The gambler’s Web Site, BetUS.com posted odds today on when Con Edison will fully restore electrical power to Queens. The favorite is Friday with the odds set at 2 to 1.

But the longshot is 100 to 1 that power will not be restored at all this year. Pet me down for two bucks on that.

Odds were also set for the chances of Con Ed being sued: Yes is 1 to 12 and No is 5 to 1. If you want to bet on whether the utility will face criminal charges the line is 5 to 7 for Yes and even for No.

It’s a 5 to 1 bet that beleagured Con Ed’s CEO Kevin Burke will resign. That he won’t quit is a 1 to 4 bet.

No odds were formulated on how quickly Con Ed will reimburse Westchester County customers for all the food that rotted in their refigerators. You know the score: The check is in the mail. Yeah, right!

That’s a sucker’s bet for you..

Some months ago, I inaugurated the Goldie Award in honor of Goldie Solomon, a tireless nudge, gadfly and community activist from Port Chester who has spent a good part of her adult life holding politicians’ feet to the fire. (See award above). In case you couldn’t tell, the “lid” Goldie’s wearing is a tri-corner hat, signifying her erstwhile political party, The Common Sense Party, which she formed in a fruitless campaign to get elected mayor.

I thought about having a real Goldie trophy made so that other local gadflies could be suitably honored on a periodic basis. Unfortunately, there was a cost issue involved and the idea was quickly scrapped.

But, what the heck. I figure that the next best thing is to just honor winners with a blog mention and run the Goldie image alongside their bios and brief descriptions of how they’ve managed to annoy the Hell ouf of the fustian Babbitts who run the municipalities of Westchester and Putnam counties.

In a Journal News column, I mentioned that the first official winner of the Golide Award (other than Goldie herself, of course) was Peggy Godfrey, a retired schoolteacher from New Rochelle. Readers e-mailed other potential Golide winners, but I never put their names in print….

So here’s your chance. Post me at this blog, or e-mail me at presiman@lohud.com, and tell me who you think deserves a Goldie and why, in 250 words or less.
Threre are no special requirements, but here are just a few qualities that would make any candidate a shoo-in for the Goldie:
1. Someone who frequently runs for local office and never wins.
2. Someone who is so passionate that he, or she, has gotten escorted out of a public meeting or even better, arrested.
3. Someone who rarely misses a public meeting and never gives up a chance to speak up.
4. Someone with a pet issue that he or she obsesses about such as garbage pickup, taxes, litter , development, etc.
5. Someone who drives a beatup car plastered with bumper stickers like, “Save the Whales,” and “I brake for Animals.”

You don’t need Al Gore to tell you that something weird is going on in the atmosphere.

I’ve seen some awesome lighning storms in my time, and have experienced a couple of scary moments, too. Many years ago, I was caught in a mid-summer downpour and lightning split a tree, only about 15 feet away from where I was walking. In Southern Colorado, I had he uneasy experience of riding horseback on a narrow, exposed ridge when, suddently, the sky went dark, the wind picked up and a thunder and lightning storm blew in. Fortunately, the horses did not panic.

But I have to say, I’ve never seen sustained lightning show like the kind we had last night. It came in continuous flashes, follwed by cannon-like thunder claps and didn’t let up for an hour. That was the strange part—the fact that the lightning didn’t let up.

The only thing missing was Frankenstein’s monster and a dwarf named Igor.

It’s not merely Westchester anymore…it’s Trumpchester. With the help of my colleague, Journal News artist Bill Becerra, I have identified all of the locales where “The Donald” has moved heaven and earth (not to mention alter the skyline) in his obsessive quest to spread the Trump brand. It’s like corporate graffiti…

Towers, golf courses—Trump is everywhere, even Yonkers where the talk is he wants to get a piece of the downtown redevelopment action. Note that he failed in his attempt to put condo towers on Davids Island in New Rochelle. That’s why we put his head in a circle with a slash running through it.

The folks who run Westchester County government (God love ‘em) can never resist the obvious.

It’s as if they dwell in some kind of overly wired, constituent-control center where they monitor, anticipate and react to our ever-changing moods. On a daily basis they know our up-to-the-minute fears and minor discomforts and then instantly legitimize them by firing off warnings and advisories designed to guide us through the latest “crisis.” For example, when it comes to governmental press releases about the gastronomical hazards of e-coli bacteria in hamburger meat, Westchester leads the league!

Sometimes you get the feeling that Westchester County Government—WCG, for short—is everywhere, armed with tips and admonishments about mosquitoes, poison ivy, swimming, cigarette smoking, violent video games and the Internet. WGC isn’t instrusive as much as it’s annoying, like an uninvited guest at the barbecue.

In other words, it’s not Big Brother we’re talking about. More like Big Mommy, who can’t resist telling you, “Don’t eat the yellow snow,” while disregarding the fact that you’re 45 years old and not a drooling nincompoop.

Ah, this hot weather is something, WGC couldn’t let pass without comment. With all the people cranking up their air conditioners, don’t be surprised if by mid-week we have a major power outage in the region, and not just the scattered outages we’ve experienced so far.

Never letting the obvious escape them, WGC put out a “heat stress” advisory, saying it is, indeed, hot outside and that you should avoid strenuous activities. You know, like you were thinking—Hey, today, right around noon when it’s 139 degrees, maybe I’ll run a Marathon.

The county’s adivsory urges the overheated to visit “cooling centers” like libraries and movie theaters. Oh, that’s great. Now stay tuned for complaints about the army of homeless men who converge in the lobbies of the aforesaid cooling centers.

Here’s some cool tips WGC forgot to mention:
1. Shave your pets.
2. Drink plenty of fluids…We recommend vodka mixed with lime Gatorade.
3. Go to work in your underpants. Shoes are optional.
4. Avoid wearing hair pieces. They cause prickly heat.
5. Run your lawn sprinklers 24 hours a day, fill your inground pools, take continuous showers and then wait for WGC to issue—yes, that’s right—a drought warning.

Sgt. Ira Promisel, the state trooper who survived the terrifying winds of a tornado that blew through central Westchester County and tossed his patrol car around like a child’s toy, said it was an experience he will never forget.

“The power of nature is just unreal,” he said today. “It picked up the car as if it were nothing.”

The ordeal happened at 3:50 p.m. in Hawthorne. It probably lasted no more than two or three seconds but Parmisel noted that time has a habit of slowing down during traumatic events. Though he knew he was in grave danger, he remained calm throughout and was even fascinated by what was happening to him.

The dark clouds, rain and the blowing of overhead electrical wire were all ominous signs that something bad was about to happen. He said he could feel a sudden change in air pressure. A recreational scuba diver, Promisel, 38, likened it to the sensantion of being submerged under water.

The tornado was frightfully loud, he said, not unlike a rushing locomotive or running horses.

The twister gripped his car, a 2006 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor and flipped it over on its back. Then it spun it around lifted it and propelled it ontom some grass, about 10 feet from its original position on the road.

Two alert Con Edison workers, Brendon McNamara, 37 and Joe Szela, 52, saw the whole thing happen from their utility truck which was parked a few yards away. Promisel credited them for coming to his rescue. They pulled him out of the police car, which was totaled.

Promisel, who had minor injuries, told me that wearing a seatbelt probably saved his life.

He is the father of four-year-old triplets who he said were at a daycare center only a few miles from where the tornado hit in Hawthonrne. Carmel Promisel, his wife of eight years, said she was relieved that he escaped a much worse fate.

“I feel very happy and very lucky,” she said.

There’s a 2 p.m. press conference today starring State Trooper Ira Promisel, who survived the terrifying experience of being caught in yesterday’s tornado that ripped through the Saw Mill River Valley.

I got in touch with Promisel, 38, earlier today. He said the tornado lifted his 5,000-pound patrol car into the air twice before it landed about 10 feet away.

“”it was wild, definitely wild,” Promisel told me.

He said he had just finished a meal at a Wendy’s restuarant around 3:50 p.m. when the weather started to turn for the bad. “It stated getting very dark, very quickly and I started seeing debris fyling around me,” he said. “I acutaly never saw the funnel cloud from the outside.”

Suddenly, he said, “the car lifted up, turned upside down and the car then crashed onto the curb with the passenger’s side being crushed.and it was turned a little bit while it was on the ground and it picked up again and landed on all four tires with the front end perpendicular to where it originally was.”

Promisel said that the pressure of the tornado made him feel as if he were under water. He said if he hadn’t been wearing his seat belt he would’ve died.

The whole event took about 10 seconds but seemed like a lifetime, he said. Some alert bystanders, inlcuding some Con Edison crewman pulled him out of the wreck. The patrol was totaled. Promisel suffered minor scrapes and bruises.

He’s taking today off from work.

Reminder: Famed funny man Carl Reiner will be my guest today on “High Noon,” the live weekly radio program on WVOX. Tune in at 1460 on the AM dial, or if you’re out of hearing range, simply listen in by going online at www.wvox.com

“High Noon” airs at 12 noon….Duh.

The tornado that twisted its way up the Saw Mill River Parkway was the highlight of today’s whacked-out weather, but one can’t help but think that Yonkers received a special Divine message from the heavens . WHAM!

Lightning struck Yonkers City Hall at 1;28 p.m. , just minutes before a joint press conference was held by Mayor Phil Amicone and State Sen. Nick Spano. No one was injured but the incredily loud thunder clap jangled some nerves, especially in the parking authority offices where the day’s meter swag was being counted. Word has it that Spano cried “Mommy!” and dove for cover and that Amicone underwent a complete personality change as a result of the super-duper electrical current. He instantly became…well, interesting.

There was also a report that former mayor John Spencer was affected by the lighnting bolt in the most bizarre way. He was seen walking down Yonkers Avenue draped with a sign that said, “Repent Thy Sins!” The candidate for the U.S. Senate reportedly stopped in front of City Hall, raised his fist and shouted: “Give me my old job back!”

Oh yes, another report has it that the lightning caused all the City Hall toilets to flush simultaneously. Numerous women were
also sighted with frizzed-out hairdos, but it was unclear whether the Bride of Frankenstein look was actually the spectacular work of Mother Nature, or just the normal Yonkers style.

Tune into my “High Noon” radio program Thursday, July 13, when Carl Reiner, the creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and director of numerous film comedies, including such classics as “The Jerk” and “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” will be my special guest.

Reiner, 84, we’ll be speaking to us via telephone from California. For those of you who don’t know, “High Noon” is broadcast live from the WVOX radio studio in New Rochelle at 12 noon eastern time and can be found at 1460 on your AM dial.

But here’s the best part: You can listen to the show from anywhere in the world by simply going to your computer keyboard and punching in www.wvox.com.

Fans of Reiner, particularly those who live in New Rochelle, probably know that Reiner lived in the Queen City on Bonnie Meadow Way, which becamse the fictional address for Rob and Laura Petrie. We’ll talk to him about his New Rochelle conncection and more.

Don’t miss this!