McHenry County Blog

Keely Cat has been “bagged.”

“Who says I even want a Halloween costume?” he asks. “And nobody but you has those tasty fish-flavored treats anyway.”

A woman emailed me asking permission to reprint a photo of a cat in a brown paper bag.

When I finally found it, I discovered I had photographed it where it hung on the fall of Crystal Lake’s Colonial Cafe.

So, I set off to recreate the shot with Keely Cat.

“Oh, the ignomy of it all,” he seems to be thinking.

Once a month we water the cacti that we bought on the way home from one of Miss Lori’s Johnsburg parties.

So far, only one has died.

We bought it when Keely Cat was a kitten.

He sniffed at it too closely then and jumped backwards when a touched a spine.

This month when we took it down to water, Keely sniffed again.

More carefully.

Now do you see the relationship of yesterday’s “Message of the Day” to today’s?

During the tornado warning Friday, Keely Cat was hiding under the bottom stair to the basement.

One of my son’s friends was sitting on top of him. My wife was above.

My son and I were standing up.

Then, my son told me where the Mitten was.

In the safest place in the house should a tornado hit.

I’m late posting the “Message of the Day” today.

Keely Cat knows he is missing on something.

He looks out the window past the daffodils.

He wonders if he could catch that yellow goldfinch.

He’s fast.

We know that from watching him run down the upstairs hall and jumping down the steps to our bedroom.

If only he could get outside.

The Lion King of the Skinner household is three years old.

This past winter he developed ever more of a mane, as you can see in this side view.

The Badmitten (as my son calls him when he is bad) has been through a lot.

Beating back the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax.

See, for example,

Being miffed at Mayor Aaron Shepley’s 75% Crystal Lake city sales tax hike.

See

Being put on a low-fat diet.

But, hey, life is good…even if he gets frustrated looking at those inferior squirrels and chip monks running arrogantly past his outside views.

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.

= = = = =
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.

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

When I reference the Northwest Herald, I call it the Northwest Herald.

No reciprocity with the NW Herald’s Group Editor (oops, I see the title is now “General Manager and Executive Editor”) Chris Krug.

He was pleasant enough in person when I talked with him at the McHenry Economic Development Commission’s annual dinner. Even introduced me to NW Herald’s editor Dan McCaleb, whom two days before Christmas had his name in one of my headlines.

In Sunday’s column, (note the link) however, Krug does not identify the subject of his critical comments.

He writes about how Mayor Aaron Shepley “has taken it on the grill for months over the ‘75 percent’ increase to the local sales tax in Crystal Lake to fund the Vulcan renaissance.”

Anyone want to Google “Shepley” and “75 percent?”

Use “Crystal Lake City Council” and “75 percent” and one will see I am willing to spread the credit.

Until Krug’s column, McHenry County Blog would have been the only place to look for a relevant source.

I am pleased that the NW Herald has finally informed local shoppers that the Crystal Lake sales tax was hiked 75%.

The rate went up on July 1st, as was reported exclusively until yesterday on McHenry County Blog.

Yesterday was the first time the NW Herald has revealed that fact.

But, Krug gives other clues to McHenry County Blog’s identity:

“The hopelessly myopic, the cat bloggers and those only willing to set down the remote control for a chance to rally behind the status quo have skewered the mayor mercilessly.”

And the columnist completely forgets that the Route 14-Vulcan Lakes Tax Increment Financing district was supposed to finance the Vulcan Lakes makeover.

Only when that didn’t pan out did Mayor Shepley and his city council enact the 75% sales tax for the same purpose.

I don’t want to be too critical of Krug. After all, it is a difficult time to be riding herd over a group of newspapers.

But when I write about him, I will use his name.

And, I haven’t written a lot about Keely cat since McHenry County Blog led the successful fight against the McHenry County Republican Cat Tax.

Guess Krug isn’t a regular reader.

If he were, he might assign a reporter to trying to find out how now-indicted Springfield Republican powerhouse managed,

first, to find the Crystal Lake Tax Increment Financing district and,

second, to win the bid with Mayor Richard Daley’s favorite developer, to use Chicago Tribune John Kass’ description.

Now, that would be as worthy of a front page story as was the article revealing that Bill Cellini was involved in the Vulcan TIF development group back on December 15, 2006.

And one that puts the short one into context, which follows.

Finally, I would never have thought Krug would stoop so low as to refer to my visual disability in a negative way.

Yes, I am myopic.

My vision is about 20-400 before my extreme nearsightedness is corrected by trifocals to 12-20.

And, yes, that is my idea of a joke.

I readily admit to being pretty single-minded, but not shortsighted, when someone is trying to raise my taxes, whether it be through a TIF tax shift, a property tax hike with or without a referendum (as was the case with the Krug-supported McHenry County College minor league baseball stadium) or a 75% sales tax hike where we do most of our shopping.

Having said that, I have and shall reiterate another way to finance the making of Vulcan Lakes a recreational area Tuesday night at the Crystal Lake City Council meeting.

Every improvement in Crystal Lake does not require a new tax hike.