Kneecapped or Indigestion or Things Saints Fans Are Feeling At Midseason
~Library Chronicles

Louisiana Won’t Face Penalties, Dismissal of BP Spill Claims

Mirliton Madness

OUR OPINION: Corps of Engineers should read writing on flood wall
~The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knows better than to mess with Mother Nature. But the Corps is inviting thunderbolts of a different sort by ignoring the storm clouds of frustration now roiling over the Missouri River. Too many thousands had to evacuate this year, and too many neighborhoods were lost for the Corps to keep treating flood protection as an afterthought.

Where Do Natural Disasters Most Affect Home Insurance Costs?

Former Director in Charlotte to Take Over at New Orleans Public Library

Additional federal charges added to River Birch landfill executive's case

Connect the dots: Did Jindal ghostwriter have a hand in Cain scandal?
~Mark Moseley, The Lens

Shrimpers face fines for allegedly failing to protect turtles

Hunting leases attract big bucks

LSU vs. Alabama~Your Right Hand Thief

New Orleans restaurants have turned Freret Street into a dining hot spot

SUNDAY: We Are One second line parade 12-4pm ~Big Red Cotton, Gambit

2011 Swamp Fest this weekend

Ladyfest 2011, the all-female YeMaYa parade, and a playlist celebrating New Orleans women in music~Allyson Fensterstock

And all that you love will be carried away… ~moosedenied

Unregulated NOPD details feed corruption: A letter to the editor by I.G. Ed Quatrevaux

Be back Monday…the trouble with the (personal) economy~Disenfranchised Citizen

Making ‘Complete Streets’ a policy makes complete sense~Matthew Rufo

Public library to raid reserves, cut programs if city slashes budget supplement to zero ~Ariella Cohen, The Lens

Caddo leaders to take down Confederate flag ~Matt Davis

Shrimpers and turtle advocates engulfed in federal or state enforcement debate

Flooded Homeowners` Frustrations Erupt at Corps of Engineers Meeting

Cracks In The System: Louisville's Levees

Krewe of Nyx wins approval from New Orleans City Council

LadyFest New Orleans 2011 @ Louisiana Music Factory - Lynn Drury

1929: The po-boy was created in New Orleans

The Bywater neighborhood celebrates quirky vegetable this weekend with Mirliton Festival

Of Oysters and Omelets in Eminently Edible Abbeville~Ian McNulty

~Hat Tweet @BlackenedOut~Interesting debate at home office today, what is the most polarizing restaurant in New Orleans blackenedout.com/2011/11/velvet…

Councilwoman blasts Landrieu for not changing the way sheriff gets paid
~Matt Davis, The Lens

Occupied: Homeless People, Occupy NOLA Protesters Converge at Duncan Plaza
~Shay Sokol, NOLA DEFENDER

Lee Zurik again tackles favoritism in Jefferson Parish Government getting reaction from Chris “Mini-me” Roberts on John Young’s former secretary ~Slabbed

~Hat Tweet @GHartley5 @Official_Saints RT @thomasmorstead has a raffle for 2 tickets for MNF vs the Giants! All proceeds go to Susan G. Komen New Orleans www.puntpink.com


~Cypress trees planted in Caernarvon Marsh

State restocks Pearl River with tens of thousands of fish

Corps refuses additional flood protection; ND residents infuriated

2011 "LOUISIBAMA" Gumbo Bowl for Tuscaloosa Tornado Relief
~The culinary team will create a monster pot of gumbo, using a 300-year-old cast iron pot from the sugarcane fields of South Louisiana. The World’s Largest Gumbo recipe calls for 750 pounds shrimp, 450 pounds catfish fillets, 100 pounds claw crabmeat, 50 pounds white crabmeat, 200 pounds alligator meat, 25 pounds Louisiana crawfish tail meat, 10 gallons oysters with liquid, 200 pounds diced onions, 75 pounds diced celery, 100 pounds diced green bell peppers, 150 pounds sliced okra, 50 pounds dehydrated garlic and 20 pounds butter. After simmering for three hours, the delicious, steaming contents will be doled out to hungry football fans during the spirited pre-game tailgate at the University of Alabama.

~Outdoor Art, Polly Jackson~

It was 45 years ago today that our New Orleans Saints were born!
~Hat Tweet @defendnola

New jail building approved by City Council; sheriff must close others when it’s built
~Matt Davis, The Lens

No, Buddy, the sweater is just plain nerdy looking. Man up, dude~Mark Moseley

Lee Zurik tackles favoritism in Jefferson Parish Government as he profiles John Young’s former secretary ~Slabbed

New Orleans Stormwater Case Studies ~Watershed NOLA

Port director sees new growth at Fourchon

BP, Transocean, Halliburton, Cameron CEOs all decline to testify before House Natural Resources Committee

Transocean: Contract shields it from spill costs

Tickets to LSU-Alabama showdown in high demand

Making Boudin ~Blackened Out

Satsuma now open for dinner service ~Brett Anderson

On Levees.org birthday, we’re thankful for its years of myth-busting~ Mark Moseley
~"Why is this so difficult for some people to grasp? The system that failed on August 29, 2005 – the Hurricane Protection System – failed because the engineering and design system behind it had been in failure from the beginning of the project in the 1960′s. It was only a matter of time for this to happen, but it was going to happen no matter what. The crime is that people within the Corps knew this and did not let the citizens know in any meaningful, sustained, easily understood, and very loud way." ~Matt McBride, Fix the Pumps
~Folks gather at the first Levees.org rally in January of 2006, with founder Sandy Rosenthal wielding the bullhorn. (Some goof in a red shirt is also in the crowd.)
~Also~Sandy Rosenthal is guest speaker for U.S. Dept of State program! The group is interested in meeting with Ms. Rosenthal to discuss the role of grassroots citizen activism in holding the government accountable for the events that occurred during Katrina.

'Sliver by the river' neighborhoods that escaped flooding after Federal Flood have lost population

First 'Pump to the River' project set to begin

Levees and the National Flood Insurance Program: Improving Policies and Practices

Editilla has a stroke...
~Well, two actually...That I can type is part of the story here.... I walked out of the Memphis Methodist Hospitals Stroke Unit about 7pm Friday night, after 3 days, feeling like a very lucky man --not many patients walk out of that place. I've told you all before how lucky my life has been. Well, here it is again. I'm so lucky to be alive and kicking!

My friend The Raven, by my friend Polly Jackson.
Oh yes, The Raven was there... my barrister to The Reaper.

My room mate and old friend Brenda pretty much saved my life by being here to catch me as I fell over Tuesday morning, drooling, speechless and completely paralyzed on my right side. Were I alone, I probably would've let it slide after those 2 minor strokes had passed, as a series of nearly a dozen mini-strokes rolled through my brain --until an even bigger stroke took me later that day, forever. It was that close a call according to the 3 neurologists working my case. Brenda also stayed by my side the 9hrs in the Emergency Room before they took me upstairs to the Stroke Ward. I'm crying again...

Both strokes happened in a nickle shaped area of my brain just left of center, about an eighth of an in inch inward... hence my entire right side was completely paralyzed. I wondered if it was very near where my father's was. His of course was walnut sized and apparently one of many. Mine started with the mini-strokes Monday night, then Tuesday morning first thing cranked up to full blown strokes --though mild ones by comparison. I let it role Tuesday, as I just didn't get that this was actually happening to me, and took aspirin. Tuesday night was rough... Wednesday morning boss'friend Chuck took me to the ER at Methodist and they rolled me right in. I had several more mini strokes in the ER waiting to be moved upstairs to the Stroke Unit (they had to make a room) and then I was being taken care of by a lot of people.

I will be on the blood thinner Plavix for the rest of my life ($200/30 pill bottle)(WHOA!) Also Chlorthalidone blood pressure medication (mine is high but not so much) and Simvastatin anti-cholesterol medication (both cheap)(and this can be dealt with by diet, exercise and such as time goes on) and even 325 mg Aspirin.

Of course I am quitting cigarettes. It will take some doing but I must.
It turns out that I can still drink some alcohol in moderation (No more six-pack or two per day as I have for the past 5 months.) But the chief neurologist, Dr Lopez, wasn't concerned with the beer at all, and even suggested a glass or two of red wine per day. No, Dr Lopez was vehement about my quitting smoking. Hell, I've smoked 2-2 1/2 packs per day for the past 15 years at least: chain smoker. But, already I feel the change in attitude from cutting back so much. Dr Lopez says it isn't the Nicotine, but all the other crap in cigarettes that damages the arteries and destroys the cell wall lining them, hardening them. So I've got Electronic Cigarettes to give me Nicotine without the smoke. Dr Lopez even suggested Patches to quit. But he stressed that if I don't quit, even with the Plavix, I have a 50% chance of getting hit with a big one sooner than later. They called this "managing certain risk". I find that term interesting as "risk" denotes a gamble, whereas I face the certainty that another, more debilitating stroke could take me again, perhaps for keeps --esp if I don't quit smoking or don't take the Plavix according to Dr Lopez, (The Boss neurologist). (on that note, Plavix may be going generic soon so there is that.)

But, OH, I'm going to quite smoking because my room mate Brenda will quit with me! It's going to happen. I've had about 1/2 pack today which is astounding, supplemented with Electronic Delivery Devices (EDD :). You know, I started smoking at 14. Fuck nostalgia. Rather, I'm beginning to look forward to not having them as a part of my life. This could get very interesting indeed...and profitable!

I always thought cancer would be the one to get me 1st, but Stroke is the Thief In The Night. Should I have cancer from literally tons of cigarettes, I think I'll be able to deal with it and perchance prevail. Whereas, with Stroke I was absolutely powerless... I mean, once it came for me there was no countering it, before I realized what's happening it had me and whether or not it lets me go was totally up to the Stroke. Providentially speaking... I was let go!
Furthermore, this change in everything from bad habits to better diet and living in general will give me a leg up on my defenses against cancer should it rear its ugly heads.

The speech therapist that checked me out was pretty surprised after viewing my MRIs that I could even carry on a conversation with her. The physical therapist said that, sense I could, I needed to walk around the ward every once in a while to stretch my legs and work my brain pathways... and she laughed that I was the only person on that floor who COULD get up and walk around. It was a circular affair, this hospital tower, most of the patient's doors were open so they could be closely observed by the nurses, and all of them, every single one was totally stroked out paralyzed, gone just like my father was... I was about the youngest on the floor... and, I thought I saw my father in one of those beds... really... I mean, I had to look 3 times... In fact, I was in the very same type of bed my father was on his stroke ward, the exact same hospital bed that automatically adjusts to your weight, plugged into all sorts of critical monitors. My Pop, his sisters Muriel and Celista Bell and his father RL Senior all had massive debilitating strokes. Like...DUH BRUCE?

Please let this be a lesson to you all.

That said... I can still play guitar! Though I can still feel the pathways of motor function damage in my right hand and arm, the effects are slight. My basic Chops are still intact. That is to say, everything seems to work, and with, as you might imagine, a resurgence of certain creative dexterity and a tad bit of FUCK YEAH I'M ALIVE. What a profound relief! The days of me not playing guitar are over as well. I am crying again...
...tears that have happened before---but there is nothing to compare them to now.

No more self-destructive grief or anger or online ass-holery.
No more wasted living...
Everything's going to be OK!

I'm gonna sit
like an un-carved block of wood
waiting for the Goddess to make me
usefull...
...maybe a statue
...perchance a cup
to hold the peoples' memories
or the Body of Chaos.

Goddess takes care of fools and errant troubadours.
Tru'dat, Whodats! We Got This!

I love you all so much,
Editilla the Pun

The tourism of tragedy: From dead body dots to water marks, "Katrina" still haunts in New Orleans~Olga Campos