I'm baaaack! NewOrleans is....

[krazefinn]

What a crazy city. Especially to drive. So many one way streets, so few uturn opportunities...must have got lost 4 or 5 times a day.

Ohwell, it was a nice break from the grind. Ate at some nice places, emerils "nola", cafe dumond, captains table...the list goes on. No wonder the big ez has dubious distinction of being america's fattest city. Nothing to do there but eat and drink!

Also nice to be home...almost didn't make it home on schedule. LAst time had the front grancherokee brakes replaced at dealer, they cracked both right front caliper pistons (and didn't bother to report/fix)...and they chose to lock up tight at 90 mph 3 miles out of the city on mon morning. Can't believe those idiots who put it back together would take such a chance and not fess up to the screw up. Gotta go fight with them to either get full refund for last time....or free full job next time...although I'm pretty certain I would not allow thewm to touch anything on my jeep again.

[Someone Stupid]

You think New Orleans is bad with one way streets, try Detriot. Eugh. Then again, I live in New Orleans so I know the concept of making a block.

Where'd you wind up staying, in the quarter?

[krazefinn]

Yup, only way is to stay somewhere you can walk to, and get on the trolley. Agreed detroit is purty ruff,but you ever driven montreal?

Had a real nice gallery to smoke from and spit on the peasants below! Did all the cemetery tours, had to ride a few carriages, went to the aquarium, and of course met a friend (proffessor at marseille) who took us around a real cool tour for history doctoral candidates, lasted a day and half. Interesting that the brits had less than stellar history here, but spain and france both enjoyed their respective heydeys. Corful street performer always a blast, kind of like the busking days in ottawa but on lesser scale.

Of course also enjoyed the antebellum mansions and gardens (not as much as the wife though, who now wants to replicate something she saw, in our own backyard)

I think I gained about 10 lbs! When in rome...but am not particularily ever interested in returning there. We used to go to smoky mtns every year, or the adirondacks. Would prefer that to the cesspoll of the south....no insult intended.

[Johnny Fist]

I stayed in New Orleans for a week about 12 years ago. I had the time of my life down there. One morning I woke up on the side walk with a blanket to cover me up and a husband and wife giggling and taking my picture. What a night...I think. I don't exactly remember it. Well, it all goes foggy after getting kicked out of the cab and then McDonalds. After that I draw a blank. I still have that empty bottle of Jack as a trophy, too.

[krazefinn]

Yeah, pretty interesting city that requires around the clock 7 day trash roundup, they pay firefighters to grease the gallery poles, and they hose off the streets with fire hoses to wash up the vomit at 7am daily (at least during mardi-gras).

Want another drink wif breakfast?

And the pickles! Pickled pigs feet, pickled cackleberries, pickled mountain oysters, pickled livers, pickled brains, pickled politicians, even pickled pickles....
a veritable pickle purveyors party...

[Johnny Fist]

[Someone Stupid]

Street performers are getting to be outright thieves down here. I've seen it several times over to some unsuspecting fool or another. Before they'd tap their feet and hold out their hand, now they do that while a friend comes from behind. You can thank the police for persecuting the good ones (the bad ones just come back) and everyone else (other than "artist" in the square itself). Those damned residents wait on list for YEARS to live there then all they do is complain about everything that was there before. They will be the ruin of the quarter - and ever since the new city council witch they have and the ******* of a police chief, it's become a place I now loath to go. Never did like the quarter tourist areas or it at all during mardi gras - now it is horrible all the time because anything good has been thrown in jail or otherwise dissuaded from being around. The cops are rabid to all but the tourist and fat white men with money. It is now just full of whiny artist, there whiny tenants, and little thieves.

I wish you could have seen it ten years ago - was a much nicer (if "dirtier") and had more homeless - at least those wouldn't rob you - the current ones that are left will and the occassional tourist finds this out. I used to have no problems strolling around in the middle of the night in search of all sorts of trouble - now I won't go strolling around parts of the quarter in the middle of the night unless I have a gun on me. I feel safer with the homeless around as they chase off the crooks since a theft means they would get hassled. Now they aren't there means nobody is there to do some commuinity policing. **** fools in city hall and in their million dollar shotgun houses.

I used to love the quarter - I'm finding the things I loved about it are now rare commodities and cherish them when I do see them. That's one of the reasons I moved back out of the city as I wasn't going to pay those fools to ruin what I loved with my taxes. Bitter, yes. Very bitter.

[zybch]

Like most modern cities then. All the charm has been sucked out of them and replaced with fake plastic plants slowly fading under the yellow sodium glare of the street lighting.

[werz]

In the last 35years everywhere I've been has lost its character and uniqueness. Politics are like a cancer, destroying what made a place special with there beaucracy and petty laws, we wont be aloud to laugh soon.
If you read any Wilfred Thesiger and get a glimps of the world 50 years ago you will see progress is not all its cracked up to be.

[zybch]

I blame the baby boomers. They have sucked the joy out of everything that used to be good.

[werz]

how right you are, shouting about freedom in the 60's and putting as many laws in place as they can, so they can fill more jails, and get more bribes from developers, who want to destroy the worlds character and make us as souless as they are.

[Prushka]

Little history...New Orleans could well be in French hands had it not been for General Toussaint Louverture of St. Domingo/Haiti

http://haiti.uhhp.com/history/revolu...lean_plan.html

Quote: "Napoleon's ambition was to build a great colonial empire. The keystone of that empire was of course to be the incomparable colony of St. Domingo, from which France is said to have derived more profit than all other nations derived from their combined colonies in Asia, Africa and America. As long as Toussaint Louverture remained in power, St. Domingo was a French colony in name only. In reality it was an independent state, having its own constitution, making its own laws, maintaining its own army and negotiating treaties with foreign powers. Even the last link, the Agent or Commissioner, had disappeared. The first step in Napoleon's colonial program was, therefore, to plan the elimination of Toussaint Louverture. The second was the retrocession by Spain, to the French Republic, of the Louisiana Territory...

Napolean's army/navy of 20,000 defeated

Some points of interest here:

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/hai...revolution.htm

[werz]

What rights or titles to the land did the native Americans have to the land they had lived on and farmed for generations, that Jefferson could negotiate with Napoleon to buy the Louisiana Territory does'nt lend me to believe that there interests were considered, is the trail of tears a consequence of this action?

[zybch]

Did native americans actually farm? You know, fields with grain crops and stuff, or did they just shoot anything that moved, and shot anything that didn't move till it did, then shoot it because it was moving.

[Prushka]

Yep...Indians got duped by the British and French as well

To the Victors Go the Spoils of War