Greater Milwaukee Men

OK so first things first, this could and should probably be two posts: one about pronouns and another about disinformation. But they were both related parts of a recent conversation so I am going to use one: the use of pronouns; to talk about another: the spread of disinformation. I'll probably do a full post just on pronouns soon.

Companies have been being attacked recently for DEI initiatives, such as boycotting, to force them to undo those efforts. These attacks are typically dog whistle coding to cover up discrimination against minorities including women and people of color. The narrative is typically that hiring standards are lowered to include a wider range of employees and that it is a form of reverse discrimination - disadvantaging one group (people that are one or more of white, male, and cisgender). But not only is this not the case, in fact, DEI initiatives are proven to strengthen companies' performance across many metrics - even financially. Someone recently brought up lowering standard for airline pilots as proof that DEI is a radical far left practice that supposedly in this case makes pilots less qualified and flying more dangerous in order to fulfill DEI quotas. A similar case has been made recently regarding the Secret Service and issues with at least one high-profile recent event that is - ...

You may have seen the new trend for packaged water with brands like Liquid Death. Now a local brewery, City Lights Brewery , is getting in on the act. Except its not just an act, its not some fad, there are reasons to can vs. bottle water. Good reasons.

The month of November is (one of the) Men's Health Month(s), popularized by the Movember movement. (June is another recognized annual event but since it is November now, November it is.) It's a great foundation, it has been successful and is highly rated for its impact. But, one thing I see with the movement is that while they speak about men's health to the participants, I feel the participants themselves promote it outwardly rather than inward, at them. I personally fell victim to that selfsame issue, but no longer. As of this November, I am taking care of myself.

Cities are often classified one of two ways: a great place to live but not visit, or a great place to visit but not live. Of course they could be considered good for both or bad for both, but that's pretty rare. Milwaukee has increasingly been recognized for culture and other features that make it desirable to visit, but it gets blasted (rightly so) for socio-economics especially racial disparity. But as much as people, especially native Milwaukeeans, like to dwell on the negatives, the hope by some like myself is that eventually the good things will spread and make things better for all its citizens. Recent news points to Milwaukee continuing to raise its reputation including National Geographic naming it a Top 25 Place to visit, and more news on growth downtown. The Brewtown Rumble motorcycle show at Deer District

Part of what we do here is celebrate when Milwaukee is recognized for excelling at something. Recently, Milwaukee was voted as having the 4th in the 10 Best Arts Districts in the Third Ward neighborhood by readers of USA Today. USA Today made this note: "Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward is home to a staggering number of galleries, studios, museums, performing arts spaces and art organizations, including the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Galleries, Milwaukee Potters Guild, ArtWorks for Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network." What makes this even better to me is that it's a Reader's selection, vs. the media. It's one thing for a reporter to travel around and visit and select their opinion, but to be in Reader's Choice means that people have actually been here and enjoyed it.  We beat out the likes of Denver and Chicago just in the top ten, not to mention all the ones that didn't even make it that high. Photo cr. Visit Milwaukee