HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MIDWEST BUFFET BOAT AND VIENNESE FORTUNE SEEKS NYC PROSPERITY

What will the ship look like when it comes in? A Chinese junket off (way off!) the shores of lake Michigan?

Arriving on a wave of cheap brown tiles and a torrent of shag carpeting the specialties included Egg Foo Young, Hot 'n Sour soup and Chow Mein. I'd like to say it was shrimp Chow Mein or beef Chow Mein, but really, it was barely Chow. 


In Vienna recently I had received the following fortune....

IWON'T worry but on New Year's day I walked to PROSPERITY DUMPLING (46 Eldridge St.) NYC and ate 5 fried pork dumplings (just in case). 

WITCHY WOMEN of WISCOSIN

As a high school student growing up in Wauwatosa, WI there were tons of fun things to do. Most involved driving. Driving by overly familiar locations and seeking out exotic experiences or seeking out exotic destinations and familiar experience. The most exotic and familiar being The Witches House. We had all been there before but no one ever remembered the exactly where it was. The roads were dark, no one had been drinking or smoking, but if they had I am certain the roads would have seemed even more dark and always twisting about at odd places. The name of the road we were looking for had the word "Beach" in it or "Sand" or something about water. It was as if by blocking the memory of the road name we would always be fascinated to find it again. Genius. To this day I use the same finely honed mapping skills to seek out what now is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Ye 'ol Witches House. Believe me, at night and at 16 the place had a totally different vibe. The Violent Femmes caught more of the ambiance in their songs and on the cover of their 1984 album Hallowed Ground.

Mary Nohl's real story can be read on Facebook.

LAKE FRONT

The Milwaukee Art Museum's 2001 Santiago Calatrava addition received an enormous amount of attention and made a great impact on the landscape of the city though less so on the internal galleries. Other than the grand foyer the museum inside feels much as it did pre-Calatrava. That said I am still a fan of the original 1957 Eero Saarinen-designed museum that still resides in the lower parts of the Milwaukee County War Memorial. 

SOPHIA'S BAKERY & CAFE: Madison, Wisconsin

I drove from Milwaukee to Madison in the middle of a blizzard. Half the trip was absolutely fine driving (for a blizzard in Wisconsin) the other half of the trip was complete white-out and winds that pushed the car sideways and then a semi-truck began to jackknife ahead of me and well, gosh did I deserve that pain au chocolat from Sophia's! 

831 East Johnson Street
Madison, WI 53703-3937
(608) 259-1506