My former colleague Jason Czarnezki announces a truly momentous gift for Marquette Law School.

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Three weeks ago we moved from Milwaukee to Champaign, and I am happy to declare us "moved in."  We have pictures on the wall, books on shelves, and leftovers in the refrigerator.  At work, we have permanent offices, computers, phones, etc.  So, I thought today would be a good day to pay homage to Milwaukee, a town we never thought we'd live in but came to love in the three wonderful years we spent there.  So, here's what I'll miss about Milwaukee:

1.  Living by Lake Michigan.  Raised a land lubber, I never lived by the water.  (Houston is at least 45 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico.)  Living walking distance from Lake Michigan spoiled me for life.  I know all of you in California or Florida are chuckling to yourselves, but you also have to empathize with being able to stroll by a body of water so large you can't see the other side.

2.  Kopp's Custard.  Driving home from work and seeing the flavor of the day on the Kopp's sign -- that's how we planned our evenings.  Yum.

3.  Neighborhood schools.  We lived within walking distance of our public elementary school, and our duaghter was getting to the age where she would have joined the group of kids from our block who set off for school each morning at 7:45.  Neighborhood schools have great ripple effects.  Kids go to school with people on their block, play dates are easy to manage, you get to know your neighbors through school activities, you can always get someone to pick up your child, take your child, etc.

4.  The Weather.  Paradox?  I will not miss the winter weather, but I will miss the summer weather.  Living in the 70s (temperature, not decade) is not a bad way of life.  Not running the air conditioner for weeks at a time, but getting the breeze through open windows, is really something everyone should experience.

5.  Laundry Chute.  OK, this may seem like a small thing, but why did people stop building houses with laundry chutes?  In our older neighborhood (1920s-30s), houses have laundry chutes on the 1st and 2nd floors that go to the basement, so you just send down dirty clothes straight to the laundry room.  We're having trouble going back to the "lug the hamper up and down the stairs" system.

6.  Wisconsin State Fair.  Cheese curds, sausage on a stick, cream puffs?  Sigh.

7.  Major League Baseball.  We grew to love the Brewers, and at least we got to see the Astros a few times a year.  But, we have four stuffed dolls to remind us -- Polish Sausage guy, Brat guy, Hot Dog guy, and Italian Sausage guy.

8.  Jewish Community Center.  Although we're not Jewish, our life seemed to revolve around the JCC in our neighborhood.  Our kids went to preschool/after care there, we took swim lessons there, we went to summer camp there, and I went to Mom's Night Out there.  Luke said to me last night, "They don't have challah at my new school."  That made me very sad.

9.  My friends.  Someone once told me that after age 30, if you can say that you have three good friends, then you are blessed.  How blessed am I?  I had three good friends that I worked with every day!  I also had great friends in my neighborhood -- real friends -- the kind that you don't have to clean your house for, the kind you can drop in on anytime.  We are beginning to make those kinds of friends here as well, but we will always have a place in our heart for our Marquette/Whitefish Bay friends.

10.  Teaching at a Jesuit institution.  My experience at a Jesuit institution should be the subject of a different post, but I think it's sufficient to say that I was given a great gift at Marquette, and I am a better person and a better teacher because of it.

Farewell, Milwaukee!

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After years of procrastination, I finally visited the gorgeous Milwaukee Art Museum this past weekend. As luck would have it, we arrived just as an air show was beginning over Lake Michigan.

After visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York this past spring, I was not in the mood to be easily impressed, but we found some great treasures in the MAM, including this sculpture by Cornelia Parker entitled Edge of England:

I never realized how much Honoré de Balzac looked like Chris Farley:

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Apparently some folks around Marquette were conspiring behind my back -- with the cooperation of my husband, no less.  The end result was that lots of folks pitched in and got me the greatest parting gift ever -- a triple-ought guitar.  I am now officially cool.

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Not to get too emotional, but I just taught my last class here at Marquette.  I'm sure in the next month or so I'll post some additional thoughts on the how much of a gift these last three years have been to me and my family, but right now I'm being very nostalgic.  In my BA class that I just left I had many repeat offenders and new friends.  Although I'm looking forward to the future, I will miss this place. 

I promise I won't keep on this vein:  "Today I had my last faculty meeting/review session/exam/lunch break at Marquette."

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Yesterday was a "Ferris Bueller" Day here in Milwaukee.  In a month which in Milwaukee can be snowy, drizzly, cold, gray, or all of the above, the temperature yesterday was 83 degrees, and the skies were blue, blue, blue.  Marquette was closed for Good Friday, the public schools were closed for Spring Break, and our preschool was closed for Passover.  So, the kids and I and the rest of the neighborhood, like Ferris, had the sense to take the day off.  We went on bike adventures, bought Easter shoes, set up the sprinkler for all the little girls on our block, had popsicles outside, and walked to a neighborhood deli for dinner.  At the end, we were tired, but it was that "good kind of tired."

I never understood Ferris until we moved to Milwaukee.  Ferris wakes up in April or May of his senior year and realizes that the day is too brilliant to go to school.  As a high schooler in Texas, this did not move me.  Most days are warm, sunny and brilliant.  Ah, but Ferris goes to school in the Chicago suburbs where there are only a handful of these kind of days.  I know from living in Milwaukee, that you have to make hay while the sun shines.  Only the most soulless creature could work or go to school should our town be gifted with one of these magical days.  You even have to wait until the next day to blog about it.

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I'm not sure if I'm relaxing yet, but we now have a binding contract to sell our home in Whitefish Bay.  The experience was exhausting, although it went as quickly as could be reasonably expected.  We signed a contract 14 days after listing, then all contingencies were waived 10 days after that.  The stress of the unknown and of keeping the house pristine with two kids a dog and a cat has taken all of my energy.  I am quite happy now to be "sold."

Paul and I have sold more than our share of primary residences now, and we should be experts at "staging" a house by now.  When we sold our first house, our realtor gave us this really amateur video in which a woman went room-by-room through a house and pointed out how to de-clutter and maximize each room's potential.  The woman said such gems as, "Family photos are great, aren't they?  Great for LIVING, but not for SELLING."  When we left Houston for Milwaukee, our realtor sent an interior designer over to do the same thing in person.  I think both of these techniques are great because an objective third party tells you how bad your taste is.  You can't really be mad at your realtor for that, can you?  So, for this sale, we took heed to all that advice, packed before we moved, and staged the house.  (This is easier to do without kids, who believe they need every single Power Ranger thing close at hand just in case, and in a city with only one season, so you don't need coats/clothes for the three seasons of March in Wisconsin.)

All of this staging reminded me of a series of posts from a while ago by Spencer Overton on blackprof.com. about neutralizing race from a home that is for sale (Part I, Part II, and Part III).  According to the theory behind these posts, home buying is not purely rational; buyers may see the race of the sellers as a negative factor in deciding between two similar properties at similar prices.  I have no problem believing that this theory is valid.  Part of this bias is innocuous; from what these "staging" experts have pounded into my brain, would-be buyers like houses in which they can see themselves.  To that end, buyers are told to put away family pictures and other identifying markers that might get in the way of that vision.  Neutral colors are better than bright ones; McPottery Barn is the look.  I also have no problem believing that part of that bias may be that some number of buyers (hopefully small) are consciously or subconsciously racist and so either could not see themselves living in the house or would not want to.

Interestingly, I think that our house sale can fit into this paradigm somewhat, although all residents of our house are white and so are the buyers.  But, all the residents of our house are from Texas.  I'm from Lubbock; Paul is from San Antonio.  Although I never thought about it before, a lot of our furnishings are sort of Southwest/Mission style.  Not teal and peach with coyotes and cactuses, mind you, but reproductions of Mission style antiques.  Also, what constitutes "art" at our house are Georgia O'Keefe prints and professional photographs of Live Oak trees, windmills, and yes, cactus.  We even have a cow's skull, but Paul made me put that away in our staging phase.  So, let's look at our buyers.  According to them, they've looked at 40 properties in Milwaukee since they moved here a couple of months ago.  They haven't liked any house until ours.  Guess where they are from?  Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The buyer told me that they have the same bedroom set as we do, and the same lawn furniture.

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Before moving from Texas to Milwaukee, we never realized that St. Patrick's Day was an actual holiday.  In Texas, the day is an excuse to wear a green tie.  Here, it rivals Hallowe'en and Valentine's Day as second-tier holidays.  I think the bars open in 15 minutes, if they are not open already. 

At our house, St. Patrick's Day is known as St. Packer's Day.  When we first moved, our kids were told to wear green to school that day.  Well, in Milwaukee, 90% of green clothing has some sort of Green Bay Packers symbol on it.  So, elementary rooms are filled with kids in the Packers clothing.  Since my kids had no idea who St. Patrick was, they thought it was St. Packer's Day.

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A year ago, I was getting a manicure in a southwestern state, and my manicurist asked me where I lived.  When I told him that I lived in Wisconsin, he got very excited and asked me if I could send him some ginseng.  He told me Wisconsin was famous for ginseng, but I had not heard of this before.  So, this morning, the WSJ has an article on Wisconsin ginseng farmers!  Apparently, even though the ginseng market has grown, ginseng farmers from Wisconsin are struggling to compete against inferior Chinese ginseng falsely labelled as "Wisconsin ginseng."  Maybe ginseng should have been on the Wisconsin quarter!

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Friday night, the Public Interest Law Society at Marquette held their annual Do-Gooder's Auction, named after our late dean, Howard Eisenberg.  For the third year in a row, I auctioned off dinner at my house, featuring southern favorites and a sing-a-long.  Some very brave students bid the dinner up to $750, so now the pressure is on!  I feel like the restaurant that makes the $30 hamburger with foie gras or truffles or whatever.  We'll have to pull out all the stops.

I am most excited, however, by what I won at the auction.  I won a student.  For the low price of $60, a student of mine will be my "entourage for a day."  I've been thinking all day about what my entourage can do for me.  Obviously, I will not be driving that day.  Or going to the cafe to get my green tea.  Or making copies.  Or carrying anything in my hands at all.  Also, theme music will follow me wherever I go.  I wonder if babysitting is included?  After everything I say, I want my entourage to say, "You go, girl."

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Friday, we were honored to attend a wedding at the Gesu Parish on campus at Marquette.  What was notable about this wedding is that it was originally scheduled to take place on Friday, December 30 in New Orleans.  Obviously, after Hurricane Katrina, the wedding was relocated to Milwaukee, where both the bride and groom reside.  However, the spirit of the Big Easy came with Louisiana relatives.  One example:  the reception lasted from 4:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.  (At least, it officially ended at 12:30; who knows where it went from there!)

One of the scriptures (from the Song of Songs) read at the ceremony was very fitting for this couple, who realized that love is too strong to be doused by a tiny thing like a Category 5 hurricane:

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.

Best wishes to Tom and Lise!!

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the tree in front of my house!  We have had quite a storm here today, and the tree across the street was hit by lightning.  It split a branch of the tree, but the branch was not very big.  So, while it is still overcast and gray and drizzling, the Village sends out a cherry picker to cut the branch. 

Now, I'm no physicist and I don't want to tell them how to do their job, but i wouldn't get in a cherry picker in a lightning storm.  But that's just me.

Perhaps Mr. Tree Doctor is a hero acting in an emergency.  I'm not sure if this is an emergency situation.  The worst case scenario would be that the branch would fall on its own.  Seeing as how the man in the cherry picker simply cut the branch and let it fall on its own, I'm not sure what the benefits of this quick remedy are.  (By the way, there are no power lines, etc. near the tree.)

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This morning I sat in on my very first web conference.  I was invited by the marketing firm behind VISIT Milwaukee.  Anyway, it was really a teleconference with live powerpoint slides on a website.  The topic of the web conference was a new blog called Play in the City, authored by Erin Leffelman.  The Milwaukee tourism people wanted to harness the power of blogs, which the PR guy called "consumer-generated journalism," to communicate someone's personal experiences with Milwaukee's outdoor recreation amenities.  (Did you know that Milwaukee is rated #1 in the country by Rand McNally in terms of green space?  Did you know that Milwaukee has 15,000 acres of recreational space?)  The overarching goal is to achieve a huge perception change in how non-Wisconsonians view Milwaukee.

I think the blog is great, and I wish that it had existed two years ago, when I thought we were moving to Laverne & Shirley-land.  I never would have guessed that Milwaukee was such a gorgeous place to live, with many more recreational opportunities than the Western frontier in which I lived.

The speaker acknowledged that one of the problems with using blogs for basically marketing purposes is that the blogosphere can sniff out corporate-sponsored blogs and attack them as fake.  So, this blog is to be not fake.

To this end, Miss Leffelman is not paid and can write whatever she wants.  She is supposed to participate in outdoor activities and blog about them, but she has freedom in choosing her activities and "honestly posting" about those.  The speaker stressed that there would be no content editing, except for offensive comments.  Another feature of the blog is open comments, which allow others familiar with Milwaukee outdoor activities to give their two cents.  Miss Leffelman gets free Internet, a laptop, and a digital camera.  I also got the sense that she gets her costs associated with participating in these activities comped.  As you might expect, Ms. Leffelman seems very personable, energetic, and enthusiastic about Milwaukee.  She graduated from UW-Milwaukee and is a convert to the city.

In the next few months, the speaker announced that they would be setting up other blogs with different focuses, like arts and culture.  If you need someone to give the family-friendly pitch, look no further, VISIT Milwaukee!

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My husband pointed me to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article today that "exposes" the truth that the state lottery has a much lower payout in low-income zip codes than in high-income zip codes.  Is this a conspiracy against the poor?  No, at least not a direct one.  Luckily, I've been brushing up on my gambling economics knowledge.  In my email to the reporter, I explain that the answer to this conundrum is revealed in a paper by Melissa S. Kearney, "The Economic Winners and Losers of Legalized Gambling."  As I explained to the reporter in my email:

In this paper, she has empirical data to show that the reason that payouts are different over zip codes is that lower-income lottery players buy different lottery products than middle-income and higher-income players. For example, lower-income lottery players buy more "instant tickets." (38% of respondents in the lower-income brackets vs. 27% in the middle income and 19% in the higher income). Instant tickets have a much lower payout than jackpot lotteries. Higher-income respondents were more likely to play jackpot lotteries (56% v. 39% in the lower-income group), which have a much higher payout rate. In addition, wealthier players tend to buy lottery tickets when the jackpot is higher, which increases the expected value of the dollar spent. So, instant win tickets are much more regressive than jackpot lotteries, and low-jackpot lotteries are more regressive than high-jackpot lotteries.

If states want to make lotteries less regressive, they could phase out instant win tickets. However, these tickets are the most lucrative. Some states even have $20 or $30 instant scratch-off tickets.

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Whew!  What a holiday weekend.  In Houston, the 4th is pretty much just a day off that you try to spend somewhere air conditioned, like your living room or the movies.  In Wisconsin, it's a, well, it's a national holiday!  Seriously, I've never seen people take the 4th as seriously.  I heard Ann Coulter say once that "Democrats hate the flag."  Well, here's one blue state that can prove that one wrong.  The Whitefish Bay parade lines up on our street, and we had a little friendly competition with flags and bunting.  I had a five-foot Uncle Sam in my yard.  I think I won.  Add to the decorating the day-long cookout, complete with stuffing ourselves with Brats, polish sausages, potato salad (with bacon, yum), and brownies, and I'm pooped.

By the way, try explaining to a 3-year-old who Uncle Sam is without letting the cat out of the bag on Santa.  I finally said that Uncle Sam was a made-up character, like Scooby Doo.

UPDATE:  This 4th of July post from Prof. Bainbridge has me wondering if differences in celebrating the 4th of July are a Mason-Dixon line sort of thing.  I assumed it was a weather sort of thing.

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Marquette University has just announced that the athletic nickname is (drumroll) the Golden Eagles.

Boy, that was anticlimatic.

I'm sure that some percentage of those persons who believed that the 1994 Golden Eagles decision did not reflect the will of the people will continue to argue that the 2005 decision does not, either.  I would suggest that we just move on.  I'm disappointed that "Muskies" didn't catch on, but I'm willing to get behind our teams!  And of course, remember what's truly important at Marquette.  In the words of Father Wild:

Of course, we know that Marquette is first and foremost an academic institution committed to educating men and women to be a leaven for good in our society. We must not lose sight of this important mission rooted in our 450-year Jesuit tradition.

UPDATE:  Here's the final report.  Muskies got 14 write-in votes!  Thanks to Eric Goldman and the other 12 Marquette friends out there.  Sigh.

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The Chicago Tribune has a different kind of article on Milwaukee (see WSJ article, noted below).  No PR firm could have bought an article as good as this one on the revitalization of Milwaukee -- and from someone in Chicago!  The money quote:  "you can feel the energy everywhere."  OK, not at my house right now, but I'm sure you can feel the energy most places.

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The WSJ today profiles Milwaukee as a reflection of how hard it is to do just a little bit better than your parents did. 

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Yesterday marked the second anniversary of our family's arrival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from Houston, Texas.  We moved in on a Saturday, and it was probably 69 degrees at 10:00 a.m.  The movers predicted that it would be a hot day at about the same time that I told them that if they saw a box marked "coats" could they point me toward it?  We have since noticed a lot of differences between Texas and the Midwest, and many of them focus on the weather.

1.  The term "it's freezing" to mean "Jiminy Christmas it's really, really cold" is rarely used here.  In Texas, one often said "it's freezing" either to note that the air conditioning was on too high or that the outside temperature had dropped enough to warrant a windbreaker.  In Wisconsin, I never hear people use this phrase.  Why?  Because the outside temperature is literally below the freezing point for water much of the time.

2.  In Wisconsin, the world is your icebox. 

("Icebox" is Texan for "refrigerator.")  The majority of the time, the outside temperature is cooler than the inside of your icebox.  So, if you don't have room in your refrigerator for your drinks for the party?  Put them outside on the porch.  Want to go the grocery store and then do some errands for a few hours (months)?  No problem.  Your freezer items will be just fine inside the car.  Oh, look, that fountain soda in the car cupholder from this morning -- it has more ice than when I left it.

3.  "Barbecue" means something entirely different here.  In Texas, "barbecue" means beef cooked either with a spicy rub or a spicy sauce.  The sauce is usually reddish-blackish.  In other parts of the South, "barbecue" means pork cooked with a pinkish-brownish sauce that is sweet.  In Wisconsin, "barbecue" means "cooked outside."  If someone invites you over for a barbecue, don't get your heart set on brisket.  You could get a plain white chicken leg that happened to be cooked outside.  Be prepared.

4.  I once heard that Texans used more electricity than the rest of the country because of beer.  I took that to mean that Texans drank more than the rest of the country.  Not so.  People in Wisconsin drink much more than people in Texas, on average.  Maybe it's the cold.  Maybe it's a Catholic v. Protestant thing.  Maybe it's because the Packers haven't won so much since we've been here.  All I know is that at Hallowe'en, I saw a Dad walking his kids around pulling a cooler.  However, this may be related to #5.

5.  People in the Midwest are friendlier quicker than in Texas.  I'm from West Texas, where people live quite far from one another and don't talk a lot during the day.  Here, people live right up next to each other and talk all day long.  The first week we were here, I did not have a commercial transaction where the person on the other end of the transaction did not begin a deep conversation with me.  I had to spend a day without any interaction just to rest up. 

6.  Texas is not breathtakingly beautiful.  I think I was educated to believe that Texas was the best.  At everything.  Even the Texas landscape was the most beautiful thing in the world.  Once we got far enough out of Texas where we could look back with an objective eye, I see this is not true.  Wisconsin is beautiful.  I grew up loving the Big Sky Country of the Plains and the Hill Country, but in a way that's like growing up liking your mother's cooking, which may or may not be objectively yummy. 

7.  People who don't live in Texas believe that Texas is in the South.  When we moved here, people kept saying, "You must be from the South."  I would respond, "No.  I'm from Texas."

8.  Back to the weather -- I now understand the concept of "tropical vacations" and retiring to Florida.  Never caught on to that before.  I also now know why on the calendar summer "begins" on June 21.  In Texas, our eight-month summer is half way over.  Here, it may or may not be over 70 degrees on a regular basis.

9.  I now notice the economics of living in an area with a large immigrant population.  Some things cost a lot more in Wisconsin than in Houston -- landscaping, nanny care, manicures, home construction and remodeling -- although generally the cost of living seems cheaper here.  Relatedly, Mexican food is hard to find, and our elementary school teaches French, not Spanish.  The municipal bus line has a billboard campaign featuring a license plate that reads "Y NOTRIDE."  I think it's supposed to say "Why Not Ride," but for two months I read it in Spanish.  I racked my brain trying to figure out what the verb root of "no-tree-de" was.

10.  People in Milwaukee complain about the property taxes a lot.  We don't.  Our property taxes are quite similar to the taxes we paid in Houston.  However, in Houston we did not have a good public school in our district or a library or a park or sidewalks.  In Whitefish Bay, these amenities look as if we live on a luxury cruise ship.  The system works for us because these are things we would choose to pay for anyway.  If we were not in the schools/parks/libraries/sidewalks phase of our life, then we might complain also. 

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With over 31,000 voters participating, "Golden Eagles" and "Hilltoppers" have emerged as the final two choices in the ongoing Marquette nickname saga.  Now, the Marquette family must vote between these two choices.  Obviously, neither of them are better than "Muskies."  A colleague here explained to me that by giving so many choices in the first round, plus allowing two votes, the university was all but assured that the incumbent name would wind up in the top two choices.  And so it goes.

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As promised, the Marquette Nickname Advisory Committee has released a list of 10 nickname candidates, and online voting begins tomorrow.  Details on the vote is at http://marquette.edu/nickname.

The 10 options are:  Blue and Gold; Explorers; Golden Avalanche; Golden Eagles; Golden Knights; Hilltoppers; Saints; Spirit; Voyagers; and Wolves.  Most of these options have some historical significance, and athletic teams at Marquette have been known as many of these over the years.  Voters also have the option of writing in an alternative nickname.  I received an email from a reader who proposed "Rangers," in honor of Marquette's extensive Tolkien collection. 

I, of course, will be writing in "Muskies."

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I've been doing a lot of thinking, and even though the Marquette Gold has grown on me, I would like to suggest an alternative:  the Marquette Muskies.  It's alliterative, it's regional, and it is conducive to a mascot.

What is a Muskie you ask?  A muskie is a Wisconsin fish.  In fact, it's the state fish.  I have found three different spellings for muskellonge, muskelonge, and muskellunge, but we'd just say "muskie," the way everyone around here does.  Muskies are large trophy fish who get big enough to eat small mammals.  According to this site, "muskies are vicious predators and tough fighters on the line."  What a great mascot! 

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In reading the comments to my earlier Marquette nickname post below, I started pondering how Paul Noonan could gather support for his "Explorer" recommendation.  (I don't know what to do with Gordon's undemocratic suggestion, but we'll see!).  If you have a nickname that you would like to see win the election, then email me.  In two weeks, the university will announce a slate of nicknames.  For those suggestions that are not on the list, I will then post on this blog a slate of write-in suggestions, along with arguments from the proponents of those suggestions.  In keeping with Father Wild's reminder that all suggestions must be in keeping with the university's mission, I retain discretion not to include suggestions that are blatantly unacceptable.

I would also suggest that if a reader is passionate about a certain nickname that the reader buy an ad in the school newspaper.  I can't imagine that the cost of that would be prohibitive, and you would reach a large audience.

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Just as the Marquette Gold was growing on me, the Board of Trustees met this morning and agreed to reverse its decision to change the nickname from "Golden Eagles" to "Gold."  According to the press release, the stakeholders of Marquette will be able to vote on up to ten nicknames, plus a write-in option.  However, the "Warriors" will not be an option, and any write-in ballots for "Warriors" or any other nickname inconsistent with the school's Catholic, Jesuit mission will be discarded.  The top two nicknames will then be re-presented for a final vote.  Both votes will be binding.

In this rare and momentous situation of an administration reconsidering a decision because of student and alumni feedback, the chairman of the Board of Trustees, John Bergstrom, has this to say:

“We have spent the past week listening. We heard you. The decision to change the nickname to Marquette Gold generated a response that we did not expect from Marquette stakeholders. We regret that we disappointed them and we want to respond to those concerns. We’ve established a new process today so that your voices can be heard. It’s transparent, it’s inclusive and it’s easy.”

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After reading the school newspaper, eavesdropping in the dorm cafeteria, and quizzing unsuspecting students and faculty in the halls, I am prepared to give more depth to the ongoing nickname saga here at Marquette.  Probably the most skeptical of the name are the students.  The school newspaper, which I assume is run by students, has such headlines as "Students Express Shock at Mascot Choice" and "Alumni Express Shame, Frustration at Nickname," complete with pictures of student's facial expressions that rival the Life magazine cover photo of the Kent State shootings.  A student editorial is entitled "Baffling Nickname Decision Embarrasses University as Laughingstock."

Not all students feel this passionate however; in fact, my research assistant expressed a wish to regain all time lost this week talking about both the nickname change and the disappearance of the runaway bride.

However, I would say that most faculty seem to be neutral of slightly positive of the change, relieved that the university dodged the "Warrior" bullet by whatever means necessary.  I admit that "Gold" has grown on me today, and now I think I actually prefer it to "Golden Eagles."

Of course, as colleagues mentioned in the hallway, headline writers have a great job ahead of them now:  "All that is Gold Does Not Glitter;" "Fool's Gold," "Gold Rush."  Some people's "golden" puns were not fit to print here.

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While our domesticated animals are taking to rural areas, we city-dwellers are left to fight off undomesticated raccoons by ourselves.  Our neighbors warned us the other day that a dangerous wild raccoon was seen breaking and entering our garage.  Bending to social pressure, we called a company to investigate.  Yesterday, a varmint professional set a trap and quickly caught the suspect. 

Our racoon is a female, pregnant female actually, who is wanted in connection with several garbage thefts.  I am assured that Mama Raccoon (my daughter named her Rachel) will be released into the wild to have her babies.  I hope the cat-hunters don't get her.

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Although other blawgers (Ann & Eric) in Wisconsin seem to be covering the cat-hunting controversy quite well, I thought I would add my two cents' worth, being from Texas.  I cannot describe the disdain with which my Dad was laughing at Wisconsin yesterday.  I can't believe that I moved from Texas to kinder, gentler Wisconsin only to live in the cat-hunting state.

Disclaimer:  I have a cat.  I am not a cat person, but we granted asylum to a stray cat four years ago when she came in through the dog door.  She stayed, we eventually bought cat food, and the rest is history.

The two arguments that I have heard in recent days for allowing Wisconsin residents to shoot "feral cats," i.e., stray cats that live outside the city limits, are these:

1. If we have too many wild cats, they will kill all the wild birds.  OK.  So, if we're going to become "circle of life police" for all species, endangered or not, then I guess we're going to have to hear from the worms.  Where is the worm lobby in all this?  Maybe there were too many wild birds killing all the wild worms.

2.  The feral cats run in packs, go to farms, and kill the chickens.  In Texas, we have these things called dogs.  If you buy a big enough dog, then the cats won't hang out on your farm and eat the chickens.  I have seen enough Foghorn Leghorn cartoons that I believe this well-worn theory has legs.

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Yesterday was the first day of Spring around the world, although the "one-size-fits-all" equinox does not have the same meaning everywhere.  Here in Milwaukee, for instance, the first day of Spring simply means that winter will last six weeks longer.  In Houston, our former home, March 20 marks the fact that summer will begin in six days.

We celebrated by engaging in some pretty rigorous spring cleaning.  After hauling a huge load to Goodwill and carrying out who knows how many large garbage sacks, I am on the road to a new theory of "stuff."  I think I spend entirely too much time in the acquisition, transportation, cataloging, storage, sorting, and ultimate disposal of stuff.  The next time I'm at Target and see something on sale, I'm going to say, "No."

UPDATE:  In my hemisphere-centric blindness, I forgot that actually March 20 is not the first day of Spring "around the world."  South of the equator, it is the first day of Autumn.

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The game has not even started, and the Super Bowl commercials are ruined for me.  The Real California Cheese people with their "Happy Cows" ad campaign are running an anti-Wisconsin ad!  Some cows with distinct midwestern accents are standing around in a blizzard talking about their cow friend Sadie, who ran away to California.  Grrrrr.

Good thing we have DVR so we can rewind the commercials!

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Marquette's College Republicans are angry at the administration now after officials told them to take down a fundraising table in the union on Monday. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article here.) The student group had asked permission for the table as a "support the troops" table, but decided for a more targeted campaign to "Adopt-A-Sniper." When officials saw the table and the some of the slogans, the table was shut down. The "Adopt-A-Sniper" program is run by a nonprofit called Snipersonline, which the students say raises funds for special equipment needed by snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I am assuming that this organization only raises funds and provides dissemination of training information to legitimate U.S. military and police snipers, but the website actually never says that. It speaks more broadly about "the sniping profession." When I first read the article, I thought that the snafu was based on a poor name ("Adopt-A-Sniper" sounds like something out of Soldier of Fortune for mercenaries) and poor slogans ( "1 Shot, 1 Kill, No Remorse, I Decide."), but after looking at the website, I'm less enthusiastic about it. If this was a U.S. government program, I think I would be more defending of the students and argue that war is not pretty. If we are going to support war, then we have to support even the cold, ugly parts of it.

Marquette is a private school, so I assume they have more leeway in content-based restrictions, although that is not my area of expertise. Marquette officials are saying as a Catholic, Jesuit institution we don't want to be parts of organizations that do not reflect more seriously on the value of human life than the statement "1 Shot, 1 Kill, No Remorse, I Decide." My favorite part of the article, however, was the statement by the students that Marquette administrators are "ultra-liberal." I almost fell out of my chair.

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Snow Wars

While Gordon is snowbound in rural Madison, we are having our own blizzard in Milwaukee. About seven blocks inland from Lake Michigan, this snow is sometimes called lake effect snow, as if you didn't have to shovel it or anything ("It's just lake effect snow."). We've used the snowblower twice this morning trying to keep up with Mother Nature.

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Milwaukee Art Museum

Ann Althouse is giving some good publicity for the Milwaukee Art Museum, aka "the Calatrava," on her blog. Every once in awhile, the Packers aren't playing, so we Milwaukeeans have to find other cultural diversions.

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