Coffee with a touch of bile, please.

Today’s irony-free recapitulation (in itself an ironic assertion, no?) begins with my column in today’s Tribune, which addresses a topic familiar to blog readers: Anonymity, and the many reasons why responsible adults should refrain from practicing it.

Consequently, it is mere coincidence that an interesting item pertaining to rental property ownership recently bobbed to the surface on the newspaper’s on-line forum, but because the posting’s target is a known political entity and the accuser remains pseudonymous, the potential usefulness, not to mention impact, is muted.

Too bad about that; it’s like being on the receiving end of the perfect lob pass and hearing the ref’s whistle blow before the ball can be rammed through the hoop, but since the Tribune forums are a matter of public record, there’s nothing to stop you from reading an otherwise entertaining thread.

Who would have guessed that the rental property owner standing squarely in "Warpig’s" crosshairs once made an infamous public utterance referencing his contempt for regulatory regimes? Was it an untidy Freudian slip, or universal description of prospects for the city as a whole? You be the judge.

And yet ...

The preceding must be regarded as little more than the click track echoing though the drummer’s ears, because the lead guitarist is letting go with majestic power chords of disingenuousness. To hear/read them, scroll through today’s Tribune letters to the editor to this one: “Let’s clean up the city.”

Our group, Interested Citizens, previously began as a way for investment property owners to protect their rights, especially concerning property taxes. We have seen the problems that our neighborhood associations face and always try to help them and invite them to our meetings.

So it is that the realtor and staggeringly prolific rental property owner Pat Harrison apparently believes that by way of a good, coordinated scrubbing, New Albany can return to All-American City status, a term that she conveniently fails to define, but one that was bestowed during a time more than forty years ago when the troubled neighborhoods of today could still boast predominant single-family home ownership, itself a reliable key to avoiding the sort of problems that have become commonplace ever since ... which, in turn, led to all those marvelous rental property investment opportunities.

It would seem that Ms. Harrison, whose financial interest as a rental property owner of her chosen style very much depends on the status quo, believes that carefully bathing the patient precludes the need to diagnose and repair the infection that required hospitalization in the first place. Imagine the doctrine of "Potemkin Village" as cure for what ails us.

Then again, what else could she say?

For starters, how about “Gestapo”?

Here are two other links from 2008. Taken together, they should tidily serve to show you what we're up against: Flagrant mediocrity, which in this degraded open air museum is worshipped far more readily than the Gods on Sunday.

Or maybe it's a religious ritual?

Bring your butterfly nets: Council's rental registration & code enforcement committee meets Wednesday night; Price votes "no".