2001—Bookfest

    I was invited to speak at Bookfest, a touching honor, as my mother, Sylvia, had begun her teaching career in a one-room schoolhouse and gone on to become a professor of education specializing in the teaching of reading. There were always lots of books around the house—what a gift.

   Anyway, the Bookfest room was packed with teachers and librarians from Wisconsin and the UP. I stood at the podium and said a few words of welcome then read Marginalia, a poem from Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins. The reason I chose Marginalia is because it celebrates the borrowed library book by recalling words and phrases scribbled in the margins and I knew this audience could relate.

  While reading, ...

[Read More]

This column is dedicated to Lily Korpi, friend of the library and teacher, 1918-2009

My Aunt Lil once told a doozy of a story back when she and Uncle Korp were wintering down south. Their temporary city was having a parade and its mayor participated by hanging from a fire truck and mooning the parade goers. The citizens were not amused and the mayor soon (Aunt Lil surmised after he’d sobered up) submitted his resignation.

Thanks for all you shared, Aunt Lil – and I hope that mayor’s communiqué didn’t include the phrase, “citing personal reasons…”

          * * * * *

As for mayoral decisions concerning city business, they are mostly recommendations, as it’s the council that votes the big stuff of budgets and ordinances up or down. But there is a tool which, in limited circumstances, can be used to implement policy without going through the council. It’s called the Mayoral Directive and I used it once for ba...

[Read More]

All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues.—Elizabeth Alexander, Inaugural Poet

On Jan. 20 my husband, Jeff, and I went to Gene and Kris Adams Wendt’s house to watch the big event. Gene came home from work for lunch for which Kris, a self-proclaimed “kitchen klutz” had graciously offered to make the Presidential Inauguration Pickle Soup (click here for recipe).

Who can resist that!?

When Jeff and I arrived that morning, we found Kris standing in the kitchen with a bandaged finger. Turns out she’d had an encounter with a broken Pyrex bowl which, as even the nimblest cooks know, can result in blood.

But the soup got made; the shrimp, cheese and vegetables arrayed; and the Bloody Marys poured. (Gene stuck to soda.)

We smiled at the ...

[Read More]

We’ve all been in pickles and our next President is facing a boatload of them. So for the event I offer a recipe for Presidential Inauguration Pickle Soup. It’s delicious and when my family and friends have it for lunch tomorrow, it might inspire us to remember that even the biggest pickles can be beaten if you just eat them.

The recipe follows my experience of throwing a punch at a jerk.

The '60s had just ended and I was a junior high-schooler living in Marquette when a girl I’ll call Rachel moved to town from a big city.

Rachel didn’t look like the other kids in town as her mother’s skin was like mine but her father’s skin was much darker.

This impressed me.

Rachel and I shared stuff, like being tall, and her father taught at the university, as did my mother. And her family lived on the north side, as did my family.

Sometimes we’d walk home together and it didn’t take long for me to realize that Rachel was smart, but more importantly she enj...

[Read More]

Before I get down to the garbage and public hearings of small-town mayor life, my essay, “A Contrast of Small-Town Mayors: Sarah and Mary” was recently published on The Huffington Post. In it, I compare my record with that of the GOP vice-presidential candidate on topics ranging from hockey rinks to foreign policy. Click here to read the essay.

          * * *

Of all the controversy I was embroiled in during my years in public office—calling out the governor, departmental consolidation, establishing bike pathways, inviting an astronomer to talk about Dark Sky (anonymous phone message: “Hey mayor. Instead of worrying about lights in the sky, why don’t you look at the streets!?”), supporting the Y, BMX park and the Hwy. 17 relocation—it was the garbage that people astute to the city’s political la...

[Read More]

Manitowoc Mayor Kevin Crawford beamed as we members of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Taxation and Finance Committee took our seats. We’d  just finished a lunch of sandwiches and coffee and were ready for the afternoon session.

Wausau Mayor Linda Lawrence sat to my right. Beyond her were some men, and across the space created by the horseshoe-shaped conference tables, more men, and a couple women whom I took to be representing Milwaukee suburbs.

“Before we start,” said Mayor Crawford, young, blond, personable, “I’d like to start with a little joke.” He paused, then added, “And I hope the ladies won’t be offended.”

An eyebrow on one of the women across the space, who reminded me of a gym teacher from long ago, shot up.

The League

My work on the League’s committee was probably outside the realm of my mayoral predecessors. But by taking on this added duty, as well as that of being co-founder of the Municipal Executiv...

[Read More]

(Author’s note: This 4th of July I’m going to be radical and re-read the Bill of Rights to remind myself how we got to live like this. Then I’m going to be a running dog lackey—or is it capitalist tool?—and watch the Chinese fireworks from the cockpit of my yacht.)

America abroad

On July 4, 1993, the American Consulate in Chengdu threw open its doors and invited Americans from around the area to come celebrate.

At the party were a mix of teachers, and travelers—such as the scraggly blonde-headed young man who’d flown in from Kazakhstan and described that airport as “a cave”—and business people.

Jeff and I were of the teaching category, and had found that American English—as opposed to British English—was in high demand as the Chinese considered it to be the language of business.

Throughout our year in Chengdu we had very occasionally stumbled upon American products, such as the row of Kraft m...

[Read More]

When the 2000 council was sworn in the council chambers were the fullest I’d seen them. It was nice having my husband and daughter, and the aldermen’s families present.

The room was hot, or at least it seemed so. The photos of me that night reveal a face so flushed the drug officer commented on it.

I wore a sharp black suit my sister had sent me in a big box containing an assortment of clothes of the “professional” genre.

After the swearing in, people drifted downstairs to the mayor’s office. (Where the drug officer shook my hand and said, “Wow. You’re red.”)

The mayor’s office is located in a corner next to the men’s room. Its big windows open to Stevens and Pelham streets, and afforded a view of the now bulldozed small motel with the now non-existent Greyhound Bus Station stuck on the side, and some low slung offices across the street. The Catholic school and church are kiddy-corner, facing a large white home with a wheelchair ramp.

A ceiling fan move...

[Read More]

With the 2000 February mayoral primary in the books, the current mayor, Gordy Waldvogel, and I made joint appearances at a Rotary candidate forum in the Claridge basement, and a debate in a packed classroom.

My closest “debate” experience was when I worked at Marquette Monthly, and was asked to be nominated for the Business and Professional Women’s “Young Careerist of the Year” award.

I was hesitant to accept the offer as I disliked public speaking immensely, but the BPW recruiter said all I had to do was eat dinner and talk about my job as the magazine’s founding editor and publisher. Plus, she said, they were having a hard time finding candidates.

So I agreed.

How bad could it be?

Upon arriving at the Federated Women’s Clubhouse, I was informed there were two of us up for the committee’s consideration.

We ate a little dinner, then I was first to say my piece. In an effort to avoid general embarrassment I’d rehearsed often, even going so far as h...

[Read More]

Same meat, different gravy

It’s been the same for a hundred years.

Council minutes record discussion and votes on sidewalk and street repairs, traffic speed suppression tactics, a water main extension, or perhaps a new roof for the picnic shelter, or adoption of a new garbage pickup plan.

It’s attention to the seemingly mundane things—those basic services—that keep a city running smoothly.

But sometimes a brand-new issue arrives, as did 1999’s impending Y2K rollover.

Although Y2K received a lot of national media attention, in city hall it was a small matter compared to the ongoing and controversial Administrative Study, which the city had commissioned Public Administration Associates (PAA), of Oshkosh, to do on itself.

The study highlighted “best practices” when comparing Rhinelander’s basic services to those of comparable cities.

Make no mistake about it. This study was a brave thing for Mayor Waldvogel to und...

[Read More]