What can you find in this week's Isthmus? Highlights from the latest issue follow:
- Few things are as worrisome as children intent on hurting themselves. What can be done? In Dane County, they can be admitted to Meriter's Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Hospital on Madison's far west side. In this week's Isthmus, Nathan Comp takes a look at the crisis-ridden kids who find refuge at the only treatment facility in the region for troubled youth.
- Isthmus Books Quarterly finds Bill Lueders making the case that Canadian naturalist Farley Mowat's expansive list of 40 books is well worth exploring by dedicated readers.
- Tom Laskin, meanwhile, finds a new Madison band that takes its country straight-ahead and without the irony that mars too many alt-country outfits. Earl Foss' Brown Derby, inspired by the likes of George Jones, Buck Owens and Faron Young, will play Sunday at noon at the Willy Street Fair.
- And if you're on the prowl for more culture, check out Amelia Cook's preview of the Mercury Players' Reefer Madness: The Musical, which opens this weekend at the Bartell Theatre. Yup, it's based on the creaky 1936 cop movie that prompted a million giggles when the film became a doper's delight when it was recycled to the '60's generation.
- Finally, Isthmus' resident conservative, radio talker Charlie Sykes, bemoans how over-protective adults are turning kids into wimps.
