Red Light, Green Light

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

As reflected in the second-floor window of the MSOE Campus Center across the street from my office around 5:45 last night 😄

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“Slice of Ice” almost ready!

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

County parks workers began putting down the water earlier this week, and today I saw the Zamboni smoothing over the snow we got yesterday.

I’m at Starbucks (of course😄), which is apparently the only Starbucks in the U.S. and probably therefore in the world that is part of a park. Definitely the only Starbucks with an ice rink and skate rental!

Milwaukee’s Slice of Ice rink opens tomorrow, December 15, with FREE skate rentals from 4-6 pm. ‘Tis the season!

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Rupi Kaur, Stealth Bestseller

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

In looking over the bestseller lists in the Saturday/Sunday Wall Street Journal this weekend, I was surprised to see two books on the “combined” nonfiction list by an author I’d never heard of. Additionally, although that combined list usually features books that have appeared on either the hardcover or e-book nonfiction list, neither of this author’s books appears there. But there they are on the combined list, The Sun and Her Flowers and Milk And Honey.

So who is Rupi Kaur, and where did she come from? I don’t know enough yet to give a complete answer to those questions, but here’s what I’ve learned so far. Kaur is an Instagram poet with 1.9 million followers, whose posts seem to be relatively short poems and photos with generalized insights about life. Very accessible and fairly universal, especially in their appeal to the experiences of young women everywhere and possibly, in particular, young women of color. Kaur follows no one from the account where she posts her poems and photos, so those 1.9 million followers are presumably people legitimately interested in her work and not the quid pro quo I’ll-follow-you-if-you-follow-me followers that seem to be attached to so many writers’ accounts.

Here are links to Kaur’s website and her Instagram in case you’re intrigued and want to see more. Personally, I am thrilled to see poetry on the bestseller list!

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A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

My first reaction upon seeing the flag at half mast in Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park this morning was: “Oh no! What happened?”

Then about two seconds later I remembered. Today is December 7th.

The clip below of the USS Arizona exploding and sinking is from a 1942 Castle Films “News Parade” feature. Horrifying yet compelling, the footage is hard to turn away from, with billowing smoke that’s a spectacle worthy of a Hollywood film. But this is no movie, and watching it I can’t stop thinking of all the people whose deaths it represents.

It’s good to remember Pearl Harbor today . . . even though it would be nicer to forget. Here is Pathé newsreel footage of President Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech vowing that we never would.

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A different view of the new Milwaukee Bucks Arena

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

I spotted the new Milwaukee Bucks Arena on the way to Starbucks for coffee this morning. Do you see it?

Do you now?

For comparison, here is a photo I took of the arena under construction back in July:

As of last Monday (November 27) the side of the arena I drive by every day looked like this:

Only because I remembered that rather striking turquoise-and-yellow color combo from summer did I realize what I saw reflected in the office windows this morning. That new arena is coming along pretty rapidly!

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Birch and Moon

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

My old iPhone doesn’t take the best photos at night, but when I saw the moon shining through the branches of our birch tree as I arrived home from work, I couldn’t resist at least giving it a try.

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A Puzzle in Tree Shadows

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

Such strange light mid-morning today. Very bright sun in a cloudless sky, yet also somehow very “gauzy.” It’s not hazy today, nor is it humid or even slightly overcast, so the gauzy quality makes no sense. But you can see how soft some of the shadows are. Even if they are thrown down by more faraway trees, those trees aren’t so distant that I’d expect such faint shadows.

Actually, I think I just figured it out, but sadly it’s now almost 1:00 pm, so there’s no chance to check my theory out. I’m guessing that the fainter shadows are the result of sunlight reflecting off the glass of the Grohmann Museum’s atrium and then casting shadows of those branches from a different angle and with a weaker light. I suppose that might also explain the strangely gauzy quality of sunlight, as well.

Don’t you find it frustrating to notice things and not have time to explore them in that very moment? Now I’ll never really know for sure. Such is life, I guess😄

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Condiment Innovation

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

This is really small in the grand scheme of things, but still I’m super impressed with Heinz’s new ketchup packet. My younger daughter had a doctor’s appointment the other day, and on the way home we stopped at Culver’s. This is what she got with her onion rings.

I love it! Why did no one think of this until now? It seems so obvious in retrospect. But maybe that’s always the way with truly innovative ideas.

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“It’s snowing!”

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

This was the view from my office window yesterday afternoon. Bright sun, despite the wind and falling temperatures. I liked the way sunlight reflecting from my building’s windows cast long fingers of light across the street.

Below is what I saw on the way back to my office from a mid-morning coffee run earlier today.

A spare dusting of dry lake-effect snow swirled along the sidewalk like ghostly dervishes and collapsed between wind gusts into white patches along the edges of whatever had momentarily trapped it.

Later in the day, as significantly thicker snowflakes blew past my window, an instant shock of recognition kicked in and I fleetingly experienced that ineffable happiness of childhood when winter’s first flurries  are greeted by the excited cry: “It’s snowing!”

 

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The humanitarian disaster looming in Yemen

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Katherine Wikoff

You probably haven’t seen this bit of news, and with any luck at all the situation will be resolved before becoming a major story you can’t avoid.

This past weekend, Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen against the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi launched a ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia’s capital city. The missile reportedly targeted Riyadh’s airport but was intercepted before reaching its destination.

We have plenty of other terrible events distracting us here in the United States right now. Don’t feel bad if you missed this.

Here’s why the attempted missile attack and its aftermath is important. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince immediately denounced the missile attack as something that “may be considered an act of war,” and he accused Iran of “direct aggression” against Saudi Arabia because Iran supplied the Shia Houthis with missiles.

Saudi Arabia’s response to the attack has been equally swift: a blockade of entry points to Yemen, a country that relies on imports to supply about 90% of its daily needs, according to the United Nations.

Dire shortages of food and medicine are imminent.

The United Nations’ World Food Program currently feeds 7 million people a month in Yemen. These 7 million people will feel the blockade’s consequences immediately. Millions more, already classified as “hungry” will soon face extreme famine.

To make matters worse, Yemen is currently experiencing the “fastest growing cholera epidemic ever recorded,” with 895,000 cases as of November 2 (a week ago today). Over half of the suspected cholera cases are children.

Let me restate that more directly: Around 450,000 children in Yemen have contracted cholera in the past six months.

Cholera—rare in the developed world—is a horrible intestinal infection causing copious amounts of watery diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and muscle cramps. It can be fatal; nearly 2,200 people in Yemen have died from cholera since April 27th. The infection can be prevented with a vaccine (effective for about six months), but now that the blockade is in place, neither vaccine nor treatment medicines are getting through.

If something doesn’t happen quickly, many more people will die.

The political situation in Yemen is a mess. In some ways ordinary citizens are mere pawns in a rebellion/civil war that is in part a proxy conflict between longtime rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. I lack adequate background to make any kind of statement regarding which side is right or wrong.

But surely the world can’t just stand by and watch this happen.

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