Lynching...The Forbidden Topic

I have watched the "Kramer" clip a few times. I will forgive the people in the audience that were laughing because afterall it was a comedy club so maybe they were not sure what was going on. I'm sure there are blogs all over the internet addressing his use of the N word. There is no need for me to get into that part. I will say this. I think I speak for all black people....

We need the word "Nigger" often! We even have created a different spelling for it so it won't be so offensive when we use it. Since I hear it dozens of times a day I won't consider physical violence as a valid reaction towards Kramer going off. However....no one should ever make any comments about lynching. We don't even make jokes about lynching and we laugh at everything. That is off limits. When I hear talk of "being upside down with a fork up my ass", I want to get a big ass gun and wait for the revolution to start. There will be no Emmett Till repeats without some retribution. The only good thing about that night is that Kramer was yelling at some civilized brothers. It could have been some Professor Griff disciples in there that would have burned down the damn club. That might have been cool.

Now I don't feel bad about not ever watching Seinfeld.

The Dumbest Brother

The Votes are in!!!

All precincts are reporting...

It wasn't even a close race....

I am proud to announce that O.J. Simpson has been voted as the most stupid black man in America. There is not another black man in the history of this country that would be lucky enough to escape the death penalty for killing two white people and keep showing up on TV and writing books to rub it in their faces. Any other black man that would have gotten this lucky would have went to Europe or something and never came back. Even Micheal Jackson had enough sense to know that you get out of the way if you beat the rap and he thinks playing Twister with 12 year old boys is ok. Johnnie Cochran is looking at this somewhere wishing he would have let this dumb ass go to jail. I can't believe Fox was going to let this fool actually explain how he would have killed those people.

p.s.

Isn't it amazing that Fox News is the national propaganda machine for the conservative movement in the country but almost every other show they come up with is some sick ass piece of television. How do right wing people take this channel serious when they come up with stuff like the O.J. special and things like " Who Wants to Marry a 500 lb Midget" ? It just goes to show that people will roll with any form of media that says exactly what they want to agree with.

Kind of Scary

Gerald Levert was 40 years old when he had a massive heart attack last week. I would be lying if I said that didn't scare me a little. Gerald was not a small man. Neither am I. I'm not an extremely large man but I am not a little one either. I probably could use some excersize and a diet change. I really don't do anything healthy. I eat way too much fast food during the day and fried food at night. I stopped going to the park and all I do at work is sit behind a desk. Basically, I am just living my way to the same outcome as Gerald. It's hard to let go of bad habits that feel so good. Have you ever tasted Patton's hot sausage? Having a daily cocktail or two probably doesn't help either. Situations like that are not that cut and dry for me. Grandpa was damn near 300 lbs into his 80's and he never had trouble. Of course, I don't know if he ever ate fast food a day in his life. Then I come from that old school New Orleans frame of mind where pot bellys have sex appeal on the right person. Whatever the the case is, I have to make sure I don't put myself in any unneccasary danger. There's enough of that for a young brother already.

I said all of that and still had three porkchops for lunch.....

How can you do this alone?

In life you have circumstances that give you new perspective on some things. This week I have been blessed to get a new outlook on parenting. I just want to say to all the single moms or dads out there. You are wonderful people. You are wonderful for your restraint. How you guys get up every morning, get yourself ready for work and get kids dressed and ready for school for years and years without any breaks or killing the other parent is remarkable. I have been doing it for four days and I am ready to quit my job and be Mr. Mom just to keep from dealing with that every morning. Instead of putting deadbeat dads in jail for not paying their child support. They should make them have to do the morning preperation for 3 months straight. After that, he will gladly pay back support plus interest. If you really want to add some extra spice to the morning add the following equation.

1 bubbling stomach + 30 minutes over sleeping + one three year old that hates the sitter.

It's been a beautiful morning so far....

The N.O. Spotlight

I decided once a week to spotlight a New Orleans native doing great things. I know it's election night and most people are focused on whether the donkeys or the elephants get to steal some money. Instead of talking about that right now, I want to give some love to Mr. Ron Washington. He is the first black manager of the Texas Rangers baseball team AND he is a full blooded New Orleanian (looks like an uptown brother to me).

Congratulations brother Ron. I don't watch baseball all that much but dammit I am rooting for the Rangers.

We Just Ordinary People

I’m just an ordinary guy. I like nice things but it doesn’t define me. I am cool with a good barbeque pit, all the channels on the cable box and cold beer. During my adult life that frame of mind may have hindered my professional growth. The thing is that although I probably could be more advanced, I am totally comfortable and not going crazy like some you are. Don 't take that to mean that I don't want to grow and prosper. I really do. I just think I am a pretty great guy regardless. I struggle with this mindstate because I am usually the only one around that see's it like this. Everyone appears to be in a panic to change where they are except me.
Why can’t we feel good about just having jobs and doing regular stuff. We all need to keep getting bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger debt just to keep feeding that foolish notion that somehow that makes us better people. I can’t prove this but I think we are the only group of people in this country that are never happy being regular people. We are the people who spend money on things way out of heir price range to feel included. Look at our movies, books, schools, churches and television shows. Black people pay attention to the overly blessed and gifted or the drastically ignorant and poor. It’s the upper-class or the thugs with nothing in between. Nobody recognizes the guy that works for the sanitation department or the sisters that work in housekeeping doing what they have to do everyday and are not mad about it. We are expected to want to do better than our current situation. If you do anything less than that you are considered crazy. It’s the reason why brothers lie to sisters all the time about all the things they are planning to do when in reality they don‘t plan on doing anything. It’s the reason the sisters always pick the fantasy guy and end up depressed and unsatisfied. It’s the reason our young people would rather make some rapper who brags about having things they can’t afford their hero instead of the plumber that lives across the street. It’s the reason that same plumber feels bad sometimes for actually liking his job. Nobody around him wants to be who and where they are so something has to be wrong with him. You should feel good about an honest day's work and liking what you do. You shouldn't feel bad for enjoying your modest home and still living in the old neighborhood. The pursuit of material possessions has way too much power in determining our self worth. If you have the means to shine then by all means do so. If you don't have that ability right now, don't look at yourself any less because of it. If you conduct yourself in the right way, you can shine in a hooptie.

Clifton

The N.O. Morale Booster

I’ve been quiet about New Orleans. Certain people had accused me of being too caught up in the condition of the city so I just sat back and watched for the last month or so to see what might happen. Well, it’s been long enough and it’s still the same so I am now getting back on my amateur soapbox and complaining. The biggest gripe I have at the moment about being back in the city is the low quality of life for the citizens and the lack of action to change any of it. I have tosay morale is low. The only people that are having a great time are the thieves, hustlers and prostitutes. Everybody else is in a bad mood or stressed. With that in mind, I am going to list ten things that can be done right away within reason to give some life and morale back to the all the fools that have returned home. They might as well use my list since no one else has come up with anything. These are things to just make everybody feel better.

1. Stop Telling People to Come Home: I know the mayor thought that was the right thing to do but the truth of the matter is that the more people we add without housing to match is the more chaos that goes on. I miss my family but I couldn’t tell them it’s time to go back to their street with a clear conscience. At least they are in a cleaner and safer city where they are now. The Ninth Ward just got water last week and even uptown where I work the water comes out kind of brown. There is no way we could handle another five thousand people without the available housing.

2. Re-institute the city curfew: This is not normalNew Orleans since the storm and we shouldn’t act like it. The reality is that there is nothing to do outside of the French Quarter after midnight anywhere else so we need to have a 1:00AM curfew for everyone and 10:00 PM for kids under 18. Stretch it to 2:00 in the French Quarters to be fair and that’s it. If tourist can’t come up with a way to get drunk and fornicate in the privacy of their hotel then they should have stayed home.

3. Fix the traffic lights: Anyone living here now knows that you can’t tell if some of the traffic lights are green, yellow or red. There’s got to be a grant or something to get money for new traffic lights. It’s a safety issue.

4. Put the Inspector General position on the fast track: We have to show we are ready to change the way things are done down here and that is the whole premise of this position. Also, we need to give him/her the ability to go over all current contracts the city has regardless of how old they are.

5. Potholes, Potholes, Potholes: Uptown didn’t get as much water but they sure have the biggest crater size holes in the street. Your entire car can come up missing. It’s either this or FEMA allows everyone to trade in their car for an SUV.

6. Weekly press conferences by the mayor and city council: One of the biggest problems everyone is having is the lack of knowledge about what’s going on. President Bush might not want to admit the war was wrong but even he knows that you have to explain what is happening and that people’s questions may be valid.We need to have updates even if it’s just to say that they haven’t done shit all week. I can deal with that as long as someone acknowledges me.

7. Turn the Lights back on the lake: If the French quarter where the tourist are can have lights all night, then the lakefront where locals to go to hangout and maybe catch a few catfish. I go to the lake for peace when I want to relax. I’m tired of seeing darkness and barricades. That picture at the top is how the lake looks at 7:00 PM.

8. Threaten to place a toll at all entrances to the city: I realize that everyone in the area and the state would get mad about this and probably call Nagin and the Council crazy but I would appreciate the fact that at least somebody proposed something that was strictly for the benefit of the people that actually lived in the city even if it meant pissing off everybody else. They seem to have no problem doing and saying things that we don't like.

9. Hire a Spokesman: There has to be someone that can do a better of job of expressing the views and wishes of the citizens of the city than Clarence.

10. Stand up to the State and Surrounding Parishes: That talk about being a united metro area is only true for Saints games. Every time something happens in nearby city they use words that blame it on evacuees even though they never actually say any of the perpetrators are from New Orleans. I haven’t seen one thing that proves that. They need to start proving that shit or stopping that shit. I also think that one of the reasons the Road Home program is so complicated is because they put in extra shit just to make sure no one thought that New Orleans people weren’t getting over. I think we need to ask for our own money from Washington and tell them that the reason we have to is because as long as the Superdome, hotel and casino money comes in, the rest of this state could care less if one more “refugee” came home or not. I’m starting to think they like it like this.

Confidence

Confidence

Confidence is essential.
Everyone needs at least a lil bit.
Goes hand and hand with self esteem.
Confidence is my fuel.
I thrive on it.

I lost my confidence.
Been running on empty.
Been looking for that bastard for the last two years.
I have finally found it.
I can't tell you how.
It was probably there all of the time.
Sometimes dark days will hide it from you.

Now I remember that I am the shit.
Accolades and compliments are expected.
I missed feeling this way.
Welcome back old friend.
I need some new theme music.

Clifton

Daddy Stress

I'm not going to name the person that inspired this blog. All I am going to say is that sometimes we have to tell our friends and family the truth about what’s really going on. He will never read this anyway. I am not the perfect father. I can't comb girl's hair. Reading the same book more than once in a day is crazy to me and I refused to watch Barney. Despite these flaws, I have a pretty good idea of what a dad is supposed to do. It's only right since I have the best one ever. The number one thing all brothers must remember is that you instantly become second to your child. My daddy had a wife and 5 kids. He made him the 7th most important person in our house. That man didn't do anything based on his own wants and needs first. I honestly believe that if it wasn't for holidays and his birthday, he would have had the same pair of underwear since 1974 because he never would have bought anything for himself if he thought we needed the money first. When the baby is on it's way it's not about you anymore. I didn't realize this until I experienced it. Babies don't care if you are grieving, or depressed, or feel less than a man, or whatever other kind of hang-up you might have. It's not their job to suffer while you work out your hang-ups. I'm sick and tired of all these cats that legitimize their lack of responsibility because of some sad story. That's not the baby's job to understand the bullshit you are going through. It's your job to try and make sure that they don't have bullshit. I know people from New Orleans have been through a lot. I'm high on that list. What kind of man would I be if I woke up Christmas morning and said 'Hey, daddy don't have any presents because he lost his album collection and couldn't get over it"? That would be bullshit and Tara would have the right to curse my manhood cheap if she saw fit. I couldn't be mad. I tried to tell the inspiration for this blog not to be mad. He doesn't understand that once that mama switch gets turned on in a woman's head, she could really care less about whether or not you don't feel like lifting boxes at work. If lifting boxes buys pampers then lift some boxes. Look brothers, two months after celebrating my first baby's birth, I was laid off, my uncle passed, I was unemployed for 5 months and took a twelve thousand dollar pay cut when I went back to work, then my godfather died unexpectedly, then my grandfather passed away, then came Katrina and I lost my grandmother, then my aunt died of cancer, and the whole time I was tripping. If you read this blog you know that it's been a rough ride. Through that whole time I kept working, got a promotion, my salary doubled, I drove 600 miles a week back and forth, and learned all the names of the characters on the Sprout channel even though I wanted to take off running like Forrest Gump did when Jenny left.


But I didn't because I couldn't.....


I'm Daddy....


I put myself last....


Now get your ass up and go get a damn job to take care of your family!

Only In America

Only in America can a senator get away with going to rehab for liking underage boys and people defend him or hide it just to keep power. I find it funny that once a month Dateline NBC has a show that makes men who do the same thing look like the sickest freaks in the world. In all the years I have been drinking, I have never had enough liquor to make me want to send instant messages to my little brother's friends.

Only in America can we spend years fighting a war for reasons that change every six months. Meanwhile, every little punk-ass leader that wants a rep is talking trash because they know we can't do anything about it. Do you really think North Korea would be testing weapons if they knew we could kick some ass?

Only in America can an entire generation destroy itself behind words with empty meanings like "hate" and "beef" and people think that shit is normal. At least the Muslim kids fight for what they think their god wants them to do. We are dying because someone doesn't like the fact we got new rims.

Only in America can a state develop a plan to help it's citizens get their life and home's back together but make it so damn complicated and full of penalties and rules that no one understands it or really gets the help they need. I was pretty good at trigonometry and calculus in school and I still don't understand how the Road Home program works.

Only in America can a city struggling to recover have a mayor endorse a congressman that had money in his freezer to use for bribes just to return a political favor.

Only in America would that crooked congressman have the balls to run again in spite of his lack of creditability and the need for people to re-invest in his city.

Only in America would that mayor and congressman not have to worry about the locals creating a guerilla army, naming a new leader, and locking all of the current leadership in a undisclosed concentration camp. This is an idea that I contemplate often while riding through empty neighborhoods.

Only in America can a billionaire try and move his football team to another city while the entire region was still in hotels and shelters, then have everyone forget about that a year later. How do you go from being a pariah to getting the key to the city without ever really doing anything special?

Only in America could I write all of this and not have anyone come to get me......I hope

The Chicken Dance...

You know, I was taking me a week or two off from blogging. Sometimes it's cool to just watch things go by and observe without having to talk about it. Then, I run across something that touches me so deeply that I just have to say something. Please watch the video above. I have friends of all races and backgrounds. This has nothing to do with them. I have to say what I am about to say from the heart..............

Niggas should never ever ever dance for chicken. That goes for the chicken dance, the chicken noodle soup dance, and this bullshit up here.

You can disagree and find this shit funny but we have to have some kind of damn standards. We can't shake our ass to everything.

I stand by what I said earlier about the game...

BUT THAT WAS FREAKING SWEEEEEEET!!

SAINTS 23 FALCONS 3

WHO'S YOUR DADDY VICK?

Not Feeling The Hype

Call me negative.

Call me pessimistic.

Call me the only person in New Orleans that is not excited about the game tonight.

I am all those things.

I am also a realist and unfazed by media generated inspiration.

I'm just keeping it real.

Honestly, if my friends were not going to be at my house watching, I probably wouldn't watch it. I'm a Saints fan since birth. I don't like the Falcons at all. I hope we win tonight. Everything else about this evening is bullshit. You can get wrapped up in the hoopla all you want. The fact of the matter is that if the same speed and effort put into bringing back Tom Benson's team (who he couldn't wait to move to San Antonio) was put into bringing back even decent surroundings and services for the citizens of the city life here would be so much more encouraging and inspiring than a football game. They were fixing the Superdome before people in New Orleans had hot water and streetlights. I wasn't thinking about the Saints during those cold showers.

I'm definitely happy that the Saints are 2-0 and are playing the Falcons.

I will be even more happy when I actually get a regular telephone and a drug store withing a mile of my house in case all the babies and elderly need medicine.

Go Saints!

Things I Thought About While Driving

Let me get this straight. When Nelly had the Tip Drill video on BET Uncut, sisters all over America was staging boycotts against his shows and writing BET to the point where I think they decided to go ahead and cancel the whole show. How could those sisters shaking their bodies be worse than Flavor of Love, a show that almost every black woman loves? Were those 3 or 4 minutes of video more damaging than 30 minutes every week of watching women throw themselves at Flav's ass just to be on TV? Al Sharpton protests the Boondocks and not this garbage? I need to know where the movement is to get this off the air. We won't even get into College Hill and what that has done.

I can’t believe William Jefferson is down here running for Congress again. I am tired of voting for black politicians just because they are black and Democrat. If George Bush weren’t a lying, election stealing, useless war-making president and most Republicans weren’t mindless clones that just go along with whatever they hear on TV, I would vote Republican just to make a statement. My city has had black democrats in charge for the last 30 years and shit has gotten worse. That's because we are enamored with the fact this person is smart and educated enough to actually run for office and not what they are going to actually do once they get in there. It makes total sense when you think about it. Black people are the only group in the country that values how much we can get and how far away we can move from our neighborhoods over anything else. That's our interpretation of the American dream. It’s the way we show we have “overcome”. It's only right that we would vote for inept politicians that used to live in our community even though he or she probably couldn't name three people there now. It’s style and presentation over substance every time. Nobody knows this more than black politicians and that’s why they don’t do anything. We are conditioned to vote for them. Ask Ray Nagin.

Finally, I read all the time about the crisis of black men. That is very real. There are a lot of brothers in trouble. Young cats are staying out all night, shooting, dying, fighting and selling drugs with no respect or concern for anything. It's a vicious cycle. In order for it to be a cycle, the people involved have to reproduce. So who's having all these crazy thugs' kids? I hope in our focus to find out what's wrong with the brothers we don't lose track of the fact there are allot of sisters who live the same kind of life. If they don't live it, they at least endorse it through their affection. I'm not trying to blame them. It’s all part of the same game. I'm just saying that if deep in the hood the valedictorian in school was a brother, and he had the five finest women in his class fighting over him because of how well he reads, every guy in the neighborhood would at least go to class and try to learn something. You have to attack a problem this big from all angles at the same time.

I am a die-hard Saints fan but I have to point out the following: We are going to have a football game Monday and still don't have a public hospital open in the city. I don’t know if I should be excited, sad, or embarrassed.

100 More Days and Still No Plan

I know for a fact there are some people from New Orleans that read this blog. Since some of you are not home yet I am going to start out this blog out with something positive. I can honestly say that there are signs of progress everywhere in the city. Even the Lower Ninth Ward has a few signs of life. Everyday there seems to be more people on the streets than the day before. The only problem with this is that no one in city government can take credit for any of it. Mayor Nagin presented his “100 Day Plan” review yesterday and I have to say I was very under whelmed with it. His major achievements were water pressure, trash pickup, and more plans to come up with plans. That seems to be his second favorite thing to do next to free vacations around the world. If this was his first 100 days being mayor or 100 days after the storm I would be willing to jump on that progress train with him. Unfortunately he’s been in charge the entire time so that makes this whole 100 day presentation a joke in my eyes. What’s even sadder and disheartening is that all the major players on the committee were the people running against him during the election so that means they obviously wouldn’t have done a much better job either. The time for planning to make other plans has got to stop. We need to know something. At this point, I will accept a bad idea as long as it has some details to it. How can we be mad about the lack of federal funding when we don’t even know what the hell we are going to spend it on? It might actually be more frustrating to have the money to fix certain things and still see it not done. It’s my fault for being naïve. When George Bush said he would do all he could to help rebuild the city, I thought for sure there was going to be a week long meeting by city leaders to at least come up with a blueprint and ballpark figure. It shouldn’t have been that difficult to know what to ask for. Katrina messed up allot of things but the infrastructure in New Orleans was not great to begin with. This is the city of a lot of old things. I refuse to believe that the mayor and city council didn’t already have certain things they wanted to do around here before Katrina. Now, you have the opportunity to name what you want and I haven’t heard a thing. That tells me that no one planned on doing anything before the storm and they are not equipped to handle what has taken place after it. The only thing left for me to say is that its going to be a damn shame when I move back into my house within the next two months and there is no grocery store, park, school, or pharmacy within walking distance. The inconvience alone makes you want to pack up and roll out of here but I’m not. Leaving only gives them the excuse for being incompetent.

Pac's Passing.....Ten Years Later

On September 13, 1996 Tupac Shakur died from gunshot wounds he had suffered days before in Las Vegas. I am finally ready to admit that he is dead now and not in Cuba. I never wanted to admit he actually got killed. The reason is that I couldn’t understand why a person with so much potential and talent could act so careless with his life. He was too smart for that. Imagine all the cool things he could have done in the last ten years. For my generation, the man is a legend. He is the poster child for not giving a damn about the system and keeping it real at all times. Did he really keep it real? Or, did he conform to the same ignorant ideas that have young brothers scattered in blood all over the streets of America? It’s amazing how ten years can change your perspective on life. At 22 years old Tupac helped validate my frustration. Now at 32 I have a different outlook on it. There is nothing more depressing than a thug that knows he doesn’t have to be but still does it.
I had a friend that reminded me of Tupac named Renaldo. He was murdered in 1993. While I don’t know exactly why he got killed, I do know that whatever the conflict was he went out like the fake soldier he thought he had to be. I’m not trying to put down my boy at all. If something ever happened when I was in high school he would jump in front a bullet for me. He was a brave kid just like Pac was. The fake part comes in because even though he knew he could have been a Rhodes Scholar if he applied himself, he chose to live the street life. That’s the same thing Pac did.
If you listen to songs today, you hear allot of blind ignorance and glorification of the most self destructive behavior. Most of these cats act like there is nothing better in the world than being stupid. I always figured the lyrics to these type of songs played to two crowds, the suburban kids that are fascinated with the part of town they are not allowed to go and the lost souls in the ghetto that don’t know any better and think this is the blueprint for life. That’s why Tupac the artist and the man have been presented the wrong way. If you go back and listen to all of his music from the beginning you will hear serious social commentary. Even when he got with Death Row and wanted to kill everybody he knew there was a better way. Tupac knew exactly why kids were led to act the way they do. He even knew what could turn that around. He rapped about it and talked about it. He just didn’t choose to live it. That makes his life kind of tragic. The black community should take Tupac and make him the poster child for what happens when a brother knows the way around the trap and still steps into it. It’s been ten years and all the things he said in song back then still make sense now. Sooner or later we as black men have to start telling ourselves that keeping it real and being a soldier is getting us nowhere but right next to Pac, Biggie, Renell and all the rest of the potential great men that died too soon.


Clifton

Cliff's Mix Tape # 1

Let's go back in the day....high school if you don't mind...........

Back in the day before CD's and MP3's, I spent my nights listening to Papa Smurf on WYLD FM 98 in New Orleans and his Mellow Moods show. The thing to do was stop at K&B on the way home and pick you up one of those 90 minute Maxwell tapes, sit by the radio all night and hit the pause button early enough to get the beginning of the song and stop it quick enough so Papa Smurf wouldn't talk through the end of the song like he always did and mess up your mix. Nothing killed the mood on a slow jam tape like the sound of the DJ's voice. Anyway, If I had to make me a fresh tape right now. This is what it would look like. Now remember, a tape only held about 15-18 songs so if I left something off go buy your own tape.

Side A.
1. Pretty Brown Eyes - Mint Condition
2. Baby I'm Ready - Gerald Levert
3. Oh Me Oh My(I'm a Fool) - Aretha Franklin
4. Send for Me - Atlantic Starr
5. Sparkle - Cameo
6. Where do we go from here - Enchantment
7. Say Yes - Floetry
8. Funny How Love Goes - Phyllis Hyman
9. Drop Down To My Knees - Elate (Does anyone from New Orleans know where I can find this song?)

Side B.
1. If This World Would Mine - Luther
2. I Love You - Lenny Williams
3. Insatiable - Prince
4. Right and a Wrong Way - Keith Sweat
5. Is It a Crime - Sade
7. Candlelight and You - Chante Moore and Keith Washington
8. Turn off the Lights - Teddy P.
9. 12 Play - R. Kelly



You can dub a copy if you want to...But don't pop my shit!

Where Would I Be?

I am sitting here tonight at 12:15 AM in a small apartment browsing the internet on my laptop.

I just looked over to my cousin who is staying with me for a few weeks until he can find a full time job and some affordable housing and asked him the following question....

Do you ever think where you would be and what you would be doing if that storm hadn't came?

It's Wednesday, so I would probably be at my house sitting in the den playing an album and getting ready to teach a training class at my old office in the Red Cross building.

Maybe I would be sitting outside smoking a cigar and giving bones to Sandy.

Maybe I would be playing a game of pool on my table to relax.

Who knows where I would be....

I know I wouldn't be here......

You refugees understand.

Goodbye Crocodile Man

I was listening to the radio this morning on the way to work and there was all kind of joking going on about the Crocodile Hunter. I will admit that getting stung by a stingray is not a common way to die. Steve did some crazy things with deadly animals so no one is surprised this happened. I still can't believe he sat in that boat surrounded by the hippos or lay in the tree with all the komodo dragons. Regardless of how he died, I have a large amount of envy for the Crocodile Hunter. There are three reasons why.

1. Here is a man that loved what he did to the point he was willing to risk his life to save animals that would have eaten him in a second. How many people in this world have that much passion and affection for any creature including humans?

2. Secondly, he died at 44 years of age. I plan on living pass my 44th birthday but I am pretty sure that with all the places he's seen and cool things he got to do that he has pretty much out lived half the population in a short amount of time. The man swam in the ocean with a pool of sharks with nothing but his khakis short set. There is no strip club road trip to beat that.

3. Third, he may have been a little crazy and kind of funny, but he had the biggest set of balls of any man on the planet bar none! There is nobody reading this that would have went to Africa and got spit on by a cobra or sat in a canoe surrounding by hippos. Who knows the number of times he had to jump on top of a crocodile's back. Not even my grandpa would have done that and he was the baddest SOB I ever met.

Rest in Peace Steve.

I hope there is a jungle in heaven full of dangerous animals just for you.

In Case You Need To Sit Down

The picture above is the space where my grandfather's home in the Lower Ninth Ward used to be. There are very few houses left in the area as it appears they are being demolished daily. I have accepted the fact that even if the people were coming home, the majority of these houses were going to have to be torn down regardless. I only have one question and I think I speak for the majority of residents and families from this area.

When you guys tear down these houses and memories, why in the hell do you leave the steps and porches?

There is lot after lot of nothing but dirt and steps. I know those big ass machines can break up that concrete and haul that away too. I hope you are not just fu@#ing with everybody. Take the steps too please. We don't need to be reminded where the front door was. We already know.