Forward

The state legislature meets just up the street from here in the only thing that might reasonably be called a landmark in our pokey little town. Somehow, this building manages to perfectly capture the spirit of Madison. It's an elegant white granite building fronted by an array of majestic Doric columns and topped by a grand 200-foot dome that seems particularly out of place surrounded by squat square-box storefronts that surround it on all sides. The highest point on the dome is crowned by "Wisconsin", a statue of an Olympian woman cast in bronze and plated in gold. She gazes out across the lake, holding aloft the great eagle of freedom in her left hand, thrusting her right arm out towards the expanse of the uncharted west, and standing completely oblivious to the fact that she's got a fucking badger perched on her noggin like a giant jewel-encrusted rat.

Sometimes I love this town. Sometimes it drives me nuts. But then, this is true of everything I've ever loved.