Althouse: At the Kettle Moraine Café...

November 11, 2012

At the Kettle Moraine Café...

Untitled

... it was all about November rain.

64 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain, telling me just what a fool I've been.; 11/11/12, 7:16 PM
Sorun said...: Are we going to wake up with snow on the ground tomorrow?; 11/11/12, 7:17 PM
Rabel said...: While Althose cultivates her post-glacial garden, Instapundit provides links to the important issues confronting the American electorate:

This is just wrong and must be stopped; 11/11/12, 7:21 PM
Unknown said...: There's about 4 inches of snow here, and it looks like it's going to stay. It's actually a little later than usual for us.; 11/11/12, 7:23 PM
edutcher said...: And it's coming our way.

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul..."; 11/11/12, 7:25 PM
jungatheart said...: The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year,
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead;
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.
The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,
And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day; 11/11/12, 7:38 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: Oh, a Guns n' Roses reference, nice.; 11/11/12, 7:45 PM
bagoh20 said...: I grew up in Western Pennsylvania which is also terminal moraine country, with parks named for it. It's incredible to imagine that the land you are standing on was once at the front edge of an ice sheet a mile high, and all that has happened there since with mammoths and saber tooth cats wandering about, and later with the earliest Americans moving in from the northwest and living there for centuries before, as in my area, George Washington once passed through and a number of Indian massacres of early settler took place with the inevitable counter massacre to follow.

I remember as a kid, hiking and hunting in the woods there, and regularly taking the time slowly imaging the entire history of the place was taking place before my eyes in time lapse mode.; 11/11/12, 7:51 PM
Unknown said...: bagoh
I teach an earth science unit to 3rd graders. When we get to glaciers it's always so fun to describe topographical features all around our valleys left there by glaciers, earthquakes and volcanoes. We live in a rich area for studying earth science with Yellowstone so close and all the geothermal activity. Kids here get to wander still and imagine what it was like long ago.
We still have a connection to the earth here that's priceless. When you think about it there are probably at least as many kids living where the land is close as there are living in cities. I hope so at least.; 11/11/12, 8:26 PM
bagoh20 said...: After a few months of pretty poor results in dog adoptions, we had a wonderful weekend with an unusually high number of dogs getting adopted. We are not a big rescue, with usually only about 50 - 60 dogs under our care at any one time. We average about 5-7 dogs a week finding a home, but lately we have had a number of weeks where we got skunked. This week though, we hooked up people and dogs like we rarely see. I don't even know how many, but it was good. We got some log term ones out that we have had for over a year.

These rescue dogs are often found injured or abused, shaking, dirty and flea infested under a car in the hood, barely alive. That's the lucky ones, most of the others come from death row just hours away from execution where they leave the world scared and confused because of some asshole's heartless handling of their responsibility.

To see the lucky few a couple months later all clean and healthy walking away with mom and dad, and the kids fighting over who gets to hold the leash on their way to a warm, safe home, is just about the greatest feeling around. I can't believe I can feel that good without a hangover the next day. I highly recommend it, and it's easy on the liver.; 11/11/12, 8:36 PM
Bob Ellison said...: "Eventually ever' man gotta face the problem of tryin' to figger if it's worthwhile to prove that he is himself."

--paraphrase from Porkypine, c. 1958; 11/11/12, 8:39 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: edutcher said...

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul..."

Hah. I just started listening to Moby Dick on mp3, which I got here.; 11/11/12, 8:40 PM
wildswan said...: I like McPhee's Annals of a Former Time which pictures the way the land was in all the different geological eras along one certain highway across the US. And when I came to Wisconsin I tried to learn the different eras - so easy - Precambrian, two more, then nothing until glacial. Same for history. After the glaciers came the Indians, then the Blackhawk War, then nothing till the Packers. Wisconsin history is a subtle thing though where 50% of the men served in the Civil War and 80% in WW II. But how did this affect the state? Who knows? It's like the glaciers - moraines were left but they are so large as landforms that they are almost not there. A certain kind of hill - black earth ten feet deep - 80 % of the men soldiers - how is this history?; 11/11/12, 8:43 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Bagoh20, fantastic. We took in a stray. Dogs are strange angels.; 11/11/12, 8:44 PM
bagoh20 said...: Wyo sis,

I would love to teach science to kids. I raised two from 4 and 8 yrs to adulthood, and I absolutely loved that part of it. I always loved science as a kid, and still do. I wouldn't mind going back to college just to attend some more science classes, and the do labs and field work in biology, chemistry, and geology. That stuff was awesome. My curriculum was Environmental Science and Engineering, which was an interdisciplinary major that covered it all. School for me was like the discovery channel every day. I miss it dearly.; 11/11/12, 8:50 PM
Dante said...: What a peaceful place. From the "Story of Art," there are images that one can look at for a great period of time, mostly in Asian Art. The theory is that the sensations form many different perspectives are captured.

I can imagine a place like that would be great for painting, or even book writing. Write down ones thoughts, introspect, and consider. Yes, a perfect place to write a book.; 11/11/12, 9:04 PM
Dante said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/12, 9:06 PM
Unknown said...: bagoh
It's a wonderful thing, a privilege and an honor. To children science is one of the most exciting subjects. There is no shortage of excitement about learning in the grade schools that I've seen.; 11/11/12, 9:06 PM
Dante said...: I wouldn't mind going back to college just to attend some more science classes

check out Coursera. Perhaps there is a way to convince the local JCs to run the labs.; 11/11/12, 9:14 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @edutcher Ha ha. I am reading that book this month!; 11/11/12, 9:18 PM
Michael K said...: My dog bit me last Wednesday night. It was kind of poetic, Tuesday, then a dog bite. He gets his nuts cut off next Tuesday. I know a few people who could do with that, as well.; 11/11/12, 9:18 PM
Peter said...: I live just south of the terminal moraine that cuts across the middle of Long Island. It's quite interesting to see the differences in the land to the north and south of it, all in the space of 15 miles. To the north, the terrain is hilly, and the fertile soil allows for the growth of tall majestic trees.* To the south, the terrain is flat, and scrubby pines are the most common natural-growth trees.

* = a decidedly mixed blessing in the past couple of weeks; 11/11/12, 9:18 PM
Meade said...: @wyo sis, check out this comment by Simon Kenton last summer. It blew my mind and put me off on a history of geology adventure that lasted for weeks as we drove through Montana. J. Harlen Bretz - what an amazing, imaginative, and courageous scientist.

The things I learn through my fellow commenters! Hey, it's not just all laughs, entertainment and amusement, believe it or not.; 11/11/12, 9:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I started with the audiobook, Tyrone, but switched to the text and then I go back to the audiobook. Back and forth. Both are endlessly rewarding.; 11/11/12, 9:22 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Hi, Meade!; 11/11/12, 9:23 PM
NoraCharles said...: Sorry to post off-topic... Brietbart has posted video of a speech Paula Broadwell gave in late-October where she suggests the CIA might have been holding a couple of prisoners at that CIA Annex in Benghazi. I hadn't heard that theory before. Had anyone else?; 11/11/12, 9:24 PM
Meade said...: Hi, Ann. You should be proud of your hiking efforts today.; 11/11/12, 9:25 PM
Meade said...: NoraCharles, Powerline and Instapundit are mentioning it.; 11/11/12, 9:27 PM
bagoh20 said...: Ann, this Meade character commenting here is clearly a stalker. Watch your back, girl.; 11/11/12, 9:29 PM
Meade said...: And his comments are coming from INSIDE the house!; 11/11/12, 9:30 PM
caplight45 said...: Ann do not get in the shower under any circumstances.

Cue screeching music.; 11/11/12, 9:35 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I know I have to watch out for that guy!

He had me out walking in the rain. Kinda scary.; 11/11/12, 9:37 PM
Patrick said...: Nicely played, Meade.; 11/11/12, 9:41 PM
bagoh20 said...: BTW, thanks for that post of the water method to bacon bliss. I did try it, and now I'm addicted to bacon. I had bacon, cabbage and avacodo sandwiches for three days straight until the bacon ran out. Now I just have to resist buying any more bacon.

You may ask "why cabbage?" Well, it looked like a head of lettuce to me. It turned out good though. I think I like the cabbage better - more favor, and thicker, crisper leaves make a more manly sandwich. Of course, the mistaking cabbage for lettuce is pretty manly already.; 11/11/12, 9:52 PM
NoraCharles said...: Foreign Policy has also posted the video. His resignation suddenly makes much more sense. Was she guessing or did she have inside info?; 11/11/12, 10:11 PM
KCFleming said...: I went to see David Sedaris tonight. Needed some laughs; he delivered a few.

I was in dread of some political crap and almost begged off the invite. 60 minutes later I seemed to have escaped the usual lefty entertainment disease.

Then he mocked the anti-abortion billboards in Minnesota, and though parts of it were funny it was a bit horrifying to me.

Then that passed and a few mildly amusing stories passed. Question time. Second question was about the election. Loooong grave dancing response and cheers.

I should have known better. Can't escape the bullshit anywhere.; 11/11/12, 10:19 PM
Unknown said...: Meade,
Now I wish I'd been more into geology when we lived in Oregon. We lived close to the McNary Damn and drove all over that part of Washington state. The scenery is unique.
Now I'll have to/get to do some research. I also teach Native American tribal areas and legends and I could use some supplementary material about the plateau region.
What a great distraction from politics right now.; 11/11/12, 10:25 PM
Craig said...: http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm; 11/11/12, 10:32 PM
bagoh20 said...: Dante, Thanks for the Coursea link. I might just check that out too, in addition to the pleasure I'm already getting from Khan Academy, and endless hours of Wikipedia random articles. The internet is a wonderful gift. If there was no internet, my life would have to be significantly different, just in time alone, but my perspective would have to be very different as well. I can't even imagine now what that would be like. If you take away all the stuff I've learned on line in the last 5 years, you would be left essentially with an idiot.

What if it's all just part of an alien plan to educate us in preparation to be slaves on their planet. I'm cool with that.; 11/11/12, 10:41 PM
Known Unknown said...: Bagoh-

If you don't mind me asking, what part of Western PA did you grow up in?

I was born in Sharon and raised in Sharpsville. Rust Belt all the way.; 11/11/12, 10:56 PM
bagoh20 said...: EMD,
Butler, PA. Near Moraine State Park. I use to have a friend in Sharon, so I've been there a few times, but I don't think I've ever been to Sharpsville.; 11/11/12, 11:08 PM
john said...: What are the chances that the House of Reps will vote in a new Speaker next congress? Like Paul Ryan for example.; 11/11/12, 11:37 PM
bagoh20 said...: Under the Bush tax cuts, Federal tax revenues are now up to near the record level of pre-recession 2007, but the emergency stimulus appears to have become a permanent part of the Federal "budget". It's now $800 billion more than the last pre-recession year of 2007.

"President Obama can now proudly claim the four largest deficits in modern history. As a share of GDP, the deficit fell to 7% last year, which was still above any single year of the Reagan Presidency, or any other year since Truman worked in the Oval Office."

http://feeds.wsjonline.com/~r/wsj/xml/rss/3_7041/~3/2Kw1Y2zB7uY/SB10001424127887323894704578113033115035920.html; 11/11/12, 11:56 PM
Dante said...: Bagoh,

Yes, these are the same ideas. Same as "howitworks." The coursera courses are taught primarily by ivy league professors, to the extent that matters (or that it damages!)

It would be great if there were a way around the stubbornly low productivity increases for teachers. The disadvantage as I see it is no teacher is telling truths, only models, and if coursera, or some other way, is successful, it could have the effect of cementing the models as truths.

Anyway, I do hope thing work out well with your business. It's such a shame those in power do not understand they are hurting your workers. I'll be interested to follow what happens as you make your decisions for your company.; 11/12/12, 12:22 AM
bagoh20 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/12/12, 1:24 AM
bagoh20 said...: Dante,
Don't worry about me. Our business is doing great, but we are lucky, and by no means typical right now. Our customer base is not doing well, but we are gaining more of the smaller pie, and digging into to new pies. The great thing about being small is that it matters much less how much pie there is out there in the macro.

The issue is much more acute and heartbreaking for businesses that are struggling. They can't afford any more of their profit being skimmed. What a lot of people don't appreciate is that a small business that shows a profit may still have very little cash. They may by necessity have it locked up in inventory or equipment, or owed to them in accounts receivable. I have to save up money all year just to have cash to pay the tax bills, and that sometimes leaves us juggling enough to both make payroll and pay taxes. We pay out 43% of whatever we make just in state and federal income taxes alone. And there are plenty of other taxes: corporate, property, payroll, environmental, plus fees for all kinds of things.

Regardless of how well people may be doing, my real problem with the level of taxation is that people with a proven record of very inefficient use of it take the money from people who are clearly much better at using it. More serious is that it is never enough. If someone has a problem with always spending more than they make, giving them more money will not fix it.

In the coming months, the media will be forced to admit, and us to face that there is now no way to tax people enough to pay even the non-discretionary spending in our budget, let alone the things we could cut, but won't. The only possible way out of this is through some bubble of prosperity again, but as long as we are being ruled by people who think prosperity equals greed or raping of the planet, we will stagnate, and get poorer and poorer as a nation.; 11/12/12, 1:36 AM
Dante said...: Bagoh,

It would be interesting to know graph the efficiency over time of government functions. I suspect many of them would be negative, and failures, by business perspectives.

My own view is that government ought to outsource, to business, these functions with clear metrics that anyone can read. Here is what we want you to do: XYZ, but we aren't going to tell you how to do it.

Unleash the creativity of competition and the private sector! Fat chance that will ever happen, though.; 11/12/12, 2:48 AM
Dante said...: Leslyn,

Nice Car.

The answer is the appearance of impropriety doesn't matter to the Obamao. He has his ass covered. Just like he did with donations setup to take foreign money.

If it were an (R), we would be hearing about it. But it's the Obamao. So I don't care what anyone says. Until the playing field is level, until Bill Clinton gets as much shit for sexually harassing, or even raping, compared to a guy who purportedly said "Is that a pubic hair on my coke," I don't care.

It's capital "B" Bullshit.; 11/12/12, 2:53 AM
Clyde said...: Ice sheets and supervolcano caldera... Could be worse, I guess.

Still looks pretty bleak.; 11/12/12, 4:25 AM
rhhardin said...: Doberman Frisbee catch (video); 11/12/12, 4:43 AM
edutcher said...: To all who got a smile out of that line (which has stayed with me for 45 years), you're welcome.

Meade is a smart guy if he can get his sweetie to go hiking in the rain. When she comes home all chilled, he knows where she's going to go to get warm.

PS I looked at that photo and thought of some old voyageur contemplating the long canoe ride back to Quebec.; 11/12/12, 6:04 AM
Rusty said...: Moby Dick! Right?; 11/12/12, 6:09 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: From now on we should call you the-other-side-does-it Leslyn; 11/12/12, 7:43 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Sorry to post off-topic... "

Nothing is off-topic in café posts. They are open threads.; 11/12/12, 8:18 AM
sakredkow said...: Moby Dick really is the greatest novel I think I've ever read - the greatest for me. It has a rhythm and a pulse to it that's wonderful, but it took some re-readings to grasp it.; 11/12/12, 8:44 AM
Rusty said...: I bet there's a pheasant in that brush somewhere.
It wold be fun to let some working dogs loose in there and see what they kick up.; 11/12/12, 8:45 AM
JOB said...: Native Inscriptions

Sing muddy mounds, sing bloody mounds, sing simple mounds
Of blue air and earth, historic mounds of air and washed earth
Shaped like badgers and bears, like foxes and wolves, asleep, asleep.

These things are native poems for you to plunder at risk
The wide dancing ghosts of dangerous Baraboo climates,
The smaller apparitions of a previous Milwaukee in forest green.

Interpret these raw rivers and this bluff rock, if you will,
Offer up a hard clarity beyond the vernal time of clarity,
When air and earth were washed simple, washed and simple.

Where, though, does one of earth’s stanza begin; where end?
Tree to limb, root to trunk? How should one begin to read again?
With beech-barked canoes, or in the gnat-choked stump water?

Start, perhaps, with the skunked rivers of oily purple rain collecting
In and around a punky stump's rooted chalice. It takes a while,
And whole other Winnebagos to understand even one word –

Start then perhaps with the chits of bark from the paper-white beech
Filed amid the dense portage of the sun-hipped rivers. It takes a while
And entirely different Kickapoo meanderings to be consoled.; 11/12/12, 11:41 AM
JOB said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/12/12, 11:43 AM
JOB said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/12/12, 11:43 AM
Rusty said...: JOB said...
Native Inscriptions

Sing muddy mounds, sing bloody mounds, sing simple mounds
Of blue air and earth, historic mounds of air and washed earth
Shaped like badgers and bears, like foxes and wolves, asleep, asleep.

These things are native poems for you to plunder at risk
The wide dancing ghosts of dangerous Baraboo climates,
The smaller apparitions of a previous Milwaukee in forest green.

Interpret these raw rivers and this bluff rock, if you will,
Offer up a hard clarity beyond the vernal time of clarity,
When air and earth were washed simple, washed and simple.

Where, though, does one of earth’s stanza begin; where end?
Tree to limb, root to trunk? How should one begin to read again?
With beech-barked canoes, or in the gnat-choked stump water?

Start, perhaps, with the skunked rivers of oily purple rain collecting
In and around a punky stump's rooted chalice. It takes a while,
And whole other Winnebagos to understand even one word –

Start then perhaps with the chits of bark from the paper-white beech
Filed amid the dense portage of the sun-hipped rivers. It takes a while
And entirely different Kickapoo meanderings to be consoled.

Birch bark. Beech bark is unsuitable for canoes; 11/12/12, 3:15 PM
JOB said...: Thanks, Rusty, for reading - and duly noted.

Best,

JOB; 11/12/12, 3:30 PM
rcommal said...: If someone has a problem with always spending more than they make, giving them more money will not fix it.

Bagoh cuts to the heart of it. With the obvious caveat, there is a great deal of truth in this, whether we're talking about individuals, organizations, businesses or government entities. It's true of even more than money: If the problem is poor management skills, more to manage isn't a very good solution.; 11/12/12, 4:39 PM
Rusty said...: JOB said...
Thanks, Rusty, for reading - and duly noted.

Other than that it's a good poem.
Lotta people here are talented like that.; 11/12/12, 6:15 PM
Known Unknown said...: but I don't think I've ever been to Sharpsville.

Didn't miss anything. Population approximately 4,000.

I grew up out in the sticks, in South Pymatuning Township. Some great Indian names (yes, I know, Native American) out that way. Not as good as Wisconsin ones, though.

I've been to Butler a few times, mainly for playoff basketball games. I remember the garish yellow gymnasium. Go Tornadoes!; 11/12/12, 9:59 PM

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