One of the things that my friends find paradoxical about me is that I love military history, military fiction, and good war stories, in spite of the fact that I'm a liberal, dKos reading (and worse, participating) DFH.  I'm usually good about putting aside the personal politics of authors of military fiction, particularly the more knuckle-dragging types like Tom Clancy.

I'm part of the Diary Rescue team, which is a great way to get exposed to a wider range of Kossack diaries. I pick time slots to read that I wouldn't normally, in the hopes of finding interesting gems. One that I found is Jeff Huber, a retired US Navy Commander, blogger, and I was pleased to discover, author of military fiction.

It's that time of year, when the weather in Southeast Louisiana is nice (when it's not raining, of course), and crawfish are cheap and plentiful. Those are the perfect ingredients in making a crawfish boil.

More photos and comments below the fold...

former Mayor Marc Morial isn't happy with the management of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center here in New Orleans, because they've been downplaying the Morial name in recent promotions and other literature they generate.  

I haven't chatted with hizzoner in some time, so I thought I'd write him a letter...it's below the fold.

Delta Air Lines B757, in pink "Breast Cancer Awareness" livery.

I've been mulling over a situation that happened at the Delta ticket counter at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) last Friday, trying to decide if which of the two in the title happened.

Story continues below the fold.

2000-series Von Dullen streetcar #2012, receiving a new paint job in the shop at Carrollton Station, uptown New Orleans.  The federal flood forced 6' water into the streetcar barn at Canal Station, ruining the 2000s.

Guste family tomb in the "new" section of Metairie Cemetery.  The patriarch, liam J. Guste, Sr., married the former Marie Louise Alciatore, thereby marrying into the family of Antoine Alciatore, the founder and first proprieter of Restaurant Antoine.  The Gustes now own and operate the city's oldest restaurant, and do it very well.

I love Giada De Laurentis, and both of her shows on Food Network.  I was looking for something a bit out of the Creole/Creole-Italian realm, and came across this dish on the Food Network Website:  

Recipe and how-to photos below the fold.

The story of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's handling of emergency preparations for suburban New Orleans and his leadership post-storm have been widely discussed and documented.  When Broussard stood for re-election, the division of the vote in Jefferson Parish was clear:  Voters whose houses were flooded as a result of Broussard's decision to evacuate pump operators out of the parish voted against him.  Voters in neighborhoods unaffected by these man-made floodwaters supported him.

Statue of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio, located in St. Louis Cemetery Number Three, on Esplanade Ave., near Bayou St. John.  Padre Pio, who was reputed to be in possession of the Stigmata (the wounds of Christ Crucified), lived from 1885 to 1968, and was canonized by John Paul II in 2002.

Ashley Morris passed away last week.  Ashley was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at DePaul University in Chicago, but he never moved his family to the Windy City, preferring to live in New Orleans and commute to Chicago.  Only a true New Orleanian and Saints fan would even consider doing such a thing, and Dr. Morris was both of those.  In his neighborhood as well as the NOLA blogging community, Ashley was ever the activist and advocate for the city, never hesitating to call out politicians, businessmen, and other "leaders" in his blog.

I'm not doing streetcar blogging today, because this is my first day teaching for HDS in Manhattan this week.  Usually my classes start on Mondays, so by Wednesday I'm in a good groove.  Catch is, Hitachi Data Systems is on an April 1st fiscal year, so my three-day class would have overlapped years had we started on Monday.

Anyway, I'll be at the mini meetup that plf515 has arranged for this evening, looking forward to meeting some NY Kossacks.

Let's have a NOLA Kossacks open thread here today.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW ORLEANS NATIVE ANNOUNCES THE OPENING OF A NEW RESTAURANT
BANQUETTE'S BLOGGER BISTRO

1-APR-2008

New Orleans, LA - A truly innovative restaurant concept opens today on the Lakefront in Gentilly.  Banquette's Blogger Bistro offers imaginative takes on classic Creole dishes as well as new dishes created exclusively for Banquette's by the restaurant's executive chef.

(more below the fold)

Besthoff family tomb, near the "new" main entrance to Metairie Cemetery, arguably the cemetery with the wealthiest and most elaborate tombs in New Orleans.

(detail and history below the fold)

I've written some articles on the subject of developing an on-line community site for New Orleans, structured (more or less) along the lines of the dKos community.  Several local bloggers aren't clear on what I've got in mind, because they've never participated here, or similarly-structured sites.  Since we're working on the server that houses myleftfork.net, I didn't want to post a food diary today, so I thought I'd share this post with Kossacks and get input/feedback from within a community that works...most of the time. :-)

This article from YatPundit.com is the third essay in an ongoing series I'm doing to flesh out the project.  It begins below the fold.

In 1997, Eric S. Raymond wrote a fascinating essay entitled "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," describing his experiences managing an open source software project. Raymond postulates two models for software development, the Cathedral, where access to development is restricted to just the programmers between releases, and the Bazaar, where everything is always out in the open. CatB works for illustrating a development philosophy, but the two models also apply to developments other than software.

The dKos community is a good example of the Bazaar model at work.  I've resolved to start something similar for New Orleans bloggers.

Here's the plan...

The end of the St. Charles Ave. streetcar line, at S. Carrollton and S. Claiborne Avenues. This photo is from June, 2002.

Six more weeks to go, and the St. Charles line will be 100% operational. As of now, the line is only running the length of St. Charles, turning around at Riverbend. NORTA has announced that they expect to finish the upgrades and repairs to the line on S. Carrollton Ave. by May.

2 pices, all white, spicy, with cole slaw and a small onion rings from Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken.

My diary yesterday was on the Copeland Family tomb, since that's where Al Copeland, founder of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, will be buried next Monday.  While that diary was more about Metairie Cemetery than Copeland and his food, it's appropriate we talk about fried chicken to honor his memory.

(clicky the image for a larger version)

Copeland family tomb, located at the "modern" entrance to Metairie Cemetery.

Al Copeland, of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, passed yesterday.  Copeland was from Da Channel and later Arabi.  His original chicken shop, "Chicken on the Run" opened in Arabi in 1971.  That became Popeyes, and by 1977, he was franchising the concept.