Before the year ends, I'd like to point out a few things

There are so many loose ends on the last day of the year.

• If Chicago's incoming police superintendent wants to shake up a department stung by corruption and misconduct, he should adopt the punishment now being given to wayward cops in Bangkok. They have to wear armbands of shame.

In the spirit of the old scarlet letter that branded adulteresses, misbehaving officers are forced to wear large, bright pink armbands with a picture of the animated character Hello Kitty and two hearts.

• New Math: For every flight that lands early, there is a flight leaving late still parked at its assigned gate.

• War without end, random murders, missing wives, child abuse and continuing corruption do not shake my faith in a Higher Power. They unsettle my faith in mankind.

• Timely advice for 2008: Don't assume all politicians are corrupt just because many are.

• Saddest reminder: Flowers in the snow at 55th and Central Avenue across from Midway Airport marking the spot where a little boy was killed in his family's van when a jetliner couldn't stop in a 2005 snowstorm and plowed through the fence.

• Most unnerving stat: Even though 2,400 bridges in Illinois are structurally deficient, one top state engineer says that "probably doesn't mean they'll fall down."

• With the Chicago Theatre being sold to a New Yorker, Macy's replacing Marshall Field's and NYC's Joffrey Ballet opening on State Street, forget that silly "Second City" nickname. We're becoming New York's Annex.

• Personal to the woman who drove me from the train station the other day in Chicago taxi No. 805: Hopefully, anger management classes were on your Christmas list.

I'm not sure how you knew the nationality of the cabbie that pulled in front of us. Whether he was indeed "Somali" as you said, announcing to a stranger/reporter that you'd like to "shoot every one of them" seemed a little harsh for bad driving.

Next time you feel such rage, might I suggest focusing on the American flag sticker in your window or the Rosary beads hanging from your mirror.

• Interesting advertisement for a hiking gear store seen in a CTA bus "Everyone in the car behind this bus is naked. It's great in there."

• Personal to the Illinois tollway minutemen who came to the rescue of my family in the Tri-State median as we were headed to Thanksgiving dinner: We all gave thanks that day for your help changing our flat tire.

I'm not sure how you knew that the two $20 bills you found in your truck were from me, but since the gratuity was returned in the form of a tollway check, I have deposited an equal amount in a Salvation Army red kettle.

• Multiple choice question: Which is more important to America?

1. Immigration; 2. Taxes; 3. Terrorism; 4. Mitt Romney's prayer life.

Maybe we should judge the candidates by this criterion: Do they attend to their faith regularly or religiously?

• Equal time: The veteran spokesman for the village of Rosemont called to complain that I took a cheap shot at Rosemont's late mayor Donald E. Stephens in a recent column.

Village impresario Gary Mack said he never saw Mr. Stephens give two warm kisses on the cheeks of anyone, as I had noted. Further he said my suggestion that the official uniform of Rosemont was a black shirt and black slacks could be said about many other communities.

• Until the Bears resolve to get a new, top-shelf quarterback, Chicago's football hangover will continue well into the New Year.

• When there is bad weather and a radio announcer suggests "you stay home if you don't have to go out," exactly who is being warned? With gas prices at $3 a gallon, do people really go on joy rides anymore?

• Attention Blackberry users at O'Hare: standing over a urinal is not the place to be multi-tasking.

• Quick now, how long has it been since a nuclear plant was built in the United States? 34 years.

• One phrase that should be banned in 2008 (or at least taxed): "What a difference a day makes."

• If you know someone who needs a job in the New Year, might I suggest the U.S. Border Patrol. The "For Hire" sign is posted.

• Sage advice to the Chicago city hall employees who thought it was funny to distribute an e-mail to hundreds of people in and out of Chicago government, featuring close-up photos of a colorfully-tattooed male sex organ. Next time, it might be wise to send it via your personal e-mail instead of your city e-mail address. How is it that you haven't yet been fired?

• I know someone who was seriously injured while using a razor blade to remove a city sticker from her car window. If there was one, there must be others.

• If it wasn't the home of so many city power brokers, I'd bet that the American Indian head logo welcoming motorists to Sauganash would have been gone long ago.

• Memo to Mayor Daley, re: Lake Shore Drive snow-fencing. Plastic is not the new wrought iron.

• Maybe there are some people out there who actually enjoy New Year's Eve, but I've never met any.

• Finally, to quote the great American philosopher Barry Manilow: "It's just another New Year's Eve, it's just another Auld Lang Syne. But when we're through this New Year, you'll see will be just fine."