MIRABEAU: No habla service (11.25.08)

Mirabeau hates dealing with so-called customer service people on the phone. What really riles Mirabeau is dealing with ones in faraway lands who don’t speak good English.

Mirabeau reads on Blog of Columbus that the mother of the youth shot by Frank Lumpkin III is now in jail — first here, then in Cobb County. This upsets readers of the newspaper who can’t forget the Ledger-Enquirer referring to this woman as “the victim’s mother.”

Mirabeau points out the irony of former Gov. Roy Barnes being on Barack Obama’s list of possible appointees as Secretary of Education. Mirabeau remembers that it was Georgia teachers that loudly supported Sonny Perdue as governor — a decision many educators now rue. Mirabeau thinks Barnes might prefer a redemptive term as governor.

Mirabeau wishes he had visited Indy’s Restaurant for one final steak sandwich. The longtime establishment on Whitesville Road has closed.

Mirabeau sympathizes with Ken Edelstein, fired this week as editor of Creative Loafing, an alternative weekly newspaper in Atlanta. Mirabeau remembers Edelstein as an aggressive reporter with the Ledger-Enquirer.

People like Mirabeau are receiving anonymous mail about superintendent candidate Faron Hollinger’s job performance in Alabama. Questions are raised about a decline in test scores during Hollinger’s first three years in Baldwin County. Mirabeau hopes school board members in Muscogee County are aware of this drop in performance.

Jim Wetherington offers chances to be "Mayor for a Minute," but His Honor has yet to invite Mirabeau to sit in his chair for even a few seconds.

Mirabeau wonders how many high-ranking officers in the Columbus Police Department are planning to retire soon.

Mirabeau asked and now the answer has come why Rigdon Road principal Phyllis Jones retired so suddenly. For once the Muscogee County School District didn’t choose the quiet, in-house route.

Mirabeau can’t wait until the Jim Martin-Saxby Chambliss political ads are banished from TV. Equally annoying to Mirabeau is that overblown countdown to the day when television stations start broadcasting digitally. Worse than either of them, Mirabeau believes, is that weekend weather guy on Channel 3.

Mirabeau keeps wondering if there will be room for an extra chair so Owen Ditchfield can sit next to his protege when the new school board is seated in January.

Mirabeau hears Jack and Eve (the doctor’s wife formerly known as Miriam) set up shop near the SOA Watch protest on Saturday. The Tidwells sold silly hardhats that were supposed to ridicule the demonstrators. But of course, Mirabeau reminds you, the God Bless Fort Benning rally they founded was never intended to be a counter protest.

Mirabeau remembers well the TV documentary “Eye on the Prize.” It was based on a book by newspaperman-turned-commentator Juan Williams. Mirabeau plans to be there for his speech at the Columbus Public Library on Dec. 2.