Councilman Hinterlong Fumbling The Numbers

We’ve all seen it at one time or another, when some guy is running a marathon race, and he’s coming down the final stretch weaving all over the place, trying to remain on the track while stumbling forward towards the finish line, and you begin leaning towards the finish line trying to help him, and hoping if he falls, he does it forward across the line instead of backward.

Well that’s what it was like during last Tuesday’s Naperville city council meeting when councilman Paul Hinterlong was trying against all odds to read a dollar amount for a tax levy, and trying to make some sense of it. Watch and listen as he tries to read the numbers:

I had to listen to it three or four times before I could figure out what he was trying to say. I think it was the ever dangerous decimal point that sent Hinterlong into a tail spin. It might have been a better idea if Hinterlong wrote the following equation on a napkin and held it up for folks to see it:

$47,931,701.50 + a tax levy of $6,707,532 for a total of $54,639,233.50

Hinterlong might want to think twice about making any motion about anything involving dollars especially if a decimal point is present.

Hinterlong isn’t the only one numerically challenged. Watch and listen as the President of South Africa does his impersonation of councilman Hinterlong:

Not everybody gets flustered with numbers. It’s possible Hinterlong can learn from Count Von Count by watching this little clip:

All councilman Hinterlong needs to do in the future is to sing the numbers rather than reading them. It’s amazing how simple solutions are always the best.

Show 6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Gary L

    So what’s your point other than a personal arrack ?

    • watchdog

      Gary, Gary, Gary, you have proved my point. If you would have proof-read your comment before pressing the send key, you would have noticed your error. If a councilman can not read a number before understanding it, how can he vote on it.

    • watchdog

      Hello Grant, we have missed you in Naperville. As expected when you skedaddled off to Springfield, you have become a non-entity. I’m delighted you also enjoy counting because in Springfield your vote counts for nothing.

  2. Kevin Piket

    Just when I thought you were reporting on some good hard news stories lately you go and write this crap. This is truly petty and has no place on this website. Stick to the hard news as writing this kind of stuff is beneath you.

    • watchdog

      Hey Kevin, you are absolutely correct that this is ‘truly petty’ but I do disagree with you that it’s beneath me. I’m comfortably in my element in topics like this. Somebody needs to specialize in the ‘petty’, hence I think I found my niche. Thank you for confirming that.

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