Dick Tracy Fails to Get the Ladies’ Vote – Part 2

Yesterday, I started the tale of how Tina Hill’s Management Services Committee considered citizen-submitted suggestions for a new McHenry County Seal.

I told of my relaying Heck of a Guy blogger Alan Showalter’s suggestion that the center of the seal be the face of Dick Tracy, drawn by cartoonist Chester Gould in Bull Valley.

Cutting this old guy to the quick was county board member Barb Wheeler’s opening comment:

“With all due respect to the elderly…”

Now, I readily admit that Dick Tracy has had a long professional career. 77 years.

Wheeler’s relegation of Dick Tracy to the dustbin of McHenry County history made my quaking hands shake so much I didn’t get down what she said about her children and Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny, by the way, is younger than I am.

“It’s cute and it would definitely add some entertainment, (but) it’s not professional, not stately enough for a seal.”

Dick Tracy “not professional?”

The nerve of that youngin!

Dick Tracy is nothing, if not professional.

Her comments came after comments from the not-so-elderly-as-I McHenry County Board Chairman Ken Koehler, whose father was a Dick Tracy fan when the family moved to Crystal Lake.

“We knew where Dick Tracy was from.”

“With all fairness to Cal, we don’t often agree, but…”

His appreciation for the role Dick Tracy could play came out so fast I couldn’t get his exact words, but my pen did reengage with the back of the agenda when he said,

“There’s a a lot of great possibilities.”

I think he was thinking about using Dick Tracy to market McHenry County, something that apparently has not occurred to the McHenry County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Koehler did say, “Dick Tracy could be part of (a quadrant-designed) seal.”

Marie Chmiel, who is retiring and suggested that her opinion didn’t count, didn’t mention Dick Tracy in her list of favorites.

“The one with the courthouse looks very nice, but I like the different segments.

“It’ll give it notoriety, but personally I don’t think we should go with a cartoon character. I don’t think it should be strictly agriculture…or conservation.”

“Hire a consultant to do it,” was Chmiel’s final advice.

“Notoriety?”

The word’s definition certainly does not fit Dick Tracy:

“The quality or condition of being notorious”

Notorious:

“Known widely and usually unfavorably.”

Dick Tracy “notorious?”

Maybe to Flattop or The Brow.

But calling Dick Tracy “notorious” is akin to calling U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald “notorious.”

And, Fitzgerald is only considered notorious by those whom he indicts and their friends.

(And, yes, I know Chmiel was talking about Chester Gould’s drawing, not the character’s character.)

County board member Yvonne Barnes belonged to the cut and paste faction.

“I like bits and pieces of a number of them. I’d like to see a combination.”

Later, Barnes said she wanted a seal which would reflect “current McHenry County and reflect what it will look like 10-20 years from now.”

“We’re trying to recruit.”

Her favorite was the one with the factories, homes, barn and silo and water.

Continued tomorrow.


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