Here's the skinny on what the new year could serve up

Here's the skinny on what the new year could serve up
BY LAURA WASHINGTON
Copyright by The chicago Sun-Times
December 31, 2007

Before we get into the bubbly and some ''Auld Lang Syne,'' let's pause for a few predictions, prognostications and resolutions for twenty-oh-ate:
Speaking of eating, here's a Fat Nag shout-out to Yoshi and Nobuko Katsumura, the Queen of Soul, Star Jones, Jim Houlihan, all charter members of the Fat Nag Society. You are on the road to getting the fat out. The rest of you -- there's still plenty of room for the ride!

Praise be -- we are over the hump on the presidential marathon. Just 10 months to go. Oh, joy.

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes should resolve to repress his glee over U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's White House bid. Hynes, the progeny of an old-line Irish political family, got his shamrock smashed by Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate primary. Now Hynes is Obama's cheeriest cheerleader. His regular mass e-letters ooze with affection for the wannabe president. Hynes even led a contingent to Iowa to knock on doors for Obama.

Hynes may love Obama. He covets a vacant Senate seat even more.

Sooner or later, the dunderheads in the national media will catch on to the fact that all politics is local, especially in Chicago. When they do, they might wonder why Obama has held off on backing longtime protege Will Burns in the sizzling hot 26th District state legislative race. That's the same ''progressive'' Obama who backed Ald. Dorothy Tillman's doomed bid to hold on to her hackdom in the 3rd Ward.

Can anyone say Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.? Jackson is out to snag the 26th state rep gig for his buddy Kenny Johnson and help his wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, knock Bill Beavers out of the 8th Ward committeeman's seat to further solidify his own progressive machine.

Ms. Michelle, I know that the Obamas and Clintons are locked in a battle royale for the women's vote, but do we really need to know where Barack keeps his dirty socks? Did you have to tell Glamour magazine that hubby is ''too snore-y and stinky'' in the morning? Here's my vote for keeping personal hygiene off the 2008 campaign trail.

Saving the CTA must be Priority No. 1 for Mayor Daley. If Daley gets the money, CTA chief Ron Huberman will make the trains run on time.

Memo to everyone: Hereby resolve to deem bathroom stalls, dinner tables, airplanes, taxis and elliptical trainers as cell-phone-free zones. Memo to 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney: Get a Bluetooth.

Sam Zell dubbed himself the new sheriff in the World's Greatest Newspaper Town. He'll soon be dipping his cigarette-stained digits into some printer's ink as he prepares to slash and burn the Chicago Tribune's behemoth of a bureaucracy.

One nappy head has gone straight. At least that's what Don ''Big Hair'' Imus would have us believe. The mouth that roared a racial epithet at the Rutgers women's basketball team is back on the air at WABC Radio in New York. He had no trouble booking eager presidential hopefuls John McCain and Chris Dodd and media hogs Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jim Carville. Now comes a Newsday report that Imus has donated $250,000 to help develop a primary care facility in -- Harlem, natch. Ah, forgiveness.

Steve Rhodes, the major domo at the Beachwood Reporter, should resolve to lay off the vitriolic, personal cheap shots and give our Fourth Estate a little love. We do some things right.

That's why, in 2008, you should keep the Chicago Sun-Times close at hand.

Here's my vote for keeping personal hygiene off the campaign trail.