Recently in New Orleans Stuff Category
I wonder if DWI enforcement is still off the NOPD radar. It's certainly not for the JPSO, but this study would have looked at Orleans Parish stats:
We looked at annual death rates due to alcoholic liver disease, as well as who's headed there by regularly downing five or more drinks in a sitting (CDC). Next, we factored in drunk-driving arrests (FBI) and the percentage of fatal accidents involving intoxicated motorists (U.S. Department of Transportation). Then, after tallying the MADD report card of state efforts to cut down on excessive drinking, we had our ranking and, for the state of Colorado, an invitation to AA.The list below ranks the cities from most dangerously drunk to least dangerously drunk.
Most Dangerously Drunk
100. Denver, CO F
99. Anchorage, AK F
98. Colorado Springs, CO F
97. Omaha, NE F
96. Fargo, ND F
95. San Antonio, TX F
...
...
...
Least Dangerously Drunk10. Jersey City, NJ B+
9. Richmond, VA B+
8. New York, NY B+
7. Little Rock, AR A-
6. Salt lake City, UT A-
5. Yonkers, NY A-
4. Jackson, MS A
3. Buffalo, NY A
2. Miami, FL A
1. Durham, NC A+
Baton Rouge was 15, a B+. But then, LSU students can usually walk/stagger home rather than drive.
Matt McBride wrote a great diary on dKos today, discussing his audit of demolitions since the storm.
Hurst family coping, Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Norman Mayer Drive in Gentilly. Mt. Olivet is a relatively new cemetery, opened in 1922. It's a historically-black cemetery on the Gentilly Ridge.
While at first glance, this coping doesn't appear to be significant (well, not to anyone but the Hurst family, of course), if you look at the stone at the foot of the coping, you'll see the interesting part. The "Hurst" name is laid out in the same sort of tiles used by the city for street names in the 1930s. Walking around Mt. Olivet, there were a number of other tombs and copings using these letter tiles.
Replicas of these tiles, both real and virtual, are extremely popular. Chuck Taggart uses this style for his logo for The Gumbo Pages. The Krewe of Muses made up carnival beads with "MUSES" tiles. The only time I've seen them used in a cemetery is in Mt. Olivet. Given that it's a black cemetery, I'm wondering where the connection is between the cemetery tiles and the street-name tiles.
The center headstone is the type the government provided for veterans who were interred in non-military cemeteries. It's very common in New Orleans cemeteries to see these headstones mounted on the side of a tomb, to commerate the service of a family member. In the case of families with less means, these stones often become the primary headstone. You'll also find a number of the rounded-top markers used in military cemeteries attached to local tombs or copings as well. These indicate family members who were originally buried in a military cemetery, often overseas, then brought home to rest permanently.
a Kossack was wondering if I could suggest some places where people could buy New Orleans stuff, thereby helping boost the New Orleans economy. I've come up with a few ideas:
Cafe du Monde - http://shop.cafedumonde.html - full line of CDM products, coffee, beignet mix, mugs, stuff.
Pat O'Brien's - http://www.patobriens.com/giftshopcatalog.html - hurricane mix, other drinks, glassware, stuff.
Abita Brewing Company - http://www.abita.com/abitastore/mall/shop_home.asp - lots of neat stuff
Mignon Faget - http://www.mignonfaget.com - fine jewelry
Tabasco - http://countrystore.tabasco.com/ - arguable just how "New Orleans" Tabasco stuff is, but you get the idea.
Audubon Nature Institute - http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer?pagename=eShops - Zoo-logo stuff
New Orleans Street Railway Association - http://www.nosra.org - buy one of our streetcar shirts!
ProCreations - http://www.art4now.com/store/default.asp - Official JazzFest merchandise, including posters
This is a start, but as you can see, it's all big companies. The more I think about it, the more I realized that I don't buy little New Orleans-themed things on line. I don't know which companies on the Internets are legit and which aren't. If you guys have any recommendations, please let me know, so we can get a good list together.
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
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.
"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.
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.
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.
