What was I thinking?

I mentioned in my last post, that I was missing New Orleans for what it gave me in terms of carefree vacationing. Then I started to feel really bad about that comment. I am so lucky, and I know it. I will get back to NOLA as soon as I can to support them. Here is today's lead story from the fabled New Orleans newspaper,"Times Picayune".


'Times-Picayune' Writer Offers Special Thanks on Thanksgiving

By E&P Staff

Published: November 24, 2005 9:00 AM ET
NEW YORK On this Thanksgiving day, some people have more to be thankful for that others. Then there are people from New Orleans.

While they have much—-too much—-to complain about, they also have many who came to their aid after Katrina to thank. Dave Walker, the Times-Picayune writer, thanked a whole city today, opening his article with “Thank you, Baton Rouge.”

Then he explained: “In our time of meteorological crisis, you took us in and made us feel if not wholly at home, then reasonably comfortable in a home-away-from-home--right down the very congested road from home--home, such as it is.”

Here are more excerpts.

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We know it wasn't easy for you.

We know we overloaded your schools overnight.

We know we pushed the line at Chili's out the door and into the parking lot. (And is that Mike Brown moving to the front of the line? Hey, no cuts, FEMA Boy!)

Thanks for not laughing at us when we called to ask if you had any (motel, apartment, trailer park, campground, youth hostel, retirement home) vacancies. At least not every time.

Thanks for the overwhelming generosity you demonstrated by making room for our kids in your day-care centers and schools. Also your jails.

Thanks for so efficiently refilling all of those Xanax prescriptions.

Thanks for letting us discover the differences between our cities, the things that make them so different, yet so similar; the things that make us siblings joined by a river, an interstate and a deep appreciation of fried food.

We noticed, for example, that your city has Jimmy Swaggart. Our city is where Jimmy Swaggart comes to party.

Many of your businesses close on Sunday. Many of our businesses are closed forever.

Huey P. Long's grave is a tourist attraction in your city. People cross the Huey P. Long Bridge to come to our city to visit the graves of Louis Prima, Ernie K-Doe and Marie Laveau.

The hippest sector of your town is located beneath an I-10 overpass. The people who populated the hippest sectors of our town are now populating Houston and Atlanta.

Thanks for not being Houston and Atlanta.

Thanks for Smiley Anders.

Thanks for giving some of our most important cultural institutions -- Magazine Street boutiques, the Saints, Galatoire's -- emergency second homes.

Thanks for letting us wander around in a daze. Sorry if we sometimes did that behind the wheel of a car.

Thanks for letting us grieve, frequently in public, for our former lives.

Thanks, Baton Rouge. It would be great if everyone in your city would join us the next time Mardi Gras comes around.
You may have to drive home to find a place to stay, but the invitation stands.