#6 -- Thursday Thirteen Guilty Pleasures

Thirteen Things that THE GAL HERSELF thoroughly enjoys If asked, I'll deny it, but I really do love: 1) Court TV and Snapped on Oxygen -- where I find the real "girls gone wild" 2) Popping bubble wrap 3) "Celebrities are just like US" in US Magazine 4) Pumicing my heels while wearing a facial mask as I soak in a bubblebath (I've caught sight of myself as I do this and trust me: I look waaaay stupid) 5) Doris Day movies 6) Big Macs and hotdogs with ketchup 8) reading about Jackie Kennedy and Princess Di … still 9) Jerry Lewis 10) Playing Turbo 21 on Pogo until I can't take it anymore 11) Shopping for a life I don't have as I daydream through mail order catalogs 12) Extra, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider (vast wasteland, indeed!) 13) Eating in "dives," restaurants with red/white check plastic tablecloths, laminated menus, paper napkins, and bowls of peanuts in the shell to nosh on while you wait for your order Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Check out Gabriella's nostalgic Thursday Thirteen at http://www.gabriellahewitt.com/blog 2. Shiloh's amusing, but not too ambitious, Thursday Thirteen is at shilohwalker.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/thirteen-things-i-have-no-desire-to-learn

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Only 70%? What's wrong with you people?

Mayor Richard M. Daley was reelected yesterday with 70% of the vote. I don't understand why it's not 100%.

Yes, there's corruption in City Hall. I know I should be more upset about it than I am, but truth to tell, there has always been corruption in City Hall and I'm just used to it. Besides, until someone finds $800,000 in shoe boxes under his bed,* I simply do not believe Mayor Richie is making himself rich at the expense of tax payers. And as long as he isn't personally benefiting from it, I'm willing to turn a blind eye to it.

The city is cleaner than it's been in years. There's new construction and new business and new jobs. Yes, the CTA is dirty and unreliable. Yes, the school definitely have room for improvement.

But we're safe here. And it's because of Richard M. Daley.

A political pundit recently said that midwesterners don't really worry too much about terrorism. That may be true of the folks who live and work in the suburbs or downstate. But I spend half my life in this city, and I worry about it every day. I can't help it because reminders crop up all the time. Some mornings there are cops with dogs on el platforms or near the garbage cans in the commuter train stations. Then the next day the cops and dogs are gone. Or there will be police boats in the river under the el tracks in the morning but gone for evening rush. No one discusses it, but we all know why they're there. (An unintentional benefit of the war on terror -- crime is down on the el these days.)

Who puts those cops there? Mayor Daley. The same man who decided I needed to be evacuated from Illinois Center on 9/11. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

A major snowstorm kicked in early afternoon a few weeks ago. The Mayor's office contacted the major office buildings and asked them to close early so the streets wouldn't be clogged and dangerous during afternoon rush. I believe that's more forethought and communication than Mayor Nagin shared in New Orleans before Katrina.

It's a dangerous world, and I'm glad Richard M. Daley is looking out for us.

*Paul Powell was Illinois Secretary of State when I was a little girl. When he died, it was discovered that he had $800,000 cash in shoe boxes.