The hoarfrost that wasn't -- picturesque trees in the countryside outside Madison near Verona

Trees in the Madison area turned frosty white after colder temps moved in after last night's misty, foggy weather.

At first I thought it was hoarfrost that had covered treetops with delicate white brushstrokes. But looking closer, I wasn't so sure. I didn't see the usual filigree of frost. Instead, it looked as if the trees were covered with thousand of tiny icicles (click on photo to enlarge). Maybe the trees had been wet, and the water dripped downward in the direction of the wind and froze as it dripped. From a distance it looked like hoarfrost, but up close it was a strange effect I had never seen before -- all these slanting, icy little daggers, which were starting to fall to the ground around me, clinking as they fell.

Might not be a bad idea to require this as a mandatory disclaimer on all ALEC-sponsored legislation

ALEC has become notorious for its "model" legislation that Republican lawmakers introduce verbatim in state legislatures, meant to create the impression that there's a groundswell of grassroots support on the state level for a right wing, corporate agenda that's anti-labor, anti-regulation, anti-environment, and anti-liberal in all senses.

When Florida Rep. Rachel Burgin (R- 56) introduced a bill in November calling on the federal government to reduce taxes for corporations (HM 685), she deviated from the normal script and was widely mocked. She left the boilerplate ALEC mission statement that the organization puts on all its model bills in the wording of the bill she introduced.

Actually, she had a pretty good idea. We should require this wording on all ALEC-sponsored bills. That way we'd know where they're coming from, and who they really represent.

The "Copyright Black Hole" and its impact on e-books

""Judas, Judas" was playing at the Universal on Fifth Street, and the cast was entirely human." -- Walter M. Miller, Jr., The Darfsteller

One of the great science fiction opening lines.

When I came across a reference to automation recently, I had a sudden impulse to take a look at The Darfsteller, again. It's a 1955 novella, long out of print, by the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz. This anthology, The Hugo Winners - Volumes I & II (Volumes 1 and 2) by Isaac Asimov , published in 1972, was in the library and contained the novella as its first selection.

Like a lot of anthologies, it's a huge book -- 849 pages, to be exact. It would be so much easier to download and read on my Kindle, especially as I'really just wanted to look at the one story. But there is no Kindle edition.

Like many books of that era, it falls in what might be called a copyright black hole. In recent years, publishers have included electronic publishing rights in most contracts, and e-books are available for most new releases. And public domain books that have gone out of copyright are widely available in free or inexpensive e-editions.

In between lurk the books in the copyright black hole. Some are there because they are what is known as "orphan books" that can't be published under current law, because the copyright holders can either not be identified or cannot be found to give their permission for an electronic edition. There's another group that can be identified, often by tracking down obscure heirs at great expense, but who hold out for ridiculously high terms. (Anthologies are especially tricky, because so many copyright holders are involved, and they would all have to agree if the book were to be published in its original form.) Generally it's just not worth it.

That's why electronic publishing keeps moving forward on two tracks -- the present or recent past, and the long ago. (I wonder if there will be a revival of interest in Victorian novelists just because there is so much free or inexpensive content out there to keep feeding people's Kindles.) Congress has been wrestling with the question of orphan books, but the books in the copyright black hole may end up aging into the public domain long before they find a solution.

Standing Stopping atop the stairs for one last look at "Bookless" -- and at the old Central Library

I couldn't leave "Bookles"s -- Saturday's exuberant art show, community celebration and library fundraiser -- without a last look down these stairs that I had descended so many times with arms filled with books. These stairs will be gone next time I'm in here, replaced by an atrium in the renovated and expanded library that reopens in the summer of 2013.

I also couldn't leave "Bookless" without a shoutout to Trent Miller of the Madison Public Library and Courtney Davis of the Madison Public Library Foundation for coming up with the vision to transform this empty building and having the perseverance to make it happen. The result was the most creative, joyful and exuberant art event I've been to in Madison for years. Check out Katie Vaughn's interview with Trent in her Liberal Arts blog to find out more about the origin of the event and how it came together.

Many people took photos at Bookless. I've put some of mine up on Flickr in this Bookless at Madison Public Library set. A selection from a larger group of photographers may be found in the Bookless MPL group.

I printed a reminder for myself that the Central Library will reopen in the summer of 2013

I didn't use a computer. I didn't use an inkjet. I didn't use a laser. I printed the reminder on this small tabletop letterpress at "Bookless." (Letterpress demo presented by Silver Buckle Press, UW-Madison Libraries, with volunteers from Polka! Press.)

It was a great opportunity to have a hands-on experience with a small version of the kind of printing press that was responsible for the development of the printed book as we know it. There's still something beautiful about the mechanical, analog process in which raised metal type is pressed against paper to make an impression. The few books printed by letterpress on fine paper still carry that imprint of sharp metal pressing into heavy, quality paper. It gave readers who grew up with it a feeling for the sensuousness and physical beauty of print that the flat surface of an e-reader can never match. Much as I love my Kindle and the Kindle app for the iPhone, that's a fact.

Recycling the cards from the analog library catalog as art in today's digital world

Back in 1994, author Nicholson Baker wrote a passionate lament in the New Yorker called "Discards" in which he mourned the disappearance of card catalogs, not only because they were cool and old, but because he thought they carried information that was forever lost in the switch to digital catalogs. For example, cards that were dog-eared and covered with thumbprints subliminally suggested that the book had been popular with readers. There were also hand-written annotations on many of the cards that were lost. Baker's jeremiad didn't stop the conversion to digital catalogs, but librarians have since come to appreciate Baker's argument for "metadata" that analog cards used to carry, and have been looking for ways to incorporate more of it into electronic catalogs. Basically, what Amazon does -- allowing for comments, reviews and tips on what other books users were interested in. (MPL's new LINKCat does more of that than the old one did, for example.)


But for the cards themselves this is all water under the bridge. The ones that haven't been disposed of yet, are on the way out. I can't think of a better way to give them a send-off than to allow them to be recycled as art or kept as souvenirs. Both happened at "Bookless," the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation.

Cards were used as part of installations at "Bookless," and the event also provided materials to turn old catalog cards into artistic souvenirs of the old, analog library with stickers and rubber stamps. It was one of the cooler interactive activities at "Bookless."

Personally, I couldn't stop playing with the Maurice Sendak rubber stamp that I found on the counter. This is the result that I took home.

Everyone who ever wanted to paint graffiti on a library wall had a chance Saturday

Kids of all ages covered a long interior wall of the Central Library with paint Saturday. For one day, the wall vibrated with the creativity of young and old alike, ranging from graffiti to doodles to just plain colorful scribbles. Whether it was the semi-illicit pleasure of being able to violate the inviolable, or just the sheer joy of playing with paint, the Painting Wall was one of the most popular interactive features at "Bookless," the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation. It was the best kind of participatory art.

We don't have to leave Madison and go all the way to Delphi to consult an oracle. We have librarians.

We don't need to go to Delphi anymore. We've got the library. Sure, Internet search can help, but only if we know enough to use the right search terms, and if what we're looking for is on the web. What if it isn't? What if we can't even really articulate our question? We need an oracle. We need a librarian.

(Photographed at "Bookless," the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation.)

Has Walkergate enterered the "I'm not a crook" phase?

Scott Walker commented on the John Doe investigation in Milwaukee that resulted in two more former aides facing criminal charges.

"I think it's very clear when all this is done, no matter how much time it takes — and again, my campaign has been involved in cooperating with them for more than a year — but I have every confidence that when this is completed, people will see that our integrity remains intact," Walker said.

On Nov. 17, 1973, Richard M. Nixon told the nation in a televised press conference, "I'm not a crook." Nine months later he resigned. That was in the old days. Today, everything happens faster.

I survived the monster in the lower stacks of the downtown Madison Public Library. You can, too.

Actually, "Skulking Dragon" by Arnold Martin -- one of the many cool works of art at the downtown library's one-day celebration and fundraiser, "Bookless." Opens again tonight -- 7:00pm-1::00am --for music and dance and food and drink. Beware the dragon on your way to the Bibliotheque Discotheque.

Walker's final State of the State address?

Maybe for more than one reason. (And who did write that atrocious mining bill, anyhow?)

The library has been sitting empty, awaiting renovation. But Saturday the word "Bookless" takes on a new meaning.

The Central Branch of the Madison Public Library has been closed for weeks now, awaiting the construction crews that will give it a complete overhaul. Ice and snow are piling up on the steps, the books have all gone into storage, the shelves are bare and furniture and fixtures have been sold off. An orange snow fence marks off the site, draped with a banner showing the new library and noting its opening in the summer of 2013.

Even this work of public art by artist O. V. Shaffer, which has stood in front of the downtown library since it opened more than 4 decades ago, has been put into storage. It's a hammered copper sculpture called Hieroglyph. It will be in storage until the renovation is complete. Not everyone likes the sculpture, but I've always been fond of it. Last I heard, it will go in the roof garden of the renovated library when it opens in the summer of 2013.

But tomorrow this dark, empty building will reopen for one day only and come vibrantly alive. The occasion is the Bookless event featuring numerous local artists, fun for the whole family, music and a whole lot more. It's also a fundraiser for the library (free admission for the family events in the afternoon, paid admission for the evening event that includes food and drink and music). That's tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 28.

It's a unique, once-in-a-lifetime happening. Chances are, you'll never again have a chance to roam an empty library that's Bookless—filled with art instead of books, music instead of silence—and all for a good cause.

Ryan Lizza provides some answers to the question, "What happened to Barrack Obama?"

In The Obama Memos, New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza uses internal memos from the first 2 years of the Obama Administration to show how the realities of Washington politics changed Barrack Obama from transformational leader to tactical "facilitator." The two years were filled with significant accomplishments, but also set the stage for the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican congressional victories in 2010.

Pres. Obama had hoped to work across party lines to bring about change. Not only did that prove impossible, but he learned things about the realities of presidential power that every previous president has also discovered. Lizza quotes Harry Truman.

Obama was learning the same lesson of many previous occupants of the Oval Office: he didn’t have the power that one might think he had. Harry Truman, one in a long line of Commanders-in-Chief frustrated by the limits of the office, once complained that the President “has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues. . . . The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”

While his supporters wondered what had happened to the programs and ideals Obama had championed in the campaign, the president was running into the limits of power built into the American political system.

Yet our political system was designed to be infuriating. As George Edwards notes in his study of Presidents as facilitators, the American system “is too complicated, power too decentralized, and interests too diverse for one person, no matter how extraordinary, to dominate.” Obama, like many Presidents, came to office talking like a director. But he ended up governing like a facilitator, which is what the most successful Presidents have always done. Even Lincoln famously admitted, “I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events controlled me.”

The article quotes internal White House communications to illustrate the roadblocks and realities Obama faced, as well as the tradeoffs and compromises he made in his domestic agenda as a result. It does not go into detail about military and foreign policy (presumably because so much of the discussion would be classified), but the pressures facing the president in that area would have been, if anything, greater.

What will a second term be like? Probably not much different—unless Democrats win back the House and elect a filibuster-proof Senate. That wouldn't eliminate all the barriers to presidential power, but it would certainly help. Want to support President Obama? Elect a Democrat to Congress.

Points of light in the dark wintry night of Fitzwalkerstan

Lovely old historic building, with the latest in high-tech LED lights. Love the way the lights dress up the Capitol. As if someone put out holiday lights for the recall.