Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 4:10PM | by Otter 
A cool hard late spring rain in New Orleans.
The thunder and the lightening are gathering a few miles away.
It’s strange to come unstuck (like poor Billy Pilgrim) in time. wandering in my memory through a lot of rainstorms in the past. I try to practice mindfulness and live in the present. But the past soaks into my skin with the rain.Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 8:28AM | by Otter
Updated on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 9:36AM by
Otter
Brees is one of the smartest quarterbacks in the NFL right now, athletic and capable and with an elusive quality that produces lots and lots of wins. Last night, in a 45-16 pummeling of the division rival Atlanta Falcons, Brees eclipsed Dan Marino's 1984 record for piling up 5,084 passing yards, something I haven't had time to do yet as I've been busy with other things.
Drew Brees, Football, New Orleans, New Orleans Saints in Sports Friday, September 30, 2011 at 9:12AM | by Otter The Festival of Hell that is grading 102 papers goes on. I wish to emphasize that this is 102: that implies that some genial idiot has passed these people through 101. What follows is from the final drafts. I am renaming "Rough Drafts" for these sections "Fucking Trainwreck Drafts" and penalizing them for turning in Trainwrecks by making them rewrite every sentence.
Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 10:51PM | by Otter Grading papers. Just thought I'd share...
New Orleans, Student Writing, Teaching in Education Wednesday, September 28, 2011 at 10:01PM | by Otter Christianity is a peculiar thing. If one lives it as it's meant to be lived, it might look something like this:
Man moves to devastated city.
Man moves to forefront of the spiritual and material needs of that city.
Man eats at every restaurant in that city, to the total of 729.
Let it be, Brother Ray.... let it be.
Food, New Orleans, Ray Cannata in Culture, Religion Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 6:35AM | by Otter 
It's six years down the road, and I'm not sure I ever did put this one behind me.
When you see disasters on the news, it's rarely easy to generate sympathy, no more easy than it is to gin up sympathy for a dying character in a video game. "That sucks," about sums it up. But we get on with our lives, and assume that those affected will also.
I've learned not to look at the floods in Vermont or tsunamis in Japan and allow myself to feel anything: you could never feel enough, you could never judge accurately enough. It's like watching combat on your television: it gives you a rush and a thrill of pity and compassion and anger. But you haven't been there, and you have no right to tell a soldier what it's like to live inside his head.
Katrina, Mental Illness, New Orleans in Government, Parenting, Relationships, Suffering Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 9:36AM | by Otter Favorite Google search that sent some poor person to RipChurch: "New Orleans +Adult Acts."
I'm installing a dance-pole on this blog next week.
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 10:19PM | by Otter NPR's John Burnett has done an excellent story about those who live on the batture of the Mississippi, walking distance from where I grew up. My kids and I used to ride bikes past the batturites' ("batturistas"?) houses, romantic hopeful dwellings that wonder at nature instead of giving the finger to it.
NPR, New Orleans in Community, Culture, Current Events Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 7:06PM | by Otter For years my dad's Crown Royal whiskey has supplied us with purple flannel bags, and we've kept them, and the collection is quite large now. Each bottle comes in one.
Point of use recycling. Saving the planet and making a fashion statement.For years mom has wanted to make me a suit out of them: a green vest with purple Crown Royal bag sleeves, and a floppy purple and gold hat.
Family jokes. Har.
Well, you have to start somewhere, she reasons.
And there's positively no reason, she feels, that colon cancer should interfere with the construction of a ridiculous hat.
If there's time, she avers, I'll have a green vest with purple sleeves in time for Mardi Gras. (We live in New Orleans. Yes: this is normal. I grew up here. If you don't get it, I can't explain it to you.)
So the hat is done. I feel like Chaucer when I wear it. Which isn't in public, mind you. It's not even Christmas, and just past Labor Day.
I'm not sure if my family made me odd or I'm just blessed to be lodged among the odd. Either way, I'm good with it.
Cancer, Chaucer, Family, New Orleans in Cancer, Relationships Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 11:29AM | by Otter 
Somebody once said that fun is danger in the absence of death. Several more days of rain are expected, and we gently slip from the stage of "fun," the extended wet holiday filled with leisure-reading and conversation, into the grim adult world of worry.
