New Goes so Far

A couple months ago, Apple introduced it I-phone X, not 10, but X.   Far be it for a person with a flip phone to make comments about a smart phone, but bear with me.  When the I-phone X came out there were articles about how it really was not all that much different from earlier versions of the phone, and people should not waste their hard earned money.  More recently I saw that the I-phone X was selling quite well.  Although on Monday, November 13, 2017 a news report noted that the I-phone 7 was the bestselling I-phone in the 3^rd quarter of the year.  The X was not introduced until later in September. Thus, it seems that people want the newest which is often thought of as the best version.  In the computing world one only needs to look at Microsoft’s Vista operating system to realize newer is not better.   Is the I-phone X that much better than number 7?  Or, for that matter, a Samsung, a Moto, or any of the other similar devices?

I Phone

Devices such as the I-pad are now ubiquitous in American Households, and so is the I-phone in American pockets.  Pope Francis recently commented about the number of cell phones being used while he is celebrating mass, and he suggested that people turn more to Jesus and God, than use their cell phone.  In 2013 I visited the Church of the Nativity, and there were many persons, particularly Asians, who were taking photos using an I-pad.  It was not the photo taking that was annoying, but rather the jockeying  for position by people concentrating on and what is in its camera view rather than the people they bumped.  And, let's face it, a 9+" I-Pad is much larger than a point and shoot camera.  Yet, the whole photo thing is understandable.  People wish to post a photo of  events on social media showing that they were part of something larger; something that may someday viewed as historic.  At the birth place of Christ, all wanted a photo to commemorate the event.  People are said to be social animals and this practice certainly plays to that argument.

Average Commute Times in the United States

Yet, the paradox of the social nature of people is the way we choose to live and transport ourselves.  The American dream still consists of a single family home, often in the country, with your own nice Toyota.  This is as American as apple pie and Toyota (the latter is really not very American, but shows how the country has changed). Varied technology and car companies are working on the self-driving car.  Our quest for privacy in the outer regions of exurbia has taken us from where a drive was leisurely, to now where it is a chore.  My dad had only but travel a few blocks to work (often walking).  Today many commutes are 30 minutes or more, with the average, nation wide, being almost 26 minutes.  Years ago my mom and dad would go for a leisurely ride during a Sunday afternoon, most likely to get away from my older and younger siblings.  John Nolen Drive in Madison came about in part due to a leisure drive association.  So did many of the Parkways in New York City.  John Nolen can now be a frantic drive, particularly during commuting times and UW football games. 

Self Driving Car Prototype

Self-driving cares may reduce stress, but will they reduce traffic?  It will take years for all persons to drive an autonomous vehicle, and so there will still be humans driving on the road for quite some time.  People are not like storm troopers who can be tuned to one cadence with a meticulously planned spacing.  Some say the self-driving car will allow a person to be dropped off at work, and then the car can travel home to avoid needing to park in an expensive downtown location. (But, perhaps the expense of downtown parking will decrease as demand shrivels.).  It can then retrieve the person later in the day.  This adds two more trips to the road system.  They could also lead to more exurban sprawl as persons decide they can work in the vehicle while they get driven to their place of employment.  The paradox is that while people are social animals they also seek privacy.  Another paradox is that as more people move to exurbia and the pastoral lands, the land becomes more developed, ruining the reason why they move there in the first place.  It seems a not too often occurrence that we degrade that which we value. 

Self Driving Car technology

Social media is replacing face to face contact.  As technology with self-driving cars and even robotics increase will we see a day when little human contact occurs.   There is even talk of robots replacing human partners.  My wife would probably say a robot would be more talkative than I.  It probably also would not touch her cheek with a cold aluminum finger.  My cold human hand, just cannot be replaced.  Technology has changed the way we interact and communicate, and the way we work.  Will it continue to drive market demand to the point that humans really don’t know what they got themselves into?

Discovery

It was on this date two hundred and twelve years ago, November 19, 1805, that Thomas Jefferson’s Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean. This event being a a year and one-half after they departed Camp DuBois on the east shore of Mississippi near St. Louis. Better known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the journey had varied purposes. One was to find a route to the Pacific, another was to study the plants, animals and geography, a third was to open trade with the Indians, and fourth was the geo-political—claim the land prior to either the British or the French making claim to the western territory. The expedition was largely forgotten until the early 20th century, but their expedition of discovery was not unlike others that occurred over the world from a Euro-centric point of view.

Route of the Corps of Discvoery

Up until the conclusion of WWII there was the saying the sun never set on the British Empire, and it is only the Anglo bias inherent in the nation that the thinking and claims rose that the British were less exacting of native populations than other nations, particularly those in southern Europe. Much our historical works are taken for granted and portray the British as rather regal in their dealings, while the others are more the devil. What is actually known is that some countries, particularly the French tended to better blend in with native cultures, where the British liked to impose their culture. Think of Toussaint Charbonneau, a Frenchman and trapper who was married to Sacagawea, and assisted the Corps of Discovery. Or, think of the French Jesuits who left a much lighter foot print on the landscape than many of the Protestant brethren during times of Anglo expansion. Many like to claim that capitalism began with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, and while capitalism has brought a high standard of living, it has also brought a whole host of environmental problems and inequality.

Lewis and Clark

Today, it seems that most all European discoveries are claimed as bias, and hurtful to the native populations. Take Columbus. Once hailed as the founder of the continent, he is now denigrated, and much of this denigration comes from persons who themselves have no Native American blood in their genes. Columbus did not find the new world, but he brought about the social and political consequences. However, if it had not been Columbus it would have been someone else, as Europeans knew the seas and were taking advantage of ship technology and expanding knowledge of trade winds. Columbus had appealed to varied royalty to fund his expedition. These royalty, being somewhat enlightened leaders, would pass his request off to their counselors. They quickly realized that Columbus’ math was way off. Contrary to the fable taught for years, they did not think the world flat. The idea that the world was flat, according to Thomas Cahill, was a 19th century anti-Catholic construct (Fake News) by Jean Antoine Letronne, and furthered by Washington Irving.  What Columbus did find was that Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to take a risk, but knowing that his math did not work. It is the taking of risk that has led to adventure and advancement. Being static the world would resolve into some type of entropy of slow degradation.

Aztalan State Park, Pre-Columbian Settlement
near Lake Mills, WI

But, that does not mean that all change is good. Lewis and Clark may have left a light footprint, but what the United States did following the Corps of Discovery expedition to tribe after tribe is just as horrendous as what Columbus did, if not more so, since the world should have become more humane  in the 19th century compared to what it had been the 15th. This would have particularly been teh case had the English been so much more humane than other nations while establishing an empire.  Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the nation, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, third President, and a man hailed as having begun the Democratic party, was himself a slave owner. Yet, he was considered “enlightened.” Jefferson, with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was looking to spread the nation’s influence and expand its geography, much like what Ferdinand and Isabella were looking to accomplish with the Columbus expedition. Motive had not really changed over the centuries. Territorial expansion almost seemed (seems?) to be part of human DNA. The United States is still obtaining riches from its western lands. Think natural gas, oil, wheat from the Dakotas. Lumber and fish from Oregon and Washington. All though this, the nation made and broke treaties. They also broke the Native American culture. Some of the remaining reservations in the west are some of the poorest areas in the nation. Think of the Red River Reservation, the Lakota Sioux in South Dakota.

Recreated stockade at Aztalan State Park

The affect to Native American culture from western culture is not only the fault of many explorers and varied empires.  It is easy to sit in a family room or coffee shop in present day United States and criticize those that came before us, even though mores and thinking were different from our own.  It gets to the common idea of whether or not is right to judge a past culture based on present day values.  If present day moral values are to judge past actions, then certainly many pre-Columbian settlements and tribes should also be judged for their slavery to others, and their human sacrifice.  In the end no one culture is perfect and how we view a past culture is also determined by our biases.

It was also on this date, only 58 years after Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean, that Abraham Lincoln delivered perhaps the most famous address in American history--the Gettysburg Address.

Surname

Time changes and alters us, our landscape, how we use words, the meaning of words, and how we spell.  Do we, today, also tend to place more emphasis on a name than in times past?   The spelling of my surname has changed, and records indicate that my great grandfather and his brothers did not choose a consistent spelling of the last name.  Many years ago, prior to the industrial revolution, most persons were farmers, followed by craftspeople, and shop keepers.  For many, their last name may represent an ancestor's occupation--Smith became short for blacksmith, as an example.  Given the common nature of the last name Smith, there must have been a great number of blacksmiths.  Surnames started becoming more common in 14th and 15th centuries, although the Romans seemed to always have two or three names (think Gaius Julius Caesar).   This post is about the Hovel surname.  A September 26, 2017 post on this blog discussed the pronunciation and presence of the V in the name.

Simon Hawel marriage record, 1703
Source:  https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz  Lhenice, book 1 image 103

Hovel in English refers to a small shanty, or dirty house.  There are Hovels from England, and their last name may hearken back to a prior residence in their homeland. However, my surname is an Americanized version of the Czech surname Havel.  As in Vaclav Havel.  In old-country records, however, it is often spelled with a "W" in place of the "V";  the W apparently being due to Germanic influence.  In 1526 the Kingdom of Bohemia came under the rule of the Hapsburg Empire, which later became the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  German is a key language for that Empire, and hence even though some historic Bohemian records are in Czech (other languages used are Latin and German), the W is influenced by the German language.  Use of W in lieu of V is also applied to the spelling of the name of a village.  Like English names, Czech last names may relate to occupation, or social status.  For example the surname, Dvorak, as in the composer Antonin, means a free person who owns land.  The Havel surname for Czech's has a more elegant meaning than the English name Hovel.  The Havel name recognizes St. Gall, who was one of the companions of St. Columbanus (both of Irish descent) who re-educated the continent of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Martin Hawel (Hovel) baptismal record
Source:  https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz,  Netolice book 31, image 25

The earliest record that I have located to date for my ancestors is the sacramental marriage record dating from 1703 for my 6th great grandfather Simon Hawel from Ratiborova Lhotka.  Simon married Elizabetha Pesek (perhaps a small v symbol above the S) probably from from Vrbice (Wrbice in the record).  All of the Czech records I have located consistently use Hawel as spelling of the last name.  My great great grandfather Josef migrated to the US in 1868 with his wife and eight surviving children. Having located copies of baptismal records for all of Josef's offspring but for the youngest, Wenzel (his baptismal certificate will not be available on-line until probably after 2049), they all use Hawel.  This continues the spelling as it was generations earlier.  The passenger log on the immigrant ship, uses this surname.   Of the children who arrived with Josef and Anna Hawel on US soil on a mid-July day in 1868 four were male and four were female.  The four females would all marry and take the name of their spouse. For the four males, the last name would be a different story.

Joseph Hawel Declaration for Citizenship
source:  UW-Whitewater archives

Let us take a look at the historical record, and see what it provides relative to the spelling of the last name.  When Josef, the patriarch of the family passed away in 1882 he was buried at Oakwood Bohemian Cemetery near Plymouth, Iowa; Josef may have been one of the first burials in that cemetery as it was created that year. While  his, and his wife's, tombstone use the last name of  Hawel, his Declaration of Citizenship in 1869 has his name, and his signature reading Havel.(Although it appears he was unsure of how to spell the name in English as he overwrote a "b" as the middle letter with a "v".)  His son John was one of the founding members of the Bohemian Cemetery Association.  John Hovel, the eldest child, had varied records. John would die in a tragic accident in June 1905.   A story on the Bohemian Cemetery (1982) provides "...Hovel (Havel)" leading me to think the name in the record is Havel, but the article provides the more common accepted spelling meaning it is the same as Havel in the original record.  News articles on his death, as well as his grave maker in the Bohemian Cemetery use Havel.  John's wife, Margaret is buried in Osage, IA under the name Hovel.  I have not located an obituary of the oldest daughter Anna, who died in 1910 so I cannot track what name may have been provided as a maiden name.

"Baltimore" Ship Manifest
Source:  Wisconsin Historical Society

Martin, my great grandfather, saw Habel used in his 1877 Wisconsin marriage license (probably as written by the county clerk), but used Hovel in his will (1919),  and on his tombstone (1928).  A 1915 Iowa census record uses Havel.  Yet, more importantly, a prayer book (written in German) he once owned has his signature as "Martin Hovel."  Of course it is unknown when he signed the book.  Interestingly, his Son John would, at the urging of his wife, who thought the name too short, add a second L.  John's sister Marie Hovel would die at a relatively young age in 1896.  Her grave marker Identifies her as Mary Hawel, spouse of Anton Hofmeister.  She too is buried in the Bohemian Cemetery.  A brother of Martin, Joseph D Havel would use the Havel spelling.  This spelling of the last name was in his death record, and in news articles on his death.  That spelling is also prevalent in ads for one of his business ventures.  JD had two sons and a daughter. His oldest son is (so far, anyway) lost to history.  The other, Rufus, died near age 90, but had no children.   He used the last name of his father, as one would expect--Havel.  Rose Kachel, the only Hovel child to remain in Wisconsin, would have the original Hawel spelling appear in her obituary.  Katherine Popp, the second youngest would be the one family member to outlive all her siblings.  Her May 1944 obituary identifies her as a Hovel.

Martin and Amelia Hovel main grave monument
Source:  Iowa grave records 

The youngest child of Josef and Anna, Wenzel, who was nine months old upon his arrival on the shores of Baltimore, died in the first month of January 1944.  His death certificate would use the original version of the last name--Hawel (Germanic version of Czech).  He would, however, use a first name of Howard, rather than his baptized name Wenzel.  He deferred from use of his given name, which definitely sounds Bohemian, for a more common English name, Howard.  But, he chose to keep the original surname--Hawel, rather than an Americanized version--Hovel, or even Havel.  Wenzel had a large family, but all daughters, so his surname did not pass to a future generation.

Rudolph Hovel WWI Draft Card
Source: Familysearch

It seems that perhaps after the death of Joseph, the common accepted spelling for the John Hovel side, and the Martin Hovel side was to use Hovel (with John J adding another L), and not Havel.  However, whether or not Joseph D's horrendous act in March 1907 led to the name change I do not know.  It may simply have been a desire to Americanize the name during a time of continued anti-Catholic bias in the nation.  On my mother's paternal side, the Mc in McSweeney was dropped as the family arrived in the United States in order, according to family lore, to mitigate the Irish nature of the name.  Father Joseph Reiner would convince my mother's mother's family to drop the Ei, as in Eireiner, for simply Reiner.  What mother could say no to her Jesuit priest son?  She was so proud of her son, that it is said, she would refer to him as Father Reiner?

Martin and Amelia Hovel
Source:  Michael J. Hovel

The surname is our identifier.  Yet, the surname did not come from an occupation as did many others, but was in recognition of St Gall.  The question is why did a family or family members choose a last name to recognize St. Gall?  To that I do not have an answer.  Who we are is in our personality.  Personality is formed by environment, and partially by the genes we inherited, a collection of genes that goes back much longer than the 1703 marriage record of Simon Hawel to Elizabeth Pesek.  This brief post is a look into our past.  The last name was stable in its spelling for many generations, but within about 40 years of after arrival in the United States even brothers could not agree on which spelling to retain for the surname.  History is full of unique stories, and this is but another story in the history of the Hovel (Havel, Hawel) family.

Fall

Today, November 5, is the halfway point of astronomical fall.  Astronomical fall is the time from the Autumnal Equinox to the day before the Winter Solstice.  Meteorological fall consists of the months of September, October, and November.  As we sit 45 days into the fall season we have celebrated All Hallows Eve (Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day and we look forward to the Thanksgiving feast, which this year falls on November 23.

Holy Hill, October 20, 2017

Fall is the time of year when temperatures begin to cool (or fall), when leaves turn colors and give a short but beautiful display before they fall.  It is a time of harvesting the last fruits and vegetables.  Fall, however, is a word which often has negative connotations.  Using Merriam Webster dictionary on-line let me provide just a few:

1.       To descend freely by the force of gravity

2.       To become lower in degree or level

3.       To leave an erect position suddenly and  unintentionally.

2015 photo of Autumn Purple Ash in my front yard

I know many persons for whom fall is their favorite season.  Perhaps we should use autumn as the descriptor since it lacks much of the negative connotation of fall.  This year it seems that we skipped the best parts of fall, those sunny days with high temperatures in the 50’s to lower 60’s.  Sweatshirt and football weather.  We went from highs in the 70’s to highs in the 30’s or 40’s.  Such is the variation of a transitional season in the Midwest. The long-range forecast in the Madison, WI area for the week have lows as cold as 23 degrees, and after today the highest temperature is to be about 43 degrees.  As of today, normal temperatures are 51/33.  We are now paying for a warm early fall.

2015 pile of raked leaves

Yet, besides the normal temperatures and colors of leaves we see other positive attributes, and the reasons why many seem to view it as their favorite season:  there is hot apple cider, pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving, pumpkin spice which seems in almost everything now-a-days, flannel sheets and down comforters, pumpkin pie, wool and flannel clothing.  Oh, and there is also, in order to mention a third time--pumpkin pie. One does not live if they do not like homemade pumpkin pie, especially one with my wife's homemade crust.  Fall includes a decrease in daylight hours.  However, given the position of Madison, WI in the northern latitudes our day light hours will remain at 9 hours from Dec 19 through Dec 27.  Fall also provides some rare treats.  For example, one may be lucky to encounter a few nice cool, clear, crisp mornings as the sun peaks over the horizon providing a morning to raise your spirits and brighten your outlook for the day.  Fall is also a time of final chores.  It involves cleaning up flower and garden beds, putting away flower pots, raking leaves, mulching flower beds, unhooking hoses, and cleaning leaves out of the gutters. 

Early fall produce

A couple weeks ago it was a nice warm fall day and I left work early to complete some yard work.  It was a busy few hours before my spouse arrived home.  When she arrived home she asked what I had done.  I started the list: I picked up leaves in the front and side of the house, mowed the lawn, cleaned out the front gutters, worked in the garden, and repaired the raised vegetable bed.  I was hoping her attention would be elsewhere and she would miss one item in the list, but I was wrong.  The item in the list that quickly caught her attention caused her to get become quite upset and mad for doing one particular chore.  “You got up on the roof to clean the gutters?” was her question to which I said, “Well, yes.”  To say I got the third degree from the onslaught verbal barrage would be an understatement.  Yes, she was madder than when I put my cold hands on her warm face.  Her verbal barrage was multi-faceted.  It pulled at the heart strings—“Don’t you care about how I would feel to come home and find you dead or severely injured from falling off the roof!” It was logical: “What would you do if you had fallen off the roof and were severely injured?” Yet, it also contained threats, such as: “How would you feel if I went up on the roof?” I take it she does not want me on the roof.

Corn Maze, another benefit of fall

A week later, was our 27^th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we went to see a movie, our first movie in a theater since watching “Concussion.”  The movie, “Only the Brave” followed the Granite Mountain Hotshots from a local trainee crew to a certified Hotshot crew, and concluded with the Yarnell, AZ fire in which 19 of the 20 members perished.  (The one who survived was a lookout watching the fire movement and tracing weather patterns one-half mile away from where the main crew was located.)  At the end of the movie the relatives and loved ones of the crew are gathered in the local school.  Details were not being released to the assembled family members pending arrival of grief counselors.  Word had spread of one survivor, but at this point no one knew who it was.  The one survivor, going against advice of the leader of a federal hot shot crew, decided to go to the school.  As he walked into the school the hopes of family members of nineteen other men disappeared.  Those family members had one string of hope, against all odds, that their husband, father, son or brother would be the one to be alive.  In the instant they saw the surviving crew member their hope was instantly replaced by cries and anguish for the loss of  man they would no longer embrace.  Not quite the way to find out about the death of your husband, father, brother or son.  While, as my wife knows, my middle name is “Careful”, accidents do occur. Such as falling off a roof.    

Lapham Peak Unit of Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest
October 20, 2017

Hopefully fall will not entail the third of the three above definitions, for anyone at anytime. Autumn can bring a series of different events and experiences.  It brings recognition of those who have gone before us (All Saints Day and All Souls Day), we give thanks for blessings bestowed through the unique American holiday--Thanksgiving;  yet, as the days continue to shorten we look forward to the future.   As we make our way through fall before the end of the season I may once again be on the roof to make on final cleaning of the front gutters before winter sets in, but this time I should make sure my wife is home.

 Photos by author

Football Party

On my way home from work one day last week I was listening to a sports talk radio show based in Madison, WI.  Saying that the host of the show, Mike Heller, and his sidekick Jon Arias are homers when it comes to Badger sports would be an understatement.  On this particular day, they were bemoaning the lack of student attendance at University of Wisconsin football games.  They wondered why the students arrive late and leave early.  Now, as a warning, and this may seem sexist but so be it: Mothers of Badger students this blog post may contain graphic descriptions and information, and you are urged to proceed with caution.  In other words, your sweet little child may not be so innocent.

Camp Randall Stadium, looking toward student section in north end zone
They would not take the photo if the student section was not full, so the photo
was not taken in the first quarter.

What brought their complaint to the airwaves was the UW game against Maryland.  It was a beautiful and warm mid-fall day in the southern part of Wisconsin, and it was also the annual  homecoming game.  Mike Heller was complaining about the lack of student attendance at the game.  Maryland is a poor to middling team, and its season will best be remembered for defeating the Texas Longhorns.  The UW student section is well known for its graphic chants, not only to opposing teams, but one student section to the another.  (Warning, the following contains graphic language!)  For example, one section yells "Eat Shit!", and the other yells back: "Fuck You!"  (Moms, you were warned.)  I have attended a few UW football games, and quite frankly, I could not pick out what they were saying.  However, this chant made the news in Madison several years ago (I think it was 2011) when, a high school football recruit was attending a UW game with his parents, probably up in one of the boxes for the coddled, up and coming football players.  This women knew exactly what the student sections were saying she did not like it.  Neither did the powers that be in the athletic department and administration--after all they did not want to lose a coddled prized recruit.  Perhaps the UW likes it when the students are present only for part of the game.

Bucky Badger

They have also been known to taunt opposing teams and states.  To Minnesota they would yell: "Safety School!" To Ohio State they would yell "Overrated!"  All in the aspects of good sportsmanship.  I am sure there are worse chants that have been had, but I have not attended many Badger games, and if they were present they escape my memory.

The Badger game against Maryland had an 11:00 am start, and to show the naivete of Mike Heller he and his sidekick were wondering if the early start time affected the lack of early attendance. What I realized is that Mike Heller needed some statistics, so I did a poll of my five nieces/nephews who had or are at the UW, and my son who attended the school.  I explained the reason for the poll, and offered the following:What most closely approximates your and your Significant Others opinions or reason for arriving late, and leaving early for Badger football games:

1. There is beer to drink at pre and post game parties
2. Nobody that is cool would arrive early, ie everybody arrives late
3. Don't want to fight all the "old" people who are trying to get in the stadium
4. There is studying to be done
5. If the Badgers played somebody tough it may be a different story, ie lack of quality opponent
6. The game does not matter until Jump around
7. Who goes to the game to watch football, (it's a party)

Interestingly, among those that responded there was unanimity on the top choice, and it was not #4.  And all these years I thought they found it hard for them to pull themselves out of Helen C. White Library, and once they did they could not wait to get back to the library.  The top reason was item #1. They also were unanimous on a second choice, and that being #5.  The Badgers are well known nationwide for having a soft schedule.  Their division in the Big Ten conference (West division)  until this weekend only had themselves with a winning division record.  But, the likes of the homers, such as Mike Heller are awaiting the arrival of Michigan later in the season.  Michigan, however, is tied with Rutgers (nobody's power house) for fourth place in the eastern division standings.   I have yet to hear from the youngest niece who is currently a freshman at the UW; the others all have a bachelor degree from what is termed the flagship school of the state university system.  I would have to agree with my young relations on why students are late, and leave early.  Given my limited experience with Badger games, the drinking culture is strong at the UW.

 Most of my attendance at Badger games has been due to the gracious nature of my sister, who with her husband has season tickets, but a few times she let me use her ticket.  With at least one, if not two or four Hovel's as undergraduates at the UW at the same time, my brother-in-law always knew who had the party.  For a few years it was at my nephew Christopher and his roommates in the backyard of their rented house.  Beer pong was prevalent.  My best memory is of Christopher drinking two beers at the same time, not once but twice, and right after the other. Four beers in the matter of a couple minutes.  It probably took longer for him to pour the beer into his large mug than for him to drink the two beers.  (Yes, Lisa, your son.) Oh yes, the beer flows, this is Wisconsin, after all.

The last game I attended was in 2014 when on a cold November day the UW played the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  I really have to feel sorry for Nebraska, what else does the state have going for it than Cornhusker football?  Although, the character Penny on "The Big Bang Theory" hails from Nebraska.  Melvin Gordon, a UW tail back, set a nation record for rushing yards in one game that day (408 yards).  His title did not last long as the next week it was broken.  The pre-game party we attended that cold day, was at my nephew Peter Nicks (and his roommates) rented house,  The house was just across the street from the Camp Randall's north end zone.  With a strong police presence on the street, one has to give Madison police credit for their non-obtrusive presence.  They could well have been busy that day, as tap beer was sold, and it was not Bud, or Miller, but a keg of a Wisconsin craft beer. Breaking liquor laws there was a price per glass, although I guess they would say donation.  Yes, the beer was flowing on that cold November day, and the police presence on the street, as next to the stadium, was great, but not intrusive.  So, Peter was able to get by with a back yard full of students, but for two 50 something white men.  I also recall the smell of pot wafting out of the home.  I have never used pot, but got to know its smell while in college;  a student across the hall regularly smoked the weed.  While at the parties, Rick and I were always welcomed.  I always wondered what the Aunt's would think. 

As post college age adults head to the game, students head to party

What is interesting, is that in the 2015-2016 school year the UW was ranked as the top party school in the nation and the Hovel family proudly had two undergraduate seniors that term.  The following year, with no Hovel undergraduates the UW fell to fifth place as a party school. Not second, not third, but fifth!  Was it pure coincidence?  I think we in the Hovel family tend to think of it as cause and effect.  The question is whether the current Hovel undergraduate will help raise the party school ranking to where it was a couple years ago.  The UW, however, does rank first in beer consumption.

Mike Heller was taking calls about ways to solve the problem of late arrival and early leaving. One suggested tying ability to get tickets the following year to arrival to be recorded when the ticket is scanned.  The UW's famous Jump Around is at the end of the third quarter, and after that with a blow out in progress the students find better things to do--like drink beer.  If the UW were to play some heavy weight, like Ohio State, I think they would arrive earlier.  And, if it were an exciting game as it was several years ago when  the UW beat #2 OSU, the students would stick around and charge the field.  Beer (and football) is part of the Wisconsin culture, and the arrival times, along with pre-game parties, will be hard to change.


Images from Google

Ease His Pain

It was in the fall of 1920 when a Grand Jury provided nine indictments for racketeering against eight Chicago White Sox players and five gamblers in what is known as the Black Sox scandal.  The players were alleged to have thrown the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, giving the Reds their first championship.  In an era before free agency, player earnings were rather limited.  They were beholden to their original team, and could not be signed by another.  The owners had the power. Needless to say, there was no 1919 equivalent of multi-million dollar annual earnings many professional players receive today.  One of the highest of the low paid White Sox players who was indicted was “Shoeless” Joe Jackson.  “Shoeless” Joe became famous to us non-baseball aficionados for his role, played by Ray Liotta, in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.”  In the movie, “Shoeless” was the sports hero of John Kinsella, the father of film's protagonist--the upstart farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner).  We learn that Ray, acting as late aged teenagers act, riled his father by stating who would have a crook as a sports hero, a rift developed between the two that would last the remainder of his father’s life.  Ray, this wary farmer educated at Berkely during the height of the 60's culture, plowed under five acres of corn to build the Field of Dreams, local farmers probably thought drug use had done in his mind.  Yet, in so doing he would change his life and the ghosts of the Black Sox players. 

Black Sox Players

“Shoeless” Joe is said to have been illiterate, but yet would confess to being a part of the fix on the baseball championship series.  He later desired to recant his confession, but was unable.  As Ray was plowing under the corn to construct the field he regaled his daughter, who sat on his lap, with Shoeless Joe’s statistics during the series to explain why Joe was likely railroaded and not part of the fix.  One teammate, involved in the scandal says that they used Joe’s name to the gamblers in order to impress them with how committed most the team was to throwing the series.  Some of the players claim that the fix was never in place as they became too scared of the consequences of being found out, which they say explained the high number of errors.  Another player says they stopped the fix after not receiving the money, at $20,000 per loss, as promised after each game.  For some reason you cannot trust gamblers and mafia—go figure.  Too bad the “Godfather” story was not out in 1918, maybe they never would have planned it in the first place.  Regardless, they planned the fix. 

Acquitted, but Condemned by Commissioner Landis

It appears that some desire to blame Charles Comisky, the founder and owner of the White Sox.  Many claim that he was miserly, others say he was frugal.  There is fine line between the two.  Educated by the Jesuits at Chicago’s St. Ignatius Prep, one cannot doubt he was probably engaged with a level of frugality.  Was his level of frugality inappropriate?  One story, probably an urban legend, has it that the term Black Sox actually arose because Comisky would not pay to have the wool player uniforms cleaned, so the players wore the dirty uniforms fame after fame game until they became a darker color.  It is said Comisky finally had them cleaned, but deducted the cleaning from their pay checks.  If he was a miser, why did the White Sox did have the highest payroll in baseball in 1919?   Comisky would be no body’s fool, and he banned the players near the end of the 1920 season even though he knew it would cost him a championship. 

Field of Dreams Movie with some of the Black Sox Players

Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis was appointed the first commissioner of baseball in November 1920.  Even though the players were found not guilty in the summer of 1921, after a trial, the new commissioner would ban them from the game forever.  Attempting to support themselves and their families, the men attempted to put together some exhibition games, but the strong arm of Landis, apparently even stronger than that of current football commissioner Roger Goodell, would intervene and say that any who played with them would forever be banned from professional baseball.  The city of Chicago, presaging the scarcity of baseball championships, much less consecutive championships, in the city of big shoulders would also prevent them playing in the city.  The eight men, with John Kinsella as catcher, were left to meeting their dreams playing baseball in a fictional story as ghosts in the rich deep prairie soils of Iowa that usually grew corn.

Costner in Field of Dreams

The fictional story does more than simply ease the pain of Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and the other seven of the Black Sox scandal by allowing them to play among the corn of Iowa.  In one of my favorite sport movie endings, cars line the cardinal oriented roads near Dyersville, IA as dusk envelopes the well-tended corn fields and they slowly make their way to the Field of Dreams.  This eases Ray Kinsella’s financial pain.  They come, as character Terrence Mann puts it, to relive their childhood.  More importantly, Ray, in the end, was able bring back his childhood memories, and ease his own pain, by once again playing catch with his father on that early fall evening in Iowa as dew starts to settle on the manicured grass of a field a dream told him to build.  Childhood memories reinstated after being pushed back in a rift with his father over “Shoeless” Jackson.  

Three Days in October

Looking back in time you can probably find major historical events within any month.  Nonetheless it seems that October is an important month.  There was the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, the October Revolution, the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Cuban Missile Crisis and the Raid on Harper’s Ferry.  Whether it is the changing of the season, the shortening days, or the coming of winter, October is a historically significant month.  This post will talk about the raid at Harper’s Ferry that began the dark of night on October 16 and ended in the daylight of October 18, 1859. 

John Brown

Led by the famed abolitionist John Brown, he of the tune, by Rev. William Patton, with the famous first line: “Old John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave” would be the mastermind of the raid, and it would lead to his death for treason against the state of Virginia.  John Brown was a vehement abolitionist who strongly believed that bloodshed would be necessary to rid the nation of its peculiar institution.  To understand John Brown you need to understand Bleeding Kansas, and to understand Bleeding Kansas you need to understand the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and to understand the Kansas-Nebraska Act you need to understand the Missouri Compromise, and for the Missouri Compromise you need to understand the long tensions between free and slave states.

Bleeding Kansas

The Missouri Compromise set forth a latitudinal line such that states north of the line would be free, and those south of the line would allow slavery.  Overtime the south realized the inherent issue with more territory in the continent (north of Mexico) favoring free states.  They did not wish slave states to be outnumbered by free states.  Stephen Douglas (D IL) would derive the idea of self-determination.  The legislation he pushed is known as the Kansas-Nebraska act which would allow self-determination.  Adopted in May 1854, the debate over the act is said by some to be the beginning of the Republican party (founded in Ripon, WI in March of that year).  The act would lead to what we call blood shed in Kansas as both pro-slave and pro-emancipation settlers would move to the territory.  Violence was anticipated given the rifles and supplies that would go with the settlers.  John Brown, with his sons would kill five persons during the early part of Bleeding Kansas.  Brown would move back east to plan his raid on Harper’s Ferry.

Missouri Compromise Line

It was in 1959 that John Brown would undertake the act that would further split the nation.  Due to limited methods of news travel, it is not like the nation was on edge awaiting results of the raid.   He intended to capture the Federal arsenal and believed that slaves of Virginia would rise up against owners and he would have the bounty of the arsenal to supply them with guns and ammunition.  It did not work as planned, in part because there was no communication method to the slaves in bondage.  His plan of 200 to 500 slaves in the first night alone to assist in his operations did not come to fruition.  The task was left to him and his 18 co-insurgents.  Two of Brown’s sons would be killed during the raid. 

A militia group mainly composed of Baltimore and Ohio rail workers first attempted to subdue the uprising, and the task was later left to a company of US Soldiers led by Col Robert E. Lee.  President Buchanan would not order federal troops to the site until the mid-afternoon of October 17, so Lee was not long on the scene.  Lee would attempt to get the militia to attack, but they said no, and the job would fall to him.  Being a good commander Lee passed the effort down the chain of command, and J.E.B. Stuart would lead the effort.  These two men would become more famous due to the war that would begin with Fort Sumter less than two years later.  Brown’s group had raided a B&O train, but let the train move on which led to the report of his act, and the appearance of the militia on the first night.  Yet, there are more interesting circumstances.  Brown would have four of his men kidnap Col. Lewis Washington, great grandnephew of George, and steal two items: the first a sword given to George Washington purportedly by Frederick the Great, and two pistols given to him by Marquis de Lafayette.

Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, depiction in Oct 1959

The attack, however, did not have to occur.  Senators Seward and Wilson became aware of the planned attack by Hugh Forbes who had been hired by Brown to train his attack party.  Fobes' tattling  was not due a patriotic duty, but simply because he was not paid more.  Gridley Howe, a backer of Brown, had been persuaded by Senator Wilson to get Brown and his team to back down.  Brown found out and would take time out of his planning for Harper's Ferry to discredit Forbes.  David Gue, another abolitionist, also knew about the planned attack, and believed, like others including Fredrick Douglass, that it was a foolhardy plan that would only lead to death.  Gue wrote an anonymous letter to Secretary of War John Floyd, but Floyd discounted the letter due to an error as Gue said arsenals in both Maryland and Virginia in the plan of attack.  There was not an arsenal in Maryland, but the Harper's Ferry arsenal was just below the border with Maryland.  However, Gue specifically called out Brown as “old John Brown,’ late of Kansas.”  In a time before terror watch lists, or a man not in tune with what had been going on in the nation, Floyd says he never recognized the name.  Maybe it was purposeful amnesia, as the Buchanan administration was a south-friendly administration.  Seward would become Secretary of State in the Lincoln administration and he himself was almost killed the night Lincoln was shot as part of the overall plan by John Wilkes Booth. 

The final coincidence to mention, is that one man observing the hanging death of John Brown on December 2, 1859 was John Wilkes Booth. These are some of the coincidences of history which add interest to what is often perceived as a mundane topic.  Brown would presage the bloody nature of the Civil War when on the day of his execution he wrote:  "I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood.  I had as I now think, vainly flattered myself without very much bloodshed; it might be done.”  Of course, the nature of day meant that Brown's trial would make him a martyr for the north, and hence the songs which arose in his memory.  John Brown’s body may be moldering in the grave, but his actions are not forgotten for those three days in October.