Temporary GTFO-ing

[Mephistophelina]

I'll be in New Orleans for the next few days. See you all on Sunday or maybe Monday. Depending on the sazeracs.

*poof*

- M.

[Mephistophelina]

New Orleans is better shape than I expected, but she rather looks like a woman who has been beaten half-to-death and gotten plastic surgery that repaired the carnage but simultaneously removed all the character marks that defined her charm, and is now being guarded by overprotective bureaucrats For Her Own Good. The street people are more aggressive, having fewer victims to fleece, and it is slowly but surely descending into the same fate that murdered Las Vegas -- Disneyfication.

Standards of dress that were once demanded in certain establishments are being relaxed for want of patronage, so I had to suffer some bluejeans and t-shirts with obnoxious slogans whilst trying to enjoy my meal at Antoine's -- something that never would have happened before. Starting in January, smoking indoors will be banned along with "travelers". Most of the truly great personalities I knew seem humbled and cowed -- they still smile, but hesitantly. The streets are eerily quiet and empty, forcing the touts to become more desperate and therefor less quaint. Therein goes the death rattle of genteel vice in the last bastion of sinful civility. The irony is astounding and tragic.

Still, some things haven't changed. The Windsor Court is still elegant, the Cornstalk is still standing (though they painted it some horrid pinkish color), Brennan's still does Sunday brunch, Galatoire's still serves crab maison to the old guard on Saturdays, and jazz still warms Preservation Hall to the point of hellish, sweaty crowded discomfort. And, of course, the Mississippi still lolls around the bend as brown and murky as it ever was.

But it all made me a little wistful for my second-home city I knew and I'm afraid will never know again. I wonder sometimes if Americans have any idea what we lost with the ebbing tide of Katrina.

Anyway, enough of that. I'm back.

- M.

[Meredia]

Wonderful! Though if you'd waited about... <Checks calendar... Doesn't bother counting days> If you'd waited until Dec. 30th to Jan. 6th, I should be able to tell everyone whether or not your description of the beaten lady is proper!