A Name is a Name is a Name...

Melpomene Street changes names as soon as it leaves the Lower Garden District, lakeside, crossing Prytania Street. Prytania is a made-up word. It is fun to say, like, "rhesus." Melpomene became Martin Luther King, Jr. between Prytania Street and Earhart Boulevard.

Melpomene is the Muse of Tragedy in Greek mythology. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a figure in modern American mythology. There is a Washington Avenue and there is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The street that commemorates Abraham Lincoln in New Orleans, the man who led the Union against Jefferson Davis, is Lincoln Court, which is a one-block back alley with a few front-facing addresses between North Dorgenois and Law Streets, one block away from Hope.

The Blue Plate Building looms over its locale on an entire, oddly shaped city block bounded by South Norman C. Francis Parkway, Erato Street, South Clark Street, and Thalia Street, where Thalia crosses Earhart Boulevard, itself a kind of "speedway." Thalia was the Muse of Comedy in Greek mythology. Her street name remains unchanged along its length.