Exitless

Thoughts, Links, and Pictures by Gary Ryan

I'm Not the Only One

Forget Miami; the Super Bowl party is here

Davenporte, 55, and his wife, Gail, plan to drive to New Orleans on Sunday morning to take in the long-awaited event with other devotees. After looking into traveling to Miami, Florida, and staying in a hotel two hours from the stadium where the New Orleans Saints will battle the Indianapolis Colts, the Davenportes decided to get into the thick of things in the Saints' home town.

Why Bourbon St. beats out South Beach

1. Because no Mardi Gras has, can or ever will come close to the madness that's about to erupt there.

7. Because you won't hear Dr. John's "Iko Iko" or Professor Longhair's "Big Chief" or "What's My Name?" by the Hot 8 Brass Band blasting out of car windows and hotel lobbies everywhere you go.

15. Po-Boys, 72-ounce beers, oysters, Pat O's, Cooter Brown's, Café Du Monde, Tremé, the 9't Ward, Sazeracs, the Chinese Kitchen, crayfish, jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, collard green croquettes ... and did I say drive-through daiquiri spots?

Forget Miami; the Super Bowl party is here

Miami may have dibs on the official Super Bowl XLIV party, but for some New Orleans Saints fans, specifically those living outside the Crescent City, it seems that New Orleans is the preferred destination for the big game.

 

I did not grow up a Saints fan. I grew up a Cowboys fan; mesmerized at age 4 by the stars on their helmets. But I fell in love with the city of New Orleans during a family trip as a child, and that love has only deepened over the years.

When I was much younger I promised myself that if the Saints ever made it to the Super Bowl I'd be in New Orleans for the game. And that's where I'll be tomorrow, somewhere in the French Quarter, hoping for a miracle. 

I wouldn't be anywhere else.

Bursting Pride in Super Bowl Team Replenishes a City - NYTimes.com

New Orleanians are acutely aware of how their city is perceived. They’ve had to explain to friends after their post-Katrina sojourns in Dallas or Atlanta or Houston — those well-groomed, go-get-’em cities that have flourished in the past few decades — why they wanted to return to a city long associated with crime and corruption. If you have to ask, you’ll never know, according to Louis Armstrong, and most outsiders don’t, and it gets frustrating.
via nytimes.com