CHICAGO SLANG

CHICAGO SLANG
1. Grachki (grach'-key): Chicagoese for "garage key" as in, "Yo, Theresa, waja do wit da grachki? Howmy supposta cut da grass if I don't git intada grach?"

2. SANGWICH: Chicagoese for sandwich. When made with sausage, it's a sassage sammich; when made with shredded beef, it's an Italian Beef sammich, a local delicacy consisting of piles of spicy meat in a perilously soggy bun.

3. Da: This article is a key part of Chicago speech, as in "Da Bears" or "Da Mare" -- the latter denoting Richard M. Daley, or Richie, as he's often called.

4. Jewels: Not family heirlooms or a tender body region, but a popular name for one of the region's dominant grocery store chains. "I'm goin' to the Jewels to pick up some sassage."

5. Field's: Marshall Field, a prominent Chicago department store. Also Carson Pirie Scott, another major department store chain, is simply called " Carson 's."

6. Tree: The number between two and four. "We were lucky dat we only got tree inches of snow da udder night."

7. Over by dere: Translates to "over by there," a way of emphasizing a site presumed familiar to the listener. As in, "I got the sassage at the Jewels down on Kedzie, over by dere."

8. Kaminski Park : The mispronounced name of the ballpark where the Chicago White Sox (da Sox) play baseball. Comiskey Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field (da Cell)

9. Frunchroom: As in, "Get outta da frunchroom wit dose muddy shoes." It's not the "parlor." It's not the "living room." In the land of the bungalow, it's the "frunchroom," a named derived, linguists believe, from "front room."

10. Use: Not the verb, but the plural pronoun 'you!' "Where use goin'?"

11. Downtown: Anywhere near The Lake, south of The Zoo (Lincoln Park Zoo) and north of Soldier Field.

12. The Lake: Lake Michigan (What other lake is there?) It's often used by local weathermen, "cooler by The Lake."

14. Braht: Short for Bratwurst. "Gimme a braht wit kraut."

15. Goes: Past or present tense of the verb "say." For example, "Den he goes, 'I like this place'!"

16. Guys: Used when addressing two or more people, regardless of each individual's gender.

17. Pop: A soft drink. Don't say "soda" in this town. "Do ya wanna canna pop?"

18. Sliders: Nickname for hamburgers from White Castle , a popular Midwestern burger chain. "Dose sliders I had last night gave me da runs."

19. The Taste: The Taste of Chicago Festival, a huge extravaganza in Grant Park featuring samples of Chicagoland cuisine which takes place each year around the Fourth of July holiday.

20. "Jeetyet?": Translates to, "Did you eat yet?"

21. Winter and Construction: Punch line to the joke, "What are the two seasons in Chicago ?"

22. Cuppa Too-Tree: is Chicagoese for "a couple, two, three" which really means "a few." For example, "Hey Mike, dere any beerz left in da cooler over by dere?" "Yeh, a cuppa too-tree."

23. 588-2300: Everyone in Chicago knows this commercial jingle and the carpet company you'll get if you call that number -- Empire!

24. Junk Dror: You will usually find the 'junk drawer' in the kitchen filled to the brim with miscellaneous, but very important, junk.

25. Southern Illinois : Anything south of I-80. This is where Smothers' is from....

26. Expressways: The Interstates in the immediate Chicagoland area are usually known just by their 'name' and not their Interstate number: the Dan Ryan ("da Ryan"), the Stevenson, the Kennedy (da "Kennedy"), the Eisenhower (da "Ike"), and the Edens (just "Edens" but Da Edens" is acceptable).

27. Gym Shoes: The rest of the country may refer to them as sneakers or running shoes but Chicagoans will always call them gym shoes! =====================================================
This is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about Chicago .

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you live in Chicago

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you live in Chicago

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you live in Chicago .

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you live in Chicago

If "Vacation" means going anywhere south of I-80 for the weekend, you live in Chicago .

If you measure distance in hours, you live in Chicago .

If you have switched from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again, you live in Chicago .

If you can drive 75 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you live in Chicago .

If you carry jumpers in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you live in Chicago

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you live in Chicago

If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody is passing you, you live in Chicago

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you live in Chicago .

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you live in Chicago .

If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you live in Chicago

If you find 10 degrees "a little chilly", you live in Chicago .

If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your Chicago friends & others, you live or have lived in Chicago

Cops drop hammer on towing scam

The scam was brazen and fast, carried out in broad daylight.

A tow-truck driver pulled up to a car parked on the street or in a lot and hauled it away to a "chop shop" or even just to another neighborhood.

Off went tires, rims, batteries, alternators and the catalytic converter, coveted for its platinum. The most valuable parts removed, the driver shuttled what was left to a scrap yard. The car was sold by weight, netting the thieves a few hundred dollars more.

Related links

• Got towed?

After just a few hours, the stolen car had essentially disappeared.

That's how Chicago police on Friday said 13 renegade tow-truck drivers stole cars from around the city. Authorities charged the men with the theft of 35 vehicles but believe the thieves stole thousands of cars, stripping and junking them for millions of dollars in profits.

In a seven-month undercover investigation code-named "Operation Steal Tow," police captured on videotape some of the thefts in progress.

The thieves targeted cars most owners wouldn't even bother to get back. The more the car looked like junk, the easier it was to pass off to a scrap yard, police said.

When one car didn't look bad enough, the tow-truck driver grabbed a large piece of concrete from the street and threw it onto its windshield, unaware a Chicago police officer videotaped the scene from nearby.

The thieves targeted all types of cars and stole them from neighborhoods across the city, from parking lots, street corners and even repair shops, said Harrison Area Sgt. Joseph Petrenko. Sometimes they stripped the car right in the street, not far from where the theft took place. Other times, they drove the stolen cars to chop shops.

"They can back up and lift [a car] and drive off in 15 seconds," said Lt. Dominic Rizzi. "Within a half an hour, you could have that car in a yard, and it could be crushed in an hour or two."

Detectives from the area's robbery, burglary and theft unit worked with investigators from the Cook County state's attorney's office to catch the rogue tow-truck drivers in the act, videotaping about two dozen drivers on numerous occasions as they allegedly swiped and stripped cars, sometimes with crude tools.

In one video, the driver is seen punching a hole in the gas tank of the car, draining gasoline into the street as it is driven to a scrap lot, where full tanks aren't allowed.

One man was videotaped under a car struggling to remove a part. He finally resorted to using a long pole to knock the part loose. Another man could be seen using a hammer and chisel to pry open a trunk before dumping its contents.

When another man's tow truck broke down, he could be seen loading wheels and rims from an allegedly stolen car onto a dolly, then pushing the parts to a shop.

Police estimate the thieves each took as many as five or six cars a day, from a 1993 Lincoln Continental to a 2001 Lexus. One thief allegedly told police he stole 300 cars in one year.

Many of the cars were never reported stolen, their owners believing the vehicles had been impounded by the city. They often didn't try to recover them, figuring the cost of retrieving them exceeded their value.

The drivers worked independently in tow trucks without professional licenses, some claiming to be owners of fictitious towing companies. Many drove trucks with no required identification on the sides of them.

The scrap shops that bought the stripped cars worked with police and were never targets of the investigation, said Interim Police Supt. Dana Starks.

The thieves were aided by a loophole in state law that allows used-car dealers to sell vehicles for scrap without showing a title. The dealer is then supposed to report the sale to the state. But police believe the accused used fake dealer licenses to sell the cars to scrap yards and never reported the sales to the state.

Ronald Kelly, chief investigator for the state's attorney's office, said prosecutors are working with the General Assembly to try to close the loophole. That might mean requiring all cars sold for scrap to have titles with them or requiring the scrap companies as well as the dealers to report the sales to the state.

Rizzi said he wants to start a training session for patrol officers to teach them how to recognize rogue tow-truck drivers. Some tipoffs might be if the driver doesn't have identification on the side of the truck or just temporary stickers. Most authentic tow-truck companies also carry safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, sand buckets and hazard cones.

Police said more charges are likely to come.

"That's just a small sampling," said Rizzi of the 13 charged so far. "We believe there is a problem citywide with these rogue drivers."

----------

arozas@tribune.com

Starve to Death You Goof - From SCC

From second city cop

Starve to Death You Goof

Can't keep a dumb idea down:

• A Mexican migrant-rights advocate deported from the U.S. said she began a hunger strike Friday to push her government to demand its citizens receive better treatment north of the border
• Elvira Arellano, a former illegal migrant who took sanctuary at Chicago's Adalberto United Methodist Church for about a year in defiance of a deportation order, said she would starve herself "because I want our government to listen, to act, to defend our migrant families."
• "Is Mexico prepared to receive all of these deported people and their families?" Arellano said on the opening day of the "First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Who Live in the U.S."

We certainly hope Mexico is prepared to receive more of its citizens back. Then they can get to work on improving their inadequate social net instead of printing up directions on how to take advantage of ours. Republican candidates are getting a ton of traction on this issue and the Democrats are taking a beating.

Arellano starving herself to death would just be icing on the cake.

From Chicago Clout

Thomas
November 10th - 11:22 a.m.
Patrick McDonough stumbled on tens of millions of taxpayer waste (at least $40,000,000) just by seeing private drivers sleep in their trucks. Gang bangers get good paying jobs who take bribes from outfit trucking companies who do no work.
Maybe ask Patrick McDonough where to find waste.

Frank Coconate found $60,000,000 in waste with the vortex Rain Blocker program with thousands of the devices being thrown out behind the Department of Water Managment (and many times they did not work as they were supposed to)
Falph Fero with Chicago Magazine did an analysis of the top heavy management (with 3 to 10 managers supervising 1 worker sometimes) and very large salaries of family members and politically connected people with no credentials. Even Alderman Bernard Stone did a study and spoke out on the number of over $100,000 city employees.
If Ralph Fero can find $60,000,000 in waste with the rain blockers and see the obvious top heavy and overpaid political commissioners, deputy commissioners and do nothing political workers--what about a study, a efficiency expert with an education, the US Attorneys etc.

Just read the Sun Times and the Tim Novak now regular series on political waste and corruption.

Some ways to cut (from big to small)
1. Why does Alderman Burke need 4 bodyguards and a city car and a driver? He sometimes has more police officers all assigned to him? WHY?--is he going to be assasinated?
ALSO--he is very wealthy why doesn't he hire bodyguards instead of us paying for them.

2. Why did Mayor Daley's mother (and daughtes and son)(and God rest Sis's great soul and a great lady) need a bodyguard???
Again, the Daley's are wealthy let John Daley's insurance company (which insured all the hired trucks) pay for a bodyguard or international investment and finance "guru" Williama Daley.
The taxpayers should not have to pay extra protection for alderman,
unkown and no threats to all family members.
YES, some of these jobs are hard and people in the public light can be attacked or kidnapped BUT nobody knows what Daley's daughters look like. Alderman Burke sometimes has four or more police officers and a driver and city car (and picks up friends and does social things with his city car and driver)

3. Cut the top heavy management, the deputy commissioners. Just ask Daley ally alderman Stone.

4. Cut the HDO drug dealers and thugs, cut the 11th ward ghost payrollers, cut the 19th ward do nothings.
The Operating Engineers salaries are too high.
There are whole sections of people doing nothing or Whirity swiping in and out or Strodin building a house on city time.

5. Chicago has much higher law suits by city workers and much higher workmens compensation claims than anywhere else in Illinois including coal miners.
You have to change the culture.
You have to get good lawyers and not political hacks like Mara Georges who is there to get contracts for Shefsky.

6. Cut Intergovernmental affairs, which even the alderman joke are the notebooks with their spying and writing notes on everyone.

7. Cut Maggie Daley's subsidized art program let her friend Ryan and Aon fund it and not taxpayers--not saying it might not do some good but my mom might have a great idea to help kids and I don't get taxpayer funding.

8. TIFS--just read Ben Joravsky or County Commissioner Mike Quigley.

9. The Inspector General's office under Vrstrouias was a corrupt joke. His salary was a waste. How many stupid investigations wasted money on silly stuff or protecting big corruption and waste.
Vrstourias now works in the States Attorney's office.

10. The Burge legal defense when everyone knows he is guilty and they settled or are going to settle cases that everyone knew would be settled over $20,000,000.

11. The Jeremiah Joyce Airport contracts.

12. The loss in the city revenue from selling land undervalue and buying it back for insane profits from Tom DiPiazza, Tim Degnan, Jerry Joyce, Oscar Dangelo, Michael Marchese.

13. Grants to Churches (Separation of Church and state) and no interest loans over 30 years ffor 5 million. The Reader just did a story on the blaspehemer "Rev" Lucius Hall who corrupted the "Our Father/Lord's Prayer" saying "give us our Daley, Daley, Daley bread" in exchange for corruption of the Black clergy and selling out his own people Rev. Lucius Hall has received 3,500,000 in grants.
City Commissioners used to shake down contractors and employees for Old Saint Patricks Church and government has given them a lot of breaks.

14. Alderman Stone had a good idea to sell the vacant lots the city owns or sell idle city property.

15. Every alderman should have a program to turn vacant lots into productive tax earning land.

16. Cut the stupid city council committees that do nothing and provide ghost payrollers and job spots for political people. One hack they call the hallwalker has no education and makes over $100,000 with no skills or training in his supposed field.

17. Cut the number of alderman from 50 to 25 or 20 or even 10.

18. Implement Term Limits
2 6 year terms for Mayor
3 4 year terms for Alderman
The money and power is calcifying in the wrong places.

19. Consolidate the Treasurer and Clerk into 1 appointed post. Why have elections on what de facto amounts to an appointment by the Mayor.

20. Really eliminate patronage and thus eliminate the need for the millions wasted on the stupid Federal Monitor.

21. Act right so you don't have Sorich/Slattery indictments and federal monitors and stupid Shakman settlements where Michael Shakman will make 4,000,0000 in attorneys fees.

22. The no bid and overbilling legal contracts that Mara Georges gives out to her mentor Brian Crowe at Shefsky or Freeborn Peters or other silly political connected overbilling law firms.

23. Victor Reyes, just his family members on the city payroll, let alone the money he makes from no bid contracts on redisticting (Cost taxpayers 1,300,000) or his sisters company Aztec or pass through bs minority contacts.
Let alone what Victor Reyes has cost in legal bills for investigations and law suits or all the criminal idiots who he put on the payroll (he probably put 1000 employees on the city payroll including his entire fat family)

24. The whole property tax assessment and appeals which is for the politically connected
Speaker Madigan got a 2,000,000 fee for his law firm when he saved a big airline $6,000,000 that could of gone to taxpayers
Hynes, Houlihan and company make a lot of money from the current Byzantine tax system which does not work and favors politics
Both commercial and homeowners are over taxed

25. The Duffs at $50,000,000 of phony minority contracts for cleaning and other services that could of been done better and cheaper

26. Grants to churches and non for profits that are political payback

Eliminate politically connected art programs
Eliminate the Inspector Generals office
Eliminate 20 or 30 alderman
Eliminate City Council committees
Make a 10 or 20% across the board cut

27. The Joyce cousins made a HALF A BILLION 500,000,000 of profit on the Cable buyout which was a joke

28. Daley's wife's friends and Oscar Da'Angelo made money on concessions at O'Hare
as did Tim Degnan with McDonalds

29. The towing scandal

30. The City of Chicago could probably fire at least 2000 political hack do nothing ghost payrollers

We will get to education and pensions later

Hahaha
November 10th - 3:17 p.m.
Great ideas, Thomas. I agree with most except eliminating the IG's office. If Hoffman were allowed to investigate city departments (and add the aldermen) without interference from Daley he would eliminate enough corruption to pay for his department tenfold.

Pensions will be tough to tackle, especially with the new labor agreements. Daley 10-year, 4% raise per year contract with unions, minus meaningful benefit concessions, will handcuff the city. All in the name of the Great White Olympic Whale

NBA OR NFL?

NBA OR NFL?

36 have been accused of spousal abuse

7 Have been arrested for fraud

19 have been accused of writing bad checks

117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

3 have d one time for assault

71, repeat71 cannot
get a credit card due to bad credit

14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

8 have been arrested for shoplifting

21 cu rrentlyare defendants in lawsuits, and

84 have been arrested for drunk driving
inthe last year

Can
you guess which organization this is?

Give
up yet? . . . Scroll down,







Neither,
it's the 535 members of the United
States Congress.

The
same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year
designed to keep the rest of us in line.

You
gotta pass this one on!

AND THEY JUST VOTED THEMSELVES $15,000 PER MONTH PENSION FOR LIFE AFTER SERVING ONLY ONE TERM IN CONGRESS!!
###########################################

Security at its finest, the Chicago way

Workers arrested at O'Hare in alleged fake ID scheme

Tribune staff report

More than 20 workers were arrested today at O'Hare International Airport after authorities said employees at a suburban staffing agency used fraudulent security badges to gain access to unauthorized areas of the airport.

Many of the workers arrested were illegal immigrants, authorities said.

The eight-month investigation led to the execution of a search warrant today at Ideal Staffing Solutions, 170 N. Pine Lane in Bensenville, and the arrests of two managers there: Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville, and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park, according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Each was charged with one count of harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and one count of misuse of Social Security numbers for allegedly assisting the workers in obtaining unauthorized access to secure areas of the airport, including the tarmac, the statement said.

Working with the Cook County sheriff's office, federal officials arrested more than 20 of the staffing agency's workers at a warehouse close to O'Hare, the statement said. Those workers, whose names were not released, are facing felony charges of possession of fraudulent identification in the form of airport security badges and those suspects identified as illegal immigrants will face deportation, federal officials said.

"If we are to ensure public safety, we must know who has access to the secure areas of airports," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said in the statement. "A fundamental component of airport safety is preventing the use of false identification badges, and punishing those who commit or enable such violations."

Gurin, a corporate secretary at Ideal Staffing, hired Benitez and signed her airport badge application, despite knowing that she was an illegal immigrant from Mexico, authorities allege.

According to criminal complaints unsealed today, Ideal Staffing managers told workers they needed identification to work at O'Hare, but that the documents did not need to be legitimate. Federal authorities allege more than 100 temporary workers employed by the agency were in possession of fraudulently obtained airport security badges, which allowed the workers to gain access to secure areas of the airport while loading pallets, freight and meals for companies doing business at O'Hare.

Today's raid echoed a 2002 federal crackdown at O'Hare in which 25 workers were arrested, including Elvira Arellano, who went on to become a well-known activist, and took refuge in a church for more than a year before she was deported.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

National Ammo Day 2007

National Ammo Day 2007

It’s almost here!

On November 17 we will open a survey where you may report your participation results.

Get the word out and don’t hestitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Thank you for your participation in National Ammo Day 2007.

A brief explanation - What is National Ammo Day?

November 19 is National Ammo Day.

It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.

The goals of Ammo Day:

The goal of National Ammo Day is to empty the ammunition from the shelves of your local gun store, sporting goods, or hardware store and put that ammunition in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Make your support of the Second Amendment known--by voting with your dollars!

There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States of America. If each gun owner or Second Amendment supporter buys 100 rounds of ammunition, that’s 7.5 BILLION rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens!

The gun/ammunition manufacturers have been taking the brunt of all the frivolous lawsuits, trying to put these folks out of business. Well, not if we can help it! And we CAN help it by buying ammunition on November 19!