New Orleans

On May 28th I moved down to New Orleans for the summer. My graduate program requires that we have a heritage-related internship this summer, so I'm working for Save Our Cemeteries. The work is good, the people are nice. I've already traipsed into St. Louis Cemeteries 1 and 2 and Lafayette Cemetery 1. I'll see a few more before I'm done. The SOC office is a few blocks away from the French Quarter, where I ate lunch every single day this week. Johnny's Po Boys, Viola, Coop's Place, and someplace I'm forgetting right now. My parents were in town over the weekend, and I had a roast beef po boy at Mother's, the Pork Tchoup with jambalaya at Ye Olde College Inn, and a ham omelet at the Camellia Grill.

Note: There's a street named Tchoupitoulas, which is where the Tchoup gets its name. Some people just say "Tchoup" instead of "Tchoupitoulas."

I've also had pretty good pizza at a place called Reginelli's near my apartment. I'm in a good neighborhood in uptown, close to Audubon Park and Audubon Zoo.

Of the nicknames associated with New Orleans--the Big Easy, the Crescent City--my favorite is "The City that Care Forgot." I like it because it sounds sort of easygoing, but it's also a little ambiguous. Does it mean that the rest of the world doesn't care about New Orleans? Does it means that New Orleans doesn't care? Actually, I could see some people thinking it's a bit depressing. But I think it does a good job of expressing something about New Orleans that I've noticed for a long time: New Orleans lets you be who you are. You can be as uncommon or eccentric as you like, as long as you don't hurt anybody with it. And if you get a little extreme in your eccentricity, that's okay.

Jazz musician Ernie K-Doe may have died in 2001, but "thanks to his wife, he maintained a schedule of public appearances via a life-size, fully costumed, look-alike mannequin. Mrs. K-Doe referred to the mannequin as "Ernie." Link. If you want to experience New Orleans from afar, there's no better way to do it than reading the columns of Chris Rose in the Times-Picayune. Here's his story on Antoinette K-Doe's funeral.