Asphyxiated Circle

I was downtown this morning for a mandatory long term disability insurance consultation. I thought it was pretty clever of them to schedule it during a city-wide public health hazard.

NEW ORLEANS -- Thick smoke continued blanketing parts of the metro area, as a massive marsh fire kept burning in eastern New Orleans.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said that the fire is now over twice the size of City Park's 1,300 acres. Landrieu made the comment after finishing a morning flyover of the fire Tuesday.

City Park is pretty big. But if Nagin had done this flyover he would have told us the plume was bigger than the Gulf of Mexico. Not that it would have made any difference. I still had to go to this insurance thing anyway. The good news is, I was pretty sure the meter maids weren't out so I didn't bother paying to park. Also the heavy smoke masked the usual urine stench I'm accustomed to when passing by the dumpsters on Girod Street. Oh and I snapped a few pictures of the nastiness.

City Hall


Tulane and Elk Place


Lee Circle

Nothing to add here

But I saw this story about a junkyard fire in East New Orleans and couldn't resist linking it since it gives me an opportunity to use the "flaming garbage" tag for only the second time ever.

Cranky Old Man Road Show

That smell wafting up from downtown isn't only the flaming garbage. There's also a Presidential Candidate in town posing for photos near some of our choice rubble.

The T-P also reports that McCain wore a checkered shirt and ate a brownie but doesn't mention whether or not any reporters demanded that he "denounce and rebuke" his controversial spiritual adviser John Hagee. Do checkered shirts even go with flag pins? Where the hell are all the journalists when you need them?

Update: Cranky Old Man reveals plan to "Rebuild, Tear it down, whatever"

Upperdate: I see "rejecting" but I still don't see any "denouncing" and "rebuking"