Looking ahead to the second half of 2012
Thankfully, most memories are shorter than the six-day weather forecast. Weather predictions beyond that point are as helpful as a book on how to read.
Trying to determine what will happen six months from now is even riskier, especially when news changes by the moment.
After last week's look at the first half of 2012, here is the forecast for the last six months of the year:
July: If McCormick Place is still standing after hosting the G8 and NATO summits (which have been targeted by international anarchists) in the spring, then the Special Libraries Association will hold it's annual conference there from July 15-18.The libraries conference theme of #8220;practicing agility in an open world economy#8221; is especially fitting in a year when Chicago will close libraries one day a week to save money. The city joins a growing list of library systems across the country that are being downsized. Competing with Kindle, iBooks, Google, Yahoo and all other things electronic, libraries everywhere are an endangered species. To coincide with the convention, the Chicago Public Libraries Mission Statement should #8212; but I predict won't #8212; be adjusted as follows: #8220;We welcome and support all people in their enjoyment of reading and pursuit of lifelong learning ... most of the time.Working together, we strive to provide equal access to information, ideas and knowledge through books, programs and other resources ... except on Mondays.We believe in the freedom to read, to learn, to discover ... six days a week.#8221;August: If you woke up on Aug. 15 to the news that more than 75 men, women and children had been murdered at one location on the South Side, even by Chicago's current standards of violence that would rightly be called a #8220;massacre.#8221;Two hundred years ago that happened near 18th and Calumet when Potawatomi Indians ambushed U.S. soldiers who had evacuated Fort Dearborn. Indian fighters won.The short but deadly assault was known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre ... until three years ago, when Chicago Park District officials sanitized the title. At the site of the massacre, they decided to name a park #8220;Battle at Fort Dearborn Park,#8221; thereby relegating it to the level of a prize fight or a Super Bowl.On the 200th anniversary of the Fort Dearborn Massacre, park district officials should #8212; but I predict will not #8212; rename it Fort Dearborn Massacre Park. September: For the first time, golf's greatest event will come to the Chicago area. From Sept. 25-30, the Ryder Cup between the USA and Europe will be played at Medinah Country Club in the Western suburbs. On its website, Ryder Cup Team USA was kind enough to put the DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau as the lead link #8212; even ahead of the Chicago Convention Bureau. The DuPage CVB is squandering that great opportunity, however, by making no reference to the Ryder Cup whatsoever on its homepage. The Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau, also listed on the official Ryder Cup site, also neglects to provide any information (as does Chicago, but it is a suburban event). Chicago and the Western suburbs do get great treatment from one Ryder Cup team: the Europeans. Their website offers glowing reviews and photos of Naperville, Chicago and Medinah. Prediction: Tiger Woods will momentarily find his game in match play as America beats the odds to regain the cup. October: As the Ryder Cup ends, baseball, football, basketball and hockey all intersect in the most glorious month for all-around sports fans.Prediction: The Cubs and White Sox will play in the World Series; Bears will be on the road to Super Bowl; Bulls to the NBA finals and Blackhawks to another Stanley Cup. November: And Ron Paul will be elected President. December: As you pull out boxes of expensive LED Christmas lights that you splurged on last year, they won't work. Despite ads pledging longer usage than regular lights and some sales people who promise LEDs might last 20 years, they are the biggest scam since Bernie Madoff.While it is true that the small, plastic LED lights themselves have much longer life spans than glass filament-style bulbs, the wiring is the same. And they, too, are made in China. The result is a product that will cause just as much swearing as its predecessor.Regardless, some people won't bother putting up lights because the world is to end on Dec. 21 according to the Mayan calendar. Prediction: We'll still be here on the 22nd.#8220;Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.#8221;#160; ~ Carl Sandburg#376; Chuck Goudie, whose column appears each Monday, is the chief investigative reporter at ABC 7 News in Chicago. The views in this column are his own and not those of WLS-TV. He can be reached by email at chuckgoudie@gmail.com and followed at twitter.com/ChuckGoudie and facebook.com/ChuckGoudie.