The Information Super-Frog

First let me say how very pleased I am that frogs are now a symbol of resistance to tyranny.

And not just because it's convenient for my existing wardrobe and props.



The main No Kings rally for New Orleans was on Lafitte Greenway Great Lawn. I saw a smaller rally was scheduled for St. Charles Avenue in front of Audubon Park. Ms H and I planned to go to that one, mostly as it looked much easier with our partial disabilities; it was much closer as well. Shortly before we were to go out Ms H said she was not really feeling up to going out today, so I drove there on my own.

This satellite rally was even smaller than I expected, with about 20 people when I arrived (including 2 inflatable unicorn costumes), gradually growing to about 30 by the time I left half an hour later.



Still it was good that it was there, as passing cars honked approval, people waved and thumbs-upped from tour buses, and streetcar riders erupted into cheers while passing. The more No Kings in more places, the better!

Since I was on my own, I then drove out to the main rally, as expected no places to park right near by, but I watched from various places around the periphery in my car (and at a couple places where I could stop for a good while elevating my frog umbrella out the window).





NOLA com (aka the Picayune Paper) gave an estimate of the main rally as 12,000 people. Impressive! While that's good in "blue" New Orleans, I'm even more heartened by news of smaller but significant rallies in deep "red" areas, including Steve Scalise and Magat Mike Johnson's districts. Reportedly over 7 million nation wide!

Meanwhile, the Felon-in-Chief, or whoever is running his social media, posted an AI video (no, I'm not going to link it, you can find it if you really must) depicting Trump wearing a royal crown piloting a military jet labeled "King Trump" bombing crowds of Americans in cities with feces. Really. In anything close to normal times, that sort of depiction would be considered a rather vicious editorial attack *against* the POTUS. Somehow they think this is positive? Another example of how far gone over the edge they have become - along with those repeating the talking point that opposition to Trump is "paid protesters". They can't even conceive of people voluntarily standing up for the USA and freedom. Their minds can't comprehend that other people might want to do good without being bribed.

This called to mind something from WH Auden’s review of Lord of the Rings:
"Evil, that is, has every advantage but one—it is inferior in imagination. Good can imagine the possibility of becoming evil [...] but Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself."

Louisiana Snowman, photo by me earlier today.
Northerners, don't shame New Orleans snowman skills - the last time we had any practice was 1 day back in 2008.

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It looks like New Orleans not only beat the 1963 snowfall total, but the all time record from 1895 as well.

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New Orleans local: I remember a snowfall when I was little. My grandfather put out glasses to catch the snow. He brought them in, put some chocolate syrup on one for me, and bourbon on one for himself.

Me: Haha! How fun. I think I'll try that.

I set out a pair of glasses as it snows. I go back to check on them 2 hours later, to find them buried deep in a snow drift. "Well, I guess I'll get those glasses back whenever this stuff melts."

Colonial era buildings in New Orleans sometimes had an extra story called an "entresol". The ground floor of buildings in the old town was often given to commerce, with living space upstairs. The entresol was between the two, serving as warehouse space - sort of an attic in the middle rather than top of a building. They were often short in height, sometimes with ceilings too low for taller people to fully stand up in.

Some old buildings constructed with entresols have been modified to raise the ground floor ceilings or otherwise rearrange the interior to effectively eliminate them. Other enteresols have been long blocked off, but some others have continued still in use.

The Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street is an example; the entresol story here has the half-circle windows made to look like fan lights over the ground floor doorways.



I dreamed that a friend had opened a bar in the entresol of an old building - a speakeasy, since it couldn't be up to code, as it was a particularly low ceiling only about 4 feet tall, and people had to be hunched over in there, had no windows, and it was only accessible via twisty dark corridors and old narrow staircases.

My friend tried to encourage me to patronize his place. I begged off, pointing out that it would be too difficult for me since I hobble around with a cane. (Sometimes in dreams I walk with a cane, other dreams I'm more mobile and lythe like yesteryear.) Really that was in part an excuse, because even in nimble youth I might have gone once just to look at it and never went back. There are fans of dimly-lit spooky bars in New Orleans, but I was never one of them. Indeed I've never been much for bars in general except when one happened to be the place where good live music was happening.

Back to my dream - I expressed skepticism at my friend's business model of a hard-to-get-to and hard-to-be-in bar, but he argued that in Venice there are bars that can only be reached by boat that have flourished for 200 years. I thought that analogy unconvincing but decided not to argue and wished him well.

{Via Kim Welsh; I wasn't able to send this online)

New Orleans journalist Bruce Nolan wrote an eloquent farewell to the city. I think many of us can relate:

“New Orleans has become a hard city to grow old in. In the span of my adult years evacuations have become a scourge and hurricanes a mortal threat.
“This is new, and presents an untenable paradox: Aging in New Orleans, one can become too fragile to stay, and yet too fragile to run.”
“The best thing about New Orleans is the local culture its people built, the culture of feasts, traditions, family, and the street. The worst thing about New Orleans is the local culture its people built, of violence, disrespect, laissez faire nonchalance and the street. They coexist.
“More than ever, to live in New Orleans lately is like navigating an abusive romantic relationship. On Mondays, Wednesdays and weekends the sex is magical, she laughs at your jokes, reads to the kids and bakes for the elderly neighbor—and on the other days she staggers about high and half-dressed, neglects to flush and burns the furniture with cigarettes.
“To some degree New Orleans has always borne this kind of contradiction, unashamedly proud that it is emphatically not Houston, not Dallas, not Atlanta. But it is a perilous balance to sustain, a dangerous chemistry that threatens at any moment to tip into ruin.”

Wonkette has an article with some good snark about the neo-Confederates and their idols removed in New Orleans, and praise for Mayor Mitch Landrieu's speech.

https://wonkette.com/617489/new-orleans-mayor-dick-slaps-confederate-losers-with-awesome-words-that-you-will-like

I posted the below comment at Wonkette. It has not appeared, tagged "Detected as spam".  I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a bit long.

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Yeah, good speech by Mayor Mitch, though some of the locals who have been working for years, for decades, to make this happen are a bit annoyed with how it looks like Landrieu is trying to take all the credit.

Just a bit annoyed. As opposed to the neo-Confederates, who are jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam about to burst a blood vessel, swearing at that Satanic Commie Mitch, without whose treacherous troublemaking, everyone would have continued kowtowing to the Confederate slaver traitors idols forever.

Most of the shouty Confederate Treason Flag waivers were from out-ot-town, but there are a fair number of locals (especially of certain ages and complexions) who express shock (SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!) at hearing the notion, which apparently never crossed their minds to consider, that other folks in town have long considered "the monuments" objectionable. (MY STARS! I must fan myself!) It's pretty remarkable what some people can resist noticing -- even when it's been in front of their faces.

The so-called "Battle of Liberty Place Monument" put up in 1891 by the city's White League (yeah, they didn't try to disguise what they were about back then) said 'WHITE SUPREMACY" right on it in stone letters, so it was kinda hard to pretend it was about anything else. It was long recognized as the low-hanging turd of "the monuments". When Mitch's dad Moon Landrieu was mayor in the 1970s, it was moved during construction and Moon warehoused it hoping people would forget about it, but a group of families from the old White League made him put it back, because history, though he got them to add a rather timid plaque adding the footnote that not everyone in New Orleans agrees with that stuff any more. The next Mayor, Dutch Morial, unsuccessfully tried to get it taken down in 1981, but did get the to add a somewhat less timid footnote inscription. In 1989 under Mayor Sidney Barthelemy some more construction was another good excuse to move the thing to a warehouse again (hopefully to be lost forever due to some paperwork error) but a fight led by DAVID F'ing DUKE made them put it back up, though in a less conspicuous location and with some of the worst of the original inscriptions replaced with blander stuff. The 1993 re-dedication ceremony led by David Duke with lots of treason flags was on all the local tv news, and a big color photo of African-American state Representative Avery Alexander being pulled away in a choke hold by NOPD while Confederate flags waived in the background was on the front page above the fold of the Times-Picayune. Just some of what some people claim to have never noticed.

It's Carnival Time in New Orleans. I've participated in a few events, mostly non-"mainstream" ones thus far.

Saturday 26 Jan I caught a little bit of the 'Tit Rəx mini-parade on St. Roch Avenue and later on Franklin Avenue on my way towards the lineup for the Chewbacchus Parade later that evening. Chewbacchus is a science-fiction related Carnival parade; the King was actor Peter Mayhew, the original Chewbacca in the Star Wars films.



Pair-A-Dice Tumbers, as the Dead Alien Musical Nerds (the D.A.M.N. Band) playing the Chewbacchus Parade. Faubourg Marigny, New Orleans. Photo by Kimberly Edwards.

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The effects of Hurricane Sandy have of course been on my mind. I've not been sure what to say about it - of course, sympathy for those affected, and various striking similarities and striking differences compared with what the central Gulf Coast experienced in 2005.

All too familiar are the images of masses of flood totaled automobiles, flooded homes and businesses, worse effected neighborhoods totally smashed to rubble, more intact neighborhoods without electricity, blocks of buildings burned down. MREs, very long lines for gasoline when there was any at all.

No shortage of differences, big and small.

Some post-Katrina tips don't seem relevant here, like if your fridge had anything in it when you evacuated, after 40 days without power in hot summer heat, don't think of trying to open it, just tape the door shut and haul it to the curb (and use it as a billboard to write your frustrations on).

Greater New York didn't have a Federal anti-flood system that was supposed to prevent the worst of the damage but experienced at slew of catastrophic failures when put to the test.

Going through a major disaster is damn unpleasant and a long term inconvenience no matter what the circumstances. But getting water, food, and basic survival supplies to those in need, as opposed to not doing so even when there was capability to do so, makes a huge difference. There used to be a bipartisan consensus on this. I hope there will be again henceforth.

Here's what Paul Krugman says in the New York Times:

"Sandy Versus Katrina" by Paul Krugman, New York Times

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Much of the city still without electricity. Tonight is my first chance to access internet since the storm. The city escaped major flooding, but got wind damage. Some other parts of S. E. Louisiana were not so fortunate.

I've been enjoying participating in some of the many New Orleans events for July, notably the 4th of July and Bastille Day celebrations.



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My set of pix of Mardi Gras Day in Uptown New Orleans. Caught the beautiful Rex parade from a friend's raised porch on Napoleon Avenue; a great spot to photograph the floats from.