At the risk of cutting my own throat, which has never stopped me before, I feel it is only fair to point out some observations. North Augusta approved and built a cathedral of offices and, although I am sure the ones in the know expect our fair city to grow, it seems a shame that a good many of the offices are unoccupied, especially while still being heated and cooled. However, the saddest thing of all is the offices that are occupied rarely have anyone in them. It's quite possible to go looking for a city employee and never find the one you are looking for, but you do have full access to their offices, if you wish. It also seems a waste to have the voice mail option on some of the phones in those occupied offices, since no one listens to their messages or, if they do, they are just "too busy" to return a call. It is frustrating to say the least to need information, leave five or six messages and never get a call back. Maybe the assistants need assistants.

I'm totally confused. When Katrina devastated most of New Orleans and other cities along the United States coastline, I do not remember an hour long program called Hope for New Orleans nor do I remember a telethon of any kind. Yes, certain "stars" made the trip to the Ninth Ward, some with genuine concern, some for photo ops and others donated and helped on the QT (Sandra Bullock, Emeril Lagasse, Stephen Segal). The news media went out of their way to feature the criminal activities going on in New Orleans, even to the point of making things up but little is being said about the criminal activities in Haiti. I also find it odd that even though the area is in ruins, almost every Haitian shown on television is clean, wearing clean clothes and took time to put on makeup. People in N.O. were unclean and unwashed, for the most part. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am quite skeptical of the coverage and totally disappointed that the response to our own crisis was not as swift as this. I even contacted some members of the Red Cross to make sure my memory had not failed, and they are as confounded by this as I am. None of them remembered this kind of response on our own soil, as far as the government was concerned, but all of them remembered the outpouring of generosity from private citizens.

Another playoff weekend is upon us and, even though my Cowboys lost last week, deservedly so, I will be glued to the borrowed television hoping that the team we did defeat, New Orleans, can outplay the team that defeated us -- Minnesota. Home field advantage, a loud boisterous crowd and the fact that the Saints have never made it to the Super Bowl will all factor into the game. The only detriment being the players may be so wired they make mistakes. Don't you just love football?