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Thinking about going back to Wisconsin

There are always the Grandkids. They are reason enough for going back, and it always will be. But there's more.
I have tried, pretty successfully, I think, to keep in touch with many of my friends in Wisconsin. Len Nagler and I will be going to a Packer Game while I'm there. John B and I will have breakfast. We will talk about getting old gracefully (It's not a pretty process). My son-in-law Dan and I will share our sorrows about the Badgers' failure to look respectable against their SEC opponents. He feels bad. I live with it.
Michelle Mooney is going to let me stay with her while I visit the Milwaukee Film Festival. I expect to see Leon, Jon, Charles, Ken, Bill, Larry, Jeramey, Dave, Tom, and Harry. I already have a date for lunch with Whitney. I know I'll see Sis, Mary, Cathy, Darlene, Carolyn, and Anne.
So, it's not that I've slipped the tethers and floated away. My roots are still in Wisconsin, and those roots are what will bring me back again and again.

Correction: LSU does not have to count its forfeited game to Mcneese State as a loss, as stated in this blog last week. We hope this misinformation did not cause any undue hardship or emotional toll, and I sincerely regret our error.

Photography, A life Long Addiction, No Need for a Twelve Step Program.
For some reason, my G+ page is pretty much photography. I follow a lot of boards dedicated to the kind of photography I like to make or appreciate. If you want to excel in the arts, you always need to study those who come before you and your peers. You need benchmarks. You don't really compete with your contemporaries, but they do challenge you.
I am pretty fussy about awarding a 1+ to a post.
The images I post on Pinterest are exceptional in my mind. I realize that I might be prejudiced by putting so many of my sons, Todd's, on the post. Frankly, I should have more of Stacy's,  not because I owe it to her, but that she deserves it. Both of them are fantastic artists.

Common Traits, These Two Cities Have a Tale to Tell
I've come upon a realization that started with a conversation I had with my former neighbor and Alderman Bob Bauman. After learning that I was moving to Mandeville, LA, he commented to me the fact that New Orleans and Milwaukee were in a dubious competition for the distinction of having the widest political divide between the city and the suburbs.
As many people in SE Wisconsin know, Milwaukee is solidly Democratic while the surrounding suburbs are just as solid for the Republicans. This is also true in the New Orleans area. While there is plenty of evidence of white flight, the major reason for escaping to the suburbs was Katrina. What is a common effect in this experience is the fact that both cities are majority-minority.

There are other odd similarities. Such as the reason the cities were founded is the same. They are both important historical port cities. A major fire is a common experience with similar effects on their history. And there is more, so much more. I'm not sure how to handle this knowledge. I'm thinking of just posting a series of observations on this blog or doing an essay. I'd commit myself to an essay, but I'm afraid it will become a book, and I already have three of them on the hard drive of this computer that I don't know what to do with.

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