And the winner is...

After the controversial post about frontrunner Karen Cinpinski, the voting gap narrowed significantly. With close to 700 votes cast, Karen won with a margin of 42 votes.

So, congratulate Karen on her win...and click below to read her acceptance speech.

She'll start making the blog her 'own' next week, and we hope you stay tuned to see where she takes this thing.

From Karen...

You like me, you really like me!

Even though I’m not clutching an Oscar (it’s a cup of coffee) I’m going to attempt to express the excitement I’m feeling right now—well, if my hands would stop shaking for a minute—no, it’s not from the caffeine—I’m nervous, anxious and incredibly ecstatic!

Like I said, I’ve never been the “popular girl”—never had the hip clothes or knew the cool things to say, but what I am is passionate about Milwaukee, writing and learning. Not only was it fun reading each entry and the barrage of comments, this was a HUGE learning experience as well. Nevertheless, it boils down to those who believed in me enough to vote. Thank you. Even if my name wasn’t on your email ballot, I’m confident I’ll prove to have what it takes to earn your respect and do this site and city proud!

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve gotten down to the core of this contest by debating the rights, wrongs and fairness of this process. While I’m positive this dispute will continue, I encourage you, the readers, to continue offering your suggestions, comments and criticisms.

In addition, let’s not forget the other finalists who obviously put a lot into this competition! (Cue the applauds) Molly and Chris, I hope you continue to follow Play in the City and offer your input. You have talent, guys, keep using it!

Anyway, let’s get this rolling! I’m thrilled to take on responsibilities for Play in the City (although I have some big shoes to fill) and can’t wait to see what happens next (after this contest, you never know)! I have a lot in store for you, so thanks for sticking with me! I hope you stay and hangout with me for a while.

Comments

[Manju]

You go girl!

[Scott]

Congratulations to you! I look forward to reading about your adventures!

[Mike]

So who came in 2nd only 42 votes behind???

[Christi]

The only thing I ask is that you bring me along on a few of your blog adventures like Erin used to.

Just teasin'. Congratulations to you Karen. I'm excited to continue reading!!!

[Krista]

Rock on!!

Congrats :)

[Andre]

You're right, Erin does have ridiculously large feet. Congrats.

[KarenC]

Christi-

I have a year (or more) to get to know all of you and vice versa! You never know!

[KarenC]

Speaking of ridiculously large feet, I wear a size 11. This mean, whoever takes over after me will have the same issue with filling shoes. But let’s not jump the gun! I haven't even started writing yet!

-AKA Big Foot

[Erin]

Congratulations, Karen. :)

[tiffany]

Karen,
Since you will be writing for this blog now and you say you are passionate about learning, I thought you might want to know that the noun form of applaud is "applause," not "applauds." I also read in your personal blog that you used the word "peace" instead of "piece" (as in "I gave my peace"). Finally it is not "o'natural," (which could actually be a funny name for an all-natural Irish restaurant!), it is "au naturel." I know others will say I should be an English teacher, but I don't think there is anything wrong with proper spelling and grammar, even in an informal blog. Just some tips for the future. Hope you have fun further exploring the city and writing about it. Sounds like a fun job! Good luck to you!

[Dave]

WEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOH WEEEEEEEEEE OOOOOOOOOOH Grammar Police!!! Grammar Police!!!!!!!!

[dan]

Actually Dave, Tiffany isn't the only person that gets turned away by that sort of thing. An occasional typo is one thing, but when you start to make that many mistakes in a pretty small sample size, it might be time to embrace a little constructive criticism. It’s kind of silly to label tiffany the "grammar police" when everything she said was constructive, genuine and right.

Congrats Karen. Nice job and good luck.

[Mike]

The spelling and grammar errors are not shocking considering how young the writer is. Didn't she graduate only a few years ago from a school called "WSU" or whatever that stands for?

[dan]

Yeah Mike, I was trying to figure that out too. It could be either Washington State, Wayne State in Detroit, Winona State in Minnesota or several other WSUs. Which is it Karen?

[KarenC]

Everyone-

I guess I’ll give myself a pat on the back since a couple of you are focusing more on the one typo in my acceptance blog instead of what the posting stood for.

I appreciate constructive criticism; most definitely. Sometimes typos happen and for some reason, you don’t catch them—even after proofing the document many times and having several eyes look at it as well. Yes, I made a mistake and it was my fault (or I could blame Microsoft Word for not catching it, but that would be silly). Haha.

Tiffany was right about the mistakes she found and kindly pointed out. I’m okay with that. But on the subject of my personal blog, it’s just a writers log for me to share daily thoughts or activities with my friends. I use it to goof around and write things as I think of them. Out of the 11 pieces or so I have on that site, two errors were mentioned. I guess that’s not “that many mistakes” especially when it’s something I’ve typed spontaneously. So what was found are occasional mistakes, not something that should turn a reader off for good.

Next I suppose you’ll ask why I linked that site if I didn’t want people to read and criticize my thoughts/writing. It was a simple way for people to see that I have other writing styles. That’s all. I like writing and it’s one place where I can say what I want.

I would appreciate you guys giving me a shot. Mistakes happen and I’ll own up to them. I’ve found typos in professional magazines before too. It’s evident that no one is perfect (we learned that long ago). I apologize for the typo and didn’t mean to cause a stir. Thanks for your thoughts.

[KarenC]

I was getting to that, Dan. Indeed, I’m a 2005 college graduate from WSU—or Winona State University in Minnesota (I would have spelt that out in the bio, but there was a word limit). Furthermore, I am a new writer. I also admit to not being schooled in writing, but that doesn’t make me under qualified for this position. Writing is one of my passions, so I’m striving to improve and better my ability daily. I believe Play in the City will help me achieve this. It takes a lot for someone like me with little professional writing experience to put their work out there on the chopping block, but I did and I can handle it; and I’m proud of myself! As said before, whether this breaks me down to build me up, I’m completely confident I will succeed in the end.

[Mike]

Not that it's a big deal but I find it curious how the winner, presumably, spent 2002-2005 at an out of state school (WSU). I guess it doesn't matter much in her writing skill, which she has, but more so in knowing Milwaukee better than someone who may have spent those 3, 4, 5 years in Milwaukee watching it evolve and breathe. Maybe I'm reading into it too much.

[Erin]

Dan, I think Dave was joking. He has a very low tolerance for spelling and grammatical errors, just like I do. I'm sure he appreciated the fact that while I'm sure Tiffany wasn't the only who noticed the errors, she was the only one with the balls to speak up!

But moving away from that whole issue, best of luck to you, Karen. I look forward to seeing how you'll make PITC your own and to reading about your adventures in Milwaukee. :)

[Erin]

I don't think the writer of this needs to necessarily know Milwaukee really well. I sure didn't when I started, and readers got to discover new things along the way with me, as well as throw their two cents in when they wanted. Such is the beauty of a blog!

I think you are indeed reading too much into it, Mike!

[Mike]

I really disagree...a person who literally represents Milwaukee in the blogging community ought to know Milwaukee practically inside-out. A Milwaukeean will know the best-kept secrets and allow a visitor to go beyond the events calendar that a hotel concierge would provide. Their perspective will draw ought the true essence and "magic" of Milwaukee that a non-local/visitor is seeking.

[KarenC]

Just to make things clear, I spent nearly 17 years living in Brookfield, which is hardly 15 minutes out of central Milwaukee (give or take). I went to college in our neighboring state, but spent many weekends, holidays, and entire summers in Brew City. I can assure you that I’ve been around for the evolution of MKE.

[Krista]

You guys, this is getting absolutely ridiculous. Now is not the time to criticize for where she's spent the last three, four, five years of her life.

She's from Milwaukee (Brookfield). She's living their now. She's writing this blog from her eyes and her perspective, so how about all of you let her do that and simmer down until you have a valid complaint about the blog? And as of now, there isn't even a BLOG, so let her settle in.

She won. Crying about where or what WSU is, or how old she is, isn't going to give Play in the City to anyone else.

And in case any of you missed that part, Erin also graduated from college in 2005. And I'm pretty sure the success of this site proves how well that worked out.

That's all I've got.

[dan]

Who complained about where or what WSU was. It was just a question. What's wrong with you people? Somebody says something that isn't blind paise and you assume it's an attack. I just asked a question. Mike just stated an opinion. We're all friends here. Lighten up!

[Kaitlyn]

I take back every thing bad I said to Dan.

Someone please give me an English class to teach and let our new winner know that although "spelt" is used correctly, that spelling of the word looks ghetto and makes me think you are referring to a wheat product.

[Steve M.]

Let's see, 17 years in Brookfield, 4 years in Minnesota and less than 2 years in Milwaukee? :) (I kid, I kid)