Gris Gris

The last time I was in the Big Easy was several years ago. It was pre Katrina. I was working here with a friend of mine and (at the time my boss). His company was a MBE. I had been working pretty hard to impress him as to how well I did on the job and I think he really was buying it. He was so impressed that he agreed to buy me dinner at any restaurant in New Orleans that I chose.. Trust me, they have a few here.( Oh yea I am back again. I brought my blogging machine with me) . I did him right and we ate at The Napoleon House. For those of you who are unfamiliar with New Awlins food, The Napoleon House and Central Grocery both claim to have invented the Mufelleta sandwich. I tend to think the claim rightfully belongs to the later but in my opinion the best Mufelleta is served at The Napoleon House. It is located on Chartes Street in the Heart of the "Quarter". The last time I was here the Essence Festival was in high swing and once again the 15th Annual Essence Festival was this weekend. A co worker (from West"By Gawd" Virginia) and I visited the "Quarter" this past Wednesday night. It was so hot it was nearly impossible to breathe. The sandwich was every bit as good as I imagined it to be. Aman was truly impressed. I also had a bowl of gumbo which was very tasty and a "Dixie" "Jazz" beer to wash it all down. I must admit it was a little strange drinking a beer enriched in New Orleans folk lore yet now brewed in Wisconsin. (Although I read they may one day brew in New Orleans). After our meal I took Aman on a stroll down Bourbon Street then to Jackson Square where some pimp was threatening to beat up his whore. We passed the one room flat my cousin Donnie had on Pirate Alley across from the side of St. Louis Cathedral . I took him to Cafe DuMonde where he informed me he did not like coffee thus ending up at my favorite watering holes in New Orleans,, Tujacques. We were back on the Westbank before 10 PM. The three hour tour sated my Big Easy fix for at least a few more years. My co worker was pretty impressed. I even ordered a dozen on the half shelf and he quaffed one down to prove he was not a pussy. I still ate the remaining 12.


I grew up in Louisisana but far away from New Orleans. When I was 8 , the same year I had the mumps, my father took us all to the Crescent City for the first time. I remember strolling on Decatur and smelling the fish at the fish market and the coffee and beinets. We toured the Cabildo and St. Louies.


I have returned many times since. I have walked, stumbled and crawled all over the Quarter. I have ridden the Ferris wheel and swam in the Pontchartrain. I have ridden the street cars and slept in a house in the Garden District. I have drank Irish whiskey in Irish Town and eaten some of the best German food in America at Kolbs. I stood in line for two hours to eat at K Paul's. I have had Sunday Brunch at Commander's Palace. I have spent time along Carrolton and I consider Rocky and Carlos' the best place on this planet to eat a oyster poboy and the Ferdie at Mother's is beyond belief.



When I witnessed the flooding from Katrina a few years back I honestly could not hold back the tears. I have never had any desire to live in New Orleans. If your were to give me the finest house in the Garden District I would visit only. But like it or not the Parish seat of Orleans (pronounce Or leens) is embedded in everyone who ever lived in the Sportsman's' Paradise.

New Orleans and the surrounding area is famous for several people. Uncle Carlos, (Carlos Marcello)* come to mind as well as the only man in America to be actually excummunitcated from The Catholic Church ( the Pope) because of his racist views, Judge Leandor Perez

Both men are still revered in the area. I must admit that Uncle Carlos was my cousin Jeff (Liam's) actual Godfather.

The word corruption originated in New Orleans. Mayors are infamous for their nefarious willing and dealing. I recall good old Moon Landreu and his successors Dutch and Marc Morial, Sidney Barthelemy and Ray Nagin. They have perfected the fine art of entitlement. What I am about to write is true and is free of hyperbole. .....

The Parish of Orleans, Louisiana and the City of New Orleans has received a significant more federal aid and Federal Government subsidy than any other parish/county and city in America, prior and after August 29, 2005. Thats right before and...after. A significant amount of New Orleans residents who are male are of a third generation of men who have not held a full time job at any point in their life. They, like their fathers and grand fathers have woke each morning and shuffled down St. Claude to the nearest corner store and purchased a Forty and a pack of Kools. They are the biological parent of numerous children and receive a portion of each child's mother's government subsidy check. they have lived in deplorable conditions and continue to inseminate future welfare recipients. Before the levee broke and flooded the lower Ninty Ward. The entire area was a true shit hole. When the levee broke it was just a wet shit hole.

The Army Corps of Engineers has subsidized New Orleans and the surrounding area for decades. The Feds realized that the levees truly needed to be reinforced. those guy (engineers) knew that any form of adjustment in the current weather patterns would cause a cataclysmic change in the water flow in the Mississippi River as well as the second largest saltwater estuary in America. Millions and millions of dollars were doled out to a litany of governmental agencies.

But the Nola power elite had a plan. It is the sort of plan that only someone from Louisiana could appreciate. "Lets tell the Feds we are spending money on levee repair. Let give them horseshit receipts and get all of the money. We could use the money to divert river sand from the Big Muddy and deposit into Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. We could in effect create new land. Upon it we shall build a gambling mecca on the level of Las Vegas. We can then tax the living shit out of the tourists and use the money to build a first rate levee system. So in the long run, the money received from the Feds for levee enhancement will ultimately result in actually levee enhancement. ...But then a not so gentle lady named Katrina came to call and the idea washed out with the floods.

So they were caught right? Well not really. It seems that they are now saying the Feds simply did not give enough money and besides George W. failed to have buses lined up to deliver the wards of the state to higher ground.

I could go on but what's the use?

Laissez les bon temps roulez

Le Tiers

Post Script

* Carlos Marcello was a mafia "Don". He was the "Godfather of Louisiana". Most people in Louisiana knew of him. ( Even way up in Shreveport). There are many people who believe that he is responsible for the assasination of John F. Kennedy. One day I received a call from my cousin Jeff to eat lunch with him and my uncle Alpin. I met them at a resturant called Sansone's. on King's highway. When I walked in I saw Jeff and Uncle Al setting at a table with an older man. I walked up and my uncle introduced me to Mr. Marcello, Jeff's Godfather. Many year's later I served as a pall bearer at my cousin's funeral. As I was escorting Liam's casket from the altar I looked up into the crowd of mourner's. My eyes were filled with tears and I looked and I saw that man I met at Sansone's so many years earlier. He was crying harder than I was.

3rd