Twitter apparently is the new eight-party line.
Growing up in Ruston when it truly was a rural community (the two taxi services were the One-Four (green Chevrolets) and the Twelve Hundred (black Fords) taxi companies because their respective telephone numbers were 14 and 1200. (One could go just about anywhere in Ruston for a quarter and the cabbie kept his money in a cigar box—and tipping was unheard of.) The local furniture store was 1. Apparently they had the first telephone ever installed in Ruston.
Much like Barney Fife and Andy in The Andy Griffith Show, we had to pick up the receiver and wait for the operator to come on the line and we would give her the number we wanted to call.
This was, of course, long before the first dial system came to Ruston and our number was changed from first 122-J and then 1190-M (the letters J and M told the switchboard operator which way to move the lever—push forward and pull back were the options—to ring the proper number on a two-party line. Four- and eight-party lines had ring codes like a long, a short and another long, etc.) to Alpine 5-0177, later AL5-0177 and then simply to 255-0177 and still later to 255-5276 because the telephone company didn’t want the last four digits starting with a zero. (And we thought things were simpler back then.)
But even with the dial system, we remained on a two-party line with our neighbor, the Williamsons. To my knowledge, neither of us listened to the others’ conversations because we were friends and respected each other.
Out in the country, it was a different story. The best way to get news back then was to listen in on those eight-party lines—mainly because with eight households sharing a line, it was impossible to know who was eavesdropping.
Ah, nostalgia. It’s not what it used to be.
Twitter, it seems, can be just as fun.
Take the recent exchange between Gov. Bobby Jindal’s alter-ego Timmy Teepell and Robert Mann, political historian, holder of the Manship Chair in Journalism at the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU, and who formerly worked for three U.S. Senators and former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
The topic of conversation was the recent report by the Louisiana Inspector General which noted that the Jindal administration paid the equivalent of $28 a bag for 10-pound bags of ice following Hurricane Isaac last year only to pay another $312,000 restocking fee to the ice vendor and then allow the ice to melt in an unrefrigerated storage building at a total cost of more than $7.1 million.
Occasionally others listening in on the 21st Century party line would chime in.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the entire string of comments, but we have enough to know that Teepell got a little thin-skinned about the whole matter and attempted to toss the issue back into the lap of Blanco by alluding to events that occurred in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Following are a few of the choice comments:
- Mann: “Jindal’s response to Ice Capade is that too much is not enough. If only he took same approach to higher ed and health care funding.”
- Teepell to Mann and Jan Moller of the Louisiana Budget Project: “Remember when (Mann) worked for Blanco and that hurricane hit and people didn’t have enough ice. That sucked.”
- Mann to Teepell and Moller: “Waiting days and days for the ice, buses and troops that Bush and FEMA promised. That really sucked.”
- Teepell to Mann: “Do u remember working for Blanco? Should I post links to the TV footage? When people need food, ice and water…u get it 4 them.”
- Mann to Teepell: “You seriously want to talk about people ‘suffering’ under a governor’s watch?? Your irony meter needs adjusting.”
- Teepell to Mann: “We got ice to everyone who needed it…but under your watch (Mann was working for Blanco at the time of Katrina), these folks were left to suffer.”
- Mann to Teepell: “I recognize those people. They’re the same ones to whom you now refuse health insurance. They love Jindal.”
- Teepell to Mann (attaching photo of a throng outside the New Orleans Convention Center after Katrina): “Do you recognize these people, too?”
- At this point someone named Calvin Lester Jr. offered his two cents worth to Teepell and Mann: “Those are the people you (Republicans) made sure never came back so your guy could win.”
- Another participant, Jenny Barber Valois, to Teepell and Mann: “I applaud having ordered ice. The amount and waste are unacceptable. Melting for a month, why not offer to public?”
- Third party line member, identified only as Baudenski, to Teepell and Mann: “So happy that the nation’s most desperate can be used to prop up Jindalite’s rhetoric.”
That certainly beats the local news from the old eight-party lines where the most titillating news item was when it was learned that Mrs. Brewster just got back from Houston where she had a wart removed from her nose only to learn that Mr. Brewster had supper of squash, collard greens and cornbread with the widow Johnson while she was gone.
But I’d still rather hear about the wart on Mrs. Brewster’s nose any day than listen to Timmy Teepell whine.
Somehow, trying to prop this administration up by attacking someone who has been out of office for more than five years just doesn’t seem to be much of a defense for such monumental waste.
I guess as much as anything else, it’s his cavalier attitude that is so reflective of the entire Jindal administration that I find offensive.
Louisiana Voice 
If it wasn’t for the hemorrhoids, Teepell would be a “perfect” a**hole..
Let me see if I have this correct. Obama criticizes Bush for economic mess that he created. Jindal and Teepell call that lack of leadership. Now Teepell says Bob Mann as a member of Blanco’s Administration is responsible for a mess occurring during Jindal’s watch. How illogical is that!
Sounds like Teepell’s mastered talking out both side of his mouth at the same time.
I concur. He is, perhaps, second in perfection only to the Puppet Master.
Truer words were never written, he had a teacher that reigns above all in talking out of both sides of the mouth. I pray justice will come soon!!!
Sounds like little Timmeh is getting a tad defensive doesn’t it?
Tom it sure seems like you’re starting to get under Jindal’s and his top people’s skin. I’m sure when other programs stare to fail and backfire on Jindal, Ms. Blanco will catch the blame.
Thank you Tom and please continue to apply the heat.
I’m a little Teepell short and stout. When I get all steemed up I will shout! Just tip me over baby n I’ll pour it out (blame that is)!!!!
Such arrogance. I worked in the administrations of three governors: Foster, Blanco and Jindal. Governor Foster did what he thought was best for the citizens of Louisiana, Governor Blanco truly cared about ALL of the people in the state, Jindal cares only about Jindal.
I worked in the administrations of Edwards, Treen, Roemer, and Foster. Other old-timers like me agree – Governor Jindal wins the arrogance award hands-down.
I also worked for state government during the administrations of Edwards (3 times), Treen (1), Roemer (1), Foster (2), Blanco (1), and Jindal (1). You are absolutely correct.
The sycophants surrounding Jindal see themselves as clever when it comes to spinning events to their point of view. Unfortunately, they are merely common smart a$$es – a dime a dozen. Having zero class is characteristic of this administration. Jindal may possess intelligence but he lacks wisdom or he would not let these idiots do his talking. Oh wait, he did talk once in “that speech”. I guess he needs some new “tools”.
Previous commenter noted Jindal’s lack of wisdom. I’ve often said that he may be “intelligent” but he certainly isn’t “smart.” Not sure how and why he got as far as he has. MOST politicians know the lay of the land and work the populace to gain their support and “love.” Lucky for him he had the votes of the “voting against their own best interests” crowd with him, but I think even those folks are seeing the light. The fact that he has only one (or possibly two) “friends” in the entire legislature speaks volumes.
Reminds me of Hank Willams’ song . . .
…and that song would be? Your Cheatin’ Heart? I Just Don’t Like This Kind of Living? You Win Again? Lost Highway?
This is another example of the incompetence, ineptitude and arrogance that has led Louisiana for the past six years. When faced with irrefutable proof of the administrations limitations and imperfections, the Jindanistas invoke the time-worn political defense, popularized throughout the Obama administration, of blaming their “shortfalls,” their mistakes and miscalculations on the previous administration, i.e. Blanco. Bobby, it doesn’t work for Obama and certainly won’t work for you. This situation exists because of your pathetic lack of leadership and the ineptitude on the part of your administration. Just as Richard Nixon was admonished to “go the right thing” and was advised of a cancer existing within his administration, Bobby Jindal has created a cancer within the halls of state government. Louisiana is waking up to the fact that Jindal’s administration is a cancer on all of us—a cancer Louisiana will be suffering from long after Jindal and the Jindanistas are gone.
Was Timmy honestly trying to compare those 2 natural disasters to each other? I noticed he never had an answer for why ice cost $28.00 a bag.
[…] 4. You’ve already announced your intention to hire Timmy Teepell. Between us (I’m going to give it to you straight, Neil), I hope you’re not paying too much, because Timmy’s not only an uneducated sycophant who has built his entire career by hitching his wagon to Bobby Jindal’s dimming star, he’s also an insensitive, impetuous, and tone-deaf provocateur who most recently responded to …. […]
[…] 4. You’ve already announced your intention to hire Timmy Teepell. Between us (I’m going to give it to you straight, Neil), I hope you’re not paying too much, because Timmy’s not only an uneducated sycophant who has built his entire career by hitching his wagon to Bobby Jindal’s dimming star, he’s also an insensitive, impetuous, and tone-deaf provocateur who most recently responded to …. […]