Some days you’re the dog; some days you’re the hydrant
By James Norton

I get a kick out of people.  Or is it that I want to kick the crap out of people.  Some times I don’t remember.  It must be the bi-polar, manic depressive whack-a-doodle that lies just below my surface.
I know I lost a lot of people in my last rant.  I was surprised only one of the people I threw a shot into bothered to pick up the phone – albeit not directly to me – to comment.

I even got comments and questions from the “crystal ballers” as we affectionately call them on the weblog.  They are the Wednesday morning political quarterbacks that volley pot shots back and forth at each other and at us sometimes.  While I was purposely vague and mysterious in my last rant, it will most likely be the last rant where you, the reader, isn’t absolutely sure of whom I speak.
I used to get the “oh I don’t read your paper” and “that paper’s a rag” cracks.  Used to.
Funny how the right people go ballistic on the occasional Wednesday morning ten minutes after the paper is delivered to City Hall or the DPW Yard.  But they don’t read it.
Now I’m getting the “I’ll set him straight” and “let’s have coffee” remarks although not personally.  Secret squirrel to the end by God, cone of silence and everything.
I had a great summer with my kids when they were here for two months.  Every year it seems like they are here less and less and now that they are moving to England with their mother, it will seem even worse.  They will still be here for their summers and I think that it’s pretty cool that they will be in a country rich with culture and history and not so steeped in some of the more pervasive urban features that seem to dominate today’s youth.
I know I work a lot and I spend little time amongst the masses, so not too many people know this – but I recently made a “life change” as it might be called.  I stopped eating sugar and bread and pasta and salt and red meat and stopped smoking, drinking alcohol and coffee – and I no longer ingest anything that isn’t classified as “organic”.  I decided to change all this in one day four weeks ago.
If I’m going to suffer, I might as well go for the gold.
Needless to say its been an odd past 30 days, but I’ll be honest, I feel better than I have in years and the bonus so far is that I weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 pounds less than I did 4 weeks ago.
I didn’t do it for my weight, but I’ll take it anyways.    I did it for my health, and took my mother and my wife along for the journey and I’m happy to say that I haven’t seen my mother with this much energy in years and she looks great – same with my wife.  Additional bonuses and I’ll take those too.
Speaking of odd past 30 days, it was a special election, the week before Labor Day.  Ghost town?  Yes.  Anyone going to remember to go vote?  No.  That means you have to physically pull people out of their homes, assuming they’re here and not vacationing, to go and vote.  I know this because I won my seat in a special election.
I liked Joe Mackey in the Primary, but talk about the big bomb.  Two things were terribly wrong that day – first, what the hell were you thinking when you asked Cathy O’Dea to run your headquarters?  And second, why is it that nobody around this city understands that if you underestimate the “progressive” or “liberal” politicians today you will get spanked?  And spanked you got.  And he won’t be the last.
In the upcoming municipal elections, I think Tom Taylor and Jack Connolly will be reelected and the same goes for all of the Aldermen-At-Large incumbents.  Don’t get me wrong, I like both Steve Glines and Marty Martinez for different reasons, but they will probably lose.  They will make strong showings which will help them both later on.
I really don’t know what to say about the Ward 5 Alderman race – I lived in that ward for a while and it saddens me that no matter who wins that race, nobody truly wins.  I know we are going to eventually endorse one of those two, but honestly, I can’t tell which one would be played by Jim Carrey and which one would be played by Jeff Daniels.  What I would love to see is their faces when someone tells them what I meant by that last crack – because I doubt either one of those two intellectual giants will figure it out.