A call for entries in my Predict the News of 2024 survey

What are the known unknowns of the next 12 months?

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Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

Taking Christmas Day off from writing, and I’m hoping none of you reacts the way the character of the psychiatrist reacted in “Merry Christmas Doctor,” a classic Mike Nichols and Elaine May comedy bit:

Coming Thursday: The top 40 tweets of 2023 and my annual “predict the news” survey.

Peer into your crystal ball and hope that it’s not as cloudy as mine was 12 months ago.

I’m still putting the survey together and am hoping to crowd-source some of the questions: What are the known unknowns of 2024?

Since it’s a multiple guess survey, every question will have to have a definitive, measurable answer 12 months from now — i.e., not “Will Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson be considered successful?” or “Will COVID-19 still be a big issue?” or “Will the migrant challenge ease?”

Here are some specific questions I’m thinking of including, to give you an idea:

• Which party will win the White House in November?

• Who will be the Democratic/Republican nominee for president (seems obvious now, but…)?

• Will the referendum seeking to increase the real estate transfer tax on properties worth more than $1 million pass?

• Will the Bears draft a quarterback?

• Will former House Speaker Michael Madigan be convicted in his upcoming trial?

• Will former 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke spend a day in prison in 2024?

• Will ground break on the Bally’s casino in River North?

• Will the Bears announce they will leave Soldier Field for a suburban location?

• Will Russia and Ukraine sign a peace treaty?

• Will Elon Musk still own Twitter at the end of the year?

• Who will be the next Cook County State’s Attorney? Eileen O'Neill Burke, Clayton Harris III or Bob Fioretti?

• Chicago City Treasurer and former state representative Melissa Conyears-Ervin is running to try to unseat veteran U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago’s 7th U.S. Congressional district. Will she win?

• Will the summer of 2024 be the hottest on record?

• Will Hunter Biden be convicted of or plead guilty to a crime and be facing prison in 2024?

• Who will be the Republican vice presidential nominee? Multiple choices include Nikki Haley, Kristi Noem, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Elise Stefanik, Kari Lake, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott, Mike Pompeo and Byron Donalds.

Other ideas? Put your suggestions in comments and the survey will post Thursday.

Ya gotta see these tweets!

Here are some funny visual images I've come across recently on social media. Enjoy, then evaluate:

Vote for your favorite. I’ll share the winner in Thursday’s main edition.

I realize that I have invited a resurrection of the (mock?) indignant quarrel over the term “cracker” that was sparked in August when I included this visual tweet:

Before you register your indignation, be sure to read the exchange on this in the August 15 Z-mail.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media.

There’s still time to vote in the conventional Tweet of the Week poll!

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