TWITTER LA DI, TWITTER LA DA

I am not a Twitterer. In fact, I'm just starting to master this 'posting of meandering thoughts and other important stories on the website' thing.

But this, I guess, is my twitter -- yet I won't be boring you with entries like 'Jim is about to go to sleep now. He's had a long day going into a matinee at the La Grange Theatre and sneaking into as many other movies as possible in one day.' (although I do admit that's fun)

But I will try to amuse you with the kinds of things a newsman such as myself wonders about, things I just can't seem to pull together a whole darn column about. So here goes:

1. This is my biggest pet peeve about La Grange and I just realized in a chat with Mayor Liz Asperger over coffee last week that even she was unaware of this faux pas: take a drive over the Ogden Avenue bridge from Brookfield into La Grange and keep to the right lane heading west, preferably in the daytime. As you approach the left turn onto Burlington Avenue, keep an eye out for the yellow (road is approaching on your left) caution sign at the top of the bridge. Look closely or you might miss it. Just like I tell my favorite restaurant owners (yes, Steve, we still need to meet) about the glaring mistakes, grammar and spelling and punctuation errors on their menus, I feel obliged to repeat my rant about signs. Since this is an educated community, the local hot dog shop does not sell Hot Dog's or Taco's. and there is NOT a Jewel's in La Grange Park or a Kmart's over in Bridgeview. And, sign-makers, there is no such road as BurliGton Avenue.

2. I've been keeping a close eye on what retail is NOT coming in to the new La Grange Pointe senior housing complex at La Grange Road and Cossitt Avenue and stopped in my tracks the other day thinking something had changed. But it was the clever marketing genius of the folks over there who finally decided to fill those vacant windows with a more colorful artist rendition of the La Grange streetscape -- undoubtedly to attract more retail and residential tenants. Let's hope it works.

3. Glad to see Francesca's is finally open for business in the old Via Bella space to the immediate north of the new Pointe building. Still waiting on a permanent sign, the owners have plastered a red-on-black banner on the facade advertising they are 'Now Open' for business. Anyone wondering what happened to Via Bella? They are now selling pizza out of a small shop at Plainfield Road and 55th Street in neighboring Countryside.

4. If that new Chicago Sports t-shirt and baseball memorabilia shop tucked into a space just south of Starbucks has familiar-looking stock, that should be the case if you are a Cubs fan. They operate their business right next to the 7-Eleven on Addison Street in Wrigleyville every season. That's less than three weeks away!

5. I get angry when I do the drive-thru at any fast-food restaurant and I am asked to please 'wait over there.' Call me crazy, but I used to go on a rant about how the concept started eons ago with Jack-in-the-Box (which no kid at the window has ever even heard of) and how the whole idea was to order, drive thru and pick up your food. I always used to carry on about how their sign out front doesn't say 'Joe's Burgers Drive Thru And Wait Over There' DOES it??
'No sir,' they used to tell me, but 'you still need to park over there.' One girl even threatened to call the cops on me one day.
So I threw in the towel this year and as one of many goofy resolutions (like no more pretzels with peanut butter or read the instructions before using products I buy or receive from now on, especially cars and Blackberries) I make, promised myself, 'self, it's OK to park over there.' So I did.
Then comes last week, when the burger joint at La Grange and Ogden wants to charge me a quarter for a BBQ sauce. Because I asked for it with my fries and it only comes with Chicken Nuggets. Ask for ketchup and you'd think you just cashed in your lucrative stocks for that tomato farm you invested in a few years back. I mean a heaping handful.
So I had to ask: what's up with this? The manager informs me the nugget sauces cost the store 12 cents apiece, whereas the ketchup packets are only a penny or two. Why McDonald's doesn't carry Heinz is another story well worth Googling.
So, again, I adapted.
Then comes Free Coffee Mocha Mondays.
A couple weeks back, round about 9 p.m., I had a thirst for one. NOT available, I was told.
They ran out of lids. Harumph!

6. If there is ever another Spaghetti Dinner at First Baptist of La Grange Church, it is a must-attend event -- even though they delivered it to my car door in the parking lot when I couldn't get out my car. The best outside of any good pasta restaurant and better than some others!

7. I miss Beautiful Day.

8. The most popular places for the homeless used to be in the old library or in the vestibules of such popular hangouts as Fannie May Candies, Starbucks and benches outside 7-Eleven. But lately, it seems the downtrodden have found refuge in the new parking deck, where the lobby area is heated day and night. Police seem to be doing their best lately to keep the place free of such squatters. Next they'll be showering up in the fountain. Yikes.

9. When are the officials of La Grange, Brookfield and McCook finally going to get together and seriously discuss what to do to improve traffic and pedestrian safety at 47th and East/Eberly? The four-way stop, at any time of day or night, is a clear indication that NObody listens to the teacher in traffic school.

10. And will the guy with the Christmas lights STILL on his top-floor balcony overlooking the Police Department parking lot and Chase drive-thru facility finally realize the holiday season is over with? I know this sounds sooo suburban of me, but I think we need an ordinance setting fines or community service for decoration violators ... even for the stores that start displaying Easter stuff in February.