Ivy (who I ran into again thanks to Friendster) bugged and bugged and so here I finally get around to writing again… Yet another beautiful, perfect, sunny, sparkling fall day here… Time for a bit more late-season sailing before the boathouse closes… …Fall in Wisconsin. Yesterday at the farmer’s market, the happily scowling young lesbian with the “68″ baseball cap. You get it, I don’t need to explain. 68, I owe you one. They followed shortly after “Bite me, Chevy guy,” from the guy selling pumpkins out of the back of his F250.

A bit about the farmer’s market phenomenon… Madison’s is well known, at least regionally. Lacking any other suitably central outdoor gathering place, the market here is spread out around Capitol Square, the “superblock” on which the Wisconsin state capitol sits, smack in the middle of downtown Madison. Since most of the block is taken up with the capitol and grounds, the market is limited to the sidewalk, which is a bit wider than usual, but not greatly so. All this makes for a rather linear layout which forces marketgoers into a counterclockwise circulation — how did this get established? — the same thing happens at the SF farmer’s market. It’s hard enough to keep your place in the flow if you’re browsing or having a conversation; I’ve yet to see anyone go upstream. And since the block is so big, you only go around once… Layout aside, farmer’s markets are a good thing, and they seem to be one of the few quick urban fixes that do less harm than good. Markets bring people downtown, get them outside, expose them to fresh food, and give local farmers a direct (and therefore highly profitable) retail market. I think that farmer’s markets have had a lot to do with some small farmers re-entering the middle class.

One might hope that all this exposure to fresh, organic produce might result in some healthier eating… but that would be too much to ask. The stream of marketgoers making their way around the square is clearly dominated by midwestern largesse… I haven’t read Fast Food Nation yet, and of course McD’s et al is partly to “blame” (as much as anyone can blame anyone but themselves, which ain’t much), but I did read a great article in the NYT Magazine this weekend about the history of federal ag policy. It seems [hardly surprising] that we’ve managed to turn the our original policy of the 1930’s on its head, all-so-typically twisting the original rationale to support a different political goal, while still — in name only — “supporting American farmers.” The original New Deal policy was to provide a federally guaranteed price for corn; this fixed price floor meant that oversupply in times of high production didn’t drive prices towards zero (which in turn led farmers to produce even more corn, in an attempt to preserve their overall income). The feds paid for overproduction in the form of no-interest loans to farmers — banking both the corn and farmer’s profits — very effectively smoothing out the market.

The twist came in the 1970’s, when whining, know-nothing, selfish consumers convinced Nixon to do something, anything about the rising price of staples like milk and (ahem) hamburger. According to this article, Earl Butz, Nixon’s secretary of agriculture, “shuttered the ever-normal [what a name!] granary, dropped the target price for grain and inaugurated a new subsidy system, which eventually replaced nonrecourse loans with direct payments to farmers. The distinction may sound technical, but in effect it was revolutionary. For instead of lending farmers money so they could keep their grain off the market, the government offered to simply cut them a check, freeing them to dump their harvests on the market no matter what the price.” The result at present is that subsidized overproduction leads to lower prices, which leads to more overproduction, which leads to lower prices, ad mausoleum. The author points out that, aside from the basic flaws represented by this policy in fiscal terms (i.e. subsidizing overproduction, whoops), overproduction of corn is also quite likely the primary cause of America’s obesity epidemic. Because, after all, where does all that corn go? As he puts it, marketers and food producers quickly found ways to “add value” to corn, in the form of corn syrup and corn-fed beef, chicken and other products, and now we have 20-ounce instead of 8-ounce Cokes, etc. My point is not that it’s some sort of conspiracy, simply that it’s no medical mystery why everyone (myself included) is getting fat, and that it’s possible to do something about it in terms of policy alla grande. A good dose of benevolent socialist dictatorship should do the trick nicely.

…I got a new computer (dude, I got a Dell), and now I have what amounts to a personal radio station… (makes me think - it’s not actually a radio station yet, but it could be)… Since all my music is on the PC, I just hit “play random,” and hey presto, I get U2, Biggie, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Lovage, Tom Petty, The Clash, The English Beat, GnR, Violent Femmes, Cibo Matto, Van Morrison, De La Soul, Massive Attack, Bush, Dr. Octagon, Eminem, Black Sabbath, Nashville Pussy, PJ Harvey, Lyle Lovett, Tom Waits, Carlos Montoya, PE boyeee, AC/DC, Jorge Bem, The Pixies, Ryan Adams, X, The Buzzcocks… you get the picture. Came in handy Friday night — my first “house party” as they’re called here since I moved out/in, and it was a huge success, at least measured in terms of drunken college girls (and what other terms are there, really?).

Lola (not just another drunken college girl) with Mandy and the Latvian
	3 drunken college girls

Amusing and slightly troubling incident in class on Friday… The prof brought up the topic of race as a factor in people’s choices about whether they live in cities or suburbs, etc. I spoke up to agree that race is a factor, an important one at that, and one that’s rarely discussed openly and honestly, simply because most people feel more comfortable with others more like themselves… and that we are far too quick to paint any such [largely innate] preference with the broad tarbrush of “racism,” thereby entirely short-circuiting discussion of a very real and very important factor in urbanism and planning. Another student responded by saying that, in her opinion, any sort of preference is racism — at which point I said “nonsense, that’s naive and simplistic,” etc. etc. And it is. But by this point the class had taken a bit of a collective gasp — finally, a real discussion! — and the prof. quickly moved to another topic. WHAT?!?! C’mon, wasn’t that the whole point?!?! Argh. Pathetic, really.

Ted and I have had some discussion lately about me selling my share of the Bryant Street place out to him. As much as I’d like to continue to be able to say that I own a place in SF, I don’t have a particular place in my heart for that place (despite all we went through to get it), and if he can come up with the money (i.e. a loan), I’ll probably do it. I have to think that California is overdue for a bit of a fall from grace.

I think it was Katie that suggested “Let’s buy tickets instead of presents” for XMas this year and I could not agree more. I’m doing AdMonsters Europe II in Barcelona Jan 15-16, and so that would coordinate nicely with new years in Sardegna, Greece, Malta, Florence, Venice, or wherever we can all get together. Absolutely, yes, yes, yes. I’ll fly out directly after the 9th annual holiday cocktail party, to be held this year in honor of Marc’s engagement to the beautiful and charming Jessica.

PS, you can now “subscribe” to my blog and be notified whenever I do happen get around to posting…