The Trailer Two Step

Here we go again. There are still 350 trailers in New Orleans. I am not surprised you can see them scattered in neighborhoods all over the city. A few months ago I was in an unusual (for me) part of town and was surprised to see one. A shortly after that The Times-Picayune ran a story on the few trailers left in Jefferson.

I started this blog to chronicle my life in a FEMA trailer and as self therapy for the dislocation after the flood. I had one of the first trailers. I was lucky because I had power and water at my house, many people didn't. I lived in it for over 2 years.

I had monthly inspections I had to take off from work to meet the FEMA inspector. The trailer gnomes came and did stuff when you weren't around (mostly adding new warning stickers).

I sat through a formaldehyde test, which turned out not to be that bad, although I never was actually warned about formaldehyde. It took months of calling to get the report and I never did actually get the full report, only a summary letter.

There was a tremendous trailer industry. There were installation contracts, electrical contracts, maintenance contracts, inspection contracts. Virtually none of the people involved in these activities was local. I don't think that in the entire time I was in the trailer a single person who came out was local. The same person never came twice. It was a revolving door of government employees and contractors.

In all that time no one ever offered to help me get out of the trailer (except into the rental assistance program). No one offered to help with the road home applications. No one offered to help create a housing plan. No one offered any rebuilding assistance. No one offered help finding contractors. No one offered to coordinate volunteers. No one offered to help me find government programs I was qualified for. No one even left me a brochure in government speak of options I could pursue.

I live in a mostly white, affluent neighborhood, so I may have been profiled or they may have decided I was a low probability to accept help. But my neighborhood is also a neighborhood with lots of elderly residents who could have used help.

If we want to get people out of trailers and into houses, perhaps we need to spend less on contractors and enforcement and a little more on counseling and helping people manage their renovations. Perhaps we should move some of the CDBG money out of making millionaires out of DBEs and into helping actual people.

LA Times agrees with Cliff

This morning I see that LA Times has a story by Sam Farmer headlined
Reggie Bush might be the X-factor for Saints.

The money quote is

"To me, he's the X-factor" against the Vikings, NBC's Cris Collinsworth said.

Collinsworth must have been reading Cliff's Crib. Cliff has been on this for months. He's a believer in Reggie's potential to become the Saints X Factor. Starting in September he's written a series of Reggie posts.

In Search of Reggie's Confidence

48 Points in Philly Is Nothing To Sneeze At

Please Beat The Jets So I Can Watch Sportscenter

The Giants Are A Real Test

This Team Might Be The Real Deal

I think Reggie has suffered from "Fear of Commitment". He seems to always to be looking for an opening, rather than taking advantage what is there, extending the play, rather than looking up field. There have been flashes of productivity. Last week was a breakthrough. This week will be a test.

Perhaps it's his girlfriend. Reading between the lines he seems to have recommitted to her. Maybe their bet about the SuperBowl wasn't so much of a joke.

I know she motivated a bunch of guys in our section at the dome late in the game last week. Late in the game they were paying more attention to her in the box than to Reggie on the field

Beer and Blogging

Click on the image to email an RSVP

Doomsday BCS Implosion Scenario

We have the possibility of a BCS implosion this year.

The Number 1 and 2 teams are in the same conference but don't play each other this year in the regular season. They could meet in the SEC Championship game, if they both get there.

That would upstage the BCS game.
But suppose LSU, who does play the number 1 and number 2 teams beats Alabama, and then beats Florida in a rematch in Atlanta. All three would probably be in the top 5. Three of the top 5 teams in the country would be SEC teams and all would have one loss, each to another top 5 team, in its own conference.

Only one of the three would probably go to the championship game, although an LSU Alabama rematch would be interesting. Everyone now presumes that Texas would be the likely opponent against the SEC champ. However college polls are dominated by losses. Top 20 teams move up primarily when a team ranked above them loses. Perhaps none of the one loss SEC teams would be selected.We could end up with Texas (who only plays only one top 20 opponent) and Boise State (who plays only one top 20 opponent) in the championship game.
Other currently undefeated top 10 teams are Cincinnati (who plays only one top 20 team), Iowa (who at least beat Penn State) and TCU (who plays 2 top 20 teams but hasn't yet)

I don't expect any of this to happen, there are too many moving parts for it to work out, but I for one would enjoy it.

I find the idea that we should have some kind of playoff system in college football ridiculous. College Bowl games should be played on New Years Day (or New Years Eve) as God intended, anything else is a crime against nature. Every fan should be allowed to believe their team is best (even Notre Dame).

Besides, what else would guys argue about in bars?

Geektober Fest

Last Saturday night we had another Geek Dinner. Because its Oktober, in honor of German my heritage, and the Irish Channel, (where we almost were) I decided to create Bratwurst and Red Cabbage.


Since I still had one of the throw away aluminum chafing dishes left over from last time it seemed perfect. As usual the problem was getting the quantities right.

The cabbage is a variation of smothered cabbage.

Ingrediants

• 2 small heads red cabbage
• 2 lbs of thick sliced bacon
• 2 large onions
• 2 Granny Smith apples
  
• 1 tsp. caraway seeds
• 1 tsp. allspice
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. black pepper
• 2 oz. lemon juice
• 2 oz. cider vinegar
• 5 lb. Bratwurst (about 20 links)
• 1 squeeze bottle of Zataran's Creole Mustard.

Preparation;

• Coarsely chop cabbage and discard core.
• Finely slice onion from the pole
• Peel, core and finely slice the apples.
• Chop bacon into 1" pieces.

Cook the Cabbage;

• In a large cast iron skillet cook the bacon reserving the grease.
• In a large covered pot cook onions in bacon grease until translucent.
• Add apples and cook until tender.
• Add cabbage and toss until coated.
• Add salt, pepper, caraway seed, allspice lemon juice and vinegar, toss
• Cover and cook over low heat until cabbage is tender, toss occasionally.
• Transfer into serving pan and sprinkle bacon pieces on top.
  
• Seal with aluminum foil for transportation.

Grill the sausage

• Grill Bartwurst over a low charcoal fire, turning frequently
• Cut links in half.
  
• Seal in an aluminum serving pan for transportation, may be kept warm in a low oven.

It turned out very nicely. One of the things I can never get right about Cabbage is that it growns in volume when you chop it and shrinks when you cook it. Estimating the final quantity is very difficult for me.

In Defense of Snake Gods

Here is the text of only my second post on Nola.com

Drambala had the goods on Meffert long before the local news media. They waited for confirmation, which might not have come without Drambala's lead.

Ellis and Naef showed up at Rising Tide with a posse and were looking for Drambala, yet if you read his post he's passing on rumors and asking for confirmation. Naef or Ellis could have replied directly to him and if the answer is credible he would have posted a clarification or retraction as he has done before. Instead they chose to resort to intimidation and threats.

Is asking about a public employee wife's the politically related business activities Libel?

The first post was an on an article about the late Ashley Morris. I normally refuse to post comments there because of their abysmal comment handling policy which allows disgusting comments.

Hallucination of Independance

This weekend I was at Rising Tide. A great time was had by all. During our Friday Night reception I was talking to Dr. A about our recent trip to Delray Beach. I told her all about the trip and the post I had done on it. Unfortunately I hallucinated the post part. I never did it. I intended to and in my delusion came to beleive I had.

Here is is now.

Shrimp and Grits Schlitz

I recently discovered that the Rouse's store on Carrollton carries Schlitz, the beer that made Milwakee famous. That's the only place I've seen it in years, so obviously I had to buy some. That Rouse's is the only local store I know of with a "beer room", a walk-in cooler with automatic doors so you can diver you grocery cart in and load it up. I found out I actually like Schlitz.


So when Dangerblond announced it was time for another Geek dinner I knew I had to share my discovery. She graciously agreed to host the thing at Chez Dangerblond.

These irregular gatherings of our motley krewe of local Internet gadflys are a lot of fun. Everyone brings something to eat or drink. The host has enough left over food and beer for a month or more.

For my part (in addition to the Schlitz) I brought my own version of the Low Country classic, Shrimp & Grits.
Lil Dizzie's has a similar dish they call Shrimp Grilliads. It seems to be all the rage with restaurants and cooking shows lately. I frequently make it at home, its fairly quick and very good. But I've never made in such a large quantity. I also never use a recipe, so it comes out different every time. Scaling it up was an adventure.

I discovered that some seafood store sell 5 lb. packages of cleaned shrimp.

I decided to go with that.

Here's what I ended up with;

Ingredients

Shrimp

• 5 lb if shelled shrimp.
• 2 sticks of butter.
• 1 head of celery.
• 3 lb of diced onions.
• 2 heads of garlic diced.
• Salt
• Pepper
• Celery Seed
• McCormick's Jamaican Jerk Seasoning
  

Grits

• 4 quarts of water.
• 1 quart of Jim Dandy Quick Grits.
• 8 cups of shredded cheese.
• 2 Chicken bullion cubes
• 1 teaspoon of diced poblano pepper
• Salt to taste - remember bullion cubes have a lot of a lot in them.
  
• Pepper to taste.
• 2 tablespoons of minced dried onion.
• Celery seed
• 2 tbs of diced Poblano peppers.

Cook the bring the water to a boil add seasoning (except for poblano peppers) and grits. Cook grits according to the directions. When grits are cooked add pepper and chees mix well.


While water is coming to a boil, melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat and add seasoning for shrimp. When you add grits to water add shrimp to butter and saute until cooked, adding the second stick of butter at the end.


Server in two large chaffing dishes. For the Geek Dinner I used a disposable serving set with a double bottom pan, wire stand and gel heater.

Everyone seemed to like them.

Yahoo I Used to Knew You

I fear the Yahoo service is rapidly declining, I don't know why but possibly due to the ascendancy of Goooogle!.


For several years I've used myYahoo for my home page. I was able to track local news, national and international news along with weather my favorite sports teams, even a series of real and synthetic investment portfolios. I found YahooMaps superior to the original MapQuest, which I could never get to work properly.



I've tried to switch to Google but never could match the features of my Comfortable Yahoo! home page.

Unfortunately recently Yahoo! has made it almost impossible to remain logged in and even difficult to save login information in your browser.

Even more recently one of the most useful features "Topix"( which provides a feed of local news articles) has become infested by a single apparently self promoting "examiner". So much so that I deleted the "Local News" from my home page.

It seems to me that this "examiner" was minimally rewriting articles by others, posting them on Examiner.com and the posting them himself to TOPIX. This circle jerk has crowded out nearly everything else.

I sent TOPIX an email but am not hopeful, although I did get a reply promising to look into it.

Suggestions for comparable functionality are welcome.

Our goose is cooked!

It's not really cooked yet, but it will be.

One of the hoary Christmas clichés is the Christmas Goose. Many of our traditional Christmas songs have the image of goose. I don't know where that tradition comes from. I have always supposed it was English, probably from the Dickens stories, but I don't really know.

This year I decided to actually roast a goose, I've never had one.


I still haven't eaten one, I will later today. I hope it comes out good. I hope I like it. More important I hope She likes it.

One of the interesting things about having a blog is seeing what people read. I put stuff out there and the things that get attention are always surprising. One surprise is that for the last several months my most popular post has been my Christmas post last year. I think someone linked to the picture, which I still really like.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Cerasoli is a Rock Star

Tonight Ray Nagin was presented with an award for "Award of Distinction for Recovery, Courage and Leadership" at an event called "A Tribute to the Recovery of New Orleans". A number of people protested at the site of the award.

Later in the evening at Buffa's Robert Cerasoli strode into a room full of bloggers like a Rock Star.

Robert Cerasoli, Inspector General

I was surprised that he came, there had been rumors he might come, but I was skeptical. I was even more astonished that he reads our blogs, almost all of them apparently. When I introduced myself he commented on my recent posts. I'm a fan. I was impressed with his command of the blogosphere. Many others had similar experiances.

Nagin spent the evening with sycophants and Cerasoli spent the evening with concerned citizens of New Orleans and a few amateur investigators.

The Rising Tide Shitrs are in.

The Rising Tide III tee shitrs are in. They are another fabulous design by Greg Peters. Come on out and get one (or six).

You Can Observe a Lot by Just Looking

I run a pretty slip-shod operation here. I don't keep track of many things.

I was astonished to learn that this is my most popular post, by almost four to one over the front page. I wonder how that could happen.

It's not a post I particularly favor or even think was very good.

There's no accounting for Google.

Riddle me this!

I've been looking at this map Maitri made and these FEMA maps.

Jim Carrey as the Riddler

In my neighborhood existing grade elevations are between three and six feet above sea level. We are required to build at least three feet above grade, resulting in a minimum floor elevation of six feet.

Immediately across the street in Gentilly the grade elevation is generally negative one foot and lower. They are required to build 3 feet above grade or one half food below sea level, whichever is higher. That makes the floor elevation a maximum of two feet.

In Lakeview the average grade elevations are negative three to six feet. There people are required to build three feet above grade or two and one half feet below sea level. That results in a floor elevation of negative two and one half feet.

There is no significant difference in the potential flooding from any of the most likely mechanisms for catastrophic flooding, breach of the levees or over topping (which would likely lead to breaches if it were substantial enough).

Frank Gorshin as the Riddler

Does this makes sense?

I wonder who thinks up this stuff?

I realize I have generalized the conditions to illustrate the principle.

The 300

Not long ago I was asked to help maintain the New Orleans Blog Roll. I have over the last several months had the pleasure of working on this great community resource. Today it passed a milestone of sorts. There are now 300 blogs listed.

The list is by no means complete. We find new bloggers all the time. Most of them are relatively new blogs, but occasionally we discover an older blog that has somehow escaped our notice. Like Note from the Book a blog I remember finding a while ago losing and re-finding recently. It contains a detailed first hand account of the flood and diaspora.

Unlike Leonidas and his 300 this 300 have not trained their entire lives to fight in great battles for glory and honor. This 300 is the a list of New Orleans Bloggers. It contains many people who have worked hard to restore their city from the Federal Flood. Some of these bloggers were instrumental in organizing the two Rising Tide Conferences. Others have been involved in many community groups. Many of us have also become friends.

The list long ago passed the Marching 100 of the St. Augustine High School Purple Knights.


I didn't start the list. I'm not exactly sure who did. I do know the Kimberly Marshall, law school graduate, gandma and newly elected member of the District A Orleans Parish Democratic Executive Committee worked on assembling the core of it. I'm sorry I don't know who else was involved. That was around the time I started this blog and before I got to know the New Orleans bloggers.

A Christmas Observation

I have noticed that many of the volunteers who have come here to help in our time of need are Christians organized by their churches, acting on their belief in their responsibility to help anyone in need. The church I was raised in emphasized the responsibility to help other people as a part of a Christian life.

Many of my fellow bloggers have written about their personal Christmas thoughts. Quite a number have expressed their lack of belief. Some have thanked other governments who have given help.

I'd like to thank all of the Christians who have given of their time and money to help us in our time of need. I wish everyone,

A Very Merry Christmas

The Bayou Chica

I hope you read my blog. I know you have commented here. I have wanted to comment on your blog but Microsoft requires me to agree to thing I'm not willing to agree to.

Please email me.

I'm Famous.

I'm Famous, I almost got my name in the paper, the Houston Paper. He spelled it Mom'n'em, but it's a made up word so who can blame him.

Welcome 2007

Have a Very Happy and Prosperous 2007
May You and Yours Have a
Better Year This Year Than Last Year

Posted from Key West, Florida

Duh

After months of puzzling over my erratic stats. I had an epiphany (I love that word). My stats jump whenever I post comments to someone else's blog. The more comments I post the more hits I get.

I could probably figure out which blogs generate the most hits if I tried. I'm just not that interested, although Saints comments seem to be part of it.

I'm pretty sure I'm the last person on the Internet to figure this out.