Santa's Express rides the Skokie Swift

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I caught these images while covering Santa's Express train action on the CTA's Yellow line Wednesday, December 23, 2009. Joel Lerner posted his take on Pioneer Press' site.


Skokie's Irene London makes a snapshot of her granddaughter Jada Thomson with Santa.


While Santa rode a sleigh on the other CTA lines, on the Yellow line, he walk through the cars, up close and personal.




Niles' Tiffany Brooks poses with Santa.




Naughty or Nice?: Niles North alum Allie Rothchild picks naughty when Santa asked.


The Yellow line was the last of the CTA routes to host Santa's Express for the year. It was a unique ride. Not only did Santa ride inside with passengers rather than outside in his sleigh, the train was divided into three trains with one leaving the Howard St and Skokie Swift stations every 10 minutes. Each train had its own Santa. Rumor had it that the cars that make up Santa's Express actually run all year long and get transformed just before it is time to host Santa and families again.


Stacey Weckstein (left) with Kim Moldofsky at the Skokie Swift Starbucks. Kim organized a kid-friendly tweet-up at the Starbucks, which included taking a ride on the Santa Train.

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Two Chicago Diners

by Eliette Soler

Edgebrook Coffee Shop
The lemonade was very good, but sour. If you go to the Edgebrook Coffee Shop and you don't like sour stuff, don't get the lemonade. The pancakes were very tasty. The chef made my five silver dollar pancakes into a pancake guy with M&M eyes (red) and M&M mouth (orange)! It was good! Oliver (my brother) got the Tropical Belgium Waffle. It had pecans, bananas, toasted coconut and a light caramel drizzle, all on top of two waffles. The placed was filled with old, old posters. It was cool!

Pat's Place
It's yellow and as nice as a tulip. I got three chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and toast. To drink I had hot chocolate with whipped cream (a lot of whipped cream and it has red and green sprinkles for Christmas!). I just tasted my hot cocoa and it was good. In a minute I will tell you how my pancakes taste...my pancakes are really good. They have whipped cream too, with rainbow colored sprinkles. This place is pretty. It is yellow and believe it or not, even the blinds are yellow. It is hard to say which place is better but... Pat's Place wins! Wait! She just gave me an extra bowl of whipped cream just for me. Yeah, Pat wins.

P.S. I like food!!!

In the photo: That's my brother Oliver not sharing the Tropical Belgium Waffle with me.
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Eliette Soler is a 4th grader at Marquette Elementary, in Madison, WI, where lives with her mom and brother and longs for a dog.
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Skokie Photographic Society features Joel Lerner Dec 17

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Skokie Review photographer Joel Lerner will discuss his and his colleagues work on Pioneer Press' "Day in the Life of" series at a meeting of the Skokie Photographic Society Thursday, December 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Skokie's Village Hall, 5127 Oakton in Skokie.

Joel Lerner has been making photos of people’s important and everyday moments since buying his first camera with his bar mitzvah money. Previous to joining Pioneer Press' staff in 1993, he shot sport regularly for the Chicago Sun-Times. Occasionally Joel's work appears in Sports Illustrated and ESPN magazine.

He co-owns Sportpics.com, an internet-based company photographing young athletics in action, with a fellow ETHS alum. I'm partners with Joel in Kring Lerner Group, an agency specializing in photography, journalism and other media projects and campaigns

His labors of love include photographing the Transplant Games, coaching young photographers through PICTURE THIS Projects and supervising the judging of the Illinois Press Photographers Association's Best of Photojournalism annual contest.

Above: Photo by Joel Lerner: Parkview School sixth graders Erynn Modena (center) and Nicole Camburn listen as Northwestern senior Jessica Swenson, a member of the Society of Woman Engineers, quizzes them on the fuction of VHS tape parts in a class exploring engineering and manufacturing. Niles West hosted the Girls Empowered by Math and Science conference in November.
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A bit about Cook County judges' races

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The judges' races rarely make headlines, because, by design, they rarely include the controversy that the other elections do. This puts the responsibility back on the voters to work a little harder to seek out information about who is running for a seat on the bench.

Skokie residents are included in Cook County's 9th subcircuit. We will be voting for judges to fill two open seats. Candidates from Skokie include Scott Bagnall and Jeffrey Dov Greenspan. Others include Michael Ian Bender, Steve Bernstein, William Joseph Luby, Mary S. Trew, Dennis Michael Fleming, Geary W. Kull, Yehuda Lebovits and Abbey Fishman Romanek.

We only have until Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 at the latest to do our homework and make our decisions, because that is primary election day, the last day to vote for judges. Early voting runs from January 11-28. To be eligible to vote, one must be registered by Tuesday, Jan 5. The Cook Country Clerk's office provides registration information, polling locations and election details.

Websites offer a certain amount of information, but nothing is better than meeting a candidate in person and asking your own questions. Check out candidates' websites for information about public events the candidates will be participating in.

For those interested in learning more about what judges do to become judges, this election and one candidate in particular, I'm hosting a coffee featuring Abbey Fishman Romanek.

When: Monday, December 28, 7:30-9 p.m.
Where: Community Room of the Metropolitan in downtown Skokie, 4953 Oakton, Skokie
Cost: Free
Refreshments: Desserts by Sweet Galit and Sweety Pies will be served, as well as tea, coffee and probably hot chocolate.

If you can come, please RSVP me at krkring@gmail.com.

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Portrait Fun with Maura and Karen Dec 5

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Companies have their logos. These days individuals are expected to have portraits of themselves on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Getting a smart portrait made, that you actually like, is usually pricey. This is why Maura Hernandez and I have teamed up to help our friends, colleagues and acquaintances get some good portraits made at a relatively reasonable price.

We invite you to Portrait Fun.

Come get your picture made Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. at 9 W. Washington in Chicago for $95.

We'll both shoot a whole bunch of pictures of you and we'll deliver six or more image files to you for your professional or personal use.

Come looking smart waist up.

Here's a picture of journalist Beth Botts from last month's fun.

Some other portraits I've made for fun, money, sometimes both, are on Facebook:
- Emily Lonigro, owner, LimeRed Studio
- Cheryl Corley, reporter, National Public Radio
- Kimberly Walz, district director, Congressman Mike Quigley
- Laura Washington, columnist and national commentator, Chicago Sun-Times
- Monty Cole, actor, writer, director
- Michael M. Lorge, trustee, Village of Skokie
- Pam McKuen, independent journalist and journalism instructor
- Ramon DeLeon, operating partner, Domino's Pizza
- Justin G. Roy, co-founder, Networking for a Cause and TweetNetworking
- Ken Kring, corporate executive and author

You can sign-up here.
Questions? Contact me at karen@kringlernergroup.com.

My brother Ken will also be talking about business strategy mapping while we're shooting pictures. His discussion will go from 1-2:30 p.m..

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