The Name Game

Here in Chicago where the expensive new voting machines don't work nearly as well as the old ones and where two weeks after having a stroke the probably not ever to fully recover President of the Cook County Board is re-elected anyway and where after spending many millions of dollars on the trial of former governor George Ryan who until proven guilty remains only indicted for official corruption the Chicago Tribune finds out that two of the jurors lied about their past - had to be excused and replaced, surely setting up grounds for appeal if Mr. Ryan is judged to be a crook, here in this ever the same, always amusing city of Chicago, I received a phone call from my friend M- who sits snug up in the mountains north of Santa Fe to tell me his wife recently delivered their third daughter.

He left a message and said her name was T -, although I couldn't quite make it out. When I called him back he said they changed the name to H - because the T - thing just didn't feel right. And names should feel right both to the giver and the bearer. I'm confident they made the right choice. The name choices for their first two daughters were right on - and the little piece of land they found for themselves and the life they've built for themselves (a life I'm more than a little jealous of) have been on the mark as well.

Back here, maybe we'll get our old voting machines back, and we won't elect officials who clearly won't be able to serve or ones who will end up costing us millions of dollars to put them in prison for lining their pockets and their friend's pockets with every last dime they can grab.

But probably not.