ACCUMULATE THOSE SMALL ADVANTAGES.

There is no booth review in baseball.  Managers have two challenges of calls on the field, which they retain as long as their challenges are correct.  In the recently completed World Series, challenges of calls at second base figured in the outcome of three games.

In the first game, at Milwaukee, the Rays, trailing 3-1, had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth.  Brewer closer Trevor Megill served a ground ball that resulted in two outs and the after-game festivities beginning.  Tampa manager Kevin Cash challenged the play.  Runner out at first, that was unambiguous; runner safe at second, for as long as I've been following baseball I've heard broadcasters carrying on about automatic double plays called when the infielder receiving the ball hasn't properly touched second base, and so it transpired after New York looked at all the video; runner at third and a run in.  The next batter struck out and the Fox Sports stage crew could haul the broadcast set onto the field.  First game to the Crew, 3-2.

FISH ON!

It is the nature of Milwaukee sports fans to prepare for disappointment. Consider the professional basketball championships of 2019, where the Bucks took two games from Toronto's Raptors in Milwaukee, and the interviews Milwaukee radio picked up with Toronto fans before the third game started suggested the only people in Toronto who thought the Raptors had a chance were wearing Raptor uniforms. The Raptors won four straight games and then won the league championship.

In baseball, the 1982 Brewers, then in the American League were in a position to win the World Series with one win in St. Louis.  The Cardinals won both.

During the current century, the Cold Spring Shops transition from Festive Season to February more often than not chronicles the latest way the Packers fail to live up to the standard, which remains five titles in six attempts in eight seasons.

Thus, I held off on celebrating the outcome of the World Series until the last defensive out was recorded by a Brewer.

Not the Dodgers, the Brewers.  Never mind the Babylon Bee trying to be funny.  "Fans are reportedly more excited than ever for the 2026 World Series, eager to sit down and watch a compelling matchup between Not the Dodgers and Not the Yankees."

IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE WEATHER, WAIT.

A week ago Monday, record high temperatures recorded at Cold Spring Shops headquarters.  By Friday, there were frost and freeze warnings posted, and frost observed on the house tops several times over the weekend.

The fall harvest of hot peppers is in, ahead of the frost.  (The plants, in grow boxes on the deck, are still alive.)

Two kinds of habaneros, ghost, Carolina reaper.  That's enough for the winter.  A few of them went into the salsa.

Yes, I repurpose commercial salsa jars and lids, and once the jars cool, they go into the refrigerator.  Should make for good snacking during football and hockey season.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE.

Los Angeles Dodger catcher Will Smith almost had a feel-good story someday to tell his new child.  "Smith, and his wife, Cara Martinelli Smith, announced the birth of their third child just hours before the first pitch on Wednesday."

Then came the game.  Jackson Chourio hit a lead-off home run against onetime Cy Young honoree Blake Snell, and Robert Gasser left the game with five innings of shutout ball.

Uribe followed rookie starter Robert Gasser and he loaded the bases on walks to Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Shohei Ohtani. Smith, who came in hitting .043, doubled to left-center for his first hit of the NLCS.

DL Hall took over from Uribe, allowing one hit and striking out two before turning it over to Trevor Megill in the eighth.

That double got between Brewer outfielders that the broadcasters have been comparing with ball-hawking strong safeties, and it sounded and looked like it was going out.  "The day you were born, Daddy hit a grand slam" didn't happen, but the double he did hit did give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.  What that clip doesn't tell you is that the hit off Hall was not in the sixth inning.

LET'S PUT ANOTHER PIN IN IT.

Complex adaptive systems do what they darn well please.

In mid-August, "If you don't like the weather, wait" proved to be logical advice.  "The Old Farmer's Almanac forecast is out, and the Great Lakes summary might be 'expect anything."  "The almanac forecast predicts the northern Plains and Upper Midwest could be drier at times, 'especially when the southern storm track becomes dominant.' Still, intense cold, wind and snow are possible, with clippers, sudden cold snaps and snowy periods likely.'"  So, too, with the northern hemisphere's hurricane season, which is defying all the expectations.

A fortnight later, a seer probably using a different formula than old Rob^t B. Thomas's is out with a similar prognostication.

Millions of Americans could see a harsh winter with multiple snowstorms and freezing temperatures that turn several states into an Arctic 'battleground.'

A recent long-range forecast model from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed a massive shift in the bands of heavy precipitation between December 2026 and February 2027.

That map shows a growing chance that the entire US East Coast will see above-average precipitation this winter, from southern Maine to the tip of Florida and stretching across the country into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas as well.

On the West Coast, California is also expected to see above-average precipitation this winter, which likely means feet of snow in the Sierra-Nevada mountains and other high-altitude areas out west.

While more precipitation than usual does not always guarantee snow, several independent forecasters have predicted that at least 19 states should be bracing for a potential blockbuster storm season.

According to independent forecaster Direct Weather: 'We do expect nor'easters to be a frequent event this year up the East Coast, and these do tend to be snow producing at least for somebody depending on where that low [pressure system] is located.'

Meteorologist Ryan Hall added that a stretch of the South, Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, the Appalachians, the Carolinas and Virginia could be in the greatest danger this winter.

Hall said: 'On my map, this is the winter storm battleground, and this is actually where my forecast has changed the most. I'm now a lot more confident than I was a few weeks ago that somebody in this corridor is going to get a big snowstorm or a big ice storm this winter.'

We already saw a nor'easter that formed in sub-tropical waters and brought havoc to the east coast before the first hurricane to make landfall did so on the Florida gulf coast last week.

As far as that mid-October frost: not here, not with a record daytime high just set in Milwaukee where it's actually hotter than it is in Los Angeles.  The roof and panels are open at the baseball park.

On the other hand, the northerly latitudes of Montana got some snow over the weekend.

THE TEAM PLAYING ATLANTA ALSO WON.

The Milwaukee Brewers will have at least one more opportunity to thank their fans.

It is now a race to eight wins.  Fittingly, Aaron Ashby, who recorded double-digit wins in relief, highlighting his team's ability to break ties or come from behind in the middle or late innings, pitched three innings for the win, and the baseball gods showed their sense of humor, with Garrett Mitchell taking a game-tying home run away from Manny Machado, perhaps the current Padre and former Dodger most disliked by Brewer Nation.

There's Sprecher as well as some Oktoberfest beers chilling in the 'fridge.

JUST A LITTLE BIT OUTSIDE.

The Milwaukee Brewers hosted the first two divisional round playoff games Saturday and Sunday.  Milwaukee's Oktoberfest was also in progress, with the Hoan Bridge illuminated in Brewer colors.

A fireworks display launched from the breakwater went into its Grand Finale at almost exactly the moment that Brewer catcher William Contreras hit a go-ahead home run.  Nobody at the stadium saw it, though, as the roof and side panels were closed.  Something about not making adjustments to the playing conditions during a playoff game.

THE RACE TO ELEVEN WINS.

David Manney's "From Uecker on the Radio to 103 Wins: What a Season" celebrates the Milwaukee Brewers path to the playoffs.

Some of my favorite Brewers memories don't begin at a ballpark.

They begin on a hot Wisconsin summer night with my dad, my brother, and me fishing on Half Moon Lake in Carson Park while Bob Uecker called the game on the radio. You could hear the water, the insects, maybe somebody fumbling with tackle, and Ueck describing baseball as only he could.

Those nights became part of what the Brewers mean to me.

There were ballpark memories, too. I remember going to the Met in Minneapolis and watching Larry Hisle hit two home runs against the Twinkies, including one off the fair pole.

Years later, sitting in the left-center field bleachers at the Metrodome, I had binoculars on home plate while Paul Molitor stole home while Robin Yount stood at the plate. It remains one of the greatest baseball moments I've ever seen in person.

And I know what some of you are thinking: the MLB lost some of you as a fan. I respect that. For me, however, baseball is part of me.

Growing up in Eau Claire, Wis., it meant it was easier to see the Brewers play the Twins than to drive three hours to Milwaukee County Stadium.

Until 1971, I was able to listen to, and suffer through, Brewer games on WTMJ, with Merle Harmon, and later Bob Uecker, on the play-by play; for the last forty years I've been able to enjoy the day games, but must make do with, or without, a scratchy radio broadcast of the night games, including much of that season-ending series win in Philadelphia and the sweep of the Cardinals.

ROLLING INTO THOSE EARLIER SUNSETS.

Three years ago, I teased the prototype railroads about adopting a concept from model railroading.

Two Atlas F units from the original issue, circa 1972, extensively reworked with P&D Hobby Shop transmissions, more powerful can motors, and Ring Engineering onboard power control modules.  The B unit, a P&D shell on a modified early Atlas chassis (yes, I scrounge all sorts of stuff at swap meets) is the battery car.  Go ahead and complain about the phase variations on the grilles.

Those units feature in an end of summer video now available for your viewing pleasure.

They're leading the westbound Gull past the steel works and into Boston staging.  If I weren't as obsessive about having interiors in the cars I build, there'd be diners and parlor cars for the day trains.  The Gull got in before breakfast time, hauling Farmington milk for Borden, Maritimes fish, assorted parcels (were a few boots put on board at Freeport?) and interline sleepers from Halifax, Calais, and Van Buren.  After the passenger train clears, the morning switcher goes to work, delivering scrap metal for the Open Hearth shop, then crossing over to work General Electric on the inward side.

PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

Venezuela might be better known for exporting baseball players than exporting oil.  Recently, Eugenio Suarez, of the Cincinnati Reds, passed his citizenship test.

His team changed his walk-up music the day he returned to the lineup.

🔥 THIS is how you become an American.

Cincinnati Reds slugger Eugenio Suárez fled Venezuela, missed two games to take the citizenship test, passed, and came back to the ballpark as a U.S. citizen.

His teammates changed his walk-up song to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”…

— Louis Montoya (@montoyalouis1) September 6, 2026

Tomi Lahren spent way too much time carping about Colin Kaepernick rather than the music and the home runs.

PATRIOTISM, THE LAST REFUGE OF SCOUNDRELS.

In September of 2023, the Walworth County Democrats were touting that Hope and Change.

In October, Hamas did what comes naturally to jihadis.  The following spring, Dementia Joe challenged frontrunner Donald Trump to a debate, taunting "I hear you're free on Wednesdays."  Dementia Joe's brain failed in prime time, and the party replaced him as nominee.  That was not an improvement.

Earlier this summer, the party primary barely rejected a Madison nutcase in favor of a Milwaukee ward-heeler to stand for governor.

Rather than call attention to their embrace of the crazy, this year's tent at the Walworth County Fair went all in on the Red, White, and Blue.

The absence of crowds might say nothing about how the general election will turn out.  The best thing to do with political displays at county fairs is not to engage, whether it's a major party, a minor party,  or those advocates for an Article V convention or some similar single issue.  Orwell's weirdos hang out with Democrats, no matter how much red, white, and blue they display.

THERE'S A PROTOTYPE FOR EVERYTHING.

Illinois Railway Museum operated its night trains Saturday and Sunday.  The "coach train" included several of the usual heavyweight coaches, plus sleeper lounge Villa Real, dining car Galt House, not carrying passengers; and ten section observation Inglehome.  Power for the evening was a recently acquired Amtrak F40PH with Operation Lifesaver additional markings.

I wonder if George Gershwin got the idea for Rhapsody in Blue while riding a twelve-wheeled heavyweight car.  Inglehome had a drumhead for the evening.

I could put together a reasonable facsimile of this train, perhaps with a rainbow of paint jobs, and have it orbiting the basement during the upcoming open days.

Hicks Car Works have two photo albums featuring the daytime Saturday operations.

A CENTENNIAL.

Somewhere on the midway there ought to be a Tilt-a-Whirl.

The first of these operated at the 1926 Minnesota State Fair.

With screams and giggles, whipping ponytails and white-knuckle grips, Minnesota fairgoers are taking delight in the magic of the Tilt-A-Whirl ride as it turns 100 years old.

The iconic ride and its brightly colored cars debuted at the Minnesota State Fair in 1926, and it has been a mainstay at fairs across the country ever since.

The inventor originally hoped to create a watergoing carroussel that would offer less predictable motion than the up-and-down of a horse on a sliding pole.

Herbert Sellner “created a water merry-go-round and, basically, one boat was driving, and all the other boats were tied together,” [Rice county historian Jenna] Nelson said. “It got destroyed by a storm in 1925.” Herbert’s brother, Martin, suggested adapting it for land.

In January 1926, Sellner started sketching drawings for this new ride, calling it the Tilt-ulator. On April 24, he filed a patent in Minneapolis, and a month later, according to Sellner’s notes, he had made a significant change: The new ride — with nine cars, as one advertisement put it, “tilting, sweeping, spinning, swooping, swaying, speeding, sliding, skidding, rounding, rotating, rising, revolving, hesitating, flying, falling, curving and circling” — would be called the Tilt-A-Whirl.

The concept is elegant.  Motors power a segmented undulating turntable on which nine (now seven) cars freewheel around a center pivot on each segment.  Sometimes a car simply rocks back and forth.  Other times, it gets into a positive feedback loop and pivots ever faster, which might be what the hardcore riders are hoping for.

The ride is powered by seven individual motors around a circle — and gravity makes the car spin around its dips. Weight from the riders shifts the cars’ positions as they lean, sending the cars off balance, said ride operator Thomas Lauthier, who brings his Tilt-A-Whirl to fairs around the country.

Lauthier has been operating the Tilt-A-Whirl at the Minnesota State Fair for the last 12 years. He said Midwesterners have a particular affinity for the ride.

The Sellners were skilled in the woodworking and mechanical arts.

Herbert Sellner was born in Faribault in 1887. His father was a skilled cabinetmaker, and Herbert inherited his father’s creativity and talents. In 1912, at the age of 25, he established the Sellner Woodcraft Company in Faribault to manufacture mission furniture, lamps, and other wood articles. Sellner also created the Ideal Lamp Company. A 1917 catalog listed magazine racks, smoking and telephone stands, folding dining tables, and lamps with leaded stained glass shades. When World War I affected supply availability, Sellner began manufacturing wood toys for children.

By 1923, Sellner’s creativity evolved, and he invented both a water toboggan slide and a water wheel that became popular items at bathing beaches. The slide was thirty feet high, featured a 100-foot-long track, and occupied a space of 18 by 100 feet. With 12 toboggans priced at 50 cents a ride, the owner could earn $6.00 every hour.

During the War, the Tilt-a-Whirl factory retooled to produce bomb carts.  Larson International in Texas subsequently purchased the Sellner firm and they continue to produce Tilt-a-Whirls.

A century ago, Minnesota creativity gave us Burma-Shave and its roadside signs, and a midway classic, as long as your stomach is up to it.

THERE'S NO ESCAPING OPPORTUNITY COSTS.

A post reacting to widespread closures at Red Lobster offered an economics lesson suitable for the start of the semester.  "Recall, years ago, our coverage about the Six Flags amusement parks being a long-term real estate speculation? Opportunity cost sure got the better of many a small amusement park or kiddieland over the past quarter century, didn't it?"

WE EMBRACE OUR AUGUST MILLION.

Sometime between morning coffee and midafternoon pop break (with much of the back yard mowed) Google's visit counter ticked over fifteen million.  The view count for individual posts suggests some interest in our observations on energy movements.

Whatever your motivation for looking in, and whether you are carbon-based or silicon-based, thank you for your continued interest.

The back yard is mowed.  I'm beginning the fall shortening-up program a week or two early.

TELL THAT DEANLET TO SOD OFF.

The house organ for all wokeness, all the time, republishes an August 2024 lament, "The Summer Break That Isn’t."  The author, one Susannah M. Givens, is not dealing with the proliferation of journals to keep current with or the gift of an uninterrupted morning of reading and writing time.  In her community college environment, the distractions keep coming all the same.

Don’t get me wrong. My summers are not miserable. They are the opposite, usually involving time with family and friends, traveling, reading and gardening. But in the midst of all of that, resentment festers within as I realize all over again the unstated expectation that I also work through summer for no pay.

What I really want someone to ask when I return for fall is “Did your summer leave you feeling rested and ready for the new academic year?” Maybe then I would reply more honestly. I envision myself boldly responding, “No. In fact, I feel underappreciated. My work is not valued. Summer made me realize how my time has been disrespected for many years. My tank is half-full because I have been volunteering my time to keep up with emails, policy changes, advising, meetings and grant work all summer. At this point, I hope I make it to winter break.”

This isn’t just my individual experience. My reality is widespread. I don’t claim to speak for all faculty members, but I know that from colleagues at other institutions, from the many books I’ve read, from the private online groups where I have lurked and from the many podcast episodes I have heard.

Her discontent is not about the inconsistent deliveries of the Journal of Trivial Results whether in print or on the server.  It's the deanlets.

The emails don’t stop. Students need advising. Faculty are encouraged to attend meetings in person and virtually. Administrators need replies to various requests. And if I don’t keep up, I could miss something—a policy change or new initiative—that might have a negative impact on my students or me. I worry about not attending a meeting where an announcement could be quietly dropped while faculty are not paying full attention. What might I be missing? This question looms over the summer.

And the deanlets have to justify their existence.  "Faculty cannot set boundaries if administrators keep overstepping them, and it is time for administrators to take the lead in changing the culture."

The faculty have to set boundaries, whether by letting the electronic mail fester or by asking if that midsummer meeting is necessary.  "Summer shut-down has been a fact of life for what, 100 years? And in that time nobody has figured out how to deal with most of the routine business by May 15?"

It's likely too much to ask of Inside Higher Ed contributors that they call attention to all the intrusive diversity and special education stuff that make teaching more of a pain than it has to be.

Set those boundaries.  Tell those deanlets to sod off.

RESTORING THE CLASSIC WOODEN INTERURBAN.

After abandonment, the wooden cars of the Chicago Aurora and Elgin could be obtained cheaply, and Kuhlman car 315 made its way to the Rockhill Trolley Museum, which operates on a stretch of East Broad Top Railroad track, and after years of deliberation, that museum has been restoring that car to its as-built appearance.

Unattributed photo retrieved from Railfan and Railroad.

We recently noted Jewett-built car 316, similarly backdated, with a different paint scheme, at our nearby Fox River Trolley Museum.

Another Jewett car, 320 at the Old Threshers grounds in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, has also had its arch windows restored.

The Old Threshers hold their annual gathering Labor Day weekend, and the other preservation railways will be operating as summer winds down.

After Labor Day, the vintage cars might be back in the car barns for winter work.  Enjoy the remaining days of the preservation railway season.

LET'S PLACE YET ANOTHER PIN.

We will be following some predictions about the upcoming hurricane season.  "Complex adaptive systems, doing what they do. 'There is still enough uncertainty that seeing a weaker outcome would not be a surprise.'"  That same Pacific El Niño that figures in prognostications about North Atlantic hurricanes might affect the White Christmas at Cold Spring Shops headquarters.  "Super El Niño Map Shows States Bracing for 'Significant Snow' This Winter."

We'll see what happens.

Much of the Northeast saw one of the coldest and snowiest winters in more than a decade this past winter while in parts of Texas and the Plains, residents saw record warmth and severe drought.

What would a Super El Niño mean for the United States this time around? According to Columbia University, the Super El Niño leads to milder winters in the northern United States and wetter conditions in the southern parts of the country.

"In December 1997, a very strong El Niño brought wetter-than-normal conditions across most of the southern U.S., while the northern states experienced warmer-than-average temperatures, making it the second warmest and seventh wettest winter since 1895," it revealed.

A map from Newsweek, however, showed that four states are more likely to see "significant snow" this winter. California (in the Sierra Mountain range), New Hampshire, New York and Vermont are all expected to see heavy rain and significant snow, according to the latest predictions.

Meanwhile, Southern states along the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean will see periods of heavy rain and cool fronts.

That's going the long way 'round to say "Complex adaptive systems tend to do what they darn well please." We'll have to wait another month or so for the Old Farmer's Almanac to weigh in.

Can it get much weirder than last "winter?"  "Snow cover through most of Advent, cold with little snow cover through January and into February, now the sort of snow with almost enough moisture to congeal in the snow-thrower, and if it's a little deeper, can bring on cardiac events."

The good Lord willin' and the crick don't rise, we'll be issuing report cards once Thanksgiving arrives.

AMTRAK, THIS IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

In the wintertime, in the summertime, ain't we got fun?

Travelers who count on Amtrak long-distance trains to reach far-flung destinations continue to be disappointed by reliability issues this summer, often because of factors not under the passenger operator’s control.

Of late, the issues have been particularly pronounced for the Empire Builder and California Zephyr.

Seven, four hours delay on 24 July account failures of assigned and replacement locomotives; storms on 27 July lead to three hours of delay before reaching Glenview;  unexpected delays stretching to over two hours reaching Brookfield on 28 July.

BOREDOM IS SOPHISTICATION.

That's true of soporific public radio.

That's true of a concert of tenure music.

That's true of serious film (pronounced fillllllm).

That's true of juried art exhibitions.

Why should footie be any different?

It's “the beautiful game,” and for most of my adult life I’ve been patiently informed, usually by someone who calls it fútbol, that I simply lack the sophistication to appreciate it. But they’re wrong. Soccer isn’t beautiful. It’s boring, and it has nothing to do with sophistication.

The author documents a number of things, including outcomes often indistinguishable from a coin flip.

After a dozen footie-relevant posts in the past two months, it's time to put the dodecahedron back in the locker for a while.  That is, once stoppage time is done.

Sorry, I couldn't resist that parting shot!

Find yourself a circus and go to it.