Top Ten Restaurants in New Orleans

Katie Nachod and Georgia Chadwick forwarded this link with an article on the best restaurants in New Orleans. They are all well worth checking out!
http://cityguides.msn.com/citylife/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4973140

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Tips on What to Wear

As far as surviving- here's a tip- bring light clothes (i.e. cotton or linen). If you wear polyester or other non-natural fabrics, you will melt.
Bring comfortable shoes to walk around in. Bring some Crocs if you have them or get some here if you don't. They are the BEST shoes to be wearing when it rains, which is just about every day lately.
http://www.crocs.com/home.jsp You can usually find knockoffs at Kmart or Target, but the originals are really comfortable.
Bring an umbrella or plan to get one here. Carry it with you if you think you might be outside at all. Storms come up in the afternoon, rain intensively for an hour, and then disappear. But if you are outside during that hour- woe unto you!
***********************
Amy Hale-Janeke, JD MLS
Head of Reference Services
5th Circuit Court of Appeals Library
New Orleans Headquarters
600 Camp Street, Room 106
New Orleans, LA 70130
ph: (504) 310-7755
fax: (504) 310-7578

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Creole Tomatoes Are Here!

Creole tomatoes are in season and are available for sale at various supermarkets like Dorignac's in Metairie. However, I like to buy mine at the Crescent City Farmers' Market which is held twice a week. Please check out the website for information on the two locations and especially for recipes using fresh local items. http://www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org/ The Saturday market (from 8 am-12 noon) is not too far from the convention center: http://www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org/markets/saturday.php

The French Market http://www.frenchmarket.org/ in the French Quarter does not have fresh produce at this time. It has been under renovation and the website says fresh fruit and vegetables will return soon but not until after AALL. The annual Creole Tomato festival is held at the market each year. At present the French Market has a variety of shops, the world famous Cafe du Monde, and at the very end a flea market area. If you want to see what the French Market looked like when they did have fresh produce stands and butcher shops go to the LOUISiana Digital Library: http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/

Georgia Chadwick

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Preservation Hall Schedule

Schedule for Traditional Jazz Concerts at 726 St. Peter, July 2007

Night Shows from Thursday through Sunday. Gates open at 8:00 p.m. Showtimes from 8:15 to 11:00 p.m. Admission $8.00.

Sunday, 01 July - Glen David Andrews & The Lazy Six
Thursday, 05 July - Paulin Brothers Jazz Band
Friday, 06 July - Trombone Summit
Saturday, 07 July - Tenor Summit
Sunday, 08 July - Glen David Andrews & The Lazy Six
Thursday, 12 July - Paulin Brothers Jazz Band
Friday, 13 July - Joe Lastie's Lil' Jazzmen
Saturday, 14 July (Bastille Day)- New Orleans Jazz Summit
Sunday, 15 July - Glen David Andrews & The Lazy Six
Thursday, 19 July - John Royen
Friday, 20 July - Trombone Summit
Saturday, 21 July - Tenor Summit
Sunday, 22 July - Gregg Stafford
Thursday, 26 July - New Birth Brass Band
Friday, 27 July - Joe Lastie's Lil' Jazzmen
Saturday, 28 July - New Orleans Jazz Summit
Sunday, 22 July - Gregg Stafford

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Preservation Hall

For those of you who have never been to Preservation Hall at 726 St. Peter Street in the French Quarter, let me give you a quick description. Preservation Hall is not really a hall but more of a room in the front of the building. The building itself dates from 1750, and before Allan and Sandra Jaffe founded the club in 1961, it was used for a variety of other purposes. The limited seating is not comfortable, consisting of some benches and a few chairs, and many will need to sit on the floor. There is no air conditioning; no refreshments other than bottled water are sold (although you may bring in a drink); and there are no rest rooms. The reason people form a line down the street waiting to get in is the music, pure and simple. The Jaffes wanted a place where New Orleans musicians could play New Orleans jazz, and many of the first musicians who performed at Preservation Hall had played with some of the early jazz greats.

Please take a look at the cover story of the July 2007 issue of OffBEAT Magazine by associate editor Alex Rawls. The article looks at how the second generation of the Jaffe family, Ben Jaffe, is guiding Preservation Hall to stay true to his parents' desire to save the heritage of New Orleans jazz, while incorporating new ideas. http://offbeat.com/artman/publish/article_2335.shtml
Mr. Rawls is going to see that we have some copies of the July issue to give out at the AALL Hospitality Booth.

And take a look at the Preservation Hall website as well: http://www.preservationhall.com/

The two photos of Preservation Hall performances from the 1970's come from the collection of the State Library of Louisiana, and I thank them for making them available. You may wish to search for a number of interesting Preservation Hall photos at the LOUISiana Digital Library: http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/

I will post the July schedule on the blog as well.

So, I guess food is not always the most important thing in life to New Orleanians.


Georgia Chadwick
AALL Hospitality Committee

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New Orleans Nostalgia

New Orleans historian, Ned Hemard, publishes a weekly column on the New Orleans Bar Association's website. New Orleans Nostalgia covers New Orleans History, Culture and Traditions.

If you're wondering about New Orleans trivia, take a look at some of the entries. The titles of the articles are intriguing. I found information about the Dating Game and saddle oxfords, Elvis in King Creole, creole tomatoes, the stores with K that have gone away (K&B, Kreeger's, Krauss, Krower's and most recently Kirschman's), and much more.

Thanks to Helena Henderson, Executive Director of the New Orleans Bar Association for granting us permission to link to these interesting columns.

Come to program D-5, A Win-win Partnership: Legal Editors and
Law Librarians to hear about the New Orleans Bar Association's newsletter.

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Walk on the Wild Side on TCM - Thurs. 6/27

If you get Turner Classic Movies on cable, tonight they are showing a great old New Orleans movie, Walk on the Wild Side, from 1962. Starring Lawrence Harvey and a young Jane Fonda in one of her first screen roles, it is the story of two Texas drifters who make their way to New Orleans during the depression. A great noirish drama based on a Nelson Algren novel and also famous for the opening credit sequence by Saul Bass, one of few people to make a career on this sometimes under-rated component of movies. You can watch a grainy copy of the title sequence here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHLgUyE9pfI

Those were either some well-trained cats or this required a LOT of takes!

(Oh, and there is NOTHING "more" to read - can't we get rid of that "Read More" link below for these short posts?)

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There is a house in New Orleans

Today The Historic New Orleans Collection opens a brand new building whose design is based on architectural renderings of a hotel that stood on the exact spot in the 1850s--a building that many believe to be the inspiration for the Animals 1964 hit song The House of the Rising Sun.

Ironically, it is the first new construction in the Quarter since the storm. Here, everything old is new again.

When you are in town for the annual meeting, have a good time, but don't do what I have done/ you shun that house in New Orleans/ they call the Rising Sun.



Francis Norton
AALL Local Arrangements Committee

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See The Cemeteries

Some of the unusual tombs at Metairie Cemetery.

One of the modern, more ordinary headstones in Metairie Cemetery.
Mel Ott's tomb in Metairie Cemetery.

Closeup of the tomb of Mel Ott, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I hope you will have time before or after the convention to take a tour of some of the Crescent City's many interesting cemeteries, but anyone coming to the city in a cab from the airport will get a view of two of the very largest ones. Approaching the city by car on the Pontchartrain Expressway (I-10) at exit 231, you will see Metairie Cemetery on your right, founded in 1872 at a time when the city was in need of more room for their "cities of the dead." Unlike older cemeteries which developed piece by piece, the Metairie Cemetery developers had a master plan to provide a spacious setting for the grandiose tombs which had grown popular in nineteenth century New Orleans. Metairie Cemetery's tombs, monuments and vaults are the most imposing in the city, so a quick glance from your car window won't do them justice. One could spend a day driving through the beautifully landscaped grounds, or walking from tomb to tomb reading inscriptions.

At the same place but on your left, you will see Greenwood Cemetery, founded in 1852 by the Fireman's Charitable and Benevolent Association. Although Metairie Cemetery is larger, much of it is concealed by trees, and Greenwood Cemetery makes a visually arresting image to Expressway travelers with its row after row of finely constructed tombs.

The Cheap Easy Guide on the Local Advisory Committee Page has some great tips about seeing some of the cemeteries: http://www.lb5.uscourts.gov/AALL/cheap.html#tourism

The New Orleans Police Department has a few tips as well: http://www.nopdonline.com/cem.htm

The AALL Hospitality Booth will have some brochures from Historic New Orleans Tours (http://www.tourneworleans.com/) who offer tours of St. Louis #1 Cemetery downtown and Lafayette #1 in the Garden District. I have taken this tour of St. Louis #1 and it was very good . You will learn a lot about the history of the city. Historic New Orleans Tours was founded by Robert Florence who has written two excellent books on the cemeteries:

City of the Dead: A Journey Through St. Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans, Louisiana, published in 1996 by the Center for Louisiana Studies

New Orleans Cemeteries: Life in the Cities of the Dead with photographs by Mason Florence, published in 1997 by Batture Press.

Also, the first five people who come to the AALL Hospitality Booth and ask about Judge Joachim Bermudez (see a picture of Judge Bermudez with our LAC, he is the guy in the back wearing the bowtie), who is buried at St. Louis #1, will receive a copy of City of the Dead: A Journey Through St. Louis Cemetery #1. There is an article about Judge Bermudez in the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of SCCLL News found at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/sccll/membership/newsletter.htm


Georgia Chadwick
Hospitality Committee
AALL Local Arrangements Committee

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What's Cooking in New Orleans

Michelle Gaynor (center) Manager of the Shop at the Collection is offering anyone who shows their AALL conference badge at 10% discount on almost all items in the shop.
The Shop at the Collection, Historic New Orleans Collection 533 Royal Street, NOLA. Photo credit: Georgia Chadwick

Here are items made of salvaged wood and on the lower shelf are tombs. Photo Credit: Georgia Chadwick

Here is another "Hot Tip" to consider before coming to AALL in New Orleans--

The Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter is a housed in a complex of several buildings of varying ages. The HNOC is a museum and research center for state and local history. Their exhibit "What's Cooking in New Orleans?" has been so popular it is being held over to run through November, so it will be possible for our members to see it. The exhibit examines culinary traditions of the Crescent City. The curators say: "The cuisine that defines New Orleans today has been nearly three centuries in the making. Consider What's Cooking in New Orleans? an appetizer, an introduction to the complex cultural, economic, and social factors that have shaped the Crescent City's culinary traditions. The materials gathered here--cookbooks, menus, photographs, and other memorabilia--span the mid-20th centuries, with an array of kitchen gadgets carrying the storyline right up to the present day."

The exhibit is at the HNOC's Williams Gallery at 533 Royal Street in the French Quarter. Entrance is free and the hours are: Tuesday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The telephone number is 504-523-4662 and their website is http://www.hnoc.org/

The manager of the Shop at the Collection which has history-related books and gifts is offering a 10% discount on almost all items to AALL members who show their convention name tag.

A limited number of What's Cooking in New Orleans? exhibition guides will be available at the AALL Hospitality Desk.

Georgia Chadwick
Hospitality Committee
AALL Local Arrangements Committee

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Speaking of the language of New Orleans

With a tip of he old chapeau to Cathleen Buzzetta, who sent this to me years ago:


"THE NEW ORLEANS DICTIONARY"

ALLIGATOR PEAR - Avocado.

ANYWAYS - And, then; and, so.

AWRITE - While "Where Y'at" is usually thought of as the common
greeting in New Orleans, "awrite" is much more universal.
A man may say "Where Y'at" to a friend he passes by on the street, but
he'll say "awrite" to a stranger. This is the South, after all; one
doesn't
merely brush past someone else when walking down Carondelet St. without
saying hello. We don't want to be impolite, yet we don't usually waste
time on strangers, so "awrite" is a fair compromise. Usage: One man walking
down the street comes upon another man going the other way. The first man
says "awrite; the second responds "awrite." ...


AWRITE, HAWT - A variation on the standard greeting, but using an
endearment usually reserved for a friend, usually female.

AX - Ask. Usage: "Dey axed for you down by da VFW Hall last night ad
Madeline's cousin's daughta's weddin'."

BANQUETTE - The sidewalk. Pronounced "BANK it". Usage fairly rare
nowadays.

BERL - To cook by surrounding something in hot, bubbling liquid; the
preferred method for cooking shellfish. For example, many a New Orleans
student learned in World History that a great defense of a castle under
attack in the middle ages was to dump "berlin' erl" on the attackers.

BOO - A term of endearment, frequently used by parents and
grandparents for small children, even small children who happen to be 40
years old. Believed to be Cajun in origin.

BRA - A universal name for a male, usually one with whom you are not
acquainted. Usually used in this manner: "Awrite, bra"

BY MY HOUSE, BY YOUR HOUSE, etc. - Analogous to the French terms
"chez moi"; "chez toi"; etc. Usage: "He slept by my house last night."
"At" is never used in this sense.

CAP - A universal name for a male, usually one with whom you are not
acquainted. Women generally do not use this term. See also PODNA and
BRA.

CATLICK - As in Roman Catholic, the predominant religion in New
Orleans.

CEMENT - A standard English word, but with a special pronunciation.
Yats say "SEE ment"

CHARMER - The quintessential female Yat. Pronounced "CHAW muh"

DA - The.

DAT - That.

DAWLIN' - A universal form of address. Women use it universally to
both sexes, men use it toward women. See also HAWT.

DEM - Them.

DESE, DOSE - These, those.

DIS - This.

DRESSED - When ordering a po boy, "dressed" indicates lettuce,
tomatoes, pickles and MYNEZ on it. (See NUTTINONIT)

EARL - 1. A vegetable product used for cooking, sauteing, making roux,
etc. 2. A petroleum product used to lubricate the engine of your car.
3. Your Uncle Earl. (Most New Orleanians have an Uncle Earl.)

ELLESHYEW - Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. Occasionally
preceded by the term, "Go ta hell..."

ERSTERS - Oysters.

ESPLANADE - Walkway (archaic usage).

FAUBOURG - A suburb or outlying neighborhood, as in Faubourg Marigny.
A neighborhood is considered outlying in relation to the original
neighborhood, the French Quarter. Metairie would never be a Faubourg,
because it wasn't part of the city in the first place.

FLYIN' HORSES - Accented on the first syllable. A merry go round,
sometimes specifically describing the merry go round in City Park, but
also used in general.

FOR - a preposition used by New Orleanians instead of "at" or "by"
when referring to time. E.g., "Da parade's for 7:00, but we betta get
dere for 6 if we wanna find pawkin'." This one tends to be particularly
confusing to non-natives.

F'SURE! - 1. A statement of agreement. 2. An excellent (but out of
print) book by Yat artist Bunny Matthews, featuring cartoons with
actual dialogue heard on the streets of our metropolis.

F'TRUE - When phrased as a question, it means "Is that so?" or "Ya
kiddin'!!" When phrased as a statement, it's an affirmation, a shortened
version of "Nuh uh, I ain't lyin' ta ya ..."

GAWD - A supernatural deity, worshipped by most New Orleanians.

GRIPPE - The flu.

GRIS GRIS - Pronounced GREE GREE;. Noun, A (voodoo) spell. Can be
applied for nefarious purposes ("to put a gris gris on someone"), or as
a force to ward off evil, like wearing a gris gris bag (the folks at the
Voodoo
Shop on Dumaine will make one to order for about $20).

HAWT - A term of endearment.

HOUSE COAT 'N CURLAS - The preferred dress for charmers while
shopping at Schwegmann's.

I'LL TAKE ME A... - May I have a...

KAY BEE - The drugstore, as in (K&B, Katz and Besthoff). The
ampersand is always silent.

LAGNIAPPE - Pronounced LAN yap. A little something extra. Also, the
name of the entertainment pull out section of the Friday edition of The
New Orleans Times Picayune.

LOCKA - Where you hang your clothes, analogous to the English word
"closet". Example: "Mom MAH! Where my shoes at?" "Looka in ya locka!"
See LOOKA.

LOOKA - The imperative case of the verb "to look". Usually accompanied
by a pointing gesture. Often used as a single exclamation: "Looka!"

LOOKIT DA T.V. - To watch T.V.

MAKE GROCERIES, MAKIN' GROCERIES - To do grocery shopping.

MARRAINE - Your godmother.

MIRLITON - A vegetable pear or chayote squash, which grows wild in
Louisiana and in backyards throughout New Orleans. Pronounced MEL lee
tawn, and wonderful when stuffed with shrimp and ham dressing.

MISTA - As in "Throw me somethin' mista". Never used in any other
context; "bra" or "cap" is used regularly.

MYNEZ - Mayonnaise.

NEUTRAL GROUND - The grassy or cement strip in the middle of the
road. The terms "median" and/or "island" are NEVER used in New Orleans. Use
of one of those foreign terms instead of "neutral ground ' is a dead
giveaway that you ain't from around here, or anywhere close. If you're
lucky,
you live on a street with a neutral ground big enough to play football on.

NEW ORLEENS - The way silly tourists pronounce "New Orleans". natives
do not do this. Exception song lyrics, as in "Do You Know What It Means
to Miss New Orleans", for example, and when omitting the "New", as in
"Orleans Parish", which is always pronounced or LEENS. Confusing, isn't
it? More n this below.

NUTTINONIT - A po-boy that is not dressed, which only contains the
main ingredient.

OR WHAT - Pronounced "r WUT," and placed at the end of a question:
"You gonna finish eatin' dat, 'r what?"

OVA DA RIVER - Across the river.

OVA BY - A general replacement for the prepositions "at" and "to",
particularly when referring to someone's home, or a destination in
general. "Where ya goin'?" "Ova by ma mamma's."

PARISH - A Louisiana state administrative district, analogous to the
American "county". When used by Yats in the phrase "da parish", it
generally means St. Bernard Parish specifically, which is suburban to
New Orleans.

PARRAINE - Your godfather.

PASS BY - To stop at a place, for a visit or to accomplish something.
"Ya gonna be home later? I'll pass by ya house." It doesn't mean just
to drive by in our car and keep going ...

PO BOY - The quintessential New Orleans lunch, a sandwich on good,
crispy New Orleans French bread. This definition doesn't begin to
describe what a po boy is all about, so if you really don't know you need
to get one soon.

PODNA - A universal form of address for a male. Frequently used in
the emphatic statement, "I tell you what, podna ..."

'SCUSE ME PAWDON ME - Polite expression when trying to get by
somebody or moving through a crowd, spoken as one word.

SHOOT DA CHUTE - 1. A playground slide. 2. A firecracker that did not
explode.

STOOP - Usually expressed as "da stoop". The front steps to your
house, particularly if it's a shotgun duplex. What ya go out and sit on
to chat wit'ya neighbas (an' ta keep an eye on 'em).

SUCK DA HEAD, SQUEEZE DA TALE - 1. The technique for eating crawfish. If
you've never done this, have someone demonstrate. 2. A song by the
Radiators.

SUG - A term of endearment used primariliy by Yat females. Pronounced
SHOOG; with a soft "oo"; as in "book".

TURLET - A device for the sanitary disposal of human waste and for
nasty food ya snuck away from da table as a child (like ma mamma's
roast beef...yuck).

UPTOWN SIDE, DOWNTOWN SIDE, LAKESIDE, RIVERSIDE - The four cardinal points
of the New Orleanian compass. "North, south, east, west" do not work in New
Orleans.

VALISE - Suitcase.

VEDGE A TIBBLE - Neither animal nor mineral. What ya mamma used to
make ya eat before ya could leave the table when ya were a kid. The
word has four syllables.

WHERE YA STAY (AT)? - Where do you live?

WHERE Y'AT? - The greeting. The proper response is, "Awrite."

WRENCH - To clean something under running water. "Aw baby, ya hands
'r filthy! Go wrench 'em off in da zink." See ZINK.

YA - You, your.

YA MAMMA - Your mother. Used in a variety of ways, usually endearing.
Also usable as an insult, specifically as a simple retort when one is
insulted first; simply say, "Ya mamma." Be prepared to defend yourself
physically at this point.

YAMAMMA'N'DEM - A collective term for your immediate family, as in
"Hey dawlin', how's yamamma'n'dem?" Spoken as one word.

YEAH YOU RITE - A sign of definite agreement. The accent is on the
first word, and it's spoken as one word.

ZATARAIN'S - A local manufacturer of spices, seasonings, pickled
products and condiments. In context, it's used by some as a generic
term for either crab boil or Creole mustard.

ZINK - A receptacle for water with a drain and faucets. Where ya
wrench off ya dishes.

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The Joy of Tortue

Decadence, thy name is tortue. Decadence in the form of chocolate, caramel and pecans...tortues from Southern Candymakers in New Orleans.

If you have a sweet tooth, you have not lived until you've tried the tortues (turtles) from Southern Candymakers in the French Quarter. Yes, you can order them online (http://www.southerncandymakers.com/StoreFront.bok), but when you drop into the shop (one is conveniently located three blocks off of Canal Street on Decatur, the other also on Decatur near the French Market), you get wonderfully fresh tortues.

Best of all, like a kid in a... well...in a candy shop, you can also press your nose against the glass and see the enormous trays of naked tortues, ready to be blanketed in milk, dark, or white chocolate, waiting to fulfill their gustatory destiny.

And, oh yes, the pralines are wonderful, too.

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Hot Music Scene in Frenchmen Street – Check It Out At The 2007 AALL Annual Meeting

New Orleans, right, everyone thinks Bourbon Street. Sure, lots of clubs, lots of fun. But where’s the happening scene lately? Frenchmen Street baby. If you’d like to join Micrographics/AV SIS folks, carve out a little time Saturday and/or Tuesday evening for a musical journey.
Saturday, July 14th, we’ll start at Checkpoint Charlie’s (501 Esplanade Avenue; 504-281-4847)...
In addition to great music without a cover charge, here you’ll find good bar food, pool tables, and, just in case your luggage got a bit trashed on the way to New Orleans, a laundromat. Remember when Julia Roberts sat on the washing machine in a bar in Pelican Brief? That’s Checkpoint Charlie’s. Also, my good friend Joshua T-Bone Stone and the Lazy Boys will be playing for your listening pleasure that Saturday, 7pm-10pm. So cut out of the Opening Reception a little early and head on over to Checkpoint Charlie’s to really start off a great evening. Then, it’s a must trip to the Apple Barrel Bar (609 Frenchmen Street; 504- 949-9399). Coco Robicheaux plays his legendary mojo soul there every Saturday night.11pm-3am. For more information, check out http://www.spiritland.com/.
Tuesday evening, there are several great clubs clustered behind Checkpoint Charlie’s and near the Apple Barrel. Snug Harbor (626 Frenchmen Street; 504-949-0696) includes a bistro restaurant, bar, and music club. Its scene usually starts a little earlier, and showcases excellent local and national jazz. For more information, see http://www.snugjazz.com/. Café Brasil (2100 Chartres Street; 504-949-0851) features superb Afro-Cuban, Latin, and world music. Things get started a little early here too, and it can get crowded in the later hours. Sorry, no website, so give them a call when you get into New Orleans for details on who’s playing. d.b.a. (616 Frenchmen Street; 504-942 3731) is a spin off of the New York club by the same name, and has a renowned beer list. The bar’s motto is “drink good stuff.” Great wines as well as jazz, funk, and blues abound. For more information, see http://www.drinkgoodstuff.com/no/default.asp.
Hope to see you Saturday evening at Checkpoint Charlie’s to kick-start the Annual Meeting. Let the good times roll!

Laura E. Ray, MA, MLS
Education Coordinator, AALL Micrographics/Audiovisual
Special Interest Section

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25 reasons for a Big Easy family vacation

Georgia found this great article on MSNBC of things to do in New Orleans. Even if you don't have children, there are some good ideas.

Tip: don't wear dark clothes when eating beignets!

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A Confederacy of Dunces

Over twenty years ago, when I was about to move to New Orleans, a coworker said I just had to read A Confederacy of Dunces because it was just great and really, really funny.

I didn't read it then. I'd hear about it from time to time, chiefly as a sad anecdote, since the author (John Kennedy Toole) committed suicide before his manuscript ever saw print and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously. His mother kept asking Walker Percy to read her son's manuscript until he relented, liked the book, and sent it along to his publisher. Toole died in 1969; the book was first published in 1980.

So here I am about to go to New Orleans for a meeting, and I thought: why not? So I picked up a copy. (Mine came from a used book store so it looked like the one on the upper right, but you can also get a newer edition, like the picture on the lower left.)

Well, I tell you, it's not necessarily the sort of book that will charm every reader. (What is?) Its humor reminds me of some of the other great comic/social/political novels of around that time -- say, Vonnegut and Catch-22.

The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy, self-righteous, prudish, gluttonous young man who is dependent on his mother and doesn't treat her well. He fancies himself a great intellectual -- he did, after all, get a master's degree in just four years -- and spends long hours in his bedroom writing screeds in Big Chief tablets that are scattered on the floor. He has only left New Orleans once, for a job interview at LSU that turned out to be quite traumatic. Through a series of unfortunate events, he is forced to find employment.

The book has lots of clever plot twists, bringing together a large cast of eccentric characters against the backdrop of New Orleans. At the time when it was written, it must have seemed much bolder and more risque than it does now. Ignatius J. Reilly's great political inspiration is a political party of homosexuals, who (he believes) would be too concerned with other things to bother going to war. The gay men and lesbians in the book are not portrayed in a flattering light -- but, by golly, they're treated as respectfully as everyone else and seem better than many of the other characters.

One piece of New Orleans color that I enjoyed was Toole's ear for dialect -- as I was reading, I could almost hear Ignatius's mother talking to her friend. (I'm a sucker for New Orleans accents -- and I do mean accents, plural: there are several!)

One fan of the book has developed Confederacy of Dunces: A Virtual Tour. Take a look: it's a nice sampling of New Orleans sights.

PS I saw a comment on Democratic Underground signed by "Myrna Minx" and smiled at the homage to a character in the book, Myrna Minsk (whom Ignatious calls Minx) who is, for most of the novel, off in New York, wearing black, smoking cigarettes, going to group therapy, and writing Ignatious letters about sexual fulfillment.

PPS I'm sorry for the trial practice posts that sometimes show up here. I have a couple of blogs; "AALL Second Line Blog" comes before "Trial Ad Notes" alphabetically and if I'm not paying attention my posts get misdirected.

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Hubig's pies

How can you wrong for $.89?

The New Yorker
April 16, 2007
New Orleans Journal: The Pie Men
Dan Baum

Hubig's pies cost eighty-nine cents apiece, and can be found at almost every cash register in southeast Louisiana. New Orleanians adore these packaged, deep-fried pies, endlessly debating the merits of the lemon filling versus the apple, or whether the pies should be eaten microwaved or cold. Some locals even dress up as Hubig's pies for Mardi Gras.

During our first two months here, Margaret and I ignored the Hubig's pie. We wrote off its popularity as the irrationality of hometown allegiance; we never understood Atlantans' affection for the Varsity hot-dog stand, or Cincinnati's love of Skyline chili, either. We assumed that Hubig's pies were made in some vast, soulless
factory from the cheapest imaginable ingredients. The building on Dauphine Street that we rode our bikes past every day, the one with a big neon sign, was, we figured, a distribution point, a downtown office, or a cute condo complex that retained the old insignia...

Gradually, it dawned on us that this was the actual factory, and we grew intrigued. Commerce has been largely banished from American residential areas, and industry almost completely. It's the rare American factory worker who can walk to work.

Otto Ramsey, one of the owners, gave us a tour of the cement-block bakery, which Simon Hubig opened in 1927. (The company is owned by the son and the nephew of the men who bought into the company in the nineteen-forties and fifties.) Hubig's cooks all its fillings, mostly from actual produce evaporated apples, fresh-frozen strawberries and cherries, whole raw sweet potatoes in the fall and buys locally as much as it can. (Much to Ramsey's regret, Hubig's makes do with canned peaches and pineapples.) The company now uses liquid corn sugar in addition to cane, but otherwise its recipes haven't changed. Hubig's dough is made with ninety-nine-per-cent animal fat. "We've got the trans fats down to 0.65 per cent," Ramsey said proudly.

A single, clankety machine turns out all the pies between seventy-five and seventy-eight a minute. A wizened man hand-loaded balls of dough into a hopper. A long sheet emerged onto a conveyor underneath, and the machine folded these around dollops of filling and then cut and pressed them into pies. Lined up in echelons of ten, the pies entered a fryer for four minutes before passing under a curtain of icing.

After cooling on a towering multi-level carrousel, they slid down a ramp, and a worker fed them onto a belt. "Time from fill to bag, two hours," Ramsey said. The wrappers are stamped with a date one week hence, at which point they are retrieved from stores and destroyed.

Ramsey has invested more than the family fortune in these high-calorie snacks. He started telling us about the cold-storage company that had warehoused the ingredients before Katrina, and had done so for generations; overwhelmed with sadness, he had to stop. "I'm sorry," he muttered, as he struggled to collect himself. When we asked later how his employees had gotten back to work after the storm, his voice caught again and tears ran down from under his glasses. "I don't know how they did it," he said quietly. "Some of them had lost everything. Yet when we needed them they were here." Ramsey lightened the mood by giving us a Hubig's lemon pie from the carrousel; it was still warm. We told several locals about this, and their eyes grew wide with envy.

After the tour, Ramsey's son Andrew came down from the upstairs office to meet us. Andrew is a burly young man who attended the New Orleans Police Academy so he could volunteer as a reserve cop. (The night before, he said, he'd arrested a man wanted for beating his wife.)

Seven Hubig's vans, nearly half the fleet, were lost in the flood, Andrew said. One van, which had arrived a week before Katrina and hadn't been paid for yet, ended up five miles away in St. Bernard Parish, overturned and caked in mud. Hubig's has been buying vans from the same dealer for the past twenty-five years, Andrew explained. "I called him up when we were getting ready to reopen and had to say, 'Not only can't we pay you for the brand-new van you just delivered to us but we need two more and can't pay for those, either.'" He stopped, an odd smile frozen on his face, trying not to burst into tears. "And you know what he said?" He paused again, lip quivering. "He said, 'What color?'"

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New Orleans Festivals

Throughout the year a number of literary festivals are held in New Orleans. May 10-13 the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival is being held. The weather is going to be nice which is always a plus. Of course it makes more difference if it rains during a Jazz Fest weekend. Here is the link to the festival: http://www.sasfest.org/

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What season is it in New Orleans?

Well it is spring but New Orleans really has many more seasons than the usual four. In fact, when my son was being tested for first grade another mother mentioned her son had a hard time when asked "What are the four seasons?" He responded: deer season, duck season, Mardi Gras and I forgot what he said for the fourth season. I can think of a season no one wants to mention, so I won't. However, right now it is crawfish season, the end of strawberry season and Jazz Fest is coming up.
I don't make crawfish ettouffee very often because it is so rich but I made some last weekend... There are many variations on the recipe for this dish but mine is adapted from a book by Holly Berkowitz Clegg called From a Louisiana Kitchen which was reprinted in 1983. (Click on the picture of the recipe to see a close up of it.) Ms. Clegg has written a number of cookbooks and writes about Louisiana cooking for a variety of publications.
Here are my personal notes on her recipe. She mentions 1 pound peeled crawfish tails with fat - what most people use comes from local vendors in one pound plastic bags. The crawfish are peeled packaged surrounded in their fat. I rinse the crawfish before using them. I don't want that extra fat!
And I like a lighter tasting dish.
Instead of using 1/2 cup water, I use 1/2 cup canned chicken broth.
She simply lists juice of lemon and I specifically use one to two teaspoons.

I also add a few tablespoons of finely chopped celery to the mixture of green pepper, onions and garlic which are sauteed in butter.

That is what I do, the second photo is a picture of the finished product.

Georgia Chadwick
Law Library of Louisiana

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“AALL Afternoon at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas”

Please join us on Saturday, 14 July, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm for the “AALL Afternoon at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas”. AALL members and their children will be hosted on a self-guided tour of the amazing creatures at this facility. Come see the new animal collection, along with old favorites like the sea otters - Buck and Emma. The penguin colony at the Aquarium features African black-footed penguins and Rockhopper penguins. They are looking forward to seeing YOU!

Due to staffing and operation limitation at the Aquarium following Hurricane Katrina, the time for our family adventure...
will go from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Please walk with your families over to the front of the Aquarium. So that we may start our adventure on time, please plan to arrive no later than 1:45 p.m. The Aquarium is located at 1 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. Look for AALL members carrying posters saying “AALL Families”.

Should you want further information on the location or details about the Aquarium and its exhibits, please go to their website.

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Facility_Aquarium

To join us for this event, just complete the attached form and return no later than June 1, 2007. We look forward to hosting everyone for a fun and educational “AALL Afternoon at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas”!

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New Orleans Community Service Project - 13 July 07

With thanks to Ann Hemmens!

The SR-SIS, SIS Council, and AALL Headquarters (Pam Reisinger and others) have been coordinating a Volunteer Day before the 2007 AALL annual meeting (Friday July 13, 2007).
There is a well-publicized need for rebuilding, clean up, and other types of volunteer assistance in New Orleans...Three organizations have been selected for our community service project: Habitat for Humanity, Second Harvest Food Bank, and the Louisiana State Museum. These organizations were selected because they give our members a wide array of volunteer options; indoor work and outdoor work, a long day and a short day, morning work and afternoon, etc.

Second Harvest Food Bank is taking two groups of 25 volunteers; one group in the morning, and one in the afternoon. Habitat for Humanity is taking a large group of 50 or 60 for an all day shift from 7:15 to 2:30. The Louisiana State Museum is taking only 10 volunteers for the day.
Web-based registration for these projects is now available at http://www.aallnet.org/events/communityproject.asp. AALL has volunteered to coordinate transportation and provide boxes lunches and water for volunteers. And AALL has arranged for additional hotel rooms (because people will probably arrive Thursday July 12th).
Captains have been chosen for each volunteer opportunity. Ron Wheeler of the Georgia State University College of Law Library and Leslie Campbell of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts are serving as co-captains of the Habitat group, Ann Hemmens of the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library is serving as the captain of the Second Harvest group, and Amy Hale-Janeke of the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit Library is serving as captain of the Louisiana State Museum group.

Pam Reisinger and AALL Headquarters are coordinating publicity, registration for each volunteer project, transportation to projects, water, lunches, and the like. Pam is also coordinating and seeking vendor contributions and vendor participation.
We are looking forward to being part of the rebuilding of New Orleans!
Visit the website at http://www.aallnet.org/events/communityproject.asp
for more information.

Participate in the Rebuilding of New Orleans!

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