Something Shakespearian is going on in the world. This is the second day in a row that I have read about how people are molded over time by their faults, learning to use them as strengths. In today’s case, I was reading a review of the new book about Elon Musk, something that has nothing to do with New Orleans at all.
Go-getters do not settle in New Orleans. At least, not the kind of go-getters who make life better for the rest of the world. Entrepreneurs sometimes land in New Orleans but they soon seek out greener pastures with more of a talent pool and a better investment climate. Louisiana law is different from the other 49 states because it is based on French Law. Everything here is totally crazy. You have to get used to it and, when you get used to it, you will just shrug your shoulders. This is how things work in New Orleans. Nothing gets done.
The people who are attracted to New Orleans are loafers, grifters, confidence men, hookers, strippers, and hoboes. That, and people who enjoy jazz and Mardi Gras.
The people who move to New Orleans for the music and Carnival usually stay a few years, five on average. The hoboes come and go, riding the rails as they do. Everyone else stays for as long as they can eek out a living from foot traffic in the French Quarter.
I meet very interesting people on Lower Decatur Street, people I would never meet anywhere else in the city. I am undecided if I find this a good thing or a bad thing. Wherever there is sin, there must I go, but, I have to admit, I prefer my haunts in Mid-City.
People smell better in Mid-City. By that, I mean they either smell like cologne, or perfume, or like nothing at all. On Lower Decatur Street, I meet a lot of people who smell like toilet water (and I do not mean perfume) and B.O.
The water system, provided and maintained by New Orleans’ crackerjack Sewerage and Water Board, provides spotty service, as one would expect from the northernmost Caribbean city. I have not heard of any boil-water advisories in the French Quarter due to busted pipes, but, I cancelled my subscription to the Times-Picayune weeks ago.
I like news more than I like fluff. I have kept my Wall Street Journal subscription. Nothing that happens in New Orleans makes any sense and all of us just work around City Hall.
Now I am going to talk bout Haiti.
