[HowardL]

Only now starting to sober up from this weekend in Milwaukee, I feel that I learned an important lesson.

Milwaukee does not try to be anywhere except Milwaukee. Coming from Chicago, I have this mindset that one should always aspire to be the next city up the pecking order, to compete with cities both above and below in any given demographic profile.

Chicago strives to be. Milwaukee is happy to be.

A few Chicago friends and I have decided that we are lucky to have Milwaukee so close by and that 90 minutes of the Amtrak Hiawatha bind us to the city that should really be on every "coolest cities in America" list and yet we're glad it isn't because it would fucking ruin everything.