I’ve never been on a skateboard or a scooter, and I never want to try. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love skateboarding and all the other amazing activities that sizzle in a skate bowl. I’ve spent probably 15 hours over the past few summers, my little Yorkie (bored silly) at my feet, mesmerized by the activity in Green Bay’s Joannes Park skate bowl. I’ve watched my youngest grandson ride some special kind of bike up and down the curved walls, and I’ve held my breath as my 48-year-old son has sailed down those slopes in homage to a lifetime of skateboarding thrills. But 99% of the time I’m watching kids and young adults I’ve never met doing what they love – and I love to watch them do it.

Yesterday I attended another one of those amazing classes through the Lifelong Learning Institute at University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. This class was about our national debt, taught by a very smart gentleman named Bob, an economist with a corporate background. I learned a lot, but it made me mad, because I soon discovered I’ve been snookered into helping a major player evade taxes and contribute to our growing national debt.

On Monday evening I rolled my beautiful green and gold Titletown garbage cart down to my driveway’s apron and lined it up proudly with those of my neighbors. Tomorrow would be garbage pick-up day in my neighborhood, and each household would have its trash out for collection in the rolling cart the city of Green Bay had issued it. No city is prettier on garbage day than Green Bay.

It’s always a good idea for a business establishment to take stock mid-year and determine what’s been selling well, who the customer base seems to be now, and what might be a good product to offer in the future. Places of social gathering are no different: Who’s been coming in our doors lately, and what have they been ordering? As we pass by the clusters of patrons absorbed in animated conversation, what are they actually discussing?

At this time of year, I like to look back on the traffic to this web site and, more specifically, to the Speakeasy blog, and see what I can see. I think it’s fun to tell my readers in whose company they might have found themselves, were they able to look around and see other visitors. I also think it’s fun to know how many people shared their reading preferences. 

It’s a fascinating story this year (at least it’s fascinating to me). I hope you enjoy a quick look back, this time over two years: 2017 and 2018.

By Lynn Gerlach and Steve Leahy

We like to get together for coffee every few weeks and gripe about the state of the union, the pain of polarization, the danger to democracy, and the dearth of wise, open-minded leaders. We finally decided to do something positive about it: Together we assembled a list of thought leaders with whom we’d be willing to trust our democracy – with no concern for political affiliation or line of work. We simply listed individuals whose perspectives and judgments we’ve grown to trust, demonstrably respectable leaders who seem to us like true, loyal Americans. And then we invited America to weigh in.