✈️ Why are F-35s flying at night?

🍺 New Bar Coming To Atwood Avenue Spot

• The Green Room Public House, a new bar from the manager of Up North Bar, will open in March at Schenk’s Corners.
• The corner spot at 2001 Atwood Ave. was previously home to One Barrel Brewing and The Wedge beer and cheese shop. Given that a “green room” is a place where bands and performers hang out before or after a show, owner John Hardy wants his Green Room to be a comfortable upscale lounge for people to meet up on their way to dinner or a concert [ 🔒WSJ, Madison Magazine]

🐕 Kwik Trip Customers Attacked by Pack of Dogs

• Approximately eight people, including a Madison firefighter and a sergeant, were bitten by a group of 10 loose dogs Monday night at a Kwik Trip gas station on the east side.
• A woman was given 15 citations and one criminal offense referral for the incident. It took Madison police two hours to subdue the dogs, in some cases using pepper spray. The dogs were taken to the Dane County Humane Society. [WKOW]

✈️ WHOOSH! Nighttime F-35 Training Starts This Week

• The Wisconsin Air National Guard has begun nighttime training flights of its F-35 jets this week, as east side residents living on the flight paths probably already know.
• The F-35s will be taking off and landing until 9:30 p.m. through Thursday, and pilots will do their best to minimize noise disruption.
• 🎧 Dig deeper: Listen to a retired Air Force colonel on the City Cast Madison podcast talk about the noise from the jets. [WMTV, 🎧CIty Cast Madison]

If you look up “marketing savvy” in the dictionary, the definition should be “Madison author releasing her new book set in Palm Springs in February.”

But while Christina Clancy’s “The Snowbirds,” published Tuesday, does include plenty of hot-weather scenes set poolside and in the desert, she had deeper reasons for setting her third novel (after “Shoulder Season” and “The Second Home”) in Palm Springs.

“The Snowbirds” follows a long-term unmarried fiftysomething Madison couple, Kim and Grant, who start wintering in Palm Springs. When Grant goes missing on a hike, Kim is forced to re-evaluate their relationship as she anxiously waits for news.

Clancy will read from and talk about “The Snowbirds” at 7 p.m. tonight at Madison Central Library. We talked with the Madison author about why vacations are such fertile literary territory for her and whether she’s a warm-weather or cold-weather writer.

As someone who is also in their 50s and recently embarked on a bit of a career change, it was refreshing to read a book about fellow fiftysomethings who are unsettled and uncertain.

I know it sounds like a weird thing to say, but in some ways, it’d just be easier to be done, right? I struggled, I strived, and now I can just let it go and calcify and become even more the person I already am. It was so interesting. When we started going to Palm Springs, it’s just so different there. It forces you to think of yourself in a new environment.

All three of your novels are set in vacation spots – Palm Springs, Cape Cod, and the Playboy Mansion in Lake Geneva. What is about those destinations that interests you as a writer?

I think I've always been interested in the struggle between work and leisure, and I've been kind of fascinated that it comes through in all of my books a lot. It takes a lot of work for someone to have leisure. To be able to go someplace like Palm Springs or retire means that you had to work really hard to be able to make enough money to go there. I think a lot of people, as they approach retirement, don't know what to do with their leisure time. They really struggle with it.

⬆️ Last Week’s Photo

This mural is located on the wall of Lombardino’s Restaurant! We got nearly 100 responses and not one person guessed wrong!

🎉Congrats to Kelly K., Julie R., and Tom L. for being the first to guess right!

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Do you know where this cool cat is located? A few clues:

• The cat is not real. It’s a sticker in a window.
• That window is located in a restaurant/bar on Madison’s east side
• If you’re a fan of “sexy fries,” you probably have seen it before!