Loose animal update

Well the very bad news is first. 

A cat is the reason 7,500 customers in New Orleans lost power on Monday morning, according to Entergy.

"A cat got into a substation that feeds parts of Uptown, Central City, Mid-City, and the CBD, and caused a flash when it came into contact with our equipment," Entergy said in a statement.

As of 10:20 a.m. Entergy said power has been restored to all customers. Outages spanned areas of Uptown, Central City, Mid-City and the Central Business District.

"It is unusual for a cat to get into a substation; generally, squirrels and other small animals find their way in," the company said. "Entergy installs protective devices to help keep animals out of our equipment not only to avoid power outages, but also to keep animals out of harm’s way.

"Sometimes, however, they are able to make their way around the protective devices, and when this happens, the animals unfortunately do not survive contact with high-voltage equipment."

So that is sad. Between this poor guy and Valerio, 2018 is shaping up to be the most tragic cat year in recent memory. 

But cats aren't the only animals going their own way in 2018.  Consider also the monkeys. 

A monkey went missing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette New Iberia Research Center on Saturday (Sept. 15), according to the university on social media.

The UL-Lafayette Facebook page stated Sunday that staff at the New Iberia Research Center became aware a monkey was missing due to a cage failure on Saturday. The monkey is a young Rhesus macaque weighing approximately 12 pounds, UL-Lafayette stated. The university reported the monkey is part of a breeding group and carries no transmissible disease.

It's that last sentence that reassures me most. No transmissible diseases here, folks. Nope. Nothing to worry about with this monkey. Please go about your business.  That makes me feel better every time we hear it. And we do hear it more often than you might think. Back in May a similar escape occurred at the Tulane Primate Research Center in Covington. Long time followers of this blog will know it was far from the first such incident.

So, yeah, exploding cats and loose rage monkeys. Everywhere else it's just Monday. I also heard a story this morning about large red "tropical looking" bird flying around Central City. The details on that one are sketchy but keep an eye out.

There is no such thing as a service tiger

Do not try and bring one to a football game if it doesn't want to go.

There'll be one fewer massive, hairy, intimdating LSU fan in Tiger Stadium for the rest of the season.

LSU announced on Mike VI's Facebook page on Saturday morning that he won't be attending any games for the rest of the season.

"Will reevaluate next season," the announcement said.

LSU’s live mascot attended the season opener, his first home football game since 2013. Mike declined to show at any of last year’s home games, refusing to enter his mobile trailer.

Good for Mike.  I like Mike The Tiger. He seems pretty happy and well cared for. If the veterinary staff responsible for his well being determine that he is uncomfortable sitting in a cage for 3 hours while 100,000 people scream and yell, well then it sounds like they are doing their jobs properly.

Meanwhile, Superdome security is bracing for the inevitable onslaught of companion animals at the next Saints home game.

Pumilia said he brought the 2-year-old Calico with black and gold fur named Zoey to the game for the companionship she provides as a certified service animal. He said he called Mercedes-Benz Superdome officials beforehand to make sure the cat would be allowed in the stadium.

"I don't go anywhere without her," said the 14-year season ticket holder with two seats in section 624.

Pumilia said he realized the attention his cat received the next morning "when I woke up and I saw the messages here, there and everywhere. ... I had no clue."

The game Thursday was the first to which Pumilia brought the cat. With the Saints at 1-0 with Zoey in the building, Pumilia said he planned to bring her to future games.

His only requirement would be to show proper paperwork at the door, just as he did Thursday.

"She's going to go to every game," he said.

OK so I guess I have some questions.    First of all, can a cat actually be an ADA certified "service animal"?  It looks from this as though the answer is no.

Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.

The ADA specifically limits its definition of "service animal" to specially trained dogs.  These are the only animals required by law to be allowed access to public facilities.  Neither "exotic pets" like  Mike VI nor even regular house cats like our friend Zoey enjoy this legal privilege.

She's probably certified, instead, as an "emotional support animal."  

While Emotional Support Animals or Comfort Animals are often used as part of a medical treatment plan as therapy animals, they are not considered service animals under the ADA. These support animals provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and sometimes help with depression, anxiety, and certain phobias, but do not have special training to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities. Even though some states have laws defining therapy animals, these animals are not limited to working with people with disabilities and therefore are not covered by federal laws protecting the use of service animals.  Therapy animals provide people with therapeutic contact, usually in a clinical setting, to improve their physical, social, emotional, and/or cognitive functioning.

Zoey's certification as an ESA could come from any number of sources.

Some who work with animals, however, see the ESA situation as a growing problem because of the pet owners who fib about their infirmities (or stretch the truth) to get their pets better access. "It's not right," said Nikki Reagan of Pacific Palisades, who is known in local hospitals as the owner of Tank the therapy cat. Animals can do wonders for people, Reagan said, but too many pet owners are gaming the system.

Several companies sell ESA evaluations, letters, registration cards and other accessories on the Web, sometimes requiring telephone interviews, sometimes operating on the honor system. But there is no federally recognized registry for any kind of companion animals (service, therapy or emotional support), so consumers should expect no guarantees from these vendors.

Emotional Support Animals are recognized by federal law under the Fair Housing Act which requires landlords with "no pets" rules to make exceptions for them and the Air Carrier Access Act which permits ESAs to travel for free on passengers' laps.  But, again, they are not afforded the same status that "service animals" are under the Americans With Disabilities Act.  Louisiana law provides for ADA compliant access to "service dogs" but limits its definition to dogs only.

Outside of these stipulations, ESA access to facilities is all up to the discretion of the venue. The Superdome's official policy, as written, adheres very closely to the ADA guidelines. 

Trained guide dogs, signal dogs or service animals assisting guests with disabilities are welcome inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Please alert a ticket taker that you have such animals. If you are requesting a seating relocation after entry into the building, proceed to a Guest Relations Desk located within the Superdome.

Any decision Dome officials make regarding animals not covered by ADA would happen on a case by case basis.  Why would they let a cat in?  Probably just staff unfamiliarity with the law, a desire to keep a customer happy and "play it safe" legally.

In any case it should be clear that Zoey the "service cat" is not, in fact, a service animal as multiple media outlets defined her while clickbaiting over her LOLcatz-at-the-game appearance Thursday.  She likely is certified as an ESA which tells us very little about her other than that she provides some sort of therapeutic support to her owner (although, it may not even tell us that much.)  She seems pretty chill but, much like any cat you may have in your home, or even Mike the Tiger, for that matter, it is reasonable to assume she does not want to spend an evening sitting in a confined space during a scary loud football game.

Apparently she can barely even handle a trip to the grocery.

The #WhoDatCat meet up at @BreauxMart ended a bit early for the sake of the cat. pic.twitter.com/DyVEh2c5Y5

— Scott Colesby (@SoCalledSomeone) October 17, 2015

Which, I guess, is why they made it worth her while.

@skooks yep. Paid. Also saw that Zoey was ready to go, so we cut it short.

— Breaux Mart (@BreauxMart) October 17, 2015

Carnival links: Re-routed parades, recycled throws, and ridiculous king cakes

Parade season is upon us.  I don't know why, but for some reason I'm convinced that this is going to be an especially good one. Here's what's going on this week.

• KDV changed their route.
  
  
  
  Then they changed it again! Appropriate anyway, given this year's theme. The route published in the newsletter (above) is different from the one they're actually going to take (see the Gambit article in the link.)
  

  Krewe du Vieux “Begs for Change” when it rolls at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the Faubourg Marigny, French Quarter and CBD. The satirical and risque krewe typically picks themes with a double meaning, but this one is more socially conscious than usual.
  
  “The double meaning is the proliferation of the people on the street corners holding up signs all over the place but the other side of it is hoping for social and political change,” Krewe du Vieux Captain Joe Thompson said.
  
  Among the 17 subkrewe variations on the theme, The Krewe of Underwear “Bulldozes for Change,” taking on the issue of hipster gentrification. The Krewe of T.O.K.I.N. “Burns (One) for Change,” arguing that Louisiana should “put the bud in the budget” and legalize cannabis.
  
  The krewe is following a new parade route. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the parade will cross Canal Street, enter the Warehouse District and end at the Civic Theatre

  Just don't tell our city councilpersons about all the aggressive panhandling.
  
  
  
• One day prior to KDV, a much worse event will take place.



There's no word on whether any cat fights factored into the decision-making process — or whether any scratch marks were left — but the royalty has been settled for the all-feline Krewe of Endymeow for its 13th annual Bal Masque on Friday, Jan. 30, at The Cat Practice Veterinary Hospital in the Lower Garden District, according to a press release.

Carnival for cats. It's really better in concept than in practice... and it's a pretty terrible concept at that.  On the other hand, if your cat likes to party...






• And, of course, if you're looking for an even worse krewe to hang around with, there's always the Rex organization. This year's Rex parade is all about how great war is.. or something like that anyway.



The 2015 Rex procession, which rolls on Mardi Gras (Feb. 17), will include 27 floats on the theme of "Wars that Shaped Early America." The current Rex bulletin, reproduced here, shows artist's renderings of the floats.

Full-size Rex bulletins, which measure 19 inches by 25 inches, are sold through the Rex organization website. Bulletins from past years cost $30.


I don't want to shell out $30 just for a preview of a parade.  I'm guessing there's one about the "War of Northern Aggression" in there somewhere.  Rex also made this announcement last week.


NEW ORLEANS - The King of Carnival will ride the rails, and not the river, when he makes his Lundi Gras arrival by train this year instead of by water, the Rex Organization announced Tuesday.
Since 1987 (though the practice harkens back to the 19th century), Rex has arrived at the Mississippi Riverfront at Spanish Plaza, via Coast Guard cutter, at 6 p.m. on Lundi Gras.

This year, on Lundi Gras, the King will arrive by train – reviving a tradition that Rex archivist Dr. Stephen Hales says dates back to the mid-1880s.

"He's going to revisit an old tradition, long since forgotten," Hales said. "He'll arrive by train, a specially decorated train car pushed by the N.O. Public Belt Railroad will arrive at Riverwalk. The King of Carnival and his entourage will emerge, greet the crowds, greet the mayor, proclaim Carnival and receive the keys to the city."

Trying to get as much use out of that N.O. Public Belt as possible before Mitch sells it off to John Georges's father-in-law, I guess.



• Here's a list of the top 10 revenue generators among Carnival krewes. City Biz loves to kiss the asses of these clubs. Which is why you end up with bullshit like this. 
  

  An analysis on the most recent tax documents available provides a glimpse at the prolific spending of Carnival krewes. What it doesn’t show is the revenue they direct to charitable causes.
  
  The Rex organization, for example, provided more than $860,000 in grants to charter schools and educational groups, through its Pro Bono Publico Foundation.

  Yeah, hey, thank you, Rex, for profoundly fucking up the very concept of public education in New Orleans... for the good of the public, of course.  There's also this factoid.
  
  

  Non-parading Krewe Momus (disappeared after non-discrim ord) has $1.48m in assets. Richest Krewe? Endymion. http://t.co/tSYkxirerF
  — Andrew Tuozzolo (@ATuozzolo) January 29, 2015

  
  
  Momus doesn't parade anymore because they never got over that War of Northern Aggression that Shaped America.  But it's more or less an open secret that the Knights of Chaos is their parade.  Chaos uses the Momus floats and their membership is basically Momus, from what I understand, anyway. Wonder how the money gets moved between organizations, though. City Business isn't likely to tell us. 




• Riders, do you have all your beads, yet?   The timing is getting weird.
  

  NEW ORLEANS - A labor dispute in California is turning into a possible Carnival crisis. Delays at a Los Angeles port has thousands of signature Mardi Gras beads on back order and local businesses are now concerned the throws will not make it in time for Mardi Gras.
  
  Krewes spend all year making, designing and buying throws for Mardi Gras, but right now much of that is just sitting in containers on the West Coast.
  
  "It's about 20 percent of what we would normal bring in that is not here now," says Dan Kelly, president of Beads By The Dozen. "Unfortunately, a lot of it is the custom product we need for the krewes."

  On the positive side, recent years have brought a build up of rumblings about the quantity of non-biodegradable plastic beads that get tossed around every year.  Maybe this is an excuse to cut back a bit.
  
  
  
  Several krewes, like Chewbaccus here, have begun a deliberate movement toward fewer but more interesting hand-crafted throws made from recycled or recyclable material.  Riders also have come to rely more and more on organizations like Arc of New Orleans, who collect and recycle beads each year, for the bulk of their throws.
  
  Arc rolls these bins behind many parades.  If you're not taking yours home, consider tossing them back.
  
  




• The wacky king cake trend has reached such levels of baroque absurdity that it no longer does any good to question whether or not a thing is real.  If it can be imagined, it exists.  Take, for instance, this week's king cake mini-fad: Boudin.
  

  "I saw it, and I thought, 'Why not?' It was a spur of the moment thing," said Steve Himelfarb, the owner of Cake Café, and arguably the godfather of modern king cakes in New Orleans. He made a dozen mini king cakes filled with boudin and topped with crunchy bacon.
  
  At 7:45 a.m., the Cake Café Facebook page posted a photo of one of them, and credited his inspiration, the boudin-filled and cracklin topped king cake conceived by Robert Carriker, who runs BoudinLink.com and kingcaker.com out of Lafayette. The boudin-stuffed king cake he conceived took social media by storm on Tuesday morning.
  
  BoudinLink.com replied: "That is awesome. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and we appreciate the recognition!"

  Did you get that?  A guy made a boudin king cake but then had to stop and give credit because, come to find out, someone else had already made a boudin king cake.  And hey, that's not all.  You might think that should be all. But it is not.  
  

  Himelfarb said they do not bake other savory king cakes, but for their small catering gigs - they have several this weekend for Krewe de Vieux parties -- they make stuffed breads. One is filled with muffuletta ingredients, one with vegetables and one with roasted pork.

  Actually the savory king cake genre has been explored previously.  Here's a meat pie cake that looks pretty good.
  
  Muffuletta king cakes, though.  Is your mind blown?  Well you are too slow because it turns out this has also been done.
  
  
  
  No satire too outlandish that it can't also be real.  Welcome to Carnival 2015. If you don't like it, you can stay in Mobile.

Bucking the trend

In the wake of recent "Don't Miss" NOLA.com " on "Fascinating Cats From Around New Orleans" and emergency kitten amputations, the current Antigravity Magazine appears to be taking a contrary tack.

Because some people still like to do Friday cat-blogging

Yes there will be a late football something or other either tonight or tomorrow.

Friday Copy-Cat blogging

Have to call it "copy-cat" because Adrastos already has a similar picture up this morning.

Anyway, I thought it germane to point out that since Steve Theriot says here that his decision to sue the entire internet is really just an attempt to find and "address the concerns" of one or two individuals, I may have figured out who he's looking for.

Last week, I caught Biscuit trying to log on to NOLA.com



I know some of what goes on in those comment threads can be pretty gruesome but I sincerely hope Steve Theriot doesn't sue my cat for trying to read the news. Otherwise he might be forced to spend his time online trolling for kitty porn and that's just not right. He's still a baby, after all.

Easter Weekend

It's not anything so dramatic as having been laid away in a tomb before rising again or anything but the weekend was so event-heavy as to cause me to unplug a bit for a few days. So I missed a lot of stuff, I'm sure. Anyway here's what happened in the meantime.

• On Good Friday, I spotted State Senator Ed Murray exiting the Sheraton Hotel downtown. Murray had just picked up what I assumed were his and two other people's Crescent City Classic race numbers at the pre-race health and fitness expo. I had a moment where I could have asked Sen. Murray if he was entering this race to win it but I had to go pick up my number so I just let him duck out. Sort of like he did a few months ago.
  
  Here's a lame phone picture of the official artwork from this year's CCC which I was fond enough of to snap a photo but not quite enough to buy a poster.
  
  
  BTW, the artist's name is Christy Works-Boutte. Here's her site.



• Besides, you are saying, aren't the participants supposed to "win" these posters through some feat of athleticism or something? Well, kind of. A few years back I was athletically feated enough to finish at or near the times at the end of this list of Top 500 Finishers (PDF) who qualify for free posters. But I'm getting a bit too old, slow and fat to take that challenge very seriously anymore. I will admit to one tactical error, however. I forgot to lie.
  
  In my self-consciousness about my deteriorating athleticism, I momentarily forgot that a great majority of unseeded race participants either haven't trained very hard or simply don't plan to finish the thing running anyway. And while there is a dedicated registration category for "walkers", many of these people just lie about their expected finishing times so that they can start further up the street. And so you have walkers, baby strollers, people with canes, people in giant chicken suits all lining up with or in front of people who expect to run at an 8 to 10 minute per mile pace.
  
  One way to manage this problem is to lie about your own time. Even if you're like me and have been running 6.2 miles in 55 to 58 minutes consistently for weeks ahead of race time, it's a good idea to inflate your grade and register in the 45 to 50 minute group. Otherwise, you'll spend the first mile and a half of the course covering as much ground laterally as you do moving forward. Think Reggie Bush trying to bounce an off-tackle play outside and losing six yards in the process. This was me on Saturday.
  
  Because I had forgotten to lie about my time, I had to push hop and spin through a forest of waddling old ladies, invalids, rejects from the cast of Biggest Loser, and I think the Philly Phanatic before I finally found room to hit a reasonable stride somewhere on Esplanade Avenue. This was, I think, maybe my 17th or 18th Crescent City Classic and here I had made just the dumbest rookie mistake possible. At least I didn't park my car in an obviously illegal spot and then whine about it in the newspaper.
  
  I ended up finishing in 55:46. Not terrible for an old fat guy but it was harder than it had to be.



• In other sports news from the weekend, Donovan McNabb is almost as old as I am (but maybe a little bit fatter). I will never understand the why Eagles fans seem to hate their future Hall of Fame former quarterback so much. Good luck in the Kevin Kolb era.



• In other news news from the weekend and early this week, I've been enjoying the spectacle of various members of Mayor-to-be Mitch's NOPD task force realizing that they've been used as cheap political props and walking out the door to save themselves further shame. I most enjoy following these developments at The Lens where Eli has a pretty good bead on the situation.

  The police search largely has been delegated to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has a contract to consult the Landrieu transition. The organization is screening the candidates and will whittle down the applicant pool before the task force will have an opportunity to weigh in on any specific individual. For some task force stakeholders, the police chiefs group has been far from forthcoming about the methodology used to whittle down the list. Some task force members appear to be more in the loop than others.
  
  I can respect the desire to be sensitive about the current positions of potential candidates. I’m not sure that I necessarily object to the IACP serving as the first filter for the task force. Frankly, I was never sold on the need for an official task force to help the Mayor-elect in the first place. Mitch Landrieu has said that this decision – who will lead the NOPD at its time of greatest despair – is his top priority.
  
  He’s right. The success of Landrieu’s administration absolutely hinges on his ability to curtail crime while restoring the community’s faith in the NOPD. The credibility of the department is, at this point, absolutely critical to the city’s national and international reputation and will in large measure determine the pace at which tourism and other investment can grow, or slow.
  
  If Landrieu had come out from the onset and said that he would consult privately with whomever he wanted to and that the selection of the new police chief would be his decision and his alone, perhaps he would have avoided this early headache.

  Basically what's happened here is Landrieu, who I agree has every right to just pick the damn chief himself, thought he could steal a tacit endorsement of his choice from as many "community leaders" willing to have their names printed on a list of Task Force participants as possible. Most "community leaders" are just self-important enough to fall for this. But at the same time, they're also sensitive enough to get their feelings hurt when they realize they aren't being listened to. And when that happens you end up with a situation where the people you brought in to create a fake air of consensus are now creating a fake air of discord as they have their individual temper tantrums. Overall it looks worse than if Landrieu had just ignored these people altogether.



• In other news that really isn't news, Scott Cowen is your 2010 Times-Picayune "Loving Cup" recipient. Oyster and Ashley and and Fake Ashley from "Treme" are right. Scott Cowen is a mook. And the T-P's Editorial Board (Or Ashton Phelps' committee of one or whoever cups out the loving) is the mookiest mookfest in all of mookville.




• In further news that really isn't news but is at least further along the line toward being news than the previous item and which involves smaller furrier animals, we... um... we got a new cat on Saturday. In June, it will have been a year since we lost Sovreign and, well, it was just time. This is Biscuit. He's about 8 weeks old.
  
  

And in the best news of the weekend, I made a Gumbo Z'herbes on Good Friday and took some photos of it while it happened.

Gumbo Z'herbes is a bit different from most of what people typically call Gumbo in that 1) It doesn't usually call for a thickening agent like file or okra. 2) Because it is a traditional Good Friday meal, practicing Catholics are encouraged to not put any meat in it. Because I did not check the practicing Catholic box on my Census form, I get to ignore item number 2 and add ham anyway and nobody will send me to Hell.

• The first thing you do here is bring together as many different sorts of greens things you can pull out of your local Rouses. There aren't any hard and fast rules about which greens you use although some of these are fairly standard. Clay made one of these a few weeks back that included dandelion greens. I didn't have anything quite so exotic on hand. You are supposed to have at least seven and your total is supposed to be an odd number. I count eight in mine but, again, didn't check that box either. Try and damn me if you want to but it won't hold up in court. The important thing to remember is that most of these like the mustard greens in the photo below usually have a lot of sand and grit on them so they have to be cleaned thoroughly before use. This could take a while so it's good to have beer on hand.
  
  



• This is my biggest stock pot stuffed as full as it will go with Turnip Greens, Collared Greens, Mustard Greens, Cabbage Leaves, Beet Tops, Green Onion, Leeks, and Parsley.
  
  
  
  Once everything is clean, add it all to the pot with maybe 1/3 or 1/2 cup of water and turn the burner up on high. When the water starts to boil, turn the heat back down low, cover the pot and let it simmer for maybe 20 minutes or so.



• Strain the cooked greens, reserve the liquid and set it aside.
  
  
  
  Chop the greens up as fine as you can and set them aside as well.
  
  



• In a great big cast iron pot, make yourself a nice roux. I won't bore you with the fine points of stirring and waiting on a roux. Just make sure you have more beer on hand to pass the time. When it's ready to go, you can start building your gumbo. Most Gumbo Z'herbes recipes call for just onions here, but I went ahead and threw in some bell pepper, celery and garlic too because... I was afraid somebody might send me to hell if I didn't.
  
  
  
  Add that to the roux and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Then go get your reserved stock and stir that in too.



• Here's where all the rest of us sinners get to make this part of a complete breakfast by adding meat. Pickled pork or pickled tips would probably be great with the greens but I didn't have any so I just went with regular old ham seasoning which works just fine.
  
  
  
  Oh and three humongous ham hocks too. Here's all that heretical ham browning in the roux.
  
  



• All that's left to do now is add the those chopped, cooked greens.
  
  



• I probably could have used a bit more cayenne in this than I did so don't hold back. I also used black pepper and salt (obviously) as well as thyme (which really should just be automatic anywhere there is pork) and also some allspice and a couple of cloves which don't typically belong in a gumbo but then neither do all those greens.
  
  Yes, obviously, there's plenty left. I wonder if it freezes OK. Would be an appropriate item to resurrect, right?
  
  

BREAKING: Suspect Identified

When this first popped up a few days back we thought it was pretty freaky. But now that we appear to have a serial kitty-tosser on the loose, we thought it prudent to release the following photograph of the suspect as recorded by a New Orleans municipal crime camera.



Of course, we aren't ruling out the possibility that this second report may prove to be the work of a "copy cat" offender. Nonetheless, if you have any information regarding the whereabouts of this person, please inform the authorities... such as they are around here anyway.

Catching up

It seems that every time I go away... even if for a few days... all hell breaks loose around here. Luckily I don't get out of town too often. Bad for my valve, you know. Y'all just need to be thankful I don't commute from Sydney or some crazy shit like that. Really who would hire someone to do that anyway?

• I just got back from Pensacola Beach where the entire island is being taken over by something called Portofino Island Resort which is a timeshare/hotel monstrosity occupying four high rise towers on the last piece of real estate that isn't reserved for the Gulf Islands National Seashore. In addition to the resort itself, the company also owns and operates several attractions on the island, the most prominent of these being a Disnesyesque boardwalk featuring various boutique jewelry and tchotchke outlets, a surf shop, a daiquiri bar, and, of course, a Hooters.
  
  Guests who don't want to drive the 1 and 1/2 miles between the boardwalk and the resort can board a complementary catamaran which departs each location on the hour. They can also hire a taxi, which isn't difficult to do since the cab companies are fairly used to making this trip. I also noticed that, on weekends, there is a "trolley" service for hauling tourists up and down the same route.
  
  That may seem like a lot of effort expended in the interest of keeping visitors moving between the pool bar and the toe-ring shop with minimal difficulty but at least the cost of it all appears to be fronted by the private businesses and individuals who benefit from these services. Meanwhile, in New Orleans, the international private company in charge of our public transit system seems to prefer spending our tax dollars on similar tourist amusements.



• I'm terribly disappointed in South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. When I heard that he had turned off his cell phone and gone missing for a few days without notifying his family, friends, or... anyone in his office I was not just sympathetic but downright moved. It's so difficult to find quality alone time these days. If a State Governor can't manage to pull it off, even if for a day or two, what chance do any of the rest of us have anymore? When it turned out he was actually in Argentina banging his "dear dear friend" I was devastated. Instead of an elected leader making touching statement against the encroachment of the modern world upon the private soul, Sanford was just another "family values" politician having a hypocritical affair. How boring.
  
  And then, of course, there's Fox News not missing a beat. They do this all the freaking time.



• Mark your calendars. It's happening again. New Orleans Bloggers will present another conference on the status and future of the city as it approaches the fourth anniversary of the Federal Flood. Details (late as usual) coming soon.



• Here's the point about the Bill Jefferson trial that doesn't get talked about much. If Jefferson's attorneys are correct in asserting that the Congressman didn't specifically sell any of the official functions of his office, then what is he actually accused of selling? His brand name? His supposed clout as a consultant? If so, how is this any different from the brand that any pol sells when he or she takes a job with a lobbying firm? If we're going to put Bill Jefferson in jail for this, shouldn't we start going after all of them? Not that that isn't an unpleasant thought....



• Prediction: The minute everyone is satisfied that Tulane has what it wants, the paper will not run another word against the construction of the new hospital in Mid-City.



• Gotta go with the Tigers tonight. Despite what it says above the T-P masthead this morning, LSU did not "drop the ball" last night. They just ran up against an outstanding pitcher having the game of his life. What a great tournament this has been!



• The Landrieu faction is ruining your chance at a more just health care system, America.

  The real risk is that health care reform will be undermined by “centrist” Democratic senators who either prevent the passage of a bill or insist on watering down key elements of reform. I use scare quotes around “centrist,” by the way, because if the center means the position held by most Americans, the self-proclaimed centrists are in fact way out in right field.
  
  What the balking Democrats seem most determined to do is to kill the public option, either by eliminating it or by carrying out a bait-and-switch, replacing a true public option with something meaningless. For the record, neither regional health cooperatives nor state-level public plans, both of which have been proposed as alternatives, would have the financial stability and bargaining power needed to bring down health care costs.
  
  Whatever may be motivating these Democrats, they don’t seem able to explain their reasons in public.

  Their reasons are that they quite accurately see themselves as representatives of their friends in the insurance industry. Those are the only people they listen to.



• If you ever have an opportunity to adopt a cat, I can't recommend Maine Coons highly enough.* I've owned a few cats in my time but Sovereign was unlike any I had known. Most cats tend to have a sort of pompous aloof aspect to their personalities. They accept you but they're sort of above you. But Sovie was surprisingly unpretentious and affectionate... Clownishly playful and genuinely friendly without any of the typical feline standoffishness... more like a calmer than usual dog, really. And the dude was huge. I still think I see him around the house sometimes. I'm gonna miss that guy.

*Sovereign was a rescue cat from the Baltimore Humane Society. I would always recommend rescuing and animal from a shelter regardless of any breeding preference.

Update: Here's one I almost left out. Can I get a WTF on this, please?

Away for a few days

In the meantime, Here are some kitty pictures.

Actual Cat Blogging

If it's good enough for Scout, I can't feel that bad about it, right?

Sovereign was admitted to the animal hospital yesterday morning to have a polyp cleared from his right ear via a procedure called a ventral bulla osteotomy. The polyp had ruptured his eardrum but we're told the damage is not permanent and he'll be able come home as soon as the fluid is finished draining and his little head is sewn back up.