I have a dream. I’m going to move to New Orleans and open up a DC-themed bar. I’m going to call it “In Session” and set it up somewhere posh where we can pick up tourists and commuters. For all the expats, it’ll be a true home away from home. The first thing I’ll do […]
I took this day off months in advance when I knew Nacho was coming down for a long weekend, tacking on an extra day off for recovery that, as it turns out, was hardly necessary. We are not becoming old men, just men more easily affected by the weather. So it’s more than appropriate that […]
As you read this, my plane will be bumping from BWI to New Orleans, a town I’ve tried to visit at least once a year since 2001.
Treme is about to become your new favorite show. You may not know this yet, but it’s true. HBO has already ordered a second season before the first one has even wrapped. The television-watching intelligentsia have been waiting for David Simon’s return to a regular series—not quite as rabidly as Salinger fans were waiting for […]
We shared a table with a Canadian couple the other night, Saturday, waiting for the parade to start. He was already four scotches in and still seemed mighty sober. She was adjusting her scarf, watching out for him, watching out for herself, the plum limit inside her glass falling down slowly. A slightly older couple […]
Dad started banging the pots in the mornings. He’d grab a clean one in his big left hand, find a pair of tongs or a stainless steel spoon for his right then hold each tool above his head and beat on. It was the count-off rhythm of a hundred songs: one, two, one-two-three-four! After that […]
I sat in my living room with my feet up, the dog by my side whimpering. Harvey was in the shower, slapping lather up and down his arms and gargling. The water shut off and he stomped in the tub to cast off the excess. He was true to his word, in and out in […]
Friday. The day I have off of work and to myself, the day countless New Orleanians leave for lunch and don’t come back. It’s oyster day, fish day, shrimp day. It’s the day Happy Hour starts at 10 a.m. and the streets are clogged with impatient citizens hell-bent on appreciation of life’s routine escapes. I […]
I sat in the first chair inside Cristo’s simple barbershop with my head pitched forward, staring at a pinup poster from World War II. The girl was labeled ‘Ensign Edie,’ a smiling redhead wearing an adapted sailor’s outfit and cap, a sweet little composition of curves and right angles. She had an arm swung around […]
We know what we smell like, okay? Hours and hours under the sun or smothered by night heat have us sweating coffee, sweating Red Bull. The clench of old cigarette smoke. Fast food and soda breath. We are covered in pet hair or the sticky evidence of children’s fingerprints. We ceased to smell like travelers […]