The Tosa East Red Raiders hosted Brookfield East at Hart Park last Saturday - defeating the Spartans (37-35) in the Raider's homecoming with a fourth quarter rally.

The class of 1968 was there to cheer them on.

Not my class but my lovely wife's.  They were celebrating their 40th class reunion.  Yikes!  

How many of you remember what your were up to in 1968? 

How about the war in Vietnam?  

There was the battle of Khe Sanh, massacre at My Lai and Tet Offensive.

Future Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain was a guest at the Hanoi Hilton.

US ground forces reached their peak at about 550,000. 

By year-end total US deaths surpassed the 30,000 mark.

As ugly as that was it gets worse.

The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia.

Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated.

North Korea seized the USS Pueblo and imprisoned its crew.

Saddam Hussein became Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d’état.

The Democratic National Convention in Chicago hosted a full-scale riot - replete with the Illinois National Guard in a staring role.

Sounds to me like a helluva year, eh? 

And you figured the little events of this year were exciting.

On a brighter note - 

Green Bay defeated Oakland in Super Bowl II.

Stanley Kubrick's - 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered.

The price of a gallon of gasoline was around 27 to 34 cents and you could go to a movie for $1.50.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 100 for the first time and oil was discovered in Alaska.

Apollo 8 orbited the moon and after an investment of $5 million (1960s dollars) the first ATM made its debut.

Music of that year was generally awesome.  

Raquel Welch (and my future wife) were hot.

So last weekend I got to hang-out with a bunch of people I didn't know really very well - initially anyway.  After a couple of days of visiting  - my conclusion?

I was impressed.

Impressed at how many Raider alumni attended.

Impressed at how many make Tosa their home.

The notion I got to move here almost two and a half decades-ago has been reinforced.  

Tosa is a great place to grow-up, come of age, raise a family and indulge your grandchildren. 

Our Wauwatosa, to thee we sing,

Thy glorious victories, ever will bring

Pride to our beating hearts, loyal and free,

Our Alma Mater, praise to thee!

U! Rah! Rah! Wau-wa-tosa!

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Update

For any of you who have been following the comments made to this post by Tosa's Ray Py - here are pictures of the East High School tower:

This is the picture I was looking for.  It was taken by a photog who followed a fire truck to this scene where there was a small welding fire in some debris.  He shot the tower being taken down on a June afternoon in 1974.  Actually most people in the city were unaware that the tower was to be demolished until this picture appeared.  I have never been able to find the single person in authority who approved the work.  It was estimated at the time that it would have cost $25,000 to maintain the tower. Estimates today of its replacement are in the millions.

The final organized Public Forum devoted to Tosa's mayoral race was held on Thursday, March 13th.  I was there and it was excellent.  I was told that approximately 120 people attended.

The students at Tosa East and Tosa West along with WauwatosaNOW deserve a big hand for all of their hard work in making this happen. 

I have now been to all four of the public forums and two observations stand-out:

I have the candidate's presentations committed to memory.  They both do a reasonable job of consistently repeating their respective messages.

Also, each forum has been a reunion of sorts as I'm always bumping into long and fast Tosa acquaintances.  For instance, the East faculty member that assisted the students at this venue was a classmate with my daughter all the way from Roosevelt to Longfellow through East High School. 

This is the culture of community that Tosa is all about.

According to my Debate Index Calculator - Candidate Stepaniak is the winner.  A copy of my notes are here:  TosaEastForum.pdf

Didier 112 Points and Stepaniak 279 Points

Some observations:

Pandering is back - with Didier injecting the word crime into unrelated topics or using it more than needed. 

When asked about the plans for Hart park she strayed into the past by stating that "the city never had a plan".  This bugs me and I know is has rankled others.  She said the same thing in the March 3rd forum.  She didn't misspeak. 

The truth of the matter is that there has been a Master Plan dating back to 2001.  Candidate Didier has known about this all along.  She was on the committee that is responsible for the Plan.   

Does the candidate have a poor memory, is she engaging in double speak or trolling for votes by misrepresentation? 

If the candidate is so wrong about this can you trust the accuracy of her other statements?  

What we know for sure is that the hard working folks from the city, the Park Board, and volunteers from a variety of community groups might not appreciate their countless hours spent working on the Plan over the last seven years being summarily rejected out of hand.

The loss of only two points but a major faux pas. 

When asked about the lifting of the bonding cap her answer was a rhetorical question about why it wasn't raised years ago - ostensibly before her less than 2 year tenure on the Council. 

Of what use to us is this query today? 

A useful debate adage is never to answer a question with another question.  A correct answer would have provided substantive details about alternative(s).  Redirecting a question to a different subject or backsliding into crime was a reoccurring mistake by the candidate.

Both candidates were Righteous and Hopeful although Stepaniak scored higher on this measure.

As for vision Didier certainly is enthusiastic but fails in taking enthusiasm to the next level - tell us the details please.  Stepaniak comes across as a policy wonk and played his strong suit of being detailed to the point of routinely running out of time.

Everyone was on their best behavior.

Intangibles: Candidate Didier made a point of stepping away from the podium which resulted in sporadic loss of the mic.  Candidate Stepaniak could have been more animated.  The house lights were turned-off and I struggled with my notes and pens in the darkness.  Next time I will pack my headlamp.

There is some time yet leading-up to the election so I'll probably post an observation or two on subjects brought-up in these forums that are deserving of more attention.

Stay tuned.

Tom

Three Forums so far - good ones I might add.

The February 21st forum conducted by the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce has had the largest turnout.  The questions were good.

The February 25th forum held at Eisenhower School included standout questions but was not as well-attended as I would have hoped.

Monday night's forum at St. Matt's included the best of both worlds - good attendance (I counted 60 people) and great questions.  Did you know this was my wife's idea?  Really it was.  She suggested it and I acted on it by contacting the League of Women Voters (LWV).

All the credit goes to the Milwaukee County League of Women Voters for doing the heavy lifting and for St. Matthew Church for providing the venue.  Bravo to them.

According to my Debate Index Calculator (the evening's notes are here: LWV Forum.pdf) candidate Stepaniak was the clear winner.

Stepaniak 160 Points and Didier 109 Points

Here are my immediate observations:

No pandering!  Can you believe it.  The candidates must have been inoculated or something.

Candidate Didier - Received a 2 point penalty for resurrecting the past in her assertion that there has been a lack of planning for Hart Park.  That's simply not true.  The city, many citizens and civic groups have spent countless hours and have been actively engaged in the process of directing the future of the Park. 

Both candidates scored very closely on being Righteous and Hopeful.

Again, Stepaniak's strong suite is detail on the Clear Vision thing; however, Didier is showing gains.  Both made good arguments directed toward their leadership strengths and how their respective administrations would be different.

Candidate Didier needs to renounce the use of clichés.  It's a style thing in public speaking.  The word proactive was used more times than needed. To her credit she admitted to this in one of her responses. No point reductions though.

Intangibles: Stepaniak has a folksy style.  Didier has a rah rah style.  They both need to change their wardrobe and mix it up.

Candidate Didier's closing statements alleged that candidate Stepaniak was a liar on the matter of her voting against the budget that included two new police officer positions. 

The gist of it was that the complicated budget proceedings allowed for money to be spent litigating the levying of property taxes on heretofore tax-exempt independent senior living centers.  Therefore, if money could be spent on litigation and not on cops, then money shouldn't be spent on one or the other or maybe both - which was why she voted against the budget.  I had trouble with the convoluted logic behind this and others in the audience had trouble making the connection as well. 

My suggestion is to adopt the KISS axiom to make difficult concepts easier for everyone.  No deduction of points.

Bottom line - Didier lost her endorsement from the cops to Stepaniak in this election.  

Since candidate Didier brought-up the subject of taxing senior living facilities (not me) I think the subject is deserving of a closer examination - in another post.

A copy of the calculator for you to use at the next forum can be found here: Debate Index Calculator.pdf

Bring one to the next candidate forum which will be:

Thursday, March 13 at 7:00 PM, at Wauwatosa East High School, 7500 Milwaukee Avenue.  Brought to you by WauwatosaNOW, in partnership with the two local high school newspapers - The Cardinal News and West Side Stories.

Score the candidates and have some serious fun. 

Tom

Tosa has been home to curling since 1920 - making the Wauwatosa Curling Club one of the oldest in Wisconsin.

Saturday marked the 49th Annual KrautSpiel. Here is the official award.

Starting the day with a Bloody Mary, hard-boiled eggs, followed by heading out on the ice with your friends is a good start.

It gets better.  Lunch is devoted to all manner of cabbage and pork products like spareribs, an array of sausages and homemade cabbage rolls.

Refreshing malt beverages from the Lakefront Brewery.  It doesn't get much better than that.

This guy is either the best of the wurst or the wurst of the worst. 

Terrific times with good friends on the ice - including all that cooked cabbage.

Somehow I think Tosa made its own unique contribution to global warming this weekend.

Good curling!

Tom

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Blogger's Note:  The name of this event is not supposed to be one word.  It seems the blogging tool recognizes the shortened derivative for sauerkraut as a really bad vulgarity.  Its publication is blocked.  If I attempt it - I get this:  *** Spiel.  Hmm.  I experimented with some even worse naughty words confirming there is a nanny in the software.  I figured-out that I could subvert the system by leaving out the space.  Don't tell the people at WauwatosaNOW.  Let's keep this our little secret.

Fellow Community Voice - Peter Hart - recently posted news that the Mayfair Park and Fisher Woods Neighborhood Associations are going to sponsor a debate between two of the Tosa mayoral candidates on Saturday, January 19th.

Good for them.

However, it appears that there are going to be some arcane debate rules.

According to Hart, debate questions will be approved by the candidates before the debate.

Furthermore, citizens must keep questions open-ended.

See update at botton of post 

Looking for a new challenge?

Something fun to do on your way to or from work?

A diversion for your recently licensed teenage driver over the Christmas holiday?

I recommend the Bluemound Road Slalom.

This isn't about racing on downhill skis to negotiate a course defined by flags.

This is about racing down Bluemound Road and dodging the ever-increasing number of pot holes that have sprouted like mushrooms over the past month.

The stretch of Bluemound west of Mayfair Road to the western boundary of Tosa is losing its surface - one hole at a time.

More nasty weather on tap and the prospect for continuing freeze-thaw cycles = more holes!  

The slalom's level of difficulty is being magnified.

I'm still trying to figure out if the high speed run during daylight is more thrilling than a low speed, heavy traffic run after dark.

Check it out.

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Updated -  5:20 PM 

So, I made the high-speed, cannonball run on the pot hole slalom traveling to and from lunch with my pop today.

I was looking forward to the night-time, heavy traffic challenge on the drive home from work.

Guess what. 

Sometime this afternoon someone patched the holes.

Do you suppose someone is using their city hall computer to read this blog?

Try the sport that is Sweeping the Nation.

At the Wauwatosa Curling Club - located in the Muellner Building at Hart Park.

Friday - October 19th - 6:30 PM to 9 PM

Sunday - October 21st - 1 PM to 3 PM

*10/15/07 - Update

Due to the recent stretch of warm weather the ice won't be ready for this weekend.  Nonetheless, anybody planning on attending is encouraged to come down to the curling club.

Come any time during the Open House hours.

Allow 45 minutes for introduction and on-ice instruction.  Bring warm, loose-fitting clothes (sweatshirt or sweater) and sneakers or rubber-soled shoes.

Come by yourself or bring a group of friends to join the fun.

Questions?

Call:  414.453.CURL or Email:  info@curltosa.com