What (Else) Makes New Orleans Unique
Cheryl and everyone else here write (I assume) with that strange, deep, irrational love for New Orleans. I sure have it. Being back down here for one whole day has already supplied me with a dozen reasons why, most of them boiling down to the way people act here--crazy and gracious, goofy and elegant, insane and genteel. Often all at once.
Gambit Weekly posted a story that focuses on another angle of the city's uniqueness: read this story about a local pie company. Even that phrase--"local pie company"--would sound grotesquely anachronistic almost anywhere else. But the relationship between the company and the workers, the company's view of "what's enough" to keep going, the company's knowledge of its customers--all underline the New Orleanian's understanding of how much this city is not like anywhere else in America, is not, perhaps, like America itself. In the dark days after the flood, that knowledge became a suspicion that maybe the country was subconsciously trying to expel this foreign body.
P.S.: I don't even like pie.
I'm glad Harry found a way to work Hubig's pies into this discussion. By the way and never fear, you don't need to like pie to like Hubig's. It's borderline not-pie.
July 31, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I lived in NOLA from '94-'01 and it is my favorite place. The storm broke my heart and it was very hard for me to go back finally in '07. I think I only tried Hubig's once but they are not very pie like as I recall. Speaking of pie I remember the little place on Magazine and Tee-Eva herself selling her pies from the window on the street and when Indians paraded http://is.gd/1WIw6 and that business seems to be prospering. So glad to see Domelise's is just the same. I'm waiting for Cheryl's book and Nine Lives to arrive from Amazon and am finally ready to do some reflecting of my own on how the story of the storm and NOLA is being told.
July 31, 2009 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
S.E.,
If you like the Mardi Gras Indians, you should check out Al Kennedy's post in this discussion (http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/28/rebuilding_and_guardians_of_the_culture/) and his upcoming book BIG CHIEF HARRISON AND THE MARDI GRAS INDIANS. There's also an interesting documentary ("Bury the Hatchet") in the pipeline by Aaron Walker about the Indians.
As far as Nola traffic craziness, we've joined modern times. These days it's people texting while eating a po-boy and stopping to chat with a friend on the street.
August 1, 2009 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tee-Eva's was recently forced to relocate, BTW
http://blogofneworleans.com/blog/2009/06/05/tee-evas-looking-for-new-location/
August 3, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
BTW what is it about NOLA that makes one start talking about food right away?
July 31, 2009 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
One more thing. When we first moved there my husband, who expects disciplined behavior from drivers, would complain about the waywardness of traffic and drivers--sudden turns with no signal because you decided you needed a po-boy, or stopping traffic for several minutes to chat with a friend on the street ("how's your mama 'n 'dem?"). I would tell him, "It's not a defect, it's a feature".
July 31, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink