CERVECEROS.

Baseball provides young men with opportunities, both to excel and to show leadership.  "Three months ago, Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras and outfielder Jackson Chourio donned Team Venezuela jerseys in the World Baseball Classic, leading their home country to a win over teammate Brice Turang and Team USA."

Two major earthquakes provided a leadership opportunity.

Venezuelan Milwaukee Brewers All-Star catcher William Contreras, outfielder Jackson Chourio and coach Nestor Corredor have joined forces with Forward Latino, Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish to launch the "United for Venezuela" Emergency Relief Effort.

Two catastrophic earthquakes struck Venezuela on Wednesday evening, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5. The death toll has risen to at least 1,430 people, with thousands more injured and missing, and countless families displaced.

The linked article alludes to "frustration" in Venezuela, perhaps aggravated by twenty years of Chavista khrushchobas.

When late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez built this coastal housing development bearing his name as part of his socialist revolution, residents found a fresh start after deadly floods had decimated the area more than a decade earlier.

But after two back‑to‑back earthquakes flattened parts of the ​1,100-unit complex on Wednesday, engineers are urging the Venezuelan government to swiftly audit similar public housing that is still standing.

Let's leave the recriminations to others.  Today we hail Milwaukee area residents stepping up.

On June 29, all three were on the same team, in more ways than one.

The trio, joined by teammates Christian Yelich, Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, Abner Uribe, and Jared Koenig, helped pack boxes of supplies bound for Venezuela as the nation continues to reel following two separate magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes that leveled buildings across the South American nation last week. As of June 29 the death toll in Venezuela was estimated to be 1,719, according to Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez.

“We feel the love, the willingness to help out, and we appreciate it,” Chourio told reporters through interpretation by coach Nestor Corredor ahead of the Brewers’ game at American Family Field against the Cincinnati Reds.

The appearance by members of the team for day one of the relief effort held in conjunction with Forward Latino drew a large response from Brewers fans and members of the community on its first day. The group’s national president Darryl Morin told WTMJ they had received phone calls from all across Wisconsin and neighboring Illinois asking how they could help.

“When ​the players reached out and said ‘we want to be a part of this, we want to help raise awareness’, we were overwhelmed,” said Morin. ”Just having them associated with this, I mean cars are literally lined up across the block waiting to make their donations.”

It might be that donors made a little extra effort to bring food and tools for an opportunity to shake hands or high-five some of their favorite players.  The players, one radio report noted, were busy filling boxes and taping them shut.

Blessed Sacrament parishioners are continuing the donation drive into next week.  Conditions must be dire in the earthquake zones as among the items being accepted are canned goods, cases of bottled water, and garden tools, all of which are expensive to ship by air freight.

SIXTY YEARS TO GET FROM SKOKIE TO HARMSWOODS.

Perhaps the only thing longer than a forever war or a negotiation with Iranians is the procedural wrangling over restoring a few miles of rapid transit track through the Skokie Valley.

Please indulge me my sarcasm.  "Yellow Line extension in Skokie could take ‘decades’ but CTA is studying it."  It's more accurate to say that the studying has already been going on for close onto seventy years.  What today's flatlanders understand as the "Yellow Line" is the first segment of North America's first high speed electrified railroad, which continued to Deerpath and onward on existing tracks to Milwaukee.  And yes, I've taunted Chicago officialdom for studying a relatively short restoration of service at a pace that would please neither Charles Yerkes nor Samuel Insull.

When the North Shore filed for abandonment in 1958, Chicago Transit Authority (public ownership came in 1945) considered purchase of the high speed line as far as Waukegan. North Shore's own ridership studies had a plurality of the commuters boarding at Dempster Street with relatively light loads north of Briergate. As the Transit Authority has a large maintenance facility along the North Shore just west of the drainage canal in Evanston, it was relatively inexpensive to buy only the North Shore property from west of that facility to Dempster. But no sooner was the North Shore gone than some people wanted it back.

Getting even the next section, to somewhere near the Old Orchard mall, which somehow still exists as a mall, has been newsworthy for years. "Sometime in the late 1980s a friend, in making conversation, asked if I was aware the Transit Authority wanted to extend the Skokie Swift to Old Orchard. My reaction: it used to go to Milwaukee. Surprised reaction. No surprise."  At the time, there were a few more people still living who had ridden the North Shore Line.

TRANSPORTATION MIRACLES REQUIRE PREPARATION.

Reason contributors, including Liz Wolfe, have a troubling blind spot where road socialism is concerned.  "New Jersey Transit is preparing backup ferries to help with demand as fans try to make it to the World Cup. I kind of love how they assume public transit will buckle under the pressure."

Not-a-tall.  I heard one senior law enforcement official describe the World Cup as "multiple Super Bowls" in multiple cities in three countries over six months.  Let's bear in mind that the National Football League unaccountably scheduled a Super Bowl for the Meadowlands, and more people than New Jersey Transit anticipated rode the trains.  Lesson learned.

It is not, however, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl, or New Jersey Transit that concerns me.  Rather, it is a centennial.  "In 1926, the North Shore Line built a much larger temporary station, and borrowed rolling stock from the Chicago Rapid Transit Company, for a one-day International Eucharistic Congress at Mundelein.  A rainstorm provoked an early departure for many pilgrims, and the railroad handled it."

In less than ten score years, Chicago went from "mission" territory to birthplace of a Pope.  Strictly speaking, the aforementioned XXVIII International Eucharistic Congress took place in Chicago and at St. Mary of the Lake seminary, then east of a village called Area (pronounced a-REE-a) and subsequently renamed for George Cardinal Mundelein, who made no small plans.  Neither did the seminary, now known as the University of St. Mary of the Lake, not to be confused with the California university that keeps turning up in intercollegiate sports tournaments.  Nor did Samuel Insull, whose country farm was near the seminary.  For that matter, the cardinal offered the Vatican the use of St. Mary of the Lake as emergency quarters during the War.  The Pope might not have had any divisions, but he was no coward.

GOOD.

"Six Flags bans influencer from all parks 'for life' after his shocking video violating safety rules."

I hope the clicks and likes were worth it.  "'Guests who violate our Code of Conduct are not welcome in our parks,' a Cedar Point rep tells EW of YouTuber Allen Ferrell, who filmed himself eating chicken nuggets on a 310-foot roller coaster."

Apparently "EW" means "Entertainment Weekly," but my reaction to what this fool did for clicks and likes was also "Ewwwww."

Ferrell, who has nearly 4 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, shared a video of himself sticking a 10-piece box of chicken nuggets into his pants before boarding the Millennium Force roller coaster.

Ferrell is seen in the footage pulling the box out and eating the nuggets while the ride drops from its 310-foot height. His riding partner then extends a hand holding an open container of sauce, into which Ferrell dips his nugget before it slides off his face.

I once snagged my brother's sunglasses when the g-forces on a coaster you might have heard of did what they do.  I would not have been able to catch a stray drop of dipping sauce even with my younger self's reflexes.  This happened long ago, before people had portable 'phones to take selfies, which is another way to get yourself banned from an amusement park.  "During the ride, the phone came loose and struck another rider, which, according to local news, sent the injured person to the hospital for treatment."

The laws of physics are immutable.  Roller coasters are for riding no-handed, not for amateur photography.  And yes, I have taken point-of-view photographs on roller coasters.  With the management's permission.

DISCOVERING THE ELECTRIC PRESERVATION RAILWAYS OF THE STATE LINE.

Mercedes Streeter of The Autopian stumbles upon the East Troy Electric Railroad.

Countless historic American streetcar and interurban lines have disappeared since their heyday, but I found a place where you can still experience a commute like it’s 1920. This is the East Troy Electric Railroad, Wisconsin’s last running interurban railroad, and it’s one of the most tranquil rides you’ll ever take that doesn’t even surpass 15 mph.

The East Troy Electric Railroad is one of my favorite kinds of museums. Nestled in the town of East Troy in southeastern Wisconsin, this museum doesn’t really have the marketing of the Illinois Railway Museum or the federally recognized status of the National Railroad Museum. Instead, it’s a museum that you hear about through word of mouth or stumble upon on social media, and it has the same kind of lovely charm as a mom-and-pop shop. The museum is small enough that, if you’re not paying attention, you could drive right by it and not notice it was there.

We've called attention to the East Troy Electric Railroad numerous times.  It's unusual among preservation railways in that its busiest season is fall, for apple picking and leaf peeping.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS.

It was a slow Tuesday night for a waitress named Lily Thompson.

Oпly a haпdfυl of cυstomers filled the diпiпg room, aпd the staff moved qυietly throυgh their roυtiпes. Aroυпd 7 p.m., a tall yoυпg maп weariпg a Milwaυkee Brewers hoodie aпd baseball cap qυietly walked throυgh the froпt door aпd politely asked for a table пear the corпer wiпdow.

Most people iпside the restaυraпt barely пoticed him.

The young man noticed that Ms Thompson looked tired.

At oпe poiпt, he пoticed the exhaυstioп iп her expressioп aпd geпtly asked how her eveпiпg was goiпg.

At first, Lily simply smiled aпd said she was “haпgiпg iп there.”

Bυt somethiпg aboυt his kiпdпess made her opeп υp.

She briefly meпtioпed her mother’s illпess, the pressυre of sυpportiпg her yoυпger brother, aпd her dream of becomiпg a пυrse someday if she coυld ever afford school.

Jacob listeпed carefυlly withoυt iпterrυptiпg.

That's Jacob Misiorowski, who you might have heard of.

He left a large tip and a note of encouragement on the check.  “Keep pυshiпg forward. Hard work aпd heart always matter.”

She still is, at the restaurant, as is he, on the mound.

Many of the young men who play professional baseball have hardscrabble backgrounds, and the grind of coming up through the minor leagues is its own kind of grind.

BIG PAYROLLS, NO GUARANTEES.

The Chicago Cubs are off to an interesting opening third of their season, two ten game winning streaks, and a losing streak at ten games and counting.  "Cubs Players Forced to Swallow Bitter Pill as Craig Counsell Makes Unwanted Record."

So it often is with the so-called large market teams, there's no salary cap in major league baseball which offers owners of such teams the opportunity to hire premium players at premium prices.  But they have to perform.

[F]or a few MLB insiders, the Cubs players are to blame and not Counsell.

“I’m not really sure it’s his fault…This has to do with some of the players not living up to the contracts that were signed,” 104.3 The Score’s Mike Mulligan said in a podcast.

The Cubs entered this week hoping to end their losing streak. However, after taking the beatings from the Astros, the Cubs started the week by losing to the Pirates. Their Monday loss against the Pirates is their ninth straight loss. “We’ve gotta play better, we gotta swing the bats better, we gotta pitch better, we need more guys contributing to good stuff,” Counsell said on Monday afternoon. “And as a coaching staff, we gotta figure out a way to get the players there. Offensively, we are equipped to be way more consistent than this and way better than this. We need to show it.”

Against the Astros, the Cubs’ pitching staff allowed 15 runs in three games. On Monday, the pitching improved, giving up just 2 runs, but the offense faltered.

So it sometimes goes in the regular season, the Brewers won all six regular season games with Los Angeles's Dodgers (if they were the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers, are they the Roger Rabbit Dodgers in Los Angeles?) and you-know-who made short work of the Brewers en route to another World Series.

The Brewers are in the middle of a gantlet of strong teams that has included sweeps of the Yankees, Cubs, and Cardinals, and they're off to Houston next.  We are, however, only a third of the way into the season.

TAKING LEAVE OF THE MID-AMERICAN IN STYLE.

Northern Illinois University's baseball team won the Mid-American conference tournament in the sweetest possible way, defeating Toledo in their final appearance in that tournament.

The Huskies won their program-record 35th game on the season to make the occasion even more special. This is NIU's first MAC baseball title, sending the Huskies to the NCAA Regionals next week. In four games at the MAC Tournament this week, NIU outscored its opponents 32-9 and trailed only once. The Huskies' pitching staff had a 1.80 earned run average and held teams to a .193 batting average.

That earned Northern Illinois the sole Mid-American bid to the national tournament, which begins with a double elimination regional round reducing a field of 64 to eight teams that play best two out of three on the home fields of the top four seeds to qualify for the double-elimination College World Series in Omaha.

THE BEER THAT MADE MILT FAMY WALK US.

Poor Schlitz, for the past forty years an orphan brand.

Once upon a time, Schlitz sold Old Milwaukee at a lower price than "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Furious" as a subtle form of price discrimination.  A few locals were in on the secret.

More recently, Miller Coors leased excess capacity at some of their plants to produce all of the other Great Milwaukee beers: draft-brewed Blatz, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Schlitz, and for all I know Meister Brau and Braumeister.  (Well, at least Old Milwaukee, see above, and Lone Star.)

It's now come down to Miller Makes It Wrong.  " Pabst Brewing Company and MillerCoors are going to trial, with hipster favorite Pabst contending that MillerCoors wants to put it out of business by ending a longstanding partnership through which it brews Pabst’s beers."

The dispute involves the profitability of Miller's excess capacity.

The mind boggles at a single company brewing Miller Lite (they took out a trademark on the mis-spelling) and Coors Light, which is academic at Cold Spring Shops headquarters, where Budweiser is for cooking whilst Sprecher or Spotted Cow or whoever's local Marzen is on offer is for drinking.

The mind also boggles at Pabst being located in San Antonio, which used to be where Pearl Brewery switched its works with a home-built flat car motor.  As close as Miller was to Cold Spring Shops, they never had an in-house plant railway, relying on The Milwaukee Road, as did Schlitz, which had rail-served facilities at both the Chestnut Street and the North Milwaukee end of the Beer Line.  But I digress.

LET'S START THINKING ABOUT SUMMER.

Over the years, we've noted the evolution of May Day from a north European fertility ritual to a political event.

On the itinerant circus, that used to be the traditional beginning of the travel season, and a "First of May" was a novice trouper who had a lot to learn.  There are still itinerant circuses, and some of them have been on the road for some time this season.

In political economy, the first of May is the celebration of socialist labor.  Tsar Vladimir has ditched the Soviet era parade, in favor of a wallow next week in the Great Patriotic War, although European socialists still use the day, which commemorates a strike put down roughly in Chicago, to call attention to the unfinished business of the class struggle.

Well, why not?  Christmas in northern Europe might have adopted existing rituals of the winter solstice.

That noted, the traditional Maypole of those fertility rituals, which has also been toned down in order that kindergarteners can wrap streamers around the upright for the tether ball, became the Maibaum at gathering places of German ethnic and cultural societies.

We're experiencing a spring that has been on the chilly and rainy side of late, and the year is off to a stressful start.  But the beer gardens are opening, the evenings are getting longer, and the itinerant circuses are on the road.

TOO EARLY TO PUT A PIN IN THIS.

A National Review fund-raising blurb opens, "The NFL draft has concluded and confirmed that the Jets are two years from a winning record, that the Bears still stink, and that the Packers will win the Super Bowl."  Whether that prompts Militant Normals in Packer Nation to open their wallets, or whether that will age like Philadelphia cream cheese, remains to be determined.  Apparently author Luther Abel owns a share of Packer stock.

In Packer Nation, the standard remains five titles in six attempts in eight seasons, and the special teams are a work in progress.

FOUR-ONE-FOUR.

Milwaukee's area code, which used to extend beyond city limits, is 4-1-4.  Thus, even though the telephone carriers have overlaid area codes as if they seek to tile a plane with irregular polygons, Sudsville boosters make today an opportunity to tout Milwaukee, bad drivers and injured basketball and baseball players notwithstanding.

I did attend high school in Milwaukee, but to this day crack wise about having to leave because I kept missing the five pin with my first ball of the frame.

Those fours and ones have another meaning here at Cold Spring Shops.

The model is increasingly like the prototype, it was built a quarter century ago, it moved a few freight cars, and it occupies space at the works.

FAREWELL TO THE RADIO OF MY YOUTH.

For years, the noon agricultural report on WGN Radio featured the reporting of Orion Samuelson.  In those days between the exit of the Braves and the arrival of the Brewers, I made do with baseball coverage on WGN.  The transistor radio is long gone, the Cubs finally won a World Series, and the Cubs had to change the words of "Go Cubs Go" as fans no longer listen to the road games on WGN.

Mr. Samuelson, however, continued to deliver the farm report until his retirement in 2020.  "It is with profound sadness that WGN Radio shares the news of the passing of agriculture and business reporter Orion Samuelson at age 91. Orion is a name synonymous with WGN, having spent over 60 years with the station."  Farm Progress honored him as a champion of agriculture.

Samuelson soon became popular for his ability to explain agribusiness and food production in an understandable way. He and Armstrong would talk about agriculture from a studio in Chicago over hundreds of networked stations. He would explain corn production and beef demand to thousands of suburban housewives, among others. He was named Prairie Farmer Honorary Master Farmer and inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2003.

There are many more tributes and reminiscences at both links.  R. I. P.

About the same time that the Mets continued the frustration for Cub fans, including those temporary fans making do in Milwaukee, Chicago's WBBM, which I understand used to mean "We Broadcast Better Music," became an all-news station and hired in John Hultman from Detroit.  "Hultman was best known over many years at WBBM Newsradio as morning drive anchor — a role in which he served constantly for nearly 20 years and in which he was partnered with anchor Felicia Middlebrooks in 1984."  He had a distinctive way of saying "News Radio Seventy'-Eight!" to close his reports.

The station had that one month to expand the staff to what would become a 24-hour all-news station.

Hultman said early on, he anchored evenings with John Madigan — also a longtime political editor and commentator at WBBM Newsradio, whose daughter, Amy Madigan, so happens to have won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress just on Sunday of this week.

Quoted in the 1988 book "WBBM Radio: Yesterday and Today," Hultman said newsradio found its niche upon realizing it didn't have to compare itself to other media.

"We're not a newspaper, and we're not just a headline service," Hultman was quoted. "We give listeners a little information about a lot of different things, and we give it to them as it's happening."

Mr Hultman has also crossed the final summit.  R. I. P.

CLIMATE CHAOS IN THE STATE LINE.

If you don't like the weather, go to the next county.  The Sunday morning map of watches and warnings had the springlike stuff to our southeast and fulfillment of the groundhog's fears to the northwest.

By evening, the groundhog's forecast was verifying here, although one might be forgiven for thinking "early spring" south toward Bloomington and Springfield, with another day of tornadoes.

This morning, DeKalb was in the "blizzard warning" area, not for any new snow, but for the prospect of high winds and light powder being blown around.  Local authorities were recommending against travel.  The sun is high enough and strong enough now that getting concrete surfaces mostly clear suffices to keep the blowing and drifting stuff under control.

Snow cover through most of Advent, cold with little snow cover through January and into February, now the sort of snow with almost enough moisture to congeal in the snow-thrower, and if it's a little deeper, can bring on cardiac events.

To the north, Wisconsin got it, with Weather Channel storm-reporters braving the blizzard conditions in downtown Green Bay.  Amtrak's trains between Chicago and Milwaukee were running.  I'm not sure about the trains toward the Cities and the Dakotas.

That's Amtrak 334, close to time, and lost in the snow cloud is an older B32-8 pushing.  I was hearing radio chatter about one of the trains' newer Charger diesels, like the one leading, having troubles.

We are now on Daylight Saving Time, which will bring us the weird phenomenon of sunset around 7 pm and heavy snow on the ground.

PĄCZKI DAY, FASCHING DIENSTAG, MARDI GRAS.

You don't have to wait until today to enjoy a pączek or two.

Maybe there will be a few on hand for the next day or so as well.  Waste not, want not.

DON'T BRING GRANDMA'S O-CEDAR ANGLER TO THE BONSPIEL.

As surely as the East German judge will screw over the American figure skater and somebody will wipe out on the ski slopes, the coverage of curling during the Olympics will inspire wiseacres to find a slippery flat surface and something that will slide and parody the sport.  This year's wiseacres have used a Roomba or a teakettle or a baby in a basket.  The infant appeared to enjoy the experience.

Dig out your squidgy mop, a few pots and pans — or a robotic vacuum if you have one — and a pair of slippers.

It’s curling time!

Social media has been ablaze with people deploying common household wares to mimic what the world’s top curlers are doing at the Winter Olympics.

“Every four years, it blows up,” American curler Tara Peterson said. “Everyone’s like, ‘We want to do it,’ and then, yes, they get creative with things, so it’s awesome.”

Whether any of those social media attention hounds actually take up the sport I don't know.  It's not that hard to get involved, particularly if you live in a northern city.  The local curling club probably occupies a nondescript building in an industrial area of town, unless the town is Green Bay, where the nondescript building is literally in the shadow, at least during summer sunsets, of Lambeau Field.  And yes, there are some light industrial buildings as well as several sports bars you might have heard of nearby.

Curling has distinctive jargon, which means they'll refer to a tournament as a "bonspiel."  That sounds Teutonic but judging by this announcement from Milwaukee, the theming is Scottish.  Logical, the sport probably got started when somebody wondered if he could slide a chunk of granite across Loch Ness on a boring winter day with not much sunlight.  There's a full schedule of such tournaments, some for the club members and some open for other clubs, in Chicago.  Milwaukee's club claim to be the oldest club in continuous existence in the States, although not in continuous existence at one location, as is true of a model railroad club in Sudsville.

Grandma's O-Cedar Angler enters the conversation because in this year's Olympic coverage, I didn't see anything that looked like you could use it on the kitchen floor or to remove snow from switch points.  In previous years, I recall pictures of competitors holding something like that.  That got me wondering, were the competitors using association-sanctioned tools?

CANDLEMAS AT ST. OLAF.

Public television set aside part of Christmas Eve to acknowledge that Christmas Eve refers to a religious event, and their programming frequently includes elements of the St. Olaf College Christmas Festival.  Think future Lutheran Church Ladies working on their handbell technique, and I think the programmers work the Anglican Lessons and Carols (those stand out in my memory as the segment local public television most regularly carries) in with the Norseman Band and Viking Chorus.

The St. Olaf Candlemas service, however, took place at Notre Dame University.  South Bend are in the lake effect snow belt downwind of Lake Michigan, and January has been productive enough of lake effect snow that some civil engineering students, inspired by a classmate's igloo, built a chapel out of snow blocks.  Their efforts motivated resident campus priests to offer a Candlemas service, with Mass.

They didn’t only have a Candlemas Mass, the Catholic Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, marking 40 days after Christmas, when Mary presented Jesus in the Temple. They also sang hymns at the snowy structure, dubbed “St. Olaf’s Chapel," as well as the university’s alma mater, "Notre Dame, Our Mother."

University publicists were on hand to share the news.

Love thee, Notre Dame 🎶

Last night, more than 1,600 Notre Dame students braved 19° temps for Mass at St. Olaf’s Chapel, built by Coyle Hall residents from the 38 inches of January snow. pic.twitter.com/TpYiTblTR2

— University of Notre Dame (@NotreDame) February 3, 2026

Candlemas, forty days after Christmas, is the end of the Nativity season.  There are some people who leave their Festive Season decorations up until Candlemas (that's taking long chances with natural greenery inside) rather than removing them after Three Kings.

There's some pretty good snow sculpting talent at Notre Dame, judging by the photos in Bob Hoge's article.

HOCKEY THE WAY IT USED TO BE.

Milwaukee Admirals beat [Iowa] Wild, coldest game in AHL history.  "The teams played outdoors at the United Heroes League in Hastings, Minnesota as part of Hockey Day Minnesota."  The Wild scored the first two goals, the Admirals the next three, with everybody getting ninety seconds of extra outdoor time.

Years ago, my dad scored some points with his future father-in-law watching my mom's brother play in an outdoor game in Green Bay.  Might be that after December 1944 in Belgium, a chilly night properly bundled up and fed to watch hockey held no terrors.

WRINGING OUT THE ATMOSPHERE.

In the summer of 2023, there was more water in the atmosphere, which affected summer humidity.  "That volcano, it transpires, was at just the right depth to superheat water enough to push through the water pressure at depth and boil off into the atmosphere. More water in the atmosphere, more humidity, more air you can wear, and in corn country the evening aspiration of the corn plants manifests itself."  Atmospheric water can be an effective greenhouse gas, that is, until the next rainfall.

FRIDAY WILL BE A SNOW DAY FOR CHICAGO OFFICE WORKERS.

No longer do railroads employ legions of extra men to shovel out switch points and service the heaters.  Thus when cold and snow are on offer, management prefers to avoid diverging moves where practicable.  "With severe cold forecast for the Chicago region, Metra has made the decision to operate reduced schedules on all its lines on Friday, Jan. 23."  The reduced schedules are for the most part the Saturday schedules, hourly or two-hourly for much of the day, with very few expresses and none of the Elmhurst or Congress Park turnback trains, and McHenry is out of luck.