Year: 2018

For October 17, 2018         Hi WN@TL Fans, I first heard of ‘The Wisconsin Idea’ from Prof Jim Holler, my mycology teacher at UW-Platteville, in a conversation with him in Room 303 Boebel Hall …

For October 10, 2018         To paraphrase Ted Sorensen:   Ask not what the flu can do to you, Ask what you can do to fight the flu.   Actually, it’s a good idea …

For October 3, 2018 I can’t remember when I first heard that along with the Great War which killed some 20 million people came a Great Plague—the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919—that killed an estimated 50 million.  The pandemic was …

For September 26, 2018         “Mosquitoes troublesome” is one of the most frequently-repeated phrases in the journals of Lewis & Clark.  Things have not changed much since 1804:  mosquitoes still suck. And therein …

For September 19, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, When I was in graduate school at the University of Illinois I read “Arrowsmith”, Sinclair Lewis’s 1925 novel dwelling on the medical research enterprise.  I was smitten by …

For September 12, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, Plants are stuck in one place, pretty much.  Seeds & pollen & spores can move, and if you’re a roadside daylily or a chicory then corms …

For September 5, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, My Dad taught high school history, and our shelves at home included the Time Life series on Great Ages of Man.  My internal timeline was already primed …

For August 29, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, In January 1610 Galileo turned his 20x telescope towards Jupiter and discovered  moons in orbit around Jupiter—notably, the moons were not orbiting Earth.  That was a …

For August 22, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, In my hometown there’s a street called Artesian Place.  It runs down a hill called Bootlegger’s Knob and meets with River Road that runs parallel to …

For August 15, 2018     Hi WN@TL Fans, Right after  last week’s WN@TL by Dan Young on the Wisconsin Insect Research Collection, I drove over to Monona to visit my friend Ken Smith on the occasion …