Good morning, Whitewater

As was true yesterday, there are no public meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater today. It’s a two-day private-life streak. Enjoy.

In our schools, it’s Pennies for Patients at Lakeview and Washington Schools. Football tonight vs. Edgerton, at Edgerton.

The National Weather Service predicts today be sunny with a high of 71 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts “sunny skies.”

Yesterday’s better prediction: Even. Was it really even, though, if the long-range planner’s forecast (FA) has no temperature or other details? Calling it even is being generous.

On this day in Wisconsin history, in 1982. the Brewers won the American league pennant. It was a five-game series then, and the Brewers won the series 3-2 over the Angels, after losing the first two games.

Matt Rockwell, at mattrock.net, has a fascinating post on legends about witches in Whitewater.  Not all small towns have stories like this, but some towns regale visitors with tales of a famous ghost, or fantastic creature. 

(Roswell, New Mexico’s famous for a modern version of these tales.) 

We market ourselves every which way, but sometimes the most potent tales are, initially, free of professional efforts.  They begin as stories in town, and may be picked by a reporter, or novelist. Most towns market themselves – spooky stories often spread farther because they’re unique, and stand out among conventional descriptions of small-town life. 

Matt tells the tale of our spooky past in his post entitled, The Witches of Whitewater
.

Here’s just a taste, with more available on his website:

I was born and raised in Whitewater, WI, where my family still lives….Growing up in Whitewater, ghost stories where a dime a dozen, but it wasn’t until I attended World Affairs Seminar in 1985 that I realized that this was not typical. The seminar was held in Whitewater on campus, and I was one of two attendees from the home town. As our badges presented our home towns, I had some other students at the seminar come up to me and ask about Whitewater being the “Second Salem.” While ghost stories where not uncommon in my childhood, I had never heard the comparison to the infamous Salem. Now I see they are making a movie about “The Witches of Whitewater.”

I was able to take the curious up the hill to the haunted water tower in Starin Park which I had always known to be a haunted spot in town….

Matt links to the following trailer, too.

Enjoy.

Good morning, Whitewater

There are no public meetings scheduled for the City of Whitewater today.

In our schools today, Pennies for Patients continues at Lakeview and Washington Schools.

The National Weather Service predicts today be sunny with a high of 70 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac predicts “sunny skies.”

Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS. Today, both are either right, or both are wrong.

On this day in Wisconsin history, in 1912, an odd moment in our history — Wisconsin became part of Quebec. The Wisconsin Historical Society relates that “Jane Addams, noted humanitarian and founder of Hull House in Chicago, called for women to get the vote. She spoke before a large audience at the Congregational Church in Janesville.”

(Addams received the Nobel Peace Price in 1931.)

Addams would have to wait another eight years after her 1912 Janesville talk — women did not receive the right to vote until 1920, following the 19th Amendment:

Sixty-sixth Congress of the United States of America; At the First Session,

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Monday, the nineteenth day of May, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen.

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending the right of suffrage to women.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislature of three-fourths of the several States.

“ARTICLE ————.

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Clergyman: If gossip were Doctrine, he’d be a bishop Scurries for info like a pigeon for breadcrumbs, hoping for bits to drop

My apt: bdrm, lr, den books computer dog-crap DSL connection parrot named Ludwig Scandinavian austerity

All my ex-wives use Microsoft - justification for annulment Only Apple here No crashes OS X boots fast, Safari ready

Search of note’s message - nothing but Irrelevant, Unlikely Google, deep web nothing Lyrics? Poem? Stoner talk? Why now? Why Felicia?

I wrote recently about Bob Barr’s Libertarian Party candidacy last week.  One of the bases for a right-leaning Libertarian candidacy was that Barr would siphon voters from Republicans disaffected with McCain.  In late June, that seemed like a good bet for Barr. 

It took six ballots, but Barr won the LP nomination, with hopes of plentiful funding and a vote share far beyond the LP’s typical levels.  Barr, not Nader, was supposed to be the third-party candidate to watch.

Well, McCain’s not doing so well, but it doesn’t seem to have helped Barr. Barr’s raised less money than some House candidates!  He still measures no more than 1-2% in most polls, with Nader doing as well or better. 

It’s possible that McCain’s not really finished, despite recent polls, as voters are unwilling to abandon him for a third-party candidate. 

If that’s true, McCain may be closer to Obama’s strength than polls suggest.  It may be that many libertarian-oriented voters (beyond the LP) so dislike Obama’s pro-government stance that they’ll still support McCain in the hope he might yet defeat Obama. 

(This might mean, also, that many undecideds are really McCain voters.)

(In the first scenario, these voters still like McCain enough; in the second scenario, they still dislike Obama enough

Below are recent polls that show where Barr stands in a multi-candidate race.  In any event, he does not poll nationally where his supporters expected.