Susan Sovereign, Lawrence County's Erma Brombeck, Takes a Behind-the-Wheel Driver's Test

   A former Illinois House colleague of mine, Roscoe Cunningham, bought The Sumner Press, Lawrence County's weekly newspaper. That's located 240 miles south of Navy Pier in far southeastern Illinois along the Wabash River. (Go to the web site and see the size house $100,000 or 4-bedroom brick house that $65,000 will buy.)

I subscribed to the paper. What keeps me opening the pages each week are the Publisher's Comments and Susan Sovereign's column.

Today, McHenry County Blog is starting a periodic re-publishing of Susan Sovereign's columns from the Sumner Press, with Roscoe's permission, of course.

This column is about her visit to the Secretary of State's Divers' License Facility, where she had to take a behind-the-wheel test.

Just to tempt you, here is how the test started out:

Much to my surprise, the men behind the counter flipped a coin to see who was to receive the privilege of giving me my test. The man who won groaned deeply and said (slightly more gruffly than necessary),"Let's get this over with," and motioned for me to go to the car.

He carefully strapped himself into the car on the passenger side. Opening the back door, I got in. He looked at me in amazement and asked if I didn't think that perhaps something was wrong with our seating arrangement.

I couldn't see how it would make much difference, but I got out, walked around the car, and got in the back seat on the other side.

Rather sarcastically, he asked if I didn't think it would be nice if someone were to drive.

I told him to go right ahead.

He made some kind of a mark on the clipboard he was carrying and said, "Oh, no. I insist that you drive."

The entire column can be found here.

Or, if you are want raw politics, read about the torching of the Prospect Heights City Hall and what the reformers think there.