Sleeping Dog Blog

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - In a sign that things may be returning to normal in New Orleans, strip shows are back in the city's famous French Quarter.

Erotic dancers and strippers are entertaining crowds of police, firefighters and military personnel instead of the usual audiences of drunken conventioneers and tourists in Bourbon Street's Deja Vu club, which reopened this week.

Only a handful of restaurants and bars in the Quarter have reopened in recent days, serving food and drinks -- usually without charge -- to rescue workers and military who stream through the mostly empty streets. The Deja Vu waived its cover charge, drinks were selling for $3 and a private dance was available for just $1.
-snip-
For Deja Vu manager Brent Ardeneaux, reopening was a public service.

"It's a disaster zone. You got a lot of people in from out of town that need entertaining," he said as he unloaded supplies from the back of a pick-up truck.

The club even drew several women looking for a respite from their duties patrolling the city, but they resisted entreaties to join the others on stage and left after a few minutes.

One of them, a soldier, said: "We were just looking for any place open. We've been working hard."

Heheh, she said "hard", heheheheh.

This is the work of a Viennese art group called Gelatin; their page about the item includes a doc file with more key details.

The bunny is 200 feet long -- a toy rabbit "knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool". The toy is expected to stay there, on the side of this 5,000 foot high mountain (Colletto Fava in northern Italy's Piedmont region) for 20 years, until 2025.

Look at the people inside the red circle to get a sense of scale.



You saw it here first: Gigantic grannie-knitted Austrian bunny porn. Go nuts, you crazy bastards.

Brooks Hamaker (my buddy since 8th grade) has a great post over at eGullet (a culinary site) about his post-Katrina experiences with MREs, the military style "Meals Ready to Eat".

I returned a few days after the storm with my brother (this was not legal at that point, but I am nothing if not a scofflaw redneck and a few downed trees and hot wires are not nearly enough to keep me away from my friends when they need some help) the little town that I have spent the last 15 years of my life in had been changed forever dramatically. Totally. Completely. Enough of that. Read the Hurricane Katrina thread for more details and depressing photos. I am here to talk about a stunning discovery that I have made as a result of this horrific event.

I have discovered that MREs (the abbreviation comes from it’s full military nomenclature, “Meals, Ready to Eat") are better than TV dinners and sadly, probably better than most school lunches or meals in the average Midwestern truckstop. Really. They’re not that bad. And besides that, from a technological standpoint, they are absolutely amazing.

Read it all...

Also in Brooks' post:

Thank God, that jet in California landed safely. I was getting all nervous. It was making for a stressful night for me. And you know, it's all about me.

EDIT: Too funny - from a live thread about the jet at Eschaton:

I totally blame Bush. (Reasons provided later.)
Fucking Leftwing Moron | 09.21.05 - 9:41 pm

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has issued a statement responding to Speaker Denny "Bulldozer" Hastert's plans for a "bipartisan", Republican-controlled Congressional investigation into the Katrina fiasco.

“The Speaker is not listening to the American people; they have unequivocally said they want an independent commission to find out the truth. They do not want a partisan whitewash of what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I will not appoint any Democrats to participate in this sham. Instead, Democrats have proposed an independent commission, based on the rigorous and effective example of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

“I ask the Republican Leadership to join me in supporting an independent commission to determine what really went wrong in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. The American people expect and deserve nothing less.”

As Rep. Pelosi notes, an overwhelming majority of Americans want an independent investigation - just as they wanted an independent 9-11 commission, which the Republicans fought tooth and nail.

It's Tuesday, and that means Tom Tomorrow has delivered another episode in the continuing saga of This Modern World.

From the very right-wing American Spectator:

Publicly, the White House will tell you that it intends to push ahead with two of its big legislative issues throughout the fall: making permanent the first term tax cuts and Social Security reform.

Even privately, with the political and policy debacle that the White House created with its Clintonian response to Hurricane Katrina, policy and political types at 1600 Pennsylvania insist what's left of an agenda is still viable.

But at this stage of the game, barring some imaginative political moves that bear some resemblance to the Bush Administration circa 2002, Republicans on Capitol Hill and even some longtime Bush team members in various Cabinet level departments say this Administration is done for.

"You run down the list of things we thought we could accomplish and you have to wonder what we thought we were thinking," says a Bush Administration member who joined on in 2001. "You get the impression that we're more than listless. We're sunk."

Too pessimistic? Maybe not. Rumors are flying through various departments of longtime senior Bush loyalists looking to jump, but with few opportunities in the private sector to make the jump look like anything more than desperation.

Mission accomplished.

FEMA Sends Trucks Full Of Ice For Katrina Victims To Maine

No one knows why. That's about it.

Hear the voice of the Prophet:

It’s not every day you get to speak to a prophet. Most of them are too dead—or at least too busy—to chat about their respective religions with a reporter from an online magazine. But Bobby Henderson, a 24-year-old out-of-work physics major, is not your typical prophet, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to spread the Word at a time when his faith is under attack.

Recently, a ploy to take the public’s attention away from the truth and focus it on a mythical theoretical debate has been cleverly crafted and successfully implemented by the United States government. The so-called debate about how we came to be, whether through Darwin’s theory of evolution or via Intelligent Design, is merely an elaborate guise to stifle the growing voices and eminent truths behind the real reason we exist: the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Henderson knows—he was touched by FSM's Noodly Appendage and anointed to spread the good word.

Henderson first shared the beliefs behind FSMism in an open letter to the Kansas School Board. He explained that the main tenets of the religion include the creation of the universe by the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), the “evidence” for evolution put in place by His Noodly Appendage (to fool non-believers), and the mandatory pirate regalia for worship. As evidence of the power of the Creator, Henderson put forward a graph showing a statistically significant inverse relationship between the number of pirates in existence and global temperature. True FSM believers end prayers with “rAmen” and celebrate several holidays, including Pastaover, which celebrates the night that the Flying Spaghetti Monster flew over the city, looking for the houses that had marinara sauce splashed upon the doorposts.

They are also known as Pastafarians.
you gotta read it all...

We may be forgiven for believing that this is going to work in much the same way as the War on Drugs and the War on Terror.

The Washington Post:

The FBI is joining the Bush administration's War on Porn. And it's looking for a few good agents.

Early last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director." That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Mischievous commentary began propagating around the water coolers at 601 Fourth St. NW and its satellites, where the FBI's second-largest field office concentrates on national security, high-technology crimes and public corruption.
-snip-
"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."

A few of the printable samples:

"Things I Don't Want On My Résumé, Volume Four."

"I already gave at home."

"Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves."
-snip-
Popular acceptance of hard-core pornography has come a long way, with some of its stars becoming mainstream celebrities and their products -- once confined to seedy shops and theaters -- being "purveyed" by upscale hotels and most home cable and satellite television systems. Explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies including General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (the two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner Inc. and the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains.

The New York Times has started charging money for their online editorial content. But thanks to Maryscott, we don't have to pay. =)

Tampa Bay Online:

Cajun Party Revives La. Locals' Spirits

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press Writer
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) -- Their homes are bursting with guests. Their schools are overwhelmed. Traffic has been at a standstill for three weeks since thousands of New Orleans hurricane evacuees arrived in search of shelter. But Lafayette, the capital of Cajun country, still knows how to party.
there's more...

Los Angeles Times

Not Bourbon St., but it'll do
Creative types who were forced to flee New Orleans are regrouping and reconnecting in laid-back Lafayette, La.

By Reed Johnson and Steven Barrie-Anthony, Times Staff Writers
LAFAYETTE, La. — Like those of so many artists and musicians, Peter Nu's life was scattered to the four winds when Hurricane Katrina ripped up the Gulf Coast two weeks ago. He's still not sure when he'll be able to go home to New Orleans, and what sort of job prospects may greet him once he gets there.

But this last weekend, Nu was back tapping out jangly melodies on his steel drum at an impromptu art fair here in the heart of Cajun country, about two hours northwest of New Orleans. Admittedly, the crowds were a bit smaller and not quite as funky as those in the French Quarter. But Nu seemed relieved just to be making music again.

"Every time I get settled, some cosmic force moves me," Nu said, taking a cigarette break between sessions in front of Chris' Po-Boy, a local sandwich shop. "When they let people back in [to New Orleans], I might go back. But I might stay here."
there's more...

Houston Chronicle

Acadiana city plans to become 'Little Easy'
Musicians see chance to blend jazz and R&B with Cajun and Zydeco
By LISA FALKENBERG
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
LAFAYETTE, LA. - The fiddler — eyes closed, bow gliding the peaks of a Cajun waltz for gray-haired couples on the dance floor — is far from New Orleans tonight, though he's in the same spot as many of the city's musicians.

His heart is in the Big Easy, mother of jazz, where rhythms hum in the neon, tap on the sidewalk, waft from windows like bar smoke. But since Hurricane Katrina, his music is anywhere someone will listen.

Right now, for Jonno Frishberg and many other New Orleans musicians, that place is Lafayette, the citified heart of Cajun Country that's competing with other musical hubs to become the keeper of New Orleans' scattered soul.

Lafayette, about 135 miles west of New Orleans, has always shared a cultural kinship with its soulful sister across the swamp. It's got a simmering music scene of authentic Cajun, Zydeco and "swamp pop," which sounds a lot like New Orleans R&B with a Cajun accent.

Now, Lafayette club owners and local musicians' advocates are trying to bring that scene to a boil by attracting displaced musicians who have settled in the Acadiana area and luring back those who have already fled to bigger venues.
there's more...

New York Times

Lafayette Hopes, and Fears, It Will Become the New New Orleans

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: September 18, 2005
LAFAYETTE, La., Sept. 15 - With its strong Cajun traditions, Mardi Gras celebrations and drive-through daiquiri bars, this southern Louisiana city has long sparred with New Orleans for the right to call itself a capital of relaxed revelry, the arts and French-influenced folkways.

But as its rival lies in ruins and tens of thousands of evacuees pour in, Lafayette suddenly faces some far different struggles: an accelerating culture clash and a debate over whether the city can, or even wants to, become the new New Orleans.
there's more...

Mmmm . . . whiskey burger . . .

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Checkers Drive-In Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest double drive-thru chain, today introduced its new Jim Beam® Double Cheddarburger and Jim Beam Cheddar Chicken sandwiches made with Jim Beam BBQ Sauce. These new adult- focused sandwiches are topped with slow-cooked Jim Beam Bourbon BBQ sauce, grilled red onions, and smoked cheddar cheese.