Lexington & Jefferson

An excerpt from... In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

— Christina Rossetti

What Happened to my National News?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with showing your age. At the age of 81 I just naturally do it everyday with my beautiful aging marks on my face, my taste in music, the lack of quickness as I lift myself from the floor and the news.

Speaking of the news, what in sam hill is going on with the news? Watching the commentators is like watching a tag team wrestling match. Each commentator tries to outdo one another to see who can laugh the loudest, tell the most jokes and get the most airtime. The people behind the desk remind me of the Three Stooges, Mo, Curly, and Larry.

I realize our attention span has decreased since 2000. It is sad to report that a goldfish has more of an attention span than we do, 9 seconds to our 8.25 seconds. Women do better than men. The people broadcasting from the idiot box believe we need to be entertained with their constant interruptions and their belly laughs.

I firmly believe most of the overpaid personalities doing the news should spend their time on Saturday Night Live. I have a hard time believing when they are broadcasting serious news like the war in Ukraine when they spend the rest of the time doling vaudeville acts like Mo, Curly, and Larry.

Here goes that age thing again but give me real news reports like Walter Cronkite, Katie Couric, Edward Murrow, Jane Pauley, Bob Woodward, Christiane Amanpour, and Dan Rather. They can all crack a smile, but they knew how to deliver the news.

If we think we have to be “entertained” in order to hear the news, then we all need a wake- up call. To date, goldfish are still ahead of us when it comes to our attention span.

HOPEFULLY YOU GOT THROUGH THIS ENTIRE READ. IT TOOK MORE THAN 9 SECONDS TO READ.

— Dennis Siebert

American Players Theatre Announces New Play in 2023 Lineup

American Players Theatre (APT) has announced a change in its 2023 lineup, with the addition of a new play, "Mala" by Melinda Lopez. The play, directed by Rosa Joshi and featuring Nancy Rodriguez, will replace "Wolf at the Door," which will not be produced in 2023 but is expected to return in a future season.

According to APT, the change in the lineup was made due to "very exciting opportunities" for Director Melisa Pereyra. In a statement, the theater described "Mala" as a "gorgeous, funny, devastating, one-person play."

"You're going to want to add this gem to your summer schedule," the theater said in a statement. "Learn more on our website, and start making plans."

In addition to the change in the summer lineup, APT also announced that its schedule for its fall production, David Auburn's "Proof," has also been updated.

"We have less than two months to go before tickets go on sale to returning patrons," the theater said.

For more information on "Mala" and other plays in the 2023 lineup, as well as ticket sales, visit americanplayers.org.

annual literary journal, who knows.

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Literary Section

Musings from the End of the Rainbow

Take a journey with me to the end of the Rainbow.

I grew up at the end of Rainbow Road, a beautiful and magical place in a River Valley, just outside of a town called Spring Green. Following are stories and reflections of a simpler time.....

Emma

There is no ending only where you choose to stop the story. With that in mind:

There is also no beginning only where you choose to start the story.

I could venture farther back and beyond, and perhaps someday I shall, but having come across a black and white picture of my great-grandmother, Emma, it occurs to me that she’s a very good place to start.

The picture I possess, is of her standing at a fence, chest high, holding, what appears, at first glance, to be an old watering can. Her hair, wrapped in a tight, upswept bun. A plain white apron and frock adorning her body.

Large and robust, she seems to grab attention, fear, respect, and loyalty immediately. A woman, I have no doubt, that silently ran her household with a stern authority of love.

Emma had a large bosom, that she used when slicing a loaf of bread, or at least I always imagine that she did.

I can see in my mind’s eye, her pushing the bread tightly up against her breasts, as she saws back and forth with a large knife.

I can see the crumbs falling to the wooden kitchen floor and scattering about her bare feet, as she slices one piece after another, preparing to feed her large family.

Steam rising into the air from the warm loaf as the smell of fresh baked bread fills the home.

Emma, fiery in spirit, yet soft and gentle in heart. My great grandmother that I’ve only met in my imagination, an imagination that stems from that old faded black and white picture.

This towering woman,

I can see her working the land alongside her husband and children, tending to the daily chores needed to survive.

It dawns on me that she didn’t know of the family that would spring forth from her, the legacy that she was slated to create. The kids, grandkids, and generations that would follow, branching out; Living, and Loving, all because of her.

Even the kin before her, that paved the way, so that one day, she would be standing there watering the flowers in her lawn. A home and farm that would feel the footsteps of generations to come.

Our family’s soul is in this earth at the end of the Rainbow.

Many have skinned their knees here, have cried, have played, fought, laughed, and lived on the ground she once walked with those bare feet, her bosom rising and falling with each breathe she took.

The smell of that fresh baked bread filling the air, the same air that I breathe today so many years later. Bread, I sometimes still catch a whiff of.

I can feel her love for a family she would never know, yet a family that she nurtured with.

That old watering can,

That

large bosom

and That

heavenly fresh baked bread. Not the beginning, nor the end: Just a slice right out of the middle of the circle of life.

— Mary Lanita Schultz

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REVIEW: Wisconsin author Michael Perry releases new book ‘Forty Acres Deep’

"Nervous about this one," says Michael Perry. "Not sure how folks will take it. Or if I should have even written it."

"It'' refers to the rural Wisconsin author's latest book, a short work of fiction called Forty Acres Deep. Set in a world of stark wintry beauty, it tells the brief, unrelenting tale of a farmer's attempt to save the remains of his land and make sense of a world he no longer recognizes while pitilessly calling himself into account after the death of his wife and child.

"Despite that, there's some humor in there," says Perry. "I've been reading bits aloud at my shows and folks do laugh. Grim chuckles, not knee-slappers. But yah, mostly this one's not a lotta zippity-doo-dah." Due to the serious themes, Perry shared the manuscript with farmers and members of the agricultural mental health movement before committing to publish it.

Perry hatched the idea for the novella (a work of fiction shorter than a novel but longer than a short story) while fighting to save his two steel sheds from collapsing beneath a record-breaking snowfall. "I'm a softhanded writer with a couple pole barns mostly full of junk," says Perry, "As I sweated and cursed and kneed through the drifts, I kept thinking, what if I was a real farmer, fighting to save my livelihood? Barns went down all over the state that winter. It was no joke."

“In part I’m attempting to honor the old farming traditions,” says Perry, “but the main character is also fighting his own misguided sentimentality—the bullheadedness that keeps us hanging on when we should let go. As a farmer and a citizen he's facing suppressed rage and powerlessness in the face of change. As a husband, he's facing all the ways you can fall short in a marriage even as you meet the standard definition. As a parent, he's confronting — or avoiding — the worst grief imaginable. And as a human he's brought face-to-face with those for whom the world offers no easy space." expanded bio and back catalog can be found online at SneezingCow.com. of the way he turns those observations into humorous, heartfelt and relatable commentary. In his new novella, Forty Acres Deep, Perry's keen observations of farmers and farming shine a bright light on a crisis that has been building for decades - mental illness and social isolation. Our protagonist Harold has been on a slow downward spiral brought on by farming failures and debt, the loss of a child, the impenetrable wall between him and his wife, and crippling, untreated depression. Oh, and the snow. The higher the snowfall, the deeper the depression. The reader can feel the desperation and impending doom as Harold wages a futile war against the weather as well as his many demons. This is a book that the author felt compelled to write even though it is a great departure from his earlier works. This is also a book that everyone should read, especially those with ties to the farming community, in order to recognize the signs and reach out a hand to those afraid to ask for help. Very powerful, but unlike anything else Mike has written, so loyal fans may be surprised.

In addition to touches of gallows humor, Forty Acres Deep is lightened by the farmer's side trips to town (including a hilarious showdown at a kerosene pumping station), his affection for torpedo heaters, a late tendency to speak his mind, and, in Perry's own words, "a delicate green shoot representing hope."

In credits at the end of the book, Perry cites musicians Sturgill Simpson, S. Carey, and Kathleen Edwards as influencing the book's tone.

A profound sense of loss can grow from any of a number of things: the death of a child, a marriage gone cold, the loss of your land and livestock... Some people find faith, some seek support, and some go silent, conversing with themselves amid a fog of desperate hopelessness.

Michael Perry has written on serious subjects before, and when I picked up his latest at bedtime for a quick glance, I didn't put it down again until I finished it after midnight. Afterward I had two immediate thoughts. The first is that the author must be horribly depressed and is writing this as a path toward healing. The second is that Perry must have seen enough of this fog and wanted to raise awareness of what often goes undiscussed in an agrarian community. What happens here (in this book and this community) is not unlike places in Mexico and India where farmers lost their land, and suicide rates just kept rising.

— Nancy Baenen Arcadia Books

Michael Perry was raised on a dairy farm and still lives in rural Wisconsin, where he volunteers as an emergency medical responder when he's not on the road performing as a humorist or with his band. He has written numerous bestselling books, beginning with Population 485. His

Perry's story carried me back to my uncle's farm in Nebraska. All his neighbors struggled economically, and when homes and barns were abandoned they eventually collapsed. Perry reminds us that many things go unrepaired in a hollowed out community. I think this could very well be the best book Mike has ever written. His deep understanding of the subject and characters is masterful, and with age his writing has matured from great to greatness.

— Todd Miller, Arcadia Books

Michael Perry is an expert observer of human nature. He is beloved because

Riverway Board sets 2023 meeting schedule, moves to six meetings

continued from page 1 project in the Town of Troy, Sauk County; to Mike Genthe for a timber harvest in the Town of Wauzeka, Crawford County; and, to Mark Stram for a timber harvest in the Town of Wauzeka and Town of Bridgeport, Crawford County. Extensions to previously issued permits were granted to Gerald Bennett for a timber harvest in the Town of Orion, Richland County; to Bug Tussel for a fiber optic project at the STH 23 bridge near Spring Green; and, to Mike Finlay on behalf of the DNR for native plant community management at the Mazomanie Unit in Dane County.