It's Hard to Explain New Orleans.

He said.  She said.  They both agreed they love New Orleans.  What's to disagree about?  Who doesn't love New Orleans?  You'd have to be Cotton Mather.

A view of New Orelans' French Quarter.

Where else can you go where everything is always all right?  I can think of only one city.  New Orleans is part of America, but New Orleans has always been a world all its own.  There is no other place like it.  When New Orleans was founded, it was improbable.  That New Orleans still exists is a miracle.  New Orleans is a slice of Heaven on Earth.  You can't keep a good city's head underwater forever.

When the pelican lies down with the alligator, you know everything is going to be alright.

When stars sink in the night sky, they get buried in New Orleans mud.  Ours is a city that sparkles in the dark.  Walk down any New Orleans street.  There is magic in the air.

New Orleans slumbers under the horizon line.  If a phoenix can be reborn in fire, just imagine what New Orleans can do once it gets its act together.  There are optimists and pessimists in this world.  New Orleanians are in a class by themselves.  New Orleanians like to think that they know what's up.

Uptown, downtown, lakeside, riverside.  Those are the points on a New Orleans compass.  When you know where you are, you love where you live.  New Orleans is the best of all possible worlds.  What drives people who move here from outside New Orleans crazy are the things that make New Orleans alive.  It's hard to explain.  It took me a long time to get it.  Now, I do.  You will, too.