When I was growing up,...

...we moved around a lot, and it seemed like in every new town the neighbors would immediately let us in on a little secret: the local public schools were the third best in the country.

At first I wondered if our timing was uncanny; did we always move from a town that was slipping from third place just as our new one was climbing into it?

(And in case you were wondering, it couldn't have been our arrival that tipped the scales; we always went to Catholic schools -- which, we were told, were far superior to the public schools anyway.)

But even though I didn't attend these schools, I would often -- with chest puffed out -- tell others of their high rankings. Until, that is, we were on our third or fourth town and I began to notice a pattern -- the locals always think their town is special in some way. Always.

I'm reminded of this by a piece in the Chicago section of the New York Times this morning, "Chinese President's Visit Proclaims a Rising Chicago." James Warren, who used to work for the Chicago Tribune, writes:

...by some academic accounts, Chicago is surpassed in influence only by New York, London, Singapore and Tokyo.

This made me chuckle a little. Some academic accounts? Hmmm. And while I don't know exactly what "surpassed in influence" means, I doubt very seriously that Chicago is ahead of Washington, D. C. in that regard.

It also reminded me, again when I was growing up, of how the locals always claimed that our area was third on the Russians' list -- behind Washington and somebody else -- for a nuclear strike. We were that important.

Or how, after 9/11, every city claimed to have some landmark that was very high up on al-Qaeda's list to bomb. In Chicago, it was the Sears Tower. We were convinced an attack was practically imminent. (Or the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where I worked at the time. Never heard of it? Well, don't worry -- we told each other -- al-Qaeda has, and they're watching us very closely.)

I guess it's only natural to feel like you live at the center of the universe, but it's also a very child-like view of reality.

(I'm just glad to live in a city that was ranked Number One by the Texas Transportation Institute -- whatever that is -- for "the longest delays for drivers in the country." I was always told we were third.)