The already chaotic Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor got even zanier last week when NBC News revealed that on-again, off-again candidate David Crowley was associated with an old Twitter account, @No_pork_plz, a.k.a. “Dirt McGirk.” The account, which was active from 2010 to 2014, contained offensive tweets like “#confession I’ve never boink a white woman!! Is that bad???” Crowley denied responsibility for the naughtiness, saying the account was shared by up to a dozen people back in the day and used to promote a now-shuttered Milwaukee club. Ray Nitti was also involved.
Is “Dirt McGirk” the only “burner” social media account in Milwaukee history? Absolutely not. Here are five more examples of mysterious, anonymous, and mostly dead accounts with Milwaukee ties. (In order to keep things simple, all of them are from Twitter/X.)
@CityofMKE
Years active: 2008-present
Not to be confused with Milwaukee’s official X account, @cityofmilwaukee, @CityofMKE bills itself as an account run by “a team of locals dedicated to making Milwaukee a more socially connected and collaborative city.” The identity of that team is anyone’s guess, though the account’s copious retweets of local urbanists, developers, and Light The Hoan folks point to some likely suspects.
@MKEStreetcar
Years active: 2009-2015
Not to be confused with the streetcar’s official X account, @thehopmke, @MKEStreetcar predates the very existence of The Hop by several years. Yes, @MKEStreetcar was a streetcar advocacy account, banging to pro-streetcar drum back when the thing was still a twinkle in urbanists’ eyes. (The final tweet, from 2015: “I’m going to be built!”) The identity of the folks behind @MKEStreetcar is anyone’s guess, though the account’s copious retweets of Urban Milwaukee articles point to some likely suspects.
@Mil_verine
Years active: 2010-2011
Before shirtless Milwaukee power-walker Milverine officially introduced himself to the city in October 2011—and long before he was profiled by Vice and honored by the Milwaukee Brewers—he was a mythic creature akin to Bigfoot. People shared sightings online. Other folks posted blurry photos. And at least one person created a Milverine Twitter account. “The square root of justice, is me, shirtless,” reads an early tweet. “Have to do some spring cleaning this weekend. The winter left a lot of justice unserved,” reads the final tweet, months before that official introduction. Huh.
@bonnienohow
Years active: 2013-2014
For a brief period of time—roughly the time between the end of A.V. Club Milwaukee and the beginning of Milwaukee Record, in fact—a mysterious blogger known as Bonnie No How ran a delightfully snippy and sassy site dedicated to Milwaukee music. Bonnie loved bands like Rio Turbo and NO/NO, got annoyed at acts like Brett Newski and GGOOLLDD, and named me (Matt) one of their “Top Five Crushes of 2013.” Who was Bonnie No How? I (Matt) actually found out in 2018, and was even offered the Bonnie No How site and socials. (I declined.) I’ll take your secret to the grave, Bonnie.
@DatelineDudes
Years active: 2014-2018
Okay, this one isn’t really Milwaukee-related, but I totally just remembered that I (Matt) used to run a Twitter account dedicated to long-running NBC true-crime series Dateline. I’d tweet along during shows, posting memes and, um, making jokes about murder. It was a companion account to a more popular account, @DatelineDivas, which was run by ladies. It was a different time.
20 minutes into every episode of #Dateline pic.twitter.com/uRVZXop01M
— Dateline Dudes (@DatelineDudes) July 29, 2017
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