The Daley Show's Year in Review: We're #1!

You can run, governor, but you can't hide from another Best of 2005 list!As 2005 draws to a close, it's time to reflect on all the things we didn't accomplish this year and try to learn from our mistakes. In case your mistake was missing any of my posts, I'd like to present what I consider the five most important events from the past year that I documented here on The Daley Show. This is my way of re-gifting some of my favorite moments of 2005, like that one Chicago Bears hard hat I got from Uncle Stan. Feel free to turn around and pass it on to someone you love. They'll thank you for it.

My criteria for picking the top five:

These stories had a major impact on Chicagoans or generated some comments.

They were reported by the New York Times (or another major news source like this blog).

Whenever people not from around here heard about these events, they scratched their heads and wondered, "Is Chicago really the third largest city in this country and not some backwoods village?"

OK, I realize that I've only been blogging for just over a month, but I think I've churned out enough crap insightful information in that time to fill up today's entire issue of the Red Streak. And the way I see it, if I didn't blog about it, or take pictures of it, then it didn't really happen.

Number 5: The mayor sings a new Christmas classic.
In a year where he faced all sorts of corruption scandals and hints of former friends running against him in the next election, Mayor Daley rarely turned up to say anything intelligent or interesting. Perhaps his greatest moment came when he visited a hospital and sang to the children. I rewrote the lyrics.

Number 4: Chicago passes a smoking ban, then raises the cigarette tax.
Yup, this year, smokers really got it up their cigarette butts. I wondered how fair it was to first ban the habit, then expect smokers to pick up the tab whenever there's a budget shortfall. I also re-lived a recent trip to Ireland to let everyone know what Chicago bars might be like when the city goes smokefree.

Number 3: Chicago leads an areawide Campaign for Quiet.
An Andersonville bakery/coffee shop made national headlines by asking kids to keep it down. Then, Evanston banned the use of leaf blowers. Are we a city of grumpy old people?

Number 2: Is it or isn't it OK to save your parking spot in winter?
Surprisingly, many people don't like our little tradition of digging out our cars, then saving the spot with some piece of furniture. When the city announced that these random items would be picked up and tossed, I wondered why they still hadn't towed a bunch of cars parked on a designated snow route.

Number 1: White Sox win the World Series. Oh yeah, I think I jumped on the bandwagon early enough to call myself a fan. Below, fans and friends in the nosebleeds celebrate another A.J. homerun during that 14-2 playoff victory over Boston. And, yeah, they're gonna be even better next year, no matter what Hillary Clinton prefers.


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