OK, I'm happy to hear that you aren't a dyed to the bone New Yorker, then, but you still were looking at this in an esoteric way. (and how am I just now seeing this post... you just replied, I guess) As for myself, some of my earliest memories as a youngster are camping at San Luis Pass with some very old guys, Germans (the great uncles of a close friend), who had served in U-Boats in WWI (no, I'm not kidding), and wading at night out on the flats gigging flounders, my gig in one hand and a kerosene oil lamp in the other. With experience, you learned to spot the flounder, the barest outline buried in the sand with just his eyes showing, and you crept up on the sucker. If you stirred up some sand and they spotted you, they were off like a shot, but a quick jab with the gig, some thrashing about while you bring him up, careful to keep the gig under him, and then taking him off, jabbing the gig in the sand to free that hand, and putting him on your stringer... all the while hanging on to the lantern, which you did not want to drop! Hard to describe just how magical that was. The stars overhead, the night very black, unless there as a moon, a hundred yards from the shore, maybe more, maybe less, and the shore damn near impossible to spot, trying to keep the light at the camp for your bearings, almost impossible to see when you are far out, your companions widely scattered to either side of you, utter quiet, except for the muted sound of the wind and the water, being careful to not step into a hole, there being lots of them, or a narrow, deep channel formed by the tides, and equally careful to spot a sting ray, who were just as hard to spot as the flounder. Excepting a fresh red snapper grilled over a fire on the beach, a fresh caught flounder is the best eating there is. Those old guys knew where to go. It's an example of that collective memory that being lost elsewhere on the Gulf, as the product of generations of fishing, and crabbing, and going after oysters, as much for the love of doing it as to make money, remains under a dire threat, possibly lost forever for far too many. I certainly hope not, but it doesn't look good.
Has anyone else started to hear the theme from That Seventies Show when our friend Deckard posts in long-paragraph form? :grin: (That is an awesome song by the ahead-of-their-time band Big Star, by the way, but recorded for the show by somebody else.)
I have a love hate relationship with NY, like many people do. The absence of nature really kills me at times, and all the people can be a curse too. My time in Houston was in Sugarland and there wasn't a whole lot of natural wonders to explore there. But in N.O. i was in a new subdivision on the west bank and it was muddy and crissed crossed with bayous and the Harvey Canal. We'd ride our bikes into backwater places that was just another world. It really is the quintessential image of what the marshlands would be like - where getting around by boat more often than car. Islands of land and mud and trees and mosquitoes in swampy water. All sorts of things growing - colorful looking plants and fruits. I have very found memories of it all. It was like it was written by Mark Twain but more swamp like and with BMX bikes. Anyway, i understand the desire to protect it, but i also know the practicality of trying to build a barrier that would take 9 months to complete, cost enormous amounts of money, and would be so fragile that a tropical storm could wipe it all out. You go down that road and put all your resources into there, and if it doesn't work, you have much less to clean up and restore. The gulf is going to take a very long time to recover from this. But it will recover.
I watched him on CNN last night, but I was really surprised to see that Cal Ripken is filling in as mayor of New Orleans:
Remember those sand berms that were Jindal's idea? You know, the ones basso and the boys were in favor of implementing immediately because this would greatly help with the spill? Well, they pretty much suck ecologically and financially... and they're still at it. So, the only good reasons to keep spending money on this is so Jindal can look strong and of course, to funnel lots of money to businesses that will turn around and contribute it to Jindal's next campaign. Awesome.
Obama's limo fills up at BP station. no word on whether that was this year, or in 2008... -- Miranda Bryant 25 May 2011 He maybe the president of the most powerful nation in the world, but his car still needs filling up with petrol. Workers at a garage in Pimlico today told of their astonishment after Barack Obama's car and the presidential entourage pulled up for refuelling. The armoured limousine, nicknamed "The Beast", arrived with six other vehicles and police escort at a BP petrol station on Vauxhall Bridge Road during the president's state visit to London. Onlookers said the cars took up the entire forecourt when they arrived yesterday at around 3pm. They also told how the Cadillac - which is fitted with bullet-proof glass and has an armoured body, its own oxygen supply and even samples of the President's blood - took up a bay and a half while Mr Obama's driver filled it up with £50 worth of unleaded. Workers at the station, who at first did not realise who the car belonged to, said the presidential entourage spent £350 in total between seven cars at the station, where a litre of unleaded costs 136.9p. The station manager, who served the driver but said President Obama did not appear to be in the car, said: "They spent £350 on unleaded petrol with £50 for each car. I didn't realise whose car it was until some guys outside pointed it out. "The Beast was really impressive. When the driver opened the door it was 1ft thick. It was the driver who came in to pay. He was wearing a black suit, he was nice but he just paid and left. "It was really exciting because it's the president's car." One passer-by said it was ironic that the president's motorcade had to fill up at a BP garage. The company was attacked over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by the president who vowed to make "British Petroleum" pay for the vast leak, which was caused by an oil rig explosion in April last year
Maybe it's a reward for all the good work BP did during the clean-up (actually they really did, not kidding). Edit: as noted in other thread, this article is now available to nonpaying customers - worth reading: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/14/110314fa_fact_khatchadourian
Not sure which I should be more outraged at....that Obama filled up gas at a BP station or he used Grey Poupon on his burger. Sheesh, that Obama sure is controversial!
Mustard-gate was probably the most asinine thing I think I've ever seen in American politics. And that's saying something.
only a guy who wears mom jeans would use grey poupon. a burger requires ketchup, or, if one is feeling elitist, Dijionaise.
Anybody can put anything they want on their burger. We live in America and this concept's called Freedom. However, if you put beans in the chili, it then ceases to be chili and becomes soup. NTTAWWT.
