Plumber

Re "McCain doesn't seal the deal," news analysis, Oct. 16 Our focus group had anticipated something of substance from Barack Obama. All we saw was a smirking arrogance and a condescending grin that did nothing to show he had the presence to lead, or even come up with a plausible plan or idea. We're with Joe the Plumber and John McCain. Linda Bowling Studio City Reflecting on the debate Wednesday night, this is my question: If McCain were to be elected president and faced a foreign leader with whom he seriously disagreed, could the American people expect that he would resort to sarcasm and mockery?

Can John McCain catch a break? In a bid to sway voters who have doubted his ability to shepherd the economy, McCain plucked Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher out of obscurity during the final presidential debate Wednesday and assured him of an asterisk in the history of the 2008 presidential campaign. "Joe the Plumber," said McCain, was just the kind of guy Barack Obama's tax plans would hurt and just the kind of guy his plan would help. Turns out that is not the case.

Next on "Access Hollywood," Joe the Plumber -- the guy who occupied so much of Wednesday night's presidential debate. Mere minutes into the final presidential debate, John McCain evoked the blue-collar man as a potential victim of Barack Obama's tax plan -- one that would prevent him from buying his own business and, as the Republican candidate put it, from "living the American dream." Me, I want to know more. How much is ol' Joe pulling in, anyway? What company is he trying to buy?

The star of Wednesday night's final presidential debate was neither Sen. John McCain nor his rival, Sen. Barack Obama. It was "Joe the Plumber," aka Joe Wurzelbacher, a brawny, T-shirt-clad plumber whose shaved head gives him a passing resemblance to Mr. Clean. His name came up 26 times during the debate -- a stand-in for hard-working, upwardly mobile Americans. Obama met Wurzelbacher on Sunday during a visit to Holland, Ohio, where a TV crew captured a lively exchange between them.

Ane CRABTREE, a costume designer and stylist, was on location in Bulgaria when a professional chef e-mailed to say she'd be happy to give Crabtree free private cooking lessons when she returned. Then a neighbor in Angelino Heights e-mailed and offered to water her plants -- gratis -- the next time she goes out of town.

Nearly a decade ago, I moved from New York City to Lincoln, Neb. In that new land, I observed many strange things. For instance, workers showed up the same day you called them, and usually started the job the day after that. Later, when I moved to a tiny house on 12 acres on the city's rural outskirts, I had a landlord who regularly called and thanked me for paying the rent.

Howard Bernard "Reds" Arrington, the former White House plumber who for more than three decades kept the plumbing humming and the fountains splashing through seven presidential administrations, died of cancer March 24 in Annapolis, Md. He was 79. Arrington, who was on call virtually around the clock, seven days a week, was chief plumbing foreman at the White House for 19 years. He retired in 1979, having served every president from Harry S. Truman to Jimmy Carter. "I did all kinds of things.

By day he unclogs your drain, by night he leads the nation in scoring, by November he emerges from a hospital bed to save the non-Bowl Championship Series world and by December he finishes eighth in Heisman Trophy balloting? Ian Johnson is Boise State Man!, the latest superhero to emerge from the Western Athletic Conference. Johnson, from San Dimas, is WAC all right.

A major contractor for the Capistrano Unified School District has employed relatives of at least five district employees, including the son of the superintendent and the wife of a top administrator, raising questions in a district already being audited for construction spending. Montano Plumbing Co., which has an exclusive contract to handle the district's plumbing, has been paid more than $1 million annually in recent years, and a total of $8.5 million over the last 24 years.

CBS basketball commentator Billy Packer is a little behind the times in our technology-driven culture. On HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel" tonight at 10, Packer tells correspondent Frank Deford that he has no cellphone, no car phone and no pager. Says Deford: "Do you use indoor plumbing, Billy?" Packer: "Yeah, we use indoor plumbing -- that we do. But if anything goes wrong, you can count on me not being the guy to fix it."