In honor of Bar Month on OnMilwaukee.com, I wanted you to remember how awesome Milwaukee really is, in moderation.
Every major city wishes to be among the top of any list that would persuade the readers of said list to view the major city as being a hip, hot and happening place to be.
Over the years, Milwaukee has found itself on several of these lists.
Back in 2009 Milwaukee ended up being named as one of the best places for singles in a Forbes article. No. 9 Milwaukee was favored because of the lost cost of living and plentiful bars/club/restaurant scene.
In 2011 The Daily Beast found that Milwaukee was second-best city for love according to their formula, which gave the categories of "singles" and "social life" a letter grade of A.
The downside is that Milwaukee received a letter grade of F for marriage but then quickly showed that Milwaukee made up for the lack of marrying by the lack of divorce when compared to other large cities, which grabbed a letter grade of A in that specific column.
With all of this swagger in the lives of Milwaukee's singles and lovers it becomes even more interesting to see a hoax pop up wishing to knock the partying and sexy side of Milwaukee down.
You might remember that several months ago a list popped up online stating that CDC numbers had been released regarding herpes rates and that Milwaukee was No. 4 on that list.
One could logically understand the correlation between having well-mingled singles and a reputation of being a hot spot for those looking for love with an increase in the rate of "the gift that keeps on giving," as well as other STDs and even non-icky things like pregnancy.
But, why did Milwaukee find itself on the wrong side of someone's scope regarding this issue?
Did Milwaukee make another city mad with its "little train that could" mentality?
Are other cities jealous of Milwaukee's increasingly rising stock nationally thanks to flattering articles in large publications?
Did somebody come to Milwaukee to find love with one of the singles and struck out, time and time again, and then resolved themselves to downing the Cream City?
Whatever the case was, it's still enough to make you go "yuck" and thus hopefully think about the partners you choose for various endeavors so the numbers that the CDC actually does keep at a city level don't rocket up, leading Milwaukee into a legitimate and terribly yucky high-ranking finish for any and all of the other troubling diseases a social and well-mingled city can pass along.
Born in Milwaukee and raised in the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, Concordia University Wisconsin alumnus Poppe has spent the majority of his life in or around the city and county of Milwaukee.
As an advocate of Milwaukee's hip-hop community Poppe began popular local music blog Milwaukee UP in March 2010. Check out the archived entries here.
Though heavy on the hip-hop, Poppe writes about other genres of music and occasionally about food, culture or sports, and is always ready to show his pride in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.