PICKING A WINNER: I voted early this year but only twice-early at Village Hall two weeks ago, twice when the touch-feel machine wouldn't save my paper. It recorded my vote, I was assured, and believed it did. But my paper trail was broken, so I did it again, then signed a statement to that effect.

But who cares about the darn paper? It's for peace of mind, I assume. Not mine, however. I save things electronically all the time, and so do banks and police departments. It's the digital revolution we have here, which has more to do with our rocketing prosperity even than Bush's tax cuts.

I even save my own deathless prose electronically. You may save yours in a box under your bed or in a safety deposit box. Fine. But what if there's a conflagration, then what? Your deathless prose goes the way of Isaac Newton's notes, gone missing for 70 years for want of being catalogued. If Newton had blogged them, there would have been no problem.

I know you have to be crazy sometimes not to realize they're out to get you. But frankly, I'd go nuts if I mistrusted electronic save.

SIGNS OF TIME: Meanwhile, the Peraica signs seem to be growing on front lawns. It can't be easy, I have said, for the true-blue Dem to go red-blooded Republican, even if he's a supposed reformer. Keep in mind, of course, that your man Claypool, not endorsing Todd the favored son, is catching severe implied public threats from Mayordaley II, which is enough in some circles to make a man consider another line of work. Look at it this way: If your man Claypool can risk political execution, can't you vote Republican?

SIGNS MISPLACED: The Stroger signs, on the other hand, came and went like thieves in the night, for instance on the narrow grassy strip on South Boulevard across from the Oak Park Avenue el platform. Somebody must have decided this land is your land, this land is my land, from Harlem Avenue to Austin Boulevard, from North Avenue to Roosevelt Road, this land was made for you and me ... Not for some campaign worker to plant his signs on.

RAISING MY HAND: Was happy to contribute my two cents to the OP elementary schools recommendation fund the other day. Did it online, but don't you even think about that, because the deadline has passed. Had a few questions left over, however, such as what's meant by "adequate support" for kids moving from elementary to middle school or middle to high? It would take a heart of stone not to rate that as very important, and I don't have one, even if I am a Republican.

Another was about teaching cultural and other differences, which I rated not important because I smelled a rat. If I could be sure this was a low-key urging toward tolerance of quirks and blemishes, I'd say fine. But this multiculturalism comes across at times as a blurring of distinction between right and wrong and of universal standards.

Stoning the rape victim comes to mind, or dealing harshly with girls and women in ways that do not pass the family-newspaper taste test. Is this ever so slightly to be condoned or glossed over out of respect for local custom? You can find a defense of such harsh dealing on the web without much trouble. I'd like to know more about what District 97 has in mind here.

Finally, there was the question about preferring "school control" over staffing etc., apparently as opposed to district office control. I can see that as a good idea, recognizing parental rights, or a prescription for chaos. Is it code? One possibility is intriguing, namely some sort of open enrollment by which parents choose their kids' school, or at least put in for it once the neighborhood gets its pick. It would be a way for schools to get a vote of confidence from their customers. There. Two cents more.