Big Freedia

I'm told Big Freedia (pronounced Frida) is going to be on the Jimmy Kimmel Show tonight.  I won't be able to catch it.  If you aren't able to either, here is a Big Freedia video.  The skyline is New Orleans.  If you've been here long enough, you know where the exterior shots were shot.

Jazz is more popular in some quarters of the city.  Bounce is bigger in others.

Burger King Home Delivery

Burger King Home Delivery.

According to USA Today, the nation's thinly entertaining paper of record,  Burger King is attempting a bid to capture the home delivery segment of the hamburger market.

The Pontchartrain Shark

A day spent swimming in Lake Pontchartrain.

As if the freshwater octopi weren't enough.

Memorial Day and Saint Joan of Arc

The maid of Orleans, Saint Joan of Arc

Today is the day the US honors its war dead.  Serendipitously, it lands on May 30th this year, the feast day of the Patron Saint of Soldiers and France, St. Joan of Arc.  As we've described in the past,  St. Joan of Arc has no official connection to New Orleans, though she is honored and venerated here.

Saint Joan of Arc, a flattering portrait.

Her date of birth is celebrated on January 6, the starting date of Mardi Gras season, but her feast is celebrated on the day of her martyrdom, May 30.  I'm unaware of any gathering to honor her at the base of the gilt statue at the head of the French Market, but I'll be making my way down to the Quarter to pay my respects.

Saint Joan of Arc in full regalia.

Life in New Orleans is like that.  The city is peppered with shrines and reminders of people who are reminders of what is good and best about being human.  The city itself is a testament to the strength and hope that make human life worth living.  It is full of distractions and diversions, but at its core, New Orleans is about resilience and faith.

Saint Joan of Arc: an inspiration

For a pamphlet describing Saint Joan of Arc's history in New Orleans written and hand colored by Whalehead King, please send $4.00 via paypal (tax and shipping included).  I'll even throw in a medal and a silken cord to wear as a fond reminder of her heroism and the special place she holds in New Orleanians' hearts.

While Memorial Day is celebrated as the start of the summer vacation season (school in New Orleans ended its 2010-2011 session last week), it is a day intended to give due respect to those who perished during the wars that have, unfortunately and necessarily, been undertaken on behalf of us all.  As well as honoring Saint Joan of Arc today, visit a cemetery and put your hat over your heart when you pass the graves decorated by American flags.  Utter a prayer of thanks.

Hamburgers don't inhale

A bit of a hodgepodge today.

The Freie und Hansastadt Hamburg, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, is a city state in Germany that is near and dear in spirit to Whalehead household.  The city has a very eye-catching flag.  Crisp, simple design.  Fortress Hamburg, the busiest port in Europe.  Remarkably, its sister city in the United States is Chicago, not New Orleans.  One would think these two major ports would share closer ties.  Perhaps some day.  I know one Hamburger who feels deep affection for the Crescent City.

Speaking of another flag that has caught my fancy recently:

Corsica!  That's a beauty.  There isn't any New Orleans connection here, except that the island was the birthplace of Napoleon, who is fondly commemorated in the Crescent City even if he did sell Louisiana to Thomas Jefferson.  Besides Napoleon Avenue, there are streets named after his major battlefield victories, as well as Marengo Street, named after Napoleon's horse.

I'm fascinated by the Corsican flag for reasons that may someday bear fruit.  Until then, keep that image in mind.  You saw it here first.

Speaking of the Hamburg flag, I've added a patch to my summer motorcycle jacket.  Here, our model looks suitably ready not to take any nonsense, as Hamburgers have sometimes been known to be when the subject of fast food comes up...

In other news, a parcel arrived at Chez King.  Some old-time, no-nonsense, pipe tobacco.  Sugar Barrel on your left, Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic on your right.

I can't find these in New Orleans locally.  They aren't premier blends, just things that have been mass produced for longer than anyone reading this has been alive.  There's a reason these blends stick around from one century to the next, even if you don't see many people smoking pipes nowadays.  They are good.  They take no effort to enjoy.   

Anyone thinking of quitting cigarettes and taking up the pipe is encouraged to do so.  Either of these blends, or anything else available at a drug store, is a recommended way to start.  New Orleans is blessed with a surfeit of fine tobacconists that offer a wide range of pipe tobaccos.  Some of these are better suited for a more experienced connoisseur.  I've seen more people smoking cigars in New Orleans than anywhere else I've ever lived.  It would be nice to see a few more pipe smokers out and about.

New Orleans drug stores do carry pipe tobacco: Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Half and Half.  I would recommend the first two if you are thinking of taking up the briar.  Most drug stores also offer bags of generic tobacco.  You can give it a try, but I'd stick with a name brand that has withstood the test of time if I were you.  The local druggists also stock Dr. Grabow pipes for about $26.00 a piece.  I don't own one but they have their admirers.  Again, this brand has been around for seemingly forever, so it is a solid bet that it will treat you right.  If you can find one though, buy a corn cob pipe for $5.00.  Don't listen to the tobacconist who wants to sell you something pricier.  A corn cob pipe was good enough for Mark Twain.  Experienced pipe smokers swear by them.  I own three.  They are good enough for you.

The next time you see me on the street smoking my cob, you can greet me with the traditional Hamburg, "Hummel, Hummel."  I will respond, "Mors, Mors."  Then we can duck into a saloon to share a toast and a smoke.

Cheers,

WK   

I have seen the future.

Two wheels set a person free.  Beware the forces of tyranny.  While I see no harm in police officers using bicycles, motorcycles, motor scooters, or Segways to chase perpetrators who break municipal laws, there is something in me that resents their taking advantage of the ease of access and freedom of movement that two wheels allow.

I like being one rotation of the sprockets ahead of the fuzz, even though I don't break any laws, well, maybe but some minor traffic violations that are in my best interest and harm none.

Jazzfest started this past Friday and bicycles have been traveling up and down Esplanade Avenue at a regular clip, more than the usual traffic.  There are more taxicabs than I've ever seen outside Manhattan.  Many of them are from out of town, which I believe may be illegal.  Horse-mounted police are on patrol and I have no trouble with that.  I like to see them.  I even don't mind the various two-wheeled posses that are circulating through Treme.  Parking became a problem this far away from the Fair Grounds only on Sunday.  What will next weekend bring?

More New Orleans street names

Some of the streets downtown (downriver) of Saint Bernard Avenue had different names more in keeping with the poetic ones found in the neighborhood.  Since these streets met with streets already named by the New Orleans when the Faubourg New Marigny was incorporated in the city, the more humdrum names had precedence.  These streets now have names of Spanish governors, when, if the naming had gone in the other direction, we would have:

Magistrate Street instead of Dorgenois Street.  That's not too bad.  People have a hard time figuring out how to say Dorgenois.

Virtue Street instead of Rochenblave Street.  Again, not a bad switch.  I like the idea of saying, "Meet me on Virtue Street," but Rochenblave offers a pleasing mouthful of sounds.

Force Street instead of Tonti Street.  This seems like an even swap to me.  Everyone asks me to spell Tonti to make sure I don't mean Conti, though I am well aware by now that they are pronounced differently (ton-TEE vs con-TIE).  I'm kind of fond of Tonti Street for this reason: it gives me a chance to show off my mastery of local pronunciation.  Aside from that, it's got a lot of potholes and I avoid it.

Liberal Street instead of Miro Street.  Nothing against Gov. Miro, but I like the idea of having a Liberal Street.

Lastly, Genius Street instead of Galvez Street.  The name alone would increase property values.  The character of some of the neighborhoods this street passes through would be very different.  Imagine if you had to say you live on Genius Street but couldn't live up to your address.  You may as well move to another disappeared street from the same part of town, Madman Street.

Saint Joan of Arc - New Orleans, LA

I'm doing a lot of research on Saint Joan of Arc, who was only canonized in 1920.  She died in 1421.  While I don't necessarily care for the music in the video above, there are probably 60 or 80 images of Joan of Arc featured, for anyone who is interested in such things.  The music isn't bad, and, since it is in French, we are spared the meanings of the words.

Saint Joan of Arc hasn't seemed to have as much impact in New Orleans as I assumed.  Most of my research turns up links about the statue at the head of the French Market.  The Saint Joan of Arc Progressive Catholic Church is located on Eleanore Street, not to be confused with the Roman Catholic. It's kind of interesting and I think I'll visit, just to see what it is about.

Of course, the Krewe de Jeanne d'Arc opens the Carnival season on January 6.  I'm thinking of joining this year.

They dress in medieval garb when they march, and I'm not sure if I want to invest in that kind of gear.  They do have intentions I agree with, however, and I like their style.  If I'm going to march in a Mardi Gras parade, rather than ride a float, I think this krewe and I would be a nice fit.

What is New Orleans?

There are different answers to the question, "What is New Orleans?"  I've got my answer and it may be similar to other people's.  This song by Kermit Ruffins and the Rebirth Brass Band always makes me smile and pay extra attention.

Some of the references may not make sense, but, in true New Orleans fashion, they are evocative enough that it doesn't matter if they don't make sense.  New Orleans is turkey necks and mashed potatoes on Thursday.  New Orleans is baby dolls.  New Orleans is Rick's Cabaret, yeah, that's New Orleans, alright.

Whether you get it or you don't, you'll get New Orleans from this long song.  People drive past my house and the music coming out their car windows is in this genre.  That's New Orleans.

St. Roch Shrine - New Orleans

This is a statue of Saint Lucy in the Shrine of Saint Roch.  You know it is Saint Lucy, not because of the clown on her arm but because of her eyes in the dish.  She was martyred by having her eyes removed.

This is St. Roch:

Saint Roch is the patron of plague victims.  A local priest promised St. Roch that he would build a chapel to the saint if he spared New Orleans from the current yellow fever epidemic.  The populace was spared and the priest build his chapel.

Since then, people have prayed to St. Roch in this chapel to cure them of various ailments.  Saint Lucy, too.  In appreciation, they have left momentos.  Let's look behind St. Lucy's head in the small room off the side of the chapel, shall we...

That's some kind of immobilization device that, I assume, is designed to keep bandages off the surface of a burn victim's face.  Furthermore:

There are plaster casts hung on the wall to represent organs and limbs healed by St. Roch.

There is an extensive collection of dusty crutches and leg braces...

And then there is the floor of the place, tiled over with gratitude:

A closer look...

There's more, much more.  For a small chapel, there are plenty of things to inspire piety, a sense of mystery, disgust, bemusement, and food for thought and faith.  A powerful place, indeed, that is far off most tourists' maps.  St. Roch's Cemetery is pure New Orleans, part of the weft and woof of the city, important to the people who live here.

Uptown or downtown, it doesn't matter.  Riverside or lakeside.  In neighborhoods that are famous and in  neighborhoods that have no name, the good people of New Orleans are on patrol with open eyes looking to detect trouble when it erupts.

You don't need a catchy name or costume.  Good citizenship begins when people feel responsible for their surroundings.

It isn't about glamor or press coverage.   It is often about telling kids on the street to watch their language and stop spitting.  It isn't about fisticuffs, it is about demanding and respecting the norms of common courtesy.  New Orleans is full of heroes, few of them are super but they are champions nonetheless.

You don't need a fancy moniker to be important where you live.  You need to enforce civility.  Don't be shy.  Speak your mind and act when a reaction is called for.  When someone schemes to steal a pizza by blinding an innocent man, put the police on his trail.  Flush out the scoundrel. Your neighborhood will be better for it.

Thanks to Uptown Messenger, we learn the good news about New Orleans Uptown.  We wait for a similar, reliable news source downriver from Canal Street on the streets referred to as "North" hereabouts.

Needing a pep talk

I am very disappointed.  I've had a bit of a cold this week.  Since Tuesday, I've been eating Halls' brand cough drops.  I would normally just buy generic but, for no particular reason, I didn't on Tuesday.

It took me a half a bag to notice that the wrappers on these cough drops bear little slogans.  There is, in fact, "A PEP TALK IN EVERY DROP(TM).  Here are some samples:
     Don't give up on yourself.
     Take charge and mean it.
     Don't wait to get started.  
     Dust off and get up.
    Be resilient.

You get the idea.

I think this is a nice marketing touch and cheered me up to be reminded to take charge and mean it.  There was no indication on the package or boasting that Halls offers these pithy pep talks.  It seemed to just be something the company quietly does for the betterment of mankind.

I enjoyed these so I bought another bag of Halls last night.  I just opened it and these don't have a pep talk in every drop.  The wrappers are plain, just halls, halls, halls over and over.  I am disappointed.

My cold seems to be almost defeated so I don't foresee needing cough drops anytime soon.  Next time, I probably will buy generic.  After all, the only medicine they contain is menthol.  Its only the packaging that sets most cough drops apart.

Comparing Andorra to New Orleans

The principality of Andorra, located in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, and Orleans Parish, the borders of which are coextensive with the City of New Orleans at the base of the Mississippi River, share some surprising similarities.

Andorra, comprises 180 square miles.  Orleans Parish is made up of 350 square miles, of which 180 are solid land.  Now some differences appear.  The population of Andorra is roughly 84,000 while New Orleans has an estimated population of 336,644 (we are breathlessly anticipating the latest official census count).    Andorra's unemployment is essentially zero while the New Orleans-Metarie-Kenner metropolitan area clocked in at 8.1% this past October according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.  While not exemplary, this is a pretty healthy rate compared to other areas of the United States, not to mention the world.  Andorra has the second highest global life expectancy rate (82) while New Orleans does not.

Similarities reappear when comparing the economy though.  Andorra's economy is driven by tourism.  10.2 million tourists visit this mountain principality every year and catering to their needs is what sustains the high employment rate.  Prior to Katrina and the federal levee failures, between 8.5 and 9 million visitors came to the Crescent City.  In 2009, that figure was 7.6 million.  85,000 people are employed in New Orleans tourism industry.

New Orleans is governed by a strong mayor charter with a city council that has its own sphere of influence.  It seems to balance out and be workable in most cases, responsive when necessary on the macro level if maddeningly bureaucratic in other aspects for the individual entrepreneur.  Andorra is a parliamentary democracy with a prime minister running day-to-day operations but the heads of state empowered to dissolve the government and call for replacement elections are two co-princes.

According to the city charter, here is how to qualify for being elected Mayor of New Orleans (Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA):
Section 4-202. Qualifications.
The Mayor shall be a citizen of the United States and a qualified elector of the City, and shall have been domiciled in the City for at least five years immediately preceding the election. 

To become a co-prince of Andorra (a sovereign European nation outside the EU), you must be one of two things.  One co-prince is the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain.  The current incumbent is Archbishop Joan Enrique Vives Sicilia, who is expected to continue in his post until the Vatican decides he is needed elsewhere.  He has been co-prince of Andorra since 2003.  The other co-prince is the head of the French Republic, this gentleman:

None other than Nicolas Sarkozy, the elected president of France.  The country that was reborn as a cradle of liberty, equality and fraternity has a prince as it's head of state, albeit a prince of Andorra, not of France.  The French did away with their own monarchy on-and-off but finally around the middle of the nineteenth century.  Andorra's constitution is a fluke of its incorporation in 1278, similar to New Orleans' history of being three municipalities in one during the early 19th century and it's just abolished tax assessor system.

Another similarity between Andorra and New Orleans:  Take this quote from Wikipedia and let it settle in: "Given its relative isolation, Andorra has existed outside the mainstream of European history, with few ties to countries other than France and Spain."  Substitute the word "American" for "European" and read again.

New Orleans men's rooms

I've discussed the most glorious men's room I've found so far in New Orleans.  Unfortunately, it is being demolished in the name of urban renewal.  Now I'd like to discuss the less savory.

I tend to like a dive.  I've been in some nice restaurant rest rooms, but I've been in some that are best described by the English term "water closet."  The WC in Bud's Broiler on City Park Avenue is such a place.  It's clean but it's a cramped space with a toilet.  The men's room is marked "Pa" while the ladies room is marked "Ma."  No one expects to spend a lot of time in Bud's loo (I hope) so there's no complaints about the cramped quarters.

There are some bars in New Orleans, however where you expect to have some space to stretch your elbows, maybe stand akimbo while nature takes its course.  The photo above was snapped in Lucky's on Saint Charles Avenue, a 24-hour bar, game room, grill, laundromat and notary.  With all these options available, as well as a front porch and free red beans and rice every Monday and karaoke on Wednesdays, you'd expect adequate toilet arrangements.  In order to stand close to the urinal, you have to have the coin slot of the condom machine press into your shoulder like a nag you ignore at your peril.

Lucky's men's room is clean enough by dive standards, which aren't particularly high, as is its women's room.  There's no lock on the door and there isn't much space for creature comfort.  It's a closet without a latch and I've had the embarrassment of walking in on someone who is sitting on the throne.  He said, "I'm sorry, I should have put my foot in front of the door."  I said, "I should have knocked first.  You obviously have enough to keep you occupied."

Another ill-starred men's room is at Ms. Mae's at the intersection of Napoleon Ave and Magazine Street.

It isn't pretty.  It's 24 continuous operating hours day after day show on the walls.  It features a tin sheet trough that is usually filled with ice.  There is room for two gentlemen to stand side by side with their backs pressed against the stall behind them.  People don't usually use the trough in tandem.  If someone is conducting business there, the newcomer usually heads for the stall which lacks a latch.  It tends to be an awkwardly uncomfortable experience.  The sink is a plastic industrial model found in back roads gas stations and industrial shop floors across America.

Not all dive men's rooms have to look like the bomb shelter of last resort.  I've been frequenting Iggy's Bar on the corner of N. Rampart and Touro Streets.  It's a narrow hallway of a joint, also open around the clock.  It's men's room is not palatial but it's spacious enough to hold a conclave of three: one squatting, one standing, one washing hands.  It's kept clean enough you feel you could eat of the tile floor if necessary, not that I would want to.  No picture of Iggy's lavatory, unfortunately.  I don't have the cord to attach to my phone.  Rest assured, there are decent men's rooms at New Orleans' 24 hour dives.

I wouldn't recommend the lavatory at the Absinthe House, though.  It is a cesspool with plumbing though it is staffed by an attendant who will offer you a dollop of liquid soap for a tip as well as hand you a fresh paper towel, one to a customer.  Tip well.  You may be back.

New Orleans crime statistics

A cup of Confucius or a cup of commercially mixed Hurricane will do you well when trying to figure out what to make of the crime scene in New Orleans, LA.  I investigated the NOPD's crime map to see how many reported crimes took place within two miles of my new address since June 1.  Answer: Zero.

Not a bad track record.  I can walk Ursulines Street and St. Bernard Avenue without a care in the world. The crime map does offer a caveat, however: "The City of New Orleans makes no representation that the information is accurate, complete, confirmed, investigated, timely, consistent, or correctly sequenced.  Users must not consider the information reliable..."  You agree to this disclaimer before you are allowed to check any statistics, such as they are.

I've been monitoring some internet chatter about a rash of break-ins and attempted rapes and robberies in the 7th and 9th wards, around Marigny-Bywater.  I'm quick to dismiss things as alarmist, especially when reports contain bandanna-masked desperadoes kicking in doors.

If it's not on the crime map and it's not in the Times-Picayune, New Orleans paper of record, how much weight should I place on loose talk heard in the street?

Some young women from the Bywater neighborhood came to view our apartment last night.  We made chitchat while they talked amongst themselves about how much more room this apartment would give them over their current half shotgun.  "Why are moving up here?" I asked.  "Because there's a crime spree in the Bywater and we don't feel safe," they answered in triplicate.

I'm more inclined to trust these ladies' gut instinct than I am to trust a crime map that says no crime, no matter how petty, has not been committed across a vast swath of the city for six months.  No news may be good news but sometimes it's just ignorance forced from above.  I can understand the only city-wide newspaper of national repute not wanting to paint the city with a tarred brush, but withholding news is not a newspaper's mission.

I've been reading the T-P the past few days with more than my usual diligence.  I learned today that the film "Black Swan" deserves only three stars.  "Yogi Bear" got a star and a half.  I haven't read the Lifestyle section yet, just the first section, the metropolitan section, and the lagniappe.  Maybe unsafe conditions are in Lifestyle; it is a city lifestyle issue much more than comic strips advice columns and diet advice.

So, is everything rosy in the Crescent City?  No.  It is a city, no matter what the truth may be, bad things happen, distasteful things, the kind of things people try to protect their children from experiencing.  There is so much good in New Orleans that is leavened by the criminal.  Criminals are everywhere.  That is why we make laws.  Some laws are just, others a nuisance.  Breaking and entering no matter what else follows, is a crime.  This is news that should be counterbalanced and outweighed by the positive happenings in a city as big as this with as big a heart.

The T-P and the NOPD are in cahoots, letting pastel be the shade of the day by omitting details.  They do us a disservice.  I'm not moving away.  I just bought a house because I believe in this city. The administration and the media cheat me of making a responsible decision based on the city's character painted as a whole.  Luckily, I don't rely on the NOPD or the T-P to guide my decisions.  I am alive on the streets, I take the good and the bad, weigh each hand-to-hand like Osiris balancing a feather against a cardiac weight.  New Orleans is good no matter how you describe it, warts and all, every facet, every wrinkle, every pock mark, every scar.

I am happy to live here no matter what I am supposed to know.  I know New Orleans is good and I made the correct decision to plant my roots in the Mississippi mud.  I am home and I raise a toast to the Crescent City.  Long may it thrive.  I am onboard for the journey for the rest of the decades I have left to do the deed.

Family-friendly oysters in New Orleans, LA

Not really, but it may as well be.

The Comics Code Authority seal of approval appeared on all comic books when I was a lad.  I don't see it anymore and there's no surprise in that.  Along with the general coarsening of the culture, comic books had to keep up.  You don't find comic books in spinner racks at the newsstand anymore.  I dare you to find a newsstand.  I haven't found any in New Orleans.

If I want to buy a magazine, I go to the Borders on St. Charles Avenue.  It's not too much of a chore but I don't associate a big, chain bookstore as a place to pick up the latest issue of Popular Mechanics.  Does anyone read Popular Mechanics anymore?  A newsstand is where I buy news, be it a magazine or a newspaper.  Beyond the Times-Picayune, I see the New York Times is for sale in some places.  I'm surprised the Baton Rouge paper, whatever it may be, isn't for available.  I assume it would contain state-wide and legislative news.  Nowhere sells international papers that I am aware of and I have yet to find a copy of the Wall Street Journal.

New Orleans is an island.

I don't watch television unless I'm in a bar and I don't listen to the radio except for WWOZ occasionally and NPR when I'm in the car on Saturday mornings.  I get my news from the T-P and from people I bump into who seemingly get their news the same way.

They say New Orleans is not a family-freindly city; its stories would not be approved by the Comics Code Authority.  I suppose there is some truth in that.  In a city known for drinking and carousing, libertinism,  and winking at breaches of law and order, the city can seem fairly toxic to impressionable, young minds.  I encourage families to steer clear of the first few blocks of Bourbon Street closest to Canal.  It's not that the businesses there cater to the animal instincts that is most disturbing, it is that they are so tacky.

There is a whole city outside the more libidinous blocks of the Vieux Carre, however.  Parts of New Orleans are so genteel that a New England blue stocking can feel put to task to prove his credentials.  I was fortunate enough to take the holiday home tour sponsored by the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans today in the Garden District, a look behind the gates of some of the most beautiful edifices along Prytania Street.  Lovely.  Please click the link and visit PRC's website.  The home tour will be over by the time you read this, but it will be worth a visit come next December.  PRC offers a number of programs and does good work in the city.  It's where I attended the first-time homebuyer class this past week.  I'm going to try to be more involved within my time constraints.  I say the same thing about lowernine.org.  There is so much going on this city and in my own life, I don't know if there are enough hours in a week.

All in good time, all in good time.  A city runs on the effectiveness of its organizations.  The government should enable them as long as they don't get out of control.  Power corrupts.  Mayor Landrieu, a creature of democratic government if there ever was one, seems to be balancing competing interests well.  No missteps thus far, but his administration is still new in office.  I'm told Mayor Nagin was lauded in the beginning of his first term.  We know how that turned out in the end: like a bushel of oysters left on the neutral ground in August rather than like the one's served at Casamento's.

By the way, CBS news is filming something at Casamento's this afternoon.  Probably something to do with the local seafood industry.  The restaurant is closed Sundays so this must be a special photo op.  I won't be able to watch the news the next few days (no TV as stated above).  If you happen to see WK mugging on camera, please let me know.  I'll be the guy in a gray fedora advising everyone to eat genuine Louisiana Gulf seafood.  I've got a soft spot in my belly and heart for oysters.  I can't seem to find any clams here.

Cheers,

--WK

A conversation with Mayor Landrieu

We went out for coffee this morning.  You'll never guess the pleasant chap with whom we had a very nice conversation.  He introduced himself as Mitch.  He is a perfect charm of a gentleman.

As I've said before, I really like our Mayor.   I admire him and the job he's doing.  We didn't discuss that though.  It didn't seem right for Sunday morning chitchat.

He was full of questions for us: "Where are you from?  What made you move here?  What do you do for a living? etc..."  He had nothing but good things to say about Boston and seemed genuinely surprised that two people would leave it, even for the chance to live here.

He asked where we were living and I said in my pitch perfect Orleanian, "Terps-hickory."  He said, "Terps-i-core."

"Now just a minute,"  I replied, "I used to say it that way and everyone corrected me."  He said, "Really?"  I said, "Yes, really.  I think you're playing a trick on me."

He was bemused.  "No," he smiled, "It's hard to learn how all the street names are pronounced."  Shoot, if it's hard for this guy, I don't feel so badly about it.  On this point though, I'll trust my mailman.  It's "Terps-hickory."

He told us we are moving to a very pretty part of Esplanade Avenue, as if there are any ugly parts, and told us that it's going to be very busy come Jazz Fest.  We replied that we are looking forward to it.

You can judge a man by his handshake and Mitch's was solid.  After we parted company I asked the lady of the house if she knew who we spent the past ten minutes talking to.  "Sure," she said,  "I wonder if he's going to tell his wife that he met two people who didn't know who he was."

His secret is safe with us.  You'll also notice I didn't say where we met.

The city of jazz

If you want to speak the lingo of beatniks, hipsters, hep cats, floozies, gun molls, rum runners, the sporting class, zoot suiters, dandies, rakes, and chronically underemployed poets, New Orleans is a better place than most to learn it.  I spent this morning in Bywater, hipster-central.  A nice, compact neighborhood that gets progressively more seedy as one progresses further from the quarter.  It seems to be a safe place though I wouldn't recommend it for families with children in search of role models.  Call me conservative, which I am not except when it comes to fiscal policy.

If you want to see something beautiful, look in the mirror.  That's what I do.  It should work for you.  If you want to something beautiful outside a mirror's frame, walk about New Orleans.  A wide, rambling city, every part of New Orleans shares similarities, but every block is unique in its own, eccentric way.  Bywater is dense, a fabric of homes and stores and small, old factories and you never know what a building holds until you try the door.

I haven't spent too much time in Bywater beyond just passing through in my zigzagging way on an errand to nowhere. When I moved here in June I thought it might be a nice part of New Orleans to call home.  A heavily tattooed, young woman in the Lower Garden District warned me away.  "Stick to the Garden," she said, "The people in Bywater are weird."  I don't know.

The little time I've spent nursing a coffee or beer in Bywater, I've been struck by the neighborliness of the place.  People know each other.  While I know my neighbors where I live, I don't bump into them regularly.  Bywater seems a self-contained enclave.  This is my impression.

If you want to see something else that is beautiful, there is a fence in the residential end of the French Quarter inspiring enough that it made me take a picture.

All sorts of glass flowers wired to the bars.  A tree may grow in Brooklyn but the imagination flourishes in New Orleans.

And with that, I am off to other business.  Have a nice weekend.
WK

Hollygrove

Another magazine street sign.  I haven't been in here.

I rode my bicycle through Hollygrove this morning.  It's a neighborhood that has escaped my attention.  I like to think I have been down most streets at least one on my meanderings but I didn't realize that this was a part of New Orleans.  I think of Airline Drive as being a part of Metarie.  Now I know.

I found the Hollygrove Farm and Market.  Though not so much a farm as an oversized garden, this was a plum discovery.  I'll be heading up next week after work to pick up some fresh, local produce.  The neighborhood itself is a mixed bag of occupied and abandoned homes.  I've never heard of Hollygrove so I assume this part of the city is off the radar.  There were a number of abandoned bars and businesses as well, far outnumbering the ones that have reopened post-levee failure.  The main commercial activity seems to be on South Carrollton Avenue since the neighborhood is hemmed in by railroad tracks and Earhart Drive in the other directions.

I paused on the Cherry Street Bridge to look into the Palmetto-Washington Canal, which connects to the 17th Street Canal.  I was surprised to see egrets, fish, ducks and tow rather large snapping turtles in the water.  It's not the most picturesque waterway but I was amazed to see the abundance of wildlife in what is basically a concrete trench.  Has anyone taken a canoe or kayak down these canals?  This one is fairly shallow and I think it would be very interesting to watch what's under water as you lazily paddle along.  It's certainly nice weather this time of year.

Does anyone catch the turtles for soup?

Your source for Uptown News

Up and running since last month, the website Uptown Messenger promises to deliver timely local news between the Garden District and Carrollton.  That's the length of the site's beat, no word on its width.

As with most things in New Orleans, I discovered this site by happenstance.  I was trying to find some information on something I knew was occurring in the city but hadn't seen reported in the paper of record.  While I much prefer to get my news in page-turnable format, the Messenger is up-to-date, as it promises.  I catch up on what's going on every evening.

You'll never guess who is published as the site's first letter to the editor.

In other news, the Messenger has just published the route and start time for a second line starting in the Irish Channel tomorrow.  It's that kind of scoop that draw readers from the Times Picayune to the Messenger.  It's what we in the typing profession call "relevance."

Thus far no society pages in the Uptown Messenger.