BIZARRO WORLD
In today’s Picayune, Nagin tries to clear up the confusion about Ed Blakely and his alleged department of recovery or whatever:
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday that he wants his often-criticized recovery director, Ed Blakely, to stay for a third year, even as the mayor introduced a plan to dissolve Blakely’s department by June…
“It’s going to be his call,” Nagin said. “I’d love for him to stay a little longer, but, you know, he’s done his duty.”
Nagin said Blakely’s biggest mistake in fostering criticism was his promise of “cranes on the skyline” by September 2007.
“Here’s the rub: People are saying the recovery’s not moving because they don’t see progress,” Nagin said in an interview Tuesday. “I think if he could take one comment back, it would be ‘cranes in the sky.’ We don’t build high . . . so it’s not as readily available to the naked eye.
Speaking of high…. I mean, seriously dude: put your spokespeople to work and go back to Jamaica or Vegas or wherever you’ve been for the past two or three years.
Whatever. Move on down the page a bit, and you’ll find this curiosity–oddly enough, courtesy of reporter David Hammer, not Nagin:
The newspaper story did note that Blakely was sipping wine at the time, but he had just started on his first cup after an hours-long meeting with federal, state and local recovery officials.
Was Blakely at some kind of Renaissance Faire? Or maybe a very early Carnival parade? ‘Cause those are the only two places I can think of where anybody’d be swilling a “cup” of wine.
In other news, I’m at a hotel in Baton Rouge, where I recently fumbled and lost an entire cup of coffee. Seriously, LOST it: it spilled onto the carpet, and then it was gone. No trace. Rosie Whatsername ain’t got nothing on this low-pile shag.
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