If you drove anywhere in the Chicago area Tuesday morning, we feel for you.
At one point it was taking 90 minutes or more to get from downtown to O"Hare. If you were commuting from the suburbs, after 9 a.m., when the sun was out and the snow plowed, it still took more than 80 minutes to travel from near Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg to the heart of Chicago.
All it seems to take is a couple bad accidents, anywhere on any Interstate, and it brings things to a crawl throughout the whole system. (And feel free to share your commuter nightmares with us.)
Sure the RTA has its operational funding in place, but the horrible traffic shouts out that regional transportation woes are far from over.
A little late with this, but what the heck was Hillary Clinton wearing last week at her victory rally in New Hampshire? It looked like a sofa your grandma would have.
Sure it's tougher for a woman. All men do is put on a variation on that same dull suit they all have - with a flag pin, of course. They are the guys in the WaMu commercials (with Obama being the cool, laid back guy they bankers in the ad just don't get but are sort of in awe of maybe.)
But for a campaign like Clinton's that seems so programmed, one can only imagine the sessions deciding what she will wear for the day.
Forget about Huckabee, Clinton, Obama, Giuliani and the rest of that lot. The voting America really loves starts next week when the new season of "American Idol" begins.
Actually the first few weeks of the show are the hardest to stomach, a theater of cruelty featuring the bizarre and the off-key prancing and singing for that insufferable panel of judges: Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell.
A good amount of the godawful singing seems staged and if it isn't it's just picking on the mentally or psychologically challenged.
It wouldn't be so bad but for that Jackson has claimed to this "dawg" that the dreadful talent they show represents a true cross section of the talent they encounter.
That may be true, but the only reason they put it on is to make fun of the frail.
Suburban high school anti-gay T-shirt controversy a drawn out civics lesson
Alexander Nuxoll wants to be able to wear a T-shirt to Neuqua Valley High School in the far southwest suburbs that reads "Be Happy, Not Gay."
The school won't let him, but suggested the phrase be "Be Happy, Be Straight." Apparently not catchy enough, Nuxoll and his supporters are turning the matter into a drawn out civics lesson which they see as a free speech issue and the school district sees as its duty to promote tolerance and keep order.
Women hold home parties for Tupperware, Pampered Chef, candles, fondue, bad art, even adult toys. So nobody should be shocked to hear that out in Arizona Dana Shafman has been holding Taser parties, getting singles, wives, moms and grandmothers to buy pretty pink stun guns at $350 a clip.
Taser has a booth at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas set up to look like a living room where Shafman will hold one of her gatherings for business people showing how she sells the company's C2 model to women who feel they need such protection.
One of Shafman's potential customers already told AP what would be a great ad slogan: "You don't want to kill somebody. You just want to be safe, you know?"
But if Taser conquers the home market, we can see the inevitable accident: Someone reaches for a cell phone, mistakenly grabs a C2 and stuns herself while multitasking on the Kennedy, causing an accident and massive traffic jam.
Ricky Labit, a big guy down in Louisiana, is beefing because he says a an all-you-can-eat buffet first overcharged him, then comped his bill and told him not to come back.
Labit , 6'3'', 277 pounds, apparently was overeating crab and frog legs in a way that would make Homer Simpson proud.
Note to buffets: With the size of many Americans, don't make your place all-you-can eat, because many of us can really, really eat. Set a maximum number of plates or put a pound limit on the amount someone can have each visit.
Caucus time is about to begin in Iowa, gatherings at 1,800 places in a state that has 3 milliion people. About 200,000 of them are expected to take part in the curious meetings which are the first strange steps on the long, long road to the White House.
One of those meeting halls is a bar, and we could all use a drink of some sort or other as this complicated process unwinds. That's especially true on the Democratic side where after the first tally, participants representing candidates getting small percentages can switch allegiances.
Such is democracy. No one said it can't be quirky, too.
Comic relief returning on TV in time for primaries
Just in time for Iowa caucus, late night TV talk shows are due back on the air - and we all could use the laughs.
David Lettermen, Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien return to the air tonight, while Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert start back to work Monday.
Frustrated by what the two parties' presidential candidates have been offering on the campaign trail, a group of moderate politicians will be holding a a summit January 7 in Oklahoma to talk about building a consensus agenda.
Their ranks include U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia and former Senate colleague David Boren of Oklahoma, with special guest New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Be prepared for a Ross Perot-like move on billionaire Bloomberg's part, setting himself up as the voice of the middle, with his own money to spend to make his point with a bid for the White House.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Audobon Society is actively recruiting members beyond its middle-aged white male base.
It's nice that the 400,000 member nonprofit is finally realizing that being green should include red, brown, black and yellow.
And in a time when way too many kids sit at home playing video games, any effort to get families back outdoors and involved with nature is potentially good for Mother Nature and the publlc health.
The political challenges will be connecting the dots between urban and environmental issues.
