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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
When bad manners and YouTube collide
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A minor tizzy has erupted just outside our nation’s capital, but it has nothing to do with anyone running for president.
A 17-year-old student, distressed that 3 inches of snow didn’t result in a school day, recently called the listed home phone number for a school system official. The student left his name and number - and the official’s wife returned the call.
Her message - where she says “Get over it, kid, and go to school!” among other unpleasantries - was posted on YouTube.
Stunningly, a Fairfax County schools spokesman told the Washington Post that it was the student’s phone call that showed a gap in civility.
“It’s really an issue of kids learning what is acceptable and not acceptable. Any call to a public servant’s house is harassment,” the spokesman said.
Oh, come on. Not to add to the incivility, but how utterly absurd.
S.B.’s not recommending students call school officials at home, or engage in belligerence of any kind, but placing a phone call to the publicly listed number of an official who draws his paycheck from public coffers is not “harassment.” (That’s assuming, of course, that the caller is not loud, profane or vulgar.)
The lesson here seems to be for the school official’s wife. Anymore, a breach of etiquette might not just be a fleeting embarrassment, but can lead to gleeful news coverage and a touch of unwanted infamy.
S.B. will give her the benefit of the doubt - we’ve all said things we regret, and most of them don’t end up on YouTube. Luckily, this lady lives near Washington D.C. Surely someone will say something even more regrettable before long.
Garden partying
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From left, Nancy Rigby, Mose Bond and Dorothy Yates.
We stopped by the Atlanta Botanical Garden Tuesday night for the patron preview party leading up to Orchid Daze, Gargoyles & Grace, which runs Saturday through March 30.
“I’ve heard from many of you that you can’t grow these at home,” the garden’s Mary Pat Matheson told patrons who’d gathered at the Fuqua Orchid Center. “That’s the point. You have to come here!”
The private preview of featured a cocktail buffet and a sneak peek at the event. (Details: www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org)
Strolling through the orchid center, we stumbled onto a family feud involving Eddie and Sally Cole of Carrollton, Eddie’s sister Carole Cole of Atlanta, and a striking white orchid.
Cymbidium, said Eddie. Dendrobium, said Sally.
Gracious Geri Laufer to the rescue.
“It could be a hybrid,” said Laufer, the garden’s public relations manager. “You could both be right.”
Next we met the dapper Jim Landon, known to ABG cognoscenti as the garden’s poet laureate, as he always pens a verse for the annual Garden of Eden Ball. No such luck Tuesday night, though.
“You’d be amazed at how few words rhyme with orchid,” he lamented.
Former ABG board member Claire Griffith, a west Texas native who’s adjusting to Atlanta after 18 years, was far too modest about her gardening prowess.
“I had to come to Atlanta to learn how to identify a magnolia,” she demurred, before tossing around terms like “bones of the garden” and telling us about her mottled-bark Natchez crape myrtles.
Volunteer of the Year Ernest Arvesen and daughter Chris Wilkinson
We visited with Sylvia and Jerry Attkisson, Shirley and Norris Broyles, Mary and John Huntz and Joan and Bill Law. Ernest Arvesen, the garden’s 2007 volunteer of the year, attended with daughter Chris Wilkinson. Nancy Rigby, Mose Bond and Dorothy Yates were good enough to pose for a photo.
We glimpsed Tricia Allen, Peggy Martin and of course Dottie Fuqua. As the evening was ending we met ABG board chairman Jackson Kelly and exhibitions manager Cathleen Cooke, heralded by the group for another magnificent show.
Valentine’s plans?
TheatreSouth Atlanta, a performance group at the Association of Black Cardiologists; conference facility at 5355 Hunter Rd., plans a “Young at Heart” fundraiser at 9 p.m. Feb. 14. The evening features cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and performances. Info: 404-419-1293, www.abcardio.org/center.
Super plans?
Hey are you having a fab Super Bowl bash? Send me the details and I’ll see if we can get a photo of your spread in after the fact. butterfly@ajc.com
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