Category Archives: Life

Does penmanship matter?

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Two handwriting stories. One:  After I got a D in penmanship in third grade, my parents made me sit at our dining room table every night practicing my handwriting. The reason I’d gotten a similarly bad grade in arithmetic was that … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher education, Life, Music, Popular culture, Teaching, Technology, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Casey Kasem: Keep reaching for the stars

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

I was on I-65 driving south from Chicago Sunday when I heard the news that Casey Kasem had died. Because I’d seen recent news stories of family drama pitting Kasem’s wife against the children from his first marriage, Kasem’s death came as … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Music, News, Popular culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Springtime blossoms

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Springtime has finally arrived in Milwaukee.  Just in time for Memorial Day 🙂 Our crab apple tree is blossoming, although the show this year is a little sparse. I’d forgotten that it seems to have an alternating cycle, producing lots … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Milwaukee, Nature | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Three Memorials: The 32nd Infantry, Patrick Lucey, and Dontre Hamilton

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

On my Starbucks run while taking a break from making up the final exam for my political science class, I was struck by this sight. The granite arrow honors the 32nd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army National Guard, made up … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Milwaukee, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Wisconsin Road Trips

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

For today’s post, head over to my Milwaukee School of Engineering blog.  Julie Henning, a graduate of MSOE’s Technical Communication program, is now a travel journalist and entrepreneur.  Last Friday she was a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio talking about … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

O. Winston Link exhibit of steam locomotive photography closes next Sunday

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

For today’s post, head over to my blog at Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Hub, where I’ve written about the Grohmann Museum’s exhibit of steam locomotive photography by the famed O. Winston Link.  Plus I share a fun background story about … Continue reading →

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“Smart” is kind of creepy

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a story headlined “Madison software firm Solomo develops customer-tracking technology.”  Yes, I’m creeped out, although seeing this story just pulls together a lot of things that have been creeping me out for a while now. Basically … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, News, Popular culture, Science, Technology, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The truth about statues

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

I wrote this very short memoir/essay as an exercise at my writing group’s meeting yesterday.  Because I haven’t posted in over a week, I decided to share it today. The Truth About Statues When I was very young, I thought that … Continue reading →

Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

Standing Up to Violence

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

Emily January Peterson has an excellent post today, “Girls’ Studies: Violence,” over on her blog The Bookshelf of Emily J.  I was going to leave a comment there, but I realized there was so much I wanted to say that it might be … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Life, Writing, blogging | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Art -vs- Science: An Artificial Divide

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Katherine Wikoff

I was paging through the weekend Wall Street Journal this morning and practically jumped out of my chair when I saw Walter Murch’s face looking out from the “Review” section. Murch is an Oscar-winning film editor who has worked on … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher education, Life, Movies and film, Nature, News, Popular culture, Science, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments