by Alejandro de los Rios

Well it all comes down to tomorrow, folks. The Hornets will face off against the Dallas Mavericks in the city’s first NBA playoff series since the invention of the wheel (or so it seems). I went back and asked the panelists from Part 1 to give me their predictions for this series. Since not all were able to reply on time, I’m also took a look through the internet and found out what others were thinking. First, here’s how our panelists are looking at the series:

Bethlehem Shoals of Free Darko: I honestly have no idea what is going to happen in this series. I do, however, doubt that the Hornets will win a championship this year. (Ed note: What a cop out)

(UPDATE: Shoals insists that his original answer was, in fact, not a cop out. Respecting his basketball acumen as I do, I present you his e-mail in full): Read the rest of this entry »

“I got po-tay-toes and to-may-toes.”

The curiously cadenced voice rings out every Sunday morning, sometimes waking me up, sometimes accompanying my Rose Nicaud coffee and quiche, depending on the hour of last call the previous Saturday night.

“Corn on da cob. Apples and ba-nan-as.”

Blaring from a megaphone attached to a beat-up old pickup, the crackling advertisements to bleary-eyed Frenchmen Street denizens issue forth from Mr. Okra, a sort of one-man food co-op on wheels. Okra, in actuality a genial, elderly gentleman, traverses the Marigny Triangle each week loudly peddling grocery wares from the back of his truck bed: root vegetables, farm-fresh fruits and, naturally, his namesake gumbo ingredient. Read the rest of this entry »

by Alejandro de los Rios

(NOTE: I mean to put this up earlier but, well, I didn’t. Here it is now.)

OK, so this post’s title really only applies to one of the people in this photo (the man in the black fleece jacket). Can you guess who it is?

I’ll give you a hint: think shrimp. You know? The fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »