any reasonable offer will be considered".

Well, thanks for the stuff--and the style--you sold over all those years. And, sorry to see you go.

The photo up top is of a table a young couple bought in 1974, shortly after purchasing a first home, a few blocks from downtown Waukesha.

Thirty six years of family meals around a comfortable, beautiful, just-the-right-size table. First for the two of us (no leaf), later for four (small leaf), occasionally, for six or eight (large leaf).

People told us to go to Porter's for furniture because they had high quality goods. It turned out to be good advice. We agonized over buying something for several hundred dollars, then gave in to the pull 0f something that we thought was beautiful and would last a long time.

A piece of furniture that is still beautiful and useful after 36 years of daily use. It is part of the family. It has seen lots of discussion; a season of adolescent sulking; a few meals that went catastrophically bad; many more meals shared with friends that were emblematic of lifelong and sustaining friendships. And barrels of vino, leading unfailingly to veritas. A certain amount of bullshit and lots of poker and pinochle.

This table is emblematic of the life of a family. It is sturdy, beautiful, enduring, useful. And an outfit called Porter's of Racine sold it to us a long time ago. It will be passed on to a next generation, maybe several generations.

We are grateful that there was a place that sold such things... things that last. It would be better if such an organization could survive in the age of chipboard "furniture". But, the table endures, survives.

May we all endure.


PS. Waterblogged went out-of-commission early in March due to an emergency appendectomy that led to a week of of pseudo-healing and recovery, only to relapse due to "complications," followed by another week of recovery-of-sorts that foundered on further "complications". Three admissions to the hospital in 20 days, each through the ER portal, is the reason WB has had nothing to offer on the hot item of Waukesha's elections and the decision to pursue getting a diversion of Great Lakes water to the City of Waukesha.

Despite the loss of 20 pounds in 25 days (believe me, you do NOT want this to happen to you), Waterblogged will return to the debate, regarding new leadership and new perspectives on how to ensure both Waukesha's viability as a community and its need for a safe and reliable source of water.

Perhaps the Waukesha Freeman pays by the word. Or, maybe it's a copy-editing lapse. Probably just a big hiring mistake.

Waukesha man, 18, charged with bail jumping
Complaint: Teen allegedly created disturbance at police station

By Sarah Millard Freeman Staff

WAUKESHA – An 18-yearold Waukesha man was charged Monday with felony bail jumping and misdemeanor disorderly conduct after an alleged altercation ended at the Waukesha Police Department Friday night, according to a criminal complaint.

Devin R. Fehrman was released from the Waukesha County Jail on $500 bail Monday. He is ordered to have no contact with any of the witnesses or alleged victims listed in the criminal complaint.

The alleged victim came into the front lobby of the Waukesha Police Department at about 8:45 p.m. Friday and told police Fehrman assaulted him because the alleged victim had taken a truck light from Fehrman, according to the criminal complaint.

The alleged victim told police that Fehrman and he were meeting at Summit View Elementary School to return the light, according to the criminal complaint.

While the alleged victim, who appeared “somewhat distressed,” was telling police about the incident, Fehrman arrived at the police department, according to the complaint.

“When Fehrman opened the first entry door into the breezeway of the lobby, he immediately appeared very agitated,” the complaint states. “Fehrman then opened the second door into the main lobby and started yelling at (the alleged victim), stating something to the effect that he didn’t ‘(explective) break into his house.’”

Fehrman allegedly was instructed by a police officer to get back and go outside the lobby, but Fehrman allegedly ignored the commands, according to the complaint.

The complaint further alleges the officer became concerned Fehrman would assault the alleged victim and because Fehrman allegedly was not obeying commands, the officer physically grabbed Fehrman’s jacket and pushed him out the front doors. The officer then called for back up, according to the complaint.

Fehrman allegedly told police that while he was meeting the alleged victim at the school, his arm became trapped after the alleged victim rolled up his window to his vehicle. Fehrman allegedly told police the alleged victim then began driving, dragging Fehrman until he was able to free himself, according to the complaint.

Police allegedly did not notice any injuries on Fehrman’s body that suggested he had been dragged by a vehicle, according to the complaint.

Fehrman allegedly also told police he did not use profane language at the police department and was not belligerent. Fehrman allegedly did tell police he was mad and as soon as he entered the department, the officer grabbed him and sat him down onto the floor between the two doors, according to the complaint.

Fehrman also is charged with child abuse from an alleged July 22 altercation. A 14-year-old boy allegedly told police Fehrman had hit him with a shovel, according to a criminal complaint.

Fehrman additionally is charged with felony bail jumping from an alleged Nov. 1 incident."

Johnny Dankworth

LONDON (Reuters) - Saxophonist Sir John Dankworth, one of the leading figures in British jazz for more than half a century, has died, his agent said Sunday. He was 82.

He and Cleo Laine played Milwaukee every year for a stretch in the mid-70s into the 80s. Always filled the Hall--Uihlein Hall. She was the headliner, but their show was like few other collaborations.

Cleo sang a capella this smidgen of a Sctottish folk tune between numbers:

I know where I'm going
And I know who's going with me
I know who I love
And my dear knows who I'll marry.

Some say that he's poor
But I say that he's bonnie
Fairest of them all
Is my handsome winsome Johnny.

Bet you didn't know Mayor Nelson in Waukesha has a Blog

You really need to sample the goodies on Mayor Larry Nelson's Blog

This is a blog on which it is promised that all kinds of exciting things are "attached".

But, none--not one--of the links will take you anywhere.

And the graphic display on the masthead is simply bizarre.

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Dr. King's most prophetic speech was not I have a Dream

Dr. King knew--as we all need to know--that his overriding message came in this speech, a speech that went deeper into his dream than the one that gets center stage on the King National Holiday.

One year--to the day and the hour--after speaking these words at Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. King was dead from an assassin's bullet.

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
By Rev. Martin Luther King
4 April 1967

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join with you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

Click for text of the rest of the address/or to hear the original recording

"Silence is betrayal..."

We betray the legacy of Dr. King, by not repeating and amplifying this message. I am persuaded that--had Dr. King survived until today--his speeches would be addressing Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel; drones and collateral damage; the unconscionable conduct of indiscriminate war--war that targets "terrorists" and kills non-combatant civilians--throughout the last decade. He would tell us, once again, that silence is betrayal.

The Riverside Church address greatly impelled the tidal wave of revulsion that pushed LBJ to abandon his pursuit of a 2nd term as president. President Lyndon Johnson had pressed (as only he could press) the Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act, Head Start, the Job Corps, Medicaid, Medicare, the War on Poverty and so much more in his first four years in the White House.

Yet, Dr King refused to give LBJ a pass--and was berated and abused by many of his followers in the civil rights movement for doing so--because of all the President had done. King spoke on the issue that challenged the existence, the very soul, of the Dream he had described to us in 1963.

I have--we all have--the cadences, the powerful imagery, the emotion of I Have A Dream, in 0ur heads.

We still need the challenge of A Time to Break Silence as a goad to our hearts, and our shared conscience.

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Larry Nelson's boast about being 36th "Best Place to Live"

Money Magazine, each August, gets down to list-making. And they publish the "Ten Best Places to Live" in the U.S. They go on to list the runners-up from 11 through 100. They have their criteria, their bias toward what makes up the good life.

And they slice and dice lots of data and opinion to come up with sub-lists: Skinniest (but no mention most blubbery), priciest, richest, best golf, easiest on commuters, least tax-hellish.

A recent comment published on a different site, but focused on the lists, had comments on the Money criteria. Here's a typical one:

What about culture, diversity, public green spaces, walkability, public services, bike-friendliness, etc. etc.? Why this kneejerk reaction that you have to have low taxes to be happy?

Regardless, we are told WAUKESHA IS ON THE LIST! It says so on the top line of the City's Web Site, close to the photo of our Mayor. The facts: just before the last election (2006) for Mayor, Money reported that, according to their criteria, our city, while not on the top ten list, was a distant "also-ran," #36 on a list of cities that made up part of the group that was "studied".

Whoopee!

I don't want to douse anyone's pride or jubilation, but--this being an annual ranking--I have to tell you, we've fallen off the list; we're washed-up; some other city is 36th. And we've fallen hard. We are no longer even in the rankings that have been published in '07, '08 and '09.

So, here we are in 2010, four years after Waukesha's brief moment at 36th Place. Larry Nelson continues to brag about how wonderfully "36th Best" we are. Get over it, Mr. Mayor. The things that got Waukesha on that list, such as it is, happened before your were elected.

During your four year term, a lot has happened, some of which seems useful, much of which seems disastrous. But, for whatever reason, we have fallen, not just down in the published rankings, but completely off the list.

Allow me to tell you about how much I think Waukesha--my home for the past 36 years--is the place where I choose to live because, for me, it has been the "Best Place". How it is the place I have lived most of my life, the place where I have the friends of a lifetime, where I want to continue to live because I like it.

Telling me, and the rest of the world, that Waukesha was once the holder of a fair-to-middling rating in a yuppie consumer magazine sells all of us short.

Now the economy is in recovery, we can afford a little military adventurism....

Ashton Carter, Undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, put the matter this way recently: “[N]ext to Antarctica, Afghanistan is probably the most incommodious place, from a logistics point of view, to be trying to fight a war... It's landlocked and rugged, and the road network is much, much thinner than in Iraq. Fewer airports, different geography.” In other words, we might as well be fighting on the moon.

In translation, this means at least one thing: don’t believe any of the figures coming out of the White House or the Pentagon about what this war is going to cost.

See the whole article by Jo Comerford at Tomdispatch December 17, 2009.

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An Open Letter to The Norwegian Nobel Committee

On December 10, you will award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama, citing "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people." We the undersigned are distressed that President Obama, so close upon his receipt of this honor, has opted to escalate the U.S. war in Afghanistan with the deployment of 30,000 additional troops. We regret that he could not be guided by the example of a previous Nobel Peace Laureate, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who identified his peace prize as "profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time — the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression."

Read the rest and the list of signers...

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We are getting very close to the edge...

This from the mainstream business press this week:

Almost half (46%) of 2,148 consumers surveyed recently said they weren't confident they could come up with $2,000 within a month in a crisis--from savings, family, friends, credit cards or other sources.

Even among those earning $100,000 to $149,000 a year. almost 25% doubted they could raise it, according to the survey conducted by research firm TNS with academics from Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College.

"We wanted to know if people could fix a broken car or furnace," says Harvard finance professor Peter Tufano, who adds that most studies he has seen measure "how much cash people have... not how much they can access."

The survey results surprised him. "The ability to cope with emergencies is much less strong than we might have thought."
Business Week, Dec. 18, 2009

And This commentary and analysis by Charles H. Smith:

This survey offers a staggering set of implications. Let's grant that we have no idea if the survey was scientific, but we can assume that the academics from Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College would not besmirch their reputations with wildly inaccurate or fatally less-than-rigorous data collection. Let's follow the idea that 25% of households earning $100,000+ can't lay their hands on a meager $2,000. First off, only about 20% of households earn above $100K. Most households make do on a sum closer to the national median of $46,000.

What does it mean when households not only don't have $2,000 in cash (savings), but they also lack the ability to put their hands on $2,000 from family, friends, or even credit cards?

We can surmise:

1. Their social/family networks are either threadbare or populated by others without savings or credit;

2. Their creditworthiness is near-zero. Either they've maxed out the credit they once had, or their previous credit lines have been cut off in the general reduction of risk/credit, or they are in arrears/default and thus have zero credit.

It's also possible, and perhaps even probable (though we have no data to support this projection) that both are true: most of those in Americans' social networks are in dire straits/hanging by a financial thread and their access to credit either private or institutional is near-zero.

We might even extend our query deeper into social networking, and speculate that many Americans no longer possess a social network populated with people who they could ask for a loan. (A thousand "friends" on Facebook might not replace even one real friend.)

We might also speculate that many citizens are now wary of loaning their dwindling precious reserves of cash to anyone, even friends, who they rightly anticipate will be unable to pay back the loan if the economy continues devolving.

Perhaps the cultural ethics of the nation have been so eroded by the endless (and apparently richly rewarding) scams, fraud, embezzlement, cheating and lying that people no longer trust even their friends to act with fiscal responsibility--a suspicion fueled, perhaps, by the very fact that few were able to save even a paltry $2,000 for a rainy day.

Or it may just be that the majority of Americans are essentially one paycheck or unemployment check away from homelessness and hunger, and thus the social networks of most households are populated by others in the same general economic situation.

If so, we might ask: why have so many households failed to save even a modest sum? Let's grant that many households may well have already consumed their savings as job and pay cuts eroded household income. Medical emergencies alone apparently account for a significant percentage of financial ruination (foreclosures and bankruptcies).

But we would be remiss not to ask if some households have done better than others as the bogus prosperity evaporated, and if so, why. The answer is not difficult but it is terribly painful to those embedded in American culture's permanent adolescence: long-term shared sacrifice.

Those of you who reside in states with large immigrant populations probably know families who bought a home, and by combining three, four or even five incomes, paid off the mortgage in a few years. Was this possible if every household worker spent lavishly on consumer goods and the "luxury lifestyle" propagandized by TV? No. It was only possible if all the earners in the household rejected consumerist appeals to squander money and chose instead to sacrifice desires for the greater good, i.e. reducing the mortgage to zero and assemble a substantial savings (six figures in many cases).

Such thrift was commonplace in the post-Depression decades. People did not trust banks, hence my grandmother has six savings accounts, most with modest sums--she owned more savings accounts than dresses.

I remember my first credit card, which I only applied for after years of accumulating savings. I already owned land before I ever "owned" a credit card. This was common in the so-called "hippie era," which generally distrusted debt and institutions like banks. Hippies paid with cash or barter--at least until they devolved into yuppies.

This is not to suggest every household was financially able to amass substantial savings, but it is an open question to American society: how much credit and cash which could have been saved, with relatively modest applications of sacrifice and restraint, was squandered on "luxury goods," toys and travel?

The zeitgeist (especially television) encouraged rampant consumption and saving has been disincentivised for years by super-low interest rates. Nonetheless we have to ask how many private trillions were squandered, as a sort of cultural match to the trillions in public taxpayer funds squandered to maintain the financial Elites in their positions of power and privilege.

Responsibility for our financial ineptitude and precariousness runs both wide and deep.


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Still blooming on December 3rd.

Planting snapdragons in a sunny south-facing corner sometimes yields a crop of flowers that bring pleasure right up to Christmas.

Granddaughter Aya has gotten to grandpa, once again....

They tell me that a six-week-old baby cannot smile a real smile. It's a physical reaction to a little baby “fot” or burp. But, you can't tell me this little one isn't --in some unknown way--just plain delighted over something. And, I suspect that what has her so smiley IS NOT the way President Obama is living up to his Peace Prize laurels.

Cuba policy: A blend of futile and stupid....

First was the Cuban revolution on the first day of 1959. Then, the April, 1961 US-sponsored, US-financed and US-botched military assault on Cuba. It was inevitable that the deployment of Soviet missiles--or some other equally provocative move on the island of Cuba in 1962--would be the response.

Nikita Khrushchev and Jack Kennedy stared each other down. Then they both blinked. They both wanted out of the stand-off without nuclear war; and from that flowed the good result. US missiles pointed at the soviets came out of Turkey. Soviet missiles aimed at the US came out of Cuba. The only sensible move out of US policy-makers in the past half-century.

Ever since, it has been all clandestine stuff, mostly mischief carried out by the Miami and New Jersey bunch, with loads of CIA support and black budget cash, including repeated attempts to assassinate the Cuban leadership.

All of our attempts to wage cold war and proxy war on Cuba have amounted to making the 11 million stay-at-home Cubans pay for the sin of a love/hate relationship with the guy who pulled off their revolution, the guy who kicked Uncle Sam in the shins and threw out the mafia and waved goodbye to the fat cats who exploited their fellow Cubans.

So Radio Marti and TV Marti are merely a laughable sideshow. The production values are awful. Believe me, I’ve been there; I’ve seen and heard it. The real underlying purpose of both of those broadcasting efforts is to funnel money to the producers--Miami bitter-enders. The quid pro quo is electoral support--money and votes--every presidential election year. Republicans and Democrats are on the same page; they compete with each other to prove who really hates Castro the most.

Cubans just don’t find the Radio and TV Marti stuff appealing. Anyone who wants to see and hear the Miami broadcasts can see them or hear them. They just don't really want to. The jamming is half-hearted…and has declined in the face of this massive Cuban indifference. Some outside evaluators found that the listenership/viewership is in single digits. There is much better stuff on TV coming from Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Spain. The Miami bunch who run the radio/tv operation are equally half-hearted. They don’t care whether anyone listens/watches. They are getting their checks and that’s all that matters.

Fifty years of pushing the same tired policy…fifty years of failure. That cold-war saber-rattling never worked, just hardened the Cuban rejection of it. And the saber-rattling has devolved into piss-into-the-wind cold war rhetoric spewing unheeded out of some very big transmitters, disappearing into the ether above the Florida straits.

Why do we insist on backing it? Cuba is no threat, has never been a threat. Whatever we think of Cuban leadership, it is up to the Cuban people to choose their government. They stick with the basic tenet of the Cuban Revolution of 1959: “We’ve seen what the Yanquis do… Get the damn Yanquis out of here… and keep them out of here".

Oh...one more thing. Here's the latest on international support of our Cuba Embargo and Travel Ban, reported in Trans Africa Forum, Oct. 30, 2009:

United Nations Votes to Condemn U.S. Embargo against Cuba for 18th Consecutive Year

For nearly two decades, the majority of the world has voiced its opposition to one of our most problematic foreign policies – the nearly 50 year U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. On October 28, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly condemned it for the eighteenth consecutive year. 187 countries voted in opposition to the embargo, three countries voted in favor (the U.S. itself, Israel and Palau) and two abstained (Micronesia and Marshall Islands). This is the first time that the General Assembly vote has occurred under the administration of President Barack H. Obama and the first year the vote has occurred where the U.S. is the only country in the Western Hemisphere to not to have diplomatic relations with Cuba.

During a two hour debate, representatives ranging from countries such as China to regions such as the Caribbean (CARICOM) voiced strong opposition to the embargo and called it criminal, illegal and immoral. The Group of 77 (the largest intergovernmental organization of developing states in the UN) and the Non-Aligned Movement (an international organization of states not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc) expressed their disagreement. Even traditional U.S. allies, such as the European Union countries, came out unanimously against the policy and were openly critical.

Andreas Delfs is interested in the music director opening in Seattle

Maestro's new job evaporates:

The 109-year-old Honolulu Symphony, which bills itself as the oldest American orchestra west of the Rockies, said it will cancel all of its November and December concerts and made no guarantees that the rest of its 2009-10 season would go on.

“We cannot spend money we do not have,” said Majken Mechling, the symphony’s executive director. “We cannot continue with business as usual.”

The symphony is just the latest in a string of high-profile bankruptcies to hit ....

Rick Daysog, Honolulu Advertiser

Things are really getting ugly.

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The old lie....

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen
Killed on the western front, November 9, 1918, two days before the last
futile shot was fired in The Great War. . . the War to end All Wars.

Fill the hall, y'all. Sarah Palin's coming to town...

Tickets still available for tonight’s Palin event


WEST ALLIS – Tickets are still available for Wisconsin Right to Life’s event tonight featuring Sarah Palin.

The building’s doors will open at 5:30 p.m., event doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the program will run from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Wisconsin Exposition Center at State Fair Park, 8200 W. Greenfield Ave.

Tickets are $30 per person, and children under 2 are free. General seating is not reserved and no tickets will be sold at the door.

Tickets can be purchased at www. SarahPalinEvent.com. Parking is $5.

– Freeman Staff

Maybe I'm reading this all wrong. But, doesn't there seem to be just a whiff of desperation in this Waukesha Freeman story running in this morning's fishwrap?

Sarah's manager's are being generous in stipulating that some of the little nippers still in diapers, may enter at no cost.

"Hey, Buster, you trying to sneak a toddler in here widdout payin' his way? That'll be another thirty bucks."

UPDATE

We gotta have rules to make this work:

NOTICE - YOU MUST HAVE A TICKET TO ENTER
No tickets will be sold at the door

# All bags will be searched
# No exit and re-entry allowed
# No cell phones
# No recording devices
# No video or still cameras
# No laptops
# No photos or recording allowed
# No literature distribution
# No posters or banners
# No strollers or car seats
# No carry-in food or beverages

Concession stands will be open inside the Wisconsin Exposition Center hall

Congress prepares a batch of sausage....

In 1962, the United States Post Office faced the increasingly evident problem--that 2-digit postal zone codes were simply insufficient for the growing volumes of mail.

For example: Any letters I received pre-1964, (perhaps containing a decoder ring or a birthday card from my godmother with a buck in it--quite a generous gift, that buck would buy four packs of Pall Malls or 20 Nestle's Crunch bars) would have been addressed like this:

Jimmy B.
6810 Wakefield Ave.
Cleveland 2, Ohio

Our mailman (back then, all letter carriers were men, so there was nothing else to call them) and about thirty others--all of them working out of the branch PO for Zone 2--couldn't start sorting the mail for their routes until other sorters, located in the branch and working the graveyard shift, sorted them down to the thirty-some piles for the individual routes The only tool available was that two-digit ZONE number. The entire City of Cleveland could have no more than 99 zones. Once the ninety nine piles were sorted by zone number, everything else depended on knowing which street and which block was in which route.

The U.S. Post Office in Washington had bright staff who researched all the possible methods of getting a zone-coding system with greater finesse at locating a building, on a street, in a neighborhood, in a zone in a city in a state, all by looking only at the Postal Code Zone.

They looked and looked. They noted what the Brits had, looked at what the Canadians were considering, and checked out what Cuba had. Cuba did not make the cut, as it had a system that delivered letters addressed like this: "...near the corner of Avenida Zanha and Calle Rayo".

The Post Office recommendation in '63, made by the esteemed Postmaster General, John A. Gronouski--a good Kennedy Democrat from Wisconsin--called for a six-digit indicator, using twin alpha-numeric sets of three, with alternating numbers and letters (A2B 3C4) that would produce a huge range of combinations, allowing an indicia sufficiently versatile that it could sort mail into some very fine categories.

For Example, A piece of mail coded A3X 7P4 could have enough precision to indicate the address was:

o In a specific zone
o On specific mail delivery route
o On an urban block
o In a specific apartment block or commercial building
o On a specific floor

It was being used-- after having been perfected--in at least two places: Great Britain and the Netherlands. And everybody LIKED IT A LOT. And many other countries were studying it.

Enter: The United States Congress.

Congress listened, deliberated, blustered, horse-traded, groaned, log-rolled, strained, compromised, eye-gouged, and finally forged an agreement among the august membership.

And Congress Spoke:

The American People will not tolerate, will not accept, will not use six digits, especially with those confusing letters of the alphabet mixed in. The American people will accept only a system of zone codes with no more than five numbers... and no alphabet soup.

Moreover, the American people will happily endorse and adapt to the use of Zipcode. In order to soften the body blow inherent in drastic change, the American people will have the ministrations of Mr. ZIP to help them acclimate to the this new and complex system, which will be--because we have decreed it--the best mail sorting system in the world.

These are the same fools who are designing a health care system, getting right down to the minutia, for the American people. They're doing it in committees and caucuses and eye-gouging, log-rolling, horse-trading confabs from now until the last lobbyist has been shook down.

They know what the American people want. They know what we need. They've undertaken similar delicate, difficult tasks with reasonably good results. And if they do not get it right the first time, they know that a little tweaking cum eye-gouging sometime in the future is always possible.

After twenty years of Mr. ZIP (a backronym for Zone Improvement Program) the US Postal Service tweaked the marginally useful ZIPcodes with ZIP plus 4. Congress no longer has any say in postal affairs, as it is now (since 1972) an Independent Agency of the U.S. Government, not funded by taxes, not run by Congress.

But is still saddled with what the US Congress did in creating the Zone Improvement Program.

Then and now in beisbol....

In Game 3 of the 1997 American League Championship Series, Baltimore pitcher Mike Mussina struck out 15 Cleveland Indians in seven innings. Indians pitcher Orel Hershiser had seven strikeouts in seven innings. The game started at 4:17 p.m. in Cleveland, and 13 of the first 18 outs were strikeouts.

"I think it’s unfair to have to go out and play a baseball game at 4 o’clock in the afternoon with the sun going down,” Mussina said after the game, which the Indians won, 2-1, in 12 innings. “It’s just not fair because you can’t see."
NY Times, 10-06-09

Further back: the the darkest* moment in Cleveland's benighted baseball history was the '54 World Series. But it had nothing to do with shadows creeping across the playing field. The Tribe having won 111 games on the way to the pennant, were swept by the Giants in a 4-game series, played on 4 consecutive days, in bright sunlight without shadows.

The 1954 World Series began in the early afternoonon of September 29 at the Polo Grounds. Marv Grissom threw the first pitch, hitting Al Smith, with Doby on deck, Avila in the hole and Rosen ready to clean up. Nothing worked for the Tribe that afternoon. And Willie Mays iced the win by making the play of the decade in center. One hundred two (102) hours later, it (the entire World Series) was over, at the end of game four at Lakefront Stadium in Cleveland.

So intent on moving the season to its conclusion, the Commissioner of Baseball didn't even allow a day off for travel. I couldn't find evidence of whether the trip to game three in Cleveland was by air or rail travel; the 20th Century Limited would have been an easy choice.

Baseball in the age of TV has been bent to the desires of revenue-hungry advocates of spectacle, not to mention the endless parade of advertising, necessitating strings of official time-outs.

And since most of the games are played on week-nights, we get scenes of the Boys of Summer shivering their way through games played on the cusp of winter. I liked it better the way they did it in '54...mostly. I refuse--still--to forgive Al Lopez for not going to Rapid Robert in the 4th game.

*In truth, the death by beanball of Ray Chapman, at the plate in the Polo Grounds against the Yankees, was the worst day--Aug. 16, 1920. But, to an 11 year old fan, who hadn't yet read enough baseball history, there was no comparison.

Herb Kohl: a guy who'll offer you a glass of water on a cold day

I wrote Herb Kohl a cordial and encouraging letter about why I thought he should join the growing numbers of Senators and Representatives backing bills to lift the Cuba travel ban for all Americans. I referenced Senate Bill 428, which already has 32 Senate co-sponsors.

On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 8:59 AM, Senator Kohl wrote:

"As you may know, the U.S. has imposed a travel and economic embargo on Cuba since 1958 in response to Cuban President Fidel Castro's refusal to democratize and demonstrate greater appreciation for human rights. In light of President Fidel Castro's decision to step down, there has been some discussion on reviewing U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba.

"I understand your concerns about possible changes to U.S.-Cuba relations included in the recent Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009. Section 620 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act amended the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. This amendment would authorize changes for travel relating to commercial sales of agricultural and medical goods. However, the Obama administration has stated that they will disregard the amendment pending a further review of the embargo against Cuba.

"I assure you that there have been no significant changes to U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. In the future, any changes in our relationship with Cuba will be made by the Obama administration with consultation from the U.S. Senate.

"Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind should the topic be debated during the 111th Congress."

Sincerely,

Herb Kohl
United States Senator

I replied:

Senator Kohl:

This response is an insult.

Your first sentence includes: "...the U.S. has imposed a travel and economic embargo on Cuba since 1958 in response to Cuban President Fidel Castro's refusal to democratize and demonstrate greater appreciation for human rights". Ignorant.

Why would you send me this kind of half-baked nonsense? In 1958, Fulgencio Batista was the thug "leader" of Cuba; he didn't give a damn about democratizing. He was a murderous, thieving pal of gangsters and of the American government. The travel ban and embargo were imposed years later, along with a four-decades-long program of CIA interference in Cuban affairs, including many attempts to assassinate Cuban leaders.

I asked you about your view of sponsorship of Senate Bill 428. You wrote back about Section 620 of the Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Unresponsive. Head fakes work under the basket, not in Congress.

We send you to Congress to work. We expect you to hire competent people who are able to read a letter and respond with something other than this uninformed, non-responsive "bedbug" letter. I've received letters like this one over your signature in the past: Vaguely in the same neighborhood of the subject, but non-committal, something for everyone.

Will you please have your staff return to my original letter, read it carefully and get me a responsive reply.

This whole business of sending form letters in response to real questions is--as I said--an insult to those of us who are up-to-date on the issues and ask pointed, well-informed questions.

Please, respond with real information.


A constituent, a voter...

Jim Bouman
Waukesha

Gazpacho, Pesto, Stuffed (burp) Peppers...

Not the best year for garden produce--lack of heat in June and July gave us tomatoes that look fabulous and taste only so-so (but, still, infinitely more desirable than hothouse and other winter grocery store produce). The plates of beefsteak and plum tomatoes are far outdone by the still-ripening heirloom varieties. The peppers shown are now stuffed and headed for the oven. I harvested half the basil and made two quarts of pesto. What's shown in today's photo is maybe a third of the season's production.

All the beets are long-gone--down the hatch. Thyme is still flourishing, as is parsley. But the big, still-to-come treat is our three dozen leeks. They'll stay put until well into November. Getting kissed by frost makes them even better.

All that from forty sq. ft. of raised beds.

A good year. Glad I didn't take the bait and plant corn so I could make a killing selling it to the ethanol distillers.

One interesting surprise: I planted my quick-and-dirty, dirt/cheap version (a 5-gallon bucket with a hole cut in the bottom) of the "Topsy Turvy" upside-down tomato growing apparatus. They were tiny, a grape variety. Never got to bring even one of them into the house... because I ate every delicious one from that prolific producer right off the vine.