It turns out that we've managed to anger a few friends and readers with our latest light-hearted list, "The 100 hottest Milwaukeeans (that you've heard of)."
Most people seem to be upset because:
- They aren't on the list.
- They are on the list.
- They haven't heard of everyone on the list.
- They think we just put our friends on the list.
- They think we wrote the list just to get people to read it.
Lets talk about this.
First, if you're upset that you're not on the list, I'm sorry. You may be smokin' hot, but we put some qualifiers on this article. Obviously, we had to restrict the list to 100, and we attempted to be even-handed when it comes to gender and "type of hotness," for lack of a better term. People have different definitions of attractiveness, and we made sure to include people that are attractive in non-traditional ways. Keep in mind that a list like this is totally subjective, and more importantly, it's all in good fun.
Also, we know you haven't heard of everyone on the list. It would've been a little wordy to title the article "The 100 hottest Milwaukeeans (that you've might have heard of but not necessarily)."
Milwaukee, the beautiful city that it is, isn't Hollywood: any list of 100 people will result in some picks that you're not familiar with. I, personally, didn't know everyone on the list, either, but through lots of meetings and ample Googling, we whittled down the selections in a number of heated discussions.
We set the bar of "celebrity" deliberately low. We said that anyone on the list would need to be at least as famous as a bartender; that is, someone who works in the service industry and is seen and known by lots of people. So you don't see our accountant on the list (though, Karen, you're a lovely woman) but you do see plenty of TV news people, who, in part, are hired for their photogenic looks.
Now, if you think we just put our friends on the list, you're just plain wrong. Not only did we leave off our very sexy spouses and significant others, we left off lots of attractive friends (all of whom are sending me angry e-mails this week). And though I wish I was friends with J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun and Gabe Kapler, I can assure you that none of them know me from Adam. They might know Drew Olson a little, maybe, but even calling them acquaintances would be a big stretch.
Finally, I love the Talkbacks that say we wrote this list only to get people to read it. Guilty as charged. We indeed write every article to get people to read them, since as an advertising-based business, our primary source of income comes from the revenue generated by displaying ads on the pages you visit. Believe me, though, we know we could increase our pageviews tenfold by writing only "sexy" stories.
But if you are a regular reader of OnMilwaukee.com, you know that we do a lot less pandering than some traditional outlets (for example, no "I-Team investigations" or "Dirty Dining" segments in this magazine). But yes, we produce content that gets read by 1.2 million Milwaukeeans a month.
So is this list perfect? Hardly. That's why it took us two months to compile it. Not only did our entire office contribute to it, but we sent it out to many colleagues to see where it could be improved. Ironically, some of the people ripping on it are the same folks who told us they couldn't add anything, either (other than including themselves on it -- Kramp and Adler, I'm talkin' to you).
But seriously, I encourage you to one-up us (and not just because of the page impressions you'll generate by posting a Talkback).
Write a list of 100 hot Milwaukeeans that meets all of the qualifications we put on ourselves. If you can do better, I'll be the first one to admit it -- and if you use your real name, we'll be glad to send you a big pile of OnMilwaukee.com swag.
These lists take a lot of work. It's easy to rip them, but a little harder to write better ones ...
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
