Four Weeks In Mad City

[tsdad]

<p>I’m entering my fourth week working at the University of Wisconsin so I thought I share my thoughts with you. I must say I’m still amazed that I was offered the job and even more amazed that I took it.</p>

<li>I miss my wife, my former colleagues, and DC. I do not miss the politics. I’m glad I left the feds and I like being in Madison.</li>
<li>I worked one week and then took a week’s vacation. I could work like that until I’m 90. My wife and I met each other at LAX, drove to Palm Desert, where it was in the 90s, and then went up to USC to see our son for Parents Weekend.</li>
<li>Boy is this place big. They’re are over 40,000 students and 1000s of employees. The US Department of Education had less then 5000 employees nationally. OCR had about 700.</li>
<li>I had forgotten how many odd people hang around University towns. Some of the odd people are faculty members. BTW, today’s faculty dress a whole lot worse then they did in the 60s, especially the male faculty. I make it a point to wear a tie and jacket.
4 There are strong faculty governance rights here, which lead to a very decentralized university.</li>
<li>The young people at UW are very nice, very polite. There’s not a whole bunch of racial diversity.</li>
<li>I wish I had the blue jean, scooter/moped concessions in Madison. Everyone wears blue jeans. Half the campus seems to be on some kind of two wheeled vehicle. Some of students are space cadets. You have to watch very carefully when you’re walking around campus.</li>
<li>I sure wish my office wasn’t in the building on the highest point on campus with everything else below it. Climbing up Bascom Hill is tough on old guys.</li>
<li>I went to a breakfast meeting last week and sat with two Vice Chancellors, an Associate Vice Chancellor, and an Assistant Vice Chancellor. I’m an Assistant Director. I felt like a colonel at the Pentagon.</li>
<li>The Madison area is very, but not completely, liberal. For me it’s a real breath of fresh air.</li>
</ol>

[cheers]

<p>:)</p>

<p>Well done with the transition. It's fun to relocate. Wakes you up.</p>

<p>But I would miss DH. How long are you supposed to keep up the Flyover/Coastal lifestyle?</p>

<p>How is your S? Still thinking about USC for S2, partly because the sculpture dept seems good. Good article this week in Sculpture mag about digital sculpture...</p>

[marite]

<p>Tsdad:</p>

<p>Welcome back! You've been missed. There's a great church built by Frank Lloyd Wright in Madison, and some nice restaurants. And you are right, the locals are very nice.</p>

[achat]

<p>Glad to hear from you tsdad. How is Madison as a city? Is it like Ann Arbor?</p>

[carolyn]

<p>Tsdad, Great to hear from you!!! We have all been wondering how things were going - sounds like a real adventure in many ways. I hope we will see more of you around here in the future!</p>

[barrons]

<p>I double dog dare you to go down to State St this coming Sat/Sun night. You ain't seen nothing yet.</p>

[tsdad]

<p>I have a very nice apartment on Sheboygan, a block off University Ave. It's about 15 minutes by bus, free passes for staff, from my office. I usually eat lunch down the hill at Memorial Union with a view of the lake out the floor to ceiling windows. </p>

<p>I can't compare it to Ann Arbor, but compared to another capitol city I'm familiar with, Raleigh, its much, much better. Very student oriented. Lots of politics, music, and lectures. State Street runs right from the University to the capital building and for the most part it’s shut off from traffic. It has restaurants, bars, craft stores, and shops full of UW logo things. There's a new civic center for cultural stuff, and there's lots of rock and roll.</p>

<p>How can you not like a city that has the Onion as one of its free newspapers?</p>

<p>As to USC, my son is thriving. He made the Dean's List second semester last year, and is the assignment editor on the liberal alternative newspaper, the Trojan Horse. I love that name. He has been selected by the People for the American Way to attend a conference in DC. Ironically, he'll be back in DC just a week after going back to LA from his three-week holiday vacation in NoVA. Most importantly, I think he has found a girlfriend. We met her at Parents Weekend. I think she'll do a very good job of managing my son.</p>

<p>My wife will be coming out here during Veterans Day week (we don’t get that day off), and my wife and son will be coming to Madison for Thanksgiving. I’m going to DC for a training session in December and then I’ll be back again for the holidays.</p>

<p>So far, so good.</p>

[tsdad]

<p>Barrons:</p>

<p>There is NO WAY I'm going to State Street for Halloween.</p>

[momsdream]

<p>Sounds like fun! You sound happy. I've never been to madison, but have met people from there. The people I've met are VERY interesting, very liberal and lots of fun!</p>

[tsdad]

<p>BTW, when we were in LA we went a restaurant called "The Stinky Rose." What a trip. The food was only so-so, but the atmosphere and the smell (stinky rose is another phrase for garlic) were great. Although I believe that garlic, whipped cream, and butter are the three basic food groups, I do strongly suggest you stay away from the garlic ice cream. It was a bad tasting as it sounds.</p>

[tsdad]

<p>Double post</p>

[dudedad]

<p>Hi tsdad -</p>

<p>It sounds like everything is working out. I bet you don't miss the orange crush! Looks like Wisconsin and USC could meet for a very important game this January....</p>

[kissy]

<p>Tsdad- I was just visiting UW recently and the view from the Memorial Union is beautiful! Madison is a fun town and things are never dull! Hope all is going well for you :)</p>

[tsdad]

<p>80,000 people yesterday to hear Kerry, "the Boss," Dave Grohl, and every Democratic politician in southern Wisconsin, of which they’re many. There are some spectacular pictures in the papers today. Each of the musicians sang two songs. After the rally, Bruce and Patty Sciaila, his wife, assorted bodyguards, and Tom Brokaw had some beers (well, I don't know about Brokaw) on the porch of a resident (and student?) who had a sign on her porch inviting him up for a beer. On tap in Madison, besides more beer, or already passing through Madison are: Carole King, Leonardo DiCaprio, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, Rudy Guiliani, and Gloria Steinem. Nice to live a swing state.</p>

[1moremom]

<p>I live in a swing state and we've got H.W. Bush in town today. :( There are some who believe that when you die you go to Madison (if you've been good).</p>

[shennie]

<p>Hey TS - I, too, live in Mad Town. We have been here for 25 years. Hubby works on campus also. If you have questions about the place or need to know where to find something, drop me an email. This is a great town and we have no desire to live anywhere else. </p>

<p>Oh, and I think it is highly unlikely that USC and the Badgers will meet in a bowl. USC will end up in the national championship bowl, but even if the Badgers remain undefeated, their schedule isn't strong enough to have them end up in the top bowl. We will be very happy to play California in the Rose Bowl, however! GO BIG RED!</p>

[tsdad]

<p>A USC loss, unlikely as that seems, could put them in the Rose Bowl. They do play two traditional rivals, UCLA and Notre Dame, between now and the end of the season so anything is possible.</p>

[reidm]

<p>tsdad - Minnesotan here. . .how were the annual Halloween riots. . I mean "festivities."</p>

[tsdad]

<p>From: <a href="http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=15157&nt_adsect=edit%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/local/index.php?ntid=15157&nt_adsect=edit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Event in jeopardy, angry mayor says
Lisa Schuetz Wisconsin State Journal </p>

<p>Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said he's fed up with the wild behavior of Halloween's rowdy revelers after police in riot gear dispersed a crowd of 5,000 on State Street early Sunday.</p>

<p>After three years of disturbances, he intends to discourage people from traveling here next year for Halloween.</p>

<p>"The future of this entire event is now in peril because of the despicable actions of a few," a visibly angry Cieslewicz said at a press conference Sunday afternoon. "I have had enough of placing our police officers and firefighters in danger. I have had enough of the black eye these disturbances give to the reputation of our city. I want to send a very clear message to everyone who came to Madison to cause trouble this weekend: Stay away next year."</p>

<p>Saturday night's crowd peaked at more than 75,000 shortly after midnight - 10,000 more than last year - for the annual party that attracts college students from as far away as New Jersey and California. </p>

<p>BTW, one of the first students arrested was from the University of Minnesota, carrying an open beer can.</p>

[tsdad]

<p>An article in this morning's Daily Cardinal: "Minnesota students contribute to revelry: a UM perspective."</p>

<p>Apparently Minnesota residents represented the second largest group of individuals arrested. LOL. Nothing going on in Minneapolis?</p>