Scuzzbuckets of the week

Too rich for his own good, GoDaddy's founder Bob Parsons is the lowest of low.

Parsons recently posted a video of his trip to Zimbabwe, where he shot an elephant.

I didn't watch the video at this link due to the description from the post as follows:


We all shoot vacation videos, but most of us choose to keep them to ourselves—or, at worst, share them with our Facebook friends. Bob Parsons—the CEO of the Internet hosting firm GoDaddy.com, which you will know from its lame Super Bowl ads and absolutely nothing else—likes bigger exposure. Parsons recently posted a video of his trip to Zimbabwe, where he shot an elephant. See below:

Now, there are so many things wrong with this video that it's hard to know where to start. First off: is it really appropriate to score a scene of hungry villagers in Zimbabwe tearing apart a dead elephant to the tunes of AC/DC's "Hells Bells"? And I can't be the only one who found it creepy that Parsons had outfitted nearly everyone in the area with bright orange GoDaddy baseball caps. Not to mention the fact that this is all taking place in Zimbabwe, a broken country oppressed by the tyrannical Robert Mugabe, where 64% of the population lives under the poverty line and nearly 100% live in fear. This is one step up from taking spring break in North Korea.

He thinks that because he has the bucks made by foolish people spending moneyh on his product that he has the right to destroy an animal in its own habitat?

Again, from the above link Parsons defended himself on his blog, arguing that his target was a "problem elephant" that had been destroying the crops of a nearby village:

I stand by my decision to help African villagers. I believe elephant management is beneficial. I have the support of the people who really matter in this situation, the families of Zimbabwe -- people who need help to survive. I have the support of tribal leaders and the government.

If you'd like to see how professional "bobby boy" is visit his grown up blog

Scuzzbucket

Heroes in Japan

New Orleans' Beauty

The historic French Quarter balconies live together with the modern day skyscrapers in New Orleans. I love this city.

BP may be charged with manslaughter

 (Reuters) - Shares in oil major BP (BP.L) fell 2.0 percent on Tuesday after a media report that the company's managers may face manslaughter charges following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and an analyst downgrade.

U.S. prosecutors are considering whether to pursue manslaughter charges against BP managers for decisions made before the explosion on the rig that killed 11 workers and caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history, a report from Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.

BP has admitted mistakes in the run-up to the rig blast but has denied accusations that it was "grossly negligent", a charge that could add tens of billions to the final bill it pays for the disaster.

"A manslaughter charge makes a charge of gross negligence more likely," one dealer said.

If BP is found to be grossly negligent, the maximum possible fines it faces would rise to over $21 billion from around $5 billion.

Also, this may mean the company is unable to force its partners in the well to pay their 35 percent share of the total clean-up bill -- now estimated at $42 billion.

It could also open the floodgates to legal claims worth many billions.

BP declined to comment.

 

The entire article is here:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/29/us-bp-shares-idUSTRE72S1M220110329?feedType=nl&feedName=usbusinessearly

 

 

 

Why I love Hoda Kotb

HODA KOTB at her finest...Gotta see this video we took of Hoda "getting down and funky" while singing the New Orleans Saints Swag...this weekend at the Hall of Fame for Louisiana Center For Women and Government

Scuzzbuckets of the week

It would be employees at the DMV Salt Lake City, Utah. Here's an excerpt from the Pride In Utah website

Local resident Amber Anderton watched a horrifying scene play out in front of her this past Thursday at the DMV:ca transgender woman sat down at the photo station to renew her license. “When the DMV worker looked at her,” says Amber, “he immediately left and got another employee, whispered in their ear and they both began laughing as they looked back at the woman. They both then went and got security who escorted the woman back to a supervisor’s office. When they came back out the woman was taken to the restroom where she had to scrub off her makeup and pull her hair back before they would let her take her license photo.”

Amber goes on to describe how the original two employees were seen walking from office to office, and several other employees came out to laugh and toss anti-transgender slurs around.

Mortified at what she was witnessing, 29 year old Amber approached the woman (who is remaining anonymous) and apologized for the treatment she was receiving. She asked if the woman planned on filing a complaint, but was told that although the abused woman as livid, “I really don’t want to cause a scene.” Amber than asked if she would allow Amber herself to make a complaint which the woman agreed to.

Marching up to the supervisor (who refused to identify more than his first name, John), Amber said, “How dare you treat people this way! Would you make any other woman take off her makeup to get her licensed removed?” The supervisor coldly responded that “That is not a real woman, it’s a man.”

According to the Utah DMV website, the phone number for that location is as listed below. Do not let this story pass! And I want to give an enormous thank you to Amber Anderton, a citizen who stood up for what is right, and faced down the tyranny and bigotry of these DMV workers and made herself a hero.

Fairpark DMV:
801-965-4437

Letters for Japan

 Former CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch hopes to fill her mailbox several times over with letters written to Japan.

Koch, who was reared in Bay St. Louis, is asking South Mississippians who survived the ordeal of Hurricane Katrina to write letters of support and encouragement for those now suffering in the aftermath of a destructive earthquake and tsunami.

She calls the project “Words of Hope for Japan.”

Kathleen Koch

•  
• Story: Where to write:

“I felt like we understand,” she told the Sun Herald by phone from her home near Washington, D.C.

Koch wants to deliver over a quarter-million pieces of mail to the Japanese Embassy, which has agreed to deliver the well wishes to people in Japanese shelters. She said more than 270,000 people in Japan are living in shelters and she wants each one to have a handwritten letter or a hand-drawn picture from those too young to write. Most people in Japan can read some English or have access to a translator, Koch said.

Donations are an obvious reaction to the catastrophe, she said, but Koch wanted to do more.

Then she remembered a book she owns, “Letters from Katrina: Stories of Hope & Inspiration.”

The book was filled with letters written by children around the country to the children of the Gulf Coast after Katrina.

“They were so inspiring and meant so much to the children,” she said.

She’d like to do the same thing for Japan that others did for South Mississippi, except letters should be sent to people of all ages. Writers should designate on the envelope if the letter is for a child. she said.

“If we could just send them letters and let them know ‘You can get through this,’” she said. “We understand. We care. Don’t give up hope. You’re not alone.”

Koch, who is now an author and speaker, also challenges the leaders of Coast cities to find a city in Japan to adopt. The people of Japan can be encouraged from South Mississippi’s resilience.

“Just knowing that someone, somewhere cares and understands I think can get you going,” she said.

Koch will expand the project to include the rest of the country soon.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/03/23/2968010/koch-seeks-letters-of-hope-to.html##ixzz1HY3zKyDR

 

Need something to do this weekend?

  I just found out about this festival.  It’s the “New Orleans Roadfood Festival”.  From their website:

 

“Six blocks of Royal Street in the heart of the French Quarter will be lined with dozens of top Roadfood cooks from New Orleans and all of Louisiana as well as across America, each offering a unique specialty.   This is NOT typical and expected festival fare:  it  is a tase of America’s most celebrated dishes, all gathered in one place:  a foodie’s dream.  Portions are right-sized and priced to provide everyone a chance to taste the maximum number of great regional eats as they stroll through the French Quarter inhaling delicious smells that range from real Texas pit barbecue to Pecan Pie to artisan boudin sausage made by Cajun country’s most beloved butchers.  There is no admission fee, just bring plenty of appetite”.

 

Some of the food to be served:

          Seafood chowder from Maine

          Muffalettas

          Sausage & Brisket

          Oyster Foch PoBoy from Antoine’s

          Crawfish Enchiladas

          Duck Cracklin

          Crawfish & Meat Pies

          5 Way Chili from Cincinnati

          Shrimp Remoulade Poboy

          Grilled Oysters

 

There’s more, but I’m getting very hungry.  Hoping we can be there this weekend!

Here’s the website:  www.neworleansroadfoodfestival.com

 

Bon Apetit!

 

History of St. Aug and Mardi Gras

NOLA Blogger Bayou Creole retells how The Marching 100, St. Augustine Purple Knights endured there first Mardi Gras parade at this link. It wasn't pretty and it gives you insight into why they are THE Marching Band at Mardi Gras.

Gumbo and Sunshine

The weather has been stellar for the past week, so we put aside our chores to spend the whole day outside on Saturday. As luck would have it, there was a Gumbo Cookoff going on in Olde Towne Slidell. What to do for lunch: solved!

Click on pictures for larger versions.



Olde Towne Slidell was pretty much swamped by Hurricane Katrina. Up to a few months ago the city had been working out of trailers while the new City Hall was being built. What's great about the new city complex is that there is a lot of room to support venues like the Gumbo Cookoff.



For $10 each we could sample all the gumbo we wanted. Some were good, a few others were downright nasty. I can honestly say I got my gumbo fix. Here are a few pictures of what we shared.







While we ate our gumbo we were entertained by this man playing a dulcimer. Combine the beauty of his music with the sun shining, a mild breeze, good eats and being with my best friend and I call that a perfect time.









After eating five or six samples we were in dire need of moving around. We decided to walk around Olde Towne to see what was going on.



Slidell is a small, quiet city. She's been around a few hundred years and has some interesting sites. Right around the corner from the City Hall complex are a series of murals painted by local artists.





In this area we found the remains of the Club Phoenix lounge which suspiciously burned down last week in a four alarm blaze.





As we passed up the charred hip hop club, we were drawn up by the architectural details of some of the neighboring buildings.





The neighborhood in Olde Towne has a quiet charm.













Does anybody out there want to open an ice cream shop? This one's been for sale since the storm.



We found our way back to the cookoff for another beer before heading home.



Once home I discovered one of my cats on the back porch who promptly took off when I started to water my herbs.





It was a beautiful day topped off with a viewing the "Super Moon".

eternal scuzzbucket

Who else but that bastard Rush Limbaugh. From gawker dot com at this link an excerpt:


A caller asked Limbaugh, "If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation, recycling, why did Mother Earth, Gaia if you will, hit them with this disaster?"

Limbaugh called this an "interesting question," and played a clip of ABC's Diane Sawyer reporting from a shelter in Japan. In the clip, Sawyer is surprised that the refugees in the shelter have maintained a recycling program. Limbaugh first mocked Sawyer, doing an impression of her and saying that "she sounds like she saw her husband for the first time in six months." He then turned to his caller's question.

"He's right," Limbaugh said. "They've given us the Prius. Even now, refugees are recycling their garbage." Here, he began to laugh, continuing, "and yet, Gaia levels them! Just wipes them out!"

And yet Gilbert Gottfried is the one who loses his job.

A Crown Jewel in New Orleans

It has been close to ten years since I ventured to City Park in New Orleans. Since then the park has recovered from Katrina and is looking as beautiful as she can. Hubby and I had business to do in "Kennah" and chose City Park to kill some time; we were happily surprised in the beauty that the park offers. If you're interested, this site Offers the history of the Park. I never knew it was once the site of a plantation.

Here are the pictures, in no particular order.

Click on pictures for larger versions.


the sundial




Popp's Bandstand


Called the "Colombier de Carol", this building is also called City Park Pigeonierre, or a dovecote.


This is the plaque for the Colombier . Designed and dedicated by former City Park President and New Orleans barrister Felix Dreyfous.

Speaking of signs and plaques, City Park has so many plaques throughout its 1,300 acres and you can find them and their history at this website.









There are so many bridges crossing the Lagoon at the Park. I fell in love with each and every one of them, as none of them are the same.




The Peristyle, built in 1907.



One of the lions outside the Peristyle


I spotted this very beauty at a ticket window just outside the kiddie playground.

After walking the length of the lagoon, we decided to cross the street into another fenced in portion of the park and were extremely happy to discover that it was the Bestoff Sculpture Garden!



A coworker told me about this garden several years ago and I'd been meaning to find it. Glad we did today. What a tremendous place to spend some time.

Described by goneworleans about dot com as follows:

It's a 5-acre garden under cypress and magnolia trees, as well as, centuries-old oak trees laden with Spanish moss, in the heart of City Park. It is beautifully landscaped. The garden contains several water features including a small cascading garden pool with stepping stones to cross. A lagoon that bisects the garden empties into two large basins, each containing a large sculpture. A sculpture pool cascades down into one of the lagoon basins. The lagoons are filled with fish and turtles. Herons and swans inhabit the area as well. Pathways wonder through the garden and lead to the larger sculptures. Because these paths were designed to preserve the extensive root patterns of the over 200 year-old live oak trees, they wonder through the garden in a design dictated by nature. Smaller sculptures are exhibited in the elliptical Sculpture Theater.

For a dollar you can obtain a guide to the sculptures, which I highly recommend.


Entitled "Mother and Child (1988) by Fernando Botero





Tree of Necklaces (reminded me of Mardi Gras) (2002) by Jean-Michel Othoniel


"Window and Ladder - Too Late for Help" by Leandro Erlich




This one is called "Monkeys" by Rona Pondick and it's really disturbing when you look closely.




"Travelin' Light" by Alison Saar



Pablo Casals' Obelisk (1983) by Arman







One of the strangest things we discovered was what appears to be a grave between the sculpture garden and the botanical garden.





We only could spend three hours at the park today, so we agreed that our next trip in two weeks we will visit the Botanical Gardens and the NOMA. Pictures to follow.