I'm still in Washington DC and the Redskins-Cowchips hatefest Round One is taking center stage today amongst inside the Beltway football fans. I'm still laser focused on my hometown NFL gridiron heroes.
The Houston Texans beat the New Orleans Saints 27-14 during the preseason in a game at Reliant the starters only played in the first half.
Now fast forward a few weeks. The Saints and Texans are playing this time in an NFL game that not only counts in the standings, it's at the Superdome in front of their fans. The Texans also are playing for the first 3-0 start in franchise history.
Ben Tate, who did some damage in the preseason game against them, will be seeking to become the first rookie running back since Cadillac Anderson to have three consecutive 100 yard games in the opening weeks of his NFL career.
Hmm, no pressure.
Who Dat say we gonna beat Dem Saints? The team 375 miles west of you on I-10, that's who.
Today is the day that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the New Orleans area in 2005. The Category 4 hurricane submerged 80% of the city with a 20 foot storm surge, killed 1836 people and triggered the events post landfall that have had profound effects on the city of New Orleans, the region, its politics and even affected American history and culture with shows like Treme.
Hurricane Katrina triggered the largest relocation of African Americans since the Great Migration with Atlanta, Houston and Dallas becoming the biggest beneficiaries of the permanently relocated population.
Its political effects include probably being a factor in the 2006 Democratic congressional midterm landslide, resulted in Texas and Georgia picking up congressional seats and Louisiana losing one in the 2010 reapportionment, delaying Louisiana becoming a majority minority state population wise since most of the people displaced were African American, and as a consequence of losing much of that African descended population, Louisiana becoming more conservative and a reliably red state instead of the swing state it was prior to Katrina's landfall.
Since I lived in the New Orleans are for two years, I have friends in the area and my godsister still lives on the West Bank with her family, I took it very personally the failures of the Bush misadministration to aid the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of this storm.
In addition, the Katrina name was permanently retired by the World Meteorological Association from the Atlantic hurricane naming lists in 2006.
I'm not going to forget the over 1500 people in the New Orleans are who lost their lives to this storm and the others who are still trying to put their lives together years later.
New Orleans is one of the unique treasures of America, and it took a major blow.
It has half the population nowadays and the 2010 Census will reveal just how much population the Big Easy lost.
The aftermath of Katrina has profound social and political consequences as well. Rove went into this with the intent of turning Louisiana red and suceeded. In his zeal to do so, he may have sowed the seeds to turn Texas into a swing state thanks to all the people displaced from New Orleans who relocated to Dallas and Houston.
Thanks to all those New Orleans evacuees who stayed here combined with Latino population growth, our population in Houston finally surpassed 2 million. If it's confirmed by the census, it will trigger the addition of two more city council seats.
We Gulf Coast residents also take hurricane evacuation warnings seriously now.
We also know another affect it had-It highlighted the GW Bush administration's gross incompetence and putting a bright media spotlight on the failure of conservapolicies. It was a factor in helping eject the GOP from federal power and giving the Dems control of Congress in 2006.
So on this fifth anniversary, let's pray for and remember the people who lost their lives during and after the storm and never forget what happened to New Orleans.
Polar and I as you read this are probably at our planned stopping point of Hammond, LA.
Yep, we're in Jindalland after our day started earlier this morning in Da Ville rolling the moving van southwards on I-65.
We picked Hammond because Interstate 55 intersects with I-12 here, and once we get on I-12 west it's a short run to Red Stick (aka Baton Rouge) and the intersection of I-10.
I-10 west will take me through Louisiana's state capitol, over the Mississippi River, through the Atchafalaya swamp, past Lafayette, Lake Chuck and finally the last 30 miles to the Texas-Louisiana line at the Sabine River.
Louisiana is special because it's another one of the places that is home for me. For two years I lived in Marrero, LA just across the river from New Orleans. I started elementary school there and my godsister and her family still live on the West Bank. I have a few friends still living in Da Swamps who have told me they're happy to hear that I'm back on the Gulf Coast and I'm only a five hour drive away west of them.
When I worked for CAL, one of my first non-rev trips I took when I became pass eligible was to New Orleans. I flew to the city several times during my time there because it was a short flight to the French Quarter and a club on St. Charles Ave I used to hit called Nexus. It was a jazz piano bar downstairs and had a dance floor with DJ upstairs.
There was one memorable night I hit the place and Charmaine Neville was performing at the jazz bar part of Nexus the same weekend that New Orleans was invaded by Washington Redskins fans. The DJ obliged by playing a lot of go-go that night in his music mix.
If you want to get on my good side bring me a dozen beignets from Cafe DuMonde and you have gained a BFF.
And yes, my other fave NFL team plays in the Superdome. Geaux Saints!
Polar and I probably are going to find something to eat and call it a night because we still have some driving to do before we hit the Houston city limits.
The New Orleans Saints were founded in 1967 and have endured 43 seasons of good, bad and ugly football. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005 and wrecked the Superdome, it wasn't even certain that the Saints would even be playing their future NFL games in New Orleans.
Today you can call them NFL champions after playing and winning in their first Super Bowl appearance.
They ain't the Aints no more.
In a Super Bowl for the ages the Saints turned a 10-6 halftime deficit, gutsy play calling and stout defense into a memorable 31-17 win and a well deserved championship for the long suffering Saints fans.
Mardi Gras has already started, but this party will probably be going on until tomorrow morning and maybe into next week.
Looks like gay couples aren't the only ones being denied the ability to get married in Louisiana.
We made the argument in Kentucky when our marriage ban was on the ballot in 2004 that if you banned same gender marriages and gave local clerks the power to deny or annul people's marriages, then the marriages of people they didn't like would also be on the chopping block.
Hmm, didn't take long for them to go after interracial marriages now did it?
A justice of the peace in Hammond, LA put on his pointed white sheet and denied a marriage license to an interracial couple.
Guess he hasn't heard about the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case in which they ruled 9-0 the government cannot prohibit marriages simply because of the race of the spouses.
Tangipahoa Parish justice of the peace Keith Bardwell said he refused to issue a marriage license to 31 year old Beth Humphrey and 32-year-old Terence McKay of Hammond citing concern for any children the couple might have.
While predictably denying in the Hammond Daily Star he wasn't a racist, he then offered his opinion that most interracial marriages do not last long.
"I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children."
He said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of Black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does White society, he said.
"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer."
If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all. "I try to treat everyone equally," he said.
Yeah, right. Where's the equality in this situation?
The couple stated they will consult the US Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint.
Humphrey told the newspaper she called Bardwell on October 6 to inquire about getting a marriage license signed. She says Bardwell's wife told her that Bardwell will not sign marriage licenses for interracial couples.
“I simply can’t believe he can do that. That’s blatant discrimination,” Humphrey said.
The Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union and the Tangipahoa Parish Chapter of the NAACP agree.
Louisiana ACLU Executive Director Marjorie R. Esman said Bardwell’s refusal to sign the license is both “tragic and illegal.”
Pat Morris, NAACP Tangipahoa Parish chapter president, said she was shocked to hear that the choice of a spouse is still an issue in Tangipahoa Parish.
Humphrey and McKay met where she works and the couple and had planned to go to South Carolina for a traditional wedding ceremony to be officiated by her youth minister brother. But McKay lost his job, and by the time he was re-employed he was unable to get off for the wedding. They decided to go ahead and get married in Lousiana “to make it right before God,” she said.
“We decided on a very short, simple ceremony with a couple of my friends as witnesses,” she said. “Later, when he got some time off, we would go to South Carolina for the traditional ceremony, although we would actually already be officially married.”
According to the Louisiana clerk of court's office, application for a marriage license must be made three days before the ceremony because there is a 72-hour waiting period. The applicants are asked if they have previously been married. If so, they must show how the marriage ended, such as divorce.
Other than that, all they need is a birth certificate, the $35 license fee and a Social Security card. The license must also be signed by a Louisiana minister, justice of the peace or judge with the original being returned to the clerk's office.
"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009," said American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzman. "The Supreme Court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry."
The ACLU was preparing a letter for the Louisiana Supreme Court, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and see if they can remove him from office, Schwartzman said.
"He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it," Schwartzman said.
Bardwell has been a JP for 34 years and his term expires December 31, 2014.
With the attention this case has garnered, he might be leaving sooner than that.
Incredibly, three years after Katrina devastated the New Orleans area it faces another Category 3 storm bearing down on it in Hurricane Gustav. Gustav wreaked major havoc and took 68 lives as it whacked Haiti, Jamaica and the western tip of Cuba enroute to the Louisiana coast.
I lived on the West Bank in Marrero as a toddler for two years. My dad worked for a New Orleans radio station before we moved back to Houston in 1967. We were living there when Hurricane Betsy clobbered the New Orleans area back in 1965, taking a path similar to what Katrina would follow 40 years later. Betsy caused flooding in the New Orleans area when the levees were breached by storm surge.
Gustav is going to make landfall in the Houma-Grand Isle area sometime between 6 AM-12 Noon CDT, which will unfortunately put New Orleans on the 'dirty' or east side of the storm. It's also expected to make landfall around high tide, which will add to the storm surge as well.
With Gustav hitting that area, it means that the Harvey Canal, which is the eastern border of my old neighborhood in Marrero, could possibly get a storm surge that will overwhelm the Harvey Canal flood control gate and flood most of the West Bank like New Orleans got in 2005.
I'm also concerned because I haven't heard anything from my godsister Angela or her family yet. All I can do is pray they are all right and will call us soon.
Gas prices are going to get jacked with because Gustav is running through not only an area with a large concentration of refineries but there are a large concentration of offshore oil rigs in the area as well. One fifth of the United States' oil refining capability is concentrated between Houston and New Orleans.
Another problem is that the pipelines leading from the LOOP (the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) come onshore in the Houma area.
Interestingly, we have evacuees from New Orleans being housed here in Louisville. As of the time I'm writing this 1500 people have arrived at the Fairgrounds Exposition Center and it has room for 3000 people.
I and others who have family and friends in the area will have some anxious moments over the next several hours until Gustav makes landfall. And hopefully this time, the GOP and Karl Rove will refrain from playing politics with people's lives like they did in 2005.
Today is the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastating landfall in the New Orleans-Mississippi Gulf Coast area. It's interesting that as I write this Tropical Storm Gustav whacked Haiti as a Category 1 hurricane, is building in the Caribbean and is headed toward Kingston, Jamaica. Unfortunately the storm's projected track is pointing it toward the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast area.
The possibility that Gustav may be making landfall in New Orleans, where I spent two years of my childhood on the West Bank has me concerned. Mu godsister, her hubby and kids moved back to the area after temporarily hanging out with my family in Houston, I have yet to visit New Orleans post-Katrina.
Three years after the landfall and the devastation it wreaked on the area, it's still negatively affecting many people's lives.
It's been overshadowed by the 2008 election, but today is also Mardi Gras, in which New Orleans is partying and having a good time.
Despite its struggles to survive and stay in the nation's consciousness post-Katrina, the city is recovering, although not as fast as I and others would like it to.
In case you're curious, here's the link to the Times-Picayune's Mardi Gras section.
Last year I posted articles about how the city's Black krewes and social clubs are fighting to not only stay alive with members scattered all over the country, but hold on to their history as well.
This year's Krewe of Zulu king, Frank Boutte is a native New Orleanian who has done something only one other Zulu king has done. He's only the second king since 1909 to reside (in Houston) outside of New Orleans. The other one was Louis Armstrong in 1949.
There are even gay Mardi Gras events as well. The lower French Quarter is the home of the Gay Mardi Gras and it's here that you'll see the more outrageous costumes on Mardi Gras Day, or in some cases, the lack of them.
Mardi Gras isn't just a one day event in New Orleans. It all begins on January 6th and continues until Midnight on Fat Tuesday, which can fall at any time from early February through early March. Parties, parades and balls are happening all over the New Orleans metro area through that period.
The last time I went in 1990, I stayed with my godsister Angela in Marrero. I caught two West Bank parades Saturday morning that passed within two blocks of their house before we battled a two hour traffic jam trying to get across the Greater New Orleans bridge from the West Bank for the Endymion parade that started at 7 PM in Downtown New Orleans. There was another West Bank parade the next day.
But that was BK (before Katrina).
The exact timing of Mardi Gras is actually based on the church calendar with the date being driven by when Easter Sunday falls, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring. The dates of Fat Tuesday for the next few years are:
2009: February 24 2010: February 16 2011: March 8 2012: February 21 2013: February 12 2014: March 4 2015: February 17 2016: February 9 2017: February 26
As I mentioned, parades roll through the streets of New Orleans for several weeks before Mardi Gras Day. On Fat Tuesday, they begin early in the morning with the Krewe of Zulu, followed by Rex, which is followed by the popular truck parades.
John Madden extolled the virtues of it during Thanksgiving Day NFL football telecasts when he worked for Fox. Despite the fact I've lived in southeast Texas for most of my life, last Christmas was the first time I finally got to taste one.
What I'm talking about is a turducken. It's a partially deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck which is stuffed with a small deboned chicken. Whatever hollow spaces are left are usually stuffed with either Cajun sausage, dirty rice, or Cajun style stuffing depending on who you get the bird from. The result is a multilayered piece of meat that you cook by either grilling, baking, roasting, or barbecuing it.
The turducken can't be Cajun deep fried because you need the hollow space inside for the bird to cook evenly
The turducken is thought to be Cajun in origin, but peeps in east Texas and northern Louisiana claim it originated there. A November 2005 National Geographicarticle gives credit for the idea to brothers Sammy and Junior Hebert, who invented them in 1985 at their family meat market in Maurice, LA and have been selling them commercially ever since.
The turducken tradition is growing and the Hebert stores (one in Maurice, three in Houston and one in Tulsa, Okla.) sell over 10,000 turduckens per year. Increasingly they are being sold not just for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners, but for Easter and other holidays as well.
Whoever came up with the idea, it's tasty eating and I'm looking forward to chowing down on it for our upcoming Christmas dinner.
I am so proud of our people this morning. I caught parts of the Jena 6 protest yesterday on CNN and took time to fire off comments to the CNN website.
As I saw our people gather in Jena, assemble in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, visit Jena High School and watched 'the Revs' and others speak I found myself wishing I could have been part of this history making event. We had a bus full of people that left from Louisville to go there, but I had to work last night.
It was beautiful to see 50,000 people peacefully assembling to march for justice. The best part of it was seeing all the young people that were involved. It brought tears to my eyes.
This is an opportunity for parents to have a teachable moment for their kids about our history in this country and the civil rights movement.
We must constantly remind our kids (and some whites as well) that 400 years of racism did not magically disappear in the 60's and 70's. The Forces of Intolerance are always at work and there are Jena's everywhere along with the attitudes that created them.
My hope and prayer is that our young people's involvement in social justice issues doesn't stop with this case. I hope that our youth and the participants realized that our fight for justice as African-Americans is an ongoing battle and that they must do their part to continue 'Fighting the Power' to the best of their abilities until Dr. King's dream is an unalterable reality.
Never forget Bush's indifference to the suffering of fellow Americans.
Never forget the people who simply want to return home but can't.
Never forget the neglect and suffering our Republican controlled government allowed to happen (and continues to allow to happen) to our people in the aftermath of this disaster.
Keep fighting to make sure that the people responsible for this travesty are held accountable for it.
I'm approaching six years of living in Kentucky. Moving here was the first time I'd lived more than 50 miles away from the Gulf of Mexico or in a city not on I-10. Even though Louisville and Kentucky has its charms and things I like about it, there are a lot of things I miss about home besides my family.
Fortunately one of the things I missed, Blue Bell ice cream is now sold up here and I have happily gotten reaquainted with it.
So without further ado, the twenty-five things I miss about Houston.
1A-The drive to New Orleans Before Katrina, New Orleans was THE getaway spot for many Houstonians. It was only a five hour drive or one hour plane ride away. I lived on the West Bank in Marrero for two years as a toddler and my godsister still lives there so it was doubly special to me. I loved driving that scenic stretch of I-10 that cuts through the Atchafalaya Swamp between Lafayette and Baton Rouge.
1-Major league sports Astros baseball, Texans football, Rockets and Comets basketball. I can drive to Cincinnati, Chicago or St Louis to see the 'Stros, Indianapolis or Chicago to see the Rockets or Comets and Indy to see the Texans. (I refuse to drive to Nashville to go see them while Bud Adams still owns the Tennessee Traitors) While it's fun to cheer my home teams to victory in hostile arenas it's not the same seeing my teams in their road uniforms. While Bats games are enjoyable and the price is right, there's a huge difference between a Triple A game and a MLB one.
2-TSU and the Ocean of Soul Marching Band Grew up watching a lot of TSU games in the Astrodome. Spent a lot of time on TSU's campus for various reasons. Listening to the high stepping Ocean of Soul as they did musical battle with the other outstanding bands in the SWAC such as Grambling, Jackson State, Southern and Prairie View was the bomb as well.
3-Texas high school football Arguably the best in the country. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights there's high quality games going on at stadium complexes all over the area from Class 2A to Class 5A. Houston area teams are usually in the mix for state championships. TV stations in the area have 30 minute shows devoted just to covering it and there's a syndicated show that covers Texas high school football on a weekly basis. One of the sure signs that fall was coming for me is when the latest issue of Dave Campbell's Texas Football hits the stands.
4-Frenchy's chicken The Scott Street legend located between the TSU and UH campuses that's grown to five locations. Had many nights I rolled by Frenchy's at 3 AM to grab a three piece and those creole seasoned Frenchy fries or chow down on one of their po boys.
5-Katz's deli Katz's is an Austin institution that opened up a store in Montrose. I went to the Austin location after the 1999 lobby day and fell in love with their sandwiches and the caramel cheesecake. I did the happy dance when they opened up their Houston location in 2000.
6-The nighttime pride parade Because Houston can get rather toasty in late June, the pride parade became a nighttime event. Attendance and popularity skyrocketed as a result.
7-Hermann Park The Houston equvalent to Central Park in NYC. The Zoo, the Burke Baker Planetarium, the statue of Houston's namesake Sam Houston, Miller Outdoor Theater and Hippie Hill, the reflecting pool and a mini railroad train that circles a portion of it are all there on its 445 acres. The Museum District and Montrose are nearby, Rice University borders it on the west and the Texas Medical Center to the south.
8-Montrose Houston's eclectic gayborhood that also has St Thomas University, La Colombe d'Or hotel, the Chinese consulate, the Menil Collection and various bed and breakfast places in the area along with some of my fave restaraunts and shops.
9-The Galleria So many childhood and transition memories there. It's one of my fave malls because of the ice rink, the high end designer shops and its international fame. Did a lot of walking, shopping, eating and window shopping there. My high school prom was at one of the hotels there. I also miss the Harwin Drive discount shopping strip as well.
10-Galveston and fresh seafood It represented the beach in my youth and my transition in adulthood. My gender clinic is located there. Whether I got my seafood in Galveston, one of the restaurants like Gaido's, Pappas or at one of the local mom and pop seafood joints, it was plentiful and the bomb.
11-The amenities of large city living It aggravates me when I have to drive to Cincy or Indianapolis to see my favorite acts or have to wait for traveling plays, movies or shows to come here after they do limited engagements in larger cities elsewhere.
12-Marrrrrrrrrvin Zindler, Eyyyyyyeewitness news Rent the Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. Melvin P. Thorpe is modeled on Marvin Zindler, KTRK-TV's longtime pioneering crusading consumer affairs reporter who unfortunately died Sunday. Marvin's had more plastic surgery than many of the girls who dance at Rick's. The Friday Rat and Roach report of restaurants that failed city health inspections is punctuated by his 'sliiiiiiiiiiime in the ice machine' line.
13-Mattress Mack's Gallery Furniture commercials Another Houston institution. Mattress Mack ends his commericals by jumping up and down, holding a dollar bill and reciting his tagline 'Gallery Furniture will save you money.'
14-The Ensemble Theater and Black culture Houston's award winning Black theater company. Houston is also the epicenter of Black history and culture in Texas. If there was a African-American trailblazer in Texas, nine times out of ten they had a Houston address.
15-The downtown Houston skyline No matter what angle I looked at it, whether it was from the stands at Minute Maid park, from IAH, my south side 'hood or the southwest side, I got to watch our world famous modernistic skyline grow as the city did.
16-Texas barbecue Whether it was chowing down at Harlon's, Drexler's, Pappas, a street vendor in the parking lot of a nightclub or a neighborhood hole in the wall, it's all good no matter what 'hood I was eating it in.
17-UH Eat 'em up, eat 'em up, rah rah rah! I miss walking around campus, checking out Cougar basketball, football and baseball games and reliving some memories from the time I was there.
18-Houston Splash The Black gay pride weekend that includes a beach party in Galveston and events in Houston that usually happens the first weekend in May.
19-Majic 102 Houston's first R&B FM station that started broadcasting in 1977. Over my teen and young adult years our radios eventually were tuned to it. It's now owned by Cathy Hughes' Radio One.
20-Astroworld Houston's amusement park that was opened by Judge Roy Hofheinz in 1968 and later bought by Six Flags. I was horrified to find out Six Flags not only closed it, but tore it down in early 2006. Another place that has fond memories for me.
21-Shipley's Donuts Krispy Kreme only opened its first Houston location in 2000 and still got their butts kicked by Shipley's. It's a local doughnut chain that also offers stuffed kolaches and fresh coffee. Some of the locations, especially in the 'hood are 24 hour ones.
22-Charlie's Restaurant When I wasn't feeling Denny's or was crossdressed, I used to roll up in this gay owned gay friendly 24 hour Montrose hangout, enjoy the food and the eclectic crowd that gathered there to boot.
23-Niko Niko's A Greek place in Montrose that also serves dynamite seafood and burgers.
24-Driving to Austin and Dallas The state capital was only a two hour drive away and I enjoyed rolling up state highway 71 and seeing the bluebonnets blooming along the highway. Most of my Texas relatives live in Dallas and we used make that four hour drive up I-45 nearly every summer to see them.
25-The Unity Banquet One of the major events of the Houston transgender community. One of my first community award nominations was for the Dee McKellar in 2001 for what else, the most outspoken person in the community. Lost that one to Kat Rose. ;)
Now fast forward a few weeks. The Saints and Texans are playing this time in an NFL game that not only counts in the standings, it's at the Superdome in front of their fans. The Texans also are playing for the first 3-0 start in franchise history.
