Taking on the governor, the mayor and ComEd

• Gov. Rod Blagojevich's name continues to grace one of the most irritating aspects of life in Illinois: the tollways. If the General Assembly really wants to stick it to Rod, they will turn down legislation that calls for his name to be removed from the signage.

Besides, if Blagojevich's hard-to-pronounce name is taken off those tollway signs, what will out-of-state visitors have to talk about as they race toward Wisconsin?

• Someone in the governor's office must have flunked remedial math. The governor was willing to shell out $41 million to tear down and rebuild the lecture hall where the NIU massacre occurred. Then he and others came to their senses and canceled the demolition plan … in favor of funding a statewide campus security program.

But for a plan that could actually save lives and not just pacify frayed emotions, he's willing to spend only $25 million?

• The latest addiction problem on college campuses is as close as the medicine cabinets.

There is such a hunger for mind-numbing painkillers that addicts and dealers are known to wait outside campus health centers … looking for students with fresh casts, slings or on crutches … and then offer to buy the leftovers.

• From the Department of Actions Speak Louder than Words: ComEd has changed the recorded message on its special toll-free phone number used by customers on the verge of having their power shut off.

As reported here last week, the very first thing heard by frantic customers who call to stop disconnection was "Para seguir en espanol oprima el numero 9."

Then they heard: "To continue in English, press 2."

Edison executives denied the Spanish-first message sent a subliminal message that Hispanic customers are more likely to face shut off notices. They told me that having such a phone line was just good customer service.

Now the toll-free number begins in English.

That's customer service.

• Speaking of knowing your customers, isn't it great news that Macy's is installing a Bronx-blooded New Yorker and company-lifer to make some changes in the Chicago operation? He will be in charge of making sure the stores around here suit Chicago tastes.

• With the impending return of the tremendous Chuck Swirsky as Chicago Bulls play-by-play announcer and a shake-up in the Blackhawks announcement booth, stop to consider how many black voices are working in those positions in Chicago. Despite the dominance of black players in football, baseball and basketball, you won't need two hands to count the number of top Chicago play-by-play announcers who are black. You won't even need a finger.

• Now that the Chicago Police Department is getting machine guns for officers, the next time a cougar is cornered in an alley … watch the fur fly.

• I don't know about you, but global warming has been killing me so far this spring. Please pass the parka.

• If you want to see the future of the Chicago riverfront, take a day trip to St. Louis. They have a giant land-based casino and hotel complex that is just what Mayor Daley envisions for our riverfront according to some in-the-know Chicago developers.

• Maybe the mayor knows something about flying that I don't … or maybe his new aviation commissioner knows something about the mayor that Daley doesn't want out.

The new city aviation department commissioner is the former building department commissioner. Maybe he was promoted to that job because they're expecting a porch collapse in terminal two?

• Ask the parents of any newborn or anyone who is overworked: Sleep is the new sex.

• If Chicago gets the 2016 Olympics and wants to make a positive statement to the world, the Olympic torch run will be canceled. The ancient games never had a torch run. It started in 1936 when the Nazis thought it would make a nice display during the Berlin Games. It was intended to symbolize Hitler's ideas of Aryan supremacy in the sports world.

• It passed with no general attention a few Sundays ago: an unusual campaign by the Archdiocese of Chicago to recruit new priests. At the end of Masses throughout the Chicago area, cards were passed out in the pews and parishioners were told to write down the names of men who should be priests. I don't think the turn-in-a-priest promotion went too well.

• However you say it, the advice is a solid way to fix what ails you: Get beyond it, move on, leave it behind; let go and let God.