There are just too many good stories in the paper today, I couldn't decide on a topic for this thread. We have the wonderful, charming story about Naperville's world-famous paleontologist, Paul Sereno, thanking his fifth-grade teacher for influencing him. Daniel Betts has resigned as director of the Naperville Park District. Then there is the tragic story we have exclusively today about two troops, a Marine and a soldier, from Naperville who have been killed while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So feel free to comment on those stories, or any other story in the paper, or take this opportunity to comment about any Naperville-related topic at all. Or, you can suggest a topic that you think the editors should start a thread about.

By Ted Slowik

Well, moving day is here. Readers of this forum will know that my family is taking advantage of the great deals out there in today's real estate market, and are fortunate enough to have sold our home. I'm out of the office until Aug. 5 while we make the transition.

I'll leave you for a time with this observation: Cleaning out our home and garage, we've done a lot of purging. You accumulate a lot of stuff in your life, and moving is a great opportunity to go through it and say, "You know, I'm never going to fix this broken lamp, or use this spare lawnmower." We had a big garage sale, and gave a lot of clothes to Goodwill. Whatever furniture was left, we put out a sign that said, "Free for the taking," went to a movie, and it was gone when we returned.

Whatever goods we haven't given away we've placed out with the trash. Here in Joliet, there are a multitude of junk scavengers. I swear, that spare lawn mower wasn't out for five minutes before one of those precariously loaded pickups stopped and someone grabbed it. These days, all metal is precious, apparently.

I wonder, does Naperville have these junk scavengers, too? What do you think of them? I believe Joliet has tried to regulate them. I don't mind the notion that someone would take scrap metal and sell it to a junkyard. It's recycling, in my opinion. My only concern is the safety of these vehicles. Junk dealers presumably are not wealthy individuals, so it's understandable that they're not driving around in late model Ford F250s. But when the bicycle rims and old appliances are teetering off the sides of whatever truck they're driving, I worry.

Share your thoughts on this topic. I'll talk to you again on Aug. 5, but my colleagues will keep the forum going during my absence.

The platform for this forum is acting up. IT is working on it. The system keeps booting me off but with great difficulty I can publish entries and comments.

Hopefully the tech folks resolve this soon. It's been acting up like this since Friday.

UPDATE: As of Tuesday afternoon the system appears to be functioning normally again.

Welcome to Potluck's new look. We apologize that for most of the day we've been unable to access the forum to publish comments while technicians worked on the improvements. We're back now, and thanks for your patience.

Every so often we invite Potluck visitors to suggest topics. Typically we'll create threads based on your suggestions. So here's your chance to say what's on your mind, about any topic with relevance to Naperville. What do you want to talk about? What topics would you like to see discussed on this blog?

Every so often we like to ask Potluck visitors to suggest what topics you want to discuss. So here's your chance. Tell us what issues you want to talk about.

What topical issue would you like to discuss on Naperville Potluck?

After perching near the top of Money magazine's Best Places To Live list for two years straight, Naperville was holding its collective breath this time, wondering if this was the year we'd make it to No. 1. Then something strange happened.

We could use some rain. It's not even officially summer yet, and yet lawns look like it's late August. Are you the lawn-watering type?

By Ted Slowik

I understand the math, but still I question the data. According to a study, Naperville ranks 13th on a list of U.S. cities of 100,000 or more likely to be struck by a tornado during the month of June.