YatBazaar

Streetcar Saturday! - Public Transit in Helsinki.

Photos and thoughts also at CanalStreetCar (dot com)

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I've regularly been critical of ticket price increases by the New Orleans Saints in the past, but this year, I agree with Ken Trahan:

The New Orleans Saints now have a waiting list of approximately 60,000, according to team officials. They have sold out via season tickets since 2006. Clearly, there is a huge market for purchasing tickets to New Orleans Saints games. If you are a current season ticket holder and want to see the Saints play for years to come, bite the bullet, pay the increase and hold on to your tickets. If you do not, there are 60,000 eager to do so at the new prices and possibly more.

That's what happens when you've got a winner-people are willing to pay to see them play.

With NFLPA labor negotiations getting testy in the off-season, it will be interesting to see what information about the Saints' finances goes public.

TGIF from Helsinki! St. Joseph's Day and the traditions behind the holidays here in New Orleans.

Check out the photos that Judy Walker of the Times-Picayune is posting from various altars around town - http://twitter.com/judywalkertp

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Sail On, Alex Chilton:

Tech Thursday - Smart Phones in Europe - Teaming up a Google G1 phone with an iPod Touch.

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Multiply life by the Power of Two...

I've noticed that people come to YatPundit occasionally because they Google the term "Hubig's Pies." When I originally wrote the subtitle of the blog as "Politics, Funky Music, and Hubig's Pies," I pretty much assumed that everyone knew what a Hubig's Pie was, or wouldn't really care.

Hubig's Pies are a fried turnover, originally created in Dallas by Simon Hubig. Hubig was a German immigrant who set up his first bakery in Dallas. When he saw the popularity of his hand-held fried pies, Hubig expanded operations into Houston, New Orleans, Birmingham, even into Illinois and Georgia. Simon Hubig's dreams of going national were crushed in the stock market crash of 1929. Hubig was forced to sell his all of his bakeries and warehouses except for the one in New Orleans. Hubig also had to take on a partner, which is how the Bowman family came to be the current owners of the bakery.

Prior to the storm, Hubig's made three main items: hand-held fried pies, individual deep-dish pies, and nine-inch "family pies."

This is the classic fried Hubig's pie. It's cut from the same half-moon die they've used on Dauphine street for over 80 years. The pies are fried, smothered in sugar icing, packaged, and sent to over 3500 retail outlets in southern Louisiana. They come in a number of flavors, including apple, lemon, peach, pineapple, chocolate, cherry, coconut, blueberry, banana, blackberry, strawberry, and sweet potato.

Some of the flavors are strictly seasonal, such as strawberry, sweet potato, and the ever-elusive blackberry. Hubig's only makes these when they can get fresh local fruit, and if the crop isn't running well enough, they'll skip them if they have to.

Before the storm, Hubig's sold individual deep-dish baked pies.  These used the same fillings as the fried pies, but had less sugar on them.  Since the storm, however, the bakery did not re-start production of either size of the baked pies.  While not as popular (and only marginally healthier) than the fried pies, the deep-dish pies nonetheless had a strong following. Mr. Hubig didn't start out thinking he would be the king of hand-held fried pies in the south. His original plan was to sell regular-sized "family" pies. The Dauphine St. factory still makes nine-inch pies in a number of flavors. These were served as dessert in a number of New Orleans restaurants, and were sold at many local groceries, as well as local Wal-Mart stores.

Hubig's Pies are a local institution and tradition. You can see their delivery fans all over town, bringing out flats of the freshly-baked pies to stores of all kinds.  And of course, they're Saints fans!

Politics Wednesday - Mitch Landrieu's legacy hinges on how he handles NOPD.

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But hey, when it involves a lying sack of crap like Rove, it's still good reading:

That's what's always been frustrating about the criticisms of New Orleans and Louisiana originating from Bush's inner circle. The criticisms aren't necessarily untrue, but who are they to talk?

Blanco described Rove as a propagandist and said, quite accurately, "The White House was late to the game, and so they shifted the blame." She also said that Rove's book was not to be taken seriously.

It's a good response to a charlatan selling a book. Worth your time to read.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr. P. Paul Breaux, but he certainly did have an effect on my life. Mr. Breaux was the founder of the Breaux Mart supermarkets, and I worked as a bag boy and porter at his store on Severn Avenue in Metairie in the summer of 1974. That job gave me my first taste of working at a "real" job. I only got paid minimum wage as a bag boy (then $2/hour), but I did get $3/hour when working as a porter. That was good money back in the day.

Mr. Breaux passed on Monday. Blessings to him and his family.