McHenry County Blog

Outside of lottery outlets, church bingo, not-for-profit casino nights and the off-track betting parlor in McHenry, there is little legal gambling in McHenry County.

The passage of the non-threateningly named “video poker” will put video slot machines most taverns and restaurants in the State of Illinois.

Forty-some will be located in rural McHenry County, unless the McHenry County Board votes to ban them.

At Tuesday morning’s meeting of the McHenry County Board a resolution asking that citizens be given a chance to vote on a video poker referendum is on the agenda.

The last time there was an airing of the issue, lots of unemployed construction workers attended. They contended, incorrectly, according to State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Chicago) that construction projects would be endangered should the county ban five machines apiece for the forty-some bars and restaurants in unincorporated McHenry County.

If you are free to attend the Tuesday meeting, which begins at 9:00. The resolution featured here is way down on the agenda, so, goodness knows, when it will be voted upon.

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Crystal Lake “Heck of a Guy” blogger Allan Showalter altered this cover of Time Magazine to fit McHenry County.

Crystal Lake Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter rightly thought I might have missed this story on McSweeney’s.

24.

I’m like a cat.

A powerful, hungry cat.

But I’m also a great man.

A man who helps people.

A man who helps people who is also a strong cat in the wild, taking what he wants.

I could be in movies, I think.

Or on television. You know what?

When this is over, I’m going to write a book.

Think of it as an advance on David Letterman’s Top Ten things about Rod Blagojevich.

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With apologies to Keely cat, who I believe was just yawning, rather than getting ready to take what he wants.

Crystal Lake Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter rightly thought I might have missed this story on McSweeney’s.

24.

I’m like a cat.

A powerful, hungry cat.

But I’m also a great man.

A man who helps people.

A man who helps people who is also a strong cat in the wild, taking what he wants.

I could be in movies, I think.

Or on television. You know what?

When this is over, I’m going to write a book.

Think of it as an advance on David Letterman’s Top Ten things about Rod Blagojevich.

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With apologies to Keely cat, who I believe was just yawning, rather than getting ready to take what he wants.

Heck of a Guy Blogster Allan Showalter has come up with a list of Illinois-written songs appropriate for ill-starred Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Here are the first ten:

• “Kind of a Drag,” Buckinghams
• “Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)” R. Kelly
• “Illegal Smile” John Prine
• “I Confess” New Colony Six
• “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” Buckinghams
• “Surrender” Cheap Trick
• “The Search Is Over” Survivor
• “When I Think About Cheatin’” Gretchen Wilson
• “Here for the Party” Gretchen Wilson
• “The Lincoln Park Pirates” Steve Goodman

For the rest, click here.

“Jailhouse Rock” was not written by an Illinois resident.

Heck of a Guy Blogster Allan Showalter has come up with a list of Illinois-written songs appropriate for ill-starred Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Here are the first ten:

• “Kind of a Drag,” Buckinghams
• “Down Low (Nobody Has to Know)” R. Kelly
• “Illegal Smile” John Prine
• “I Confess” New Colony Six
• “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” Buckinghams
• “Surrender” Cheap Trick
• “The Search Is Over” Survivor
• “When I Think About Cheatin’” Gretchen Wilson
• “Here for the Party” Gretchen Wilson
• “The Lincoln Park Pirates” Steve Goodman

For the rest, click here.

“Jailhouse Rock” was not written by an Illinois resident.

Tina Hill was kind enough to remind me Sunday that her Management Services Committee would be considering candidates for McHenry County Seal yesterday morning.

I made it in time and was asked to sit in the empty press session, where visitors usually sit, Hill told me.

When public comment time came, I got up and made my pitch for Dick Tracy for County Seal.

Apparently, the contest didn’t make it on the General Election ballot. All that campaigning for nothing.

Being a fictional character, Dick Tracy couldn’t even sign up to be a write-in candidate.

Gone are the days of votes for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that Mike Royko used to report after every election.

The Chicago and Springfield pols got tired of the ridicule and required people vote for real people who wanted to be voted for.

So, all those write-ins a week ago were wasted, folks.

As in, not counted.

Admitting that the current county seal, based on the state seal is “boring,” I plunged ahead.

I told the all-female attending committee members that I had been trying to think of something that would represent McHenry County for McHenry County Blog, but couldn’t come up with anything better that Dick Tracy. I pointed out that Crystal Lake blogger Alan Showalter of Heck of a Guy blog had come up with the idea.

I pointed out that the State of Illinois Tourism folks had paid $2,000.

I suggested that international publicity would result from putting Dick Tracy on the county seal. It could be the centerpiece of a tourism campaign.

The Illinois Department of Tourism paid $2,000 to get the rights to use Dick Tracy’s image in a poster saying,

I suggested that $2,000 a year might end up being a good tourism expenditure, considering I’d heard the county gives the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau $150,000 a year.

And, by selling the county seal and related Dick Tracy merchandise, county government could probably recoup the cost of licensing.

Why the county could even open a web store.

But, the state tourism poster was advertising a now-closed museum in Woodstock and, as committee member Mary Lou Zierer put it,

“I connect Dick Tracy with Woodstock. If we’re going to have a county seal that designates a certain town in the county, I like the old courthouse. I think a combination of the new and old would be good to have.”

During my pitch, I pointed out that Chester Gould had told me (or maybe I didn’t mention my source) that his inspiration for Gravel Gertie and B.O. Plenty came when he was driving past the old Crystal Lake Dump on Virginia Street Road. It’s now covered with gravel trucks and a row of storage units.

And as soon as I saw former Supervisor of Assessments Stanley Cornue after I was elected county treasurer I thought he looked like Pruneface. (Don’t you wonder what kind of a fight led Gould to make him a villain in his cartoon strip?)

In any event, the committee was shown all the entries from the public.

Dick Tracy was shown first because Alan Showalter sent it in first.

Continued tomorrow.

Tina Hill was kind enough to remind me Sunday that her Management Services Committee would be considering candidates for McHenry County Seal yesterday morning.

I made it in time and was asked to sit in the empty press session, where visitors usually sit, Hill told me.

When public comment time came, I got up and made my pitch for Dick Tracy for County Seal.

Apparently, the contest didn’t make it on the General Election ballot. All that campaigning for nothing.

Being a fictional character, Dick Tracy couldn’t even sign up to be a write-in candidate.

Gone are the days of votes for Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that Mike Royko used to report after every election.

The Chicago and Springfield pols got tired of the ridicule and required people vote for real people who wanted to be voted for.

So, all those write-ins a week ago were wasted, folks.

As in, not counted.

Admitting that the current county seal, based on the state seal is “boring,” I plunged ahead.

I told the all-female attending committee members that I had been trying to think of something that would represent McHenry County for McHenry County Blog, but couldn’t come up with anything better that Dick Tracy. I pointed out that Crystal Lake blogger Alan Showalter of Heck of a Guy blog had come up with the idea.

I pointed out that the State of Illinois Tourism folks had paid $2,000.

I suggested that international publicity would result from putting Dick Tracy on the county seal. It could be the centerpiece of a tourism campaign.

The Illinois Department of Tourism paid $2,000 to get the rights to use Dick Tracy’s image in a poster saying,

I suggested that $2,000 a year might end up being a good tourism expenditure, considering I’d heard the county gives the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau $150,000 a year.

And, by selling the county seal and related Dick Tracy merchandise, county government could probably recoup the cost of licensing.

Why the county could even open a web store.

But, the state tourism poster was advertising a now-closed museum in Woodstock and, as committee member Mary Lou Zierer put it,

“I connect Dick Tracy with Woodstock. If we’re going to have a county seal that designates a certain town in the county, I like the old courthouse. I think a combination of the new and old would be good to have.”

During my pitch, I pointed out that Chester Gould had told me (or maybe I didn’t mention my source) that his inspiration for Gravel Gertie and B.O. Plenty came when he was driving past the old Crystal Lake Dump on Virginia Street Road. It’s now covered with gravel trucks and a row of storage units.

And as soon as I saw former Supervisor of Assessments Stanley Cornue after I was elected county treasurer I thought he looked like Pruneface. (Don’t you wonder what kind of a fight led Gould to make him a villain in his cartoon strip?)

In any event, the committee was shown all the entries from the public.

Dick Tracy was shown first because Alan Showalter sent it in first.

Continued tomorrow.

That Heck of a Guy Crystal Lake blogger Allan Showalter surely has sharp eyes.

So much negative advertising.

I still can’t figure out how he can find these signs in McHenry County and I can’t.

Now, he has found one opposing Dick Tracy for McHenry County Seal because it would bring TOO MUCH ATTENTION to McHenry County.

And I thought the county board wanted to bring attention to McHenry County.

To help tourism, for instance.

Come to think of it, though, there were lots of folks in the courthouse who were not too happy when the Chicago Crime Commission was rooting around.

That reminds me.

If anyone would like to pass on tips of wrong-doing in the courthouse, a local school district, a city, village, township, fire protection district, you name it, here’s how to get in touch with the Chicago Crime Commission:

Those who would like to drop a dime on crime may do so by contacting the commission by calling 312-372-0101. There is also a way to communicate by email on the web site.

That Heck of a Guy Crystal Lake blogger Allan Showalter surely has sharp eyes.

So much negative advertising.

I still can’t figure out how he can find these signs in McHenry County and I can’t.

Now, he has found one opposing Dick Tracy for McHenry County Seal because it would bring TOO MUCH ATTENTION to McHenry County.

And I thought the county board wanted to bring attention to McHenry County.

To help tourism, for instance.

Come to think of it, though, there were lots of folks in the courthouse who were not too happy when the Chicago Crime Commission was rooting around.

That reminds me.

If anyone would like to pass on tips of wrong-doing in the courthouse, a local school district, a city, village, township, fire protection district, you name it, here’s how to get in touch with the Chicago Crime Commission:

Those who would like to drop a dime on crime may do so by contacting the commission by calling 312-372-0101. There is also a way to communicate by email on the web site.

Heck of a Guy blogger Allan Showalter has found more than one sign in opposition to electing Dick Tracy for McHenry County Seal.

Let him put it in his own words:

“Still other signs play on the viewer’s sympathies, nostalgia, and/or fear of change to blast Tracy. The above, crudely done specimen maligns the urban-based Dick Tracy as a bovine-bashing, corn-castigating, tradition-traducing architecturally elitist disrespecter of his fellow symbols.”

The symbols Showalter surmises old line interests want to re-cycle are found on the McHenry County flag, seen below: