March 19, 2012

At the Magnolia Café...



... we're ecstatic about the early spring. Photo taken yesterday at sunset in the UW arb.

41 comments:

chickelit said...

Don't expect March to go out lion down.

~Nina said...

Pretty. I don't really miss winter, but I do miss defined seasons. Blooming trees and flowers lose their impact when there's no dormant season.

edutcher said...

You should be ecstatic.

We're looking at 4 days in the 70s and 80, so you are in the middle of it.

Nice pic.

gerry said...

The Magnolias are going bonkers in Cincinnati. Gorgeous.

TosaGuy said...

The Solidarity Singers get it handed right back to them.

James said...

@TosaGuy...I'm surprised Garage Mahal didn't report this incident.

ricpic said...

again

e.e. cummings is all aflutter
and straining to get out again
if only to feel against his cheeks
the petals pitter patter putter

Joe Schmoe said...

You know, fifteen years ago or so, I was ecstatic about the rise of the microbrewery. It was democratizing the brewing industry and empowering the little guys (via private investment, of course). Now, anywhere I went in the US, I could get a tasty drink that wasn't made by Bud, Miller, or Coors.

Today, as I looked at a microbrew menu, I realized that the movement wasn't able to escape the influence of mass customization. Sure, there are a million microbreweries, and every locale is within an hour or two of one. But the homogenization of offerings is sobering; they all offer a pretty standard fare of an India Pale Ale, a stout, a lager, and some other version of a lighter ale. And some sort of unfiltered wheat beer is a standard offering in summer.

I guess I miss the regional or provincial culinary influences, or at least I fear the erosion of such. Some microbreweries offer a variant of something that hints at a local culinary influence, like a New England pumpkin ale I had last fall, but not many do.

Sorry for rambling. Just had to get that off my chest. Wisconsin, keep eating those fried cheese curds.

Crunchy Frog said...

Congratulations. It hailed in Los Angeles over the weekend.

chickelit said...

Crunchy Frog said...
Congratulations. It hailed in Los Angeles over the weekend.

Down in SD County too.

First they came for the people and I said nothing. Then they came for the weather. Hell, even DC had an earthquake last year.

garage mahal said...

@TosaGuy...I'm surprised Garage Mahal didn't report this incident.

What incident? The cruSTATErs have just as much right to the Capitol as anyone else. I'm not horrified like some people that a kid has an opinion.

Automatic_Wing said...

@Joe Schmoe - I think it comes down to the fact that most people want their beer to taste like beer. Personally, I like my Sam Adams Boston Lager and I'm not overly enthused when my wife brings home those Sam Adams seasonal variety packs with cherry or blackberry flavored ales, as innovative and unique as those products may be. To each his own, I guess...

Chip Ahoy said...

Wow. We do not have such wonders in the distant land where I live, except at botanic gardens, they're up the street a way and they're all quite clever with these things.

Hagar said...

We had 75 mph + wind gusts, so there might be another round of tornadoes down in the flatlands tonight and tomorrow.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Wow!

Dan said...

Dont mean to be negative but the chances are good that the leaves bloom early and we get a late snow/ice storm that knocks down many trees and branches. Wait for it.....

MadisonMan said...

What were they saying? I couldn't quite tell what came before Walker. Where is Walker? We're with Walker?

BTW, please relive the final seconds of the Sheboygan Lutheran BBall Championship. Outstanding! That Dekker scored 7 points in the 40 seconds before that just makes it more interesting.

~Nina said...

@Joe Schmoe

I don't know where you live, but we have awesome microbreweries in NorCal, plus we get some great stuff from other parts of the state, Oregon and Washington.

I've had licorice based stouts, chocolate stouts, coffee stouts, and even a honey-and-orange stout all within the last few weeks and all brewed here in SF.

If you like those super hoppy beers, there's tons of variety (I don't, but they're very popular), and most microbreweries have special small batch brews on tap that you can't find anywhere outside the brewery. I love the whiskey and bourbon barrel aged beers that are so popular now.

And...to keep this comment topical...one of our local breweries (brewpub, actually) is Magnolia (in the Haight, unfortunately, but they're supposedly opening another place in Dogpatch sometime soon).

MadisonMan said...

Next year, the kids get the marvelous (cough) opportunity to play in Green Bay.

garage mahal said...

Next year, the kids get the marvelous (cough) opportunity to play in Green Bay.

What's the back story on this?

TosaGuy said...

"What were they saying? I couldn't quite tell what came before Walker. Where is Walker? We're with Walker?"

It was "Stand with Walker"

Petunia said...

MadisonMan, that finish was amazing. Down 63-55 with under a minute left and they came back and won.

I always feel sorry for the team that loses like that, though.

Didn't feel too sorry for Madison Memorial. Four players busted for retail theft and they were all still on the team for state. Representing your school in sports, band, theater, etc. is a privilege and if you're stealing clothes from a store you should lose that privilege.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

What's the back story on this?

Kohl Center scheduling conflicts.

TosaGuy said...

"Next year, the kids get the marvelous (cough) opportunity to play in Green Bay."

Then it should go to Stevens Point for a few years, then it should go to La Crosse...Eau Claire....Milwaukee.....then perhaps it can go to Madison again.

Madison doesn't own the thing.

MadisonMan said...

I always feel sorry for the team that loses like that, though.

One of my favorite Peanuts strips. Linus describes a thrilling come-from-behind football victory, with people running on the field after the victory running and screaming and laughing, and after the beat/pause, Charlie Brown asks: How did the other team feel?

MadisonMan said...

Madison doesn't own the thing.

The nice thing about Madison for a fan, however, is that there are things to do near the Kohl Center (plus, I do think High School students might aspire to play there as a Badger). What can you do at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon? Drive someplace else!

MadisonMan said...

"Stand with Walker"

Thanks. I knew if someone told me what they were saying, I'd be able to hear it.

TosaGuy said...

"The nice thing about Madison for a fan, however, is that there are things to do near the Kohl Center (plus, I do think High School students might aspire to play there as a Badger). What can you do at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon? Drive someplace else!"

The NCAA rotates the tourney every year. I have seen it in Milwaukee, Nashville and Pittsburgh. Half of the fun is finding something to do in a new place.

With regard to Green Bay, I suspect that plenty of tourney goers would rather check out the Lambeau Field or the casino than some stores on State Street. Let the state's other cities show off and spread the pain of travel around. Perhaps more folks from UpNorthville would travel to see their team if they only had to go to Stevens Point.

Why should UW get an unfair recruiting advantage for state players? The state has three other D-1 hoops schools.

paminwi said...

Re: State Tournaments in Green Bay. What's the back story? The City of Madison did not prod Barry Alvarez hard enough to try to come to some agreement with the Big Ten in regards to the hockey tournaments. After the WIAA said ok then we will go to Green Bay all of a sudden the city and Barry baby said maybe we can work something out.

My daughter played volleyball in high school and the state volleyball tournament was in Green Bay for the years she went to state (2001-2004) and is still there. Let me tell you that is one boring city to have a tournament in. You have to drive every where, the shopping is mall type shopping (which most folks have experienced - not like the State Street) and it just does not have the vibrancy of Madison.

These tournaments bring a lot of money to our community and from my perspective once again this city did not/does not appreciate how this decision and lack of motivation on their part can affect the profitability of many small businesses.

pm317 said...

heard on TV right now, Scott Brown(R-MA): Santorum and Gingrich are getting secret service protection now.. In Santorum’s case, this is the first time he has used protection.. Funny..

Joe Schmoe said...

@~N, I haven't seen US micro versions of whiskey barrel aged ales, but I have been drinking a lot of Innis & Gunn, a Scottish ale made at the Caledonia distillery. It's aged in the oak casks they subsequently use for aging whiskey. Apparently they used to use the ale to condition the casks for whiskey, and then threw away the ale, until one day one of the workers tried it, and declared verily that it was damn good. And it is.

I haven't been in SF for a few years. Next time I'll have to take plenty of time to sample the local offerings. They sound great.

@Maguro, I don't go for the Sam Adams specialties all that much either. It's just beyond Sam Adams, I haven't seen as much variety. I'm sick of everybody's India Pale Ale and stout. Jeez; make something else. Plus Sam Adams seems to be a big international company now, not just a regional microbrewer.

Scott M said...

AA,

This post shows up as the oldest on the blog. Scrolling below it is just whitespace on two different browsers (IE8 and Firefox).

Scott M said...

It's weird. The older posts are there, but the site only displays two at a time. You have to hit the Older Posts link to cycle backward in the sequence.

Hagar said...

You shoulda gone with the Swedish thing!

David said...

Scott M--this is just Blogger's way of reminding you that it sucks. That said, it's better than the conflicting edits error loop, which was haunting me again today for a little while.

Almost Ali said...

Do I live in a country where it's okay to terrorize a 3-year-old? As the TSA did at O'Hare over the weekend.

Post-9/11, people sometimes mocked my name, but less so as time went on. Not because they became less scared or more familiar, but because the name when applied to America rings true. In other words, Al Qaeda won, which we now attest to by standing on the threshold of the world's most dangerous mosque - together terrorizing a 3-year-old.

edutcher said...

Extending what Scott and David said,

I've noticed the blog is taking forever to load; some of the ad stuff (adnxs.whatever and questionmarket.something) just grinds and grinds.

I was going to email Ann and Meade, but you guys saved me the metaphorical stamp.

PS Is it the 1 year anniversary of the Great Blogger Meltdown?

(sorry, guys, it just hit me)

PPS Maybe this is some of that asymmetrical warfare the Occupation threatened. The trolls have been quiet the last few days.

(Quigley, I don't like the sound of those trolls out there)

(It's awfully quiet; too quiet)

William said...

Blogger has eaten my two last posts, including the one on Fermat's Theorem. I just don't have time to lay out my proof of elliptical stabilities all over again.

madAsHell said...

I'm in Seattle. We've had snow in town over the last couple of days. Any snow after Feb. 1 is very unusual.

The cherry blossoms aren't listening. They are on schedule.

The late snow?..oh yeah, that's evidence of global warming, and I blame George Bush.

sunsong said...

Beautiful!

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