Super Bowl nonsense

Sunday, eh? The Packers and the Steelers, so I read. That would be the Green Bay (Wisc.) Packers and the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Steelers; right?

So, why is the game in Dallas?

Why not toss a coin and reward the loyal fans who parted with the big bucks to support their hometown team and have the Super Bowl in the city of one of the teams?

Ka-ching, ka-ching. For me, the best thing about the Super Bowl is that the roads will be empty of traffic and there won't be any lines at the grocery store.

Professional (?) football is just a business. And a very lucrative one for a few players. I'll never understand the waste of money that supports it. No sports figure is worth what those guys get paid. When will the fans revolt?

NIXLE wakes up County at 4:19AM

Who do you suppose the idiot is in the County who authorized sending a text message on the NIXLE system at 4:19AM to tell everybody to stay home today?

Do you think there is anyone who is going to stay home because some bureaucrat says to? Most people in the County are smart enough to look outside and make that decision for themselves. They don't need a bureaucrat or an anonymous person at the sheriff's department to tell them to stay off the roads this morning.

First of all, they probably can't even get out of their garages, carports, driveways or parking lots.

Do you think the person at the County or the Sheriff's Department thought that the chimes on a sleeping person's cell phone might wake up him or her? Could the message have been sent at 5:30AM or 6:00AM or 6:30AM? What was so magical about 4:19AM?

NIXLE is like someone's toy that he gets to play with, regardless of the recipient. And someone needs to take away that toy for a while. McHenry County residents are adults!

Woodstock schools activities - today

An announcement on the Woodstock School District 200 website reads, "All after school activities and practices, all evening events, and all outside user group activities have been cancelled for today, February 1, 2011. District 200 Kids Clubs WILL BE OPEN this afternoon."

No word yet on tomorrow's schedule.

Woodstock bails, due to weather forecast

Tonight's Woodstock City Council meeting has been canceled and re-scheduled to Thursday, February 3, at 7:00PM. Tonight's meeting was to include consideration of an amendment to the ordinance controlling the snow-covered Mountains of Woodstock (Merryman Aggregates' strip-mining operation along U.S. 14).

Also, tomorrow morning's Groundhog Day prognostication has been canceled. And the breakfast at Pirro's will be Saturday morning.

Also, don't bother to put your trash out tonight. No garbage pick-up on Wednesday in Woodstock.

Think the blizzard will be as harsh as forecasted?

Regarding Thursday night's agenda for the City Council meeting - the agenda includes an Executive Session on a collective bargaining matter. Absent from the agenda is an item for Action on Matter discussed in Executive Session. Some public bodies are including this item, in view of feelings at the Illlinois Attorney General's office that a public body cannot take action without disclosing intention to do so in advance on the agenda. Perhaps the Woodstock City Council intends only to discuss the collective bargaining negotiations and does not plan any vote.

DD special: 99¢ medium coffee, 1-10PM

Now through 2/27/11, you can get your afternoon caffeine "fix" at Dunkin' Donuts for just 99¢ between 1:00-10:00PM. Stop in (or drive through) Dunkin' Donuts in Woodstock (and other locations) for a medium hot or iced coffee.

You might just want a donut with that, too. Tell 'em Gus sent you. They won't have a clue what you mean. Then just fork over your buck, plus tax.

By the way, be sure to get a receipt, and read the offer printed on it.

Time to update Woodstock city website

Is it time to update the City's homepage? Take a look at the City's website at www.woodstockil.gov/

I was going to write that nothing changes; then I realized that, when I wake up every morning, it's just the same. Is that different from "nothing changes"?

For example, look in the lower right corner at the logos and fine print for the Dozen Distinctive Destinations and Illinois Main Street.

Yes, Woodstock was one of the Dozen Distinctive Destinations designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation - in 2007. And not since. Is it time to stop trading on a four-year-old designation?

And the Illinois Main Street selection as an Associate Community? Time to remove that one, too, since, in spite of efforts of a few dedicated folks here in town, no serious action or money showed up to move Woodstock into the Main Street category. So it's time to dump that, too.

And look at the Community Calendar. Click back a couple of months, where you would expect to see a historical record of community meetings, especially City Council meetings and Board meetings. Find it? Nope. That's because the City has programmed the calendar to remove meetings after their scheduled times.

I suspect there is a little box in the computer instructions, where an X could be placed. It probably looks something like this: "[ ] Delete event after it occurs."

If the box is left empty, the event remains on the calendar. But, if it looks like this: [X] Delete event after it occurs, then POOF! It vanishes after the meeting is held.

Should Woodstock follow the pattern of McHenry County and leave the meetings in the calendar after they occur?

Fine dining at MCC?

McHenry County College (MCC) has opened, according to the Northwest Herald this morning, a new student-run restaurant, called Slàinte. It’s located on the campus of MCC in the employee dining room.

The function of the College is to educate students. Has it gone too far by creating a student-run restaurant?

Slàinte could be viewed as competing with Crystal Lake Restaurants, which employ chefs, cooks, wait staff, busboys and many other persons. Owners of those restaurants pay healthy taxes of all types, including property taxes that support MCC.

Rather than establishing a restaurant on campus, utilizing taxpayer-supported building and equipment and charging prices that don’t seem much less than a restaurant in Crystal Lake, why not send the students out into the “real” world and arrange job shares or internships?

Do students working in the campus restaurant get paid? Do they wait tables and scrub pots and pans as part of their coursework? If they get paid, did the College then create work opportunities? And where did that money come from?

I myself don’t plan to “dine out” at MCC, where the average check per person is expected to run $20.00. If I’m going to dine out, I’ll go to a community restaurant! Otherwise, those places will be shuttered, and then the two-year college graduates won’t have places to work!

Jones Meat Locker is Woodstock is identified as a provider of “locally-produced, sustainable ingredients.” Did they shop Kalck’s Butcher Shop in Crystal Lake? Will they rotate purchases, or did vendors bid to provide meat and other ingredients? And what, pray tell, is a “sustainable” ingredient? When you eat that hunk of beef, it’s gone.

Other high-tech, college-level, $100 buzzwords sneaked into the article; ex., “carbon footprint”, capstone, executive chef, the new “applied science culinary management” associate degree. Huh?

And did you know that many of the MCC classes in the culinary arts education program are taught at Woodstock North High School?