This article is something I’m glad got pasted all over the front of the T-P this morning, since it brings up a conflict we’ve all been living with since we’ve returned to our broken city. There are some 800 out-of-town reporters either already in town or headed to the city this week to assess, report, judge, opine, analyze, criticize, boil-down, edit, headline, point out and otherwise spew on How The Big Easy (God, I hate that term) Is Doing Six Months Later.

I got news for them (after all — it was my business too, for over 30 years) — they need to sit down their editors and somehow, some way, maybe for the first time ever — get free rein. They can’t focus on conflict (which is usually the heart of any news story). They can’t find just one or two families and compare their suffering with the partying going on around them. To do so would be a great disservice (and an out-and-out lie) to their readers, viewers or listeners. They can’t be held to 800 words, or 90 seconds or two minutes or any of the other artificial urgency limits they usually face if they want to tell the story accurately. But (since editors separate the wheat from the chaff, then usually go with the chaff) I know that’s not going to happen. So I’ll do my best to condense….

Mardi Gras is for us this year. We live here. All of us have lost at least something very dear to us — be it friends, family, a home, a business, ambiance, a sense of normalcy — at least something we counted on six months ago. And we can never get it back, at least not in the same way it was. We appreciate folks coming to see us and contribute. You are welcome — but give us some space. Carnival isn’t about boobs, booze or throws. It’s about being who and what we are — despite all the heavy, life-changing shit we’ve had to face over the past 180 days. We drive through shit, we deal with shit and we have to see a lot of shit every single day just to go about our business. We’ve had to learn we’re our own help, our own succor, our own hiliarity and our own damn neighborhoods. We’re more than aware of the challenges we face, since every day is a new challenge to roll the old rock back up the hill. So, unless you’re ready to move here and get with it, spare us your freaking analysis. You honestly have no damn idea. Thank you.

On another matter, TBK and I went out to Emeril’s Friday night to celebrate her birthday. The bill (including tip) came to over $300. I consider it a charitable contribution, since every one of the people working in this place (including Emeril hissownself) lives here. They buy stuff from me, I buy from them. Together, we’re holding each other up. It’s no longer a simple economic proposition of supply and demand. It’s a direct exchange of you trying to cover my ass and I’ll try to cover yours. Despite the outside analysis, we’re a much tighter community because of it.

…and it’s glorious. Come see us. We’ll show you.