Did McCarthy single-handedly win, or lose, the mayoral election on Monday?

Chicago woke up Monday morning to the first significant snowfall of the season, which of course got some more trivial-minded broadcast types determined to ask the ultimate political question.

McCARTHY: Cracking down on 'dibs'

Dibs, or no?

AS IN SHOULD people be allowed to stake out a parking spot near their homes and claim it for their own, just because they managed to clear it of snowfall.

Because it also was a day for many of the mayoral aspirants to file their nominating petitions to get on the ballot, it meant candidates got the question put to them – yea or nay?

And no pussyfooting about how it’s a stupid non-issue meant to divert attention away from serious problems confronting Chicago. Which is the way I feel about the issue – a stance that I’m sure will cause some to want to mock me.

For the record, most of the candidates tried to get out of answering the question, but ultimately wound up deciding that people have a right to stake a claim to a parking spot come winter weather.

ALL EXCEPT FOR Garry McCarthy – the one-time law enforcement official from metro New York who came to Chicago to be police superintendent, then got fired by soon-to-be-former Mayor Rahm Emanuel to try to divert criticism from himself over the police shooting death of teenager Laquan McDonald.

McCarthy is likely to be he preferred mayoral candidate of those people eager to express support for law-and-order and police above all others, and who see anything less than such an extreme attitude as being chaos run amok upon our society.

But on this issue, he came out in favor of cracking down on people who think they have a “right” to a particular parking space.

“That’s a bad idea. It causes conflict. Anything that causes conflict, I think, is a bad idea,” McCarthy told reporter-type people.

NOW I’LL BE the first to admit that it’s a total pain in the behind to have to use a shovel to clear one’s car free from heavy snowfall. It takes time, it can be freezing, and one comes off totally soaking wet – then having to get into the car and tend to whatever business they’re doing.

To then come back home to find out someone else took the space for their own automobile? I can comprehend how some people would be p-o’ed.

But it’s one of the realities of urban life. Parking one’s car is always a problem. If you want to have a guarantee of a private spot, then you have to pay for it.

Either that, or go move to a suburban area, or some part of the country where snowfall just isn’t much of an issue. My guess is that if you go out there, you’ll find out just how preferable your life situation is better off here, and your complaints about winter-time parking will come off as downright petty.

BUT THERE ARE those people who want to view it as some sort of inherent right, somewhere along their ability to own a firearm, to have a personal parking spot and stake a claim to it. Almost as though they think they’re 19^th Century prospectors panning for gold in isolated spots.

So I have no doubt that McCarthy’s comments, no matter how trivial they truly are, will instigate some people to vote against him, Heck, I’ve already seen one anonymous commenter label McCarthy a “communist.”

Which I’m sure would grossly offend Sen. Joe of Wisconsin, as though his name were being taken in vain.

But the fact that some voters will make their Feb. 26 decision based off of the early Monday snowfall is the fact that actually grossly offends me – quite possibly more than those who think they have the right to vandalize a car that dared to park in a spot they think is theirs!

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Baseball in the snow, rain, heat or gloom of night? Not exactly

It seems Major League Baseball would like to think of itself as the equivalent of the United States Postal Service.

Would Chicago baseball really be better if this monstrosity had been built nearly 30 years ago? Image provided by StadiumPage.com

You know, that jazz about snow, rain, heat or gloom of night not keeping the postman from fulfilling his rounds? Professional baseball teams began their 2018 season back on March 29 with the same theory that they weren’t going to let inclement weather prevent them from playing their games.

THAT’S NOT QUITE the reality of this season, which is now about two-and-a-half weeks old.

All throughout the East coast and Midwest – whose ball clubs are the heart-and-soul of professional baseball – there have been reports of teams playing in crummy weather (rain and snow) on occasion. Although the inclement weather has been more likely to cancel ballgames.

Just this weekend, the Chicago White Sox traveled to Minneapolis for what was supposed to be a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins – only to have three of the games cancelled due to snow. No word yet on when those games will be made up – other than the fact that having to make up that many games in one shot will be an inconvenience later this season.

Sunday was Jackie Robinson Day across baseball, but ...

In fact, the White Sox have had four of their 16 scheduled games thus far called due to inclement weather. That’s one-quarter of the season.

IT’S NOT JUST the White Sox. The Chicago Cubs had their Opening Day last week delayed due to snow. On Sunday, their Wrigley Field game against the Atlanta Braves was postponed due to this weekend’s heavy rainfall. Which means we won’t get to see either Chicago ball club take part in the annual April 15 tribute to Jackie Robinson and professional baseball’s racial integration where everybody wears uniform number 42.

... since neither Chicago team played, ...

Some people might have rejoiced in the Saturday ballgame in which the Cubs came from behind to win 14-10. But Cubs manager Joe Maddon grumbled about the rain that soaked the playing field so thoroughly he was convinced the ballgame should never have been played.

... No. 42 locally remains with these two

Moments like this get a certain type of person all worked up in saying baseball is stupid for even bothering to play ballgames this time of the year. They should know better than to fight against Mother Nature, because she’s a tough ol’ broad who never loses.

Some argue baseball shouldn’t begin play until sometime in May. While others argue that the first few weeks of the season should all be played in southern or west coast cities – or in places where the locals built stadiums with the retractable roofs that could keep the field (and fans) dry while games take place.

IT’S AN ARGUMENT I really don’t buy into – largely because I could see how it would put teams at a disadvantage if they had to play the first few weeks of the season on the road.

The first ballgame ever in Toronto (1977) saw White Sox infielder Jack Brohamer having to be innovative to get across the snow-covered turf of Exhibition Stadium

Plus, I’m sure those west coast and southern cities with teams would complain about having to stage so many of their home games so early in the season – which would wind up with them being road-bound at season’s end. If they’re actually contending for a league pennant, that would seriously stink.

But why I really don’t get into the idea is the fact that, as I wrote earlier, those Midwestern and Eastern cities are the ones with the long-standing baseball franchises with history and tradition.

Sun-shiny days like this will be with us soon enough

Part of that “tradition” is that fans know if they’re going to attend an early-season game, you bundle up to cope with the weather. It’s part of the reason why baseball attendance goes up come June – that and the coming of summer break means kids attending a game can actually contemplate staying for the whole thing (10:30 p.m. is NOT an uncommon finishing time for a ballgame).

YES, IT WAS kind of freakish last week when on the same day the Cubs’ Opening Day game at Wrigley Field was delayed because of snow, the White Sox managed to play (their home Opening Day had been the week before, so it was just an ordinary ballgame).

Official attendance for that game was just over 10,000 tickets sold (which is probably mostly the season ticket base), although reports indicated only about 900 people showed up – and I saw one broadcast type who said her personal count of people in the stands was about 300.

It’s quirks like this that can make baseball and its fans interesting – far more than those people who think ball clubs are entitled to have 40,000-or-so capacity crowds for all 81 home games.

So no, I’m not for delaying the start of baseball. For I actually get a jolt from seeing regular-season games taking place in the cool of a Midwestern spring. I also see the presence of baseball as evidence that these outbursts of wintry-like weather are merely the final strands of winter – and that we’ll soon move on to complaining about the 100-degree temperatures and how “It’s too hot!” to live here.

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EXTRA: Snow falls on Chicago – Sox play anyway, while Cubs snooze

So much for the dual day games by both the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox played Monday.

The ONLY first pitch Monday afternoon, as I viewed it on television. No, I wasn't up to braving the 35-degree temperatures or the snowfall. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

It seems the Monday morning snow caused the Cubs to reschedule Monday’s game for Tuesday. Monday was supposed to be the Cubs’ home opener for 2018. But the Cubs tried to make things a little cutesy , with photographs of ballplayers throwing snowballs and taking "selfies" of themselves on the slushy Wrigley Field turf

AS FOR THE White Sox, they were the team that rescheduled their night game Monday to a day game, figuring it would be a little less cold for the fans.

But as groundskeeper Roger Bossard said prior to the ballgame, he figured out a way to use lawnmowers as makeshift snowblowers. Between that and turning on the hoses to spray the Guaranteed Rate Field turf with 50-degree water, the White Sox were able to melt and clear away the snow.

Making it likely that the White Sox get in their ballgame with just a little delay (about 1:30 p.m., rather than the reskedded 1:10 p.m.). Which the White Sox thought was a better option than playing two games Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

All I know is that in my home neighborhood, I took the dogs for a walk in the morning and they enjoyed the light snowfall that, oddly enough, didn’t accumulate at all on sidewalks or the streets, but only fell on the grass.

BUT THEN QUICKLY melted away everywhere.

Considering that we’re supposed to get temperatures up to about 60 degrees by Wednesday, we can only hope this is the end of winter snowfall – only about three weeks after winter officially ended.

  -30-

Double-header in the snow? Or is it just early-season baseball, the Chicago way

I usually get worked up whenever people complain about professional baseball beginning its season in the part of spring that’s really the tail-end of winter.

Helping Sox fans cope with cold

These are the ninnies who will complain that the season should start with the first games actually played in western or southern cities – or in places like Milwaukee where the local officials erected a stadium with a retractable roof.

AS THOUGH THE Chicago ball clubs, or teams from places like New York, Boston or other eastern or Midwestern municipalities ought to have to start out their seasons with a streak of road games.

Personally, I’d argue those are the franchises with the lengthy histories and cultural existence and where the locals know how to handle a little cold weather.

Just like on Thursday when the Chicago White Sox started out the 2018 season with their first home game a loss to the Detroit Tigers, and there were times one could see the heavy snowfall coming down during the ball game.

An early season freebie giveaway promotion the White Sox offered up? A stocking cap with the Old English “Sox” logo and in the black and grey of Sox colors. Truly an appropriate giveaway, and one that I’m sure many a fan who actually attends Saturday's game will bother to wear.

Will TV-viewing fans get to see ...

OF COURSE, THERE were those who felt compelled to mock – with the observation being that many of the people who theoretically gave the White Sox a capacity crowd by buying tickets somehow managed to disappear by about the fifth inning.

Resulting in many empty seats, particularly in the Sox stadium’s upper deck.

I’m going to be watching the crowds that show up at Wrigley Field come Monday, where the Chicago Cubs will have their Opening Day. Monday’s weather forecasts are for equally-dismal weather conditions.

Temperatures might get as high as 40 degrees, but it will be a cloudy, overcast day with light rainfall (and maybe even snow) expected to hit Chicago. Not ideal conditions for sitting outside in the stands to watch a ball game.

... split-screen, simultaneous home runs?

I DON’T DOUBT that the Cubs have sold the just over 40,000 tickets for Monday’s game against Pittsburgh (another ‘tough’ city that wouldn’t let some inclement weather put a stop to a ballgame) so they’ll be able to claim a capacity crowd. It will be “sold out,” even though I don’t doubt that watching the game on television will reveal many vacant seats.

It also will be interesting to see the White Sox game that same day. Because their game at Guaranteed Rate Field against the Tampa Bay Rays has been rescheduled from 7:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.

White Sox officials said they think making it a day game will be more comfortable for fans than having them sit in the stands during the evening hours.

But it also means we’re literally going to have both Chicago ball clubs playing simultaneously Monday afternoon. (The Cubs game is scheduled to start about 10 minutes after the White Sox take the field).

WE IN CHICAGO occasionally get the days when a Cubs game is scheduled for the afternoon, with a White Sox game in the evening. People can literally take the Red Line elevated train from one ballpark to the other to see both games in the same day. Which has its drawback -- a fan gets intoxicated during the day at Wrigley and is so wasted by nightfall at Guaranteed Rate that he acts stupid AND EVERYBODY wants to think it's the Sox' fault!

Monday not likely to look this idyllic

That won’t be possible on Monday – they’ll be simultaneous events and Chicagoans most definitely will have to pick one ball club or the other to watch. Unless they’re a wishy-washy sort who stays home and watches both games on television.

A split screen feature put to work on that new-fangled huge screen television. Maybe we’ll get the dual sight of Jose Abreu and Kris Bryant hitting home runs simultaneously on both sides of town.

Although knowing our city’s sporting mentality and likely crummy luck, we’re more likely to get two collections of fans suffering frostbite and two more digits in the “loss” column – just what Chicago needs on a dreary day when it seems like not even baseball can make winter go away!

  -30-

Brrrrrr! It’s cold outside. Or, only 90 more days till baseball Opening Day

As I write this, it’s 10 degrees outside, with the potential to rise to 14 degrees. Wind chill will create conditions that supposedly will make it feel more like 1 or 2 degrees temperature.

Rocco, Carmelo cope w/ winter weather

In short, this lull of a week between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays is friggin’ freezing. This week during which many people will look for any excuse they can find to get out of work is provided with a perfect excuse by Mother Nature.

IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!!!

There’s no reason why human beings should be outdoors if they can possibly avoid it. The perfect time to do as little as is humanly possible.

For some people, it’s the perfect excuse to contemplate finding some other region of the globe to live in – some place where the idea of the temperatures ever dropping below 32 degrees (the official standard point at which water freezes into ice) is just a bad nightmare.

I’m not necessarily talking about some place with sunshine and perpetual 70 degree temperatures. Just some place where taking the dogs out for a walk doesn’t put one at risk for hypothermia.

Even he's shivering

I BRING UP that example because I often do wind up taking my father’s pair of dogs (a Standard Poodle and a mixed-breed Golden Retriever/Poodle) out for their daily walk.

While I have noticed they still get excited at the thought of being able to go outside, all it takes is one blast of the Arctic-like air for them to immediately change their minds.

I’m amused at how quickly the dogs (Rocco and Carmelo) are now capable of doing their “business” before they suddenly give every indication that they want to go back inside. Back home. No more of this aimless wandering that they usually do because “it’s outside.”

It makes me wonder if dogs can have more sense than people, or at least some individuals, based on their public behavior.

With holidays over, we do countdown to spring

YES, I FEEL the cold temperatures, just as much as anybody else. Even my neighbor with the elaborately-decorated front yard came up with something appropriate -- an inflatable snowman that shivers because it's so cold!

Yet I have to confess something – maybe it’s evidence that I’m losing it. But I don’t feel the urge to want to flee Chicago, or the Midwestern U.S., just because it’s cold outside!

I still remember one December I spent in Florida just over three decades ago – the idea of a swimming pool at that time of year just seemed strange. And listening to the locals complain about the cold because for a couple of days the temperatures dipped into the mid-30s?

It elicited the same reaction I get whenever I hear reports of snowfall in the Southern U.S. bringing daily life to a standstill – What a bunch of wimps!!!

IT’S COLD OUTSIDE; I’ll be the first to admit it. But it truly is part of the natural cycle of life on this planet to have the seasons. Finding a place where it never freezes is the extreme of life – just as a place like Antarctica is the opposite end (a land of perpetual winter).

We’re in the cycle of life – about to end the current calendar year. And for what it’s worth, we’ve passed the point where the days are getting shorter and the sun sets about 4:30 p.m. Minute by minute, we’re getting extra daylight and moving toward the time period in which we’ll have the mild temperatures that make life truly sweet and pleasant.

Besides, if we’re to be totally honest, we’ve managed to avoid the most annoying part of winter weather – the slop of snowfall. That downpour we got on Sunday (a.k.a., Christmas Eve) was over by day’s end and wasn’t that hard to clean up.

It won't be long before springtime returns, even to Chicago

It added to the winter ambiance that we’ll be able to remember fondly come May. Besides, it’s only 90 more days ‘til Opening Day for Major League Baseball – a thought to keep in mind if the wintry weather conditions become too unbearable.

  -30-

What did we do to p’o Mother Nature?

As I write this, the weather conditions outside are chilly. But after all, it still technically is winter.

Remember how upset she used to get on TV commercials?

So the idea that I had to wear a coat while enjoying a bright, sunny day wasn’t all that bad. In fact, I’d argue that the people who felt compelled to attend the South Side Irish St. Patrick’s celebration on Sunday got a nice day for it. My biggest gripe was losing that hour of sleep due to the coming of Daylight Savings Time.

BUT I ALSO have to confess to feeling a sense of dread, largely because the wintry weather conditions we have experienced this particular season have left me, for lack of a better word, wimpified.

You know what I mean. Following some recent winter seasons where we got hit with some serious storms and major drops in the temperature, this year has been ridiculously mild.

I’m vaguely aware of some snowfall we have had. But it was very bearable. My own personal memory of this year includes one storm that left some snow accumulation that – just at the point I would have had to go outside to clear away the mess – managed to melt aware all on its own.

So “dread” is what I’m thinking at the weather reports that say we’re going to get hit overnight with snowfall that could build up to about six inches of that sloppy, slushy mess.

I SUSPECT I’M going to be doing some serious sidewalk clearing Monday and Tuesday, shoveling away the slop and spreading the bag of road salt that I keep around to reduce the chances of anyone slipping on the sidewalk nearby and being able to have a legitimate legal claim to blaming me for the resulting injuries they might suffer.

Speaking of salt, I have to admit to getting a little chuckle from the recent activity of municipal officials in Gary, Ind., whom I write about for a local newspaper (I have to earn a living somehow).

It was just a few days ago that council officials decided to transfer some money around in their budget – specifically including a $25,000 transfer of funds meant to buy road salt.

Because, after all, this winter had been so mild that they didn’t need to make the buy. They could find other uses for that money.

WHICH MAKES ME wonder if they’re going to have to find a way to transfer the money back and make the purchase, or if they’ll wind up trying to get by with the road salt they already had purchased.

Because I know there are some communities that were so well stocked up on supplies for the winter that they certainly don’t need to buy a thing to cope with the mess that we’re likely to occur.

Now I know some people are going to rant and rage that I ought to take my complaints about winter weather and stuff them. Because, after all, I live in the Midwestern U.S.

I ought to be used to snow by now. I ought to consider it a natural occurrence. If I can’t bear with it, I ought to move – perhaps to some sort of place in the South where they regard the borderline neurotic behavior of Donald J. Trump to bear a resemblance to sanity.

BUT I’M NOT about to move, largely because I can’t envision life in some place where people think a January temperature of about 70 degrees is normal. Besides, there always is that moment early in a snowfall when the accumulation starts to build and the world gains that pretty shade of white that makes everything appear to be so pure and clean.

Then, of course, the snow gets sloppy and dirty and we all have to take out our shovels (or snow blowers, for those of us who either are too lazy to work a shovel or not quite so cheap as to buy a blower).

It’s time to clear away the mess. Which may be one of the few times we have a truly communal experience in our society.

As we all try to clear up our sidewalks and driveways so we can drive the car out to wherever it is we still have to travel to because we can’t very well get Mother Nature to write us a note excusing us from daily life’s activities just because there’s 4 inches of slush built up!

  -30-

If this is Linus, how harsh would Lucy be on a 'Super Bowl Sunday?'

I felt fortunate to have a dead Sunday, as in a day in which I had nothing that absolutely had to be done that day.

I was able to get away with staying at home all day without having to cope with Winter Storm Linus – the heavy snowfall that swept through the Midwestern United States this weekend and whacked Chicago with potentially a foot of snow within a day-long period.

LIKE MANY OTHERS, I could not help but remember the old Peanuts cartoon where Linus was one of Charlie Brown’s most loyal friends, unlike older sister Lucy who was amongst Charlie’s biggest antagonists.

If this were Winter Storm Lucy, I’d probably have had some business dealing that absolutely had to get done, and I’d wind up stuck in the snow somewhere!

As it was, my brother tried to make a short drive, and wound up stuck in the snow for a short time – although he eventually was able to get his car out of the snow and parked back in his usual spot where he leaves it.

As a result, he wound up spending the bulk of the day catching up on rest – while also enjoying caldo de pollo (a rather elaborate Mexican-style chicken soup) he had made just the day before.

SUNDAY WOUND UP being the perfect day for leftovers – even though the weather wound up costing him a chance to go to a Super Bowl party.

Which may be the biggest local casualty of this particular storm; how many people had plans to go to one of these parties to see the Seattle Seahawks/New England Patriots football championship matchup only to be unable to make it because of the snowfall? Then again, how many people were unable to see the game because their electricity died (mine was out for about three hours during the afternoon)?

Or worse, how many people had pizza delivery jobs and wound up having to cope with the mess while trying to deliver a pie or two to someone’s Super Bowl celebration aspirations – which usually are more about eating junk food with friends and getting worked up over over-produced and over-rated commercials than it is about watching anything noteworthy from an athletic perspective! Perhaps Lou Malnati's had the right idea in deciding to close early Sunday -- even though it should have been one of their busiest days of the year!

Personally, I became aware of just how bad the snow was when I woke up Sunday and did my early-morning e-mail check to see that aides to Gov. Bruce Rauner had sent me a message informing me that his public appearance at St. Pius V parish in the Pilsen neighborhood was cancelled.

THE NEW GOVERNOR was supposed to go to Sunday morning mass with Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti – my guess is that he wanted to attend a Latino-oriented church with his Cuban-American running mate to show some sort of Latino solidarity.

For a politician to give up that kind of photo op means it must have been ugly weather. Although Rauner did include the Illinois Department of Transportation advisory that people avoid driving their cars on Sunday, “unless it’s necessary.”

Officially, the National Weather Service reported there were 8.5 inches of snow at O’Hare International Airport by Noon, with snow continuing to fall. Although it seems the farther south one goes, the heavier the pileup becomes.

Looking out my own front window while I write this commentary, I see a nearby “For Rent” sign totally covered in a pile of snow! Although we’re still at a stage where the snowfall looks clean and pretty.

AS PEOPLE TRY to drive through it, the snow will take on that dingy, dirty shade that we all eventually will have to try to shovel away. Although various weather forecasts claim we’re in for sunny skies in future days.

Here’s hoping that this truly melts away rather quickly and that “Linus” becomes just a faint memory a week from now.

Although perhaps having a Super Bowl Sunday with a storm named “Lucy” might have been most appropriate. Because we all remember Charlie Brown’s repeated attempts at a field goal.

Did she ever let Charlie Brown actually kick that ball?

  -30-

I can’t figure the weather, but my mother still helps keep me warm

At first, I thought it was my imagination.


I was walking to a Metra commuter rail station Saturday morning when damp little driplets began to pelt my face.

IT WAS CLEAR that it was not rainfall. But snow? This early in the season. When we’re officially still two months away from the beginning of winter?

Sure enough, it was.

A snowfall so light that it barely registered. But it is what we got hit with in Chicago this morning, and the cloudy overcast day and cold temperatures made worse by the fact that I spent a part of the morning right on the shore of Lake Michigan (at the one-time U.S. Steel South Works site) where there were no big buildings to alter the breeze.

I got hit with a blast of chill. It felt like a winter’s day. And when later in the day it started to actually rain, I got soaked and seriously cold.

SATURDAY NIGHT, the temperatures were to hit levels just above freezing.

I guess what I’m really trying to say here is that I got spoiled by what essentially was a mild summer. It was fairly comfortable. We didn’t get many days of excessively high temperatures.

I definitely got spoiled by the notion of comfortable temperatures. I’m not ready yet for excess winter cold.

Particularly if it is anything like those excessive days of heavy snow and sudden chill that we endured over and over and over again back in January and February of this year.

FOR THE RECORD, this is not the earliest snowfall on record in Chicago. The national Weather Service says that in both 1928 and 1944 on Sept. 25, the Second City got hit with traces of snow.

So 2014 will be the year we can chant “We’re Number 3!!!” when it comes to snowfall. But that fact does not make this weekend any more pleasant.

The fact that Sunday was a bit warmer than Saturday only means we had to appreciate the slight uptick in heat all the more, since it is clear summertime is over – although the fact that baseball is still being played without Chicago ball clubs ought to have been the ultimate evidence of that fact.

Despite all this attitude that really is one step up from a whine, I can’t say I would want to give serious thought to leaving Chicago. The city has way too much going for it for me to consider leaving just because of a dose of cold.

BESIDES, THE FACT is that in the “real” world, temperatures get cold. I don’t know that I fully trust any place where people think a 30-plus degree day is a cold spell and evidence of the polar vortex.

If anything, the most unpleasant aspect of snow in Chicago is that it will get all the nitwits worked up who think they have a right to stake claims to parking spaces on public streets by dredging up all their summertime lawn furniture.

I’d suggest citing those people for littering, except that I realize our police officers really do have more significant things they ought to be doing with their time while on duty.

What I’m going to dredge up is one of my warmer jackets – one that I tucked away back in March and haven’t worn since.

IT IS ONE that I got as a present from my mother for Christmas 2009 – a leather jacket (although I do have one of those heavy, bulky down jackets for the truly shivering days).

That happens to be the last Christmas I celebrated with my mother prior to her passing. It was a last gift she gave to me.

So as I go about in coming weeks managing to stay warm despite the chill in the air, all I’ll have to say is, “Thanks Mom.”

  -30-

We're Number 3!!! Can we go higher?

So much for the spring-like weekend!

Snowfall on the marquee?

We got hit with a massive late-winter snowstorm (officially 3.6 inches, but some parts of the metro area experienced with nearly double that) that put the Chicago-area snowfall total this winter to just over 79 inches.

THAT OFFICIALLY MAKES the winter of 2013-14 the third-most when it comes to snowfall in the amount of time that records have been kept.

This is in March, where I'll admit I often tune my television to the MLB-TV channel to catch parts of spring training baseball games. Not that I care who wins these exhibitions filled with minor leaguers delusional enough to think they can make the "big club" this spring.

It's more because I like to see that there's a place where the weather is sunny and clear and winter snow isn't much of a concern.

But as I saw pointed out on the Weather Channel Wednesday morning, the second-most amount of snow for a Chicago winter was that one of 1978-79 (I was in junior high school back then). With just over 82 inches.

ARE WE GOING to top that mark? Could we become Number Two. Could we get another blast (we'd need roughly 10 more inches) that would make us Number One in something?

For the record, winter has exactly one more week to go. Or so the calendar says. Because March 20 is the point at which the planet Earth reaches the point in its rotation that the northern hemisphere is too far along for there to be much more winter weather.

Although those of us who have lived here our entire lives know it's not unheard of for there to be an early April snowfall. Who's to say we couldn't get a few more inches?

Snow taller than MJ? But he could leap it

This is one record that I'm sure nobody wants to see surpassed. We'd be more than content to have this winter be Number Three. Heck, we'd have been happy if it could have remained Number Four!

PERSONALLY, I COULD have done without the Wednesday morning sight of the aforementioned Weather Channel having one of their reporter-types standing out on State Street next to a pile of pizza boxes (deep dish, of course) piled up to 79 inches high.

Taller than the reporter-type (who hit as many cliches as possible by doing her broadcast standup in front of the Chicago Theater with its famed marquee) herself.

All she would have had to do was point out that the official snowfall (as measured at O'Hare International Airport) is about an inch taller than the famed Michael Jordan himself.

Then again, she may be the type who believes that basketball was invented by LeBron James.

PERSONALLY, I FEEL fortunate about this latest storm.

I didn't have to be anyplace Tuesday night when the storm started. By the time I had to leave on Wednesday, the official winter storm warning was over and assorted municipal public works crews had cleared the streets to the point where they were as passable as they could hope to be.

I just had to dodge idiot drivers who just don't seem to get that weather impacts the way one ought to drive.

This particular winter is one I will not forget. For all I know, some three or four decades from now I'll be old and decrepit and perhaps suffering from Alzheimer's Disease without a clue about who I am or anything I ever did -- but I'll be rambling on and on about how cold and sloppy it has been the past few months.

NOTABLE BECAUSE I usually don't get bothered by the cold temperatures (I just put on another layer to keep warm). It is the snow and the slop it creates that bothers me more; in part because I detest having to shovel it -- I feel fortunate to have a landlord these days who is attentive to his property.

But the repeated days of the Arctic-like temperatures made life all the more complicated this season. It was cold enough to be notable that we weren't just in a typical 10-degree winter temperature. Twenty-below is not easily forgotten! It would be creation's great joke to give us one last burst of snow before finally ending for the year.

What are the chances of a significant snowfall on March 31 (a.k.a., Opening Day for the Chicago White Sox)? Reminiscent of the first home game the Toronto Blue Jays ever played in 1977.

I'm amazed Bill Veeck never thought of having his ball club playing in the snow in their  uniform shorts. That would have been a memorable stunt!

Remember the sight of the Sox in their Bill Veeck-era uniforms dodging snowflakes coming down during the ballgame? It's a good thing the ball club left their shorts behind that particular day.

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This year, the cold chill of winter is worse than the slop of all the snowfall

I’m usually the type who complains about snowfall while also downplaying the effect of cold temperatures during the winter months.

After all, one can always put on a sweater. Or be like my brother, whose winter coat gets supplemented by a couple of sweatshirts. Snowfall, however, gets messy and creates the road conditions that causes idiots who don’t know how to slow down to skid all over the place.

WHO’S TO SAY if it was sloppy weather that caused the Monday night incident where a truck crashed into an Illinois State Toll Highway Authority worker who was trying to provide relief to the driver of another truck that was pulled alongside Interstate 88 near Aurora? The worker is dead, while an Illinois State Police trooper who tried to aid, remained in critical condition, according to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times newspapers.

But this winter is the one that has me wondering if I’ve been a bit misguided, while also introducing the weather geek term “polar vortex” into common vocabulary.

This is the winter where we’re on our second spurt of temperatures reaching low levels most commonly found in the Arctic Circle. If this is the level of cold commonly reached at the North Pole, it’s a wonder that Santa Claus hasn’t relocated his red-clad butt to a tropical island somewhere.

Perhaps that one where Gilligan and the rest of the crew (including Mary Ann with all her coconut pies) managed to go undetected for all those years!

Ditching Gilligan for Santa Claus?

IT’S COLD. AND it’s ridiculous when we were supposed to get all excited about the fact that on Tuesday, we reached a “high” temperature for the day of 1 degree. We actually had our thermometers creep to levels above zero degrees.

Consider that water freezes into ice at 32 degrees (compared to zero degrees Celsius, because some of us would think that is somehow “foreign”). Bottom line. It’s cold.

So cold that I’ve lost track of how many days our schools have been forced to close. If this trend keeps up, we’re going to have a school year that will come close to making Independence Day a day off from class – rather than just part of the school day. We don’t know how many wintry blasts of cold we’re going to get. We can only hope this second one is the last one.

Some Hoosiers don't know how to share

Personally, I’m coping well with the weather because I’m able to remain indoors. I haven’t had to travel anywhere, so I haven’t. I did wake up Tuesday morning with a couple of toes feeling numb. But heavy socks helped deal with that.

BUT I AM starting to feel a bit stir crazy, as would – I expect – just about everyone else who has been confined indoors due to the dangerous cold temperatures we’re experiencing now.

I could have done without the personal educational experience of how cold it gets in the Arctic and on Antarctica on a common day (although, to be honest, the South Pole has its record lows at levels we can only hope we never experience in Chicago).

This has been a season that has brought out the best, and worst, in all of us. Sometimes, at the same time.

Take the tale coming out of Gary, Ind., and its neighboring community of Portage. Gary, because of its proximity to Lake Michigan, experienced significant levels of snowfall, while Portage was just far enough back that it didn’t get much.

SO PORTAGE OFFICIALS, according to the Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper, had their Public Works Department crews go into Gary to assist with snow cleanup on the streets. It was a gesture of kindness from the Portage mayor.

Except that other village officials were upset that they weren’t consulted. Some of them would have preferred that the aid not be provided to Gary. I wonder if the fact that Gary is an African-American dominant city – 84.8 percent – is a factor. Regardless, it comes across as pretty petty. A colder gesture than the temperature itself.

Trashy-weather TV?

This will be a winter we tell stories about in the future. Although I wonder how far those stories will get exaggerated. At the very least, we won’t be hearing stories 30 years from now about how people walked to school in 10-below temperatures.

They stood home and watched trashy programs on television (I just caught the end of “Robocop”). Which is all the more reason to hope that this is The End. As in, cue The Doors.

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Grateful to be cooped up indoors (for a change) on this messiest of New Year’s

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we’ve got no place to go

Let it snow? Let it snow! Let it snow!                                    

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Whodathunk the New Year holiday season would have its own song. Even if it’s technically an appropriation of a Christmas holiday song.

My guide for coping with winter storm Hercules

For that first line from “Let it snow” was what came to my mind when I looked out the window to see the snowfall that has been falling off-and-on since Tuesday night.

AND I AM fortunate to be in a part of the Chicago metropolitan area that didn’t get hit with nearly a foot of snow. It has been just a couple of inches for me.

Reading and seeing the news reports of nearly a foot of snow in some parts of metro Chicago (which technically is a part of the “winter storm Hercules” that is sweeping itself this week across the northern part of the nation) made me feel grateful.

As was the fact that I am reduced these days to sporadic employment – often done from home.

I didn’t have to endure the commute to work that likely would have made me ridiculously late, and would have caused me to have to endure a rant from some boss who would want to blame everybody around him for inclement weather.

FOR THOSE OF you who had to put up with someone so nonsensical, I feel for you.

I wish I could say I spent the day watching this...

Although to be technical, I didn’t spend my Thursday cuddled up in front of a fire. Part of the day I spent in front of a laptop computer grinding out copy – including this very commentary you’re reading now.

I did have a television going for part of the day, tuned part of the day to The Weather Channel – where Stephanie Abrams, among others, convinced me that I was not alone in coping with heavy snowfall that will turn by week’s end to sub-zero-degree temperatures.

... instead of this

I also must confess to watching portions of a pair of cheesy films – “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Detroit Rock City,” which not only make me wish it were possible to buy back that portion of time in my life so I could use it more wisely but also makes me wonder if actors Kathleen Turner and Edward Furlong wish they could somehow erase those films from being a drag on their careers.

ALTHOUGH IF IT turns out that watching a part of two bad films was the low part of my Thursday, then I shouldn’t complain. It wasn’t any worse than the guy who was doing an awful “Harry Caray” impersonation on MLB-TV.

Besides, I’m sure there are people out there who had miserable days; problems aggravated all the more by the inclement weather.

I was fortunate enough to be able to use a miserable day to add to a general tone of relaxation in the final days before we all have to get back to work following New Year’s Day. And the leftover ham and potato salad was actually an enjoyable weather shut-in meal.

Which because the holiday came near the beginning of a week allows the most unadventurous of us to turn Christmas and New Year’s into a nearly two-week-long period of slothness.

Leftover ham and potato salad; the shut-in meal!

I ONLY HOPE they were relaxed enough that they were able to pull out the shovel on Thursday and clear their own sidewalks and other areas around their house – without thinking that such actions entitle them to a parking space in front of their house, even though the streets are public property!

Because aside from the nonsense concept of “dibs,” the last thing we need is more people who think they don’t have to do anything because Mother Nature and the Sun will eventually make the slop of snowfall melt away.

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