* Sorry. Wasn’t feeling well this morning at all. Somewhat better now.

Since Oswego Willy was one of those who sent me an e-mail wondering if I was still alive, how about a caption contest to welcome his favorite legislative leader into the state treasurer’s race?…

       

103 Comments - OurMagician - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:55 pm: Look ma, no golfing callus! - Darienite - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:55 pm: Wound up taking a 10…….on a par 3!!! That’s when I knew I had to get out of the GA - it’s messin’ with my game. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:56 pm: “Willy, I’m ‘out’, now leave me alone! No, no… NO!” - Newsclown - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:57 pm: “aarrggg,,, fire BAD!” - Keyrock - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:58 pm: After the Speaker waved his hands like this — I don’t remember a thing. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:59 pm: “I’m on the green, and this guy is getting ready to hit up on us. So, I think nothing of it, then I here ‘fore, FORE!’ I turn around and I was like ‘Yikes, ‘Duck ” Two-Putt”, duck’…” - Stuff happens - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 12:59 pm: “This is how I mime being in a box. Next up: miming pension reform!” - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:00 pm: “…8,9, 10. To count to 20, I take off my shoes. You don’t want to know how I count to 21.” - Newsclown - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:01 pm: “You’ve got to get mad. You’ve got to throw open your window and shout it: I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anyMORE!” - Newsclown - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:03 pm: The beach volleyball scene from Top Gun is under-rated!” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:03 pm: “You’re getting sleepy, very sleepy . . .” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:03 pm: “The meeting with Grogan was like, ‘You dropping out?’? and he was ‘Duh, no!’, so as he was walking out, I got up, all slow like, hid behind my golf bag in the foyer, and when he turned around to say ‘Good bye’ I lept up with my Gofer Caddyshack Head Cover … and SCARED him like this, Boo!” - Only in Illinois GOP! - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:03 pm: Aww c’mon folks did you really believe me when I said I was committed to the House election in 2014? HRO hasn’t raised a dime (’cause I’ve raised it for myself), we haven’t found any good candidates, our incumbents are leaving to retire or run for other offices, wwe don’t have a cahnce to take the majoirty in the next 10 years, I’ve lied to one of my best friends in Jim Durkin and I’ve not provided an ounce of leadership. Seriously, what where you folks thinking? I’m out of here! - anonymoose - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:04 pm: “The devil-Madigan will drag you under, by the sharp lapel of your checkered coat, Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down. Sit down your rockin’ the boat.” I always liked jazz hands. - Ravenswood Right Winger - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:05 pm: People talk about a glass ceiling holding back the GOP from making gains in Illinois. Can’t you see I’m stuck behind this glass wall? - Skeptic - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:05 pm: Look at me! I’m Bullwinkle the Moose! - Norseman - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:06 pm: Miller’s back, aaarrrrgggghhh! - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:06 pm: Mike, the “Gavel”…it’s so bright… I can’t grab it… It’s a sign… A sign … Got. To. Move. On. … Getting closer… No, please ‘Gavel’… NO! - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:07 pm: “Fougettaboutit…” - wordslinger - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:09 pm: “The roof, the roof, the roof is one fire. We don’t need no water let……” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:09 pm: When you wish upon a star Makes no difference who you are…. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:10 pm: “If I would have stayed Leader, I would have had ‘this’ many Mushrooms left after 2014…” - A guy... - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:11 pm: Now that I’m leaving, here’s how many seats we need to be relevant again. - Norseman - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:12 pm: Squeezy, no, no, wait, I’m one of the good guys; really. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:14 pm: “Whoa! Stop with the Questions. I admitted it, I golfed on Election Day, ok, so back off! - Norseman - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:14 pm: A big bright light appeared and I heard a voice say, run for treasurer. - OneMan - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:16 pm: Tom Cross reacts to a gentleman from Oswego handing him a golf club… - A guy... - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:16 pm: Floats like an alligator, stings like a moth… - retired - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:17 pm: Eeenie beanie, chili beanie, the spirits are about to speak… - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:17 pm: “Pongee, stop! I’m in a hearing, you can’t be here. I said ‘No’, you can’t be my Special Car … Please… Go away…” - LakeviewJ - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:18 pm: “It’s not a trick, Michael. It’s an ILLUSION!” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:19 pm: “For Pete’s sake, I haven’t even been to Medinah in days!” - Dirty Red - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:20 pm: Willy, how will you continue to conceal your identity as Campaign Spokesman? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:20 pm: “No. Please! Not the former federal prosecutor…” - My Thoughts For Whatever - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:22 pm: Please don’t call me Robespierre! - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:24 pm: I don’t know why, but the positioning of the hands immediately reminded me of Dana Carvey playing Mickey Rooney in an SNL skit: “I was the number one star in the world, you hear me?!!! Boom! The worrrld!” - William j Kelly - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:26 pm: “Do you see how we’ll I can blend in with the background? It’s like I am not even here!” - Tequila Mockingbird - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:28 pm: And that was when I realized the aliens were taking me to the mother ship! - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:32 pm: “About 10 years ago I was playing in an outing with 3 other people, guys i never met. So were playing, make ‘the turn’ having a good time, then we get to the ‘Closest to the Pin’ Par 3. I feel good, but then I ‘rinse’ two in the pond, and then proceed to 3 putt from 10 made 8 on the Par 3 over water. Well, I am running HOT, so I took my clubs, bag and all, lifted them over my head, like this, and tossed them in the pond. So I am standing there like this, feeling better… then one of the guys said, ‘Why did you toss Willy’s clubs in the pond?’ I stood there. Frozen like this… I am still paying for that mistake.” - MrJM - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:33 pm: “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! — One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky! — Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? — Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.” – MrJM - William j Kelly - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:34 pm: “I meant how well I blend into the background, damn spellcheck, even though I am talking!” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:39 pm: “Bost, BOST! I’m open, toss it!” - siriusly - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:39 pm: How many members are in my caucus now? This many. - Newsclown - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:42 pm: Boys and girls, moms and dads: WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE CLOWN??? -That’s my Bob Bell Impression. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:43 pm: Sen. Frerichs, you’re so tall… like a Mini-Giant…No, I didn’t mean that personally…” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:49 pm: Meeeeedniiiiight Not a sound from the pavement Has the moon lost her memory? She is smiling alone In the lamplight…. Meeeeeeeeoooooowwwwwww - Mongo - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:50 pm: Ten-a times, ah deed it ten-a times! - Keyrock - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:53 pm: Newsclown is right — I hadn’t notice the resemblance before. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 1:57 pm: There’s no room for a putting green in the Treasurer’s Office. This changes everything. - Bill White - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:03 pm: I’d make a terrific Dr. Who - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:03 pm: “Ketchup! On a hot dog! No! Take it away!” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:06 pm: “So before I got into politics, I was a street pantomime artist, and here was me caged in the invisible box…………I killed ‘em in Kankakee” - the Patriot - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:09 pm: “Jazz Hands” - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:10 pm: Hey, hey! Who is throwing the cannoli? Stop, now! - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:12 pm: “What’s my favorite ‘Seinfeld?’ Man Hands!” - Voice of Reason - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:16 pm: It’s fun to stay at the Y M C A - anonymoose - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:24 pm: “Mr. Speaker: [singing] If you’re blue, and you don’t know where to go to, why don’t you go where fashion sits… Gentleman from Kendall: ‘UTTIN’ ON THE ‘IIIIITZ.” (Cut me some slack, Mel Brooks I ain’t). - Skeptic - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:27 pm: Where else can you get references to Shakespeare, Bullwinkle the Moose and the Village People all in the same place? I love this blog. - 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:31 pm: Fire. Bad. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:42 pm: - Skeptic -, There is No Place, like This Place. Rich, we all hope you feel better, and have a few laughs. To the Caption, “No one said anything about a boat!” - dupage dan - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:45 pm: Tom Cross playing peek a boo with the voters. - 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:50 pm: Oops, I plagerized Newsclown. Sorry about that. - Darienite - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 2:55 pm: You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about. - the unknown poster - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:00 pm: It’s me, Monochromatic Man. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:10 pm: “Don’t tell there are 8 new Counties!” - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:23 pm: “Who put the Fizzies in my Arnold Palmer?” - 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:26 pm: What the heck happened to the Caucus I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re gonna let it be the worst. “Ooh, we’re afraid to vote with you Tom, we might get in trouble.” Well just kiss my behind from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. Quinn, he’s a dead man! Madigan, dead! Cullerton… - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:28 pm: - Dirty Red -, It would be fun to be a Tom Cross Spokesman, but to borrow from the quote of Ray Kinsella in “Field if Dreams”, Cross would let me stay as long as he could take me, a whole afternoon! To the Caption, “Stop with the Sheila Simon comparisons! Have you seen her play golf? Yeah, so enough!” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:30 pm: =Tom Cross playing peek a boo with the voters. = Ut oh, dupage dan, but he was doing it wrong! How were we supposed to know? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:33 pm: “Forget what I said, just forget it. Wipe it out of your head…” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:34 pm: Oscar pounces; Cross reacts. ;) - Quizzical - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:36 pm: Rich slow down! When I told you I’d buy you a beer for every targeted election I as leader lost to Madigan , I didn’t expect you to want them all on one night. You’re going to feel terrible when you wake up tomorrow. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:39 pm: Fine. I’ll do it. “I’m melllllting! Melting!” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:41 pm: “Dead! Cross’ right. Psychotic… but absolutely right. We gotta take these Mushrooms. Now we could do it with conventional election wins, but that could take years and cost millions of dollars. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part! Tom Cross and the HGOP, we are the ones to do it!” (h/t - 47th Ward -) - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:41 pm: its all becoming clear now. I am destined to become Treasurer. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:43 pm: - Anonymous -, Very well done! - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:44 pm: Thank you, Willy. Happy Friday to you! - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:45 pm: On behalf of all the Anonymi. - woodchuck - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:46 pm: Practicing the important “finger man” scene as he auditions for Jaime Escalanta’s role in suburban version of Stand and Deliver. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:48 pm: As to you…- Anonymous -. “Show me your ‘Campaign Face’ …. Now show me your real ‘Campaign Face’! Better, but work on it…” - Jake From Elwood - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:49 pm: Mr. Cross demonstrates the position he normally took during his leadership meetings with Speaker Madigan. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:49 pm: lol - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:51 pm: Sorry. The “lol” was to Willy’s 3:48. - Empty Suit - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:54 pm: “Neener Neener Neener, I’m no longer the leader!” - SAP - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:56 pm: So Sisyphus said I just have to push the boulder like this… - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:57 pm: Show off. Pandering to Skeptic, are we, SAP? - Jake From Elwood - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:59 pm: Hey “Anonymous” … Thanks for clarifying how you felt about my post…stay classy…LOL - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 3:59 pm: (That was a compliment BTW, SAP. Well done!) - Just The Way It Is One - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:00 pm: TEN times over the past ten years leading the House GOP I said I might run for this or that State-wide Office: 10!!! Now you’ve all heard the saying about how “the TENTH time’s the Charm”, right?! My gosh–why’s nobody shakin’ their head up and down for “yes?!” YOU know–the Saying: “The 10TH Time’s the CHARM??!! Oh, ‘cmon…! Anyhow, I’m here to announce that THIS time I’ve decided I’m running for, um, uh, well…(scratches his head)–oh yeah–Treasurer, Illinois State Treasurer! And, (chuckle, chuckle), as I’m SURE you’ve heard, THIS time it’ll BE the Charm–you know, that is, I’m gonna win, ‘o course, THIS time, ‘cuz…YA know, like I say…that 10TH Time, yeah…THAT’s when it all works OUT for ya….” (Scratching his head…”Or, OH boy, was it the–OH my–the 3RD??…OH my gosh….)” - Norseman - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:03 pm: SAP wins the “Sent the Folks to the Internet” award for his reference to the Sisyphus myth. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:05 pm: Jake, I clarified the lol was to Willy’s post because I noticed yours posted in between the two. Had nothing to do with yours, which I thought was clever, too. - Exhausted - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:11 pm: I’ll give you 10 chances to guess what office I will run for next…. maybe. - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:12 pm: lol Now Norseman. You weren’t really sitting there watching the counter on the Wikipedia page go up for that one, were you? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:19 pm: Too many good ones today for sure, nice way to stroll into a Friday. Well done, all. “Snakes, why did it have to be snakes!” - reformer - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:37 pm: “Ten. That’s how many suburban seats Madigan stole from the GOP caucus on my watch.” - Anonymous - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:38 pm: Willy, that sounds an awful lot like we have to go inside now. Did Cross call Rich to say “Funkle. Funkle. Foo! Uncle!” already? - crazybleedingheart - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:39 pm: You want me to be treasurer? I’m just a simple caveman lawyer. Your world frightens and confuses me. When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he’s so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain. - zatoichi - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:41 pm: I am hooked on the Walking Dead. I see walkers everywhere now. - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:43 pm: “Oh we got trouble Right here in River City We got trouble With a Capital T And that rhymes with P And that stands for Quinn!” - Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:50 pm: Not at all. Before Rich closes shop, giving some props is all. “Nothing up my sleeves…Ok… Now where did today’s $5 million in debt go?” - Sunshine - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 4:54 pm: Oh no! A Pie!! - too obvious - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 6:24 pm: Tom Cross demonstrates best qualification: Jazz Hands. - Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 23, 13 @ 6:56 pm: Finally got around to reading these comments, and I gotta say, Willy’s comment that ends… ===I am still paying for that mistake=== Is the best comment of the month. Man, that was a funny story. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.