I was late for my first town council meeting as a reporter for a small Chicago southside weekly in the late summer of 1988. Driving along with three miles to go I looked at the dashboard clock and imaged the meeting starting without me. I was nervous that I might miss something important, and not knowing the building or the characters, I thought I might screw up coverage for the next edition.

While I continued to drive normally, a screen-like vision filled my sight in an upper right corner block. The scene was an empty board room, with one man lingering about at a bulletin board. The info-surge reported  that the meeting had indeed begun, but that the board had immediately gone into executive session, that I would really not miss any of the meeting. I immediately eased off of the gas pedal and was calmed by the information.

Once inside the building, one man did stand just outside the room reading at a bulletin board, the same man who then informed me that the meeting started and that the first order of business was to adjourn to an executive session. I had only a short wait before the public meeting started.