The Information Super-Frog

I was thinking about posting something about this, but as louismaistros has done so sooner and better, please go read what he has to say if you haven't already.

I recently bought 3 books of New Orleans interest. I have the most to say about the one I've only read a fraction of.

1) "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley. I'm just under 60 pages into this much touted history of the week of Katrina-- it's worse and more annoying that I'd imagined. I know a bit about New Orleans history, and spotted 3 clear glaring factual errors in the first 10 pages and as many more dubious sounding statements that I suspect would fare no better with research. Historical details like where the levee breached in the great flood of 1849, what decade African American laborers from the rural parishes started coming in to the 9th Ward in significant numbers, which areas flooded in 1927, etc may be considered tangential by some, but sheesh, the man is somehow a PROFESSOR OF HISTORY and of a status that he could have run things by someone to check for blatant factual errors. It undermines his general credibility. I put no stock in Mayor Nagin's allegation that the book was hurried out in an attempt to damage his reelection chances-- until I started reading the book. Brinkley talks about Nagin in snarky language, full of phrases like "all hat, no cattle" and "a schoolboy afraid to recieve his report card". Nagin did things wrong? Then give us the facts. Brinkley's prose seems more appropriate to a political discussion in a neighborhood bar than a serious work of history. I'm still not to the third chapter in the book because it's so damn annoying I have to keep taking breaks. I keep at it because I'm told (for example in the story in this week's Gambit) there's some worthwhile stuff in there.

Check out Picayune collumnist Stephanie Grace's "The Great Backlash".

2) "Tubby Meets Katrina" by Tony Dunbar. A novel with Katrina in New Orleans central to the story. The dust jacket says it's "a Tubby Dubonnet Mystery" but perhaps that was added by the publisher since there's little if any mystery element. Actually the plot is a bit thin, but it has much local color and the type of things that were going on during and after the storm. For the most part I found it a fun easy read.

3) "Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'N' Roll" by Rick Coleman. This is an excellent clearly well researched biography that also gives good insight into place, culture, and time. Highly reccomended for anyone interested in New Orleans music history and/or the early development and flowering of rock & roll.

To:  Mayor Ray Nagin and associated staff

Dear Mayor Nagin,

While we understand that much of New Orleans needs to remain vacant for health and safety reasons, we recognize that the Uptown area was spared much of the hurricane/flooding damage and thus we feel that it requires special consideration.

Specifically, we the undersigned, who are residents and business owners within the Uptown area, are asking for permission to be granted to return to this area.

Please consider at least temporary permission to allow us to retrieve our belongings and business papers. Later, we hope that this area may help to revitalize New Orleans. Thank you for the work you continue to do to restore this great city and thank you for considering our request…

http://www.petitiononline.com/UPTOWN/petition.html

Hi from Houston.

Took 6 hours to go the first hundred miles.

Just heard someone who waited til Tues evening took 11 hours (driving all night) to get as far as Baton Rouge.

That's what happens when you evacuate a million people.

And on the positive side: Not only won't I get blown away here, I just had some good Tex-Mex for lunch. Mmmm.