When You Turn a Corner In New Orleans

You never know what patterns you will find when you wander about New Orleans.  This city is a maze of folkways and traditions, most of them unexplained to tourists.  New Orleans is a welcoming city but it is a city that is always overflowing with surprises.  You never know what you'll see when you turn a corner in New Orleans.

Keep your eyes open in New Orleans and you'll discover all sorts of good surprises.

New Orleans is a glory, glory, alleluia kind of of a place.  Which way do you want to go?  Towards the river or towards the lake?  Uptown or Downtown?  Follow your nose in New Orleans.  When you turn a corner in New Orleans, you never know what you'll find but you can be sure it will be the stuff from which good memories are woven.

We live in a densely woven and richly textured city.  There are no strangers in New Orleans.  Everyone is a friend you are about to meet.  Welcome to the New Orleans state of mind.  Be a New Orleanian in your heart and everything else will fall into place.  Good memories are made in New Orleans every day.

Everyone if friendly in New Orleans.  Everyone says hello.  Everyone is happy to chitchat.  A good city is full of good neighborhoods and good neighborhoods are full of good neighbors.  New Orleans is a good city.  You never know who you'll bump into when you turn a corner in New Orleans.  It will all be good.  

How do you count up your cherished memories?  I live in New Orleans so all I need to do is go out my front door to be reminded of all the good things that have happened to me since I moved here.  You should be able to do the same, even if you only call New Orleans your home for only a few days.  

No one ever says their visit is too long.  It is always too short.  The longer you are here, the more you'll discover to explore when you turn a corner in New Orleans.  You will never run out of things that will make you.  I know.  I live here.  

Your humble narrator.

New Orleans is full of interesting characters and fascinating details.    In a New Orleans state of mind, whatever is possible is probably true.  It is almost impossible to wrap your head around everything that New Orleans contains.  It is very easy for New Orleans to wrap its arms around you.

New Orleans loves you.

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The Man At the New Orleans Airport

Who is the Man-at the-New Orleans-airport?  No one knows his name.  He is a cypher wrapped in a trench coat.  Like The Shadow, he sports a wide brimmed black fedora hat.

The Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport on Tuesday.

The Shadow.

No one knows the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport's name.  Like the Spider, though, he lives a life of mayhem and havoc as he saves the day against the forces of evil.  Well, actually, there isn't that much havoc at the airport.  It a pretty smoothly-run operation over there.

The Spider.

When Jimmie Benoit dropped his lollipop in the air conditioning vent, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport gave him a new one from out of his pocket.  Then he gave him another lollipop: it was a orange Tootsie Pop.

When Lyla Pham couldn't find any straws, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport canvassed the food court to fetch her not one, but, two---one for the airport and one for the air.

When Lionel Edwards was shy twenty-four cents for bus fare, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport gave him not only a mint-condition Louisiana commemorative quarter but also a shiny new Sacagawea dollar.

Before Lady Gaga's plane had landed, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport made himself known.  The paparazzi chased him instead of Ms. Gaga.  She arrived at her hotel unmolested for a relaxing vacation in the real New Orleans off the usual tourist radar.  She didn't spend all her time on Bourbon Street.  

A photo of a random New Orleans hotel.

When one of the baggage handlers was stung by a bee on the tarmac, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport was there in a flash to administer an epi-pen.  He slipped a prophylactic spare epi-pen in the poor fellow's pocket.

That time the bomb-sniffing dog couldn't decide which way to go, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport tugged on his leash to Terminal Foxtrot, the secret terminal that is underground.  The bomb was never detonated, thanks be to the mysterious Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport.

When the bonfires had burned out on the levee on Christmas Eve, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport commandeered one of the klieg lights on top of the control tower.  He signaled to Santa the way to New Orleans and a happy Christmas was had by all.

When a stork landed, exhausted, at the edge of the Park-n-Ride lot, it was the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport who took a speeding cab to deliver the baby at Touro Hospital.  The mother asked how she could thank him.  The Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport said that his mother's name was Felicity and he thought that would make a nice middle name for the baby.

The Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport is not a celebrity.  Most people don't believe he exists.  If you go to the same spot every day, though, at 3:00PM (New Orleans time) you'll find the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport in the same exact place, in the same exact position.

The Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport on Wednesday.

When the clock strikes 3:01, the Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport springs into action.  He has touched the lives of thousands, yet no one knows his name.  Don't worry if you run into trouble at the New Orleans airport.  The Man-at-the-New Orleans-airport, like the spirit of Christmas, will be there.

AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR:

If you are looking at a small hotel off the usual tourist radar, we can only recommend to you, La Belle Esplanade.  With only five suites, your New Orleans goodwill ambassadors are standing by to assist to offer personalized hospitality and a chance to visit New Orleans like you live here.  There is more to New Orleans than Bourbon Street.  The best New Orleans memories are made on our street.  LaBelleEsplanade.com.  We only have five suites so plan ahead.  We fill up early during busy seasons.  Go to our website and make a reservation.  We're here for you.

The Walls Have Eyes in New Orleans.

Your guardian angel is watching.  The walls have eyes in New Orleans.  Let your conscience be your guide.

Houses are drafty in New Orleans.  Everything was built to be cool, with air moving from room to room even when the doors are closed.  Every seam is crookedly joined in New Orleans.  There are cracks that let the light of day in everywhere.  Nothing is airtight in New Orleans.  The whole city is wide open.  Dirty laundry gets exposed to sunshine.

New Orleans gives you something to think about.  The walls have eyes in New Orleans.

Peek-a-boo.

There used to be a whole district of glass eye workshops along the New Basin Canal, near where the Independent Caveau Wine Bar is now.

What a part of town that is!  After it rains the dirt in that neighborhood is all sparkly from all the broken glass eyes that have been ground into the mud.  Back in the day, the glass eyes were packed in straw and piled onto mule carts.  The roads were just as bumpy then as they are now.  A lot of glass eyes were lost en route to the port.

Word gets around in New Orleans.

In New Orleans, we don't do anything we wouldn't be proud to tell our mother about.  I know you know the reputation New Orleans has as a city of debauchery.  Unless they're working, the people you see on Bourbon Street don't live in New Orleans.  Those are your neighbors, from where you're from.  Go ahead, ask them where they're from.  100% will tell somewhere outside New Orleans.  It's the same in a whorehouse, too.

The walls have eyes in New Orleans,  You'll meet the nicest people when you are here.  Turn a blind eye in New Orleans during Mardi Gras season and you'll be blindsided by a wallop of Mardi Gras beads.  New Orleans packs a punch.  Be on your best behavior in New Orleans and New Orleans will love you back.  Home is where the heart is.  Good memories are made every day in a New Orleans state of mind.

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR:  La Belle Esplanade is a small hotel off the usual tourist radar that practices craft hospitality on a personalized level.  Nothing is off-the-rack, out of a jar, or squeezed from a tube at La Belle Esplanade.  You have two New Orleans goodwill ambassadors standing by to share our part of this wonderful city we call home.  You should read La Belle Esplanade's blog (we recommend it) and you can follow La Belle Esplanade on Facebook to keep yourself in a New Orleans state of mind.  When you are ready to visit New Orleans like you belong here, you belong at La Belle Esplanade.