Holy crime-fighting, Tarbell

He's still basking in the accolades for his weekend fisticuffs (literally).

As Jim Tarbell walked in to this morning's finance committee meeting, Chairman John Cranley called him "Batman" and said: "I'm glad to see you in full health. And of course I want the rights to use that spotlight if I'm ever in trouble."

Cranley was referring to a cartoon in today's paper by Jim Borgman. It shows a giant Batman-like spotlight with the caption, "Holy Crimebusters, Mr. Vice Mayor! It's the Tarbell signal!" The silhouette, instead of the shape of a bat, is a bald head with a giant smile above a bow tie.

Tarbell was headed to Kaldi's Coffeehouse and Bookstore on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine on Friday night when he saw a man aggressively panhandling. Tarbell asked the guy to stop, went to his car and started to call 911. That's when he said the guy, later identified as Larry Smith, 59, grabbed Tarbell's cell phone and hit him in the face with it. Tarbell got out of the car to get the phone back and the fight was on. Smith was arrested.