Mr. King on the RTA.
This essay, for reasons that will soon become apparent, is not written for search engine optimization. This one is not for the world. This one is between you and me.
Someone once said of Telly Savalas, “He made bad slang sound like good slang and he made good slang sound like poetry.”
Have you ever read The French Quarter by Herbert Asbury?
I am not asking for a friend, I am only asking because it is on my desk, and, for no reason whatsoever since this book has been on my desk for years without me touching it—it is covered in dust—I just opened it and read a page. Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose.
New Orleans has been the same forever. I know. I used to hang out at the Chart Room. Those were the days, my friend. I thought they would never end.
New Orleans has been the same forever.
I want to explain the paywall a bit. Most of the time, I write about one thing above the paywall, and then, behind the paywall, I veer off into whatever it is that I am talking about, including lots of local minutia and trivia and things you will never see unless you are with me. Which, unfortunately, you are not. Free subscribers don’t get to see so much of this part of every New Orleans Lunch.
I know I just used a contraction above. I used that for emphasis, so that you know I am talking fast. I also italicized it for emphasis because I so rarely use contractions. I prefer you provide them as you go along.
Ours a long distance relationship. Except, I think Ed. I think Ed is a paid subscriber. He lives next door to me. Ed and Mrs. Ed live physically closer to me than anyone but Mrs. King, herself, who I would not trade for the world.
The Eds’ house and the Kings’ house are about five feet apart in the back. Good fences make for good neighbors. I talked about this last year when Mr. and Mrs. Ed moved in. Paid subscribers can waste a lot of time in the full archives. I know I have.
The reason I am putting all this meandering, pointless dead space here is because I want to talk about what I did today that was super-interesting, but, I know, this is only the kind of G-rated escapade that the paid subscribers tend to enjoy. They would.
There are many New Orleanses, if I may coin a new word, in this wonderful city we call home. I know I say it is a kaleidoscope all the time. I say a lot of things all the time. I know that I say that New Orleans is a multi-faceted jewel. I say a lot of other things, too. What is nice about spending a day in New Orleans, the way I make a living, being a devil-may-care bon vivant, is that every day is a small adventure.
There are angels in the details.
I had to go Uptown. Then, I took the bus home. This was not the first time I have taken the bus, but, it was the first time I had the new No. 9 Route. I want to talk about the new bus routes the RTA is running now and what my trip was like.
Recreating this odyssey will take too much mental energy to compose and still make it SEO-freindly, so I am going to have to put that behind the paywall. If you want to read about this bus trip, and much else besides that, you will have to become a paid subscriber. Try it for a month. There is no pressure.
One month’s subscription costs $7.00. I am not running a sale or promotion. $7.00 a month equals $1.75 per week, or, to put it more simply, 23 cents a day. Consider it a tip worth chump change. I do do my darnedest to make it worth it for you.
I am going to talk about how I discovered a bona fide madwoman. A security camera was in use.