"Madison Mayor Paul Soglin walks with his wife, while observing the crowd control at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party in Madison, Wisconsin."

Meade messages me that and says "That's your caption." Here's the photograph.

The local newspaper reports: "Mifflin Street: A peaceful day in the neighborhood."

“Certainly, we’re very pleased with the way things have gone,” [said the spokesman for the police]. “What we’re seeing today is not the Mifflin Street party of two years ago. We worked hard over the last year to get the word out to people as to what our expectations were for this day and, by and large, people have been keeping the peace and policing themselves.”

Of course, if they had failed to do so, there were plenty of Madison police officers and Dane County Sheriff’s deputies around to help them out. Instead, they spent more time posing for photos with students, than arresting them. And by late afternoon, officers were already being sent home, DeSpain said.

Brian Figueroa, a UW-Madison senior from New Richmond, could’ve told them that the show of force at the start of the day wasn’t necessary. “It’s like a wasted resource,” said Figueroa, enjoying his fourth and final Mifflin Street bash. “Just take a look and see how many cops there are for how many students. It’s such a waste. Nothing bad is happening. It’s just a lot of people having fun, drinking and enjoying a sunny day that finally came. It’s good to let loose and have fun. We’re just celebrating a mess of hard work.”

We drove by a couple times in the mid and late afternoon and the place was loaded with police — including police horses. There were lots of students mostly standing around on porches and balconies. Presumably, everyone was drinking beer, but nothing looked rowdy. There wasn't even any audible music. It looked like a beautiful spring Saturday happened and everyone simultaneously came outside, but just outside — young people, like very old people, coming out only as far as needed to be outside. But here is — a much awaited festivity, consisting of the most mundane, low-energy activity: having a drink on the porch.