End Game

Elizabeth and Robert Parker were married for nearly 59 years. When he got sick, she cared for him. But eventually his health declined so badly that Robert’s doctor told Elizabeth there was no choice but to put her husband in a nursing home. And so the broken-hearted wife signed the 23 pages of admission papers to the Golden Age Nursing Home in Tomahawk, Wis. Included in the 23 pages was a “mandatory arbitration” clause, whereby any dispute with the nursing home could not be taken to court, but had to be submitted to a private arbitrator. No one at the…

James Liddy, like many distinguished Milwaukeeans, came from abroad to enrich the life of our city. He was born in Dublin, raised in Wexford, educated in the law at Trinity College and in poetry at Ireland’s pubs. Liddy came to America in search of the ecstatic writing life he’d found in Jack Kerouac’s books. He found it here. He died in November at age 74. He had taught English at UW-Milwaukee for 32 years and published 20 books – with three new books scheduled for publication after his death. A student asked if I thought there might be a university…

“What we don’t remember,” some sage must have said on some occasion, “we forget.” How true that is! We’re only human, after all. (Except for the animals and rocks and stuff. And vegetables – don’t forget vegetables.) Anyway, before the highs and lows – and there were plenty of both in the Badger State in 2008 – fall out of our heads forever, let’s take a moment to take stock of the passing year. To think back. To smile. To cringe. Need a jump start? Glad to oblige. So here are just some of the things that got stuck in…

The city can be noisy and noxious. One recent morning, I stepped out my office door and was engulfed by the sound of a jackhammer and the toxic whiff of diesel fuel. At times like that, I find myself longing to get away to someplace quiet, wide open and wild. And just like that, I’m there. A mere two blocks east, bathed in sunlight, I watch ducks dunk to the bottom of the Summerfest lagoon for their lunch. The city has so many natural respites. Standing in the sand at Bradford Beach, I can stretch my sights to the blue…

You might call Daniel Diliberti the poster child for courthouse cronyism. Diliberti served 12 years as a Milwaukee County supervisor and voted for the infamous 2000 pension plan that granted huge payouts to his fellow workers while creating a crushing burden for taxpayers. But Diliberti not only avoided getting thrown out of office, he got a promotion, winning the 2004 election for county treasurer and nearly doubling his pay. He now earns $83,776 for a position with few duties. Indeed, as a board member, Diliberti joined colleagues on a resolution asking the state legislature to abolish the positions of treasurer,…

On the morning of Nov. 22, 1912, the “Rouse Simmons” set off in light snow flurries from Thompson Harbor, Mich., fully loaded with around 4,000 Christmas trees. The ship was headed for Chicago, but never got there. By the following afternoon, the snowy winds had intensified, and the ship was spotted off Kewaunee, Wis., flying a distress flag with sails tattered. It soon vanished. Scattered evergreens later washed up on shore, as did a bottle with a note from Capt. Herman Schuenemann: “I guess we are thru. Leaking bad. Endwald and Steve fell overboard. God help us.” Over the years,…

It’s a late summer evening and I’m standing on the chalk-white boulders of the Pier Wisconsin breakwater looking into the city. The triple masts of the S/V Denis Sullivan form a silhouette against the shimmering skyline. Two condominium towers, sleek and modern, rise above the Prospect Avenue bluff. To my left, a powerboat cuts the water between the glassy pilothouse of Discovery World and the Lakeshore State Park island. To my right, the art museum’s winged Calatrava reaches toward Lake Michigan’s blue horizon. Over the past decade, Milwaukee has come into its own. From the revitalization of Downtown and the…

Political campaigns can be merciless. A decade ago, Tommy Thompson was the bright face of the new Republican Party, nationally acclaimed as an innovator of Big Ideas like school choice, learnfare and W-2. But this summer, as he slunk out of Iowa after a humiliating loss in the straw poll, Thompson looked almost prehistoric, a dinosaur whose era was long gone. Certainly, Thompson wasn’t ready for prime time and seemed to have one bad hair day after another in the presidential debates. He entered too late and stumbled too often. But he also seemed oddly out of step, a centrist…

You might call it a suburbanite’s nightmare. Five years ago, attorney Patrick Dunphy moved from Brookfield to the wicked city, lured by the siren song of a high-rise condominium with a lovely lake view. Dunphy bought his condo in the 19-story, 1522 On the Lake building on Prospect Avenue, and quickly found he loved the city. Many of the new condos rising in Milwaukee are attracting suburbanites who encounter a Downtown that’s a vibrant, low-crime area packed with bars, restaurants, new retail, arts and entertainment. But all this urbanity inevitably attracts more development. Sure enough, Dunphy soon discovered a new…

The grimmest time of the year for every Wisconsin homeowner is the day the annual property tax bill arrives. Whether the assessment went up or down, whether the economy is rising or falling, whether the political leaders are Democrats or Republicans, you can depend on that bill to go up every time. It’s the most hated tax in Wisconsin. The state income tax gets snipped off every paycheck, and the repetition accustoms you (begrudgingly) to it. The sales tax falls with a daily drip, drip, drip that’s merely an annoyance. But the property tax bill hits home like an annual…