{"id":650,"date":"2005-09-15T21:31:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-16T01:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=650"},"modified":"2005-12-05T21:52:19","modified_gmt":"2005-12-06T02:52:19","slug":"hell-or-high-water-my-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hell-or-high-water-my-ass","title":{"rendered":"Hell or high water, my ass"},"content":{"rendered":"

The President just delivered his address about the rebuilding of New Orleans and the gulf coast communities blow’d up by Katrina. He spoke from Jackson Square, which is about 400 feet away from where the official VM fiancee<\/a> and I plan to get hitched next March.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I’m using the present tense. We still plan to get married in the French Quarter in springtime.<\/p>\n

My coworkers, family and friends have stared at me goggle-eyed when I’ve told them that we think everything’s going to go off as planned. Maybe they’ve been following the situation more disinterestedly, or just watching and reading different news-sources. They may also have fallen into the trap of reading too much into the present moment. Each day, the city’s been getting better news about the drainage, the pollution, the electricity, and more.<\/p>\n

A week ago, you would’ve thought that we were on the verge of suffering a zombie plague. Now the mayor of New Orleans is talking about keeping the city crime-free and violence-free. Things change quickly during a disaster, and I’m betting that we’re going to see more rapid improvements (and, I hope, very few grisly discoveries).<\/p>\n

We’ll be visiting her family down there a month from now, and I bet this very blog will tout a photo of your humble correspondent downing a Hand Grenade<\/a> in the Quarter. And, sure, a beignet at Du Monde.<\/p>\n

“There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans”? I’m glad the President and I see things eye-to-eye.<\/p>\n

Update: The photographer we booked for the wedding just sent us an update from his first trip back into the city:<\/p>\n

Saw Jax Brewery yesterday and even got out to walk around the back. As with the rest of the French Quarter I was very surprised how little damage. It was hard to even find a broken window anywhere in the Quarter and there was no flooding. I couldn’t really even tell if Jax had been looted. The media reports about looting downtown where VERY misleading. (even the Convention Center, that housed the thousands stranded for days seen on the news, didn’t have one single broken window!)<\/p>\n

I would guess Jax Brewery will be open within weeks. It lifted my spirits to see the French Quarter and Garden District in such good shape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President just delivered his address about the rebuilding of New Orleans and the gulf coast communities blow’d up by Katrina. He spoke from Jackson Square, which is about 400 feet away from where the official VM fiancee and I plan to get hitched next March. Yeah, I’m using the present tense. We still plan … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Hell or high water, my ass”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-au","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1687,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-12-2007","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 12, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"October 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"All the oddball links you can handle, dear readers! Just click \"more\"! Here's a really neat piece on pictorial space by Eddie Campbell, who's one of the great cartoonists of our time. * * * Soulless New York. (and more) * * * Looks like Andy Pettitte shared his ring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2106,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-june-20-2008","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: June 20, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's get linkical! Is there some reason you're not regularly checking out The Nonist (and his new Nonist Annex)? Because this post should be enough to sway you. * * * I bought Arcimboldo drink-coasters during my first trip to the Louvre. * * * A SimCity energy plan will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1550,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sprawl-for-some","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":2},"title":"Sprawl for Some","author":"Gil","date":"June 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't recall why I never finished reading Robert Bruegmann's Sprawl: A Compact History. Presumably this was because of the standard reason I don't always finish non-fiction books: I picked up some novel that caught my interest and never looked back. That doesn't mean that I won't get around to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0226076911","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1462,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-apr-20-2007","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Apr. 20, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a busy week, but that didn't stop me from almost writing about some articles. Here's a sampling of the stuff I didn't get around to! Why modernist architecture failed generally sucks. * * * A profile of Jane Galt, evidently not written by Reggie Miller's sister. * *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6731,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/this-is-all-going-according-to-plan","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":4},"title":"This is all going according to plan","author":"Gil","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just getting started on my annual Another Year, In the Books\u00a0post for 2012 (and it's a doozy), and I just came across this list I posted in January 2012 of books I was hoping to read in 2012. I actually did okay on that, given how often my reading\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6527,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-western-canon","url_meta":{"origin":650,"position":5},"title":"The Western Canon","author":"Gil","date":"August 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Our library is almost complete; once our handyman finishes putting in the flooring and does some touch-up work, which he thinks he can pull off in the next two weeks, we can move some furniture down there and get to reading. And maybe writing and recording some more podcasts. 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