Ruthie, the duck lady

I had intended to post this a while back, when I was writing about characters in the French Quarter but somehow, Ruthie slipped away from me. Ruthie was prowling the streets of the quarter when I was in my teens and I was prowling the same streets - but for a very different reason.

A fixture on the streets since the ‘40s, Ruthie came to epitomize the unregimented, unconventional and permissive side of Vieux Carre culture, the kind of insouciant charm that has seduced thousands over the years and burned, in those who paid attention, a memory of street life unlike anywhere else in America, maybe the world.

With her trademark roller skates and legions of pet ducks – often sitting on bar stools next to her – Ruthie was what the Quarter’s street life was all about. She was brash, with a sailor’s tongue. Colorful. Congenial and snakebite mean, sometimes at the same time. She lived on a diet of Budeweiser and Kools. She wore a wedding dress just for the hell of it and danced and flirted and cussed in French Quarter barrooms until she was eighty-sixed, which was often.

I remember Ruthie skating up to me and nearly demanding a cigarette. I'd seen how she would curse out others who failed to come up with the cigarette and I wanted to avoid that experience.

Those were my formative years.

Candidates and Katrina

Below is a copy and paste job - its about what the Democratic candidates would do about Katrina recovery:

A question about whether the candidates would support a federal law guaranteeing a right to return for New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina produced one of the most spirited discussions. The Democrats roundly condemned the Bush administration for its response to the storm and offered a series of pledges to use the power of the White House to help rebuild the ravaged city. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina said he would appoint a White House counselor with the responsibility to report to him daily on the pace and progress of reconstructing the city.
"What we should do is allow the people of New Orleans to rebuild their own city," he said. "We ought to pay them a decent wage, give them health-care coverage, instead of having big multinational corporations get billion-dollar contracts with the government."
Clinton, touting a 10-point plan for Gulf Coast recovery, said rebuilding must come before repatriation. "This administration has basically neglected, with almost criminal indifference, the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, in particular New Orleans and the parishes," she said. "So even if we were to give people a right, there is nothing to return to."
Obama said that what may be most critical is having a president who is in touch with the problems of a city such as New Orleans before disasters hit. "Part of the reason that we had such a tragedy," he said, "was the assumption that everybody could jump in their SUVs, load up with some sparkling water and check into the nearest hotel."

loose change and big bucks

The auto entrance of the Ritz Carlton hotel is the ground floor of a building that was originally a dime store. "5 cents, 10 cents and 25 cents" is still visible, carved above the Ritz Carlton sign. Its just a little irony, in a city full of ironic contrasts.

Fiddler on the roof

In the late afternoon yesterday several of us were sitting outside at the coffee shop when we noticed a strange and annoying noise. We finally traced it to the roof of a house across the street. A boy was standing at the very top of the pitched roof playing a guitar. The kid is young - 12, 13 or so. Certainly too young to be climbing up on the roof of his parents' house.

Its why we put up with so much to live in New Orleans.

Leftward Ho!

I've written several times lately that the country is drifting to the left. The following is from today's New York Times:

New Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.

With the leftward drift in general and the immigration position of conservatives loosing Hispanic voters; the Republican Party has less and less to look forward to. The Democrats aren't doing a good job of taking advantage of all this but they can't help but inherit some gain.

Summer in the Shire

You may wonder what its like in the Shire during summer. Well, my friends, its wet. It rains every day in a steady downpour. We huddle under the awning and watch the rain bounce off of the street. Every plant and shrub grows like crazy in the rich soil and semi-tropical climate.

Its hot, of course, but mostly its humid. It is possible to break out in a sweat simply sitting still. Only the tourists and criminals move fast. Those of us who live out our lives in this strange place know to pace ourselves to get all the way from dawn to dusk.

Every so often a high energy, hyper person bounces in and we stare in awe. Then we resume our leisurely pace and life drifts on. Life is slow and we have the time to notice one another and to pay attention. Our culture is person centered. We care how others are doing more than what they are doing. We are human beings, not human doings.

The small scale of the Shire supports human interaction. It is an ancient urban design imported from European villages and it is the model for "the new urbanism". City planners copy the Shire for new developments.

We, however, already have "the new urbanism" in our Shire. Our Shire is known as the Marigny, where the past and the future of urban planning come together.

Planet Chaney

Here's an update on the previous post:

Washington, D.C. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel issued the following statement regarding his amendment to cut funding for the Office of the Vice President from the bill that funds the executive branch. The legislation -- the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill -- will be considered on the floor of the House of Representatives next week. "The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments. I have worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue to pursue this measure in the coming days."

I'll be writing more about Planet Chaney in the next few days.