Hello Out There

I guess this is the end of my "never publicly announced" blog break.

Not much has happened except that I've completed my MBA studies and await graduation on August 16. I also hope to soon end 27 months of unemployment - I have a few opportunities in the pipeline.

More later. I need to figure out how I'm going to proceed with the blog.

Incredible Stupidity

George W. Bush has always impressed me as an intellectually shallow guy who got where he is because of Daddy. As someone once said, "he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple."

However, I never thought he was a blithering idiot. Until now.

I'm utterly speechless.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from New Orleans!

My gift to you: a 'typical' New Orleans Christmas carol from Benny Grunch.

THE TWELVE YATS OF CHRISTMAS
(Benny "Grunch" Antin) Anzel Anzel, BMI

1. On'da foist day'a Christmas mah
Mawmaw gave'to me a Crawfish'dey
Caught in Arabi

2. In'da Christmas Picayune I seen it
Dere'n Section E, Tujaque's Recipe

3. On'da thoid day' a Christmas we
Stopped at McKenzie for Three French Breads

4. On the fourth day I said OK let's get a
Christmas tree Before'ya Drive Me Nuts

5. On the fifth day of Christmas we
stopped at A&G for Frrried Onion Rrrings

6. On'da sixth day'a Christmas we
stopped at K&B's for a Six Pack'a Dixie

7. Cemetery traffic got backed up to
Metairie at the Seventeenth Street Canal

8. On'da eighth day of Christmas me and
Rosalie Ate By'ya Mama's

9. On the ninth day of Christmas we drove
down Delery in'da Lower Ninth Ward

10. I used'ta be at Kaiser now I'm woikin
down'da street at'da Tenneco Chalmette Refinery

11. On the eleventh day at Vetran's
Highway try'ta cross the street with Eleven Schwegmann Bags

12. On the twelfth day of Christmas my
true love gave to me a Dozen Manuel's Tamales

No Bubble Here

I'm sure you're aware from all the New Orleans-based bloggers that there are no jobs in New Orleans. Unless you're a waiter.

The downside of this is people have to leave New Orleans and Louisiana to find a decent, well-paying job that has any kind of future. Hence all the ex-New Orleanians in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. However, on the plus side, housing here is relatively cheap. For example, you can buy a nice Victorian with 4 bedrooms and almost 5000 square feet in Uptown New Orleans for under $600K; a similar house in in San Francisco would run close to $3-4 million.

Why do I bring this up? There's been a lot of talk about a real estate bubble forming and some folks are worried that we're seeing one in New Orleans. But not to worry. As explained in the current New Orleans CityBusiness:

“Locally, the economy is just too slow to see any unsustainable growth. There just aren’t enough jobs coming into the area to push prices up.”

Scorpio

The New Orleans Halloween party was a huge success (yes, it's been that long since I've posted). We (D, myself, Wooda, Mae-Z, and Tyler) costumed as Pan. Essentially, we wore a laurel wreath around our heads, horns on our foreheads, and woolly leggings with tail. No shirt. I'm quite happy to report that after the party, one girl walking in the FQ said I was gorgeous and two boys were quite taken by my chest. I suspect that more trouble could have ensued if D hadn't been close by. You can see some photos of the party here.

Other than that, it's now the nice time of year in New Orleans. The temps are in the 60s and the humidity is low. The stupidity remains.

And we're surprised the stock market has tanked...

An appalling article in yesterday's New York Times.

Not only is their behavior juvenile at best, they're not the least embarrassed to have their photos splashed on the front page of the Fashion & Style section.

I suspect a few folks on Wall Street today are muttering that famous Hollywood line: "You'll never work in this town again."

If there's any justice.

Jack Aubrey

I haven't been this excited about a forthcoming movie since the early '80s when they started making "Star Trek" movies.