Hmmm, should I go with the silhouette smoking a joint stock photo?

Or just go with the generic marijuana plant?

Or heck, I’ll just show a couple hippies at Woodstock: 

The City Council is going to vote on decriminalizing pot. Not in the “hey, smoke em if you got em” decriminalization, but more of a here’s an orange ticket for your weed posession instead of a weekend trip to County. The aldermen are pushing this through, although the mayor and police chief are a bit mum (they are open to it, but need to see how it would work). It’s like an episode of The Wire, but in Chicago over dime bags. The best part of this story was the trip down memory lane. The Sun-Times went back into the archives to get then-Mayor Daley’s take on decriminalizing pot:

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley embraced the idea of issuing tickets for minor pot violations in 2004, only to ridicule the County Board five years later for voting to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

“People say you cannot smoke. … They said, ‘Please don’t smoke.’ Now, everybody’s saying, ‘Let’s all smoke marijuana.’ After a while, you wonder where America is going,” Daley said at the time.

“Pretty soon, the headline [will be], ‘Let’s bring cigarettes back. It makes people feel calmer, quieter, relaxing.’ … We said you cannot smoke cigarettes. Cigarette-smoking is bad for you. Now all the sudden, marijuana smoking is good for you. Can we take Lucky Strikes, mix ‘em together and say, ‘Smoking is coming back in the United States?’ ”

B story: Interesting, JPMorgan will NOT charge for debit cards in the future. This on the heels of Bank of America’s announcement that they WILL charge $5 a month for debit card use.  Man, it makes you wish for the glory days of Corus bank. Or at least LaSalle. I want my bank to be named after my city. That’s all I ask. And for a British female voice to greet me at the ATM.

C story: Today is the anniversary of the assassination of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison. See, this is when politicians needed police details. The dude who killed Harrison just knocked on his door and went back to his study and shot him.

D story: What is happening at the Department of Cultural Affairs? Gospel Fest is back, but not in Grant Park. Then there is talk about the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture getting put back into Cultural Affairs and Special Events, after Daley split it all up. Let me get this straight: Daley takes the Cultural Affairs department and the Mayor’s Office of Special Events and merges them. Then he takes most of the department’s programming away and gives it to a new office (Tourism). Lois Weisberg quits and sounds off in the press. The new boss (Weisberg’s deputy) orders an audit of the situation and decides to undo most of it and restructure the office. So, does everyone get their job back? It’s like a shell game on the train, folks.

E story: If you missed it yesterday, I gave you the worst ways to get a ticket in Chicago. If you discover a dead body and fail to report it? $200 fine.

Weather: This is about right for Halloween, right? Is it going to rain on Monday? Don’t rain on Monday.

Sports: This will be the first time a World Series has gone to Game 7 since 2002. That was the year that the Angels won over Dusty Baker’s Giants. And it was that off-season that the Cubs stole him away. Could that happen with LaRussa? Or perhaps Pujols? Whatever happens this off-season, tonight is must watch baseball. What a great season.

Also, don’t look now - but the Chicago Blackhawks have put together a blazing start. Could it be that playing into April (not June) helps a team the next year? Perhaps.

And here come the columns about the Bears management after the sudden release of safety Chris Harris. Best quote was from D.J. Moore, who was sort of asked if he was worried about talking too much (since that’s what Harris was rumored to have done):

“I don’t worry about nothing but my girlfriend, make sure she isn’t cheating on me,” he said. “Other than that, I’m good. That’s the only thing that would dent my ego.”

Kicker: Greta Johnsen is our new weekend anchor at WBEZ. She will be starting this week. So when you listen to your weekly dose of Car Talk and Wait! Wait!, turn it up! There’s a new voice joining you for breakfast! Greta comes from Alaska, which seems to be the best state in the union for public radio employees (Gabe Spitzer and Ashley Gross are from there). Can’t wait to listen Greta! Here’s her photo. I give this to you because I always hear from you that it is weird to find out what somebody looks like after you’ve listened to them. So here’s what she looks like BEFORE you listen to her.