On April 15, an explosion in Boston, Mass., killed three people. On April 17, an explosion in West, Texas killed 14 people. Both events were tragic and unexpected. The friends and families of all 17 victims were shocked and will be scarred for the rest of their lives.

I believe that the best we can hope for is that things will get worse slowly. I guess that makes me a pessimist. Like a fancy craft beer, my pessimism is tinged with cynicism and skepticism.

I must admit I wasn't very interested in the local elections. Having lived here since 1976, I have voted in and observed a lot of these celebrations of participatory democracy. This election was typical — low turnout, a number of uncontested contests and a couple of contests that "will shape the future of the villages."

At first impression it is hard to imagine a more different place than Downton Abbey in Yorkshire England compared to Oak Park, Illinois. In England before WWI ,women can't vote. The landed gentry is fighting desperately to hold on to a rigid class structure that has been in place for hundreds of years.

I quit drinking in 1989 at the age of 40 after burning my 10-year-old son Nick with a cigarette. It was an accident. I didn't drink for 20 years. At first it was kind of tough, but after a while I became "the guy that didn't drink." You can be defined as something worse.

I think the real problem here may not be the prophecies of doom and gloom but rather the prophets. Our print and electronic media are premised on the capitalistic imperative that the more eyeballs watching, the higher the advertising revenue.

Last week was filled with important news. Closer to home, there were two important hirings. The Bears hired Marc Trestman to be their new head coach, and Oak Park hired Cara Pavlicek to be our village manager.

My interest in James Bond actually pre-dates the first movie Dr. No, which came out in 1962. As a young lad I was much taken by the 1960 election of the charismatic young John Kennedy.

I apologize to the readers for the somewhat slapdash approach to this column. I had been led to believe that the world was ending on Dec. 21, so a Dec. 26 column seemed pointless. Stupid Mayans.

Our elections in Oak Park are surely a great futility. Along with golf, cheering for the Cubs and finding the perfect gift for your spouse, there is no greater pointlessness than voting in an Oak Park election.