A brief homage to New Orleans

Having once lived close to the Mississippi coast for seven years and, during that time, looked for the least little excuse to go down to New Orleans for a day, my heart has been too full to convey adequately to friends here or readers here just what I have been feeling these past few days. It seems silly, but all I could think of to do yesterday was buy a six-pack of Abita beer, made in Abita Springs, Louisiana, just north of Lake Pontchartrain. Good beer, in case you're curious.

But today on NPR's All Things Considered, Andrei Codrescu, in about 3 minutes' time, gave as concise and eloquent a social and cultural history of New Orleans--and, thus, why that city should matter to all of us in this country--as anyone could want. If you've never been there, listen. If you have been there, listen anyway and be reminded of what makes that city quite unlike any other in this country.

Technorati tags:
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans