Althouse: "The Nation's Best College Town."

May 10, 2013

"The Nation's Best College Town."

26 comments:

Anonymous said...: On Wisconsin! Proud to be a Sconnie.

Forward.; 5/10/13, 9:04 PM
edutcher said...: B-b-b-but where's Ann Althouse?

The Heart and Soul of Madison? sparkplug of the team?

It would be the Greatest College Town without her?; 5/10/13, 9:05 PM
traditionalguy said...: But JJ Watts, Montee Ball and Russell Wilson are gone now. Good luck Badgers.; 5/10/13, 9:05 PM
Chef Mojo said...: Meh. Whatever.

Charlottesville, Virginia. THAT'S a college town.; 5/10/13, 9:07 PM
bagoh20 said...: Don't even have one palm tree. Frozen, white, and mistaken for dead is no way to go through life, son.; 5/10/13, 9:15 PM
mccullough said...: It's in the top 5. Austin and Ann Arbor are great places, as well.; 5/10/13, 9:26 PM
Big Mike said...: I agree with Chef Mojo!

I'll stick with my original definition of Madison: the largest lunatic asylum in Wisconsin.; 5/10/13, 9:28 PM
Sorun said...: It is a great town. I've lived east and west, and this is where I decided to retire. Locals (like Althouse) probably take it for granted. Go ahead, move somewhere else and see how you like it.
(Not to say that somewhere like Carmel, CA wouldn't be novel and comfortable for a few years.); 5/10/13, 9:29 PM
Sorun said...: I'll stick with my original definition of Madison: the largest lunatic asylum in Wisconsin

I've lived here almost a year now, and I interact a lot with locals. Only once did someone try to engage me in political discussion (an old Boomer hippy lady), and I simply told her I don't talk politics.

My other interactions with Madison liberals go like this (exclusively on State Street):

Them: "Do you have some spare change?"
Me: "No"; 5/10/13, 9:41 PM
Anonymous said...: I don't know. You ever been to Chapel Hill?; 5/10/13, 9:53 PM
Æthelflæd said...: Austin, TX all the way.; 5/10/13, 10:10 PM
Chef Mojo said...: Madison, Wisconsin.

Named for James Madison.

A Virginian.

Whose home, Montpelier, is just up the road aways from Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.

Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1819.

That's 27 years before Madison, Wisconsin was even incorporated.

Like I said, Madison? Meh.; 5/10/13, 10:16 PM
Sorun said...: "Austin, TX all the way."

It's the capital/campus towns that are the best in quality of life because they thrive on other people's money. They don't need heavy industry. Madison, Austin, Baton Rouge, Columbus. Off hand, I can't name the others, but from here you pick your preferred climate.; 5/10/13, 10:21 PM
Bob_R said...: See, Maryland bolts to the Big Ten and Scott Van Pelt betrays the ACC. (Unfortunately, I agree with him, Madison is the best college town.); 5/10/13, 10:22 PM
Æthelflæd said...: Sorun said...

"It's the capital/campus towns that are the best in quality of life because they thrive on other people's money. They don't need heavy industry. Madison, Austin, Baton Rouge, Columbus. Off hand, I can't name the others, but from here you pick your preferred climate."

True fro the most part.Austin does have Dell Computers, founded by the UT dropout, Michael Dell. As weird/liberal as Austin is, it does have sizable Republican suburbs for a reason. There is actually a lot going on in Austin besides UT and the state govt. It helps that it is in the hill country with gorgeous limestone lakes, and no oil refineries like Houston, as you say.; 5/10/13, 10:35 PM
VanderDouchen said...: Athens, Georgia.

Anything nawf o da Mason Dixon don't stand a chance.; 5/10/13, 11:02 PM
RJ said...: No. It's not.; 5/11/13, 12:13 AM
George M. Spencer said...: ESPN and Sports Illustrated are qualified to pick the nation's best college town?

No.

They are best qualified to pick the best town where one can see a college sports event.

This sort of thinking is what is destroying higher education.; 5/11/13, 5:53 AM
FleetUSA said...: I agree with Charlottesville recommended above.

Did anyone notice the stadium shaking at about 40 seconds? One day it may be the site of the biggest college football tragedy if that goes (like the bridge in MN).; 5/11/13, 6:31 AM
FedkaTheConvict said...: University of Wisconsin-Madison News:

" Wiley adds that although some patrons have felt uneasy about the swaying of the upper deck at Camp Randall when thousands of fans jump during the song, engineers and architects consulted about the deck's structural soundness remain confident in earlier assessments that the facility can handle the strain created when the crowd responds to the song.

"The amplitude of the motion in the upper deck, while enough to be physically noticeable, is actually very, very small, and far below any risk to the structural integrity of the deck," Wiley says. "; 5/11/13, 7:25 AM
David said...: Madison was named for James Madison?

Slaveowner!

Time for a name change. Pronto. Where are the demonstrators?

Next stop? Washington.; 5/11/13, 7:30 AM
ndspinelli said...: Van Pelt is a Terrapin. I doubt any ESPN person from a Big Ten School would agree. I think Ann Arbor and Austin are equal to Madison.; 5/11/13, 10:12 AM
jacksonjay said...: This guy has obviously never been to dynamic College Station, Texas!

Never been to Madison, but my vote would go to Austin!; 5/11/13, 10:13 AM
Chip S. said...: I see that no one's arguing for W. Lafayette, and I'm assuming the shout out to College Station was ironic.

Any dissent from the proposition that the worst college towns are the ones w/ engineering schools? The one thing lib arts and biz majors are good for is partying.; 5/11/13, 11:04 AM
James said...: In the video Scott Van Pelt repeatedly says that Madison is the "greatest college sports town" ... he never says its the best college town.

The video title and original post are misleading.; 5/11/13, 12:56 PM
Æthelflæd said...: I'll dissent. UT Austin's engineering school is ranked #10 or so.; 5/11/13, 4:15 PM