MADISON – The gift-giving season is right around the corner, so wrap up your holiday shopping with these fantastic University of Wisconsin-Madison gift ideas for friends, family and merry Bucky friends in your life.
– Card-carrying critters: The next time Fido gets a cold, take him to the School of Veterinary Medicine knowing you’ve contributed to the sustained excellence of the school and to quality of care for all of Madison’s furry friends.
Send a School of Veterinary Medicine holiday greeting card to family, friends or the neighbor dog whose owners swear he’s learned to read.
This year’s card features a one-of-a-kind oil painting of a young girl admiring a pony at a horse show. Artist Gayle Leith, a 1988 graduate of the school, titled her painting “Advice for Ladybug.”
For a suggested donation of $10 per card, purchasers can indicate the name and address of the recipient on the donation form, and leave it to the school to send the card.
Blank cards in sets of 10 or dog or cat art images from previous years are also available while supplies last.
Visit http://www.vetmed.wisc.edu or call 608-265-9692 to order.
– Grab your virtual shopping cart: Whether you’re an alum, a student or regretfully call a different university your alma mater, you are guaranteed to find something that tickles you pink in red and white from the Wisconsin Alumni Association Badger Marketplace.
Inspire your children to solve some of their own life’s mysteries at UW-Madison by purchasing the Big Bucky Badger Mystery children’s book. Watch them huddle under their blankets in fear that Bucky may never recover the lost game-day football until the book’s shocking conclusion.
Work off those holiday pounds with the classic-style cruiser custom Badger bicycle for a special holiday price of $249 after polishing off your University Housing holiday cookies while watching the award-winning documentary “Being Bucky,” which documents the challenges of seven students beneath the Bucky costume and costs $21.99 in the marketplace.
If these one-of-a-kind gifts don’t make you want to shout “On, Wisconsin!” out the window, the marketplace still has dozens of options for you to choose from – whether it be prints and holiday cards, a custom UW Tag Heuer watch or Badger apparel for every taste and style.
Find something right for you and your loved ones at http://www.uwalumni.com/.
– Call it a day: Go wild as you prepare to kick off the new decade with the 2010 Wildlife Phenology Calendar.
Take some family advice from fuzzy, scaly and feathery parents as you flip through the months and learn about the courtship and reproductive cycles of some of Wisconsin’s birds, mammals, fish and reptiles.
The data in the calendar is based on famous ecologist Aldo Leopold’s observations, particularly in his book “A Sand County Almanac.” It also includes more recent data from his daughter, Nina Leopold Bradley, and other natural resource professionals.
To order, visit the Cooperative Extension Publishing’s Web site, http://learningstore.uwex.edu, or call toll-free 877-947-7827.
– Facing the Rath(skeller): For the friend with many interests, send a Wisconsin Union gift card their way.
Whether it’s $10 for refreshments in the Rathskeller or $500 to cover the whole Wisconsin Union membership experience, recipients can use the gift card for almost anything: meals at one of the many campus cafes, novelty items and university wear at the Memorial Union Essentials Store, tickets to performances at the Wisconsin Union Theater or outdoor rentals from the Memorial Union Boathouse.
Recipients can even put the funds toward a lifetime membership.
Purchase the gift card at the Memorial Union cashier’s office or at the Terrace Store Web site at http://www.union.wisc.edu/terracestore.
For more information, call 608-263-1964 or visit http://www.union.wisc.edu/giftcard.
– You can DoIT!: Connect with your inner techie and consider an imprinted Bucky digital item or accessory from the Division of Information Technology Tech Store.
Back up your digital self with a Tribeca Bucky Logo 250 or 320 GB external hard drive for $139.95 or $189.95, respectively, or consider a Bucky flash drive available in 4, 8 and 16GB, starting at $17.95.
Dress up your electronics with Bucky emblazoned laptop, or iPhone and iPod cases starting at $29.95.
If your mouse is getting out of hand, let Bucky keep him in line with one of several uniquely designed Bucky mouse pads, ranging from $6.95 to $29.95.
For more information, visit the DoIT Tech Store at http://techstore.doit.wisc.edu.
– Tasty cookies: Miss lazy weekend desserts from your days in the residence halls? Reminisce with University Housing’s Dining and Culinary Services’ sweetest surprise: a box of mouth-watering holiday cookies.
Choose from the Holiday Treat Box, which, for $9, supplies three-dozen cookies in 11 varieties. Or take it up a notch by purchasing a hard-sided gift box, sealed with a white ribbon, which contains five-dozen cookies, for $16.25.
Extensive taste-testing has led Housing to introduce a new cookie, Bohemian poppyseed, and, of course, the favorites will be back, including peppermint meltaway, lemon iced spritz, chocolate cherry, caramel chew and double peanut butter cup.
Each box is topped off with red-foil “W” crest chocolate coins, redeemable for tastebud satisfaction only.
Pick up your cookies in Newell’s Deli (Smith Hall), Ed’s Express (Gordon Commons), Elizabeth Waters Dining Room, Carson’s Carryout and the lower level of Frank’s Place (Holt Commons).
If you plan on purchasing several boxes, be sure to call the chosen pickup location to be sure they have enough on hand. Call University Housing catering at 608-262-5577 if you’d like a large quantity of cookies catered at your event, or visit http://www.housing.wisc.edu/dining/cookies for dining room hours or to contact staff to request a larger order.
Get moving; cookies usually sell out before final exams!
– Your one shot: Get your game on with a photo commemorating your favorite campus spot, team or tradition with a Replay Photos gift from the Wisconsin photo store.
Frame a photo of a Badger football player celebrating in Camp Randall with your name on the back of his jersey, or have the marching band spell out “I Love You” to your kids or “Sorry I Ignore You When The Badgers Are Playing” to your spouse in these one-of-a-kind prints starting at $99.95.
Purchase photos capturing your favorite moments from your favorite Badger victories, panoramic views of the campus or a nostalgic summer night on the Union Terrace. Be sure to select a standard or custom frame to go with your gift, to enhance its right-above-the-fireplace status.
Peruse dozens of exquisite photo options, including prints under $40, at http://www.replayphotos.com/wisconsinphotos/.
– Jingle all the way: Add a little Wisconsin jingle to the holidays this year and purchase a CD from the School of Music
Featuring music by both student and faculty musicians, the School of Music offers jazz selections to spice up the yule log, chamber music to blast when you’ve had enough of Aunt Muriel’s stories and piano selections to accompany your invisible piano-side singing.
Other genres include opera, symphonic, guitar, choral and brass.
Be sure to check out the new selections on the online CD store at http://apps.music.wisc.edu/cdstore/. Where else would you find French bassoon music from 1950-2000 or 20th century Russian oboe music?
Most CDs are sold online for $15, with some exceptional discs priced up to $25. Discounts on some CDs are available when purchased directly from the main office of the School of Music, 3561 Mosse Humanities. Contact them at 608-263-1900.
– Excellence in education: Give a friend a beautiful silk scarf, and she is stylish with one outfit. Teach a friend to dye silk scarves, and she is fashionable for life.
Give your friends and family the gift of knowledge this season by enrolling them in a Continuing Studies course. For the friend worried about her wardrobe, get her started in the new silk scarf-dyeing course, and then enroll her in the new wine glass-painting class so she can show off her new look at a stylish dinner party.
To keep your computer-nerd friends busy, sign them up for a course in Web design basics, Adobe In Design or digital photography.
For that entrepreneur in your crew, there are professional development classes available in team management, workplace writing and more. And when they’ve had enough of the workplace, send them to a class in yoga, Tai Chi or hip-hop dance.
From languages to agriculture to music, there is surely something for everyone between the pages of the course guide, available online at http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/classes/classtoc.htm, or to order in print at 608-262-1156.
– But why?: Ever wondered if racehorses with bigger booties cross the finish line faster? Probably not, but you do now.
“The Why Files: The Science Behind the News,” a 2009 book by University Communications’ David Tenenbaum with Terry Devitt, will answer all of your horse-rump inquiries and more.
Spearheaded by UW-Madison, The Why Files has been a successful online cure for your curiosities at http://whyfiles.org since 1996. In April, they finally put their genius on paper in this “not-for-nerds guide to human brains, animal sex, exploding bugs and galactic death rays…”
The book features mostly new material to supplement the still-booming Web site. It answers all the questions you never asked but will desperately want to know, such as honey-bee politics, a dog with the vocabulary of a person, and how a picture of a beetle may have been the roots of the written language.
This newspaper-style book is divided into 15 sections, including business, food, travel, health, and life and love.
You can purchase “The Why Files” for $15 at local bookstores including both University Bookstores, A Room of One’s Own, Borders and Barnes and Noble. You can also purchase it online on http://amazon.com or http://indiebound.org.
– Find the guiding light: For some more direction in your life, consider purchasing the four-CD set of GPS-ready topographic maps of Wisconsin from the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey.
For $99.95, the maps enable users to draw trip routes, calculate elevation profiles, add notes and print or transfer the final product to a GPS unit.
Land lovers can also purchase the pocket guidebook “Landscapes of Dane County, Wisconsin,” complete with accompanying map, for $8 to guide them on their explorations.
To schedule your adventures, consider a $5 2010 poster calendar that features two sepia photographs by 19th century photographer H.H. Bennett.
For more information and more gift ideas, visit the Wisconsin Geological Natural History Survey Web site at http://wisconsingeologicalsurvey.org, or call 608-263-7389.
