Well, it happens to the best of them, most recently a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco, when some of the biggest names in webdom went dark. Actually, even more recently this past Monday and Tuesday, when The Daily Page, Isthmus' Web site, suffered the same terminal rapture of the electronic sort.
But never fear, TDP is back, thanks to the efforts of systems manager Thom Jones and Web producer Jason Joyce, with help from the engineers from Dell and 5Nines Data, and overnight parts delivery. We thank them all for getting the hardware straight and allowing us to resume attending to the content.
In that department, we are pleased to have The Daily Page to share Mike Wilmington's nod to Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish genius of film who died this week. The remarks are part of his regularly appearing DVD column, which is posted on TDP every Friday.
Our cover story this week reads very much like a compilation of letters from a Peace Corps volunteer, because, in fact, it is, derived from the very literate and informative letters volunteer Madeline Uraneck sent to her friends here in Madison. In "Letters from Lesotho," Uraneck describes life in the small African nation, which is very much like life in many largely undeveloped countries of the world.
It is well known that Madison is one of the leaders in supplying curious, idealistic, restless souls to the Peace Corps; they join in order to contribute to global welfare and find out what life is like outside of the world's most advanced consumer society. This is the story of one of them.
Finally, this omnibus column makes a stop at a long vanished location. Remember The Fess Hotel? Fondly? If so, check the "Shout Outs" section of Isthmus classifieds this week. You will see an announcement of "Fesstical I," a proposed reunion of employees and patrons of the erstwhile watering hole. The Fess, a re-creation of a historic Madison hotel, operated from October 1975 through June 1994 in the building now occupied by the downtown great Dane Pub & Brewing Company.
Fess proprietors Mary Bergman, Woody Knepreth and Peter Wright created a social phenomenon, if not a thriving business, at the spot, which was the afterwork home to countless downtown hanger-outers. Those same hanger-outers plot a re-gathering at Restaurant Magnus Aug. 12. See the above-mentioned ad for further instructions.
