Silly in Chicago

I like Mayor Daley. We're about the same age. I think we talk the same way. I'd be a disaster in a press conference. My best performance would be Daley at some of his classic worse moments. I'd blow up like him too.

My wife mentioned last night she heard this exchange on the radio and said he sounded terrible,

Mayor Richard Daley seemed intent on personally opening up the summer "silly season" of frivolous news stories Wednesday.

Court testimony this week that Chicago Skyway tollbooths were fully staffed to help ensure an unimpeded ride to his Michigan summer home was, well, "silly," the mayor said.

Then he said it again. About 20 times.

"Silliest thing I ever heard in my life," the mayor declared. "It really is silly.... It's silly, silly, silly, silly."

I haven't heard the audio but I wondered if this was more than the usual tangle and instead the sounds of nerves in a guy who feels the walls closing in and the air getting thin.

I got a feeling he's coming to a sad end. My father-in-law rode the Lake Street 'L' into the loop Tuesday and said the city's never looked better. He's known that stretch of street since the 1930's so he has some reference. Everyone in my family attributes it to the Mayor. We just hate to see him end on a bad note.