Metamorphoses

Mardi Gras Krewes

2006-02-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

I'd like to send a big shout-out to the Knights of Nemesis, the only St. Bernard Parish parade to roll this year. I don't doubt that most krewe members lost their homes to Katrina's flooding. St. Bernard was particularly hard-hit. I really admire their spirit.

Another Krewe I greatly admire this current carnival season is the Krewe of Mid-City. Mid-City is a neighborhood that borders Lakeview to the South, and was flooded by the same floodwall collapse on the 17th St. Canal that flooded Lakeview. The den where they stored their floats took on several feet of water, destroying much of the artwork on their floats. But, the water isn't going to keep Mid-City from rolling! With classic humor, the Krewe blue-tarped the damaged bottom sections of the floats.

Mid-City will be rolling during the day the Sunday before Mardi Gras. (Bacchus rolls that night).

Thank you to all the parades that will be rolling this year, despite all the hardships. You really embody the perservering spirit of New Orleans. You'll bring a lot of joy to children who haven't had much of that since August, and you'll bring hope to the rest of us that, come hell or high water, nothing can destroy what makes New Orleans (and the Greater New Orleans Area) great.

King Cakes, contd.

2006-02-16T06:08:00.000-08:00

I have more to say on the subject of King Cakes, apparently. I called my mom yesterday to complain about the lack of McKenzie's in my life. She and I decided that we would try to bake our own king cake, if we have the time when I go back home for Mardi Gras. A king cake is a brioche pastry, made in a ring. You put purple, green, and yellow (gold) granulated sugar on alternating sections. On the "corners" you put a maraschino cherry surrounded by round sprinklies.

Sounds pretty easy, huh? So why can't a single company other than McKenzie's seem to do it right? King Cakes do NOT require frosting on top. They do not need to be stuffed with cinammon, cream cheese, or even delicious raspberry filling. To whom should I complain about this tragic turn of events???

By the way, for those who don't know, McKenzie's ceased to exist long before the Corps of Engineers' inability to engineer flooded the city. McKenzie's, which is the best bakery EVER to exist in the whole wide world (and I'm not using hyperbole or exaggeration), was shut down by the Health Inspector. Something about rats and roaches, and outdated equipment.

You know what I have to say to that? I never got sick eating a McKenzie's delicacy, and I ate pounds of petit-fours, tons of donuts, chocolate fudge pecan turtles, KING CAKES, chocolate cakes, and meringue kisses like no other. Nobody I know got sick, either. And dammit, if it takes rats and roaches to make a McKenzie's king cake, then rats and roaches are GOOD, if not NECESSARY, for king cakes.

If that's the case, the king cake I'm intending to make with my mom is doomed from the get-go. We don't have rats and roaches in the house - we just have mold.

I wonder if that'll do?

My Thoughts on ONE BOARD

2006-02-16T05:19:00.000-08:00

There was a time when some boards in the city of New Orleans were manned by civic-minded men who didn't need or want to use their position to increase their political clout. That time is long past. Instead, we have board after board filled with political cronies who got their jobs by brown-nosing, nepotism ... anything BUT merit. We need reform. We need a lot of reform. We need it NOW.

So now, my uninformed, apolitical examination of ONE LEVEE BOARD. On the surface, it seems like a REALLY good idea. What could be better than replacing the panoply of self-congratulatory nincompoops with a single, organized panel of highly-qualified engineers, businessmen, statisticians, etc?

While I really like the idea of qualified people on the levee board with credentials more impressive and relevant than being 's spouse's 3rd cousin twice removed who has been ungainfully employed for decades, I don't like the idea of consolidation. Why, you might ask. It's very simple. If Orleans Parish has only one representative vote (or 2) on the board, they could always be out-voted by St. Bernard, St. Charles, Jefferson, The Plaquemines, St. Tammany, etc. We all know how little love the surrounding parishes have for Orleans. I'd hate to see my beloved city at their collective mercy.

Mind you, I'm not an expert. I'm not a politician. I'm not an engineer. I'm just a civic-minded student who doesn't want to lose her home in the next big storm, or the one after that. As such, I desperately want to see an end to the rampant and pervasive corruption that has plagued New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana pretty much since the area was settled (somehow, I suspect that we not only got super-corrupt explorers and settlers, but that they replaced corrupt Natives. I have NO facts to support this suspicion, but it just feels right). I also desperately want New Orleans to maintain, or more properly regain, its position in Louisiana and the U.S.

Leaving New Orleans subject to the whims of the surrounding parishes does NOT seem like a way to attain that goal. However, I don't have any solutions to offer, other than replacing the existing boards with competent people.

Why Lakeview is Better Than Anywhere Else

2006-02-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

Lakeview is the best place to live. Well, to be fair, it was the best place to live. Right now, it's not very nice, but it will be again - and soon!

Basically, Lakeview is my home, and I love it. Here's why!

Why Lakeview is Better than Old Metairie:
Lakeview has sidewalks! I went to highschool in Old Metairie, and while it's nice, THERE ARE NO SIDEWALKS! And sure, a lot of the Lakeview sidewalks were kinda rough, pitted, cratered ... but it's the thought that counts!

Why Lakeview is Better than The Garden District:
My friends who lived in the Garden District didn't get to ride their bikes around the neighborhood as kids. They all had big fences, and couldn't leave the yard. We Lakeview kids got to ride our bikes and rollerskate all over!

Why Lakeview is Better than Kenner:
Sure, Kenner has the airport, but Kenner isn't actually New Orleans. Lakeview is in New Orleans, so people from Lakeview can truthfully say when asked, "I'm from New Orleans." However much Lakeview may feel suburban in terms of the quality of life, it's a part of the City.

Why Lakeview is Better than Uptown in General:
We know our neighbors. The crime rate is lower. The grocery stores are better (I never liked Whole Foods that much - too crowded and too expensive). WE HAVE MORE SNO-BALL STANDS PER CAPITA! You feel safe pumping your gas.

Why Lakeview is Better than Baton Rouge:
Baton Rouge is fulf of traffic. The bars all close at 2 a.m. Tony Angello's restaurant is in Lakeview, not Baton Rouge. Russell's Marina Grill is in Lakeview, not Baton Rouge.

Why Lakeview is Better than Atlanta:
Did I say Baton Rouge traffic sucks? Atlanta traffic is even worse! Jimmy Carter Blvd. does not move, and the interstate near it does not move.

Why Lakeview is Better than Houston:
Houston has serious smog problems, that it shares with Baton Rouge. I've been to Houston, and I didn't see boulevards lined with oaks. There is a lot to do in Houston, but I've never heard people who moved away rhapsodizing about moving back. Lakeview is a generational thing - once you've lived here, you don't WANT to live elsewhere!

Why Lakeview is Better than Manhattan:
There's always parking in Lakeview, and you don't have to pay for it! No parking garages, no parking meters - just on and off-street parking as far as the eye can see.

Why Lakeview is Better than ANYWHERE ELSE:
The people, the places, the attitude - Lakeview is a truly unique area. It has the charm and safety of a suburb, while being IN a big city. It has the BEST restaurants - Tony Angello's, Reginelli's, Russell's, Lakeview Harbor - everything from fine dining to burger bars! The predominant architecture is beautiful - italianate villa-style homes with spanish tile roofs. Children can play outside - people know to be on the lookout for kids chasing balls into the street. Families live here for generations. When you leave, all you can think about is coming home.

Even if the rest of the city of New Orleans crumbles and falls, I have a feeling there will still be some of us trying to maintain a normal life at home in Lakeview.

That's why Lakeview is so special: it's HOME.

King Cakes

2006-02-14T07:21:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't written in a long time. Life's been busy, and I've been too disgusted at my local politicians' pandering and incompetence and George Bush's total wash regarding Louisiana to write anything civil.

However, I have a nice little rant that only true New Orleanians will understand.

I WANT A MCKENZIE'S KING CAKE NOW, DAMMIT!!!!!!

Haydel's isn't good enough. Neither is Randazzo's. Don't get me started on Winn Dixie or Wal-Mart. The only place that makes a nice, plain, unfrosted, unfilled kingcake is McKenzie's. Or, should I say "was." I haven't bought a king cake since McKenzie's was shut down back when I was in Highschool. NOBODY makes a classic king cake. They all frost them, or fill them, or otherwise ruin them.

In the process of bringing back New Orleans, they should bring back McKenzie's.

There.

Greetings from the Chocolate City

2006-01-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

I've spent almost 2 days mulling over how to properly address Ray Nagin's speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I don't feel that I'm in any position to comment on the "Chocolate City" aspects of that speech. I also don't feel like dissecting Nagin's back-pedalling psuedo mea culpa "apologies" where he tried to explain that he didn't mean anything racial when he said that God intended New Orleans to be a majority-black city. Hey Ray, I know you aren't reading this, but if you were, let me put it plainly - THE LAST THING NEW ORLEANS NEEDS IS MORE DIVISIVENESS!

The first things we need are hard working people and money.

What left me shaking in awe-struck horror was the sheer and utter folly of attacking Bush's Iraq policy. The war in Iraq is Bush's political Achilles' Heel, and he's very sensitive about it. He's also a VERY religious man. Whatever your beliefs about the war, give this a thought: Is it really wise to say that God is mad at the U.S. for Bush's Iraq policy WHEN WE AS A CITY ARE TRYING TO GET BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR LEVEE REPAIR AND RECOVERY EFFORTS FROM THAT SAME FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HEADED BY THAT SAME PRESIDENT?!?!

It's one thing for Nagin to have committed political suicide by further polarizing a city that seems ready to tear itself apart with racial tension. It's yet another thing to further antagonize the only people in a position to give us the money and levee protection we need.

Sure, Nagin moved his family to Dallas, and will doubtless be joining them there when he fails in his doomed bid for re-election. However, there are many of us counting on the federal government to repair the levees to AT LEAST the level of protection we were promised by the federal government so many decades ago. There are people who are devoted to rebuilding their lives IN NEW ORLEANS.

On the other hand, if Nagin does get re-elected, what does that say about us as a city?

On a postscript, I have never considered New Orleans to be a Chocolate City. If I had to choose a candy to match New Orleans, it would be Rocky Road, without a doubt. Just take a drive through the back streets of Lakeview (look out for downed trees and the occasional collapsed family home in the road), and you'll see what I mean.

Moratorium

2006-01-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

This is a lesson in how to kill a city.

Order a moratorium on issuing building permits for flooded areas. It's been almost 5 months since the storm. Another 4 months before people could begin/resume the rebuilding process would take us to 9 months after the storm. How many people can afford to be homeless that long? How many people's relatives will put up with them so much longer? This is penalizing property owners. This is preventing neighborhoods from recovering. The longer people are kept by our own inefficient, corrupt, and obviously idiotic government OUT OF THEIR OWN HOMES, the less likely they are to return.

No matter how long they illegally postpone our elections, these fools and dirtbags will be out of office and hopefully out of a job. For good. They are proving themselves time and again to be incompetent on EVERY level.

I used to think it was a joke when people in Lakeview said they wanted to secede from Orleans Parish, ostensibly to join up with Jefferson Parish. Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe we should join Mississippi. Their local officials seem very competent, and concerned with getting people home safely, and helping them cut through red tape, rather than creating more red tape.

Natural(?) Disasters

2006-01-10T05:15:00.000-08:00

For those who think New Orleans is not worth re-building, here's a challenge: Name me a place to live that does not have a high risk of disaster.

If you live in the hills in California, you get mudslides and earthquakes. If you live out west, you get wildfires every year. The Florida peninsula gets far more hurricane hits than the Louisiana coast. The midwest is troubled by more than their fair share of tornados. The northwest has volcanoes, as does Hawaii. New England has Teddy Kennedy driving poor little babysitters off bridges, and ice storms. The Carolinas get hurricanes.

Then, there's the rest of the world. North Africa has droughts. Sub-Saharan Africa has Ebola, Marburg, etc. There is a monsoon season in the Pacific. The Middle East has constant human violence to compliment the sandstorms. Siberia is virtually uninhabitable most of the year, as is Antarctica. China is already so overpopulated it's scary. India and Pakistan have earthquakes. There's a hole in the ozone layer directly over New Zealand, which may or may not be responsible for the proliferation of male sheep that refuse to reproduce with female sheep.

I don't know what's wrong with Australia. Maybe we should move humanity out of all these dangerous places, and re-settle there? After all, if we shouldn't re-build New Orleans, which floods badly only once every 40 or so years, why should we re-build in all these areas that are plagued with annual or semi-annual disasters?

the February Elections

2006-01-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

here's the deal on the february elections: They have been postponed, ostensibly until april. Many of the voting stations got flooded, including both in my neighborhood. I fail to see why they can't just get some election commissioners, then make us all vote absentee, wherever we are, even if we're in the city. That seems a better solution than postponing the elections (which keeps the numbskulls responsible for so much of the problem/tragic situation in power even longer, which is REPREHENSIBLE!), but what do I know?

I've voted absentee many times, and it is simple and fast. Standing in line at the polls takes longer, and has a greater risk of sunburn!

Think Anyone in Congress Will Suggest Not Rebuilding There?

2006-01-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

Apparently, some little California town has been inundated in rapidly rising river water. I'm waiting, but not holding my breath, for some blowhard in the Senate to get up and say that community should not be rebuilt.

Shoot, nobody suggested the Mississippi Gulf Coast not be rebuilt after Katrina literally flattened the area. The only place that seems to warrant such rancor is New Orleans.

Here are a couple of facts to remember about the flooding in New Orleans vs. the flooding in other communities. New Orleans East and the Lower 9 both flooded during Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Gentilly flooded as well, but not so catastrophically. The pumps in the Lower 9 have to run all day, every day, regardless of whether or not it's raining, because that area is not a former swamp - it is still a swamp. The area, sadly, would have experienced a great deal of flooding (2-3 feet is my best guess based on experience) in the low-lying parts, but nothing so catastrophic as was seen when the levee on the industrial canal fialed. New Orleans East is very similar. Gentilly and Lakeview are pumped-in land, with many areas over 10 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. Lakeview experienced a little flooding in the streets during Betsy, but all the houses are raised, so there was no real damage. I know this because I'm a 4th generation Lakeview resident. My mother and grandmother did not evacuate for Betsy, and recall vividly driving through water on the streets but not seeing it rise into homes and businesses.

Here's the clincher - THERE WAS NO FLOODWALL ON THE 17th STREET CANAL DURING BETSY. That floodwall, as I've pointed out so many times, was built during my very brief lifetime. It was built in the 1980's - less than 30 years ago.

So, why does a neighborhood flood only after flood protection measures are taken? That points to human error, not to a need to abandon a city.

There is one more thing that really pisses me off. People are complaining that New Orleans is getting so much more press than the MS coast where Katrina actually hit, and where unprotected homes were left flat. My great-aunt Noel lost her home in Pass Christian to the tidal surge - nothing but the steps remained to show there was ever a home there. NOBODY is trying to deny the complete and total devastation is MS or in western LA caused by Rita. There are many reasons for the news media to focus on New Orleans that have nothing to do with "us suffering more than them."

Why New Orleans Matters:
1. The Port of New Orleans is the 4th-busiest port in the country. Most of the grain, and much of the oil and gas come through New Orleans. Next time you go fill up your car at the station, note how much more expensive gas is than it was on August 28, 2005. This is because of the destruction of offshore drilling platforms in LOUISIANA waters, and because the Port of New Orleans is operating at less than 50% capacity even 4 months after Katrina.

2. New Orleans has an international reputation. When travelling abroad, people from all over LA say they're from New Orleans. You wanna know why? Nobody outside the Central-South-Eastern U.S. has heard of Boutte, Kenner, Chalmette, Slidell, etc. It's not that those communities are not extremely important, or that they aren't populated with some wonderful people. They just aren't very well-known. New Orleans is famous for its food, and for that strange celebration where tourists from all over the world come to flash their boobies in return for cheap plastic beads from Accent Annex. Ya know, Mardi Gras?

3. We're noisy and obnoxious. We loot big appliances and TVs, dragging them through waist-deep water to our homes that don't have electricity. We complain incessantly about everything. We protest. We riot. We elect utterly incompetent nincompoops who steal us blind. We have a majority poor, majority under-educated population. We have people who truly believe the levees were bombed, not just poorly constructed by a bunch of civil engineers who apparently can't read their own memos. We rape, burn, pillage, and shoot at helicopters. At least that's how we've been portrayed by the news media. Tell me this, MS residents - do you want to be so corrupt and inane that you get the national and international attention? I didn't think so!

4. We keep finding MORE corruption, MORE lies, and MORE hard-headed idiots.

5. HOW MANY ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS PROJECTS ARE IN YOUR AREA? Think about it - what happened to us could easily happen to you.

6. There But For the Grace of God Go I - aren't you glad you aren't from New Orleans? You can sit back and watch us make fools of ourselves, laugh at our blame-Bush politicians who left hundreds of busses to drown and didn't put food in the evacuation centers, and roll in the aisles watching us try to rebuild. MS and AL don't have the corruption or stupidity, apparently. They're no fun to watch.

In Other Words ...

All this media attention on New Orleans is just pointing out how incompetent WE are. MS and AL should be PROUD their officials worked so hard and so well, and that their citizens didn't see the destruction of a major urban center as a chance to destroy everything they saw.

A Christmas Miracle (posted way late)

2006-01-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well, on Dec. 22, 2005, I got a phone call from a lady named Gina in response to the petfinder ad about Buddie the Katrina Kitty. It turns out that Buddie is really Kitty, and belongs to a mom and her 2 young daughters. They lived in Lakeview almost 2 miles from where we found Kitty! Sadly, Kitty won't be able to move back with her family any time soon - they lost their home, and are living in a no-pets apartment in Mandeville. But, they knew Kitty was safe for Christmas!

Tropical Storm Zeta?!

2005-12-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

Words are not enough to describe ... if I never hear the word "hurricane" again, I'll be a much happier woman.

This Does Not Mean I Don't Care

2005-12-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

I think it's terrible when the government seizes private property and hands it over to a developer based on an arbitrary determination of blight. The Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London angered me beyond belief. Property rights were thrown out of the window.

That being said, I have no problem whatsoever with the city taking down "red-tagged" homes in the flooded areas that have been determined to be a hazard to the public health. These are houses that have such significant structural damage that they cannot be repaired. They will have to be torn down. Everyone I know whose house has been red-tagged is not angry. They are grateful. This spares them the amazing expense of tearing down the house and clearing the lot so they can build something new. I know people who want nothing more at this point than to have their homes red-tagged, to save them some money, and a lot of time and heartache.

It's not like the city condemned and seized the lots by red-tagging the homes. The property owners still own the land. They're spared the expense of the tear-down and the greater expense of clearing the property. They are then free to do whatever they want with their land. IT IS STILL THEIR LAND!

So, why the protest? Some of the homeowners cannot be reached at this time, so they will not know that their homes have been condemned and taken down. It would be shocking to return home, and discover your home is gone. However, I've entered many flooded homes, and I can't imagine the shock of a cleared lot could be much more shocking than total destruction.

The thing to remember is that the red-tagged homes are not now habitable, and because of serious structural damage, it is inconceivable that they would ever be habitable again. People could NOT safely live in the red-tagged homes, no matter how much bleach they brought home with them.

So, why the protest? I can't help but notice that almost all of the protest comes from people whose homes were not slated for demolition. How about we ask people who saw their homes lifted off the slab and moved 7 inches to the right, or people with 2 inch gaps in their brick wall due to some terrible structural change if they'd like the city to pay for the demolition of their dangerous homes and clearing of their lots, thus allowing them to start over?

Apparently the VA Corps of Engineers Was Brighter Than The Fellas We Got

2005-12-30T06:37:00.000-08:00

Gee, who would have thunk that Lakeview has really really bad soil? All you have to do is drive down West End Blvd. from I-10 to the Lake, and you see how houses on pilings lean several directions at once. The 17th St. Canal separates Lakeview from Metairie, ya know? My only guess for how this happened is the "engineers" never drove through the neighborhood in which construction of a floodwall was to be attempted.

So, a memo that pointed out that our soil conditions might not be optimal was ignored. Ignored. Scientific data, and a blantantly observable soil problem were ignored by the people in whose hands the safety of an entire city was placed. A recommendation was ignored. You know what word shares the same based as "ignored"? IGNORANT.

From the time I found out the floodwall busted, I've been searching for the cause. My neighborhood and my livelihood flooded. Lakeview did NOT flood from Betsy, decades before the floodwall that failed was constructed.

At first, we all thought it might be a barge. After all, the CoE promised us that we had Cat 3 levee protection, and by the time Katrina hit northern New Orleans where Lakeview and the floodwall are, she was at most a moderate 3. Cat 3 levees couldn't be breached by a Cat 3 storm, right?

Now, it's becoming more and more obvious that the CoE made a bunch of really stupid decisions regarding pilings, meaning we probably had minimal Cat 1 levees or something akin - not what the federal government wanted, and not what we were promised.

Why the HELL did they ignore the memo? It's infuriating. People died as a result of some civil engineer's decision to ignore the obvious! (They should have left, but that's another matter).

Anywho, Lakeview is coming back. The Smith-Lupo office building is open and the tenants are back in business. Lakeview Fine Foods and Robert's Fresh Market will re-open within 6 months. People are living in their 2nd floors and in trailers on their lots, many using generators and without heat. Gentilly is populated by a similarly pioneering sort of people, and it will be back, as well. Mt. Carmel, the flooded Catholic girls' school, is re-opening on January 17. St. Dominic's Catholic Church is open and holds several services a week, despite not having heat or a/c. There are 400+ of the devoted at each service.

People are gutting their homes on their own. People are rebuilding on their own. FEMA isn't doing it for us. People are hemorhaging money they don't really have to bring back a neighborhood. There is nothing like watching people throw everything they are into bringing back what they love. The city won't tell us anything about our future, but we're willing to do the work to save our neighborhood, even with the threat of being forced out by the city.

I am 4th Generation Lakeview. My great-grandparents lived in Lakeview, as did my grandparents, my mother, and me. I will return to my neighborhood. If I have children, I'll raise them in Lakeview. It is a family neighborhood. It is a safe neighborhood. Kids can ride their bikes with minimal supervision. You know your neighbors, and you can count on them. We've helped each other come back, and will continue doing so.

All of this was nearly destroyed by some asswipe ignoring a memo and obvious signs of soil deficiency. Scary, isn't it? But we're back. It takes more than a lot of water, mold, and destruction to keep us down.

Well, isn't that special?

2005-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1133336859287360.xml

Apparently, my neighborhood was "doomed." I remember when they were constructing the floodwall that failed, and I'm only 23. The thing was designed to fail at predictable storm surge heights. I'm absolutely sickened. My neighborhood, and the rest of the city of New Orleans, was deemed expendable by the contractors, the Army Corps of Engineers and every single person who saw their flawed plans and did not protest.

I hold each and every one of those people personally responsible for every life lost, every home destroyed, and every survivor's tale of hardship, pain, and loss. The guilt should haunt them to their graves.

The Corps outright lied to us. They said the pilings were over 17' deep. They were apparently only 10' deep. That's less depth than the height of the floodwall. This goes beyond mere negligence. This is reckless disregard for human life. We all know what that means, right? Yeah. It means absolutely nothing. Even criminal liability does not restore that which was lost.

However, I strongly doubt if they feel any guilt. After all, they didn't lose anything, and they won't lose anything. The 17th St. Canal levee was for flood prevention, not for navigation, so the Corps has absolute sovereign immunity from suit. Even if some engineer said, "Hey, let's flood this neighborhood and kill a whole bunch of people!" the Corps has immunity from suit.

Those responsible are laughing all the way to the bank. We can't touch them.

Law Students, Petitions, and Corndog Vending Machines

2005-11-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

The LSU Law School's SBA (student bar assc.) president sent out an inappropriate e-mail, which was found to be offensive by the majority of the student body. After a lot of closed and open door meetings, a news conference, and a public apology, there are some students and faculty members calling for his resignation. Others are calling for him to be thrown out of office. Still others think it should be left up to him.

I have no interest in discussing my views on the matter. Suffice to say that I know how difficult it is to balance the first amendment with anything else.

Basically, the situation is this. The groups with opposing view points have put up petitions in the student lounge for concerned law students to sign. Students on all sides are getting frustrated over how long this has gone on, and how much the law school's name is getting dragged through the mud. So, some students have put up their own petition.

The student body has spoken! We want a corndog vending machine in the student lounge! We want to have options, like mustard, ketchup, cheese, and relish!

You Know You're From Lakeview If ...

2005-11-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

The following was written by a Baton Rouge architect who was raised in Lakeview and who has spent a great deal of time in the neighborhood in recent months helping his parents and his in-laws salvage whatever can be saved from their flooded Lakeview homes. The author’s name is J. Clifford Grout, III. ..........

YOU MIGHT BE A LAKEVIEW RESIDENT IF………(With apologies to Mr. J. Foxworthy)

You bring bottled water and some hand sanitizer as a gift when visiting your neighbor.

You can identify more than more than a dozen types of mold on sight.

You measure the contents of your house in “wheelbarrows.”

You know by sight how many sections of the Picayune it will take to wrap a set of muddy china.

You can ask for your favorite MRE meals by their meal number.

You know the difference between an N-95 and an N-100 respirator.

I use N-95, myself. It's mold-filtering.

You think you're an expert on levee design.

apparently we know more than the f***ing engineers who built them!

The horn on the roving Red Cross van makes your mouth water.

You drive by the house on West End Boulevard with the blue tile roof, just to see if it had roof damage.

It did, and more's the shame.

You have ever used the term “debris pile” when giving directions to your house.

You know how to say “Sorry, not hiring” in Spanish.

No tengo trabajo para ti. Pero, creo que hay mucho trabajo alla, cerca de la basura!

You love the sound of chain saws in the morning.

You look forward to seeing all of the yard signs at Canal and Harrison, just for the “splash" of color.

You have your insurance adjustor on your cell phone speed-dial.

You are used to helicopters flying 50 feet above your house.

You know the menu at New Orleans Hamburgers by heart.

You know what channel all of the New Orleans TV stations are on in Baton Rouge.

You cry every time you pass Mr. Frank’s Sno-balls.

You’re glad to see a New York State Trooper in the neighborhbood.

you know he isn't going to loot your house when he sees you leaving

You ask visitors, “Have you had your shots?”

You pray daily that the duct tape on your refrigerator will hold until you can get it out to the street.

Ours held all the way to the street. Once on the street, someone opened it, apparently to see if it was worth saving. Trust me, it was not. I saved my parents' small fridge, which took 6 gallons of bleach, 3 1/2 hours, 5 rolls of paper towels, and a screwdriver to scrape off the maggots.

You know who said “Don’t believe any false rumors unless you hear them from me.” (Consider yourself a native if you were living in Lakeview when he said it.)

Some quotes you just never forget!

Do We Really Wonder Why The Feds Don't Trust Us With Money

2005-11-17T05:54:00.000-08:00

With the Feds breathing down our necks and threatening not to give Louisiana the money it so desperately needs to rebuild, one would think this would be the one time in the history of Louisiana politics that the politicians would keep their greedy little hands out of the till. Anyone who thought this is wrong. Dead wrong.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1132213777230470.xml

I'd like to especially thank Congressman Impastato of St. Tammany Parish for proving to the federal government that Louisiana politicians and the Louisiana political process are too corrupted to save. I'm sure that he thinks his little $85,000 kickback on clean-up following Katrina is No Big Deal. It's not like he was the one who didn't ever really order a mandatory evacuation and then failed to provide adequate supplies to the people he trapped in the Superdome and the Convention Center - that was New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. It's not like he's the one who told the pump workers to go home, causing needless flooding in Jefferson Parish - that was Ray Broussard. It's not like he was caught on TV by that bastion of liberalism, CNN, saying "maybe I should have called for troops days ago." That was Louisiana's weeping and ineffectual Governor Kathleen Blanco.

However, it is a big deal. Just because St. Tammany Parish is currently the model for how to get back in shape after a massive disaster does not mean that it does not suffer the corruption that is apparently the status quo in Louisiana.

I'm starting to think some real good can come out of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While people always laughed off our venal politicians and how readily they lapped at the trough of corruption, thinking that was a part of what makes Louisiana unique and special, this might change. We have seen first hand what electing people other states wouldn't trust to water their flowers does in a disaster. This was no unprecedented disaster. The Times-Picayune runs its hurrican special "Washing Away" every year. Everything that happened was predicted. If something is predicted, shouldn't there be a contingency plan in place?

Oh yeah, there was. Until it was taken off the City of New Orleans website, you could read it and weep at how NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE on that list was done. People, real people with families and people who cared about them, died because of our corrupt politicians.

Everyone who knows me knows that I support as little federal government interference as is possible. However, that assumes that the states are capable of handling their own messes. Louisiana has proven itself incapable thereof. Until we clean house, tearing down the soap boxes of our vitriole-spewing incompetent thieves (I am referring to Louisiana politicians on EVERY level here), the federal government should not trust us with the funds we need to return to some semblance of normalcy, or whatever it is that passes there for in South Louisiana.

Many thanks, Mr. Impastato. You have made Louisiana a laughingstock, yet again.

Something You Didn't Know About Lawyers

2005-11-16T05:32:00.000-08:00

What do you think of when you hear the word "lawyer"? Images of sharks, crocodiles, and criminals may come to mind. However, what I am willing to bet does not come to mind is the term "not potty-trained."

Since starting law school in August, 2004, I have learned many things about lawyers. Doubtless the most unexpected thing is the fact that law students and law professors do not know how to use a toilet! Due to this potty-training shortcoming (doubtless the parents' fault, but by the time we're old enough to be in law school, the prescriptive period on suits against parents for childhood slights has run), the law school has installed automatically-flushing toilets.

Wouldn't you think that having self-flush toilets with sensors to tell when your booty is no longer on the potty would fix the problem? If you said yes, you'd be wrong. This morning when I went to the bathroom, each toilet in the 1st floor women's room had toilet paper somewhere on the seat. It is apparently too hard for these people to put the toilet paper in the automatically-flushing toilet.

So, if you wanted another reason to hate lawyers, here you go: LAWYERS ARE NOT POTTY-TRAINED!

People Who Don't Know Anything But Can't Shut Their Yaps

2005-11-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

The past 2 Sundays, I watched "Category 7: The End of the World." It was on one of the networks, but I can't remember which - Channel 7 on Baton Rouge Cable. That's the station that has CSI: also, if that helps. ANYWHO, this was about the stupidest movie ever made. It made The Day After Tomorrow look like a brilliant piece of scientific cinematic perfection.

The first thing that royally pisses me off came at the end of the 2nd night of this debacle was the idea that by lowering the teperature of the city just over a degree that these people could make an enormous category 5 hurricane simply dissipate. You want to know what happens when a cat 5 hurricane weakens? Meet Katrina. Meet Rita. Those were absolutely enormous, perfect category 5 storms that weakened significantly before hitting land - one as a 4, and the other as a 3. Go down to Calcasieu or The Plaquemines if you want to know what "weakened" hurricane can do. They do NOT dissipate, and leave behind brilliant, blue skies as soon as the temperature drops.

Now that I've spoiled the ending for you (not that it wasn't already as rotten and maggot-filled as our refrigerator after 7 weeks without power), let me tell you some more adorable tidbits. Never you mind the hordes of people miraculously outrunning Category 6 tornadoes. How about a little look at the science behind the movie?

Apparently, hurricanes can gain and maintain strength over land in this writer's mind. Never mind the lack of water to draw up into itself to keep regenerating. Additionally, the super-strength of hurricanes was blamed on global warming - specifically caused by the pollution-exuding factories owned by the President, a Dick Cheney look-alike. Never you mind that most of the scientists I've talked to (and I know a lot) say that one of the symptoms of global warming is not an increase in temperature in the Atlantic, but is actually a subtle decrease in temperature in the Atlantic, due to run-off from melty ice-caps. A decrease in the ocean's temperature would weaken the strength of hurricanes, which grow into monsters only over the warmest of warm water. Basically, global warming would explain the opposite of a hurricane season like ours this year, or could explain a similar season after the ice caps had melted.

Basically, it was a waste of 4 hours. I can sit through the very worst disaster movies - 10.5 which was about a hidden monster-fault in California, Dante's Peak which was about a dog escaping a giant volcanic eruption, Night of the Twisters which was the made-for-TV version of the inane blockbuster Twister (another favourite, by the way), Volcano which was a little like Dante's Peak only not really, Earthquake in New York which was SO much fun to mock, etc. I was even able to sit through the aforementioned The Day After Tomorrow twice in a row!

However, I have never seen such a ham-handed piece of tripe (hehe, see, I punned!) that utilized every cliche to try to discredit the current regime, while doing nothing more than discrediting itself. There are a lot of things that can be said against President Bush and his staff, but this just isn't one of them. Making up really bad fake science to create hysteria isn't such a good idea. I've noticed that in the face of tragedy and hysteria, the American public seems to turn more to the pro-active than the whiners.

Anyway, another HUGE problem I had with this movie was the way it encouraged making FEMA a first responder. That's all well and good in Washington, DC, where it's headquartered, but how the hell are they supposed to have things ready 3 days before rather than after a disaster if they aren't even there? You'd need to have a huge FEMA building fully staffed in every state. I, for one, would hate to pay for that, especially when there are state officials already being paid to do that! FEMA is not a first responder. Making it a first responder just increases the power of the federal government, creates more expensive and bloated bureaucracies, and weakens the positions of the states.

It's just so blatant where the sentiments of the media and the glitterati lie. They showed the Dick Cheney look-alike getting sucked up into a maelstrom through the White House roof, for pete's sake! I can easily see dissenting on political grounds, but wishing death on a person -> that doesn't seem very "progressive" to me.

Basically, I was looking forward to a nice, diverting little disaster flick of the sort I enjoy most profoundly. Instead, I sat bug-eyed in shock through 4 hours of idiocy, wondering just how far they would go, and just how much science they'd ignore or outright invent.

If you think the Bush regime is akin to Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and Pol Pot, you'll probably like this movie. If you blame global warming for your most recent sunburn instead of blaming yourself for sitting outside in the sun for 6 hours without sunscreen, you'll love this movie. If you believe Kanye West that "Bush hates black people" or believe Louis Farrakhan that "they" blew the levees in the Lower 9th Ward, and that the failures of the London Canal and 17th St. canals were due to the vibrations from those explosions, then this is certainly the movie for you. It's rife with conspiracy theories.

However, if you just want a cold, hard, realistic look at what a hurricane can do to a woefully unprepared and criminally negligent city, drive through St. Bernard. Take a boat through what used to be lower Plaquemines parish. Dodge the houses that were lifted off their slabs in Lakeview and the 9th Ward. Don't capitalize on the misery and loss of life with one of the worst movies ever made (this was worse than Bio-Dome!).

what was that about "NO" PD?

2005-11-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

As always, this should come as little shock to those who are familiar with the now-world-famous NOpd.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3456818

Basically, here's the scoop. There are many fine, upstanding members of the New Orleans police department. However, their good works are constanly overshadowed by the over-prevalence of corruption, petty criminality, conspiracy, and serious felonies including cold-blooded murder for hire. Who remembers Antoinette Frank, Len Davis, the police officer who stole my $20 as 'evidence' when my car was broken into? It's impossible to forget the atrocities committed by those we pay to protect us. Who protects us from them? I say we should be glad and grateful that there is still a National Guard presence in New orleans. Without them, we would have been robbed blind, not only by the opportunistic leeches you'd expect, but also by the police themselves.

Then again, just by abandoning their posts, they tacitly helped the other criminals to rob, maim, and kill.

Just file this under yet another reason I love the military.

2005-11-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

Meet Marcus Aurelius!

Not Surprised, No, I'm Not Surprised in the Least

2005-11-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

No shock here, but when Prince Charles and his new horse, er, new wife toured flood damaged New Orleans, they quite conspicuously missed viewing MY flood damaged neighborhood. Yes, they viewed some flood damage, but they missed the area of cute little stucco and brick houses with spanish tile roofs. They missed the mountain of mold-spewing garbage that is all that remains of people's homes that towers several stories between West End Blvd. and Pontchartrain Blvd. They missed the dust-cloud that covers a once vibrant family neighborhood. They missed seeing the two feet of papier-mache pulp that used to be the books in the New Orleans Robert E. Smith Branch Public Library. If I were surprised at their omission, I'm sure I'd be insulted. However, since Katrina left my beloved neighborhood flooded and destroyed, I've grown used to being overlooked. I've grown accustomed to people not knowing about Lakeview. Lakeview isn't a suburb, people! 70124 is New Orleans proper, within the city limits. It is one of the major tax bases of New Orleans, and if it does not get back to what it was sooner rather than later, all the politicians who apparently have forgotten the neighborhood existed or who choose to ignore the plight of the residents who ARE Lakeview more than the houses or family-owned stores will find themselves unable to be paid by the city. Fancy that - perhaps the hardest-working neighborhood in the city (far from the richest, but equally far from impoverishment) disappears, and the tax base will dry up with it! Talk about biting the hand that literally feeds you!

This past weekend, I visited my cousin George, his fiancee Alexis, their 5 kitties, and Alexis' dad. I got to see Uptown. With the exception of downed tree limbs and a beautiful Queen Anne house whose facade collapsed onto its wrap-around porch, you'd never think a storm hit. There was no foul-smelling dust. Mud was not visible. Mold, if there, was invisible. They had cable, and internet, even! Lakeshore may have been the untouched island of Lakeview, but Uptown is the untouched gem of the city! Block after block of perfection!

In sad news, the C-Note Lounge on St. Charles Ave. burned on Saturday night. I learned of another person who I knew who didn't survive the storm.

In happier news, I get to kitten-sit Marcus Aurelius, a teacup-size black kitten found in East Lakeshore after Katrina and Rita. He's only about 4-5 weeks old, so his mother was pregnant during the storms. My friend Ginger took him in, but her allergies are preventing her from keeping him. If you know anybody who needs a new little friend, let me know. I frankly don't have room for the little angel, otherwise he'd be mine.

Right.

Levee Design Flaws Make Front Page of The Advocate

2005-11-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

Baton Rouge's local newspaper, despite being one of the worst-edited papers I've ever seen, finally got it right. Right below a full-color photo of the Lakeview homes flattened, mauled, and pummeled by the waters surging through the breach in the 17th St. Canal's levee floodwall, is the story titled "Report to Congress Finds Levee Design Flaws." Even the Corps is finally admitting that "the engineers who designed the floodwalls that collapsed during Hurricane Katrina did not fully consider the porousness of the Louisiana soil ..."

I wonder if those engineers ever took a drive through Lakeview to see the tip-tilted houses?

Link:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/110205/new_levee001.shtml

The Sad(?) Tale of Buddy

2005-11-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

After Katrina passed, one of my biggest concerns was getting back to New Orleans to check on my parents' semi-feral black alley cat, Sweet Baby. I was not able to do so due to the rampant criminality and high waters surrounding my neighborhood on every side until the week of Hurricane Rita.

Sweet Baby was there, but fully feral by that point. He came to get the food I put out for him, but would not let me near him. There were dead, eaten birds littering the neighborhood. Sweet was fat and happy, but antisocial. This continued every weekend that I made it down, which was, incidentally, every weekend.

Two weeks ago, I discovered that Sweet had a new little friend. A small, black and white cat had taken up residence in and around the carport, and Sweet tolerated this new cat. Sweet tolerated this new cat eating from his food bowl, even. The new cat let me closer than Sweet would, but still wouldn't make physical contact.

Then, on October 23, my parents finally came home. Within 3 days, my dad had Sweet curling up on his lap again. However, my dad could not get near the little black and white cat who was always present.

When I went down to New Orleans last weekend, I got to know Sweet's little buddy very well. I thought it was a neutered male on first glance, and started calling "him" Little Buddy. "He" always responded to the "Buddy" part, so that became his name. Then, I discovered that "he" was a she! Sweet didn't have a little buddy - he had a girlfriend! Sweet's been neutered for about 8 years now, but he seems genuinely fond of the little refugee. By the time I realized her gender, she was responding with purrs to the name Buddy. Oops!

We know nothing about Buddy's history. She appears to be young, but full grown. She's so affectionate and vocal that it's hard to believe she's a former feral cat like Sweet, who is truly silent at all times, though not mute. We don't know what shots she's had, or if she's spayed. We don't know if her owners abandoned her, or are searching for her like we searched for Sweet. I hope someone out there loves her at least as much as we already do.

I hope Buddy's family comes looking for her. My dad has talked to everyone in the neighborhood about Buddy, but nobody remembers seeing her before Katrina hit. She could be one of the legendary Lakeview cats who travelled across Robert E. Lee Blvd. to our little island of dry land, in which case she has no family. She could have been abandoned by one of the families that never intends to return and has given her up for dead. Of course, the best thing for Buddy would be getting reunited with a loving family. Short of that, we have no choice but to keep feeding her and loving her. Eventually, we'll have to take her to the vet - an added expense we definitely don't need, but won't be able to avoid if nobody comes looking for the little love-muffin. When Fallon (my 16-year-old who is in very poor health) passes on, I might have to take Buddy up to live here with me, Bob, Binky (Rebecca) and Maggie-the-Dog. I don't know how Sweet would take it, though! He's never had a cat-friend before!

The Ignored Victims of Katrina (already posted at Humid City)

2005-11-01T12:24:00.000-08:00

I've noticed an appalling lack of concern for certain victims of Katrina. Very little attention is being paid to the plight of Lakeview, and therefore very little is being done to help out the Lakeview residents (I'd like to point out that a similar argument as this can be made about St. Bernard Parish and The Plaquemines, but I don't have as much personal experience with the situation in The Parish to write effectively on their behalf).

The majority of Lakeview residents are hard-working middle class families with their 2.3 children enrolled in Catholic schools (most Lakeview girls I know went to Dominican or Mt. Carmel, and the boys went to the male counterparts thereof). I'm painting the neighborhood with a broad brush here - there was also a VERY large elderly population, many of whom either drowned or died in the evacuation. The majority of Lakeview residents don't need exactly the same type of assistance as the majority of residents of the lower 9th.

The news has been full of images of the houses lifted off their foundations and moved into the street, or crushed flat - in the 9th Ward. Take a drive in Lakeview, west of Fleur de Lis, and tell me that you don't see IDENTICAL devastation. People's things were destroyed, and MANY lives were lost. For a small listing of those who perished, go to http://www.lakeviewcivic.org/ and click on the memorial link.

Even so, despite the utter devastation (I've posted pictures in the past, and will post more if such is necessary to make my point), Lakeview is positively teeming with people. The people aren't the buses and caravans of politicians, who somehow managed to skip our neighborhood in their tour of N.O. East and The 9th Ward. These are the residents of Lakeview, coming back to rebuild.

And herein lies the problem. Here we have literally hundreds of people gutting their houses (I've helped tear out plaster and sheetrock - it's very easy to do when the materials have sat in 8+ feet of water of over 2 weeks), but then not being able to take the next step. Why can't they go any further? The city won't tell them what they can and cannot do! People whose homes are structurally sound and constructed within the requirements of the floodplain map have gotten no answers to their questions about the possibility of new building codes. Must the homes be raised? Must the lots themselves be raised? The majority of Lakeview is approximately 5 feet below sea level. People were required to build their houses up to 2 1/2 feet below sea level. They still got 8, 12, even 20 feet of water in their homes. Many people want to re-build houses over above-ground basement/garage combos, but the current zoning laws would make that very difficult for many reasons. Hell, we don't even know if the government's going to do that gawdawful usufruct project in our neighborhood.

It's not for lack of trying that we lack answers to the most fundamental of questions. There have been several Lakeview residents' meetings. The mayor and various other politicians have been invited to come to them to speak to us and try to answer some of our questions. Our own councilman, Jay Batt, failed to show up to a meeting of approximately 500 Lakeview residents! The mayor has never accepted one of our invitations, and the vast majority of our neighborhood voted for him!

I have heard the argument that Lakeview is being ignored and rightfully so because its residents have a long history of being able to care for themselves. My great-grandparents noticed that the children of Lakeview had no easy access to a library being so far from Uptown, so they donated a library to the city. It's on the corner of Harrison Ave. and Canal Blvd, and was fully functional and well-attended until Katrina flooded it with what appears to be at least 6 feet of water (might be more like 10 - I can't bring myself to go in and see the wanton destruction of tens of thousands of books and the beautiful oil painting of my great-grandparents. I knew my great-grandmother well.). This is a pro-active neighborhood. After all, even in the face of utter devastation, we have managed to organize highly publicized and well-attended residents' meetings on multiple occasions. However, that pro-activity is being stifled by the lack of information. We are being met by "I don't knows" and "Say whats" from the government every step of the way. The neighborhood has come as far as it can without answers to our problems. We aren't the ones asking for billions of dollars from the federal government - we're really just seeking answers to the questions that will tell us how we are allowed to proceed. Shouldn't it be easier to just answer the "can we" and "will you" questions than to get the federal government to appropriate billions of dollars to an undeniably corrupt state that has failed on every level of accountability? Apparently it's not!

And how about East and West Lakeshore, the northern boundary of Lakeview? About 20-40 houses in West Lakeshore, and several in East Lakeshore DID NOT FLOOD AT ANY POINT. Entergy has figured this out, and hooked us up with power. The gas lines have been restored. Bell South says we should have phone service in a few months at most, and Cox Communications was apparently suprised to hear that a whole swath of Lakeview hadn't flooded, and was re-populated by people who want cable tv and internet access. The Times-Picayune was equally to shocked to learn of our little island of dry land (I think my mother informed them of our existence around last Wednesday, and they apparently never heard of dry land in Lakeview), and the myriad residents who want delivery of their newspapers.

East Lakeshore has a similar story. The 2 blocks closest to Canal Blvd/Lakeshore Dr got about 1 foot of water. Their miniscule (in comparison) flooding was NOT the result of the 17th St. Canal Breach, or the London Canal breach (or the industrial canal breach, believe it or not). Apparently, the callous IDIOTS on the levee board FORGOT to sandbag the canal blvd. pass over the levee. This pass is several feet (at least 5, and more like 8) below the top of the levee. It gets sandbagged every time they even think a hurricane might come to New Orleans. Not this time! Some of our neighbors in West Lakeshore stayed in the neighborhood through the Saturday after Katrina hit. They never saw sandbags at the pass over. They DID see wind-driven lake water come rushing over the street in walls of water and flow down from Canal Blvd. onto Amethyst St, which is somewhat lower in East Lakeshore than in West Lakeshore. Incidentally, none of this water made it over the lake cat. 3 levee itself, or through the metal floodgates at Topaz and Lakeshore Dr. in West Lakeshore.

Lakeview was and still is truly abandoned by the city, and that neighborhood is one of the major tax bases that contributes to the city! If the local politicians are really serious about bringing back the city, they should do everything in their power to make sure Lakeview residents can come back so that the city will have their tax money to fund the necessary repairs to the infrastructure and schools! All that it will take to get them back is answers to their questions. No such answers appear to be forthcoming at any near time.

Somehow bad finds bad

2005-10-31T06:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/10/31/evacuees.killing/index.html

Apparently, bad people have no problem finding other bad people. The two teenagers were Rita evacuees from Beaumont, TX, while the 43-year-old man was a Katrina evacuee from New Orleans. They managed to find each other and commit murder together. Additionally, the woman they murdered was trying to help them! I find this very disturbing.

The Truest Loss

2005-10-31T06:06:00.000-08:00

One of my father's good friends is from Lakeview. Before Katrina, he was married to a lovely wife and had a 2-year old son. They had a nice little Lakeview house and a nice little mortgage. Right before the storm, he and his family evacuated to Florida. When the 17th St. Canal came crumbling down, his home was destroyed. He had 11 feet of water, so even the 2nd floor was compromised, and mold reached even the 2nd floor ceiling. This is a sad situation, but stuff is stuff. What happened in August was terrible, but falls short of purely tragic. What happened in September is truly horrible. His wife was driving in Florida, and was in a car accident. The car was totaled, which is, yet again, a sad situation, but stuff is still stuff. His wife was killed in the car accident. My father's friend is homeless (he's living with his late wife's parents - his own died within the past year) and is left to raise his two year old son on his own.

We ran into him at R&O's restaurant in Bucktown. I've never before seen a flatter affect or more obvious state of shock. He had trouble stringing two sentences together.

At least he still has his son. That should hopefully offer some comfort, not only stress.

Why The President Should Nominate My Mother to The Supreme Court of the United States

2005-10-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

My mother would be a perfect Supreme Court justice. She is conservative, but thoughtful and caring. She believes in strict construction of the U.S. Constitution. She has read The Federalist Papers, and therefore understands why the Bill of Rights should NOT be a limiting document. She is a real lady, so there would not be problems with any scandals. She was in the top 10% of Tulane University Law School's Class of 1969, and was on the Law Review. She has been the first female partner of law firms. She has clerked for two appellate court judges, doing legal research and writing.

My mother would do very well in confirmation hearings. She was a national champion debater in highschool. She is the master of scathing wit, the ready retort, and tearing apart fallacious arguments. She responds well under pressure. She is very honest, and knows how to phrase answers to questions. She has always been willing and able to stand up for her beliefs and defend them, without getting ugly. She does not need to resort to personal insults, and knows it.

She believes in personal responsibility. She believes in basic human decency, but is also realistic. She is capable of making difficult decisions. She has a great love for personal property rights. She knows the value of choice.

Her personal life would stand up well to scrutiny. She has been married only once, to my father for 35 years and counting, and I am their only child. She is a consummate scholar. She can beat anyone at Trivial Pursuit - her knowledge base is phenomenal. She is a very good mother, and managed to impart to me the most important of her values.

My mother is very kind. She has given back to her community on innumerable occasions. She has no patience for stupidity. She makes decisions based on her judgment, not on her emotions. She is very fair. However, she knows her values, and does not compromise herself.

My mother is very modest, both in terms of her decorum, and in terms of her many accomplishments. She is always polite, even when irked beyond imagination.

My mother has withstood gender discrimination and still managed to find amazing success. She chose to prove the people who had no faith in her abilities just because she is a woman wrong without resorting to lawsuits. She has an indominable spirit. She is a breast cancer survivor. She is a Hurricane Katrina (and Betsy and Camille) survivor who suffered intense damage to her home but who is living there during the renovations. During the 2 months after the storm, she took care of her mother and her mother-in-law, catering to their every whim. She went back to work the first day that her office re-opened, and is commuting over an hour to get to work.

My mother's judicial philosophy would be absolutely perfect for the U.S. Supreme Court. My mother's personality would be absolutely perfect for the U.S. Supreme Court. She is guided by her strong faith coupled with her incredible intellect. She is on a constant search for more knowledge, and has a masterful ability to apply newly learned facts to her everyday life.

My mother believes that everyone should be and is equal before the law. She does not believe in discrimination.

So, does anyone know how to tell George W. Bush that my mother is available to become the next U.S. Supreme Court justice?

The Sweet Baby Story: A Moment of Truth Movie?

2005-10-26T05:39:00.000-07:00

Sweet Baby is my family's bizarre black alley cat. He's best known through the neighborhood for intimidating dogs, leaving kitty prints on foreign cars, and eating anything smaller than he is. Sweet Baby is a part of our family, though he does NOT come inside, by his choice, not ours.

Every time my parents have evacuated for hurricanes, my father would spend hours calling and whistling for Sweet Baby. Nobody would dream of leaving him behind. That's why what happened with Hurricane Katrina was so horrible. My parents were on vacation when the storm hit. They were not in New Orleans to evacuate. By the time I realized the storm was coming straight for New Orleans, it was too late for me to safely drive in and drive back to Baton Rouge. Therefore, Sweet Baby was left to fend for himself. Little did I know, but it would be almost 3 weeks before I could get to the city. By then, Sweet Baby was basically feral. I saw him roaming the neighborhood, and put out about 20 lbs of dry cat food for him, but he wouldn't get more than about 5 feet away from me.

So, every weekend I'd see Sweet Baby, try to catch him, and leave him food. My parents came home Sunday. Last night, my father finally saw Sweet Baby. An hour later, Sweet Baby was inside the house, purring and rubbing against my dad's legs. He wouldn't stay inside, but he slept in the garage, and ran back inside this morning.

Sweet Baby is back!

Cashing in A Reality Check - Why Some Lawsuits are Really a Stupid Idea

2005-10-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

I really love reading people's opinions that are made based on what they believe reality should be (and of course they haven't taken the time to do any research) rather than what reality is. An example of this is people who want to sue the Corps of Engineers or the federal government for the failures of the levees.

At this point, it's becoming more and more clear that the 17th St. Canal and London canal failures were due to a design flaw that any resident of Lakeview could have pointed out had we known. The soil conditions there are unstable. Houses shift. Lots sink. Streets cave in on a regular basis. This is because of a lovely, watery layer of swamp below the pumped-in soil. I know this - we all knew this. What we didn't know is just how little was done to secure the levees from this readily correctable condition. My parents' house hasn't shifted since it was built in 1979 because my parents built it on massive, deep, closely-spaced pilings. They aren't engineers - my mother has a business degree and a law degree, and my father has a BA in history and a law degree - but they knew to consult people and the people they consulted knew what was required to stabilize a house on the swamp loam. Why didn't the Corps of Engineers do the same?

Even though their culpability is becoming pretty obvious, suing the Corps won't do any good. Do you want to know why? The Corps is protected by this little thing called Sovereign Immunity. Suing the Corps is not an option, folks; THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS IS IMMUNE FROM SUIT. You just can't do it. No court has jurisdiction over them.

So, why not sue the federal and/or state governments? Suing the government seems like a great idea. It IS a great idea, so long as you aren't a taxpayer. Do you know how the government pays off lawsuits filed against it? Do you know where the government gets money? The government gets its money from the tax-paying citizenry. To compensate for massive lawsuits, the government RAISES TAXES. They might say it's for some other reason, but the reason the government can't fund the slushy project is because the funding for that went to paying for John Doe's lawsuit. So, go right ahead, sue the government. Get back some of your own money, then pay it all back when they raise taxes to compensate for your lawsuit.

Then again, if you're not paying taxes, what do you care? You can sue the government to your little heart's content. You're living off the taxpayers already. But, what will you do when those lawsuits bankrupt the government and suddenly there's nothing left for you? It's one thing for funding to be cut off from people who simply don't WANT to work for a living, but quite another to kill programs that help the legitimately disabled, or educational programs. Hell, I want to sue the willfully unemployed on welfare - if the taxpayers hadn't been paying for them to not be a full-fledged member of our society, maybe we could have hired better engineers to design the levees that failed to protect us all. Fat lotta good that would do me - if you're not paying taxes, it's probably because you have nothing to take, which is a sad situation indeed, but which renders you just as judgment-proof as the Corps, albeit for a different reason.

Life in a Day

2005-10-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Things just keep going along. Bob the Defective Siamese and Maggie the Springer Spaniel have bonded beyond what is normal. Bob has replaced his beloved stuffed snail with a living dog - and it's done wonders for his personality. People actually get to see him, sometimes! Perhaps, come time, Bob will even forget that he is terrified of people for no apparent reason.

My parents got home yesterday. At first they were really excited, because the house looked much better at first glimpse than they had hoped - the new roof was even complete. However, when they woke up this morning, they started to look at things more carefully. They saw the peeling wallpaper, the chipped paint, the warped hardwood floors, the crumbling ceilings, the stains on the ceilings. Today's been very hard on them. My mother is despondent, and is trying to move furniture. My mother is not supposed to be moving furniture, and there is no reason for her to do so. She's just feeling helpless, so she's doing anything she can to be busy. It's making my dad nuts. Their home that they designed, built, and furnished with such care is pretty wretched, though it looks pristine at first glance. I think that's what hurt them most - they thought it was fine and that I had exaggerated the problems. Just because they're subtle doesn't mean the damage isn't pervasive. But, the insurance is going to cover the damage, and things will be ok eventually.

My cousin George and his fiancee Alexis (and the 5 humid kitties) made it home today. Last I heard, George was about to try to clean their refrigerator. George has had power a lot longer than my parents, so hopefully it isn't nearly as gross as theirs was.

My paternal grandmother flooded her kitchen because she left the water running, but neglected to take all the crap out of the sink before leaving. My dad cleaned it up for her yesterday.

Wilma hit far-southern Florida - the first hurricane this season to do what was predicted. Many of my grandparents' friends lived down in the Keys. I hope they're all ok. Specifically, I hope they evacuated early.

Life is interesting. Things are falling into place. The "place" is very different, but at least it's not as chaotic as it has been.

Running is keeping me sane. I hope my parents get sane soon! At least I get to see them this weekend. To hell with Halloween - I just want to see my family at this point.

Given Enough Time, Entropy Recedes

2005-10-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Much like the floodwaters that once inundated over 80% of my hometown, it appears that the chaos that ensued is finally lessening. Take that, Mr. Gleick!

My mother and maternal grandmother are driving down from North Carolina to Birmingham, AL today. Tomorrow, they'll be driving the rest of the way home. I personally think they should drive the extra hour south to Tuscaloosa today, putting them over an hour closer to home. My father and paternal grandmother will drive from North Carolina to New Orleans tomorrow. It's a 10-hour drive, so I don't think it will be too bad. Basically, what I'm saying is that my immediate family will be HOME SUNDAY!!!!

My cousin George, his fiancee Alexis, and their 5 cats have left New York State as of today, and will arrive home in New Orleans on Monday.

Next weekend, I'll be going back to New Orleans to see all my relatives and to help out some more. I know more about their house than my parents do at this point - at least, I know more about what needs to be done to take it from habitable but quite unpleasant back to the home I love so much. At least I get to replace my no-longer-attractive wallpaper - it's doing a great job of coming off the walls on its own. I really can't wait to see everyone!

Also, I'm training for running a half-marathon in December. GO ME!

An Update - The Refrigerator Saga

2005-10-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

Our house has power. It has since last Thursday. The air conditioners are running, so the house is finally drying out. Theoretically, the mold is dying. The old, holey roof should be ripped off by now, and a new one should be fully installed by the weekend. In other words, things are progressing well for the house, and just in the nick of time. My parents and grandmothers are due to arrive home this Sunday!

Anyway, my Saturday was a truly unique experience. Remember my parents' small refrigerator? I'll never forget it. My father told me it contained little more than bottled water, orange juice, and chocolates. My father was, how do I say this delicately, mistaken.

First off, I wish my father had informed me that he kept his maggot colony in the freezer. That would have saved me a moment of shock and horror. Thank God I have a strong stomach. The worst thing about the maggots is that they had frozen when the power came back, and were firmly stuck to every surface. It took a screwdriver to scrape them off.

My father also neglected to mention that he stored several ziploc bags of homemade spaghetti sauce in that freezer. When the power went off, they began to thaw, then rot. As the sauce rotted, gasses were released and trapped in the bags, several of which burst under the pressure. Then, when the power came back, everything refroze. Yes, that means the screwdriver was employed yet again, this time to pry out the bags of sauce.

While the freezer section was more horrifying in a sense than the refrigerator section due in great part to the massive proliferation of crunchy-to-sticky maggots, the refrigerator section contained several suprises of its own. Did you know (or want to know) that bleu cheese maintains its consistency and colour even through 7 weeks without refrigeration? That fact has cemented my desire never to consume bleu cheese. Shredded parmesan cheese, on the other hand, changes colour, but does not turn blue. It achieved a rich dark khaki colour that would have been lovely on a pair of cords, and it perfectly matched my riding chaps.

The mold infiltrated even those things that should not have been ruined. Chocolate bars were only recognizable as to brand and cocoa content once the greenish fur was scraped off the wrappers. The mold even managed to infiltrate sealed bottled water, crawling in through the threads.

Then, there's the orange juice Daddy promised me. One or two of the containers bulged ominously. Others had burst, perhaps explaining the splatter-like patterns of mold on the refrigerator walls. None of it was any shade close to yellow, so I'm not sure.

Once all of the unexpected foodstuffs were in the trash and outside the house, I could start on the actual decontamination process. That took me 3 1/2 hours of kneeling in thawing maggots while armed with 6 gallons of bleach and 5 super rolls of Brawny towels. What I wouldn't have given for the assistance of the legendary Brawny Man! Eventually, the refrigerator was sanitary, albeit far from white in most places.

Here's the breakdown on cleaning:
1. Spaghetti sauce rot stains white plastic an indelible bright canary yellow.

2. Blue-grey fuzzy mold is the easiest to remove from any surface and does not leave a stain.

3. Green-grey slimy mold is the next easiest to remove from any surface - it takes a lot of scrubbing, but does not require a wire brush or God Forfend a screwdriver.

4. Black mold requires very little to remove from plastic. It leaves a grey stain on styrofoam that cannot be removed with bleach. It cannot be removed from metal without the screwdriver, but leaves no stain. It cannot be removed from painted wire racks without the screwdriver, and leaves a grey stain.

5. Red brown mold is the absolute worst. It requires intensive scrubbing and leaves an orange stain on plastic. It cannot be removed from painted wire racks, even with the screwdriver. It leaves an orange stain on rubber. It is pure evil.

6. Frozen maggots leave no stain, but cannot be removed from surfaces without either intensive scrubbing to thaw them or the screwdriver.

I will not be able to eat anything with spaghetti sauce for a long time, and I have nightmares about fossilized bleu cheese.

Squooshed maggots wash out of jeans without leaving a stain in 1 washing.

As If You Need to Guess

2005-10-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Can anybody guess what I'm doing this weekend? Yes, I am going back to New Orleans. I'm bringing down several bottles of bleach, some baking soda, and as much bottled water as I can fit in my car.

I will be flipping the breakers at the house, and hoping something happens. Depending on what happens when the lever point to "on", I will either be getting the air conditioners running and starting to clean my parents' smaller, less traumatizing refrigerator, or spending the day hunting for moldy objects requiring cleaning in the dark.

You may feel the need to ask why I'm bringing bottled water for my parents and grandmother when the New Orleans tap water has been deemed safe to drink. My only reply to you would be, "Would you drink that?" I didn't think so. I don't want to know what's intruded into our water lines where we live past the flood zone. The water pressure is very low, so there is something wrong with the lines. I don't know if it's a lack of electricity at a critical point, or a place where a pipe is busted and bizarre bacteria are getting in. I'm not taking any chances with my parents' health.

However, what I'm saying has absolutely no implications for Uptown, Downtown, and certainly not for Metairie. I've been drinking Metairie tap water for the past 3 weeks with no ill effects. Uptown and Downtown didn't have the crushed pipelines that Lakeview did. If you could stomach New Orleans water pre-Katrina (I could, but many people I know could not, even then), then you shouldn't have any problems with it now.

One thing that does worry me is the constant dust cloud hanging over the lakefront. It's made up of that bizarre, stinking, multi-coloured mud that coats everything in Lakeview, and mold spores. I really doubt if it is safe to inhale in large amounts. First, it's just bad to inhale too much particulate matter, whatever the source - it taxes your lungs, scrapes your bronchial tubes, and leaves you prone to infection. Second, this ain't no normal particulate matter. The dust cloud is made up of pulverized human fecal matter, decaying plant matter, decaying flesh (human and animal), mold, mildew, mud, and salt. I've worn my mold-proof N95 painter's mask most of the time I've been outside in that area. I guess we'll see what happens when people start moving back.

I suspect that a lot of people in New Orleans have forgotten that Lakeview also comprises West End, East Lakeshore, and West Lakeshore (and arguably Lake Vista). West Lakeshore, from the Lake Pontchartrain Levee to Crystal St. did not experience any flooding in the homes. Huge swaths of the Lake area did not suffer the fate of Lakeview proper. Power is being restored to these homes. People are moving back, my family included. What effect will the dust cloud from Lakeview have on these people? What effect will the broken water mains (they were broken before Katrina, for months, and even years in some cases) in Lakeview have on these people? What about construction and re-modelling? Are "they" going to change the building codes, even for homes that did not flood? Are "they" going to realize that Lakeview is NOT a flood-prone area, and has not been such since the swamp upon which it was built was drained before most resident there were born, and that the only reason this disaster occurred was THEIR criminally negligently constructed levee? Why penalize us for their mistakes? Why can't we rebuild Lakeview with the cute little cottages for which the area is known? It's a FAMILY neighborhood, with tons of charm. It needs to be re-built as it was, and it just needs better protection.

Here's another thing that really bothers me. I can understand why the Army Corps(e) of Engineers cannot be sued - sovereign immunity and all that. However, it was their engineers who signed off on the obviously deficient floodwall on the 17th St. Canal that gave way. Local politicians had to sign off on the plans. other local politicians provided the guidelines by which the levees were to be built - SOMEBODY or probably several somebodies thought that pilings that went only a few short feet into the ground would be sufficient to protect New Orleans. Whoever that was is who I hold responsible. It's the individuals who need to be made to pay. What good will it do suing the government? Lakeview is a tax-paying community! The money they would get would be their own, and they would then bear the burden of higher taxes to fix the budget shortfall.

Do you really want to prevent a disaster like this from happening again? Then hold the people who signed off on the permits responsible. Hold the people who OKed the plans responsible. Hold the individual engineers who obviously fudged their results responsible. Hold the politicians who decided to sneakily order shorter pilings or lower grade concrete (depending all on what the reports find flawed) responsible. Hold the environmentalists who said levees are an ecological disaster responsible. Hit these people where it hurts - in the wallet. Make Them Pay Us For Our Losses. Hell, just make them get down on their knees and beg New Orleans' citizenry for forgiveness.

At this point, I'd really just settle for an honest promise that everything that CAN be done WILL be done to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

Wow. It felt good to get that off my chest.

Who am I anyway?

2005-10-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Nickname: Pixie
Astrological sign: Taurus (through and through)
Age: 23
Height: 5' 1/2"
Level of Education: B.A. English Literature Tulane University, 2nd year law student LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center
Occupation: Intern, 1st Circuit Court of Appeals of Louisiana
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA
Marital status: Single
How many children: 0
Do you drink (alcohol): Yes, but only when someone else is driving
Do you smoke: no
Favorite outdoor activities: horseback riding, hiking, running, mountain biking, white water rafting, fishing
Favorite indoor activities: cooking, reading, music
Favorite colors: I bleed purple and gold
Favorite type of music: 80’s Hair Metal currently, but I like most everything other than rap/r&b
Favorite musical groups/performers: Vixen, Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison, Quiet Riot, Cinderella, Skid Row, Alice Cooper, Stacie Q, Blondie, Pat Benatar
Favorite soundtracks: The Wraith
Favorite song at the moment: “Love is a Killer” by Vixen
What's in your home CD/Casette player right now: A mix cd
What's in you car CD/Casette player right now: lots of 80s
Do you play an instrument: bass and I sing
One pillow or two: 2 1/2
Croutons or bacon bits: bacon
Favorite salad dressing: Blue Tick Dressing
Have you ever had your appendix or tonsils removed: I still have both of those, but I have had wrist bones removed.
Have you ever gone skinny-dipping: Not since I was about 12
Do you make fun of people: I do, but I don’t mean it to hurt
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up: A geneticist or a ballerina (I was a weird kid)
What would be your dream job now: Writer for Law and Order
Have you ever been convicted of a crime: No!
Places you'd most like to visit: New York
Your first car: my dad’s grey volvo
Dream car: fully restored 1959 cadillac eldorado biarritz convertible
Toothpaste: colgate max fresh
Shampoo/Conditioner: biolage
Favorite season: Fall
Favorite holiday: Halloween
Favorite board/card game: Poker, LIFE
Favorite hobbies: horseback riding
Favorite sport to play: SOCCER
Favorite sport to watch: hockey
Least favorite sport to watch: professional baseball
Most humiliating moment: I think I’ll have to go to a shrink to find out b/c I seem to have repressed those memories! I know I have embarrassed myself a lot, but I seriously can’t remember any particulars!
Do you have any siblings: no
Do you get along with your parents: We get along just fine since I moved out
Favorite place to chill: my cousin George’s
Favorite place to visit: uh?
What is your bad time of day: 4 am. It SUCKS.
What is your good time of day: 5:45 am in the middle of my morning run
Favorite perfume or cologne: Coco Chanel
Favorite scent of candle: Vanilla
Favorite flower/plant: daffodils, mermaid roses
Favorite subject in school: English, Chemistry, La. Civil Procedure, Administration of Criminal Justice
Least favorite subject in school: Math, Administrative Law
Favorite authors: Daniel DeFoe, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Kit Marlowe
Favorite book genre: 18th Century Novels
Favorite book: Jane Eyre
Current book I'm reading: Do law texts count?
Favorite magazine: Cosmopolitan
Favorite movie you have seen recently: Sin City
Favorite movie of all time: The Last Unicorn
Other favorite movies: The Wraith, The Lost Boys, Billy Madison, Batman Begins, Caddyshack, Casino Royale, Eyes of Fire, Amelie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Favorite actors/actresses: Mel Gibson, Deborah Kerr
Favorite TV programs: anything Law and Order
Favorite cartoon character: Magneto from X-Men
Favorite food: cheese fries
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Favorite ice cream: Breyer's Black Cherry
Favorite Snapple: If they made a whiskey, I’d try it, haha. I brew my own tea, thank you very much!
Favorite alcoholic Drink: Chartreuse
What is your bedtime: I like to be in the bed before 10 pm, but I’m usually not asleep. I dislike people who call me after 9 pm.
Best on-line friends: Kate, Julia
Best friends: Ginger, Camille, T.Jay, Adam
Worst enemies: I don’t think I have enemies, other than my ex-boyfriend who would like to see me dead and tried a few times to make that vision a reality. I have no harsh feelings. If the US Army decided to make him a hero by dropping him from a C-130 w/out a parachute directly on Osama Bin Laden’s head, I wouldn’t deny the title of hero!
Interesting fact about your childhood: I don’t think anything interesting happened outside my imagination
How many rings before you answer the phone: At least 2 so I can see the caller ID and know if I want to talk to you
The first thing you think of in the morning: walk the dog
Favorite thing to do when you're home alone: sleep!!!!!
Things that make you feel good: Finishing anything, riding horses, sleeping, going for jogs, stuffing myself with cheese fries
Things you don't like: people who don’t have faith in anything (doesn’t have to be religious faith, just some belief in something even just a belief that some people still care about New Orleans)
Worst feeling in the world: Realizing that everything you worked for and expected over 19 years of life was destroyed in a moment.
Best feeling in the world: drifting off to sleep
Do you get motion sickness: if I’m already feeling sick, riding in a car does NOT help
Roller Coasters - Deadly or Exciting: Exciting
Thunderstorms - Cool or Scary: Very Cool
Pen or Pencil: Pencil
Do you like to drive: I like to drive long distances, but I hate just tooling around the city
Do you sleep with stuffed animals: Yes, several
Did you have imaginary friends or a blanket as a child: I had a pillow. I still have that pillow.
What is on the walls of your room: some needlepoint my grandmother did that we had framed
What words or phrases do you overuse: other than “uh?”
Coolest things anyone ever gave you: my cat Bob was a gift from the lady who bred him – free lovable, insane, shy, bitey Siamese boy
How would you characterize your political leanings: I think legislators and judges and everyone in this country should read The Federalist Papers. I hate it when people say the government should do something without bothering to check on the constitutionality of such action. Everyone seems to understand separation of church and state and separation of powers in terms of legislative/executive/judiciary, but too few people bother with state/federal distinctions. I’m a strong fiscal conservative. I think having a bill of rights was a bad idea, because it seems to be taken by too many people as a limit on rights rather than an illustrative list of the rights the Founding Fathers and Framers held dear. I believe that everybody should have the exact same rights. I think the federal government has gotten too big, and people rely on it too much. What ever happened to self-reliance? What happened to the pioneering spirit? What happened to that famed and vaunted work ethic? I believe that all men and women were created equal BEFORE THE LAW, but that each person has individual strengths and weaknesses which determine their skills. I believe in different types of intelligence. I believe in encouraging children to do their best, and providing opportunities. I do NOT believe in promotion beyond ability for self-esteem purposes – what good does that do a child? His self-esteem will be DESTROYED if he’s put into a situation where he can’t succeed, much less thrive. He will forever think he is not good enough, and will become accustomed to and willing to settle for failure. I’m conservative. I’m disappointed by the Republicans’ move away from any fiscal accountability. I’m disappointed by the Democrats’ 3-D policy: Dependable, Dependent Democrats and how it’s shifted the focus away from encouraging success to excusing failure. We, as a country, need to re-define success, and get rid of the stigma associated with labor-intensive, physical jobs as somehow "less".
If you could pick one super-human power, what would you choose: I wish I could fly.
Favorite Quotes/Lyrics/Poems:
“I’ve got a target on my back for a cupid dressed in black” – Vixen “Love is a Killer”

Rollin' Along

2005-10-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Things are starting to come together. Both of my grandmothers have power and water at their respective homes in New Orleans, so that when they return, life can resume in some semblance of normalcy. The nice Entergy fellas to whom I spoke on Saturday afternoon predicted that my parents' block in West Lakeshore would have power by Wednesday of this week! I'll be going down on Saturday (my best guess, but it might be Friday, or might be Sunday) to see if they have power, and if so, I'll flip the breakers and get started on the real clean-up in preparation for their return. This will involve trying to salvage the stinky but not evil fridge in their closet (it was too dark and cramped to do that without overhead lights), returning their newly cleaned, de-molded clothes and shoes, putting new, clean sheets on the bed, running the dishwasher and washing machine several times to clean them out of foul, stagnant water, and MEETING WITH THE CONTRACTOR! Yes, we managed to find a contractor who would do everything - tear up the wood floors and replace them, re-grout the tile floors, replace the broken screens, tear down and replace the destroyed ceilings, tear out the wallpaper and re-paint, re-floor the attic, and put on a whole new roof. My parents will be living off and on in their house, and with my maternal grandmother as the repairs go on. It's all pretty exciting.

I think my exercise/diet plan will go well. I have to say, it's very sad when at 107 lbs you absolutely cannot squeeze your way into your clothes. That should give some idea of how painfully skinny I was only a few months ago, and how painfully skinny I'm going to have to be again. Oh, the joy of not being able to afford any new business suits! Why couldn't I have weighed more than 95 lbs at any point in my life when I was buying clothes?? Ah, the silly laments of girls. However, I did find some marvelous recipes that I'm looking forward to trying.

It's really strange - most people who know me assume that I don't know how to cook. However, I'm a really good cook, and I enjoy cooking. I just usually don't have much time for making good food. I've just never done low-fat cooking. As it is, I'm really looking forward to making things like low-fat cheese corn muffins, low-fat mozzarella meatballs, portobello mushroom veggie wraps, low-fat salmon patties, fat-free chilled strawberry soup, and spinach-feta shells with tomatoes, just to name a few! I'm most looking forward to the meatballs and the salmon patties. I'm sure both will go well with my specialty - mediterranean tossed salad.

Did I mention that I'm totally exhausted, and have class again in 20 minutes?

The Breaking Point

2005-10-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

I did not realize it was humanly possible to be this exhausted. I'm juggling (in order of priority) law school, work, trying to clean/maintain/de-mold/help out with my parents' house, entertaining the animals, and trying to lose 12-17 lbs so I can fit into my business suits from when I was 12-17 lbs lighter than I am now.

This is my daily schedule:
5 am - get out of bed, go for 20-30 minute jog w/ the dog
5:30 am - feed the cats and the dog, scoop the litter, take a shower
6:30 am - leave for school
7 am - re-read notes, etc. to prepare for class
I then spend the day either in class all day until 7 pm or school until 9:30 am and work until 5:30 pm.
I get home b/w 6 pm and 7:30 pm depending on the day of the week, and walk the dog. I study until about 10 pm, at which point my brain shuts down. I then stuff myself with strange foods, brush my teeth, walk the dog, read literature instead of law, and am in bed by 11:30.
From 11:30 pm until about 2 am, I worry about finances and how I'll pay for next week's kitty litter and pet food. Then, I finally fall asleep, to be awakened at 5 am by that damn alarm!

There is a reason I don't like people calling me after 8 pm, and why it's pointless to call before 7 pm unless you want to leave a message I'll return sometime next month.

Did I mention that every weekend since I could, I've been going down to New Orleans for 2 days to do what I can to help my parents, like meeting with their insurance adjuster and giving him the grand tour of our bizarrely hideously expensive/expansive damage, throwing out their old fridge that was leaking a foul brown liquid every which way, taking home their moldy clothes and shoes to try to repair them, and trying to track down their cat, Sweet Baby (the big black monster alley cat who eats other cats and other small animals for fun) so I can take him to the vet to make sure he doesn't only look fat and happy despite everything, but rather that he definitely IS fat and happy despite everything. While down there, I not only help out my parents, but I also help out neighbors and friends.

There are only so many directions in which I can be pulled. I can't wait for the guy to put a new roof on our house so I don't have to keep finding ingenious ways to plug the holes therein. I really can't wait for my parents to get home so THEY can deal with their house.

It's not that I'm not more than happy to help - I am. I just wish that I could do one thing at a time. Then again, if wishes were being granted, I wouldn't waste one on something so trivial. There is an end in sight to my exhaustion. YAY CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!

Trip 3 into the Heart of Darkness

2005-10-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I get to head back to New Orleans. This time I get to meet up with our insurance adjuster, and explain to him that all the damage in the house comes from the fact they refused to give us the authority to replace our roof which was irreparably damaged by Hurricane Cindy (remember her, a month before Katrina?!) - this is true. It should be interesting. I'm sure he'll enjoy the smell. If he isn't nice, I'll open the refrigerator at him!

Oh yes, and Lakeshore/Lake Vista should be getting power in 10 days! That should halt the rapid growth of mold and mildew in the house.

I have so much more that needs to be said, but law school and helping my family have me hopelessly busy.

Further Evidence for the Squooshy Levee Theory

2005-10-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Scary as that is, considering my utter lack of formal engineering training, my "squooshy levee theory" is looking more and more accurate. This is decidedly the most interesting explanation I've read, and makes a lot of sense. Here's the big hint: when ground is stable and secured, IT WILL NOT MOVE LIKE THAT.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_10_04.html#084767

Pile of mud may be clue to levee failure
‘Heave' points to structural problem, not levee topping
By John McQuaid
Staff writer

A child's clubhouse, built about 25 years ago by a civil engineer for his son, provides another clue pointing to possible design or construction flaws in the structural failures that breached two canal floodwalls and inundated the city during Hurricane Katrina. Engineer Gus Cantrell, 60, and son Daniel Cantrell, now a structural engineer himself; returned to the family's Pratt Drive house last week for the first time since Katrina struck. They discovered the old clubhouse sitting a few feet from its original location next to the London Avenue canal levee on top of a pile of mud and silty sand about 8 feet high. The Cantrells believe that extreme pressure from high water pushed soil under the base of the floodwall away from the canal and upward in an arc, something known as a heave. That appears to have raised a mound of earth into the back yard under the clubhouse. The wooden clubhouse's base is now even with the edge of the house's roof, Daniel Cantrell said. "Once that happened, the wall would have been compromised, not have been able to support itself," he said.

That is different from initial theories offered by the Army Corps of Engineers that the floodwalls were topped by storm surge and raises more questions about design and construction. James Michael Duncan, a professor of geotechnical engineering at Virginia Tech, said that the description of what happened sounded like a "deep-seated structural failure" in which the soil under the structure moves and the structure built into it fails. One way to visualize it, he said, would be to think of a cross-section of the wall and the soil around it in a circle. "Imagine what's inside the circle rotating. Outside of the wall, with the high water on it, it's pushing in and down," he said. "On the inside of the wall soil comes up as on the outside it goes down.

"The position of the clubhouse suggests that the wall failed because of some form of human error, the Cantrells say. Corps officials have suggested the storm surge may have simply overwhelmed the wall, flowing over the top and eroding the dry side. "The theory put out by the Corps was that it had been overtopped and it scoured out the soil and the wall would have keeled over at the knee," Cantrell said. "That would not have resulted in what we have. It's a textbook case of heave. The clubhouse is perfectly level, high and dry."

A similar heave may have occurred at the breach in the 17th Street canal, where soil also appears to have been pushed forward and upward. A Corps of Engineers spokesman said that investigators probing the levee breaches probably would look at the possibility of soil heaves.

Teams of engineers from the Corps, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Science Foundation are surveying the levee breaches this week, collecting evidence. "They are going to look at everything and try to make a determination," spokesman Alan Dooley said. "The Corps is a learning organization. We'd like to learn everything we can."

The Cantrells' clubhouse is virtually undamaged. It was built sturdily, Gus Cantrell said, because he wanted to demonstrate good building techniques to his son. A flimsier backyard shed was pushed all the way across the street. "We climbed over the debris to the clubhouse, which had two padlocks on it. Neither had been corroded," Daniel Cantrell said. "In the clubhouse, we found my son's bike. It was hanging in there, no rust, no corrosion, no dirt, it had not gotten wet. There was a chest containing my grandfather's tools. They were in fine shape. It appears that the structure had not gotten wet at all. "That suggests the heave occurred first, precipitating the wall's failure.

The floodwall did not completely collapse, but the concrete panels were knocked askew, with gaps between them. Once the wall destabilized, water could have flowed through the wall and possibly underneath it too. It flowed around the raised clubhouse and a patch of green grass next to it the only live vegetation left on the property. Once the wall broke, water appears to have blasted through it. The French doors on the Cantrell house were ripped off. Water coursed through the house and blew out the walls on two sides. Furniture was carried away. "There was a china cabinet that took 10 men and a mule to move," Gus Cantrell said. "It's gone." Cantrell, who retired in July from the University of New Orleans, where he worked as the director of the physical plant, said he was grateful he evacuated. "If my wife and I had been home and not decided to leave, we would both be dead," he said. "There is no way we would have survived." Gus Cantrell and his wife are now staying at Daniel's home in Houston. He said he has lived in Houston for 4½ years and did not plan to return to live in New Orleans.

Gus Cantrell said that based on what he saw in his backyard, he believes the Corps bears some responsibility for the breaches. "My regret is that I didn't look at that floodwall and say, what am I going to do when that wall comes down?" he said. "I didn't think about that. I trusted the Corps of Engineers."

John McQuaid can be reached at (202) 383-7889 or at john.mcquaid@newhouse.com.

New Orleans, October 1, 2005

2005-10-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

I went down to New Orleans to salvage from our house and to help my friends Sean and Rebekah. We are all Lakeview residents. Sean and Rebekah live at most 7 blocks from us, but they got 8 feet of water in their home, while we did not flood. The whole day was spent trying to help. Pictures are below.

The Catina St. Cleanup Crew

2005-10-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

This is the crew of Sean and Rebekah's friends who helped with the salvage effort. We managed to save some canoe paddles, some Craftsman tools (all others became pitted - ONLY BUY CRAFTSMAN TOOLS! THEY CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING), and the family china, silver, and crystal. While attempting to clean at a more secure and less contaminated location, we proceeded to break several pieces of crystal and china that survived the flood. The ground where we were standing was usually covered with grass. The mud that remained smelled like death.

Metairie looks better, but not very much

2005-10-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

At West Esplanade and Severn in Metairie, flooding was minimal and people were able to return to their houses to start cleaning up only days after Katrina hit. Even so, the first floors had to be stripped to the studs.

This is the typical Lakeview kitchen, post-Katrina. No meals will be forthcoming any time soon, if ever again.

2005-10-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sean's kitchen was about the worst room in the house. Walking into it, the smell was physically oppressive, and no amount of Vick's VapoRub could lessen the effect.

2005-10-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is the floor in Sean and Rebekah's living room. Their 2 year old daughter's toys floated from the room she shares with her 9-month-old brother to settle in the living room. These toys are unsalvageable, regardless of the amount of bleach used. Rebekah is a pediatrician, and would never let a child near these things.

2005-10-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

This is the ceiling in Sean's home on Catina St. in Lakeview. The patterns would be beautiful, if they were not toxic mold. Though the water did not reach the ceiling, the damage is no less.

2005-10-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

This is Sean and Rebekah's bedroom. The kids' room is worse.

2005-10-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

This is an antique chair with horsehair stuffing. We spent a day stripping the upholstery, in an attempt to save the frame. The chair is hand-made, and was beautiful. It will be beautiful again. It belonged to Rebekah's great-grandmother.

2005-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is my friend Sean's garage. They had over 8 feet of water in their house on Catina St. in Lakeview. The interior of their home is in no better condition than the garage.

My Parents' House Didn't Flood ...

2005-10-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

Those trees on the roof and stripped-to-the plywood condition thereof caused some leaks, which damaged the ceiling.

2005-10-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

A jetski wound up on the porch of this house on Catina St. in Lakeview. The waterline is at about 7 feet here, and higher just across the street.

An Alarming View of Our House?

2005-10-03T11:57:00.000-07:00

The glass walls are unharmed, but the roof is covered in trees.

2005-10-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our patio did not survive unscathed. The roof above this was stripped to the plywood, so I'm not sure if this is wind damage, or water leakage damage. Our glass window-walls did not shatter!

2005-10-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

My parents desperately want me to clean out the refrigerator for them. I really wanted to, but after I thoroughly cleaned the exterior and the floor, an hour later this is how bad the leakage was. I'm afraid that if I open it, it will gush evil ice cream and beenie weenies.

2005-10-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

This image demonstrates how much of our roof wound up in our driveway. Amazingly, the roof over the carport was basically undamaged.

2005-10-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

These are trees that fell on the roof of my house, and debris that found its way to our lawn. One of the trees that fell up-rooted the sidewalk.

2005-10-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

My house's roof, absent some gutters, shingles, and tar paper, but with the addition of several trees. The leaking isn't as bad as one might suspect, but it is far from pleasant.

2005-10-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

My next-door neighbor's house suffered several broken windows, significant roof damage, and other destruction.

More on Tuberculosis

2005-09-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

Here are the medical facts regarding TB. It explains how passive TB can become active TB, and how transmission is accomplished.

"TB is a communicable disease caused by a bacteria or bacilli complex, mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis. One of the oldest diseases known to affect humans, it was once known as consumption or the great "white plague" because it killed so many people. Human infection with M. tuberculosis was a leading cause of death until antituberculous drugs were introduced in the 1940s. While it can affect other parts of the body, such as lymph nodes, bones, joints, genital organs, kidneys, and skin, it most often attacks the lungs. It is transmitted by a person with what is called active TB by airborne droplets projected by coughing or sneezing. When the organism is inhaled into the lungs of another, TB infection can result. Usually this happens only after close and prolonged contact with a person with active TB. Most of those who become infected do not manifest any symptoms because the body mounts an appropriate immune response to bring the infection under control; however, those infected display a positive tuberculin skin test. The infection (sometimes called latent TB) can continue for a lifetime, and infected persons remain at risk for developing active TB if their immune systems become impaired."

"Whether a person has active TB and is infectious can be determined by analyzing a smear of sputum (a substance expelled from the lungs) by staining the smear (for immediate analysis) or by culturing the bacilli (which can take longer but is more sensitive). Chest x-rays may reveal the presence of disease but not its contagiousness. Glassroth, Robins & Snider, Tuberculosis in the 1980s, 302 New Eng.J.Med. 1441-43 (1980). Unless set forth otherwise, the sources for the medical information in this opinion were the expert testimony before me and the contents of U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment publication, The Continuing Challenge of Tuberculosis, OTA-H-574 (September, 1993)."

"Typical symptoms of active TB include fatigue, loss of weight and appetite, weakness, chest pain, night sweats, fever, and persistent cough. Sputum is often streaked with blood; sometimes massive hemorrhages occur if TB destroys enough lung tissue. Fluid may collect in the pleural cavity. Gradual deterioration occurs. If active TB is not treated, death is common.Only persons with active TB are contagious. That active state is usually easily treated through drugs. Typically a short medication protocol will induce a remission and allow a return to daily activities with safety. A failure to continue with medication may lead to a relapse and the development of MDR-TB (multiple drug resistant TB), a condition in which the TB bacilli do not respond to at least two (isoniazid and rifampin) of the primary treatments, so that the active state is not easily cured and contagiousness continues for longer periods.Death often results because it takes time to grow cultures and to determine the drugs to which the organism is sensitive."

"By the time that discovery is made, it may be too late, particularly for a person whose immune system has been compromised by a co-morbidity such as HIV disease. For that reason a wide range of drugs, currently four or five, is tried initially while the cultures are grown and sensitivities detected, particularly if MDR-TB is suspected. Once sensitivities are discovered, medication can be adjusted so that ineffective drugs are eliminated and at least two effective drugs are always used. Medical treatment protocols have been established by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Thoracic Society. Active TB of the lungs is considered contagious and requires immediate medical treatment, involving taking several drugs. Usually, after only a few days of treatment, infectiousness is reduced markedly. After two to four weeks of treatment, most people are no longer contagious and cannot transmit TB to others even if they cough or sneeze while living in close quarters. Usually exposure over a prolonged time is required, and less than thirty per cent (30%) of family members living closely with an infected person and unprotected by prophylactic drugs will become infected by the patient with active TB. On the other hand, transmission has been known to occur with as little as a single two-hour exposure to coughing, sneezing, etc., of a person with active TB. To cure TB, however, continued therapy for six to twelve months may be required. Failure to complete the entire course of therapy risks a relapse and the development of MDR-TB.MDR-TB results when only some TB bacilli are destroyed and the surviving bacilli develop a resistance to standard drugs and thus become more difficult to destroy. This resistance may involve several drugs and directly results from a patient's failure to complete therapy."

City of Newark v. J.S, 652 A.2d 265 (New Jersey, 1993)

Back to the Breach!

2005-09-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

I will be making my way back into New Orleans on Saturday for the Rebuild Lakeview group's Back to the Breach meeting. We're trying to get as many elected officials and news people as possible to show up. The biggest question is why are we not being allowed back into our homes to salvage items? Pretty much nobody wants to move back in - a majority of the houses are not now and will never be habitable. People just want to get in with their insurance adjusters and try to save what little they can before the mold destroys everything that was not destroyed by the water.

If you have any interest in showing up, right now the plan is to meet at 8 a.m. Saturday, October 1. The meeting will probably be at Heritage Plaza at the foot of Veteran's Blvd, on the Metairie side of the 17th St. Canal. However, Ray Nagin is pushing us to move the meeting to a New Orleans location. The problem with that is it would be much more difficult for people to get into New Orleans proper, because the NOPD has been threatening to arrest Lakeview residents who attempt to approach their homes, and people have been getting turned back at the 17th St. Canal and being forbidden entry.

If the location is moved, I will update.

The Unnamed Menace

2005-09-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

How many of you have thought about tuberculosis recently? I know I haven't. However, today, I was informed of certain issues regarding people in shelters and TB. New Orleans has a problem with people with TB. Namely, a large number of the homeless have it. A good number of the poor people have it. They are absolutely no danger to society in terms of spreading it so long as they are receiving their treatment, be it daily, or thrice weekly, depending on the medicine. However, TB loves to create new, drug-resistant strains. How does this happen, you might ask. Well, simply put, when people are taking the year-long medication regimen, IF THEY STOP EARLY, they will not be cured, and their strain will become resistant to that medication.

So, we have people scattered in shelters all over this country, some of whom are infected with TB, and basically NONE of whome have been receiving their medication. Once unmedicated, the risk of transmission is again present. Crowded situations, high stress environments, weakened immune systems - all of these are factors for the people with TB in the dormant phase to have the disease re-activate and become contagious again.

Picture it - men, women, children, all crowded together, breathing the same stale air, heavily laden with the breath of everyone else. People under stress don't have the strongest immune systems. Inadequate nutrition merely exacerbates the problem. Throw in one or two people with the easily transmitted disease TB (which is airborne to a limited extent, btw), and you have a recipe for disaster.

I don't mean to sound alarmist, but I think we need to find out who the people with TB are, and make sure they get their medicine, both to preserve their own lives, and to safeguard the public.

On The Barge - Quoted from an e-mail from a Ms. Bruni

2005-09-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

Still, my question remains - where did the barge go??

"Prior to hurricane, there was a platform barge (not a large barge like those used on Miss. River) on the 17th street canal used to make repairs to OLd Hammond Hwy bridge.

Tuesday morning after hurricane, this barge is spotted/filmed on Belaire Drive lodged next to a house infront of the breach area.

Later in week, Wed or Thursday, aerial shots show the barge farther away from breach but still on Belaire.

Dr. Andre Bruni shot the video and State Representative John LaBruzzo owns the video.

He may be reached at his office in Metairie at (504) 833-7788.

No one knows for certain if the barge slammed into the wall and caused the breach.

It just appears to be the scenario."

Completely Pointless Thinking (ended with a really painfully dreadful pun)

2005-09-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Instead of thinking about prostitution, syphilis, gonorrhea, state police powers, and federal habeas corpus like a good little law student studying these amazingly interconnected subjects, I've been thinking about what they'll call Katrina and Rita's survivors further down in history. Those families and homes that pre-date the Civil War (War Between the States, War of Northern Agression, That Past Unpleasantness, or whatever name you like to call it) are referred to as antebellum, meaning, fittingly enough, "before the war." So, what will houses and families that survived Katrina be called? I'm thinking antediluvian (If you must ask, and I won't hold it against you, it means "before the flood").

Can't you just imagine people proudly pointing to their brick box in Lake Vista and saying "this is antediluvian! It was barely even damaged by That Past Unpleasant Smelliness and/or Wetness!"? Will people someday "ooh" and "aah" like they do over the antebellum mansions on River Road? Will people be proud to say that their ancestors lived on the Gulf "before the floods"? Or, will this just be a big, wet, feces-covered, unbelievably expensive blip on the radar of history?

All things considered, I'm just as anti-diluvian as I am antediluvian.

Dereliction of Duty

2005-09-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

According to the U.S. Supreme Court in Lausen v. Board of Supervisors, 214 N.W. 682, "It is a well-recognized principle that it is one of the first duties of a state to take all necessary steps for the promotion and protection of the health and comfort of its inhabitants. The preservation of the public health is universally conceded to be one of the duties devolving upon the state as a sovereignty ..." (emphasis added).

People are not healthy when they are drowning. It is not healthy to have to wade through neck-deep chemical-laden poo water to exit one's house. It is not healthy to live in a city lacking a steady supply of water that is not dangerous to drink or in which to bathe. So, why are people being encouraged to go back? Why are sections of the city lacking a safe water supply open to people to live, not just to go back and retrieve salvageable goods? Why is Blanco not telling Nagin "No, you fool, people cannot yet move back to that city!"?

The state had a duty to protect the citizens before Katrina struck, and they failed in that duty. The state has a continuing duty to its citizens. We are still being failed by those who have the first duty of our protection. The last thing I want is a federal takeover of the state. However, it's hard to imagine that anybody could be as self-important and willfully incompetent as the little Louisiana dictators.

Why Did the Levees Fail? The Squooshy-Levee Theory

2005-09-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

In some places, it's easy to tell why. The levee on the Industrial Canal in the 9th Ward was struck by a barge and overtopped. The London Canal and the 17th St. Canal are totally different. Rumors abound, especially regarding the 17th St. Canal Levee. There are people who claim a barge went through and wound up on Bellaire Ave. in Lakeview. I've heard that "X saw the barge on TV" and that "Y, my brother in law, got images of the barge on video tape himself." I haven't been able to substantiate either claim. My biggest problem with the barge theory is where is the barge? Barges weigh many tons, and are not the easiest things to move. You can't lift them into obscurity with a helicopter. They can't be buried under pine straw. They certainly don't have powers of invisibility, or cloaking shields a la science fiction shows. I fear I haven't ever heard of a "featherlight" barge, or even a barge with its own wheels that can be driven down flooded streets. Therefore, if a barge went through, how was it disposed of so quickly? Who has the power to do that?

As much as I truly want to find evidence of a barge so that there is someone DEFINITE to blame for the destruction of my beloved Lakeview, who can be made to pay to the grave and beyond, I'm having trouble maintaining belief in a magically disappearing barge. Then again, if they do exist, I want one. How cool would that be?

At the same time, I do NOT believe that the levee on the 17th St. Canal was overtopped. Yes, an overtopping trench would have been wiped out by the deluge of water that ran through like a pack of rampaging bulldozers attacking the rainforests of Brazil. However, it is not the lack of evidence of a trench that has me convinced that levee was not overtopped. Rather, it is the fact that the highest measured storm surge in the mouth of the canal was 10.2 feet, over a foot below critical - the point at which the levee would have been overtopped.

So, why would the levee fail, if there was no barge (please, let there have been a barge!) and no overtopping? That leaves only the dreaded complete and devastating structural failure. I think I may know why. If this article from http://www.nola.com is accurate, then it is a wonder the damn things haven't failed previously from heavy rains in the past!

Van Heerden said his survey of the levees showed that some broken walls had sheet pile bases extending only 2 or 3 feet down. Dan Hitchings, director of the Corps Mississippi Valley Division forward team working in New Orleans, said that the corps is examining the sheet piling depth as a possible issue in the failures.

I'm pretty sure that the pilings under my parents' house are 90 feet, though they may be only 30. I watched them (well, more than watched, I heard them, for almost a month at a time) driving pilings for the 5 houses built in my neighborhood since I was of age to remember such things. They were 3, 4, 5 stories high, initially. If that's what it takes to keep a house stable on the mushy, gooshy, squooshy ground of Lakeview, then imagine what it takes to keep a levee or a seawall stable. The exact same thing, right? Apparently, the corps of engineers knows more (or thinks it does) than people concerned with having their homes become all lopsided and such due to the constant and irrevocable subsidence in the neighborhood. Can we do a post-form tension repair to a levee? Somehow, I doubt it.

What I want to know is what genius, who was obviously not from anywhere around the lake area, thought 2-3 feet would be enough? Did this lady or fella never drive down Pontchartrain Blvd. and note the houses that somehow manage to lean in 3 directions at once? Did s/he never take a drive through Lakeview and watch in chagrin as his car's underpinnings came dislodged due to the cavernous craters and jutting manholes? If s/he did, how, as an engineer, could s/he not realize that THE LAND MOVES IN LAKEVIEW! IT HAS CURRENTS! IT SWELLS AND RECEDES DEPENDING ON THE WEATHER! I'm a law student with a degree in English, and I understand this.

Freakin' incompetence.

I still hope the barge rumors are true. That would mean a heck of a lot less risk for the future than damnable incompetence in construction. How many levees might be similarly squooshy?

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/
nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_27.html#083003

2005-09-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

My Bob is famous now. Damnable little diva.
http://isfullofcrap.com/oldcrap/2005/09/lets_ask_the_ca_113.html

Earwigs and Love-Bugs and Ants, Oh My!

2005-09-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Need for Ant Killer

Apparently, when the field behind my house floods most significantly twice in 4 weeks, the ants move up. By up, I mean to the sidewalk in front on my door. There are 2 large nests where only yesterday there were no ants. Being something of an ant-phobe, I tend to note where the ants are.

Earwigs are one of the more bizarre insects ever to come about. I have yet to figure out what their purpose in existing is. Silverfish exist to destroy antique book bindings. Spiders exist to eat mosquitoes. Hornets exist to make sure my heart can handle acceleration to more than 200 bpm. Earwigs are pointless. They look funny, aren't very sturdy, and apparently can fit under sealed doorframes to get into unsuspecting people's homes and then die on toothbrushes. Maybe that's their purpose - is God trying to tell me that my toothpaste is abysmally lacking in protein ... and legs?

I have figured out why the science experiment gone awry known as Love Bugs exist. My cats just love them! The cats love them best when they're "loving" ... ie, when they're stuck together booty-to-booty and can't decide which way to go. They also exist to smear on the windshield of the last refugee staying with me - Mother's Blue (Land) Whale.

Anyway, there is a point to this post. For those considering a move back to New Orleans (and any other flooded areas) ASAP, bring ant poison with you. If the driest place around is your house, that's where the ants will be. They don't care about the stinkiness. They don't care your food rotted in the fridge. They just want to build where they know they won't have to move their colony next time it rains.

2005-09-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Who, me? I couldn't be responsible for shredding your back! All I do is sit and be fat and loving. Just ask Mommy, er, I mean your shirt. Sorry about the drool stain!

2005-09-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Old and cranky, the elusive drawer-kitty Fallon sits contemplating whether or not to move today.

2005-09-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Anything you can do, I can do louder. If you don't pay attention to me NOW, I will launch myself at your most sensitive extremities, and sink my little kitty fangs in while purring. Don't forget that I'll be purring, so you should feel guilty when you get mad. So love me, dammit. Where's the beef?

2005-09-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

Attack of the 8 lb. Bob! You WILL feed me beefy-treat!

2005-09-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Totally Off the Wall

what do you do about a year-old siamese who will bite you quite hard on any exposed extremity (nose included) for attention when screaming and throwing himself against you doesn't work?

what do you do about a 16-year-old siamese who is in kidney failure and thinks that your lap, wherever it may be and whatever it may be doing, belongs to her? Is it possible to to resist squinty eyes, a ragged purr that won't cease, and a stumpy tail?

what do you do about a year-and-a-half old striped meatball who came from the dumpster who still nurses on the sheets and your shirt, and digs her claws deep into your back while you sleep and she pretends your hem is mommy?

Which ones do you coddle, and which one do you call a turdmonster?

Yeah, I love my cats.

2005-09-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

Aftermath

Things went pretty well here in Baton Rouge. We lost a powerline poll in front of my house, so we were without power for some time. Some trees, apparently weakened by Katrina, were brought down by Rita. So were many fences, including so-called "cyclone fences." Those went down in Pensacola last year, as well.

There is still no gas, but there is power and food. We have good water, at least as good as water ever is in Louisiana.

School is cancelled on Monday; for what, I do not know.

Right now, my goal is to find a way into New Orleans this coming weekend so that I can see if my parents' plywood roof leaked. We've been trying to get a roofer to blue tarp the house since Hurricane Cindy struck. The roof has reached critical mass. When I get down to New Orleans again, I'll do what I can.

Personal Responsibility

And now, a bit of bizarre musing. I'm angry at the people who had the means and ability to leave New Orleans but who for whatever reason decided to stay, or at least those who required rescuing. I have nothing but sympathy for the people who lacked means and/or ability, but why was time spent rescuing some lady in Lakeview who just didn't want to leave, when there were people who the state of Louisiana left behind who could not get out who needed rescuing? Time was spent because, at the time of the rescue, that lady was equally needy. HOWEVER, I think such people should be charged for the cost of their rescues.

We've now seen the horror that is created when people do not take responsibility for themselves, for whatever reason. To a great extent, I blame that on social programs that deprive people of any sense of self-worth. What good does it do a child to be progressed to the next grade level in school if he or she cannot do the work? All that will be bred in such a child is a sense that he or she is incapable of succeeding, and that nobody cares enough to spend the personal one-on-one time necessary to make sure that each child makes it as far as he or she is capable of doing. Where is the sense of self-worth, of accomplishment? How many correctable learning disabilities go undiagnosed in the mad rush to pass the children on to another level for which he or she is even less prepared than the last? How will those children feel any connection to a system that alienated them?

We need to incorporate all people into society. We can't leave people behind. We can't make excuses. Some people need to be pushed to succeed. Some people need to be coaxed to succeed. Everybody needs to recognize that there are different types of success. People at the top need to respect the people at the bottom, because without people who work in restaurants, people who repair cars, and people who mow lawns, the people at the top could not enjoy the lifestyles of which they are so fond. At the same time, people who hold those necessary but less "glamorous" jobs should hold resentment to a minimum, because without those wealthy enough to afford to eat out, to drive cars, and to hire someone else to tend to their lawns, those jobs would not be available. It's a matter of recognizing skill where it exists.

I live to argue, and am very good at it. I've been fortunate enough to go to schools that pushed me when I needed pushing, and comforted me when I needed comforting. My parents have been unbelievably supportive - more so than the best underwire bra could ever be. Therefore, I've made it to where that drive to argue, drive to root out what's wrong, drive to shame those that have done wrong can best be exercised - I'm in law school. I want to be an honest prosecutor, and put away people who are a danger to society, while assuring the innocent go free. On the other hand, I would be the legendary worst waitress ever to live. Putting aside my physical handicap, I just don't have the personality for it. I don't have the patience, or the charm. Being a blunt, cold-hearted little bitch doesn't help in any service industry careers. Despite my lovely academic credentials, I quite simply would not pass muster. I've been turned down from a job at Wendy's, one I really could have used.

My cousin, on the other hand, is the absolute best waiter I've ever encountered. He can work a group better than a carnival harker. He knows exactly when to be available, and when to make himself scarce. He knows how much conversation is endearing, and how much is obnoxious. It's really amazing to watch him work. If I had a restaurant, he's the first person I'd hire, and I'd make it a point never to show up, for fear of alienating the clientele.

It's a matter of taking pride in what you do. No job is any less important than any other. Where would we be if the garbage men went on strike? Drive down to New Orleans, and the smell is about what to expect after a few weeks of perishables left to putrefy in the heat. It's also a matter of being realistic. Not everybody has the requisite skill set for every possible job. That's not to say that they don't have the skills for any job. That's also not to say that many skills can't be learned. If people would honestly take a look at what it takes to work, and be grateful that people are available to do all the jobs there are, I think that would go a long way. That guy working the fryer at Wendy's (who got the job for which I was not qualified - think about that, snobs) is just as necessary to this country going on as a CEO. Billy in the mailroom keeps a corporation running.

Okay, that's enough incoherent rant. Basically, respect people. There are tons of jobs that need doing, and people need to do them. All workers deserve to be respected for working. All jobs are equally important. Don't look down on somebody who makes less money than you, and don't hate someone who makes more. It's all about returning (well-earned) dignity to the American worker, whatever he does!

Closing Thought

When a country decides to create a class of people who are completely dependent upon the state and the country, like it or not, there is an obligation to get them out of the mess we put them in.

2005-09-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Closure

The LSU law center has now been closed for over an hour, and the main campus will close in less than an hour. There is no gas in Baton Rouge. There aren't even any decent "feminine hygiene products" in Wal-Mart.

I'm really worried about the people in Lafayette, Lake Charles, and all those cities in Texas. I feel so bad for the people who were told they could move back to New Orleans, but were forced to pack up and leave again only days after.

So, here I sit with a 16 year old cat in kidney failure on my lap, playing the waiting game again. I thought games were supposed to be fun. I thought people were supposed to help each other out. I don't know what's coming.

I keep trying to think if there is something I could have done. I know how ridiculous that is. However, one of the joys of having been raised Catholic is that overabundance of amorphous guilt. 9/11 was my fault, did you know that? I needed some way to get away from my abusive ex-boyfriend who was in the military, so 9/11 happened so he would be sent to Iraq. Right. That's what sitting by myself and feeling helpless in the face of calamity does.

Do you think we'll learn from these storms? Do you think people will be more responsible in who they elect? Do you think elected officials will be more responsible in who they appoint to positions of power? Will we be able to re-create a sense of community? Will the government on every level forget about the hapless bowl-dwellers, and do nothing to make sure they can become self-enabled? The worst that can come of this is a return to things exactly as they were before, just moldy and covered in human feces and rotten flesh. The best that can come of this is that people might finally take a more active role in the political process, realizing that every level is important. You don't vote for your friend. You don't vote for the most eloquent speaker. You vote for the most effective person. You vote for the person who has demonstrated the most ability. You look for a person who can not only write up a good plan, but one who has the (pardon my language and sexist metaphor) balls to implement that plan. We need people who don't jsut care about getting to the next level personally, but people who honestly want to make a change. And change is absolutely necessary. Now is our chance. Will we take it? Or will it just float away, sink, and drown?

2005-09-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Can't Get Past This Sinking Feeling

The industrial canal levee is now leaking over both sides. The army corps of engineers is saying the levee has been overtopped, but has not breached. However, the images broadcast on TV tell a different story. When a levee is no longer levee-shaped, but rather has a big gap pouring water over people's homes, a breach seems likely. If it had just been overtopped, it would still be levee-shaped, and not have a great big hole in it!

I don't know how much longer I'll be able to post. I live directly across River Road from the Levee on the Mississippi. The weather here is getting really scary. I'm watching branches fly by, and trees over the levee are bending. The rain looks like it's floating down because the wind is scooping it back up. The wind is blowing several directions, all at once. My little tree in front of my door will first lean right, then left, then toward me. The grass on the levee is flowing like waves. It would be beautiful if I weren't aware of what's happening just south of me, and what will be happening to the west. I would take pictures, but they just couldn't do it justice.

Things will never be the same again. I'm starting to doubt if any of the lower 9th Ward will ever be re-built. Large swaths of Chalmette were already uninhabitable following Katrina. After the levee on the Industrial Canal has proven itself not up to snuff again, I can't help but wonder what it will take to make it safe, what it will take to secure the area. I don't want New Orleans to become a walled city, where the only view is of stone.

2005-09-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is not a lake. It's where I walk my dog.

2005-09-23T12:36:00.001-07:00

The levee is back there, I promise.

2005-09-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

the sky is grey

2005-09-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

the view from my home office

2005-09-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I don't feel fine

The industrial canal levee in the lower 9th Ward has been overtopped (we're getting creative - Katrina breached, Rita has now overtopped). Either way, the neighborhood that just started to dry out is now flooded again. The water is already about 4' deep there. The water has been rising at about 3" a minute.

I somehow have a feeling that the overtopping has to do with the barriers put up to prevent breaching. We'll see, and I'm no engineer, but I have my suspicions.

http://www.wdsu.com/weather/4940452/detail.html
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09_23.html#082136
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170202,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/23/rita/index.html
http://www.2theadvocate.com/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneRita/wireStory?id=1152505

If this keeps up, the levee will breach.

I'm debating whether or not to call my parents with this news. If the Industrial Canal Levee is going, it can't be that much longer until the 17th St. Canal levee follows suit. That's how it happened in Katrina.

The LSU Law School is closing at 12:45 this afternoon. I am not sure about the main campus. The rain is here, and it's pretty steady. My arm is aching to the point it's hard to type. The cats are acting bizarrely, and my dog won't leave my side, even when I go to the bathroom.

Just remember, here in Baton Rouge, we're something like 100 miles inland. Everything that I'm experiencing should be multiplied at least 10-fold, and probably 50-fold to gain some understanding of what's happening to the south of me.

I'm debating whether or not to tell my parents about the levee overtopping. They have so much to worry about, as is. I suppose that if they're curious, they can check up here, or any of the major media websites.

2005-09-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

The Baton Rouge Scene

"The wind began to twitch, the house to pitch!"

While it is not raining here at the moment, the wind is gusting along quite briskly. There is a pretty severe gas shortage. I'm glad I filled up the cars (mine and my mother's, which evacuated from New Orleans over 2 weeks after the storm to my house - evacuees are always welcome, even the mechanical sort) last night, and that I don't have anywhere to go today. I would love to find some ice, but that's futile. Most everyone said there was none last night, even.

LSU is currently open for classes, as is the law school. I wisely set up my schedule so that I would have no classes on Fridays. That means today is my day off. The people who went to school are probably a little worried. We are under a tropical storm warning.

My thoughts are with the families of the 45 people killed in the explosion on the charter bus in Dallas. The elderly, rich or poor, are so vulnerable. http://www.wdsu.com/news/5010437/detail.html

New Orleans is not yet out of danger. It has been raining there continuously since last night. The only blessing, if it can be called such, is that the areas where the already-damaged levees could breach would flood areas already flooded. Most of the houses in Lakeview will have to be bulldozed, and the rubble will have to be burned. No amount of Clorox could save them, and the neighborhood is not old enough to have used cypress in construction. People may believe the homes to be salvageable, but that black mold is actually eating through plaster and sheetrock. I've seen it, and worse, I've smelled it. There is not enough Vick's Vapo-Rub in the world to block out the smell of a dead house, where the floorboards have warped over a foot high, sharp, and pointy, and the black mold grows on the floor that's ankle-deep in poo-mud, the walls that have buckled, and the ceiling. And I'm not a person who would advocate the demolition of Lakeview: my great-grandmother actually designed many of the houses. I knew her, and I miss her greatly. Additionally, my income was derived from businesses on and around Harrison Ave. We will re-build them, but we are not going to try to salvage the buildings. The health risks are unbelievable.

And then there's Lake Pontchartrain. The most recent scientific tests claim that the lake is not nearly as polluted as was first believed. I am ordinarily very skeptical if anything sounds good following absolute devastation; however, this is plausible. The lake of 4 weeks ago was the healthiest lake we've had, even in my parents' lifetime. The levels of coliform bacteria, something that always plagued the lake due to moronic sewerage ideas, were minimal. The heavy metals were barely present. While I would not have drunk from the lake, I would have no compunctions about sailing on it and accidentally falling in. 15 years ago, the thought of falling in made my and my mother's skin crawl. While I think the lake is doubtless nowhere near the condition it was 4 weeks ago, I doubt if it's as bad as it was during my childhood, when the sewers ran into it. The clean-up took less than a decade after that. I think the lake will be healthy a lot sooner than most people expect.

It's still not raining outside, but the wind is getting so strong that I'm debating bringing in the wrought iron chairs (they weigh almost as much as I do) now, rather than later.

Oh yes, the bug lady came by today and sprayed. Hopefully, that will end my charming earwig infestation.

Everyone, be safe. I've got my bottled water, 2 gassed up cars, peanut butter, and pet carriers. I don't think Baton Rouge is going to see any more than we saw in Katrina, but there is one severe problem. People have neatly stacked their downed trees and limbs on the curbs. Almost 4 weeks after Katrina, and they're still there. These are missiles. This could be ugly.

2005-09-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

Tracking Rita

We in Baton Rouge have already experienced our first, brief band of rain. About an hour ago, the skies opened up, the wind shrilled through the trees, and a 10 minute deluge ensued. I hate to think what this is doing to New Orleans, when we're here about 100 miles inland.

That marvelous high pressure system that was keeping Rita at bay, and shifting her downward and westward has moved up into Mississippi. Rita is already past MS, and is about directly south of New Orleans. I'm predicting a Lake Charles hit on this one. I'm wishing it on Nebraska. In a fit of pique, I have decided that our Northwestern Buddies haven't ever gotten to experience a hurricane, and that it's about time they did. That isn't serious. I don't wish the devastation of a hurricane on anyone, not even Nebraska. Why Nebraska, you might ask? I don't know. It just seems right.

Even better at tracking storms than NOAA, my formerly shattered and as-yet-unhealed after 3 years right arm is sending me the message that this is going to be unpleasant. Even if the storm is not destined to be unpleasant for me, the swelling and aching in my arm certainly is. My arm was dead-on accurate predicting Katrina would be close, and that Ivan would not even let loose a gust of wind here in Baton Rouge.

My riding lesson for Friday afternoon has been cancelled. I've offered to go over and help with the horses if they need it.

Right now, I should be preparing for Criminal Justice II. I should not be worried that the LSU/UT game will be cancelled. I already made it through Matrimonial Regimes, and the discussion of how to classify insurance policies and pensions when a marriage is terminated either by divorce or by death. I also made it through Administrative Law, where we learned when you get a pre-action hearing, and when you don't. Technical stuff helps keep me from worrying.

I also wonder what operas were going to play in New Orleans this season? I miss having season tickets.

As if anyone cared, I'm going to try to keep everything up to date as to the situation in Baton Rouge. As it is, we don't have any room for any more refugees. Everything necessary for life is in short supply, including toilet paper. Traffic is a nightmare. Even without people being scared, it can take over an hour to go 10 miles on the interstate. The surface roads are no better. I'm trapped here, so I'm really hoping the storm stays away, far away.

2005-09-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Rita and Further Ruminations

Right now, as I start writing, it's 9 a.m. CST. Generally, we get updates on the projected storm path around this time. I'm exhausted beyond imagination. I am trying to keep up with my school work, and trying to keep up with my family, as we've been spread from Houston to New York, and my friends have wound up even further out. My support base is greatly diminished.

Hurricane Rita has me worried to the extent that I'm somewhat wrecked. There's a high pressure system sitting over Louisiana as I type, but it's already moved, and earlier than expected. High pressure systems keep hurricanes at bay. The movement of this high pressure system is what's pulled the storm's projected path eastward. The storm is going to hit somewhere. Wherever it hits, it will be catastrophic. That's the definition of a category 5 storm on the saffir-simpson scale. Of course, I hope it hits as far west as possible, but that's my own bias. It's not that I wish the storm on anybody, I just wish it away from my hometown. Truly, what I wish is for the hurricane to evaporate. It happens.

However, at this point in time, wishing is just silly. It isn't bringing back my family's business. It isn't bringing back the dead. It isn't causing the mold in my friends' homes to become any less toxic or any less omnipresent. It isn't helping me lose the 15 lbs I put on this summer.

On another note, no less hurricane-related, this is a list of the restaurants I feel I must visit again, whether or not they still exist.

1. Tony Angello's on Fleur de Lis at Harrison Ave. It was under at least 10' of water, and probably more like 20'. It was my grandfather's favourite restaurant, and was consistently the best italian food I've ever had, including on my trip to Italy in the mid-1980s.
2. The Marina Grill. I don't know whether the building survived. It was right on the lake, outside of the main floodwall. They had good white beans, and incredible fried shrimp.
3. R&O's in Bucktown on Old Hammond Hwy. Sid-Mar's, just across the highway, was literally smashed. Nobody makes a better crab stuffing po' boy. Nobody has better 3-cheese cheese fries. The whole neighborhood used to go there on Saturday nights when I was a child. I left one of my favorite books there, and never saw it again. My mother knocked herself unconscious walking into a window unit that stuck out over the sidewalk.
4. Antoine's in the French Quarter. I want a crabmeat omelet and crawfish cardinale. After Katrina, I won't be able to afford to eat there for a long while. At least that will give them time to re-build the brick wall that fell off the restaurant.
5. Lebanon Cafe on Carrollton Ave. near the river. Just the best lebanese food in the city, no more, no less. It might re-open sooner than most on this list.
6. The Camellia Grille on Carrollton Ave. right before St. Charles Ave. I want an orange freeze and a cheeseburger with grilled onions. I also want french fries. I want to gorge myself on greasy-delicious food while sitting on a wobbly stool. There is no better burger anywhere, and it's even affordable enough to eat there any day. I hope it reopens. Waiting in line for an hour for a stool is worth it for food that good.

I'm sure that I'll think of more restaurants as time goes on. Those are my top 6. There are others, of course, but I'm not desperate to get home to them.

To everyone within the cone of Rita, be safe, be careful, and if you can, get out. Trust me, you don't want to learn what it's like to have stayed behind.

2005-09-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

PERCEPTION'S A-CHANGING (a close-textual analysis of a song out of time)

To me, rarely does a song perfectly express what I see, because it was written by someone else seeing with their own eyes. Perception is the thing that isolates and insulates us most of all, more than any defense mechanism barrier we can erect. Just think of eyewitness reports. Each person saw a different thing, though the event that was witnessed was not factually different for any one observer. I tend to focus on the heights of things and people involved. There are people who focus on lighting, people who focus on colour, people who focus on smells or sounds. What we see is coloured by our experiences. Where one might see a gaggle of school children, another might see a gang.

What I find most bizarre is when a protest song of 1964 so perfectly fits what I'm experiencing and that to which I'm bearing witness in 2005. Bob Dylan's "The Times They are a-Changin'" struck me with an eerie sense of fitting a little too well.

The song begins with what was then a water metaphor, but now is the reality faced in the aftermath of Katrina. Dylan then contends that the only way to survive is to "start swimmin'" meaning that action is necessary. After Katrina, people had to start acting on their own, supporting themselves. Merely waiting passively to be rescued by those held up by governmental unpreparedness and ineptitude was a death sentence.

While the second stanza referred in its time to a broad segment of society whom Dylan called the "losers" finally, though they were not on top at that moment, it applies equally well to all of us from the devastated Gulf region who will have to rebuild our lives. We are the losers. All of us who survived have lost. We have lost possessions, cars, homes, acquaintances, friends,family members, loved ones. Rather than being a rallying cry for the downtrodden, now, it's a call of hope. We will be later to win.

Perhaps the most fitting line of all in terms of Hurrican Katrina is "for he that gets hurt/ will be he that gets stalled". Ray Nagin stalled on calling for a mandatory evacuation. People died because of that. Their deaths will haunt him for the rest of his life, and this could easily kill his career in politics. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco stalled federalizing the National Guard, and the troops under her command are still trying to keep aid from reaching people in New Orleans. When people raise the cry against her inaction, and they must, she will be hurt where it hurts politicians the most - at the polls. The Louisiana Congressional Delegation stalled on drawing the nation's attention to the inadequacies in new Orleans and the surrounding areas in terms of preparation for such a storm and ability to withstand such a storm. The federal government was stalled, partly by Posse Comitatus and Blanco's dilly-dallying, and partly by the sub-par FEMA leadership. The feds are hurting now. And there's one more group that was hurt by stalling, even though their stalling was, for the most part, involuntary. Those who failed to get out of New Orleans suffered most of all. People died. Both children and adults will be scarred for life, both emotionally and for many physically, by what they experienced in the days following Katrina. "Windows and walls" were shaken, not by protests as Dylan predicted, but by winds and later by looters.

The third stanza does not fit quite so well literally, though it still makes a brilliant metaphor, and not through any linguistic stretch. People throughout the land are told not to criticize "what you don't understand." What I've seen while talking to people from places other than New Orleans is a lack of sympathy for people who chose to live in a city that is shaped, as the media so loves to remind us, like a bowl. They think it's foolish to re-build in many of the flooded areas. What they don't understand is the love of home and the love of land most New Orleanians feel. Many of our families have been here not only for decades or generations, but for centuries. The ties to community create a physical yearning. Most people with sense knew how damaged New Orleans' society was before the storm, and wanted to get out. Most of those who got out, even to exciting places like New York City, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago, they came back. Now that we've seen what a near miss category 4 could do, we still feel that draw to return home, and we will. Additionally, so many of those who are criticizing our apparent inability to elect effective leadership to positions of power are definitely in the position of the pot calling the kettle black. After all, why don't people in Massachusetts ask Ted Kennedy how to rescue people trapped by high water? Oh, wait, he only knows how to rescue himself! All those who criticize New Orleans are not doing anybody any good. It is demoralizing to hear it, especially for people who have lost everything. There is a time for blame, and that day of reckoning is fast approaching, but right now is a time for solidarity and for coming together to help. If you are not helping but are speaking, trust me, you are probably hindering. Perhaps my favourite lines from this stanza are "please get out of the new one/ if you can't lend a hand". There are those who physically can't help with the creation of La Nouveau Nouvelle Orleans, but who are still needed in terms of morale - they can lend a hand by lending their verbal support. Honestly, anybody who won't "lend a hand" on any level at all is not needed or particularly wanted. Everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, has something to offer, if s/he will.

The final stanza is a cry of hope. The line has been drawn, and it is a battle line. We will have to fight to rebuild. We will have to fight our emotions so that we can act. The curse has been cast. A mutated but equally effective version of the legendary "worst case scenario" predicted for New Orleans for decades now has come to pass. We are all slow now, all over the affected Gulf Coastal Region, as we cope with emotions for which the English language lacks words to express. Sorrow is trite; longing is cliched; anger is too weak an emotion. I hope that Dylan's words prove prophetic and that we later are fast. When the "present now" later becomes past, we will have had time to heal and recover. We need time to think, and we need time for the panic to subside. We need time to formulate our attack. Right now, as cliched as it sounds, all we have is time. We also need time to mourn. If the order is construed as nepotism, political incompetence, and reliance upon that which has proven since time immemorial unreliable, I hope it's "fadin'". The only reason "the first ones now/ will later be last" is that we who are now last will come back, having learned from this most terrible experience, and we will re-create something that will be both authentic and yet far superior. Not many regions have had to cope with such a catastrophe on both the human and environmental fronts, but having thus coped, we will come out first, because nobody, not even Mother Nature herself, can beat us.

The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan, 1964)

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

I really just like the adorable kitten picture.

2005-09-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

You Are A: Kitten!

Cute as can be, kittens are playful, mischevious, and ever-curious. Your mischevious side is part of what makes you a kitten, as is your dislike of getting wet! Kittens are often loving, but are known to scratch or bite when annoyed. These adorable animals are the most popular pets in the United States--37% of American households have at least one cat. Whether it is your gentle purr or your disarming appearance, you make a wonderful kitten.

You were almost a: Parakeet or a Bear Cub
You are least like a: Turtle or a Groundhog What Cute Animal Are You?