publisher & editorial director
Amy S. Johnson
lead designer Jennifer Denman
copy editor & lead writer Kyle Jacobson
sales & marketing director Amy S. Johnson
designers
Linda Walker, Barbara Wilson administration
Lisa Abler, Olivia Seehafer
contributing writers
Dr. Lori Scarlett, DVM, Adam VanSpankeren photographer Eric Tadsen
additional photographs
Ben Jackson Foundation, Rick Hintze, John Manno, Michael Moriarty, Northside Planning Council
Watch for the next issue JAN-FEB 2025
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Our first issue premiered in November 2004, so we’ve been celebrating 20 years all of 2024. For our final 2024 issue, I’m feeling especially grateful.
Thanks first to my production and administrative team. I constantly tell you and others that I wouldn’t be doing this without you, and it can’t be said enough. My thanks also to all the writers, photographers, and everyone else who’s contributed their talents and expertise over these past 20 years. I appreciate your support of the work we do by being part of it.
Thank you to our advertising sponsors, some of who’ve been with us since the start; we couldn’t be here without you selecting us to promote your businesses and organizations. We know that many others contact you for advertising, so we’ll always do our best to show our readers how impactful you are.
We consider what we do a multifaceted support system. Advertisers support our work. In turn, we promote their businesses and organizations to build and strengthen them, which then builds and strengthens our communities. Our readers learn about local businesses and organizations, as well as people, places, and things, broadening everyone’s experiences in their communities. It’s a perfect system that benefits us all. I’m looking forward to the next 20 years with all of you while welcoming those who’ve yet to join us on this adventure.
cover photograph
Sweet Potato Pancakes with Bourbon Maple Mascarpone from Short Stack Eatery taken by Eric Tadsen photographs on page 3 (top right): 25-ingredient House-made Bloody Mary from Short Stack Eatery taken by Eric Tadsen (bottom left to right): Provided by the Ben Jackson Foundation Coiled Jar taken by Rick Hintze
Also, because this is our giving & sharing issue, we highlight businesses and organizations that give back to the communities we live in. I’m heartened and motivated by the generosity and hard work done by those seeking to make our place in the world even better. You’ll see what I mean when you read about Ben Jackson Foundation, Short Stack Eatery, Enrichment Unlimited, and Covering Wisconsin. We also share the work of artist Rick Hintze, and Dr. Lori Scarlett writes about splenic tumors.
One last article that’s near and dear to us is the story of Soup’s On!, which will now be hosted on our website every season. It’s another great story of community supporting community.
Wishing you a happy and healthy end to 2024 and looking forward to having you join us again for our 2025 issues!
Larry and Jen Jackson present a check to a Ticket Home recipient at the New Glarus Brewing Company.
by Kyle Jacobson
Giving meaning to tragedy grants significance to an event beyond the hurt, oftentimes providing an opportunity to help others. It can be a way to keep something alive, like an idea or a moment, or to inspire others. In the case of the Ben Jackson Foundation, it’s a way for Larry Jackson and his family to memorialize their son by helping active-duty members of the United States Armed Forces.
“Ben Jackson Foundation is named after my son,” says Larry. “Ben enlisted in the Air Force in 2016. He graduated from high school in New Glarus, then he went into the Air Force. He went to Texas for basic training and then his follow-on school, and then he got orders to go on to Japan.
“Being in Japan, it’s like a 14-hour time difference, and it was hard to find time to talk when we were both awake. I think when he first got there, he was a bit homesick, but he found his groove. I think he ended up being there from March of 2017 to a little over a year. One day, he messaged me and was like, ‘Hey, I’d like to come home and surprise everybody and see the family and see my friends. Could you help me out with a ticket?’ A ticket from Japan was a couple thousand dollars. At that point, it’s more or less what he made in a whole month.”
Larry and Ben planned it out perfectly. As Larry was out of Wisconsin for work, the two met up at a connecting flight in Detroit, and for the next week, everyone was together. Larry remembers the experience fondly, thankful for how fortunate they were to have that time. Ben shared that his friends back at base were jealous because, though they could get the time off, they couldn’t afford the ticket home.
“About six weeks after that, the Air Force came to the door and said he died in an accident on base. It was a motorcycle accident. ... We went through the whole funeral and everything. The Air Force flew us out to Japan for a memorial service. A lot of people had given money to his memorials, so we really didn’t know what to do with it. We went through a few different ideas talking as a family, but none of the ideas we came up with really felt like it was clearly the right thing. Then my youngest son said, ‘Ben got to come home for a visit and see family right before he died. You should help other people do that.’ That seemed like the perfect thing to do.”
As of this writing, the Foundation has given out 650 tickets home totaling over $475,000.
And that’s what the Ben Jackson Foundation has been doing since it gained nonprofit status, in December 2018. As of this writing, the Foundation has given out 650 tickets totaling over $475,000. But much of that success only started happening in May 2021.
Originally, Larry envisioned the money being used as sort of a scholarship. As he sees it, young adults going on from high school to the military aren’t given much of a sendoff, so this could be a great way to award individuals joining the Armed Forces. The thing about high schoolers is they’re generally more interested in leaving home, not so much when they’ll be coming back.
Larry recalls going to Janesville to meet with those who would soon be going to basic training. Before those students graduated, they met once a month on a Saturday for a program designed to prep
them for the transition. He told the 20 or so students to pull out their cell phones to complete a five-minute application so they could have their plane ticket home paid for. Everyone pulled out their phones, but of the 20 students, only 1 completed the application.
“We then started talking about pivoting to talking to active duty. If we can get them after they’re in the military, once the reality hits, once they’ve been away from home, once they’ve seen how expensive flights are and how little they’re actually making, it’ll be a different mindset.
“We had some contacts that we knew through Ben and met after Ben’s death at the Air Force. We sent out emails to three bases and said, ‘Hey, if you’d know anybody that could benefit from this, please forward this information to a few people.’ Within a couple weeks of that,
Bringing families together for a moment that otherwise wouldn’t be granted and remembering a son whose family has found a way for him to keep giving back.
those emails got forwarded all over the world, literally. In May of 2021, we got 2,000 applications.”
One of the biggest surprises to Larry when he started the Foundation was discovering that no other organization shared his focus. A lot of people he’s run into assume that the military pays for active-duty personnel to return home, which is why his Foundation targets the lowest-paid members of the Armed Forces—typically those who’ve been in four years or less.
Exciting and rewarding as the work is, all this relatively recent success has come with an unforeseen burden for Larry and those running the Foundation. “People think, and I thought this too early on, that it’s very cool to be able to help people like this and send people home. The reality, though, when you’re reading through the applications, it’s gut-wrenching knowing that you have to say no to most of them. If you have to choose between the person that wants to go home and see their grandfather in hospice or go home and attend the funeral of their dad or be at their sister’s wedding, who are you going to say no to? ... It’s tough to know you can’t say yes
to everybody, and pretty much everyone is deserving.”
Currently, the number of applicants has settled from over 300 a month to around 80, with only 10 to 15 receiving the money for a ticket home from each applicant pool. It would be a dream for Larry to say yes to every applicant, which is why the Foundation tries to
make it as easy as possible to donate.
“Even if somebody were to donate $10 a month, you get enough of them coming in, and it makes a difference. If you get four of your friends to do the same, that brings somebody home every year.”
The Ben Jackson Foundation is about bringing families together for a moment that otherwise wouldn’t be granted and remembering a son whose family has found a way for him to keep giving back. To learn more about Ben, the organization, or to donate, visit benjacksonfoundation.org.
Kyle Jacobson is a writer who believes the meaning of life is buried in purpose.
Photographs provided by the Ben Jackson Foundation
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Breaking your nightly fast comes as a warm syrupy hug, a creamy granola kiss, or just holding hands with a hot cup of coffee—all hinting at the untapped potential of a day yet lived. Melting into the embrace of breakfast might be a luxury, but everyone deserves that moment where euphoria takes over just long enough to forget about unsweetened traffic jams and morning meetings. Who wouldn’t want that escape any time of day?
That was the original concept for Short Stack Eatery: 24-hour breakfast Thursday through Sunday. Co-owner Alex Lindenmeyer says of herself and business partner Sinead McHugh, “We hated the concept that breakfast food had to end at some point. We grew up with drive-thru McDonald’s, where the menu changed over at 10:31 every day; we just wanted a place where that didn’t happen.
by Kyle Jacobson
“We were open 88 hours straight from Thursday morning to Sunday night. We didn’t close. We visited enough towns that had concepts like ours: individually owned, locally owned breakfast diner spots. We thought it’d be a good fit in Madison.”
But a lot needed to happen before Short Stack would open its doors. First off, Alex and Sinead had to learn about the restaurant business. They decided the best way to do that was on the job in various positions in the industry, so they worked as managers in restaurants, helped other people open restaurants, and just did what was needed to gain as much relevant experience as possible.
They also learned as much as they could from Wisconsin’s purveyors and farmers to build out their menu. Seeing what was available, the decision to use local, highquality ingredients meant they could keep the offerings simple. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, how much more complicated does it really need to get? “I want regulars in here every morning,” says Alex. It’s consistency over curveballs.
The final piece was the location in Madison that would be perfect for their restaurant. Alex and Sinead were in no hurry to do things in a way they didn’t believe in, and they had their eyes on the 300 block of West Johnson Street. “We waited on this location for 18 months. We were very, very, very specific about where we wanted to be. Anywhere
past this block, you’re automatically assumed to be a college-only operation, and on the Square, you’re a non-college operation. We were very intentional about the demographics that live in this square mile of the isthmus. We wanted to be in the heart of it. This is the busiest six-way pedestrian intersection in the city—the most visible corner in the city for walkers, bikers, and drivers.”
It took four years to get from deciding on an all-day-breakfast concept to opening their doors, and since Sinead and Alex have been friends going back to their days at Edgewood High School, they manage to stay on the same page even to this day, 20 years later. Other past friendships continue to be part of their professional lives as well.
“Our biggest farmer that has been farming for us specifically since we opened is Winterfell Acres, in Brooklyn, Wisconsin. Bethanee Wright started her farming journey just about the time we started Short Stack. We were friends before. It was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if you had an organic farm and I had a restaurant?’ Then it came to be. She’s our longest-standing partner.”
The menu that comes from these partnerships, though simple, appreciates the nostalgia of breakfast and its meanings for different people. For starters, the menu is split into sweet and savory—items like French toast and pancakes in the former and corned beef hash and eggs benedict in the latter. Then there’s trying to make things as fresh as possible, which is why the dry ingredients for the batter aren’t mixed until an order is placed. Each effort is made with intention to give new and returning customers the experiences they anticipate.
Complementing breakfast are roasts from Wonderstate Coffee, Viroqua, and Boom Coffee, Princeton, as well as a range of cocktails. Of note is Short Stack’s Bloody Mary, which isn’t the traditional take on the drink, but rather an assemblage speaking strongly to the restaurant’s mission.
“It’s a 25-ingredient Bloody Mary, and we house roast and blend all our own vegetables every week to make the mix. It’s basically a vegetable smoothie. We make our own house pickle brine and brine up all kinds of things, like jalapenos, habaneros, serranoes, and dill. ... It’s a testament to what it can look like when we use local farmers to make something. It’s very specific to this place. Every time someone walks up to the counter and orders a Bloody Mary, the first question they’ll be asked is, ‘Have you tried it before?’ If you haven’t, it’s not what you’re thinking you’re going to get.”
Whatever you decide on, you’ll be enjoying it in an environment filled with nods to customer appreciation and the first years Short Stack was open, like old notes and postcards from customers framed under glass tabletops and the chairs purchased at St. Vinny’s to affordably fill the space. You’ll also notice progress pride flags, highlighting what Alex calls an evolutionary journey.
“I’m a racist in recovery. I grew up in a really white town in a really white everything: white teachers, white institutions. I’ll be on a journey the rest of my life trying to figure that out. I have to show up every day and unlearn all the bull.”
Both Sinead and Alex took Justified Anger’s Black History for a New Day course and even require managers to take the course. It’s been eight years since they took the course, but it speaks to an ongoing initiative to do better. “The end goal as two white cisgender folx who own a company is to do less harm.”
In recognition of what it means to move forward, Short Stack works with what they call their Root Partners, Blackled organizations aimed at addressing social injustices. This year’s partners are Progress Center for Black Women, The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, Urban Triage, and Nehemiah.
Today, the restaurant’s hours are morning to mid-afternoon, but the impact is perhaps larger than it’s ever been. With mindfulness to ingredients, recipes, and social issues, the culture for
growth
Kyle
Photographs by Eric Tadsen
by Kyle Jacobson
Life is hard. Seriously. You’d think it’d be as easy as going out and having a good time, but then there are all these layers to existing: be helpful, be productive, try not to inconvenience others around you, be productive, find a way to give back, be productive, all while trying to maintain yourself mentally and physically. Worst of all, there’s no right way to do it. No instruction manual. Sometimes you just wish you had someone to talk to who could help keep your life in order.
Believe it or not, that is an option. Shaunté McCullum founded Enrichment Unlimited, which provides life coaching and consulting services, when she noticed a lot of people who just seemed to lack direction. As she likes to say, they were going around in circles and figure eights.
“Enrichment Unlimited was born out of work that I started with my first business. Back in 2018, I started a home care agency, Endearment Unlimited. Working with my clients in that area and also interacting with employees or even people I met in the interview process, I just realized that there were people out there that could use guidance.”
Having strong and well-thought-out long-term goals is something Shaunté stresses as key for success. Not everyone sees their aspirations as something to actively work toward, rather choosing to kind of take what life gives them in the moment. Though that mentality has its place, a lot of people she meets are allowing it to hold them back. Essentially, having no goals is granting permission to give up when circumstances prove inconvenient.
“For me, it’s a little saddening because it’s also reflective of their life and their life choices,” says Shaunté. “If you don’t have any future long-term goals, you don’t know where you’re headed, and if you don’t know where you’re headed, you don’t know what steps to take, what measures to put in place, to get there.
“The more I researched life coaching and saw that life coaches actually help people in that process, that felt in line with
by Eric Tadsen
what I felt called to do. I took it seriously, took some courses, and became a certified life coach. Then, in 2021, I started Enrichment Unlimited.”
Shaunté is also a big believer that improving one aspect of a person’s life provides them with the tools to do so in other aspects. It’s very easy to become victim to habit, particularly after a traumatic event. For example, Shaunté became a widow at a young age, but because she had goals in life, she found the motivation and determination to push forward.
Shaunté knows firsthand that some people aren’t ready to take the steps to better themselves; some people are still blaming others for their setbacks. Being a scapegoat for another person’s lack of direction is a waste of her time as well as the client’s. “I might not be able to help everybody, but I can help those who want to be helped. For me, that’s good enough.”
And when it comes to life coaching, there’s not just one way to do it. People looking for these types of services are in a better position if they find a life coach they connect with who fits their needs.
“ Sometimes things are within reach, you just have to put those steps in place.”
“I feel like each life coach is unique. Some may focus just on mindset; some focus on relationships. ... Coaching is more partnering with people, guiding them, helping them to tap into that hidden potential and taking steps forward.” What sets Enrichment Unlimited apart is Shaunté’s ability to help people focus on self-fulfillment and identify areas of focus to help them live more enriched lives. For example, if a person is working three jobs to get by but has the ability to work in a supervisory role that would provide more income than the three jobs combined, Shaunté will work with the individual to figure out what’s holding them back. Sometimes it’s as simple as a limiting belief, like not wanting to do extra paperwork.
Another service Enrichment Unlimited offers is consulting, which “is more giving resources and advice on certain knowledge and expertise that I have in terms of building personal or business credit and entrepreneurship. ... Helping people address the basics in their finances to leverage it for personal gain or to be able to use themselves as personal guarantees because, when starting a business, a lot of the time we need to tap into our own resources.”
Enrichment Unlimited’s consulting services aren’t limited to finances. Shaunté also helps entrepreneurs go through the steps of starting a business, breaking down business basics and setting benchmarks the client can work toward. There’s a lot of navigating to be done when starting, say, a long-term care agency in the State of Wisconsin.
“Sometimes things are within reach, you just have to put those steps in place. And that’s really what I help people do. First is realizing what it is that you’re lacking self-fulfillment in. Then let’s create some SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals around it, let’s address any challenges that can occur as you take these steps. Next, let’s create a plan to get there and take that first step.”
As Shaunté aids others in their professional journeys, she also had some guidance from the late Lauri Lee, a community leader and champion for Madison’s north side. Lauri helped Shaunté connect to the Madison community by inviting her to serve on the Northside Planning Council’s Board, which sparked Shaunté’s drive to provide her own local community support.
Today, Shaunté serves as board chair of the Northside Planning Council and board member for Dane Buy Local.
Enrichment Unlimited can be seen as the next link in a long chain of community leaders aiming to empower Madison through its residents. A lot of people in the area have a dream. A lot of people in the area feel stuck. Through life coaching and consulting, people who are ready to enrich themselves but don’t know where to start have an opportunity to tap into a part of themselves they’ve yet to manifest.
Kyle Jacobson is a writer who has faith in enough, can’t recognize when enough is enough, but knows when it’s too much.
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Rachel Lichtman of Madison knows better than most just how important it is to have affordable health insurance. She says, “As someone with a chronic disease, insurance is literally life or death.”
Rachel had been on BadgerCare for six years but was set to lose it in March 2024. Between going to college and managing her own serious chronic health condition, she was able to stay on Medicaid, but after she graduated and started working from home, Rachel’s income went over the program limit. She knew she could turn to a health insurance Navigator for help, but didn’t know if she could keep her doctors.
Rachel reached out to Covering Wisconsin, a statewide program of University
of Wisconsin–Madison Extension, and a Navigator helped her get an affordable health plan on healthcare.gov that covered most of her providers in both Madison and Milwaukee. When Rachel later experienced another health event and couldn’t work, she reached out to her Navigator again. She needed access to providers that were out-of-network for her Health Insurance Marketplace plan but didn’t know if she’d able to get back into BadgerCare. “Working with a Navigator was helpful for me because I didn’t think I’d be eligible,” says Rachel. “I liked that I could reach back out to the same person, and I knew they would help me.”
Rachel was able to get back onto BadgerCare, and it covered her hospitalization and the rehabilitative
care she needs. When she’s able to work again, she says, “I know who to call for help.” Covering Wisconsin will ensure by Adam VanSpankeren
she’s on the best health plan or program for her needs.
All at once, John Manno found himself unemployed without health insurance and in excruciating pain. John is a freelance musician and rental property owner in Ashland who has had sporadic health insurance. Just before his back gave out, he found himself completely priced out of the options he saw. Then came the diagnosis and a $100,000 surgery to address his herniated disk. John had many questions about what insurance options he had, if any.
John called Covering Wisconsin Navigator Tina Marshalek, who answered his questions and helped him through his decisions for coverage. “I was at the clinic here in Ashland on the phone with her,” John says, describing the process of sorting out his options and when his coverage could start. “It was wonderful. I’m so grateful.”
John had been working as a freelance harp player for many years and was doing so at an Ashland restaurant until the pandemic temporarily closed the eatery. He wasn’t concerned about dropping his health insurance premiums when he was on pandemic-related unemployment until his herniated disk started causing neurological damage. “It was like nothing I’d ever experienced before, and the doctors had never seen anything like it,” John says. “I needed surgery right away. It would have been permanent nerve damage otherwise.”
After successful surgery in October 2022, John says, “I’m back to normal.” He’s still playing harp at the restaurant, lifting his instrument without assistance.
“There are a lot of dense health insurance rules and regulations,” says Tina. “They can make getting coverage feel a bit overwhelming. Navigators know the tips and tricks that make finding a plan and enrolling easier. We also teach consumers as we go, making sure everyone we work with understands what options they have and how those options meet their financial or health needs.”
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Covering Wisconsin, our state’s federally certified and state-licensed health insurance Navigator agency, provides free, impartial education and assistance to Wisconsin residents. Navigators help anyone in Wisconsin secure health insurance, seek timely care, and navigate the healthcare system. They also help residents with all types of health insurance questions, billing concerns and appeals, and transitions to new plans and coverage through the Marketplace or Wisconsin’s Medicaid programs. Navigators are well versed in the technical aspects of insurance and mentor clients to know what to look for. Covering Wisconsin subcontracts with a variety of community organizations to allow for Navigators to be placed around the state, living and working in the communities they serve.
The number of consumers who seek Covering Wisconsin’s health-insurance-enrollment help continues to increase each year, from around 3,000
in 2020 to more than 7,000 in 2024. Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that those who have searched for coverage themselves wish they had gotten assistance from a Navigator to help them in the process. Statewide, more than 280,000 residents are uninsured, with 83 percent of this group qualifying for medical assistance programs, such as BadgerCare Plus, other Medicaid programs, and subsidies on the federal Marketplace. Having health insurance can improve an individual’s overall health and reduce financial risks.
“Health insurance can smooth out the rough edges when you think about paying for medical coverage,” says Allison Espeseth, director of Covering Wisconsin. “We provide free, unbiased help for anyone in Wisconsin who is trying to sort through changing rules, changing plans, costs, and unique terminology of health insurance.”
Getting and keeping health insurance is not a simple process. This is especially true for people who don’t have access to
coverage through an employer, such as those who are self-employed, farmers, small-business owners, and those with lower income. When it means medical care gets delayed or bills accumulate, going without health insurance can compromise your health and financial security.
Adam VanSpankeren is a Covering Wisconsin Navigator Program Manager.
Only four years running, Soup’s On! is one of Greater Madison’s newest traditions, connecting locally owned food producers with their communities through one of life’s simplest culinary pleasures: soup. Every Tuesday from November 6 through March, people are supporting the restaurants, food carts, and caterers they love while discovering new favorites.
The whole thing started during COVID, when Theresa Pullara-Ouabel of Bunky’s Catering read the writing on the wall and wanted to create something that would give business owners in the food industry a chance to make reliable supplemental income. “Theresa actually approached former executive director Colin Murray of Dane Buy Local,” says Amy Johnson, publisher and editorial director of Madison Locally Sourced. “I was serving as president of the board at the time, so he contacted me to meet with him and Theresa to talk about it. She said, ‘It’s easy for the restaurants to do. The overhead is low. We don’t have to charge a lot. We can freeze the soup. They make it fresh every week.’”
Greater Madison then did it what it does best, and a bunch of businesses volunteered their time and expertise to make it work. Jeff Affeldt at Arcus Communications created the page
by Kyle Jacobson
where people could order the soups on the Dane Buy Local website. Madison Locally Sourced, Cap Times, and Dane Buy Local promoted the event alongside posts on participants’ sites and social media. Madison Locally Sourced created the ads for everyone involved to use in their promotions.
Feed Kitchens, which rents commercial kitchen space for food carts and caterers and hosts various educational groups, played a central role freezing the soups overnight and serving as the pick-up/ distribution headquarters. When Amy Johnson reached out to Chris Brockel, director of food systems at Feed Kitchens, he wasn’t immediately sold on the idea. “I didn’t really have super high expectations for it,” says Chris. “But it was an activity that kept us here and a reason to come to work every day.
“That first year, we were almost immediately selling about 400 quarts of soup a week. The demand was just there. People kept asking for more. I had only so much room in my freezer, so eventually we capped it at 600 soups.”
Initially, the plan was just to do it the one season, but by the end of the first year, everyone knew they’d be doing it again come next October. From those packaging the soup Tuesday morning to
the businesses making the soups to the people buying the soups, everyone was happy to be a part of it.
Participant Yakub Kazi of Ember Foods says, “The experience has been very good having made different types of popular soups of India. The most popular has been an Indo-Chinese soup called Sweet Corn Chicken Soup. Soup’s On! was a blessing in disguise, as it supported the business income, especially during the pandemic, plus it gave us the opportunity to try something new. We look forward to introducing new soups this year.”
Amy adds, “There is an incredible variety of soup to choose from, including many vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options. Purchasers have been so happy with the selection.”
Feed Kitchens is also the home of Healthy Food for All, an initiative which collects high-quality produce from local farms and surplus prepared food from caterers and retailers and distributes them to food pantries, meal sites, and lowincome neighborhoods.
Chris says, “The Healthy Food for All, the donation piece, I can’t even say enough. People love the project because nobody wants to see anyone go hungry. Soup’s On! is an easy way to make a donation. We have people that will buy 10 soups and donate 8 of them. The other great thing about it is restaurants themselves make donations. They may have an order for 25 quarts of soup. Instead of 25 quarts, they’ll bring 30 and say, ‘Those 5 are for donations.’”
Soup’s On! has also helped new food businesses get their name out. Daijah Wade of The Walking Jerk says, “Soup’s On! was a great opportunity for me last year. Many people enjoyed the soups I made and recognized The Walking Jerk while out vending from Soup’s On! It definitely helped me take care of bills and purchase needed items for my business. I enjoyed being a part of Soup’s On! and look forward to it this year.”
This fall and winter, instead of going to Dane Buy Local’s website, Soup’s On! will be hosted on the Madison Locally Sourced website. For more information, to see what’s new each week, and to place your order, visit madisonlocallysourced.com/soups-on weekly Wednesday through Saturday and pick-up or receive delivery of your order the next Tuesday.
Kyle Jacobson is a writer who thinks soup is one of three acceptable ways to consume celery.
You probably don’t think much about your spleen. It’s kind of an odd organ: dark red, thicker near the top, and tapers to a “tail” in dogs and cats. It’s generally found under the left side of the diaphragm, up near the stomach, pancreas, and liver, but can be long and narrow and cross over the entire abdomen. Its main function is to filter and store blood. It removes old blood cells and helps recycle iron. Some white blood cells (lymphocytes and monocytes) are stored in the spleen, which are important for removing bacteria. If the body needs extra blood quickly, such as in shock or heavy blood loss, it will contract and push out the blood it has stored. It doesn’t have any enzymes or other markers that show up in routine bloodwork, so there isn’t any easy way to assess its health. Removing the spleen makes fighting off some infections more difficult, but there isn’t much impact on the health of the animal if it’s removed.
by Dr. Lori Scarlett, DVM
Spleen can also mean melancholy; when I think about splenic diseases in dogs, I become dejected and sad. Unless we do an exploratory surgery or ultrasound on a dog or cat, we rarely see incidental findings, like benign nodules, on a spleen. When we’re most likely to find an unhealthy spleen is when it’s so diseased it starts bleeding into the abdomen. At that point, there’s usually nothing we can do. Having a dog present with extreme weakness and white gums is my most dreaded appointment; I have to deliver awful news, and I feel utterly helpless.
Cancer is the most likely cause of a bleeding diseased spleen. Hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is the most common tumor type, accounting for 88 percent of splenic tumors. HSA is highly malignant. Once we see clinical signs, it’s likely already spread to the lungs, heart, kidney, or liver.
I start worrying about a possible splenic tumor when my appointment is for an older large-breed dog, such as a golden retriever, Labrador, or German shepherd, who has been lethargic and not wanting to get up. Owners will often mention that the dog has had intermittent periods of weakness and lethargy, but is back to normal after a few days. This is because the tumor can bleed, causing weakness, but the bleeding will stop, the body resorbs the blood, and the dog feels better again. The dog will often have decreased appetite, weight loss, and sometimes looks like it has a pot belly.
My physical exam will show pale to white gums because all the blood is in the dog’s abdomen. Their heart rate and respiratory rate will be elevated as they’re going into shock from the blood loss. There will be abdominal distention because all the blood pooling in the abdomen will make it look enlarged. When I tap on one side of the belly, I’ll often be able to feel a fluid wave on the other side. Sometimes I can even feel a firm mass in the abdomen. An x-ray or ultrasound will show a typically round mass up near the diaphragm and fluid in the abdomen. A needle will be inserted into the abdomen to withdraw some fluid, which will turn out to be blood.
If we run bloodwork, we’ll see anemia and increased platelets, as the body tries to help clot the bleeding organ. There may be mild increases in liver enzymes, but that can be a normal aging change and isn’t specific to the spleen.
At this point in the exam, humane euthanasia is usually the most loving option for the dog, but other things can be tried. Surgery to remove the diseased spleen is an option. A splenectomy, especially in a critically ill animal, can cause cardiac arrhythmias and
Our
potentially death during or after surgery. Because HSA has likely spread by the time we find it, the average survival time is one to three months. If a splenectomy is combined with chemotherapy, the median survival time increases to five to six months. This may be enough for some owners, but the cost of treatment, surgical recovery in an older dog, and the potential side effects of chemotherapy may not make it the best option.
Our best hope is to catch splenic tumors early, but it’s difficult. Sometimes we can feel a mass in the abdomen and see an enlarged spleen on an x-ray. If it’s a really large spleen, it’s more likely to be caused by a benign tumor, and surgical removal is curative. Cancerous spleens don’t usually get that big and can be difficult to feel in large dogs that are overweight. If we’re doing an ultrasound, we can find nodules, cavities, or other abnormalities that would point toward cancer, and we could surgically remove the spleen, possibly before the cancer has spread. But we don’t routinely do abdominal ultrasounds on older dogs. We could do routine x-rays, but that can be costly. Additionally, some dogs get anxious having to lie still on a table that makes weird noises.
New screening tests, such as Nu.Q and OncoK9, are available from some commercial labs through your veterinarian. These blood-based tumor detection tests show a 75 to 85 percent sensitivity. If your dog has a malignant HSA tumor, there is an 80 percent chance the test will be positive. If the
test is positive, further diagnostic testing with x-rays or ultrasound could find a small tumor, again allowing us to remove the spleen possibly before the cancer spreads. But these screening tests aren’t inexpensive and can have false positives, especially if the dog hasn’t been fasting for 12 hours. They do detect other types of tumors as well, so for older dogs, especially large-breed dogs, it might be worthwhile. It’s worth discussing with your veterinarian, as the earlier we detect a problem, the more likely we can extend your dog’s life and health span.
Dr. Lori Scarlett, DVM, is the owner and veterinarian at Four Lakes Veterinary Clinic. fourlakesvet.com.
What about an act or a piece of art makes it both worth doing and worthy of an audience? The act of creation on its own doesn’t warrant blind adoration, nor does an appreciative audience make something worth doing. For Rick Hintze, prolonged engagement with clay has garnered a following who find value in the thought and curiosity marked in the production of his pieces.
“Pottery is a lot like music,” says Rick. “If you have a shape that you want to make, you can consider it like a phrase in music. You can play that over and over, beginning to end, in different ways. The pitch, the volume, the embouchure, whatever instrument you’re playing, there are all these little variations that evoke different feelings. Pottery, I think, instead of the perfect surface, the same thing can happen. It’s not that one is better than the other; it’s just what you’re interested in. An observer can sense the making of it.”
Rick’s poetic take on what touch can do to a piece translates to his foundational utilitarian pieces. “When I started, I was just really interested in functional pots. Teapots, bowls, mugs, casseroles, that kind of thing. And glazes. It was a very traditional kind of way to get into clay in the early ’70s.”
Over the ensuing years, Rick gained all the knowledge one does exploring an obsession, eventually discovering who he is as a ceramicist. “Michael Cardew, the English potter, said there are three kinds of potters. There’s a mud and water person. There’s a chemist. And there’s the person who likes fire.” Rick might do it all, but he’s definitely a
by Kyle Jacobson
mud and water guy, which speaks more to what brings Rick to his studio day in and day out. Though the kiln and glazing are important to him, it’s the different ways of forming and shaping the clay he finds most inspiring.
His proficiency in form evolved in 1989, when Rick worked as a production potter for Rockdale Union Stoneware in Cambridge, Wisconsin. “That was a very good educational experience. Those pots were based on early American shapes, nice shapes, but you had to make lots and lots of them. The repetition of throwing large numbers of the same piece built skills and a sense of touch. Again, you could compare it to music—the only way to pick up skills and become familiar with a particular piece is lots of practice. You establish a kind of memory in your hands and fingers.”
In 1991, Rick took a job teaching ceramics, sculpture, and art history at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he taught for 10 years until moving to Wisconsin. Before the move, he and his partner, Susan Messer, a professor in the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater art department, bought a building in Johnson Creek to serve as studio space for the two of them. Rick took an early retirement from teaching and opened the studio for business in the fall of 2002, selling his work from his gallery as well as a couple of galleries in the region and at local and national shows.
“From 2005 to 2008, I also tried wholesaling. I went to the Buyers Market of American Craft show in Philadelphia and took orders that I then went back to the studio to make and ship to various places around the country. It seemed to start off well, but that market was declining. I decided to give it up and try to get into better retail craft shows. Finally, in 2013, I did the Smithsonian and Philadelphia Museum of Art craft shows as well as the Saint Louis Art Show, Cherry Creek in Denver, and the American Craft Exposition in Evanston. It was a great experience, but when I added up what it cost, what I made, and how much time it took, I decided it wasn’t worth pursuing.”
In Rick’s transition to retail craft shows, he made a conscious shift in 2009 to start producing hand-built vessels along with his functional pieces. “I always admired much of the pottery from other cultures, especially Neolithic Chinese, pre-Columbian, and African coil pots. I had gone to see For Hearth and Altar, an exhibition of African pottery at the Art Institute of Chicago, and was deeply impressed with the presence those pots seemed to possess. It was very inspiring.”
Resulting from that inspiration are the largest pieces in Rick’s studio, the burnt-ochre pots, which stand out amongst his utilitarian pieces. “I found a
combination of wood ash and kaolin clay. It reacts with the iron and clay body as well as the iron stain I applied to the surface, which varies from a deep-rust to a cornmeal-yellow color that seemed to fit the expression I wanted to achieve with these pieces.”
Recently, Rick has been using three or four pieces to create modest-sized works that would normally be thrown in one piece. “What intrigues me about it is that the resulting form has a spontaneity and irregularity that could not be achieved if it was made in one piece. Of course, the form as a whole also has to have some interest for this to work.”
Looking at Rick’s past pieces, interpretations of everyday objects that are either enlarged or brought down in scale to become something obscurely familiar, like an axe head or grain silo, his fascination with shape has been constant. Much like how a critical viewer can put together something of who Rick is by looking at his array of mugs, the ponderings of Rick’s mind are on full display through his sculptures. Experiencing the medley of pieces in Rick’s studio, I never really knew where I was in time or space, but I never felt lost. Rick’s work compellingly argues authenticity over perfection, and after
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