This week, Georgia legislators kick off their annual huddle under the Gold Dome. I'll leave it to others predict the session ahead, and take a look at the Dome itself. Turns out the Georgia State Capitol offers a cautionary case study on political grandstanding and cheapness.

Before the Capitol-with-an-O was erected, Atlanta had to secure its position as Georgia’s Capital-with-an-A. In the earliest days of Georgia statehood, Savannah served as the capital city. For the next century, the statehouse hopscotched all over, with five cities designated official capitals and other locales serving as temporary meeting places for politicos, as this handy timeline from the Digital Library of Georgia, reveals:

1777-78 Savannah
1779-80 Augusta*
1780-81 Heard's Fort*, miscellaneous sites in Wilkes County
1781-82 Augusta
1782 Ebenezer*, Savannah
1783 Augusta
1784 Savannah, Augusta
1785 Savannah
1786-96 Augusta
1796-1806 Louisville
1807-1864 Milledgeville
1864-65 Macon*
1865-68 Milledgeville
1868-present Atlanta
* Temporary meeting place

How ...

In the late eighties, I had an internship in the internal PR department of the Department of Administrative Services, the “centralized procurement function for state of Georgia government entities.” Yup. About as exciting as it sounds. When my boss wasn't shopping for shoes at the old downtown Rich’s store, she regaled me with stories about my fabulous predecessor, super intern Jenny. Apparently Jenny was not only brilliant, but also tall and lanky and lovely — and fond of shoes.

The highlight of my tenure was correcting grammar and spelling on memos from the office of then-governor Joe Frank Harris. The low point was writing an article for the internal newsletter about DOAS employees who had the same names as famous folks. The hardest interview of my journalistic career was chatting up Jimmy Stewart in the fleet management division, who was old and embittered because the only thing people thought interesting ...

Since moving into the old Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill, we've spent far too much time on the rooftop deck or in front of our windows simply staring at the skyline. Every time a helicopter makes its way across the vista, we stop talking and silently track the chopper's flight path. Is this going to be an obnoxious display of wealth (hip-hop mogul en route to the helipad at the W Atlanta-Downtown? Newlyweds making a dramatic exit from their reception at Ventanas?). Or are we bearing witness to a life-and-death drama about to unfold as the helicopter heads for a landing at Grady Memorial Hospital? (For a few weeks this fall, there was a third alternative, cops swooping in to keep an eye on Occupy Atlanta, but those missions have abated of late.)

When we realize that the helicopter is headed for the Grady rooftop, we reflexively hold our breaths ...