THE BIG EASY.

Recently, my sister took a job in New Orleans and is in the process of moving there. At first, I was nervous for her. Dangerous, run down, post-Katrina and all that. But then, because it was next in my stack of books, I started reading "1 Dead in the Attic," a collection of articles written by New Orleans resident and journalist Chris Rose. I'm about half-way through it now and I have to say, it's touching and to a degree, it makes me wish I was from New Orleans--or moving there.

Then, you might call this fate, I was in Orlando (on Fat Tuesday of all days) for work and ended up talking to a high school athletic director from...you guessed it, New Orleans. He not only knew the hotel my sister would be working at, but was great friends with the old manager and had a box of Westin baseball jerseys sitting in his store room. He offered to run them over to my sister so the hotel could use them for a softball team or whatever. Mr. Hebert (pronounced A Bear) proceeded to talk my ear off for the next two hours, leaving me with a warm, congenial feeling about the folks from New Orleans. This is my recollection of one part of that conversation:

Mr. Hebert: Yeah, I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard someone talking about how they wanted to build something like this (motions to enormous, beautiful sports complex we're in) in New Orleans.

Me: That's great.

Mr. Hebert: Naw, naw. I wanted to call him up and ask if he was out of his mind. See, in New Orleans, we can't use something like this. First, the politics are all corrupt. And second, people can't take care of anything.

Me: Really?

Mr. Hebert: Sure. See this here? (points to a straw on the ground) That's the first bit of litter I've seen today. New Orleans isn't like other places, it's not like here. People don't take care of nothing. Place like this would be covered in trash; overgrown within a few months.

Me: I'm surprised to hear you say that. I guess I always thought of the people of New Orleans as being really proud of their city, like they'd want to take care of it.

Mr. Hebert: Well, we're proud alright. But people just can't be bothered. They'd rather have a beer or have a party. That's all anyone wants to do, is have a party. Laissez-faire and all that.

Me: Huh.

Mr. Hebert is also the only person I've ever met who flew with Hooter's Airlines while it was up and running. Based on his description, I'm amazed they discontinued that brilliant operation. Anyways, meeting him and speaking with him and hearing he and his friend talk about the city put me at ease. I'm not really nervous for my sister anymore. If anything I'm excited for her and maybe a bit jealous.

Congratulations, Kelly!