November 2008 Odd Wisconsin
One of the more fascinating aspects of any culture is the jargon that its members speak. Whether they're an immigrant community or professional colleagues, a sports league or a religious sect, any group that shares the same values and lifestyle will evolve a unique vocabulary for talking about it. For example, a lumberjack arriving at a northern Wisconsin hospital supposedly...
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Posted in Curiosities on November 30, 2008
In the mid-1850s, railroads spread rapidly across the Wisconsin. A line built from Milwaukee to Waukesha in 1851 was extended to Madison in 1854 and reached the Mississippi three years later. But then disaster struck: a banking crisis simialr to today's, called the Panic of 1857, killed investment, and the brakes were slammed on railroad construction. The workers who graded...
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Posted in Children on November 25, 2008
This is by no means the first time that state government has faced a budget crisis. Eighty-odd years ago, Wisconsin's government apparatus nearly ground to halt when state revenues failed to keep up with the expense of serving the public. Lawmakers acknowledged the crisis in February 1921, when the head of the Board of Control warned that state prisons,...
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Posted in Curiosities on November 23, 2008
One of America's best poets wrote one of his worst poems about our capital. In 1876, a centennial exhibition was organized in Philadelphia to celebrate the nation's first century. The participation of Wisconsin's women was spearheaded by Mrs. J.G. Thorpe of Madison, whose son had married a daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She persuaded the famous author to write an...
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Posted in Madison on November 17, 2008
Gov. Doyle has proclaimed Wednesday of this week, "Snowplow Driver Appreciation Day." After last winter, we think they might deserve an entire appreciation week. Which raises the question, how did people cope with heavy snowfalls long ago? On Wednesday, March 2, 1881, a blizzard descended on southern Wisconsin which lasted three days. After blowing steadily for 24 hours, the storm...
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Posted in Curiosities on November 10, 2008
This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a night on which hundreds of German synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish-owned businesses destroyed, and 25,000 to 30,000 innocent people were arrested for deportation to concentration camps. We tend to categorize the Holocaust as "back then" and "over there," so it is odd to discover the truth -- that it is...
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Posted in Curiosities on November 5, 2008
Did You Know?
The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
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