Cook Co. soap box

Bartlett voters, start your engines …

If Bartlett voters in the 14th Congressional District don't think it's weird enough that they'll be voting twice for the same office on Feb. 5 -- once to choose a party nominee to fill Dennis Hastert's seat temporarily and once to fill it permanently -- it gets odder. The governor picked March 8 for the special general election in which party nominees for temporary fill-in will face off -- and that, friends, is on a Saturday. Because it's the only race on the ballot, the governor thought a rare Saturday vote might help turnout. We shall see.

Take it with a grain of road salt

The outlook is for greater than normal snowfall, so get ready. Or not. ABC 7 meteorologist Jerry Taft recently told us to take those long-term forecasts with a grain of salt. Science isn't there to accurately predict beyond seven days. Now, there's a refreshingly honest forecast.

Good work

Speaking of salt, kudos to the road crews for staying on top of a slick situation and keeping the highways from turning into hockey rinks during the recent ice storms.

Return Jesus … no questions asked

Rosemary Grundeis of the 800 block of Cass Lane in Elk Grove Village might be forgiven for wondering about the spirit of Christmas. The kind of mischief-making that all too often escalates to vandalism and petty thievery hit particularly hard when the baby Jesus was stolen this week from her Nativity scene. Husband David gave her the set when they were first married and son Mike has put Jesus in the manger since about 1989. "I'm really heartbroken," she said. "It's really sentimental. … A new one just wouldn't be the same." We can only join in her plea, posted on a makeshift sign by the manger: "Please return Jesus."

In praise of the letter to the editor

Regular Fence Post readers will recognize the name Warren Sunde. The former Prospect Heights alderman, who died last week, didn't care much for Palwaukee Airport (now Chicago Executive Airport). He wrote frequent letters that were critical, argumentative and demanding -- suggesting (that's the nice word) that the airport was an environmental blot and an economic drain on the landscape of Prospect Heights and Wheeling. Agree, or don't agree, but Mr. Sunde had a point of view and he used the bully pulpit that was at his disposal to try to effect change. In an age when more people prefer to hide behind anonymity, we honor the Warren Sundes of the world, who proudly stand behind their opinions with a signature on an old-fashioned letter to the editor.

Roulette Road?

Now that the state is moving toward using gambling money to fix up and build roads, will there be a Blackjack Byway, a Hold 'Em Highway, a Let It Ride Lane?

No Santas in summer

All those holiday lights on homes and decorations in the yards are real pretty to look at. But they are a real eyesore if they are left on the lawns and hanging from the gutters well after the Christmas season is over. Nothing quite as silly looking as a plastic Santa still on the lawn on the Fourth of July.

Doubly helpful

Kudos to Elgin Community College for finding a way to make both teenagers and their parents happy. The school is offering a two-part class -- taught by an 18-year-old, no less -- that offers kids instruction on setting up or upgrading their MySpace pages. That's one for the kids. It also teaches them the HTML coding that will help protect them from online creeps. And that ought to make parents happy.