The Internet Attic

Dan Hammack of Biloxi writes about an email - dated August 31st, 2005 - JUST being delivered to his mailbox almost two years after the storm.

Has the USPO taken over email or something??

An Open Letter

Karen Dalton Beninato writes a tongue-in-cheek open letter to Paris Hilton and outlines the many ways that the poor dear can help the city of New Orleans.


Our coroner needs you to donate $150,000 to finish a mausoleum for the hundred unclaimed bodies still waiting for a decent burial. That's the cost of half a party appearance.

Our dead zone with Mississippi runoff from the rest of the country is growing. Fish can't live in it. There goes sushi.

I can guarantee that you have never been to better parties. We dress up at the drop of a hat. We don't spend time social climbing -- there's room for every lost soul who rolls down the country to New Orleans. There always has been. At the St. Patrick's Parade when they throw cabbages and carrots for Irish stew, Nicole could eat. Al Sharpton would like you again. Anderson Cooper is here right now. I think he parties.



Thanks, Karen

take that!!!!

Poppy Brite does what she does best in response to someone who wonders " ....when they're just going to give up, admit they're not going to rebuild, and raze what's left. Stop stringing these poor people along, let them start over someplace else."

I don't have to be polite in my own journal ... so fuck you. Fuck you sideways with a chainsaw. While it's certainly true that we are being strung along in any number of ways, I don't need your sympathy because I live in New Orleans any more than I need your contempt because I've chosen to stay. I am damn lucky to be here. There are still thousands of people hurting because they can't come back to New Orleans. This is my home, and their hearts' home, and it's still one of the most beautiful, interesting places on earth. Still, I guess we're even, because when I looked at your profile and saw where you live, I pitied you. It's actually kind of funny how often members of the "those New Orleanians are so stupid" crowd seem to inhabit some festering armpit that you couldn't pay me enough to spend a fortnight in.

Wet Bank Guide: Little Miracles

Wet Bank Guide: Little Miracles

Bad Week

It's been a tragic week for law enforcement officers in the New Orleans area.

Four deaths occurred in the post Katrina landscape. Two in St. Tammany and two in New Orleans.


A St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office deputy was killed Saturday morning and another deputy was injured when their car ran off the road while they were responding to a false report of a body on another parish highway

During the funeral for the officer killed, a strong thunderstorm rolled thru the area, knocking over a huge pine tree, probably
weakened by Katrina's winds, killing another deputy.


As a miles-long funeral processional snaked through Covington en route to pay respects for fallen Deputy Hilery Mayo on Wednesday, tragedy delivered yet another cruel blow to the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office.
A deputy was killed and another was badly injured when a sudden, violent thunderstorm deluged the funeral procession around 4 p.m. and toppled a large pine tree that crushed the deputies' patrol car.

Here's a letter to the editor from a local law enforcement person regarding this tragic matter.

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In New Orleans, one officer took his own life.

A former New Orleans police officer, facing trial in connection with the videotaped 2005 beating of a retired teacher in the French Quarter, died over the weekend in an apparent suicide, authorities said.
Lance Schilling, 30, was indicted along with another officer last year on charges of second-degree battery regarding their actions in a confrontation with a 64-year-old man. Schilling and Robert Evangelist were fired from the New Orleans Police Department following the Oct. 8, 2005, incident. Before his dismissal from the department, Schilling, an eight-year NOPD veteran, worked in the 8th District.
Schilling died Sunday around 9:45 p.m. from a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Jefferson Parish coroner's office. The shooting, which took place at his Metairie home, was ruled a suicide.

Another officer died on his day off in New Orleans East

An off-duty New Orleans police officer died Sunday afternoon in an apparent one-vehicle traffic accident in eastern New Orleans.
The officer was Sidney Trepagnier Jr., 50, of New Orleans, a 26-year veteran who worked in the Traffic Division, said Garry Flot, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman.
Trepagnier apparently was traveling west on Terminal Road about a mile south of Interstate 10 and just east of the Industrial Canal, police said. When he reached a point about a quarter-mile east of Jourdan Road South, the sport utility vehicle he was driving veered left and entered a ditch just north of the Intracoastal Waterway

Clayton Cubitt

Clayton Cubitt has posted a new entry Here

FQ Fests

We ventured into the French Quarter yesterday to attend the Creole Tomato and Seafood Fests. What a great idea!!! We walked thru Waldenberg Park to the French Market and it was sunny and breezy.

But...when we hit the Market, the lack of moving air, the number of people and all of the vendors cooking in a small area kind of took the enjoyability away for me.
Now, I'm not an old fart by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't like the combination of 90+ degree heat, 100% humidity and a whole bunch of people crowded into one space;it's not my idea of a great time. But we persevered and ventured down to the old US Mint at Esplanade Ave.

The grounds were covered with food booths, beverage booths, a craft booth, a food demo stage and two music stages. We grabbed cold beers and got to work checking out the food.

The BBQ shrimp was absolutley delectable. The crab balls by Deanies were the best crab cake-type eat I ever had: crunchy on the outside and moist and crab claw meat-filled on the inside. Daughter wanted the seafood pasta, but the lines were getting very long. Next we had boiled crawfish by Pigeon Caterers...very tasty.

By this time Tab Benoit was playing, so we headed over to the stage. It was 2 pm and the sun was high in the sky and brutal. My daughter couldn't take the heat, so we found some comfort under the shade of the crepe myrtles while Hubby enjoyed the cajun BB King Entertainer of the year . She and I caught a little of Prudehomme cooking andouille.

Back at the Creole Tomato Fest we watched a demo by a young Commanders Palace chef as he demo'd a mouthwatering, cool creole tomato and mozarrella dish and a creole tomato bloody mary. Delicious! We purchased five pounds of the tomatoes and made our way back to the car and were home by 6. A fun day.

here's Chris Rose's take
And you have to admit, it is a little strange: The fewer people live here, the more festivals we have.

Japan Fest?

I suggested -- in total seriousness -- to a friend in the hospitality business that what we needed this summer, every summer, to liven up the two weeks between the Essence Festival and the Satchmo Festival is the Louisiana Humidity Festival.



Note to Lt. Gov-Tourish Czar Mitch: Next year think about combining the two fests and having them in Woldenberg park along the river where it's cooler. And less hot food and more things like boiled shrimp and grilled catfish with creole tomatoes. Hmmm...my love of cooking makes me want to take part in something like that!!!

Grammys add Cajun/zydeco category

Grammys add Cajun/zydeco category


The Recording Academy announced Thursday the creation of a Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album category in its folk music field.

The first winner will be chosen Feb. 10 at the 50th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. CBS will broadcast the ceremonies live.

The announcement caps a six-year campaign by Lafayette's Cynthia Simien and her husband, zydeco veteran Terrance Simien, to establish the category. The Simiens actively petitioned the Academy and rallied local musicians to become members and submit their records for Grammy consideration.

Although zydeco and Cajun musicians often are nominated in the Grammy's folk category, victories are rare. They often have been paired against Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and other legendary figures.
Ten years have passed since Lafayette Cajun band BeauSoleil won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. The last zydeco winner came in 1985 when Rockin' Sidney won Best Ethnic recording for My Toot Toot.

NOLAready

Here is the website to get alerts on your cell phone, etc. in case of an emergency in New Orleans.
Here are examples of when NOLAReady may be used:

Life-threatening weather
Amber Alerts
Highly disruptive road shutdowns
Evacuation or Shelter in Place information
Boil water notices
Information about emergency shelters
Other emergency information

When an emergency occurs, authorized senders will instantly notify you using NOLAReady. NOLAReady is your personal connection to real-time updates, instructions on where to go, what to do, or what not to do, who to contact and other important information.

It's run by the city of New Orleans and powered by Roam Secure Alert Network.

Pirogue Races

This past Sunday (June 3rd) was the Bayou Liberty Pirogue Races.
The Times Pic featured a short video with interviews of race participants.

Here is the link

In the background you can hear the squealing of the Bayou Liberty Bridge as cars cross the bayou.
Click on picture for larger view

This is one of my favorite sounds of this area.

The sights, sounds and smells of the bayou is what has kept me living in this area for 20+ years.

Welcome Back, Cap

WGSO AM-990 has changed owners and formats. Out is William Metcalf Jr.'s MC Media. In is Northshore Radio LLC, a consortium of investors who primarily reside and do business on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

The new owners have installed a news-talk format targeted at north shore listeners who've largely been overlooked by New Orleans broadcast media, said Michael Starr, a local broadcasting veteran who is the new station's general manager.

The station's studios are in Slidell. Its tower and transmitter are atop an office building on Canal Street in New Orleans. Though targeting St. Tammany, its programming may appeal to Jefferson and Orleans listeners as well.

Ed Clancy has joined the roster of north shore talk radio hosts on WGSO AM-990.
"Some of the topics we're talking about are topics without borders," Starr said. "We might be having a problem in St. Tammany Parish that's universal. The Road Home is a common problem for everybody. In addition to that, (north shore) residents work in other parts of the metro area.

"Whether people are driving to work or play or whatever, they can keep in touch with what's going on (at home)."

In the station's new talk-host lineup is Hugh Dillard, who many local listeners will remember as rock-radio's Captain Humble.

Dillard, a marquee jock at album-rock WRNO FM-99.5 in its air-guitar-windmilling prime, has recently been running a po-boy shop in Slidell, and intends to do his noon-2 p.m. show from there most days.

Other hosts include Jeff Crouere, Ed Clancy, Bernie Cyrus, Ken Trahan and John Marie.

"You know how you kind of say your prayers and at the end of them say something you know is pretty spectacular? 'I want to win the Powerball' or something?" Dillard said. "I always used to say, 'I'd sure like to be back on the radio.' "