Guthier Day

Today is Earth Day, a time for everyone to pause and consider what they can do as individuals to help the environment. For instance, recycling, using less plastic, biking instead of driving, rowing out to the keelboats instead of taking the motorboat, eating less meat (meat production is inefficient), protesting nuclear power, protesting monkey abuse at the UW Primate Center, protesting child abuse (we're all children of the Earth), and so on.

Earth Day also provides a chance to pause and appreciate the beauty of the natural world. Lake Mendota, for instance. It's pretty right now--before the iridescent slime of summer arrives like a spilt tanker of green paint. The photo above is a good example of why we need Earth Day. It shows the new Union parking garage under construction. Note how it will almost completely block the view of the lake from Langdon Street! Alas, it would have cost more to make it entirely underground. What's worse, the new enlarged garage will encourage more driving and less walking and biking. The planners/perpetrators must have been high when they designed and approved this thing.

And yet, Union management claim that the Wis. Union is "green"! Let's try to make sure Hoofers at least is as green as possible. Beer drinking is green because beer is a natural product of, um, plants and stuff. Happy Earth Day!

Living the lie

The annual instructor hiring charade is finally over with. Were you "selected" (or not)..? Someone recently complained to me, i.e. someone who applied to instruct but wasn't selected, er, hired. S/he is a very good sailor, personable, loves to sail and windsurf, and s/he enjoys alcohol (the main critera for "selection"). Yet, s/he wasn't approved and won't be allowed to instruct even though s/he applied as a volunteer

If you think applications are evaluated fairly, they're not. Returning party buddies, er, instructors, get priority--even though teaching sailing at HSC isn't intended as a job but is part of one's overall education. The club's home page states explicitly (and correctly) that instructing is "the best way to become a better sailor". And yet, they refuse to let qualified, enthusiastic individuals teach lessons even as unpaid volunteers!?

It is human nature to try to build and maintain a comforting world view. Nietzsche explained this using the concept of illusion vs. reality. In a vernacular, it's known as "living the lie". To make existence bearable, our brains reject ideas that conflict with our preferred world-view, regardless of how accurate that view may be. The fact that Hoofers is run by sleazeballs is an unpleasant reality that is difficult to accept. We want desperately to believe that Hoofers is a nice place where everybody can learn in happiness and be treated fairly.

Most people are afraid to complain, reasoning (and rightly so) that if they do, they might suffer even greater abuses. The Japanese have an adage for this: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". Unfortunately the problem isn't confined to Japan. It exists wherever some people are given arbitrary authority over others. The crooks in charge of hiring aren't 100% at fault because it's the system that facilitates unfair access to resources and perks. There simply is no incentive to treat general club members, i.e. paying customers equally.

Baseball, sailing, and UW

In honor of the opening of spring training (and the lack of March sailing news), we digress to thoughts on some related topics. We already pointed out some of the drawbacks to living in Wisconsin, but there is a more deep-seated and insidious problem here--an exploitative philosophy that devalues the state and its population.

The Milwaukee Brewers typify this philosophy. Where but WI would record numbers of suckers pay religiously to see a team that has never won a championship and never will? The Brewers are in perpetual "rebuilding" mode, which is double talk used by scum bags who have no intention of ever fielding a winning team. They know it's enough to field a serviceable team because most WI fans are gullible and believe what they're told. Like, "We're rebuilding."

The running excuse for Milwaukee's 47 years of mediocrity is that it's a small market team that can't compete with the deep pockets in New York and L.A., but that's b.s. St. Louis is a smaller city than Milwaukee, yet somehow manages to win the World Series almost every other year! Need more evidence? The Brewers released Chris Carter, the 2016 home run champion, this offseason--a dumbfounding move never before committed by any major league team in the history of the sport! Who releases the home run champion?! Lest you think that was a fluke, last year the Brewers released Khris Davis, who proceeded to hit 42 home runs in 2016 for the Oakland A's. Oh, right, they're rebuilding...

If ever a baseball team shat on its fans, this was it. The modus operandi in Milwaukee is: "Heey... this guy is really good! Let's get rid of him." That the Brewers can put one over on WI fans year after year says something about the intelligence of those fans. There may be other factors at work too. Over the past three+ decades, Milwaukee has plummeted from the 16th largest U.S. city to 31st, due in part to white flight, and is now one of the most segregated cities in Amerika.

One thing is certain: Too many members of the UW-Madison community are getting fubar'd instead of educated or enlightened. UW's supposed motto of "sifting and winnowing" is another sucker play--a chronic joke perpetrated on state residents by University of Wisconsin administrators, just as Brewers' management is pulling the wool over the eyes of the state's baseball fans.

Let's go study party!

During the cold, dark months when about 20 users meet biweekly in the Mendota lounge to discuss club things, and the football season has ended, we wax poetic on related topics.

Our previous post noted the declining academic rankings of UW-Madison, and we all know how successful the football program has become. To go with the latter, UW-Madison once again received the coveted(?) #1 ranking in the Princeton Review for TOP PARTY SCHOOL for 2016-17. We're right up there with the likes of West Virginia U., coming in at a hot #2. Where is West Virginia anyway?

Of particular interest are the criteria used by The Review in ranking party schools: "low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus, and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities." Given the marginal standing of the Greek system here at UW, those first two criteria must be astronomically high. Indeed, the number of people who come to class hungover or even still drunk on Friday mornings is astonishing.

Funny you never see Princeton (or Harvard, Yale, Penn, Stanford, Berkeley,...) on that list. There were some great parties when I was at Yale, but to be fair, they are better here. Well, ya go some places for academics and other places for other things.

According to the UW's own response to the Review's rankings, 34% of UW-Madison students drink themselves silly almost every night. (Thurs through Saturday anyway.)

As Homer Simpson said: "Being drunk on a boat is called 'sailing'".

The PigwACKERS

For lack of sailing news--it is winter, after all--we turn our focus to Wisconsin's favorite sports team, from the meat-packing capital of the Midwest: the Green Bay Packers. After the entertaining 44-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, QB Aaron Rodgers wore a grey knit cap, but it wasn't pulled down far enough to hide the shame.

The game was one for the ages. After a couple of early miscues by the Pack, Atlanta surged to a 24-0 halftime lead, and the rest of the game was a laugher. Early in the third quarter, Atlanta made it 31-0 behind the excellent if robotic play of QB Matt Ryan. The Pack did make a half-game of it, outscoring Atlanta 21-20 in the second half, but most of that was garbage time.

The lopsided loss can't be blamed on injuries, although ego may have contributed. Despite beating #1 seed Dallas last week without Jordy Nelson, he was allowed to play this week with broken ribs. He spent the game running around the field wincing in pain instead of catching passes.

"We wanted to get some hits on them and see how healthy they were," said Falcons linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. Not too healthy, as it turned out. Thanks, Jordy.

As we first reported here, the Packers will never make it to another Super Bowl with A-Rod (heh, heh) at QB—and probably not for many years after he retires. Most people seem to agree. If the Packers can get this close after playing lights-out for two full months—a stretch in which the Pack went 8-0—and still fail to win the NFC, well, you do the math.

Why do we hate the Packers so? For the same reason we hate the Badgers. As the UW football program continues to soar, with six Rose Bowls since 1990, UW-Madison continues to slide academically. Since 1982, UW-Madison has plummeted from the 10th ranked university nationally to 44th, while the football program has gone from a perennial also-ran to a powerhouse. At this point, love for academics and love for football are mutually exclusive.

Of course, there are other educational aspects to sports, e.g. physical and social, and the same is true for the sailing team and for Hoofers in general.

The Nightmare Before Xmas

From the pages yet to come...

    "Brrr, it's cold in here." Newt shivered as he set the pitcher down. "Maybe we should be drinking coffee."
    "Too bad there's no fireplace. That's progress for ya." Chimp shook his hair back, then poured himself another cupful. "But hey, if you drink enough beer, you'll stay warm!" He lifted the cup, pausing abruptly as foam overflowed the lip.
    "Look at that," said Chimp with exaggerated gaiety. "It's Santa Claus!"
    "What?" Newt was pulling on his sweater.
    The sun had settled beneath swaths of coral and salmon, and the waning light angling in through the big lakefront windows gave the Leinie's a rich red hue. "He's upside down, see..?" Chimp tilted the cup, inadvertently pouring more foam onto the carpet. "Oops."
    Newt frowned, massaging his forehead, then ran his fingers through his hair.
    "See, that's his beard on top," Chimp continued. He took a big gulp, slurping foam off his upper lip.
    "Let's not trash the lounge." Newt's head had been throbbing all day and he had little interest in the usual Hoofer antics. They had important business to cover before the next BOC meeting.
    The commodore and head of instruction sat alone in the wood-paneled room, the door closed. An early December dusting of snow outside and the decorative lights inside belied the sordid state of things.
    "So we're going to kick him off the BOC then?" Chimp began.
    "That's not what you said in your email." Newt straightened his neck. "Didn't you say that could be discrimination?"
    "Yeah, well, you have to be careful what you say in an email." Chimp paused. "Other people might get ahold of it." For a moment, Chimp felt as if Newt was probing, testing Chimp's loyalty, but he understood the need to confirm they were on the same page before going any further. It was an unspoken reality in Hoofers, as it is in any organization that employs a military structure—the subtle assertion of standing or authority that infects every interaction, except between equals. The two Hoofer leaders turned in unison as a man in a blue snowsuit shuffled past in the hallway and glanced in at them. They watched the man grab a shovel by the door, then head outside.

To be continued...