Question of the day
Friday, Feb 3, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* He tells this story often during school visits…
Before diving into politics, Gov. Bruce Rauner made his bones as a private equity investor. But the Republican said Thursday he earlier had been interested in bones of a different type.
During a visit to a Rockford elementary school, Rauner told students that his third-grade dream was to become an archaeologist.
“Boy did I ever want to dig up dinosaur bones,” he said. “I thought that was going to be so great.”
The governor touted the importance of hard work in school and told students they would be interested in different things as they grew up — just like he was. Besides archaeology, Rauner said he considered being a police officer, doctor and scientist before eventually settling on economics in college.
Rauner wanted to work with dinosaurs as a kid. Instead, he got Madigan.
Anyway…
* The Question: What did you want to be when you were a kid?
- Chicagonk - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:51 pm:
I laughed. I always wanted to be an inventor for the army (not exactly a real profession, but I was
. Ended up in the property and casualty insurance industry.
- Cubs in '16 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:51 pm:
Professional baseball player. I never considered anything else until reality hit me my junior year in high school.
- Juice - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:51 pm:
I wanted to live in a van down by the river.
- Linus - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
A meteorologist. And living in a state with a full-year, fully funded budget.
- MSIX - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:55 pm:
I wanted to be an architect. But sloppiness with any writing utensil in my hand and a complete lack of artistic vision squashed those plans.
- Homer J. Quinn - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:56 pm:
paleontologists dig up dinosaur bones, not archaeologists.
- walker - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:56 pm:
Sky King, in my v-tail bonanza.
- Art Vandelay - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:56 pm:
Always wanted to pretend to be an architect.
- walker - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:58 pm:
Quinn: But archaeologists do study the remnants of ancient cultures.
- 35/Shields - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:59 pm:
Not to be a bore, but an archaeologist studies HUMAN history and prehistory. If our very educated governor had really wanted to dig up dinosaur bones, he would have pursued a career in paleontology.
Also, I always wanted to be a fireman.
- How Ironic - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:59 pm:
I too wanted to be an archaeologist, and thought I had hit paydirt in the small stream behind the house one day during some exploring. Found a large bone, was convinced it was that of a T-Rex.
Dad was less thrilled, as apparently a cow had fallen into the stream, died and the only remains left were the rear leg bone and some others we later found.
My dreams were shattered after a stern discussion about not playing in the creek from my mom.
I was 8 or 9.
- Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:59 pm:
It is so stereotypical, but… Pro football player or a fireman.
- History Channeln Police - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 12:59 pm:
Archeologists dig up human artifacts and paleontologists dig up dinosaur bones.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-paleontology-and-archeology
- prairiestatedem - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:00 pm:
Fighter Pilot, all the way…I still get to fly, just not for a profession and not anything that goes mach 2
- RIJ - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:01 pm:
I wanted to be a meteorologist, doing research on severe summer weather.
- Boat captain - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:02 pm:
Farmer
- Precinct Captain - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:02 pm:
Movie director
- prairiestatedem - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:02 pm:
And by the way Walker the V tail Bonanza is a pretty good way to go!
- A Jack - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:04 pm:
I grew up in the sixties, so astronauts and secret agents were viable career choices.
- Saluki - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:10 pm:
I wanted to be shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals
- Anon221 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:10 pm:
Farmer, writer, scientist- stated that in first grade. Was born into farming on our family farm. Have also done the other two to certain degrees so far as well:)
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:15 pm:
Always wanted to play 2nd base for the Cubs. As a kid, anytime being around Wrigley and then baseball, that was a huge dream. By Junior High, no way. Sports are the easiest Darwin example.
The best guy on your team, neighborhood, area, region, state national region, then national. Whew. When you’re 12 or 13, those realities become all too real.
There are other dreams to chase, some just as real now, just as cool too. But, as a kid, man, 2nd base for the Cubs, that was my dream.
- Macomb Resident - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:17 pm:
A Harlem Globetrotter
- Gone, but not forgotten - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:17 pm:
When I was a senior in high school, my father sat me down and asked if I wanted to go to college to be a nurse or teacher (I am female). I said I wanted to be a secretary. I fulfilled that dream in the private sector with law firms, insurance brokerages and sales organizations for 25 years. I then destroyed that dream ending my career with 20 years of state service. I did get a pension and insurance, though, so I guess it was worth 20 years of frustration, debasement and dehumanizing.
- Ron Burgundy - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:19 pm:
Meteorologist (seems a common theme here) or Jack Buck.
- Liberty - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:21 pm:
Had no clue…
- JS Mill - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:22 pm:
Marine Helicopter Pilot. I wanted to fly the air cobra.
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:23 pm:
I wanted to be a detective. I shoulda stuck with that, my local police department needs the help.
- PlayK8 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:24 pm:
A golf club……..
- Earnest - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:28 pm:
A math teacher. Or Bjorn Borg.
- ArchPundit - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:31 pm:
Astronaut. Then I figured out I couldn’t see well enough. Probably better for everyone this way.
=-=Rauner wanted to work with dinosaurs as a kid. Instead, he got Madigan.
Rich wins the internets today.
- Anon221 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:32 pm:
Rauner’s Friday assignment (not optional, must be completed before your next presser)-
“How do you make an archaeologist really mad, really fast? Ask her if she’s found any dinosaurs. SciShow helps you Know Your Scientists by explaining the many differences between archaeology and paleontology, and how they’re each awesome in their own ways”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6OjU8UvY54
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:33 pm:
President of the United States.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:34 pm:
I wanted to be Sweet Swinging Billy Williams. Sadly, the only thing I had in common with him was being left handed!
- sal-says - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:35 pm:
Somebody with the power to fire the current gov.
/s, but true.
- illinoised - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:42 pm:
I wanted to help others. I lucked out and got to do it.
- Tom B. - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:43 pm:
Orthopaedic Surgeon. Wasn’t cut out for medical school though. I got weeded out by Illinois Wesleyan’s Premed program quickly.
- MOON - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:45 pm:
Madigan always wanted to be Speaker so he could negotiate reasonable budgets with reasonable people.
Instead he ends up with Rauner.
- A guy - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:48 pm:
A Blogger….alas, no one knew what that meant.:)
- IllinoisBoi - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:53 pm:
A citizen of a solvent, well-governed state.
- MSIX - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:58 pm:
=I too wanted to be an archaeologist, and thought I had hit paydirt in the small stream behind the house one day during some exploring.=
Brother and I were digging in our backyard once and were sure we’d found a buried treasure chest. We had just the top of it uncovered and figured it’d be easier to get Dad’s big sledge hammer and break into it from the top rather than dig it up. Dad wasn’t at all happy about us busting open the gray-water pipe to the cesspool.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 1:58 pm:
Audie Murphy
- Dr X - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:03 pm:
Bobsledder. I was impressed by the 76 Olympics.
- zatoichi - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:11 pm:
Play drums with Led Zepplin and I got to do it. Unfortunately the other guys looked nothing like the band and the basement was not exactly the Aragon Ball room. But after some beers….
- SAP - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
Cowboy
- Lefty Lefty - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:19 pm:
As a practicing geologist I appreciate that many of you saw the error in the Governor’s story. I’m sure there have been kids in his audiences biting their tongues so they don’t embarrass him.
Always wanted to be a scientist. I get to call myself one!
- Huh? - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:35 pm:
Land surveyor like my grandfather. Ended up as a civil engineer like my grandfather.
- Excessively Rabid - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:52 pm:
If anybody asked, I always said a hermit.
- Anon - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:55 pm:
Bruce, it’s never too late to pursue your dreams. The world needs more archaeologists. Please, listen to your heart, and head off to a dig as far away as possible right now and don’t come back.
- Amalia - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 2:58 pm:
Astronaut. Space exploration still fascinates and as a child it was everything.
- Stumpy's bunker - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:09 pm:
How strange…front-line archeologists are pathetically paid…yet they deliver a more valuable product than the line he chose…vulture capitalist and neoliberal hobbyist.
- Demoralized - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:20 pm:
A major league baseball umpire
- Mama - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
A nurse.
- downstate commissioner - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:42 pm:
A cowboy-didn’t hardly move without a cap gun on my hip…Wished for a horse every birthday; finally actually rode a horse when I was 18, discovered they had minds of their own…
- Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
I wanted to make music like they played on WLS and WCFL.
- Anonymous - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
Maybe that’s why he closed the ISM, one of their staff shattered his childhood dream by explaining to him that archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaur bones.
- dutch3001 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
Maybe that’s why he closed the ISM, he figured that all the archaeologists who work there really didn’t know what they were doing if all they did was dig up people instead of dinosaurs.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 4:03 pm:
Deputy Governor.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 4:09 pm:
Secret Service agent. Aced the written test and first interview. Flunked the physical fitness test bigly.
Off to the IL bureaucracy I went. Still get a tingle seeing dudes and gals with hard pins, dark shades, and the earphone/sleeve mike.
- WhoKnew - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 4:28 pm:
- Liberty -
“Had no clue…”
I’m with ya!
All I wanted to be was not bored…
- Archiesmom - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 4:41 pm:
Astronaut or veterinarian.
- train111 - Friday, Feb 3, 17 @ 4:44 pm:
President
Did 25 years as electrical/production/manufaturing engineer. Laid off last year when factory moved south of the border. Now biding my time as an elementary and middle school substitute until Donald Trump brings all those jobs back to the US/ snark