Why I Love New Orleans

[BostonFestivus]

My favorite place on earth in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I think I love New Orleans, because I love America, and it is the most American of cities, with all the things that are both good, and bad about America juxtaposed and amplified ten fold. Great prosperity and great poverty, great generosity, and great greed, great diversity and grinding sameness. New Orleans is like hearing your favorite song, played through a police bullhorn.

Why do you love New Orleans?

[NYMAMA]

I love New Orleans because it is where my heart feels at home. It renews my spirit and can put a tear in my eye and a smile on my face at the same time.
Do you know what it means...... yes I think we all do.

[Corona]

I love New Orleans because it makes me feel alive....with happiness, excitement, joy, love, gratitude and passion. There's no place on earth that does it for me like she does.

[i wanna be in NOLA]

I love New Orleans because it feels like home. Although we've never lived there, we visit 3 or 4 times each year. Stepping off the plane at MSY brings a feeling of arriving home that doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. The feeling lasts until we head back to the airport for our return flight. It's where we belong. We know that, now we just need to make it happen.... someday, it will.

[CEfromLA]

These are from an email sent to me by a friend;

"It has always been my opinion that if you do New Orleans right, you will feel a need to shower (both physically and morally) as soon as you get home. Of course, that is why I have scruples and not morals. Anyone who has ever been there, make a promise to yourself and this grand old eccentric city that it will return and you will return.

If you have never been there, you need to make a point of going there before you die. Check out the parade of street artists and performers around Jackson Square, drink a hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s, dinner at Antoine’s, Brennan’s, Court of Two Sisters, or Tujacs, watch some jazz or blues until 2 am, got to the Café du Monde and eat a dozen beignets, watch the sun come up over the levee, go back to your hotel, sleep to 3 PM , and do it all over again. Repeat PRN.

From the NY Times - Here are 22 reasons America needs New Orleans , the national capital of eccentricity:

1. The turtle soup at Galatoire's is presented in a white porcelain tureen, then ladled into your bowl by a waiter who reveals with a wicked smile that the turtle's name was Fred.

2. The hats in Fleur de Paris, a shop on Royal Street, are perfectly frivolous and ridiculous, beautiful visions of silk and lace.

3. Nowhere else in the country do so many Roman Catholic churches coexist peacefully with so many voodoo shops.

4. If you are a grown man, this is the only place in America where you can step off an airplane, and be guaranteed that within 30 minutes a respectable woman unknown to you will call you "baby," as in, "How you doin', baby!" If you are a grown woman, you will be called "darlin' " whether you are the least bit darlin' or not.

5. The beads of sweat on the unlined face of the conductor on the St. Charles streetcar.

6. Mardi Gras beads, but only the ones you catch, thrown by an actual masker on a float. The ones that hit the ground don't count unless they bounced off your hand or arm first.

7. The Lucky Dog is a venerated local frankfurter that has come a long way, culinarily speaking, from the days when Ignatius J. Reilly peddled them to tourists in "A Confederacy of Dunces." Now they are really good, especially if it is 4 a.m. and you are hungry.

8. I once met Thelma Toole, mother of John Kennedy Toole, author of "A Confederacy of Dunces," who asked if I would buy her a "very expensive meal at the finest restaurant." This lady rolled her R's like an 1860's stage actress to indicate her intellectual superiority to the rest of us. I took her to the restaurant of her choice, and by evening's end she had all the waiters gathered at our table, spellbound by stories of "Kenny." "My son was a genius, with a large and oddly-shaped head," she boomed. Imagine what other great books Kenny might have written, she said, had he not killed himself in a car on that beach in Biloxi .

9. Every Twelfth Night, Henri Schindler, a local historian and Mardi Gras curator, holds a magnificent masked ball on the second floor of the Napoleon House, at the corner of Chartres and St. Louis Streets. White curtains blow in and out of the large empty rooms as masked figures glide past on a cushion of mystery.

10. Locals go to the Maple Leaf and Tipitina's to hear music. Also to Frenchmen Street, a cluster of 10 or 12 small bars and clubs featuring, on any given night, 10 or 12 kinds of music, about 8 of which will be funky. (The other four will be too loud.) Usually at the better places there's a Neville involved, or a Marsalis.

11. My friend Martha Ann Samuels, a real estate agent, revealed to me the actual location of Stanley and Blanche's house on Elysian Fields Avenue , a secret she learned from Tennessee Williams himself when she helped him buy a condo in the Quarter. (I'm not telling.)

12. Oyster loaf at Casamento's on Magazine Street . The crunchy local French bread showers crumbs on your hands. Each bite contains bread, mayo and the delectable local bivalve, breaded and brilliantly fried. Casamento's closes down for the summer because oysters are better other times of the year.

13. At JazzFest, citizens happily stand in long lines in the blazing sun for a chance to eat crawfish bread, white boudin sausage and alligator gumbo to the thump of Rockin' Dopsy from the Congo Square stage. (Could someone please put the JazzFest committee in charge of the Superdome?)

14. You can stand at the foot of Ursulines Avenue and watch a huge oceangoing ship slide by above the level of your head.

15. Along the promenade where the river passes Jackson Square , tourists still fall for one of the oldest New Orleans scams. A friendly fellow proposes that for a dollar he can tell you where you got them shoes. When you accept the bet, he says, "You got them shoes on your feet!" He keeps the dollar.

16. It has the only airport named for a jazz trumpeter, the indelible Louis Armstrong.

17. In the Confederate Museum near Lee Circle is a crown of thorns said to have been woven by Pope Pius IX himself, and sent as a gift to Jefferson Davis while he was imprisoned shortly after the Civil War. For me this artifact represents the height of Southern absurdity, and must be preserved for those future generations who will not believe it.

18. Every Thursday night at Donna's on Rampart Street , Tom McDermott plays the fastest, wildest ragtime, Brazilian and stride piano you've ever heard. It's scary how fast his fingers move when he gets going. His feet come up off the floor.

19. Rich people live on the high ground. Poorer people live on the low ground. Last week some of the rich folks' houses got wet, too.

20. Piety Street is one block over from Desire (where the streetcar goes). Not a long walk at all.

21. On a foggy night the moon grows fat and full, and hangs in the sky above the big old river. It pours light on the water and makes a magical brown glitter that doesn't exist anywhere else. The water is the reason the city is there. The full moon pulls the tides into Lake Pontchartrain .

22. The city's sanitation department is considered among the finest in the nation. Its work during Mardi Gras is legendary. "

[Belle]

That was pleasant reading. Thanks for that post CEfromLA

[Michelino]

Yes it is...but "eat a dozen beignets" that's like four orders for one person?

[festbabe]

..

20. Piety Street is one block over from Desire (where the streetcar goes). Not a long walk at all.

..

They're all good, but I like this one.

[steeleye]

I love New Orleans because it makes me feel alive....with happiness, excitement, joy, love, gratitude and passion. There's no place on earth that does it for me like she does.

What she said!

[Phatpapa]

Yes it is...but "eat a dozen beignets" that's like four orders for one person?

Oh, I don't know bout that. My kid put away that many in a day. Albeit not in one sitting but in a whole day. :eek:

[PaulC]

I love New Orleans because it makes me feel alive....with happiness, excitement, joy, love, gratitude and passion. There's no place on earth that does it for me like she does.

after 14 yrs,.. which was 20 yrs too tardy (started countin' from 18),.. 100% in agreement with the all those fine feelin's,..

but wouldn't all that kinda equal a "he" for you??..

and a "she" for me??.....

whether describin' cars, boats, gods, fests, etc... a he or she descriptive term always comes into play.....

[PaulC]

If you are a grown man, this is the only place in America where you can step off an airplane, and be guaranteed that within 30 minutes a respectable woman unknown to you will call you "baby," as in, "How you doin', baby!" If you are a grown woman, you will be called "darlin' " whether you are the least bit darlin' or not.

Oyster loaf at Casamento's on Magazine Street . The crunchy local French bread showers crumbs on your hands. Each bite contains bread, mayo and the delectable local bivalve, breaded and brilliantly fried. Casamento's closes down for the summer because oysters are better other times of the year.

At JazzFest, citizens happily stand in long lines in the blazing sun for a chance to eat crawfish bread, white boudin sausage and alligator gumbo to the thump of Rockin' Dopsy from the Congo Square stage. (Could someone please put the JazzFest committee in charge of the Superdome?)

You can stand at the foot of Ursulines Avenue and watch a huge oceangoing ship slide by above the level of your head.

It has the only airport named for a jazz trumpeter, the indelible Louis Armstrong.

Every Thursday night at Donna's on Rampart Street , Tom McDermott plays the fastest, wildest ragtime, Brazilian and stride piano you've ever heard. It's scary how fast his fingers move when he gets going. His feet come up off the floor.

The city's sanitation department is considered among the finest in the nation. Its work during Mardi Gras is legendary. "

of your very fine list,.. my personal magnificent seven......

but i can multiply that by ten,.. twenty,.. thirty,.. or beyond those numbers,.. given the time...............

[JTFlash49]

What a great post, CE. And the fact that I can read that and get a tear in my eye because I'm not there right now is one reason why I love New orleans. A friend of mine once said about NOLA "you either get it or you don't." I realized what he said was true when I returned home from my first trip there. As I talked about it, some of my friends said "yeah, I love New Orleans too" but some others said "its too dirty, it smells, blah blah blah". I remember being amazed that some people could go to NO and come away with only those kind of feelings. When New Orleans gets into your blood your hooked for life.

Jim

[revjimk]

New Orleans "terms of endearment".... I actually got called "Baby" on a wrong number in N.O.
"Hello?" .....Janet?"..... "Wrong number, baby..."
rev

[revjimk]

Also, the only Airport named after a lifetime legal ganja advocate.... thats right, Satchmo actually wrote a letter to Pres. Eisenhower back in the 1950s (!!)asking for legalization.. for real
rev

[funkkjunkie]

I love New Orleans because it oozes the music that warms my heart. It is full of people who love life and living. It's food is a song in itself. I love New Orleans because it's a place where I can be totally true to myself and where my soul can sing and hit the highest notes.

[PaulC]

I love New Orleans because it oozes the music that warms my heart. It is full of people who love life and living. It's food is a song in itself. I love New Orleans because it's a place where I can be totally true to myself and where my soul can sing and hit the highest notes.

all that,..

and if ya' feel like it,..

ya' can jus' sit back and smile that special smile that jus' says new orleans...

[funkkjunkie]

permagrin, babee!

[Tivia]

It is the only city I have always longed to go to....

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, in which I love.
I have traveled quite a bit.

Although, I told my husband, after this trip we might have to sell everything and find a place in the south...I feel it in my bones.

I can hardly wait to board the plane in April to go to Jazz Fest, thats why I love New Orleans!!!!

[NYMAMA]

It is the only city I have always longed to go to....

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, in which I love.
I have traveled quite a bit.

Although, I told my husband, after this trip we might have to sell everything and find a place in the south...I feel it in my bones.

I can hardly wait to board the plane in April to go to Jazz Fest, thats why I love New Orleans!!!!

I hear ya TIVIA I feel the same way. It just feels like home:)

[eZe]

....when I land at MSY it feels like coming home....

[Doubledown]

I like everything about New Orleans .

[RitaZero]

Cuz every stranger calls you sugar or baby.

Cuz I love crawfish etoufette. And crashfish monica. And crawfish bread. And Kermit at Vaughn's. And the free red beans and rice at Vaughn's.

Cuz the garbage collector will entertain you dancing and singing and spinning his garbage cans when you're stuck in a cab behind him on a narrow french quarter street.

[Runaround Al]

FOMS any night of the week, any month of the year.

Most cities have a couple to a few good music venues. NOLA - off the charts.

[Leni]

because where else in the world is there a street named "Desire" next to a street named "Piety" !

[Belle]

I like everything about New Orleans .

Me too! Very hard to put down what draws me there and keeps New Orleans on my mind all the time. It is not parts or bits...it is everything, the good, the bad and everything in between.

[festbabe]

I like how New Orleans makes me feel about myself. More energized and more at peace.

[neverleft]

A warm breeze over the Mississippi River.

Nothin like it.

[rosetree]

A warm breeze over the Mississippi River.

Nothin like it.

...and the calliope playing on the riverboat....

[peteup]

The quality of the light at 6.30am.....and all the other posts above.

[rosetree]

The quality of the light at 6.30am.....and all the other posts above.

It's light at 6:30 am??;)

[glinda]

New Orleans is a sensual sultry siren who seduces all the men and makes them more playful and fun for the rest of us.

[stlbarb]

It's light at 6:30 am??;)

not this morning, or the next few weeks. but soon.