Yunfeng Pan’s story is one of perseverance. Pan first opened his restaurant, Double 10, on University Avenue in 2012.
Redevelopment forced him to find a new location four years later. Double 10 reopened on Park Street, as Pan took over the operation of Vincent Chang’s mini hot pot restaurant.
Read MoreRensselaer junior defender Hannah Price was an outspoken advocate in her community long before she stepped on campus in Troy, N.Y.
But with the transition to college and the pressures of being a student athlete, heading into her sophomore year, she hadn’t yet explored opportunities to give back in Troy.
In the fall of 2020, RPI was under a policy of de-densification and Price and her classmates were not allowed on campus. But she felt it was important to be in town and close to teammates. Eventually, the team was informed their hockey season was canceled and Price found herself with time on her hands.
Read MoreSTATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When the Ohio State women’s hockey team ended its season earlier than it would have liked in the 2021 national semifinal, coach Nadine Muzerall said, “We get so fixated on this last game, and your last game is miserable unless you win the whole thing.”
At the time, she was hoping to remind her players of all they’d accomplished that season. This year, she has no such problem. There are no platitudes and reminders to look for the good. This season, there is no being miserable, only bliss.
Read MoreOn a warm Friday night in October, jazz music mingles in the air with the smell of collard greens at Cafe Coda, a Black-owned music venue in Dane County.
Out front, the Adem Tesfaye Band has patrons dancing, and in the back room, Chef Yusuf Bin-Rella is preparing collard greens for the musicians and VIPs to have at their set break.
Inside a pressure cooker, greens, Scotch bonnet peppers, onions and garlic that were pulled from the dirt at Troy Farm on Madison’s north side by Bin-Rella about an hour prior were blending with bacon and smoked turkey. The result was a mouth-watering scent that lured people backstage.
Bin-Rella hadn’t necessarily planned to cook. He was at Cafe Coda to see friends and unwind, but he can’t resist feeding people.
Read MoreThe second-largest grape growing region in the country isn’t in California. It’s a coastal region, but not on any ocean. Instead, a 50 mile stretch from Erie County in Pennsylvania to Chautauqua County in New York known as the Lake Erie Grape Belt is one of the most prolific, interesting and underappreciated wine regions in the United States. Exploring Lake Erie wineries is sip-worthy adventure for all wine lovers.
Read MoreThirty or so miles from Madison and some 8,000 miles from Thailand, YumYum Thai Kitchen in Columbus draws diners from all around south central Wisconsin for chef/owner Minnie Hager’s food.
Hager grew up in her parents’ restaurant in Thailand, which fostered a lifelong love of cooking and caring for people through food. She came to the U.S. to work in her aunt’s Thai restaurant in Charlottesville, Virginia, and when that restaurant closed, she began working with friends at Monsoon Siam, also in Charlottesville. She eventually moved to the Madison location of that restaurant.
Read MoreName: Cheryl Reeve
Age: 53
Occupation: Head coach and general manager of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Read MoreWisconsin redshirt senior captain Annie Pankowski is standing outside the Badgers locker room, giving an interview to a handful of reporters, when a she gets distracted for a moment and then pauses her answer to lean down and scratch the head of a dog that’s now happily wagging its tail and sitting at her feet. Pankowski gives the dog a quiet command and then stands up to pick up exactly where she left off in giving an answer.
It’s a scene that has become familiar around the Wisconsin women’s hockey locker room the past few years as Pankowski has become involved with OccuPaws, an International Guide Dog Federation accredited in-home program that trains and places fully trained guide dogs with visually impaired Midwesterners at no charge. She has logged more than 2,000 hours training guide dogs and readying them for a life as a service animal. These days, it’s rare to see Pankowski without a dog by her side, so much so that she said her teammates often express disappointment when she shows up at the rink without a four-legged friend.
The daughter of two veterinarians, Pankowski has been around animals her entire life.
Read MoreSlowly but surely the rest of the world is starting to discover what those of us here in Milwaukee have known all along: this city is awesome. Out-of-towners tend to think of Milwaukee in a narrow box informed by Cheeseheads, “That 70’s Show” and preconceived notions about the Rust Belt, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
Read MoreMarathon County is ground zero for the American ginseng industry, growing 98 percent of the country’s crop. But that may be in jeopardy if buyers start to walk away from deals in response to Chinese import tariffs.
Driving through central Wisconsin, it’s impossible to miss the shade structures that go on for acres through this somewhat remote part of America’s heartland. After miles and miles of livestock and corn, the farmland here looks different. Wooden stakes hold up mesh fabric to create the 80 percent shade that ginseng needs to grow. Originally foraged in forests, this niche crop is cultivated by recreating the tree cover environment in which it thrives.
Read MoreThe 2017 IIHF Women's World Championships will forever be remembered in tandem with the stand that the US Women's National Team took -- and won -- in demanding equal treatment from USA Hockey.
But beyond the headlines (which all but wrote themselves), there was a lot to learn about each of the teams that played in the WWC. From a young Czech team that may or may not be relegated, pending possible tournament expansion, to the Americans' labor saga, each squad showed a lot about the state of their team, the development of their programs, and what's on the horizon.
Read MorePLYMOUTH, Mich.—Often lost in the reporting about the United States Women’s National Teams boycott was the players’ demand for USA Hockey to create a comprehensive development program for girls. Preliminary reports say the new agreement will have USAH adding a foundation position that works exclusively with girls developmental teams.
Read MorePLYMOUTH, Mich.—A catcher in baseball. A point guard in basketball. Soccer and hockey goalies. Each of them has their own set of challenges, but anyone that’s played any of those positions shares a mindset and frame of reference with all the others. They’re the 'big picture' people.
A striker has a singular focus on the net. A centerfielder sees their slice of the outfield. But the 'big picture' folks see the whole field of play. A goalie sees not just the person with the puck, but whether the lane is open, how the defenders are converging and where the other forwards are heading for passes. They watch the full width of the ice and synthesize all those pieces of information instantly. And they do it without thought. It becomes inherent to who they are and how they participate in the game.
Read MoreThe IIHF Women’s World Championships kick off Friday afternoon and they might be the most anticipated women’s hockey tournament in years. The hype around Team USA may be bigger than it normally is before an Olympics—certainly a lot more people will be paying attention when the puck drops at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, MI. With every U.S. game schedule for prime viewing hours and being aired on NHL Network (some on tape delay) and streaming on NHL.com, it’s never been easier for people to tune in and now the pressure is on Team USA to deliver.
Read MoreI should have been thrilled that people were finally recognizing not just soccer, but women’s soccer, as a viable and interesting sport. But I couldn’t help but be bitter about the whole thing.
Read MoreBut what perhaps makes “basic” most insidious of all is that itseems almost harmless. So much of what it mocks exists at a surface level, where girls are used to the kind of bullying and language that strikes at their core. And so, women may brush off the concept of “basic,” or even accept that they are and say “so what” instead of retaliating.
All of which, of course, is precisely what the patriarchy cultivates and needs to thrive.
Read MoreThose women were there having a good time. They and 18,000 other poor souls watched two mediocre teams play a mediocre game of baseball. How or why they enjoyed it is really none of my business or concern.
Read More