My Wisconsin Odyssey (IV of IV): Good Eating.

Whenever I am in Wisconsin, I am always impressed with how good eating everything is. They have so many microbrews, and great cheese and meats, and there's tons of "farm to table" programs at every little restaurant and posters up at coffee shops for it if you want home delivery...

Overall, though, I was a little bummed about the protest. Midway through I got separated from my friend from high school and her friend/coworker, and I was near a non-talkative bunch of people for the duration of the talks (the only people who talked was this old [white] woman to her daughter, saying she had to move because she couldn't stand to watch the people climbing a tree in front of her, because she just knew they were going to fall and crack their head open; them, and these 2 [white] women who were saying that some Republican senator had called the protesters long-haired hippies, and were joking that they fit the description, but not me!). My friend and her friend/coworker were near a bunch of talkative hippies, though, so I think I missed out on getting to know the locals.

Oh well, I was still there to show my support.

Opera night!, with my one friend with the cat.

I went to the opera the other week with my one friend with the cat.

"You know," she was like, "I think I like Wagner."

She said her mom used to take her and her siblings to the opera sometimes when they were in high school, but never to Wagner.

(They're Jewish.)

She was also saying she was out with (female) friends the other weekend and she was talking about how she was crushing on this young guy in her class who's all cocky, and no one could understand why.

"Well, you know," she was like, "At that age they're trying to act what they think masculine is like, and so they're trying to come off as tough, but it's really sweet, in a way. Later, they just become assholes."

My Wisconsin Odyssey (III of IV or so): Signs.

This was my sign I made up for the rally:

EXPLOIT-O-NOMIC$

BOUGHT POLITICIANS =
BREAKS FOR BANKERS +
WORSE FOR
HARD-WORKING AMERICANS

(with "exploit-o-nomics" in an ugly green and "Americans" in red white and blue).

For my friend from high school (at her request), I made up a sign playing on the Wisconsin's motto "Forward":

BACKWARD,
WISCONSIN?

For her coworker/friend who we picked up to go to the rally with, we made up a list of businesses to boycott (a number of people had signs like that, and someone had propped up a "patronize credit unions" sign in tree outside the M&I Bank branch near the Capitol [that bank helped with Walker's campaign]),

My favorites signs, though were -

DON'T FORGET:
SET YOUR CLOCK
BACK 50 YEARS

- and -

(with green shamrocks and a picture of St. Patrick)

I-RISH ST. PATRICK
WOULD DRIVE THE SNAKES
OUT OF MADISON

- and -

(taped on the walker of this sweet old [white] woman standing by the edge of the rally)

THIS IS THE ONLY WALKER
I TRUST IN MADISON

There were also quite a few signs referencing the Koch brothers (including some actors set up in the back of a truck who were dressed up in top hats with signs over the necks saying they were the Koch brothers, and pulling the strings of a Walker puppet), and quite a few signs reminding people of the April 5th Wisc. Supreme Court election.

Most of the crowd was very normal (white) people, with relatively few clear hippies or anarchists.

My Wisconsin Odyssey (II of IV or so): Me.

So, for the protest, I stayed with my one friend from high school who lives in Madison... She had been up there a few times during the past couple weeks, and she was glad to go again.

After I came in by bus, I met her at a bar downtown (grill behind the counter, tons of microbrews, a foosball machine-like thing made of hockey players), and then we dropped off my crap at her house, and then we were going to go to this one bar near her house where she had free drink tokens from the last time she went there (some guy gave them to her), but she's afraid to go because every few months there's gunfire or someone hitting out the TVs with a baseball bat.

As we went by, the place was obviously closed, so she was like, "Well, I guess they lost their liquor license."

So, instead we went to this other bar she was interested in going to but never had been in, which was on the other side of the Oscar Mayer weiner factory, across from the Meat Cutters Union Hall.

We went in - it was like 12:15am on a Friday - and there were 3 old (white) guys in there, all in baseball caps and drinking PBR or Bud, and watching "No Country For Old Men" on television.

We ordered a couple Leinies, and the one guy was like, "Hey, don't drink up all the good stuff, we only got a few cases of that !", joking with us nicely, though he was serious with us about its being the good stuff.

We talked a bit with the guys during commercial breaks, but mostly we watched the movie (we were drunk and kind of tired). One of the guys had been up to the protests a couple weekends ago, and was thinking of going again.

At one point, we ordered nuts from the "LITTLE NUT HUT", a plastic house of cashews and mixed nuts heated up by a high-wattage lightbulb, where they'd get you a little paper cupful for a buck.

By the one wall was a sign, "IN CASE OF TORNADO TAKE COVER BY THE MEN'S URINAL, IT HASN'T BEEN HIT IN YEARS", and next to it was a much photo-copied cartoon labelled "RE: CHANGES TO OSCAR-MAYER HEALTH PLAN", where this nurse is talking to a guy in the hospital bed and like, "I'm sorry, but your health plan doesn't cover enemas any more, so I'm going to have to slap the shit out of you."

Later, before we left, I noticed there was a picture of Scott Walker up on the dartboard, with a couple darts sticking out of it.

The next day, when we were driving by interesting-looking bars and I was saying we should go there, my one friend from high school told me that I reminded her of John Waters, "not because you're weird or anything, no, you're just interested in that kind of side of life that other people normally aren't", she was like.

She added that she had read John Waters's "Role Models" a few weeks ago.

My Wisconsin Odyssey (I of IV or so): 2 Wisconsin Women.

I decided to go up to Wisconsin to protest this past weekend, and so I took the train to Milwaukee and then a bus to Madison, since taking the direct bus to Madison usually means getting stuck in stop-and-go traffic for hours.

Boarding the train, I had this big bag of posterboard and markers (for protest signs!), and the 30-something (chunky) (white) girl ahead of me started talking with me if I was going up to the protests... I said yes, and she started chit-chatting about how it doesn't affect us, and she's originally from Milwaukee and her parents still live there, etc.

"What do your parents think?", I was like. "I can't believe how that governor lied and said he campaigned on union-busting!".

"Well," she was like - and she got all nervous! - "They think differently."

"So they think he's been honest with everyone?", I was like.

"I'd rather not talk about this," she was like, and when I started to reply, she repeated again "I'd rather not talk about us", and since we were going up the platform to board the train, she picked up her pace to avoid talking with me and didn't look back.

On the train, I was in the Quiet Car (no loud talking or cell phones allowed), but I was kind of space-y and didn't realize that this bald-headed old (white) guy 2 seats in front of me had his cell phone out and was talking on it, until this older short-haired blonde woman with a *heavy* Wisconsin accent walked up to him and was like, "Excuse me sir, do you know that this is the Quiet Car? If you want to talk on your cell phone, you can move to the next car, or you can go to the next car temporarily and I can make sure no one takes your seat."

"Excuse me for a sec," the guy was like, talking into his cell phone, and then he turned to the woman and was like, "I'm not bothering anyone, so I don't know what -"

"Excuse me sir," she was like, very evenly, "But this is the Quiet Car..."

"Hey," he was like, and started to talk over her and raise his voice, but then she butted back in, evenly, and was like, "Would you like me to get a conductor? I'm sure they can explain the policy," and when he was like, "Yes" and started to try to yell at her again, she left before he could say anything, and came back with a conductor.

At that point, the guy wasn't on his cell, and he told the conductor, "I don't know what she's talking about, I'm not on a cell phone, I don't know why she brought a conductor here..."

"Because you asked me to get one," she was like, and then, in an overly-nice voice, she was like, "I'll leave you two to figure this out," and she went back to her seat.

The conductor just glared at the old (white) guy, and then made a loud public announcement about the requirements of the Quiet Car.

After she was done and left, I wanted to shout out, "Hey Cellphone Man, I bet you support Walker, too!", but I didn't.

Involvement with the Local Community-Organizing Group.

A few Sundays ago I was part of a group of people meeting with the local state rep to express our concern for impending budget cuts that affect the social safety net. The guy was awesome - he was this older white guy with a closely-shaven head and handlebar moustache, and he self-identified as a white gay male "living with AIDS" and a "self-proclaimed bleeding heart liberal", and, to boot, he was like, "No one has appreciated drug rehab services more than me, or hates insurance companies more."

Better yet, he had a good sense of humor and seems to have successfully fought for small but important policy changes within his domain.

Overall, though, I was struck by how he said the state had raised the level of services over the years but kept taxes flat, which was okay during a growing economy, but it was done with no foresight and now the state is paying the price. That really resonated with me and made me think of what's happening in Wisconsin, and so in the post-meeting debrief, I said that the state and the nation was still paying the price of Voodoo Economics, and that was crippling the country and, like Obama had been saying, it was time to start thinking about investing again in things that make us strong, like infrastructure and research and education.

When I said that, I looked around, and everyone in the room was just looking at me and nodding.

The next day, there was a press conference since the group had along with a county rep managed to get some anti-gang money for my new neighborhood, and I ran into the state rep again. I told him that after the meeting I was thinking how it was a good thing that he and the other legislators had raised taxes, and it was time to end this Voodoo Economics mindset. He said he agreed, and that a lot of people from city and county and state government have secretly told him that they were glad for the tax raises, and it was about time.

Morbid Humor from a Mormon.

My one (Mormon) colleague is fascinated by ancient philosophy and has an exam list on the valorization and philosophy of suicide. I had run into him the other day, and he was gushing about how much he enjoyed reading up on it.

Then, a few days later I ran into him in the morning when I was in the library, and I asked him how it was going.

"Great!", he was like, "But I'm teaching undergrads today, so I'll have to restrain my enthusiasm and keep quiet about it."

(Our university is known for its high undergraduate suicide rate.)