Thanks for the love Chi-town. Here’s to Peyton and the Colt’s!!!!!

Let me also say: Thank you Drew Brees, Sean Payton, Reggie Bush, Duece and everyone else who gave this city a year we will never forget. Bless you Boys and Thank you Boys from the bottom of one dude’s heart.

Heart of Darkness Block Party: This Saturday, Jan. 27th, 2pm. At the Magazine/ Melpomene Road Closure.
Come show your support for getting Magazine St. open, support for the people who live there . . . or come for the craziness

On one of our regular city safaris, I learned that my friend, Willie White, knows Mr. Marshall and his wife, Julie Simpson. These are the owners of the two townhouses under extensive and costly renovation at the end of the Melpomene Culvert. Willie took me over to meet Mr. Marshall and hear is story. Their buildings, pictured above, date back to 1855 and 1856 respectively. Marshall told me the Green Building is circa 1854 . . . and lots more.

After the hurricane, Marshall’s building suffered some debilitating damage at the rear. This has all been fixed, a lot of masonry work has been performed to stabilize their walls and they purchased cypress beams salvaged from the Baptist Church which burned on Coliseum Square to rebuild their rear gallery. They will be stunning when they are finished and the owners have only about 3-4 workers helping them.
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State Farm, the nation’s largest home insurer, reached an agreement today with Mississippi officials to pay hundreds of millions dollars to thousands of homeowners in the state who have been unable to rebuild in the nearly 17 months since Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast….

Under the agreement, State Farm would pay an initial $130 million and perhaps several hundred million more by the end of the year, depending upon how many policyholders request that their claims be reopened. About 35,000 homeowners along the Mississippi coast are eligible.

Today’s agreement does not apply to Louisiana, where the destruction was even greater, and where lawyers and insurers say no settlement talks have taken place.

–New York Times

Perhaps someone should call Louisiana’s Insurance Commissioner, James Donelon, and do some yelling.

…so here’s the info on this grant and loan program for small businesses affected by Katrina. And, as suspected, there’s going to be paper shuffled and much moaning and gnashing of teeth for those owners who are waiting to see if they’ll get a little help. But, as noted, about 2/3 of the businesses that had to shut down in the post-K world won’t get anything except a shrugged shoulder and a pat on the back. I figure I’ll go ahead and fill out the paperwork because my business qualifies — at least on the surface. What the hell, right? At least I didn’t fold the corporation and I’ve still got a valid city business license. And some of my equipment, though about half of it had to be sold to pay debts. No one ever said entrepreneurship was easy. But I get the feeling I’d have better luck playing Lotto each week, y’know?
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I don’t make a habit of reading The National Review. I get plenty of far-right rhetoric from my father, our Commander-in-Chief, and Bill O’Reilly (when that schmuck with the bad dye-job is on the treadmill at the gym); I don’t need to search the shit out on my own.

Luckily former neighbor and ex-pat New Orleanian Kevin Allman is not so uppity. A voracious reader and supremely talented writer, Kevin was (un)fortunate enough to stumble across John Derbyshire’s nerdy, whiny, mean-spirited disparagement of New Orleans and has, quite rightly, taken the man to task.

Of course, as I’ve said a bezillion times before, I don’t wanna imply that there’s not room for plenty of critiques of Our Fair City–goddess knows she ain’t what she should be these days–but anyone who starts his review of New Orleans with a thinly veiled attack on blacks and queers has clearly landed at the wrong airport. Give the man a swift kick to the ‘nads and leave him at the doorstep of some gated cracker-topia in Colo-freaking-rado….

Animal Planet has reinvented the Big Game with the cutest, fuzziest and – at times- fiercest players on the field. When we say “rookie” we aren’t kidding – some of these athletes are just nine weeks old. From bulldogs to boxers and everything in between, it’s a fantastic team playing in a spectacular brand-new stadium. Join us for tackles, fumbles and fouls on the third annual Animal Planet Puppy Bowl premiering Sunday, February 4, 3-6 p.m. ET with encore presentations at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET only on Animal Planet.

As part of this unique special, viewers will learn how they can adopt a pet of their own here, at animalplanet.com, where viewers can link to Petfinder, our online, zip code-enabled database, and learn more about adopting or fostering a pet in their own community through reputable shelters, animal hospitals and vets.

Don’t miss the kitty half-time show with adorable bundles of energy playing their hearts out! After the show, watch for the world premiere of the Puppy Bowl Tailgate Party – featuring Choop the Chihuahua, T-Rex the Poodle and Jake the Jack Russell as they watch the big plays from Game Day’s hottest tailgate party.

Not that anyone down here is a huge Michael Brown fan, but at least he’s getting his licks in. I think any of us who have been living through the aftermath of the flood know damn well politics had/has plenty to do with what’s (not) happening down here. And I mean politics at ALL levels. ‘Nuff said about dat.

I’ll be interested to see, in the coming weeks, if the grant money being set aside for affected small businesses actually has an effect. Gov. Blanco is set to annouce details of the $100 million grant and loan program on Tuesday at 2 p.m. This’ll be at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Bastle Haley Blvd. As an affected small business, I’m told grant applications will be accepted from Jan. 25-Feb. 5. But y’know what?

I don’t know if I’m going to bother. Sure — I’ll go get some details and find out more about it before I make a final decision. But part of me says, well, fuck it. It’s too late. My business is toast and anything I do to revive it is gonna have to be up to me and whatever resources I can assemble. Lord knows I don’t want or need a loan. If I can get some grant money to possibly replace some of the tens of thousands of personal dollars I sank into my business trying to keep it afloat while our elected leaders were stuck in neutral, then maybe I will. But, at least for now, I don’t have a business to sink any money into. Anything I do will have to be more like starting a new venture than trying to pump life back into the old one.

I’m not the only one in this predicament either — there are hundreds or maybe thousands of us. It’s simply too late anymore.

We all know the Saints are kicking ass this year it is no secret but what I did not know is that the Louisiana politicians have time for fun and games.
Turns out our Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter are “betting” the Saints will win. They are taking on Sen. Barack Obama’s “fairy tale” comment (see Chris’ post below) with a little wager of their own. What’s on the line? Some yet undetermined Louisiana Delicacies (bring on the Boudin, that will show them) are up against Chicago-style pizza.

Not to be out done Congressman William Jefferson is getting in on the act up against his House colleges from Illinois. He is bringing Dooky Chase into the action with some ya-ya gumbo going head-to-head with Chicago-style Polish sausage.

Two things; One: Do our officials really have time for this, I mean we have issues that need attention and Two: Why are all on Chicago’s contributions to the culinary world preceded by the phrase Chicago-style? Can’t they come up with their own names for things, be a little creative.

“Today, is Seafood Fwiday kids!” We aw gone to have Crunchy fish shticks wit tawta sauce, Fwench Fwies with catsup, gween beans as a vegtabull cause ya gotta getya vitamins, a hot bowl a paarrage and a heallfy dose uh du Louisiana clean aya ack. I truly, with awl da hope n cuwage you can musta, think dis ack wiwl change da woild na.
Haiyel toi da gweat state uh Louisiana, and may awl da unicorns n leprechauns be happy.”

——An address to the State Congress from Kathleen Bubble head Blanco——
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