Familiar Voices From the Quarter

The phone rang this morning and it was The Great PD, phoning from the Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter. He and 5H and BI were in the line, waiting to get a table so they could order their beignets and coffee. If you're going to eat food that is bad for you, eat beignets from Cafe du Monde. And don't EVEN call them doughnuts.

PD reports New Orleans in September, 2007, is two distinct cities. One is the French Quarter/Esplanade/Uptown, which looks like it always has. The other is the rest of the city. 5H worked on a Habitat for Humanity house on Friday, helping to fix the foundation of a house in a neighborhood where nothing was in sight but destruction. East of the Quarter, down St. Claude, there is basically nothing left.

Nothing left. These two words are easy to write, hard to imagine. Plotnik can't picture it, not really. In his mind's eye will always be the most picturesque and brilliant spot on the planet, a city where God said: "Here. I will do the Experiment Here. Bring music and crayfish."

Of course, later on God also said: "Here. I will f___ this place up." Even those who think they have God's private cell phone number can't ever be sure.

The Great Plotnik asked The Great FiveHead whether all the Plotniks would be moving to New Orleans now. She said that the jury was still out on that, but that all six of us needed to take a long work/vacation there very soon. PD said if everyone in America spent one day rebuilding in New Orleans, they could get the job done.

Plotnik has been feeling unsettled, like his life is pointing towards something, but he can't figure out what. Maybe the answer is not so complicated.

This is SO New Orleans: someone walked up to Baby I, sitting at the table at Cafe Du Monde, and said: "Darlin' you are beige!"