New Orleans is for Lovers

Living in New Orleans is like winning a round trip ticket to Heaven.  Love, not hunger, makes the best sauce.  New Orleans is a harbor for ships of any flag.  New Orleans is a melting pot, a catholic city, where dignity is tradition, and joy is the rhythm of life.  The lucky are thankful for what they receive.  New Orleans is for lovers.

Be both a borrower and a lender.  Borrow the well worn quilt of New Orleans hospitality, and pass it on to the next person once you are hot.  Lend your talents to New Orleans as long as you are here.  Be yourself when you are here.  When you are somewhere else, be New Orleans.  Home is where the heart is.  You have a friend in New Orleans, Louisiana.  New Orleans is for lovers.

Louisiana is a sportsmen’s paradise, but New Orleans is a world apart.  No one shoots guns at animals in New Orleans.  The people who fish Bayou St John, the lagoons of City Park, the shallow waters of Bayou Lafitte, and the people who drag lines on the Algiers Ferry, catch and release.   You can get more than you bargain for in New Orleans, just don’t read the newspaper.  Listen to the song of the street.  Dance.  New Orleans is for lovers.

A pelican in its piety

There is tit for y’at in New Orleans, America, a city that dances like no one is watching.  Good things happen from Bywater to River Bend, from Hollygrove to Holy Cross, from Venetian Isles to Jackson Barracks.  From the West End to New Orleans East, every day is filled with lagniappe.  There is no such thing as a bad day in New Orleans, because every day is just an introduction to tomorrow.  New Orleans is for lovers.

The swans in City Park mate for life.  The whistling ducks in Audubon Park carry the city’s tune.  Every week is a parade route.  Sweet dreams are woven through New Orleans nights.  This a city as full of brass and polish, as it is a city in which every neighborhood is rich.  New Orleans is for lovers.

Every person is an artist.   New Orleans is a city in which art is intimate with life.  There are more than nine muses.  There are more than nine streets.  Pelicans soar in their piety over the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, over Bayou Saint John, and over the Big Muddy, itself.  It is easy to get lost in New Orleans.  It is also easy to find a friend.  You have a friend in New Orleans.

There is always room at the bar in New Orleans.  There is always room to bend an elbow.  There is always an ear willing to be bent.  New Orleans is affectionate to those who love her.  New Orleans is full of kisses.  It is a moist caress.  There is no place on earth more open to celebrating itself, and being itself.  New Orleans is an oasis pierced by a river.  Liquid defines New Orleans.  Where life is fluid, it rains pennies from heaven.  New Orleans is for lovers.      

An incurable disease

Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.

New Orleans' good cheer is infectious.  This is why everyone is welcome to spend some time in the Crescent City.  New Orleans matters.  There is nowhere else like it on earth.  The more people catch this contagion directly, the happier everyone will be.

Nonna Mia. 3125 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA.

Saint Expedite.  Patron of prompt delivery.

La dolce vita is saucy in New Orleans.  New Orleans is not a pizza town, so when a pizzeria stays in business, you can bet that they cook a good pie.  With indoor and outdoor seating, Nonna Mia does what it does very well.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, pitchers of beer are five dollars, and bottles of wine are half price.  This is reason enough for some visitors to New Orleans to extend their stays past a weekend.  Nonna Mia, like every generation of endeavors, was born out of love.  New Orleans runs on live, shared between grandmother and daughter and granddaughter.  Traditions are made by the people who live them.  Nonna Mia delivers.

Neither deep dish nor thin crust, the pizza chefs at Nonna Mia craft their pies New Orleans-style.  Even if your nonna is not from Nola, you still know good pizza when it is put in front of you.  This is good pizza.  If you walking up to City Park, pop in for a slice at the bar.  If you want to sample a slice of New Orleans pizza culture, you will get an flavorful education.

Knotty and Nice in New Orleans

A typical New Orleans Street.

Knitting is knotty, but no one is naughty in New Orleans, Louisiana.  If anything is racy, it is happening at the Fair Grounds.  If anything is innocent, it is happening on Ursulines Street.  If anyone is happy...well, that could be anywhere between Hollygrove and Holy Cross.

You have a friend in New London, Conn.

It's New London, baby.  Mare liberum!!

New London, Connecticut is a city that knows no rival, It is Connecticut’s Whaling City.  It is a good fishing place off the west bank of Connecticut’s Thames River, where the shad and the alewives run thick with the eels, in season.  It is a city built on a foundation of spermaceti and spunk.  Like a plate of spaghetti, there is no way to separate all the tangled, slippery propositions in New London’s try pot.  

New London, Connecticut is hygienic.  New London, Connecticut is pure and clean.  East New London is to the north of the city’s center.  Powder Island is made of granite and generations of guano sedimented into tall tales close to the waterline.  There are a few ledges in New London, Connecticut, and there are plenty of lights.

Just Under The Goldstar Bridge Overpass (JUGBO), on Central Avenue, in New London, Connecticut, life unfolds with the same graceful splash that reigns over the whole city.  Husbands love their wives on Adelaide Street.  Husbands love their husbands on West Street.  Wives love their wives on Hempstead Street.  Parents love their children on Jefferson Avenue, and children love their parents on Ocean Avenue.  People who live alone find solace and comfort in Bates Woods, or in Cedar Grove.  

New London, Connecticut is a small city, and it is a very hip city.  It has chosen to stay true to its flukes.  New London, Connecticut is for lovers. 

If anything is true in New London, Connecticut, it is that you never know what tomorrow will bring.  If you get turned around in New London, Connecticut, you will always find your way.  Head toward the ebb and flow of Connecticut’s Thames River.  Breath the New London air.  The sun is always shining on New London, even when the clouds are raining.

They should be riding motor scootes.

Life in New London, Connecticut is opera without soft soap.  Life in New London is good.  Life in New London is better.  Life in New London, Connecticut is a healthy salt bath in sack cloth and garters.  A day in New London, Connecticut is like a day at a health spa.  Nothing relaxes like an hour walking Bank Street on a New London day.  In New London, Connecticut, The Parade is the goal of a pleasant stroll.  There are public restrooms located in the train station.

New London is elegant.  New London is beautiful.  New London is for lovers.  New London soars as high as the halo over the Mohican Hotel after midnight.  New London is an open clam shell slick with whale oil.  New London wears a pearl necklace and a corset strung with baleen.  New London has a long tail.  When you expect the worst...POP!...everything is better than before.  That is the way things work in New London, Connecticut.

California Fruit?

There is an old song that was popular in the Gay Nineties.  It was called, “I’ll Never Forget My First Old New London Gal.”  It was popular on the vaudeville circuit, and sailors sang it while they were climbing the mizzen heads on the lookout for Ledge Light.  Some nights, at 2:00 AM, after the Dutch Tavern is locked up for the night, the bartender will sing “I’ll Never Forget My First Old New London Gal,” while he mops under the card tables.

Nobody ever forgets their first day in New London, Connecticut, and no one forgets their last day...unless they die in New London, Connecticut.  In that case, they are in heaven.  


Nobody forgets New London, Connecticut for long.  Every poison has its antidote.  If a spermatozoa were as large as a whale, it would be as large as New London’s heart.  That measures out to be a filament more than five square miles and miles and miles of heart.  

Lamplighter Of The World, New London, Connecticut is a place better lived than learned.  Whatever you read between these lines is but a rainbow on a puddle compared to the slippery slope up Town Hill past the courthouse on a December night when the sleet is blowing fast off Long Island Sound.  The spirit of Nathan Hale inspires the good folk who live on Granite Street.   

Kanesha Murphy kisses her daughter goodnight on Vauxhall Street.  Otis Shear says his prayers with his son on Ashcraft Road.  Mickey Finn is nursing a pint at the Polish American Veterans Club on Central Avenue.  Joan Morrow is heading home after a late shift at Shallett's Laundry.  A party of eight is enjoying pizza pie at Illiano's.  Everyone is healthy at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital.


A third-class pharmacist's mate from 1906 could get off the train at the foot of State Street today and know exactly where he is.  New London, Connecticut is eternal.  New London, Connecticut is for lovers. 

A Five-Star Whale Production.!

Lamplighter of the World, New London is for lovers.  There are no rivals when all is fair in love and peace.  There are no enemies when everyone is a neighbor.  Fellow-citizens work together.  Fellow-citizens make good neighbors.  New London is for lovers.  New London is where it is at.  Home is where the heart is.  New London, Connecticut is a fertile garden where flowers bloom like spume year round.

What's Going on in Eunice, LA?

No one is naughty in Eunice, LA.

I happen to know some of what is going on in Eunice, Louisiana.  "How do you know anything about anything happening in Eunice, LA?" you ask.  "You seem so happy to live in New Orleans, I couldn't imagine you traveling far!"  You are partly right.

It is true that I am perfectly content staying in my neighborhood, but, for whatever reason, I have an itch that only Eunice can scratch.  I visited Eunice recently, and Eunice got under my skin.

I happen to know some of what is going on in Eunice, Louisiana because I have been receiving a one-month subscription to the fair city's newspaper of record, for the past month.  "What is it called?" you ask.  It is called The Eunice News.  It is a paring of words that is that is not mentioned once in the wikipedia.  It is well-known around Eunice, though.  The paper is published every Thursday and Sunday.  The Sunday edition also contains a Parade Magazine.  There are no comic strips.  The children of Eunice don't need any enticements to read the inspirational musings of the current week's Student of the Week.

So, what do I know from reading the Eunice News when it is delivered via USPS every Saturday and Tuesday?  There seems to be a lot of crime in Eunice, Louisiana, but no more than one would find in any other major city.  There seems to be secret sex offender court that keeps all its records sealed.  The Eunice News is trying to inform the public, but is being stymied by the local judiciary.  None of it makes any sense.  The state is auditing the school board for some kind of budget discrepancy.  The editorial page broadcasts very interesting opinions.

Did you know they celebrate Mardi Gras in Eunice, LA?  I read about it in The Eunice News.  Now that I've read about it for a month, I know where I'll be next Mardi Gras: in Eunice, Louisiana.

The hometown favorite, farm team, the Lady Cats are full of pulchritude and spunk.

So, I know a little bit about Eunice, LA.  I know what I read.  I still don't know what it is like to live in Eunice.  I don't know what it is like to wake up in the morning and say, "I'm in Eunice, today!"  I don't know what life is like at the Gateway to the Cajun Prairie, but I'd like to learn on which side I belong.  I suspect a little bit of both.  I've had a taste, now I hanker for a meal.  I have to sample some more of Eunice's famed hospitality.

The sun does not always shine on Eunice, Louisiana, but, when it does, boy! does it shine.  At least that's what I read in the newspaper.  When people are good neighbors, a community has a heart as big as Eunice, LA.  Home is where the heart is.

I have not spent long enough in Eunice's arms, pressed close to her ample bosom.  I am not the first person to say this.  I have not gotten to know Eunice as well as I should.  How many people say that?  More than you would suppose.  Eunice casts a spell.

I have never seen the starry sky above Fairground Park, but I will some day.  I have never chased a chicken.  If Liberty is theater, then I dream of Eunice, a city in which dreams are set free.  No other fair city in LA is more fairly named.  

I'm going to Eunice, LA.

A bed and breakfast visit on Esplanade Avenue

A fictionalized account of a typical day on the 2200 block of Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.  Everything is familiar except the ending.  In New Orleans, nobody asks anybody to stop singing.  Everybody encourages everybody else.  Everybody follows the lead of the muse.


New Orleans is for lovers of the good life.

The Odditarium.

Whalehead King's Odditarium.

If you ever wondering how I seemingly disappear without the front door being opened. here is the secret.  It is a tunnel located under the floor.

Guns are permitted in the Odditarium, but they are rarely welcome.  When ahimsa is the rule, there is no need for shrapnel.

WK

No doubt this image is copyright Marvel Entertainment Group, and it is used for purposes of critical commentary only.