New Woodstock PD Chief coming

Woodstock Police Chief Robert Lowen will host his last Coffee with the Chief in May. If you'd like to attend and thank him, go to the police station on May 9th at 7:00PM.

And now is the time to get in contact with the City Council representative and participate in the selection of your new chief of police.

Or you can stick your head in the sand and gripe later.

Find out who is on the selection and interview committee that will work with the City Manager to come up with the final slate of candidates. Find out if there will be public interviews where you can ask questions, such as what is the candidate's position on the Second Amendment and on illegal immigration.

Find out what the track record is of the candidate. Where was the candidate previously employed and what was his reputation at his prior department? How old is he? How long is he likely to hang around Woodstock?

While you are at it, you might find out about the positions of City Council members on 2A and illegal immigration. Don't let Woodstock become another sanctuary city in Illinois. If you don't know what that is, Google it.

Are any local police officers or former law-enforcement officers being considered? Don't sit back on this, folks.

Football Great Leaves the Field

I was saddened to learn yesterday that Winston Hill, 74, had passed away in Denver last Tuesday. Winston was, as I always described him, the guy who made Joe Namath famous in the 1969 Super Bowl.

I meet Winston at his first barbecue joint in Denver, on Colorado Blvd. near East 8th Ave. I was "dining in" that evening, and Winston came by my table. He stopped, looked at my dinner and asked, "Did you have da hot sauce or da mild?"

When I didn't answer quickly enough, he said, "You had da mild" and he fetched a spoon of hot sauce for me to taste. Did you ever have BBQ that set your mouth on fire?

A couple of weeks later I stopped in to buy a side to-go and, when the counter girl asked the white customer in front of me which sauce he wanted - hot or mild, he answered, "Hot." Well, the rest of us white guys in line started working on this guy and insisted he get the mild. I still remember his words, "I can handle anything!"

The counter girl got him just a taste on the tip of a spoon. She could have suckered him with a spoonful, but she knew what would happen. He licked off that small amount, and suddenly his face turned red; he started to perspire and was having trouble breathing. When he could finally speak, all he could say was, "My God! What the hell is in that stuff?"

The ER for Colorado General Hospital was only a block away, and I wasn't sure we would have been able to get him there in time, but he eventually got his order and was able to walk out.

On another evening, in 1980, I bought a side to-go, and I gave the cashier my Guaranteed Czech Card. Remember the cards we used to have that showed our bank would guarantee our checks? This card was different; I had bought it in a little bookstore for $1.00. (I still have the card.)

The girl rubbed the numbers on my card and said, "This card's no good. The numbers aren't raised."

I rubbed the numbers, agreed with her and handed the card back to her.

Then she said, "This card's no good. It doesn't have your name on it."

Said I, "That's why I signed it on the back." And she turned it over and looked at my trademark "Gus" signature.

Then she said, "This card's no good. It expired in 13/79."

I said, "That means it's good in all of 1980."

"Have you gotten checks cashed in here before?" I told her I had.

She turned it over again and moved her eyes over the fine print, which said what good people Czechs were and how every neighborhood ought to have a good Czech in it. By that time I was sure her vision was blurring and she wasn't seeing the small print on the card. And then she accepted my check!

Winston called me the next day and told me he'd seen my check. He asked what I'd done to that girl, because she had quit. "I have been wanting to fire her for three weeks," he said.

One morning I stopped by about 10:00AM to say Hello to Winston. He took one look at me and pointed a large finger my way and said, "You! Get out of here!"

Whoa, what happened? Winston explained that he had been out of town and the employees had not opened the mail. His liquor license had expired! How do you operate a rib joint without being able to sell beer or wine? He had hired a company to circulate petitions in the neighborhood and they had just told him they weren't going to do it. And his license hearing was in two days.

I told him that I'd get the signatures for him. The first day I got 25. He said he needed more. I returned the next day and got 25-50 more. Then I needed to go to the liquor license hearing with him, which was the next day.

We arrived at the hearing, and I had to testify because I was the one who had collected them. His lawyer barely said Hello, until it was time for me to testify.

The lawyer said, "Now, Mr. Philpott, at Mr. Hill's behest..."

I interrupted him and explained that Winston had not asked me to collect the signatures. I had offered.

The lawyer continued, "How much did he pay you?'

I explained he hadn't paid me at all.

The lawyer blurted out, "Well, why the hell did you do it?"

I explained that Winston was a responsible business man with a clean rib business, and he had needed some help.

While the judge was deliberating, there was a short break. I noticed an elderly white couple sitting in the hearing room, and I told Winston we needed to find out who they were. They could be trouble.

They could have been. They were there to testify against his license application, but they were not going to be allowed to testify, and they were mad about it. They owned the property next door (a driveway and a photo kiosk), and the hearing officer wouldn't let them testify because they didn't operate the business; they just owned the property!

It turned out that Winston had been trying to locate them (but the property was owned by a Trust), because he wanted to buy the property for additional parking. I told them Winston was a nice guy, and Winston was later able to buy the lot!

I remember the last time I ate at Winston's on Colorado Blvd. A friend and I were eating outside on a nice day. I'd come from the office and was wearing a white shirt and tie, and I was being very careful. On my very last bite, a little piece of meat dropped from the end of the bone and landed in a small puddle of BBQ sauce on my plate, which promptly splashed onto my white shirt.

I still remember Jim's laugh.

Rest in peace, Winston. It was a privilege to know you.

Cruz: Get bulletproof shoes

Ted Cruz had better check his footwear. I wonder if he wears steel-toe shoes and bulletproof boots. He is going to need them, if he keeps shooting himself in the foot.

Dirty Harry, he isn't.

Cruz has done two things this past week to further the death of his own run for POTUS.

Hooking up with Kasich in a dumb "stop Trump" attempt and announcing a VP pick before he is the GOP's nominee (which he'll never be).

Oh, wait! A third shot at his big toe. Picking Carly. Can you imagine her just one heartbeat away from the big chair in the Oval Office?

As much as I didn't like The Donald when he first announced his candidacy, I am behind him now. He is the only candidate with the backbone to stand up to world leaders like Putin and that nut in North Korea.

Can't you just hear Kim Jong-un negotiating with Hillary or Bernie? He won't even think they are in the same room with him. But he won't miss The Donald.

Like guns? Test your knowledge

OK, all you gun-nutty friends of mine.

Here's a test for you.

Check your knowledge of guns and history here.

If you are brave, post your score...  I got a perfect score of 30. Not!!!  (23)

RNC drives away Republicans

I must have voted in one of those Facebook polls conducted by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and provided my email address. Now I am besieged by emails from the RNC, accusing me of supporting Hillary - just because I have not donated to the RNC.

Those idiots in charge of the RNC don't realize how much they are antagonizing me and driving me farther away from the RNC.

Maybe the Democrats have figured out how to hack the RNC email account and are really the ones who are sending out the dumb emails. Maybe they know that these emails antagonize recipients. Could that be the case?

If the Grand Old Party figured out how to unite Republicans so that we'll have a chance of winning in November, I might be inclined to make a donation.

But not now.

Harriet Tubman for $20 bill - Who???

This garbage coming out of Washington is going to kill this country. Harriet Tubman? Who? Who cares???

Leave the $20 bill just like it is. It's just a piece of paper representing money. To waste big bucks changing it to appease certain genders and certain races is absolute nonsense. The seventh POTUS is lot more important than Tubman!

I, for one, will refuse any merchant or bank tries to give me one of the new bills, which are due to enter circulation in 2020. And I'll be checking the backs of the other bills, too.

It's probably too late to put a stop to this. So, a tiny thank you to Obama and his lackey, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, for a job poorly done.

Please pass the barf bag.

Stupid liberal Connecticut judge

Connecticut Supreme Court judge Barbara Bellis is allowing a dumb lawsuit by Sandy Hook victims' parents against Remington Arms, parent company of Bushmaster Firearms, manufacturer of a rifle used by the nutcase who shot up a school there.

Somebody that can make it through college and law school and the courts to become a state supreme court judge sure ought to be a lot smarter than that. She should have thrown the case out with prejudice, and I don't even have to read the case to believe that.

Sounds like Bellis and Hillary Clinton are on the same page. Scary as hell for the United States. I can tell you that!!!

So, if some drunk in a Chevrolet runs over me, will my Estate sue General Motors?

Or if I drink too much Pepsi, will my Estate sue the bottler and the patent owner?

The punk in Connecticut never should have had access to firearms. His stupid mother never should have allowed him to handle firearms. It's too bad he killed her first, so he could get at the guns. She should have kept them locked up and not permitted the nutcase to know how to get at them.

But it's not the gun's fault, and it's not the manufacturer's responsibility.

And that dumb, old woman who is running for President? God help this country if the fools elect her.

This ought to scare you

This ought to scare the living daylights out of all of us.

Sharia (Islamic Law)?
Taking over from within?
Exorbitant costs?
More coming?

Watch this video.

Ann Corcoran's book, Refugee Resettlement, is available on Amazon.com for $2.99 (Kindle edition). I just ordered it.

What kind of USA do you want for your children and grandchildren, and their children?

You cannot afford not to know what is going on right under our noses!!!

Branson thriller just published

I'll bet you haven't read this new thriller yet. (It was just published on March 20The Branson Butcher.) Late last month former McHenry County resident Pete Molloy published his first book,

Go to Amazon.com (just click on the book title above) and check out the eye-catching cover.

The setting is the tourist town of Branson, Missouri, which is about 570 miles southwest of Woodstock, Ill. and getting close to the southwest corner of the state. You'll quickly feel like you are riding along the streets of Branson and hearing the conversations between the car's occupants.

According to the Amazon write-up, this is Pete's first book, although he is the author of several plays. This is a first-class thriller and will keep you turning the pages from the first page to the last.

Grab the book now, read it, and then post a review on Amazon. You may find yourself reading it more than once to keep all the players straight.

Congratulations to Pete for an excellent first book!

MasterCard Breach?

My bank notified me of a possible compromise of my debit card because of a problem within the MasterCard network of merchants/processors.

I immediately canceled my debit card.

For some strange reason my bank decided it could wait until April 12 to deactivate my card at 12:00AM Eastern Time, if I did not act sooner.

The popular understanding about debit cards is that, if your account gets hacked and all your money disappears through fraudulent use of a debit card, you are not protected. The situation is different in  terms of fraudulent use of a credit card.

The website of a popular financial "guru", Dave Ramsey, won't let you use a credit card for purchases. On that site you are forced to use a debit card. Most websites allow you the option; however, Dave Ramsey pushes use of a debit card and actually prevents a customer from making purchases via a credit card. It's a case of "Dave's Way" or else.

I don't have any reason to think the problem was on the Ramsey website; maybe it's only a coincidence.

If you have a MasterCard debit card, you might want to call the card issuer about any exposure.