This one's for CL

Q. We have some white oak lumber that has been air drying for about a year as we do not need it. I noticed that it seems to smell more like vanilla than the acid oak smell. Is this possible?

A. You have discovered one of the secrets about drying white oak for wine barrels. The oak aroma does indeed become more a vanilla smell. The wood imparts this aroma to any liquids stored inside the barrel, especially wine, adding bouquet to the wine. I was amazed when I tasted wine from a fresh oak barrel versus wine from a barrel made with aged wood. This concept has been well known in Europe. This new aroma seems to be encouraged by exposure to rain.

Gene Wengert, “The Wood Doctor” has been training people in efficient use of wood for 35 years. He is extension specialist emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

That's not much of an article, but it is about white oak and it is related to Wisconsin.

White oak burns nicely.

"Wisconsin Might Destroy Tenure For Professors"

"The Wisconsin legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 Friday to approve a proposal that would eliminate tenure from state law and allow tenured faculty to be laid off even if a school isn’t in a declared financial emergency. The proposal would also weaken faculty influence in setting policy and would cut the University of Wisconsin (UW)’s budget by $250 million over the next two years, down from a $300 million cut that was proposed by Walker."

The elimination of tenure protections was first suggested by Walker back in February, but was considered a longshot proposal. The Joint Finance Committee, however, is tremendously influential, and its decision to send the rollback to the floor of the legislature is seen as making passage much more likely.

By itself, the measure wouldn’t end tenure, but it would remove the current protections it has under state law and allow universities to set their own policies on the matter.

Intapundit writes...

UW faculty are fighting mad. I have mixed feelings about this, and it’s not because I have tenure (which I do). Undoubtedly, tenure inherently creates some “dead wood”–faculty that slack off and lose interest in their jobs once they know they have a presumptive job for life. And it would be nice to have a higher education system that reflects a real world ethos of rewarding excellence and punishing lethargy–among faculty, staff and administrators.

On the other hand, the original justification for tenure in higher education (and notice that this emphatically does not apply to lower education, where elementary, middle school and high school teachers do not undertake scholarship as part of their job) is that the job does generally require and involve scholarship, and sometimes that scholarship is politically controversial. Tenure was designed to ensure that scholars could feel free to express their views, without fear of retribution based on viewpoint discrimination. And frankly, it’s conservative professors who need this protection the most, as they are inherently swimming in a sea of progressive colleagues/deans/administrators/sharks who would be tempted to “punish” conservative scholarly viewpoints and activities. These concerns potentially could be allayed with robust statutory protections against viewpoint discrimination, but this encourage expensive litigation whenever a faculty member is fired. Whether these costs would outweigh the benefits isn’t as clear as it may seem initially.

In any event, the Wisconsin legislature’s proposal represents a thoughtful beginning to an important discussion about what tenure means, and when it is needed (if ever).

UW-Madison Ranked Number One in Caring About Arbitrary Rankings

The exclusive story is here (in case you missed it amidst all the hoopla of the UW being named the Sexiest Campus by the Daily Beast).  

Did Althouse blog the latter?  I missed it but can't believe she would too -- she's always blogging about ratings.