guide | Page 2

guide

January 18, 2008Feature Story

Pet Tales

Millions of animals inhabit Earth, though the meaning and magnificence of this fact hardly reaches us in lives set apart by paved roads and claimed lands. When our human-only days echo our disconnection from the rest of the animal kingdom, we may set the proverbial table for one more and invite a pet to join our lives. “A completely human life isn’t enough for most of us,” says Patricia McConnell, host of Wisconsin Public Radio’s nationally syndicated call-in show “Calling All Pets,” certified applied animal behaviorist and author of the 2002 book The Other End of the Leash. Our love…

January 9, 2008Feature Story

Tooth Picks

Many of us will be chomping Granny Smiths with perfectly straight, white teeth right through our golden years. But even with tarter control, whitening treatments, anti-plaque gels, sensitive-teeth pastes, even with pulsing, sonic, ionic, electric toothbrushes, a biannual visit to the dentist is still necessary. But today, thanks to modern breakthroughs in technology and techniques, going to the dentist for a checkup doesn’t have to be like going to the Grand Inquisitor for confession anymore. While there is evidence that ancient Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian cultures practiced dentistry, modern American dental science is a relatively new discipline. Before the 1830s,…

January 2, 2008Feature Story

Rankings by Municipality

2001 2006 % inc 1 Summit $302,349.00 $556,484.00 84% 2 South Milwaukee $123,232.00 $215,778.00 75% 3 St. Francis $107,067.00 $175,873.00 64% 4 Slinger $143,739.00 $232,356.00 62% 5 Milwaukee $97,137.00 $155,608.00 60% 6 Lisbon $223,917.00 $339,291.00 52% 7 Norway $204,791.00 $304,680.00 49% 8 Menomonee Falls $199,856.00 $296,260.00 48% 9 Oak Creek $149,249.00 $220,437.00 48% 10 Burlington $142,902.00 $210,160.00 47% 11 UnionGrove $143,443.00 $208,214.00 45% 12 Delafield $333,355.00 $483,336.00 45% 13 Cudahy $112,314.00 $162,390.00 45% 14 Vernon $214,117.00 $309,332.00 44% 15 Eagle $216,105.00 $306,581.00 42% 16 Grafton $183,762.00 $260,526.00 42% 17 Hartford $144,452.00 $204,633.00 42% 18 West Bend $147,130.00 $207,493.00 41% 19…

December 19, 2007Feature Story

The New Utopians

At Arnold & O’Sheridan, a Brookfield engineering firm, management has ditched traditional performance reviews in favor of career development plans that ask employees where they want to be in five years – and how management can help them get there. InPro Corp., a Muskego manufacturer, gives new employees a chance to learn more about their company by pairing them with advisers outside their own departments. At SC Johnson, minority employees are enrolled in a mentoring program – with a twist. They are mentors to senior executives, to help them “get” diversity. InPro, SC Johnson and Arnold & O’Sheridan are among…

December 19, 2007Feature Story

A+ Doctors

Kevin Svoboda didn’t know it, but his insistence on driving 90 miles to have Wauwatosa psychiatrist Dr. James Winston treat his anxiety was a life-or-death decision. During his normal appointment, Svoboda mentioned a slight tingling in his head and left arm. A licensed physical therapist, the 29-year-old Svoboda had dismissed it as something that would “go away on its own.” Winston, who has treated Svoboda for five years, suspected otherwise. Without waiting for Svoboda’s health plan’s approval, he ordered an immediate MRI. The scan revealed a brain tumor. Winston, who accompanied Svoboda to the test, broke the news. “He told…

December 19, 2007Feature Story

Legal Judgments

When it comes to lawyers these days, forget what Shakespeare had to say about killing them all. Instead, think Disney.    You’re a tiny fish and you happen upon three of the biggest, baddest sharks you ever saw. But before you bolt in the opposite direction, these sharks tell you they aren’t out to eat you at all. They’ve adopted a new motto: “Fish are friends, not food.” They’re trying to change their image.    Skeptical?    One attorney compares this scene from Disney’s latest animated ocean adventure, Finding Nemo, to  efforts by the State Bar ofWisconsin to change the…

December 19, 2007Culture & Style Feature Story

All The Fixings

Poverty is what made Alicia Avila an expert quilter. Avila grew up in a family of migrant workers who traveled regularly between Texas and Wisconsin and couldn’t afford new bed coverings. So Avila’s grandmother would save and sew remnants of cloth to make quilts, and Avila would mimic her, starting first by piecing scraps of paper together and then graduating to real stitches in time. Today, she carries on that tradition as an artist who has created and exhibited quilts, conducted classes and judged exhibitions. Her proudest moment was a recent quilt exhibition she had in the south Texas town…

December 19, 2007Feature Story

50 Suburbs Rated

The route home for a growing number of metro Milwaukee residents stretches the definition of suburbs. For many, the drive first includes 20 to 30 minutes of freeway cruising past city neighborhoods, inner-ring communities and beyond. Exit, and the rest of the route meanders along rustic roads, with no hint of a metropolis in sight. Home may be in the village of Jackson, Saukville or Fredonia; the town of Summit, Merton or Erin; the city of Oconomowoc, Grafton or Port Washington. It may be lakeside, wooded, in a clear-cut subdivision cropping up on former farmland or skirting a small downtown…

November 8, 2007Culture & Style Feature Story

Great Cheap Stuff

If it were so easy, would it be as exciting? Take, for instance, the line of (mostly) women waiting outside The Lang Companies warehouse in Delafield on a chilly fall morning, the air thick with anticipation for the sale beginning at 9 a.m. If you’re like me, you like a good deal. You like to know you got something super for a price no one will believe. The satisfaction is heightened when the compliments pour in. Do you keep it to yourself or tell everyone you meet what an incredible steal it was? Searching for a great deal seems to…

November 8, 2007Dining & Drink Feature Story

From Here to Pierogi

Your ancestors may come from somewhere west or south of Warsaw, but if you’re a Milwaukeean, the pierogi is yours, too. Of course, Classic Milwaukee isn’t as easy to find anymore. Factory buildings find themselves developed into Choice Addresses. The tattooed grandchildren of proud tool-and-die makers scratch out a living as temps and part-time coffee steamers. But all of the party DJs in the Yellow Pages haven’t yet drowned out the Old Time associations: accordions, very decorated churches, big voices, big hugs, heavy food. So before we (and our city) complete our Extreme Low Carb Lite Makeover, let’s wave the…