“Where have you been, you rascal you?” some of you may be asking.  Well, it’s been vacation time-cum-time with family extended and otherwise.  But here I am back at the K-board, 24 hours after pursuing Johnny in the guise of a great white shark in the shallow-end waters of Rehm Pool. 

So unrelenting was my pursuit, in fact, that Johnny (entering first grade in the fall) bumped into woman-with-child-already-born-and-clinging to her, winning himself a scolding.  At sight of which the great white veered away, wanting no trouble from scolding mother-with-child and leaving Johnny to face the music.

Johnny’s mother, #2 Daughter, was busy elsewhere with her #’s 1, 3, and 4.  Johnny, #2, survived nicely, however, so all’s as well as can be expected.

Meanwhile, the hopper has some less than pressing items with nonetheless important ramifications.  Such as:

* A few months back, Chicago’s Mayordaley II found himself eloquently defending private over government enterprise. 

“We can’t compete with the private sector. Government doesn’t have customers, they only have citizens. You know that. Many times, your relationship with your local government or state or federal government – they’re not customer related. They’re going to leave at 5:00 p.m., and they’re going to leave at 4:30 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. ‘I’m sorry, we’re on the time clock.’ They walk out. In the private sector, when you have a customer, you’re going to stay there and make sure they’re happy and satisfied.”

He will take any position that advances his agenda, in this case selling off (leasing for 99 years) a municipal asset (Midway Airport) to raise money to keep his allegedly bloated and inefficient enterprise going.  So there was the Mayor of Chicago making a pretty good case for not looking to government for help.

But he didn’t mean that at all, he said the next day, in a classic display of doubletalk:

Instead of apologizing for offending city employees, Daley said his remarks had been taken out of context.

“I said that some people just watch the clock — government workers or anybody else — and leave,” Daley said. “But here in Chicago, we’re fortunate that people just don’t watch the clock.”

He played the good-natured wounded public official:

“I never said city workers of … Chicago are not good workers. Would you correct that for me? I know it’s hard because I’m a ping-pong ball for the media. If you don’t have the Daley name, I guess they don’t read the newspapers. But just correct that … Don’t misinterpret what I say to try to bring confrontation against city workers. That’s really unfair.”

As for his own people:

“City workers work hard. I talked about the city in a positive way. But you’re trying to follow me in a negative way so you have people yelling at me. I know that’s your gig. But be responsible.”

Isn’t he reasonable?

It hadn’t helped any that the Chicago Federation of Labor president had taken his own umbrage:

Dennis Gannon said he was offended by the mayor’s remarks because of the “sacrifices” city workers make every day to get Chicago through another brutal winter.

“At 3 a.m., we’ve got guys making sure the streets are safe and sound for citizens trying to get to work,” Gannon said. “Firemen were out at Holy Name. When you had that huge water main break on the North Side, they didn’t care about the clock. They were there to do a job for taxpayers.

“There are hard-working people doing more work today than they’ve ever done because of the downsizing of government. I know a lot of city workers. They’re my friends. I grew up with them. I know how hard they work and how dedicated they are.”

And in the background, violins.

More more more later, but as Porky Pig said, th-th-th-that’s all for now.