Today's Tribune column: "Corner of Mulholland Drive and Pearl Street."

What else is there to say? I've chosen the task of keeping a penlight trained on the wannabeens, in the hope that their dysfunctional antics eventually will inspire local politics to grow up, if only a little, and reach the level currently being attained by other areas of endeavor in the life of a city.

You may be right; I may be crazy. Today marks five years of trying, and all we can do is see where the next five years take us. As always, thanks for reading.

BAYLOR: Corner of Mulholland Drive and Pearl Street

When last we looked with appropriately ironic detachment upon the fictional antics of Councilman Cappuccino and his faithful sidekick, Li’l Stevie, they had been joined on a nocturnal downtown street corner by CM Ceesaw, and were making barbecued bologna hash out of Robert’s Rules of Order as is their twice-monthly custom ...

... In a raucous, dysfunctional atmosphere mimicking the back alleys of Mogadishu, Yangon or Outer Birdseye, even the clouded Wizard of Westside periodically can appear to be shining, a state of affairs that embodies both optical illusion and clinical delusion, and leads us back to a final quote from our burgeoning local book of observations.

HANDICAPPING
A head-scratching voter’s calculation: Is an incorruptible politician who is wrong 100 percent of the time worse than a corruptible politician who is right half the time?