Moving

Tim's Nameless Blog is moving to a new address:

http://timsnamelessblog.blogspot.com/

See you there!

9:59 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Temporarily Ain't Dere No More

Some people from New Orleans talk funny. They're called Yats.

When you meet one on the street, they say, "Where y'at?" And then they say, "Whatcha know good?" If you're considered a good friend, they might even say, "How's ya mom an' dem?"

Believe it or not, many people are proud to be Yats.

Even I, on occassion, have been known to slip into Yat talk. My out-of-town friends think it's funny when I replace the "th" sound with "d," as in, "dis," "dat," "dese" and "dose." Sometimes, I don't know what's up wit dem.

Local musician and amateur sociologist Benny Grunch has made a career of celebrating the language and culture of Yats. A few years ago, he wrote and recorded "The 12 Yats of Christmas," based on the Christmas standard. The locals ate it up.

It helps that Benny himself is, well, a Yat. He knows the places and talks the lingo with the best. With no effort, Benny slurs and blurs the words, so that "picture window" becomes "pictcha winda," and "did you" comes out "did'ja." Yats sound a lot like New Yorkers, but with a friendly streak.

With the band Benny Grunch and The Bunch, he's recorded several more heart-warming songs celebrating the happy weirdness that flows down every street of New Orleans. Just the titles make me smile: "Ain't Dere No More," "Over By Your Mama'n Nem," and "If I Won Da Lottry For Christmas."

All of which leads me to this shameless promo for their recently released CD now on sale through their website and several local stores. They've updated "Ain't Dere No More" to include recent Katrina victims, namely Lakeview and St. Bernard. Well, as Benny says, "Temporarily Ain't Dere No More."

Click the link, check it out, buy a cd from a local musician and have a happy holiday to boot.

http://www.bennygrunch.com/index.html

Yeah you rite!

9:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

No guarantees

People are rebuilding in my neighborhood.  They're pulling out the soggy carpet and puckered wood flooring, they're tearing out the limp, wet sheetrock.  They're piling what used to be their furniture, cabinets, beds and sofas on the curb in front of their houses.

And it makes me sad.

People are gutting their houses here and there in my neighborhood, tearing it all out to the studs.  They're leaving open all the doors and windows so that the two-by-fours and concrete slabs will dry out.  All this in preparation to rebuild.

They are getting ready to rebuild just the same as they were before Katrina.

Is it just me?  Or does this amount to a huge leap of faith?  If you have a house that got 5, 6, maybe even 8 feet of water, doesn't that tell you something about how you should rebuild?

I can tell you what I will do.  My house drowned in 7 feet of water, so unless somebody can guarantee that there will be no more storm surges that top our levees and floodwalls, or unless someone can guarantee that Congress and the President will send us the money to build better protection, and, unless someone can guarantee that those higher levees will be built quickly and correctly, I know what I have to do.  I have to build higher.

The last catastrophic flood in New Orleans was 1965, so who knows, we might not get another major flood for another 40 years.

Or it could happen next year.

3:43 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Night and day

A few days ago I wrote about the darkness than covers the flooded parts of New Orleans each night.  Vast areas of tens of thousands of homes, whole neighborhoods one after another that do not have electricity, do not have residents, do not have any signature of modern life.

Photos can never capture the devastation, but here's one that tries.  It's from The Times-Picayune from a couple weeks ago:

http://www.nola.com/tpstore/katrina/1928598.html

10:34 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

What are the odds?

You live in a house that sits below sea level.  The only thing that keeps the ocean and the callous whims of nature from rolling into your living room is a levee.  A man-made ridge of earthen materials constructed to keep your life and your property safe and secure.

11:43 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

For Pete's sake!

I am so rich.  I was reminded of this once again at supper this evening.

Over the past few months, I received a lot of sympathy from people in Texas, Arkansas, Virginia, South Carolina--everywhere I've gone.  People find out I'm from New Orleans, and the sad eyes and the, "Oh, you poor thing," follow.

But I am not poor.  Since evacuating ahead of Hurricane Katrina, I have not missed a meal.  I have slept in a comfortable bed every night.  Thanks to my job, my insurance, my family, and yes, FEMA, I remain safely distant from bankruptcy and the poorhouse.

Tonight, for instance, we ate lasagna.  Let me tell you how rich that made me feel.

You might think you would need to be eating caviar and sipping a 1910 vintage champagne to feel rich.  You might think you would need to be using fine silverware at Commander's Palace with multiple waitstaff hovering nearby to feel rich.

Instead, we sat at our second-hand dining table in our two-bedroom apartment.  We ate using very nice stainless that was a recent gift from my Mom and Dad.

Although we've done a partial tally of our personal property loss for our insurance claim, there's no telling how much we lost in the flood brought by Katrina.  Our house, all our furniture, almost all our clothes, all our books, albums, photos, hundreds of cds and dvds--all lost.

But as I say, I am nevertheless rich, and I realized this again when my wife served the lasagna she had baked.  Yes, you probably guessed what a great cook she is.  My wife can enter a cold kitchen and serve you a gormet meal in just 45 minutes.  But this is not why I feel so rich.

What did it was the lasgana server.

Yes, that's what I said.  In case you've never heard of it, a lasgna server is a wide, flat serving untensil especially handy for, surprise, serving lasagna.  This is one of the serving pieces that came with the new stainless set.

I said to my wife and daughter, "We have a untensil just for lasagna?  We're rich!"  And I meant it.

After all we've been through, after all we've lost, we still have so much.  We have a nice place to live, clean clothes, food on the table, access to doctors, two good automobiles--too much to list.  For Pete's sake, we've even go a lasagna server!

I know I get grumpy on occaision.  I worry about the money lost and the sentimental treasures destroyed by the flood.  I know I'll never have as much stuff or money as Bill Gates or the Saudi Royal family.  But I know that ultimately, I'm so lucky, and so fortunate. I am rich.

6:15 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

The Whims of Nature

This commentary by The Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss has been getting a lot of attention.  Originally run in The Washington Post, it's been reprinted in other papers around the country.

Do Not Forsake Us
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/25/AR2005112500963.html?sub=AR

Mr. Amoss makes several good points, the most important of which is the need for significant storm protection for Louisiana.

I have heard some say that we who live below sea level should take "personal responsibility" for our decision to live here.  And that government cannot be expected to rescue us from the consequences of our "bad choices."

First, I will pause for a moment while you imagine the many expletives I initially wanted to use in response to those comments.

Okay.

Now let me put this as plainly as I can.  The federal government has provided flood protection for almost 100 years.  This is a responsibility legally and dutifully accepted by Congress and the President going back to the 1917 Flood Control Act.  So let's just drop this nonsense that the good citizens of New Orleans are trying to dodge "personal responsibility" here--hurricane protection is the Fed's job.

In addition to the disruption, inconvenience and grief this hurricane has caused me and my family, I have personally suffered many thousands of dollars of loss in real property.  And I'm not asking the federal government to fix that.  My house is totally uninhabitable, and it is doubtful that I can or should rebuild it even if I can afford to.  I'm not asking the federal governmnt to fix that, either.

I ask the federal government, via Congress and the President, to provide just one essential service to their citizens in Louisiana: real flood protection.

I fail to understand why this is such a problem.  A recent report from the Corps of Engineers, completed in consultation with officials from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Public Works and Water Management, placed a price tag of $33 billion to do this.

Consider this: President Bush's 2006 budget totalled $2.6 trillion (that's trillion, with a T).  Safeguarding Louisiana from the next hurricane costs about ONE PERCENT of that, even less when spread out as it would be over several years.

Remember the saying, "Brother, can you spare a dime?"  It's as if Louisiana is saying, "Brother, can you spare a penny?"

So what exactly are we spending those trillions of dollars on?  Since invading Iraq in the name of national security, Congress and the President have authorized spending $251billion over there.  And in recent years, Congress and the President have spent $30 billion per year on highway projects.  Are the stability of Iraq and improved highways more important than the safety of Americans who live and work in South Louisiana?

Don't make us beg.  And don't act like we're asking for the stars and the moon.  Congress and the President should provide the flood protection they're supposed to and for which they are responsible.  Then, and only then, can we locals rebuild New Orleans.  As President Bush told the nation, "Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature -- and we will not start now."

2:47 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Simple solution

My daughter must have heard us talking about what to do with our flooded home.

After stewing for about two weeks in seven feet of foul flood water, the house is cooked.  My wife and I have been talking about what to do next.  Structurally, I'm thinking the wood frame and brick veneer are probably okay.  The slab is just as solid as ever.

The roof is good, that much we know.  As my wife grouses, that damn roof didn't loose a single shingle.  If it had, and if rain and wind could be blamed for some of the damage, we'd be able to make a claim on the second part of our insurance, the homeowners policy, and we'd be able to get more money.  Alas, that did not happen, and all we have is the flood claim to bouy us through this financial tragedy.

But would it be wise to invest so much money to restore our house?  With so much damage, perhaps it makes more sense to tear it down and start all over.  And wouldn't it be better to build a house much higher than it is now?  But what if we're the only ones to rebuild on our street?  What will we gain in we're the lone family in a deserted neighborhood?

We've been talking about this for three months, I suppose, bouncing these and many more questions about.  So finally, the other day, my daughter had some input.

"We should make a video and send it to the Extreme Home Makeover TV show," she said enthusiastically, "And they will come fix up our home!"

Not so bad a suggestion, I think, coming from a 9-year-old.

Of course, we know that there is no simple solution.  We know that no one, not Ty Pennington, not George Bush, not even Santa Claus has the power to just wave a magic wand to make it all better.

The task at hand is long, hard and expensive.  There are hard choices to be made, a lot of effort to be expended, and money, a lot of money, to be invested by individuals, businesses, and government at all levels.

It's going to be difficult, almost as difficult as it was to explain to my daughter why we would not be sending a tape to ABC television.

Link: http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index.html

4:59 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Sushi

We ate at a sushi restaurant last night.  Going out to eat in New Orleans is still a pleasurable, yet surreal experience.  You can almost forget that 80 percent of the city is drowned and dead.  Almost.

We went to the Ninja on Oak Street.  There was a full menu of specialty dishes and all the rolls you could imagine.  There were moist towels to clean before eating, warm saki in little cups, chopsticks and wasabi.

And then there's the plasic spoons and styrofoam plates and bowls.

We asked the waiter, what's up with the throw-away plates?

"Can't find a dishwasher," he said.

Here was a restaurant filled with patrons, upstairs and down.  Plenty of people coming in and out, plenty of people working at the sushi bar, lots of activity in the kitchen.  But no one to wash dishes.

No college students, no low-skilled laborers, no teens looking to make a few dollars to get that first car.  And we are reminded again that we are the lucky few, the ones who for some reason or another still have a place to live, still can find a place to rent, still have a job to be able to pay for it all.

No matter how good the food, no matter how nice the friends and the conversation, the reality of our city's plight fills the room.

Beyond the walls, the happy sounds and smells of fine Japanese cuisine, we know the city of New Orleans lies stretched out like a rotting corpse.  Large tracts of the city remain dark and lifeless, slowly decaying.  No amount of wasabi can cloak it.

We enjoy our meal anyway.  We talk about life before and after Katrina.  We talk about the possibility of leaving New Orleans, to places that aren't so damaged, to jobs that might offer more opportunities.  We console each other about the poor leadership we're getting from the city, the state, congress and the president.  We toast better times, past and future, and depart into the dark, wet night.

As Chris Difford sang, "The past is just a portrait, The future’s ours to frame."

Link: http://www.nola.com/dining/reviews.ssf?2454?2454

3:50 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Map the Flood

The news is not good.

Congress, the president, newspaper editorial boards, and recently "60 Minutes" have come to the conclusion that New Orleans is doomed.  It either can't be saved, or even if it can it will cost too much.

I have seen bumper stickers protesting the US invasion of Iraq that say, "Bush lied, people died."  After standing in Jackson Square and pledging to support the rebuilding of New Orleans in a nationally televised speech, the president hasn't done anything to help.  I wonder if I will soon see bumper stickers saying, "Bush lied, New Orleans died."

If I sound angry, it's just that I am telling the truth.

To really see the anger, check out this commentary from yesterday's New York Times:

Turkey With a Dash of Bitters
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/23/opinion/23biguenet.html

For the past few weeks, I've been writing about what New Orleans was and is.  I've tried to capture the enormity of this catastrophe in words, but perhaps it's not possible.  Maybe you have to see it to understand.

The PBS television program NOVA has an excellent web page devoted to a recent report on the "Storm That Drowned a City."  There's a link to a google map lets you put the outline of the flooded areas of Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes onto your own town.  This overlay might help people understand how bad things are.

Go to Map the Flood at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/orleans/

Now imagine that every home, every school, every business in that area are destroyed.  All of the homes are uninhabitable, all of the businesses are closed, all of the schools ruined.  Some might be repaired, but count on more than half of them being a total loss.

The people are gone, evacuated across the country.  How can they come back?  Where will they live?  Where will they work?  How can any person or business even rationally consider returning unless and until the levees are properly repaired and fortified?

As we sort out the answers, let's all hope the news gets better.

3:29 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment