By Lindsay Dal Porto & Contributors
Revenge can be sweet, even on behalf of a friend. Christi Clancy, writer and spin instructor from Whitefish Bay, had a tangy essay published in The New York Times column “Modern Love.” Her story is about her friend’s ex-hubby who had the gall to show up at Clancy’s spin class with his new gal pal. Clancy put the guy through the most grueling workout of his life while blasting a specially prepared playlist: music for cheaters. Clancy writes, “I watched sweat drip onto the floor around his bike, so much that I could practically see my reflection in it.” Grr.
Once again, Rishi Tea steeped the competition, taking nine awards in the North American Tea Championship’s Hot Tea Class. Since 2008, Rishi has won 29 first-place and 56 total awards there, the most of any company. Its Bao Zhong blend from Taiwan stole the show as highest-rated tea, besting more than 180 others submitted by 44 different companies. “We’re very, very proud,” says Benjamin Harrison, who co-owns Rishi with Joshua Kaiser.
Media columnist Tim Cuprisin, on the beat for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1994 to 2009 and for OnMilwaukee.com since then, was hospitalized with a blood clot in April. He told readers the brief crisis “was all part of a larger cancer battle that I’m waging.” We wish him well.
She changed her name and left town. Milwaukee fashionista Areka Ikeler opened Fashion Ninja in 2003 in Bay View, then moved to a glossier spot on Plankinton Avenue before shutting down in 2010. Now known as Erika Ikeler, she runs 8 Limbs, a new boutique, gallery and teaching space in the oh-so-hip Silver Lake section of Los Angeles. Why the move? “No snow,” says Areka, er Erika, plus many more buyers yearning for statement pieces.
After an exhausting eight-hour competition at Chicago’s swanky Hotel Monaco, Sheboygan’s Jaclyn Stuart won the prestigious title of Great Lakes Top New Sommelier, besting three other contestants. Stuart had to pass a grueling three-part test that included a written theory exam and blind taste testing. Next, she’ll be pitted against four other regional winners at the nationals in San Francisco in August. “I’m nervous but excited,” Stuart says. The winner snags the Southern Wine & Spirits Championship Trophy and the title of National Top New Sommelier.
This is quite a town of baldies. Enough to make KingsHead Hair Salon on North Van Buren the nation’s first member of Cyberhair’s $3 Million Club for purchasing, you guessed it, $3 million of the company’s products. At least one customer raves that Cyberhair, made of spun nylon, is better than human or (thank heavens) yak hair. It “looks, feels and acts” just like real hair, insists KingsHead owner Dave Lemke.
Roufusport Martial Arts Academy on Milwaukee’s West Side has been voted Versus.com’s Top MMA Gym in America by mixed martial arts fans. It’s run by MMA trainer extraordinaire and former world kickboxing champ Duke Roufus, who works with the likes of UFC fighters Pat “HD” Barry, “Danny Boy” Downes and Anthony “Showtime” Pettis. Roufus’ success even helped Milwaukee land its first UFC event on Aug. 14 at the Bradley Center. “It feels great to bring honor to the city,” says academy general manager and business partner Scott Joffe.
Not quite MMA, perhaps, but manly man John Irish of West Allis won second place in Cintas Corp.’s national “Are You Carhartt Tough?” contest. He submitted an essay demonstrating his manly facets: strength, resilience, dependability and ruggedness, and took second in an online public vote. As a truck driver and roofer, Irish delivers shingles to construction sites, lifting 51,000 pounds over the course of a day. His manly prize? A trip for two to the Stihl Timbersports Series this fall, a competition of the world’s top lumberjacks.
Rev. Dr. Bobbie Groth – minister, fiddler, sociology professor at Alverno College and jack of all trades – added another title: author. In March, she published The Incredible Story of Ephraim Nute: Scandal, Bloodshed, and Unitarianism on the American Frontier, a history book about her great-great-grandfather Ephraim Nute. He was a Unitarian minister as the Civil War began. “He had a very exciting life,” she says.
