Who Dat?

On the eve-eve of 'Supah Bowl Foity-Foah', I can't resist 'da temptation' to pay a little tribute to de Crescent City and da team dats gonna beat dem Colts. So heah's a little Top 10 list of da best things about New Orleans and about da team dat Archie built.

1. The very best book written on the richness and infinite variety of the New Orleans restaurant scene remains Richard Collin's "The New Orleans Underground Gourmet" published in 1975. Besides justly famous and long standing places such as Brennan's, Antoine's, Galatoire's, etc., Collin reviewed many defunct hole-in-the-walls. Although his description of the Paul Gross Chicken Coop stands out in the original edition as being the "foulest smelling restaurant in the city," Collin returned to this restaurant and gave it a much more favorable review. Mr. Collin died recently (Jan. 19, 2010) at age 78.

2. Although I don't dare to venture a prediction as to the actual score of the game, I do predict one thing: if the Saints win (as I most certainly hope that they do), I predict that there is a 100% certainty that there will be no school, no trash pick-up and no city services at all for Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday.

3. Speaking of game predictions, I'm tired of hearing about "Manning vs. Brees". Both are great quarterbacks, but obviously the correct matchup description is Manning vs. the Saints defense and Brees vs. the Colts defense. Manning is probably a better pure passer and very possibly the eventual greatest QB to play once he retires, but the Saints have Reggie Bush, the difference maker (if he can hang onto the football).

4. The Big Easy has certainly made significant progress since Katrina. Speaking of predictions (in general), it seems that Nostradamus made a prediction about Hurricane Katrina over 500 years before it happened. Just listen to this passage from Book VI, Quatrain 22:

"And out of the South a wind
comes up and terrifies upon the
Crescent (!) towne forcing both
Those to the dome and to Morial."

Now, that's just plain eerie, or so I think!

5. But as I said before, New Orleans has (partially) recovered although the ubiquitous beer stands on Bourbon Street which, in the late great 80's, proudly sold large 20 oz. plastic cups of Dixie draft have all but disappeared.

There's always a price to pay for progress.

6. The novelist Walker Percy gave an all too accurate and pithy summary of the problem of New Orleans political corruption when he described it as being performed with both "Catholic gaiety and Protestant industry." Percy also famously described Plaquemines Parish as being like "Neshoba County run by Trujillo".

Hey, we ain't here to talk about Plaquemines Parish! Get back to da main issue, ya fat old andouille!

7. I don't know if there are many more "K & B Drugstores" still surviving, but I remember the presence of the purple and gold signs which provided some measure of reassurance (as well as Bufferin and Bayer) to many a partygoer. I believe that K & B has been replaced by CVS and Walgreens, as everywhere else. Likewise, the days of Falstaff, Jax, and Schlitz, all sold freely by the cup, have been replaced by Abita Springs, as good as it admittedly is.

Again...the progress thing.....

8. As a cruel practical joke, there was a tourist book for New Orleans published a few years ago which praised Mid City, Treme, and the area north of Rampart Street as the 'best places to aimlessly daydream and just take in the sights'.

Scores of out-of-towners followed that innocuous advice and.....paid the ultimate sacrifice. Let us observe a moment of silence for our fallen heroes.

9. It seems sometimes that everyone from New Orleans has got an "Uncle Alphonse" and an "Aunt Louisa", both of whom have listened faithfully to WWL AM 870 for years now and call into the afternoon radio show to complain about the parking at Gov. Nicholls and Barracks down at the riverfront.

10. Finally, a musical tribute to the Crescent City, courtesy of Benny Grunch and the bunch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxNaY0WZ-18

Go Saints, and I'll check dis postin on Monday, over and out.