Apr 30, 2011
Apr 22, 2011
Electric sunset on the Rock River
I was in Fort Atkinson recently and found the east River Walk deserted...except for a solitary man playing an electric guitar.
Bill Breitsprecher told me he grew up in the city and likes to come back to the Rock River. "The water is peaceful," he said, "and gives me a sense of stability."
I get what Bill says about the Rock River. It does roll on peacefully and paints familiar pictures with intermittent mists, rippling reflections, and scarlet sunsets.
Apr 15, 2011
Guiding children: Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Van Buren School
Last weekend, I got to thank two women helping children…a Big Sister volunteer in Fort Atkinson and a music teacher at Van Buren Grade School in Janesville.
Oreck to pay $750,000 and to stop making health claims
ConsumerReports
I investigated another vacuum cleaner company that claimed its vacuum would protect you from illnesses like AIDS.
Apr 9, 2011
Rock River boy becomes dinosaur hunter
This video documents how important the Rock River was to a boy who would grow up to lead important scientific expeditions around the world.
Roy Chapman Andrews mentions the river a number of times in his books. For example, when he told of his dislike of snakes--something he had in common with the fictional character he is often associated with--Indiana Jones:
I have tried to remember when I began to dislike snakes so actively because I am interested in almost all other living things, and I am sure it dates from the time when I was about fourteen years old.
I was shooting along the banks of the Rock River in Wisconsin and spent the night in the open. After my dinner of bacon and bread I curled up to sleep with my head on a coat at the root of a great tree. During the night I felt something wriggling in my hair and sleepily put up my hand. A cold body curled about my wrist and bare arm. You could have heard me yell for at least seven miles and I leaped up shaking with fright. It was only a garter snake but if it had been a rattler I couldn't have been more scared. I didn't get over it for weeks. I used to have snake dreams even though I had never even smelled the cork of a whisky bottle at that tender age.
