November 2007 Archives

Unlike wherever you came from originally, New Orleanians are, by and large, a friendly lot. We tell people good morning when we pass by on the sidewalk. People are more likely to wave at someone in a car when at a red light. We're more likely to chat each other up in line at the coffee shop in the morning.

Get used to it.

As much as sometimes the rest of the Baptist South doesn't like to claim New Orleans, we're still part of the south. Not only is the city steeped in Southern Culture, we pretty much created a goodly portion of said culture. That means you should expect to hear yourself referred to in a number of different manners depending on the social or business situation.

Get used to it.

For openers, we tend to go a step beyond friendly; we're polite. You'll hear a lot of "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am" when working with folks. In business settings, that politeness takes on a more formal tone. You may find yourself referred to as "Ms. So-and-so" by people when you're introduced. Even after someone's been working with you for a few hours or days, they may still put that "Ms." in front of your first name. (The increase in our hispanic population in the city has compunded this particular reference, since a lot of Mexicans and Central Americans would use "senor" or "senora" in conversation in Spanish. They automatically use the honorific in English as well.)

Get used to it.

When you get into a retail setting, the rules change a bit. A lot of people who work in bakeries, po-boy places, grocery stores, and restaurants don't feel the need to be as formal. They've got a "mi casa es su casa" attitude about their place of business, and it shows.

Get used to it.

New Orleanians love endearments. Whether it's darlin' (usually pronounced "dawlin"), heart, boo, honey, hun, or sweetie for a woman, or cap, sport, buddy, or big guy for a man, people who work in retail want to be friendly. They want you to feel like you're family. If they knew your name, they'd start with "Hi, Ms. Jane," but even then, they'll lapse back to heart or darlin'. If they don't know your first name, they don't want you to feel left out, so you'll be boo from the get-go.

Get used to it.

Women and men both use these endearments. They transcend age--you might see a thirty-something woman call a sixty-something female customer "sweetie," and the older lady isn't going to take offense. Same goes for men. These guys aren't lounge lizards who are trying to hit on women in a bar; it's not sexual harassment.

Get used to it.

How we behave towards each other is part of the social contract we all buy into when we move into a community. There's a codocil in that contract in this community that says these sorts of endearments are not to be considered offensive, nor do they create a hostile workplace. If you don't want to be addressed as "honey" or "boo," I'm sure you can get your coffee at a national chain like Starbucks, where their standards are defined more by people that come from places like you do rather than New Orleanians. If you prefer eating our food and drinking our coffee, however, you have to accept our social contract.

Get used to it.

Or don't, we really don't care. Well, actually we do care. We hate to think we've been rude to folks.

Love,
YatPundit

Alan at Think New Orleans documents the latest smackdown on one of the "why bother rebuilding New Orleans" crowd. I suppose it's better to increase awareness and refute these assholes, so to that extent, I'm glad Kevin, Tim, Alan and company are willing to do that.

Personally, I don't have either the time or the desire to engage the Flat Earth Society.

It's not like there's any question about rebuilding New Orleans. Those who suggest any outcome other than the city returning to its pre-storm role in the economy and culture of the country are as far out on the fringe as the folks who think they can put up a fence and keep out our little brown brothers and sisters from Mexico, or those who thought that the Eebil Coloreds would stay in Houston after they were bused away during the storm.

Still, just like the ADL engages holocaust deniers, I suppose there's merit in engaging these people.

I just don't have the patience.

That, and I'm talking to a guy who wants to donate a 50+ year old NOPSI bus to NOSRA, so we can restore it and run it in this city that shouldn't be rebuilt.

No big surprise. Even though he's from Pascagoula, Northrup Grumman's new hero is Mary Mary, since she's in the majority. Trent's brother-in-law is one of the biggest trial lawyers on the gulf coast, and he's suing State Farm on behalf of Trent because the company screwed him on storm damage like they're doing all too many people. Add all that up and it was likely he wasn't going to run. Faced with another year of carrying water for the Worst President Evah, I'd consider quitting, too.

My first memory of Trent Lott was back in high school, when Lott served on the House Judiciary Committee. He was the first "no" vote against the Nixon impeachment resolution that was sent to the full House. Tool then, tool now.

(h/t Karen)

Schroeder writes:

Despite his contemptuous statement not to rat on his corrupt associates, convicted former Councilman Oliver Thomas will never get away from being a rat to the citizens of New Orleans for his refusal to cooperate with federal prosecutors investigating government corruption. If Thomas didnt have information with which to negotiate, there never would have been a plea deal.

The accuracy of this statement all depends on how you define "the citizens of New Orleans." It's important to remember that Thomas was Councilcritter for District B prior to taking the at-large seat. He represented da hood, and now he's representing da hood by not cooperating with 5-0. I don't know the status of our felons-can't-vote laws in Louisiana, but given that he's going to Club Fed, it's not even a state conviction. He'll be out in the Fall of 2010, too late to run in that year's elections, but that gives him about three more years to rehabilitate his reputation. Watch him become a tireless jailhouse advocate for affordable housing and the "right of return." Once released, he goes to work for a nonprofit advocacy group, and rebuilds his voter base.

By the time he's out of jail, he'll once again a pillar of the community. The only people that will see his "redemption" as a cynical act will be the folks who would never have voted for him anyway.

OK, so rather than give up Marc, Pampy gave up Oliver, and now Oliver gets 37 months because he won't cooperate. Morial's boy threw Thomas under the bus, yet he's going to be a stand-up guy to the tune of three years in Club Fed?

All the while, Markey-Marc continues to live a very respectable life in NYC as the head of the Urban League.

There's a piece or two missing to this puzzle. I wonder how far Letten's managed to dig into this.

For all that Da Paper is outraged that the presidential debate commission doesn't want to host a debate in New Orleans, they avoid the main reason for that decision.

Da Paper waxes eloquently in both a news article and an editorial about how the commission is essentially full of crap when they say the city is not ready. They point out other events that have come or are coming to the city. They point out that the "security" argument is a dog that won't hunt, since a number of presidential candidates as well as the disrespectful piece of shit who lives in the white house have all come to town recently.

Since they're regularly inclined to endorse Republicans, they stop short at telling their readers the real reason we won't be hosting a presidential debate: The Republicans just don't want to. If they agree to debating in New Orleans, they and their 2008 standard-bearer will be forced to take ownership of the Federal Flood, Heckuvajob Brownie, and Rove's Reconstruction.

Having a debate in New Orleans is like the Green Bay Packers playing the Super Bowl at Lambeau Field. There are some home field advantages that no team can overcome, and this is one of them.

What's funny about this editorial is that commenters to the on-line edition blame the loss of the debate on former DA Eddie Jordan and the Eebil Coloreds. Yup, blame it on the blacks, that always works.

There needs to be an award along the lines of the "Darwin Awards" for those who feel the overwhelming desire to commit career suicide. Take that gal from down the bayou last week, who's running for state rep and called a black woman "Buckwheat," for example, she could be a charter inductee.

This week, we've got the rocket scientists of the Jeff Parish Public Works Department:

Terrence Lee, a black sewerage department worker, said last week that he felt racial hostility when he entered the work space occupied by his supervisors, superintendent Bill Hartline and foreman Michael Chauvin, and when he walked past the Confederate flag plate on a truck owned by general superintendent Glenn Miller.

In addition to the noose, Lee said there was a bullwhip and a dartboard with a photo of a black man as the bull's eye.

Parish investigators said the seven supervisors had a responsibility to uphold the rules but did not do so.

A lot of these folks in parish jobs operate with a sense of entitlement that gives them a feeling of career immortality. They forget that, even though Broussard just won re-election, he's not looking to go on CNN anytime soon for them. Politicians across the spectrum are quick to throw anyone under the bus if it can save their own skin. These guys should have realized that if Broussard was willing to sacrifice Maestri over the storm, he'd gladly give them up.

I'm willing to accept a lot as a Democrat, but abject stupidity in the list. Calling someone "Buckwheat" is just bloody stupid:

HOUMA, La. -- A state representative in a runoff election infuriated civil rights leaders after she ended a conversation with the mother of the NAACP's local president by saying, "Talk to you later, Buckwheat." State Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, of Morgan City, acknowledged she made the remark during a Thursday night telephone conversation with Hazel Boykin to thank her for driving voters to the polls. ... Hazel Boykin's son, Jerome, is the NAACP's president in Terrebonne Parish. She is well-known as a 1960s civil rights activist, helping to desegregate restaurants and the parish school system.

Incredible. I wonder if Dartez even knows what Buckwheat looks like, or if she just grew up thinking it was all right to call black folks that name.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the National Guard MPs staying around the city. It's just that yesterday, I saw two MP units (four Guardsmen) having coffee at the Starbucks on Harrison Avenue in Lakeview. This morning, on my way to Gentilly, I saw MPs in City Park, and on Gentilly Blvd, between Paris Avenue and De Saix Blvd.

I've never heard St. Leo the Great parish referred to an "outlying area" before.

The good news about this announcement is that Supt. Riley says the city's getting 150 new NOPD officers.

I swear, band drummers never stop tapping...maybe it's a better idea than the meds:

Drugs for ADHD 'not the answer' Craig Buxton has been on medication for a decade Treating children who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with drugs is not effective in the long-term, research has shown.

A study obtained by the BBC's Panorama programme says drugs such as Ritalin and Concerta work no better than therapy after three years of treatment.

Read the full article. I've never been a big fan of these meds, but some parents swear by them. I've been fortunate that mine aren't ADHD.

"K-ville," Fox's police drama set in post-storm New Orleans, has shot 11 of the 13 episodes that Fox ordered, but the strike by the WGA has put the brakes on the last two. If the show dies the death it deserves, the producers will blame the strike, of course, but it sounds like the network has killed the show in spite of the strike:

Fox on Wednesday released a strike-shuffled schedule for January and beyond, and "K-Ville" isn't on it. But the show's main NOPD station-house set, built in a Harahan warehouse, will not be disassembled immediately.
Wednesday was the last day of shooting on the series' 11th episode. Five episodes have aired. Original episodes are scheduled to air the next three Mondays at 8 p.m. on WVUE-Channel 8, but the three remaining completed episodes do not yet have air dates.

Curious. Very Curious, as Mr. Ollivander would say. At a time when the pool of new material to put on the air is dwindling rapidly, Fox doesn't have "K-ville" in the line up. Hmmm, I wonder why?
I watched the pilot and didn't come back. It's a Bad TeeVee Show. Still, the show is a boon for our re-building teevee/film industry post-storm. Production companies hire local help, they cast local folks. Shooting days are catered, lots of materials are purchased or rented, you get the idea. Whatever the quality of the product that ultimately reaches the small screen, even the short life of "K-ville" has helped the metro area.
Perhaps a good show set in New Orleans will rise out of the ashes of this one.

Particularly since it's read by Garrison Keillor:

The Gospel of Jesus Read by Garrison Keillor

Centuries ago, early Christians listened as the Bible was read to them. This new recording continues that tradition with a conversational translation performed by America’s favorite storyteller. Garrison reads a version of the New Testament that blends details from all the gospels into a single book-length story.

Based on the New Living Translation, a Bible famous for putting the Word into everyday English, it’s a pleasure to hear. 8 hours.

No doubt the wingnuts will freak at the concept, though, since any attempt to boil down all four canonical gospels into one reading just has to be heretical to them.

Schinkel family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery Number Three

In spite of this being a tomb for a German family, the style is French, and typical to St. Louis #3. The family was a bit more well-off than some, and this is demonstrated by the urn ornament on top, as well as the sculptured trim around the tomb.

This tombstone tells an interesting story. The first name is that of what we assume is the family patriarch, Edward, but he wasn't the first one buried here. Bertha Henriette, who died at the age of 23 months, was buried in the tomb five and a half years before Edward. This might explain the frilly-ness of the tomb, the flowers and rosettes carved into the front, as well as the flower-draped crosses on the upper pillar.

The draped urn is a common symbol of mourning. There's no specific significance to the urn beyond this. It's an expression of the grief of a family losing a two-year old baby.

The story of the Cordts burials could be an interesting one. John Henry was 33 when he passed in 1870, but Mary Felicite was 9. Father and daughter? This is also a good example of why many families have "double" tombs, so more than one person can be buried within a year and a day of each other.

Sometimes news items from El Reg are poignant, sometimes they're goofy, and sometimes they have something to say that's spot-on and scary on more than one level. Here's one of those, from India:

Police in India wrongfully arrested and detained a Bangalore man for 50 days after internet service provider Airtel mis-identified him as the person who posted images on Orkut that insulted a revered historical figure.

Lakshmana Kailash K., a 26-year-old techie, was arrested at his home on August 31 and transported to Pune, more than 10 hours away, according to news reports. He was held for 50 days and was released three weeks after police claimed to have apprehended the real people responsible for the posting.

OK, shit happens, right? Stories of mistaken identity can come from all corners of the earth these days. But here's the part of the article that struck home for me:

Google has said repeatedly it has no option but to cooperate with official law enforcement inquiries - such as this case. Indian police are saying it's not their fault for wrongly detaining a man for 50 days. And an Airtel representative was quoted saying the company is "distressed by the severe inconvenience" caused to their customer.

Translation: if you live in a country where freedom of speech is not protected, you can be imprisoned for weeks at a time for no other reason than you use the net. Sure, Google and your ISP may feel bad about your plight, but they certainly won't be standing behind you.

In these days of rendition, the various incarnations of the PATRIOT Act, and Vice President Cheney, the foul-mouthed Dick, we're not talking run-of-the-mill banana republic here. The above two paragraphs apply not only to India, but the United States of America as well.

A teen suicide incident is guaranteed to make people look up from their daily routine and take notice, and the case of Joseph Lynn, an 8th grader at John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, LA, was no exception:

[Acting Headmaster J. T.] Curtis said the Metairie boy used a small pistol to shoot himself in the head between the girls and boys gymnasiums of the school at 10125 Jefferson Highway. Authorities did not know where Lynn got the weapon.

As is all too often the case when a young person from a relatively well-off family attempts suicide (Lynn is still alive, albeit on life support), nobody directly involved in "Big Joe's" life saw this coming:

Lynn's parents authorized the school to release his name to the public so that the public might pray for him. Curtis said neither Lynn's parents nor his teachers saw any indication that the teen was in distress. He was a B-C student who played on the eighth-grade football team and seemed happy.

Look to the storm for problems. Da Paper's article mentions some things to look for in a teen's behavior that may indicate problems, but I'd go a step further and apply some storm-sense to the process as well.

How did the teen fare the storm? If not, s/he may have lost an important support network. Houston is a long way away from New Orleans. The storm and its aftermath traumatized many an adult, so it shouldn't be a surprise that it messed up the teens as well. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, I went to way too many Masonic funerals. In January of 2006 alone, the Louisiana Relief Lodge #1 performed the Masonic Burial Ceremony at 28 funerals, which is three more than we did in all of 2005. Many elderly folks simply gave up, losing the will to live. Teens lived through the same trauma, but their bodies aren't going to simply "give up" like those of their grandparents. They're forced to live with the trauma and the depression which often accompanies it.

What happened to the teen's friends? Yeah, I know, families move away from a neighborhood all the time, and the kids who are still there cope. What you don't see is multiple families leaving simultaneously. If a teen's peer-level support network vanishes overnight, that's going to impact their behavior. Some kids don't make new friends easily, so they rely heavily on the friends they have. Snatch one or more of those friends away from a kid, and they're going to have hard time adjusting.

How much time is a teen spending on-line? This is going to seem counter-intuitive, because we usually associate being on Teh Internetz a lot with the social misfits. In the case of a kid who's lost friends to storm-related relocation, they should be communicating with them. In the immediate weeks following the storm, my then 17-year old was regularly buried into the display of his mobile phone, texting his friends. He knew when his school was re-opening before I did as a result. If a teen has close friends they're not keeping up with, that's a red flag.

What's the school like now? No school in metro New Orleans is the same as it was before the storm. Even the well-established schools, like John Curtis, or the various Catholic schools in the area, are down in terms of enrollment. Many received anywhere from slight to severe damage. Public schools in New Orleans are radically different post-storm, being run by charter organizations, if they re-opened at all. Kids develop expectations about school, from their parents, older siblings, and friends. Those expectations were very much shot down on 29-Aug-2005. Athletic programs that were historically strong pre-storm have lost students. So have bands, clubs, and other groups. The composition of faculties has changed as well, as families of teachers have been forced to re-locate.

Now, take all the classic teen angst, girl/boyfriend troubles, parental conflict, sibling rivalry, and pile it on top of the storm issues. Mix it all together in a state like Louisiana where anybody over the age of ten can get their hands on a pistol, and, well, you get the idea.

We've seen in military vets that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is something that doesn't go away overnight. Parents of children who survived the storm have their work cut out for them in terms of monitoring their kids' behavior.

But if you can't offer one as a reason for hanging one, you deserve to be fired:

THIBODAUX, La. -- A Thibodaux police officer was ultimately fired for having a Confederate license plate and a noose hanging from the rear-view mirror of his personal car, Chief Craig Melancon.

Cpl. Michael Rodrigue had the vehicle parked on city property. A dozen black police officers went to the chief of police about the display.

"They're hurt by it. You know, what could he possibly be representing to put something like this up?" Melancon said.

The problem is not the noose by itself, but the combination of the Confederate flag and the noose. Seriously, the noose could be explained. Look at the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office. Former Judge Ronald Bodenheimer (R-Club Fed), prior to taking the bench (and subsequently going to jail), Bodenheimer was an assistant district attorney in Jefferson parish. On the wall in his chambers was a "Big Prick" award, a giant hypodermic needle commerating one of the death-penalty cases Bodenheimer prosecuted and won. Subsequent to that, Jefferson Parish ADAs began to sport ties with hangman's nooses and "grim reapers" on them. The practice was banned after defense attorneys complained, but it's an example that Cpl. Rodrigue could have used to defend himself.

Well, had he not put up the rebel flag, of course.

I hope they have a "STUPID" stamp to use on his termination papers down in Thibodaux.

Perley A. Thomas streetcar 932, outbound on N. Carrollton, heading to Beauregard Circle. We've had some gorgeous afternoons this Autumn, perfect days for hopping on a streetcar and going out to City Park.

Note that the rollsign on 932 is empty. The rollsigns for the operating 900-series streetcars are as they were when they were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. That means they only have "St. Charles" and "Special," since all the other streetcar lines had been discontinued at that time.

The arch-roof architecture of the 900s dates to 1915, when the 400-series cars designed for Southern Car Company by Mr. Thomas hit the streets of New Orleans. This distinctive design continues to this day, with not only the 900-series but also the 400-series Riverfront and 2000-series Von Dullens.

it may be too late for the young man who tried to take his life this morning at Curtis, but it's not too late for every other teen on this planet. Hopefully every school administrator who hears of the attempt will take steps to check in on as many of their kids today and tomorrow as possible.