b.rox

Xy and I were getting lunch at Minnie’s Catfish Corner (highly recommended) when we heard the news about the hurricane in Myanmar. Apparently the geography there is very similar to Louisiana. The reports are at least 10,000 dead with thousands more missing. This reminded us of the worst predictions immediately after Hurricane Katrina and the [...]

Thanks to Carol G for getting me in touch with the very helpful Christopher Elliott. He’s the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Today he published my case. I found it in the Arizona Daily Star, though not, strangely enough, in our Times-Picayune which usually carries his column in the Sunday Travel section. I [...]

“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 [...]

So you thought Story #28 was the final chapter in our renovation saga? Not quite. Check today’s Times-Picayune for installment #29, the final final chapter. Check the online version for cute pix by Kathy Anderson.

Wow. Chcek out the cover of the today’s Inside Out, the Times-Picayune’s weekly home and garden supplement. There’s a picture of Kilowatt Rising rocking our house party, and sure enough there’s Michael Homan (with unbroken clavicle) continuing his sinister project of confusing himself with me. Open it up and we’re in the center spread with [...]

I’m not sure who said what, but in this CityBusiness article I seem to have merged with Michael Homan.

Story on the front page of today’s paper confirms what I wrote in November.

I wish I could take comfort in the unity of our City Council today, as they closed ranks and voted for the redevelopment of our public housing projects. I wish I could believe that the planned redevelopment will truly lead to a more just and humane society, with greater opportunity for all.
But I can’t.
So I [...]

Something tells me the picture of Sharon Jasper sitting next to her widescreen TV on page A-14 of today’s Times-Picayune will not advance the cause of public housing.

I almost forgot — the 27th story on our renovation appeared in today’s paper, with a cool picture of yours truly working on the staircase. It’s nice to have a picture of me actually working for a change instead of just standing in front of someone else’s work with a cheesy grin.

Ethan Brown gives me and this blog mention in the Guardian.

Thanks to my friend Carol, I got a sweet gig tonight: vote reporting! I never knew this before, but after the polls close they post the results on the door. Since I live one block from my polling place, I just walked down there. I waited for a while chatting with Deborah Langhoff’s brother-in-law. When [...]

Turn to page 24 of today’s Inside Out home and garden section of the Times-Picayune, and you’ll see a devilishly handsome fellow in an orange tee-shirt. I look so much better in this picture than in the last one they published, but both were taken by the same photographer, Kathy Anderson.
I don’t have a digital [...]

Some guy named Bart from Indianapolis spoke at a local conference and got on the front page of today’s paper.

Let me see if I got this straight. The American Society of Civil Engineers got pissed off about the video PSA produced by high school students and posted by Levees.org to YouTube. ASCE demanded the video be removed. So Levees.org removed it. Then, the Times-Picayune wrote a story about it. As part of their online [...]

I was amazed by the front page of the paper this morning. Apparently a robbery suspect took refuge at the house of District Attorney Eddie Jordan, before rushing off to shoot a cop and his wife. This happened earlier in the month but is only coming to light now.
Separate but related story: The D.A. owes [...]

I’m quoted in an AP article about Ed Blakeley:

Mid-City resident Bart Everson said that after Blakely started work in January, he saw him as the “last, best” hope for leadership in the city’s recovery. He said he still does, “but I haven’t seen the evidence of anything getting accomplished.”
“I still hold out hope something is [...]

Story #25 about our renovation appears in today’s Times-Picayune.

“The media… is where democracies conduct their civil wars.” — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 2004

I participated today in a panel discussion at Loyola, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Kind of funny, given that I am not a professional journalist. The topic: “Online User Comments and its impact on news coverage, news Web sites and freedom of speech.” My fellow participants were all involved in one way or [...]