b.rox

I wanted to record before I forget that as Xy and I were coming home from an errand Friday, we saw there were lots of firetrucks clustered around Lindy Boggs Medical Center (aka Mercy). Later we learned that someone had broken in and started a small fire. [WWL has video.]
I further learned (through discussion with [...]

I came outside today to find Johnny and some other kids throwing rocks at our next door neighbor’s house. Our next door neighbor (Craig) decided to stay in Texas after his Katrina evacuation. The weeds in his yard are now eight feet tall. I have some issues with Craig, obviously, but I didn’t think Johnny [...]

An ad just played on TV for an upcoming news report on the decline of baseball as a popular sport amongst African-Americans.
Just a couple minutes later, there are three kids (all African-American) playing catch on the street in front of our house, each with a mitt.
What makes this even weirder is that the kids around [...]

I’ve never noticed lovebugs around New Orleans before, though they’re supposed to be common all along the Gulf Coast during certain times of the year. Then again, New Orleans isn’t really on the coast — though the coast is getting closer every day.
Anyway, I’ve been seeing the lovebugs here for the first time over this [...]

Something about Jazzfest (presented by Shell) inspires me to stay up all night. Even when I don’t actually go to the Jazzfest. Especially when I don’t actually go.
(For the record, we never go, unless someone gives us free tix, and this year no one has, so we’ve been celebrating our own private Jazzfest at home [...]

I’ve been meaning to post about the Lafitte Greenway Master Plan. Actually I’ve been told it’s more of a “visioning plan” than a “master plan” but nevertheless it’s complete and you should check it out:
Lafitte Greenway Master Plan
This is the most comprehensive statement to date on the Lafitte Greenway. It explains what the greenway is, [...]

“There’s no reason for anyone to worry.”
So sayeth Section Chief Brett Herr of the Army Corps of Engineers. He’s a talking about a wee small leak that’s been discovered at the 17th Street Canal floodwall.
This is one of the floodwalls that breached and flooded the city back in 2005. These floodwalls were designed and built [...]

No Silence

Originally uploaded by Often Absurd in the Humid City

David Bonds was acquitted yesterday for the murder of Dinerral Shavers.
Again there is an Ashley Morris connection.
Ashley loved the Hot 8 Brass Band, for whom Dinerral played the snare drum. So when we marched on City [...]

Speaking of Ashley Morris, some random guy left the following comment on my blog:

Ilove NO and would like to live there someday but the mentality of a large part of the minority population is that they are owed something. Since Katerna, there has been Taco and Mexican restaurants popping up every where. That is great [...]

The “Eat-Well Food Mart” has been under construction at the corner of Canal and Broad for some months. Google knows nothing about “Eat-Well Food Mart” so I was intrigued. Today, I saw that it was open, so I stopped in. Could this be some kind of health food store in my neighborhood? Wouldn’t that be [...]

It was a beautiful day, so we packed some picnic snacks, loaded up the baby stroller, gathered up some neighbor kids and headed down to the bayou for Super Sunday.

Only Super Sunday wasn’t quite as super as I remembered. Don’t get me wrong, we had a great time. And the Indians we saw were absolutely [...]

We bought the girl’s bedroom set at Imperial Furniture on St. Claude Avenue a couple months ago. This afternoon we went back there and bought a metal storage cabinet and a garish red couch.
The place is kind of funny. There’s a sign in back that says “Keep Hands and Feet Off Wall.” Their slogan is [...]

Everybody’s favorite passionately profane New Orleans überpatriot blogger Ashley Morris has passed on.
I really don’t know anything about the circumstances of his death except to say he was way too young. This is a tragedy.
And I really don’t know what to say, except that I sure will miss his voice. I didn’t really know Ashley [...]

Yesterday Al Copeland died at the tender age of 64. Outside New Orleans he was primarily known as the founder of Popeyes Fried Chicken. Around the local area he was known for all sorts of things, but most of all for being a character.
My only real connection to Al is this: The judge he [...]

Here’s a report from Elizabeth Cook on the arrests at the St. Bernard Housing Development Tuesday.

Question: When will the NOLA blogosphere finally get around to infecting Twitter?
Answer: Last week. I blame Alan.
PS: In the spirit of constant self-aggrandizement, I should mention that I’m editor_b on Twitter.

A neighbor alerted me to a recycling survey, from the city’s Dept. of Sanitation, on the department’s website (halfway down the page).
www.cityofno.com/Portals/Sanitation/portal.aspx
It has to be printed and mailed, so I wouldn’t call it an online survey. (A print version, for mailing in, was “prominently” placed in yesterday’s Times-Picayune, on the next-to-last page of the Picayune [...]

Today her umbilical stump fell off. To celebrate, we made a pilgrimage to Bayou St. John.

She’s definitely growing. Her loose folds of skin are filling in with baby fat. Xy has been breastfeeding, and the results can be seen daily. Funny, by sheer coincidence we watched The Life of Mammals just before the birth. Mammals [...]

Keep N It Real Social & Pleasure Club was in our neighborhood today. It ended just two blocks from our house. Actually we missed the parade, but we caught these fabulous DIVAS (acronym for something but I forget what) just as things were breaking up.

We took our first stroll around the block yesterday.

Many of the sidewalks are impassable, so we had to push the stroller in the street. On Iberville I saw a renovation underway; they were sanding, with clouds of lead-based paint dust going everywhere. (I’ll be placing a call to the city’s Department of Environmental Health tomorrow [...]