Ms Karen B comments on the last post:

This is a frequent conversation in our home. When Katrina hit my husband was in helicopter aviation stationed at fort hood(really close to NOLA). His unit was more concerned about their upcoming deployment than katrina. The army had them send a few token helicopters and their pilots. But sending entire units, nope. My husband and I were furious. Its one of the reasons he left the military.

Please wish Mr B safe passage and, especially, safe return when his deployment overseas happens.

Oyster clues us in on our required reading for the day. Just....don't yank the newspapers outta the floodwalls to fulfill your requirement. Go to the library, instead.


Tim reminds us of who really put the paving over of street name tiles on the radar. See the original, complete with photographic evidence, right here. Keep on blogging, bloggers...and keep on showing everybody how to work the whole "credit where it's due" mojo.


And speaking of Ashley...

A while back, he wrote about viewing the beginning episode of Alton Brown's Feasting On Asphalt 2 and how disappointing it was, in so many ways. Well, Alton himself kicked off his book tour the same way he kicked off his motorcycle tour up the Mississippi River: right here in New Orleans this past Wednesday.

I really didn't have the time to query the man about why he was so willfully, woefully unprepared when he came to my town, since there was a line out the door to get him to sign various publications of his. I had just enough time to shake his hand, get him to sign the book to my husband (shhhhhhh!!! Anniversary present! Don't tell...), and get a picture of him with us for Dan and other family members who are highly appreciative of his Good Eats program, like we were when we lived in NYC.

Thanks for bearing with us, Mr Brown, and we hope you didn't have the Ma Na Ma Na song in your head for too long. It was the only thing that kept the little guy in line for half the wait time.

The layout of the book is very nice, complete with a foldout map of the route Alton and Co. took, loads of pictures, and a number of recipes that accompany the somewhat snarky diary the man wrote of his travels.

From Day Two of his trip:

Part of me knows that this is a gimmicky place. Heck, the beignets aren't even any good, and I don't know a single local who eats here. And yet no one can argue that Cafe Du Monde isn't authentic. That's because it is indelibly connected to this place and to its culture. You might argue that if that is the definition of authentic, then McDonald's must represent authentic American cuisine. I would counter that had McDonald's stuck to southern California the way, say, In-And-Out Burger has (with one exception, I know: Vegas), it would be authentic. By spreading out beyond its natural geocultural borders, a chain sacrifices its authenticity. Since I can think of no exceptions, I'm going to call this a rule.

I finish my third beignet wishing I'd stopped at two and walk over to the river to watch the sunrise across the big crescent. This is the first spot I've encountered where there is no levee to climb. that's because the French Quarter is the high ground of New Orleans. It has not always been a pleasant place. The geologist brothers Kolb and Van Topik referred to the site as "a land between earth and sea belonging to neither and alternately claimed by both." Repeated cycles of flooding have built up the land on the outside of the big curve where the quarter sits. This is why there is literally no evidence of Katrina's wrath here while many of the other districts are still in ruins. A shame in the richest country in the world, if you ask me.*

Yes, Alton Brown came here with some of his own preconceived notions, based on what his taste buds are primed for. He still has that obsession with finding sweet tea in New Orleans (he should have gone to Li'l Dizzy's) and a hankering for alligator (at the Big Fisherman on Magazine, of all places!!!!), but overall, he still appreciates the good stuff and the good places.

Oh, and Alton, it's "La Divina", not "La Davina". Future editions of the book must correct that typo.

*from Alton Brown's Feasting On Asphalt: the River Run

oh, and it looks like this fellow will have an interview with Alton Brown up on his blog soon.