Friday Lunch...not to be confusing

Friday Lunch in New Orleans is an event. Most start talking about it on Monday. Where are you going to eat...who can you have lunch with. It can become confusing...sometimes you should have a dress rehearsal on Thursday. That will get you ready for your Friday Lunch! Food is BIG TALK in New Orleans and will always take a front seat in planning one's week...well, except for juicy gossip....and that can become BIG TALK! This city can create a story right over Friday Lunch! It gives one momentum for the week-end pleasures! Pick Galatoires at 209 Bourbon...an old favorite for Friday Lunch....to see and to be seen...but any favorite will do...sometimes Friday Lunch will become Friday Cocktails...all the more to start your week-end right...Happy Friday Lunch!!!

"Great restaurants are of course, nothing but mouth-brothels. There is no point in going to them if one intends to keep one's belt buckled." Frederic Raphael...American born screenwriter, novelist and journalist.

LET IT BE

In an hour of darkness you can just LET IT BE! There will be an answer.

As these word are collected from the great Beatles' song..."Let It Be"... I can only think of how New Orleans has risen from the dead. There was answers. There was movement. There was stillness. There is new birth. New direction. New hope! Here is New Orleans!

I now apply this to my own life....sometimes you just have to bring yourself back from the dead! So when you find yourself in times of trouble, you just have to Let It Be....

There will be an answer!

Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse is a literary online journal of books and ideas. The editor is the legendary award winning writer and National Public Radio Commentator...Andrei Codrescu! I really want to stop right here...because I am way out of my league. My intellect does not wrap around like his...my ideas and words are merely juvenile. But if you must you must....and I must! This man's linguistic arrangements is like beauty in words...flowing with brain juices and hurdles you into another level of consciousness. I can be reading his words and they begin piling up with no sense...then they are quickly released into understandable logic. In other words...he makes me think!

One of Andrei Codrescu's books..."New Orleans, Mon Amour...Twenty Years of Writing from the City"...is on my wish list to read. The New York Times Book Review states..."One of our most prodigiously talented and magical writers."

"The city that dreams stories."...Andrei Codrescu...quote about New Orleans

FYI...Wikipedia encyclopedia gives this definition of exquisite corpse..."It is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed."

Tuesday Morning...

Friday in Florida......

Sometimes one must ramble about something, anything....That's what happens when you have no plan!!! When in Florida I am always thinking...well...New Orleans!

Absinthe liquor is a good subject to ramble about! Here goes....Absinth.com writes this..."Absinthe comes to America. Absinthe soon found its way to the Little Paris of North America, New Orleans. The drink, which was spelled absynthe, in an 1837 New Orleans liquor advertisement, enjoyed a vogue under such brand names as Green Opal, Herbsaint, and Milky Way. (Today, one can still find a version of this made without wormwood and marketed under the name Herb Sainte). Of all the ancient buildings in New Orleans famed French Quarter, none has been more glorified by drunks and postcard photographers alike than a square, plaster and brick structure at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville streets. The Old Absinthe House with its scarred cypress bar was visited by many famous people: Oscar Wilde, Laficadio Hearn, William Thackeray, Walt Whitman, Aaron Burr, and General P.G.T. Beauregard are just a few of the many who relaxed over a green absinthe in this shady retreat. Alexis, Grand Duke of all Russians, drank here, and the chairs once creaked under William Howard Taft's presidential bulk. The great O. Henry was just a struggling newspaper name William Sidney Porter when he came to dream over an absinthe frappe."

The green curse of France....Absinthe....ramble,ramble,ramble! No plan....

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." ....Oscar Wilde quote

LOOK for GOOD

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."....Dalai Lama

Welcome to the neighborhood.....

French Quarter...Garden District (uptown)... Arts District (warehouse)... Faubourg Marigny... Bywater... Central Business District (CBD)... (downtown)... Treme... Midcity... Lakeview... Gentilly... Algiers... New Orleans East... and the Nineth Ward.

New Orleans being shaped like a crescent, it is hard to find north, south, east or west. Is it towards the Mississippi River or is it in the Lake Pontchartrain direction? The Crescent City is woven with rich history and colorful whimsy. May we all be proud to call New Orleans "the greatest place to be"...no matter "where yat"...One City Together!

"New Orleans will always be New Orleans"....I quote...Shawn Escoffery deputy director of New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative

Ash Wednesday

At the stroke of midnight on Fat Tuesday, New Orleans Police Department go through the streets announcing Mardi Gras is now over! That means Lent has officially begun....Lent is the Catholic period of preparation for Holy Week. Faithful Catholics will observe with self denial, fasting, prayer and good works. By receiving ashes on you forehead in the shape of a cross you are reminded... "man is but dust".

"Anything done for another is done for oneself." Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

HAIL ZuLu

Zulu spreads joy into the streets of New Orleans with the most desirable of all throws....the coconut! The Zulu "coconut bill" was enacted in 1988 by state legislature that limits krewes' liability. Just having one can make you feel you are part of their pleasure club. With over 100 years of fun and fantasy they incorporated in 1916..Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. You must rise early on Fat Tuesday to join the pleasure....8:00am...this parade should not be missed. Zulu was the first male krewe to present a queen in the parade. In 1923-1932 as a spoof the men where presented as the queen. The first celebrity king was Louis Armstrong in 1949....and a by gone tradition was some of the krewe members would fried catfish on their floats! Zulu is uniquely New Orleans!

On Zulu's website they have posted Zulu Chaplain...with excerpts from an interview with author and pastor Rick Warren! Zulu always surprises!!!
I will quote the Zulu Chaplin page..."The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes their way."


HAIL ZuLu....HAIL TO MARDI GRAS!

Masks, Crowns and Adornments

The simple act of placing a crown upon your head can transform one to royal thoughts. Masks have the same magical ability to hide the real person. Both can bring out hidden aspects of yourself in the form of secrecy and fantasy. You can become temporarily free while masking the public self. Masks, crowns and adornments have beauty, wonder and mystery that all send us into fantasy and desire. Carnival grants our desires. The philosophy of life can be revealed thru Mardi Gras....one must search carefully for inner meaning and you can find truisms all around...Keep your curiosity up! The day spins the intricate web of mystery, humor, fantasy and desire....to the bitter end...Do not cry when it is over....smile because it happened!

One of the most asked questions about masking...Do I have to Mask?....I will quote The Wizard of Knowledge of Mardi Gras...Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide....33rd Annual Edition...."No, but you should, at least on Fat Tuesday, the only day when street masking is legal (from dawn to dusk). Masking, which can be elaborate or makeshift, dates from Roman carnivals when assuming false identities was a common practice. By law, float riders must be masked at all times."

A quote from Alice..."Alice in Wonderland"...."I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!"

Let the fantasy begin on Lundi Gras!!!

Who Dat Love New Orleans!

Saints- Mardi Gras- Black and Gold- All the Who Dats- Parades- Zulu- Creole- Mississippi River- Dat Food- Fleur de Lis- Music- Floats- Doubloons- King Cakes- Beads- Merry Making- Super Bowl Win- Masking- Drinks- Carousal Bar- Drinking Champagne on the Monkey Chair at the Carousal- Confetti.....my mind is like confetti...all colors and floating in the air!!!!Just can not think...crazy in Love..... Love is in the air...nothing like being in Love With New Orleans! NEW ORLEANS IS MY VALENTINE!

"Love is a game that two can play and both win." Eva Gabor...actress

Let The Good Times Roll

Finish Strong!

"Its not what happens to you, its how you react that matters." The Great Philosopher...Epictetus

"Finish Strong" has inspired the Saints and the Who Dat Nation along with the beloved Drew Brees slogan "Our city, Our Home, Finish Strong".

Dat Tuesday!!!!

"Seemed to me that drumming was the best way to get close to God." Lionel Hampton....jazz musician

Be in that # for Dat Tuesday Parade...5:00pm for the Winning Team....SAINTS!!!! Bless you...Bless you

WHO DAT....NOW!!!

It was a thrilling Who Dat ride! 31-17!!!! We are in that winning number and finished strong!

Gratitude

"Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind."....Lionel Hampton...jazz musician (1908-2002)

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

There is no stopping us now!!! WIN OR LOSE....WE ARE PROUD!!! GO SAINTS!!!

Super Bowl Eve Prayer

A prayer to... OUR LADY OF PROMPT WHO DAT......Pray for us Who Dats! Through intercession please send forth touch down favors. Make us a vibrant Nation of Who Dats! Keep us grounded with love and joy and keep all players on both teams safe from injury! May the Saints go marching in to Win! Give us an openness for Victory! Give us courage to sit through the game (because we are all excited and a little crazy) and grant us a good one!!! With gratitude in advance from all of us "Who Dats"....Thank You...Our Lady of Prompt Who Dat...Amen

WHO DAT TIME

The time is getting near....BLESS YOU BOYS!!!

Who Dats till the End!!

Till death due us...part!

WHO DAT KREWE

We are family...all the WHO DATS and me!
Who Dats have their sunscreen on and parading all over Miami and South Beach! The palm trees are Black and Gold with Who Dat nuts!!!

Saints Fever....

We are on fire!!!

The Thrill Is On!!!

The thrill is on! Even in heaven the thrill is on.....Buddy D has his dress on and is parading all around singing....who dat...who dat in dat dress! Who dat! Buddy D....

Buddy Diliberto...(1931-2005) the beloved sports commentator made a promise if the Saints go to the Superbowl he would wear a dress! The fans kept his promise...parade on men! With a parade of men wearing dresses they all made Buddy D very proud!