When I was summoned to jury duty in February the case I got assigned to was about three New York investment bankers who scrappily put together a “construction company” to come down and repair houses post the Federal Flood. The attorneys asked if anyone in the jury had a problem with this – HA HA HA HA. Really? Are you kidding me? I’ve been railing at Carpet Baggers pre-Katrina/Federal Flood and now this? Meanwhile last…
It’s threatening to clean us up but thus far we’ve been dry and the lagoon at City Park is getting pretty stinky, which makes me also wonder how they can have a fishing rodeo if the fish are about to have no habitat. Meanwhile Louisiana Irises are blooming everywhere – there is one that is magenta near the Dumaine Bridge. I had a mammogram today and the woman talked nonstop about my Newtons – she…
I signed up for District NOPD reports in real time and now I’m scratching my head. This right here reads like something out of the Wire which makes me wonder why they bothered to make Treme, when they could have just made Wire New Orleans: On March 27, 2011, at approximately 3:50 pm officers were dispatched to the 300 block of South Rocheblave Street to investigate an aggravated battery. Upon arrival the victim had been placed into an…
Monday started with this missive: LITANY AGAINST FEAR I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Here I am in the city where my Boston friend said you could marry a donut and no one would notice and I’m typing at the dining table while looking out at the bayou. This morning we woke early, early enough that the sun was only just peeking behind the houses on the other side of the bayou, and early enough to see across a little blonde toddler running and realizing it was our friend’s…
I went to a panel discussion yesterday on writing about family as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival and must say I think I learned more about writing about family from Tom and Rose, the play we saw last night that was a mash up of Williams’ intertwined relations with his disturbed sister and his use of her as character after character in his work. Williams called New Orleans the first city where the spirit…
The Tennessee Williams Festival started on Thursday and it is always one of my favorite festivals in the city – and this from a city whose festivals never quit. Yesterday morning I went to a panel discussion on one of my favorite authors, Walker Percy, and listened to three Southern writers discuss The Moviegoer. The feelings this all aroused was a watershed of my first wanting to write at the tender age of 20, my…
A friend forwarded this video to me about a revolution in education and yet the revolution is a throwback to an education system that worked that we then changed and institutionalized and silo’d ages and sometimes gender and lost all of this momentum. I went to see a woman talk about her life in Tibet and how children are educated by throwing everyone in the classroom together and the older kids help the younger kids…
I woke this morning to this out my front window: And this in the news: Syrian Troops Open Fire on Protesters in Several Cities Budget Impasse Increasing Risk of U.S. Shutdown Japan Encourages a Wider Evacuation From Reactor Area Hundreds of Thousands Flee Ivory Coast Crisis Catholic Order Reaches $166 Million Settlement With Sexual Abuse Victims
I signed up for the NOPD listing of crime in the 1st and 3rd district and I’m a little sad I did. I have received in the past couple of days two disturbing notices about two young men who died. Two separate incidences. They died not because of anything more stupid than they had guns. One had a gun and the other had a gun and they got in an argument and shot. Good grief!…