Allison King, a masters student at the University of Texas at Austin, has created a great online history of the Hansen’s Sno-Bliz iconic snowball stand.

Created with the help and cooperation of Ashley Hansen, granddaughter of the late founders Ernest and Mary Hansen, the Web site is a living multimedia document and a rich piece of nostalgia. There’s a Flickr site for the Hansen family photos (check out the shots of Mrs. Hansen with Willard Scott on The Today Show), a blog, and an online multimedia exhibit.

Allison has even set up a YouTube page with some great footage — check out this home movie taken at Hansen’s in 1991:

Craigslist is an excellent resource. But, on occasion, it can lead to more questions than answers. Take this post, for instance:

Are you the #1 Saints fan? Do you watch every second of every game - multiple times? To you have interesting ideas about the team and the NFL? Can you put those ideas into regular blog postings? If so, I have the perfect opportunity for you. I run a New Orleans Saints fan / blog site and I need some real fans who would like to write regular blog postings for the site. The site has a modest amount of traffic already so I am making a little bit of money from the site which I will split with the other bloggers. So you can even earn a little money doing something you love.

First of all, who is this person running this Saints “fan / blog site” and which site is it? Secondly, isn’t it a bit counter-intuitive to claim that you run a “New Orleans Saints fan / blog” site and then ask for “real fans” to write for it? Is this person saying they aren’t a “real fan” (at the very least, they’ve already made it clear that they’re not the #1 Saints fan cause they’re actively searching for it)? Also, since this site is presumably up and running — with a “modest amount of traffic” — doesn’t it undermine everything you’ve done and compromise your “modest” readership by admiting that you aren’t the Saints #1 fan (or even a “real fan”)?

I’ve e-mailed these questions to the Craigslist posting. Hopefully this person won’t take offense to my critiques, as I fuly support any and all Saints fan blogs and their growing prosperity (if only becaues it gives me more places to link to and thus making my life easier).

Join Gambit Weekly this Thursday, August 7th to watch the first Pre-Season Game!

A press release, but a pretty cool one, about The Radiators and how they’ll be sending copies of their latest CD to American soldiers overseas…

Based in New Orleans, The Radiators have been rocking fans across America for decades. Now they are spreading their music around the world with a donation of nearly 3,000 CDs to the troops. Soldiers’ Angels will be receiving the donation and including CDs in some of the thousands of care packages it ships overseas each month….Soldiers’ Angels is honored and grateful to assist The Radiators in their efforts to support the troops, and will make The Radiators their Featured Artist for August on the Soldiers’ Angels homepage.

I’d never heard of Soldiers’ Angels, but I liked this essay on the group’s Web site, as written by an anonymous MP:

When I get a box (or anyone else gets a box) its hard to describe. You find a nice quiet corner and everyone knows not to bother you. You sit there and look over the box as if you had never seen anything like it before. You read who it’s from, and a smile crosses your face–you recognize the name. You might already know what’s inside, but it does not matter. Some tear it open as fast as they can, others take their time and enjoy every second of it.

Once inside, you go through it, every little item once, twice, sometimes three times. It’s a very delicate process. You breathe it in and you think of the person who sent it to you. You think of home, family, cars, summer–everything all at once. And for a very short time, you are there away from this SH*T hole. You are grateful. Then you look around and there’s always a buddy who is down or having a bad day. You share your box–sometimes just with the one guy, sometimes with everyone–and it’s electric. Everyone catches that feeling, and we start talking about home, about things we miss, things we are going to do when we get back, and the heaviness of the day lifts and it’s not so bad.

Inspired to help? Here’s the hookup.

At a press conference this morning, Sandy Rosenthal, president and founder of Levees.org, protested the continuing delays in the investigations of the American Society of Civil Engineers .

     The two investigations were due to release findings in April, but to date, neither has made a report. Rosenthal called the delays “artificially manufactured to give the ASCE time. Time to protect its own reputation and time to discredit those coming forward with ethics violations…and probably worst of all, time so that the American public’s attention will just turn elsewhere.”

Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, Aug. 9, the Voluptuous Vixen (538 Madison St., 529-3588; www.thevoluptuousvixen.com) will join more than 50 French Quarter galleries and shops for Dirty Linen Night, a celebration of the arts featuring free music, food and spirits on Royal Street and beyond. The Voluptuous Vixen will feature mixed-media landscapes by artist Susan Batts and a 25 percent off sale on Anna Scholz clothing and Chaos handbags. After the event, the shop will be closed until Aug. 29.

Ballin’s (721 Dante St., 866-4367; www.ballinsltd.com) is hosting a trunk show Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 7-9, featuring suits by Renee DuMarr and colorful Thai silk separates by Marissa Baratelli.

At Interior Designs Inc. (3814 Magazine St., 895-5111; www.interiordesignsnola.com) shoppers will save 15 percent on all Lee Industries custom upholstered furniture ordered before Sept. 30. Choose from hundreds of styles, woods, finishes and fabrics from Lee, a company with a long track record of eco-friendly manufacturing using soy-based cushions, certified frames, recycled filling for pillows, water-based stains as well as many organic and natural fabrics.

You still have time to take advantage of Rubensteins’ (102 Saint Charles Ave., 581-6666; www.rubensteinsneworleans.com) last-chance sale. Save up to 65 percent on selected menswear items and up to 75 percent on selected women’s merchandise.

OK, so after having a little fun in this space at the expense of Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian’s relationship on Saturday, I’m forced to say I’m sorry. That is sorry to all the ladies out there that thought they still had a chance with #25 (see what I did there?). Lost in my COMPLETELY UNSUBSTANTIATED CLAIM was the fact that Reggie only had one visitor at training camp for family day and it was the lovely Ms. Kardashian and that they did have some “quality time”. With that said, I will not even think about making a comment on the picture above, invonvient as the timing of the shot may be. No, I’ll let other people do that.

“The Saints front seven stood out” during yesterday’s morning practice — what an inspiration — but only the kickers saw action in the afternoon (and so did Deuce, but shhhh). You gotta wonder what a goal-line stand means in practice; it could be a sign that the defensive line is serious about being the “best in the business.” Defensive end Bobby McCray isn’t shy about calling this defense dominant and the defensive backs could have a big say in that. Really, though, the Saints D is just looking to get back to past glory. Maybe that’s part of the reason Arizona will sit some of its players Thursday. Then again, the Saints will be sitting some players, too. Oh, and some unrelated team looked awesome in Sunday’s Hall of Fame game, if you haven’t heard.

(The following is by Gambit guest blogger and New Orleans East resident Clifton Harris, who maintains his own blog, Cliff’s Crib. You can read more of his writing there.)

I had almost forgotten it was hurricane season since I hadn’t been in watch mode. There were some other things I wanted to talk about before my guest duties are over but I couldn’t ignore Edouard sliding right under the state. I have been watching the news but it seems like that storm came out of nowhere. I sure wish Mother Nature would form those things at least east of Cuba so we have some time to plan. There’s no need for a tracking map when it’s already at the front door. I am pretty sure this one is going to miss us but I have some observations.

I noticed state officials seem to be much calmer now since Governor Blanco is no longer in office. After she got burned by the Katrina debacle she was holding press conferences when storms were still in the Atlantic. No one was going to blame her for not being prepared again.

Another thing I noticed is how frequent the weather reporters interrupt programming to give an update now. Do we really need an update every fifteen minutes just to tell us that the storm is still in the same place it was the last update? I realize it’s better to be safe than sorry but if the storm changes direction that fast it was our destiny to get hit by it. All you can do is take down the attic ladder and hope for the best at that point.

Since Katrina I am now an amateur meteorologist. When a system forms I start checking high and low pressure systems, water temperature and cold fronts. I check every computer model and historical map. It’s really fascinating how you can figure out what general direction they are going to travel. If the storm is in the Atlantic I am looking for anything to steer it north. If it’s in the Gulf I want anything to steer it west. I still feel bad when I hope other cities get hit by storms but it’s a dog eat dog world when it comes to tropical weather. The best case scenario is that they all curve north into the ocean and fall apart.

I have to keep on top of storms when they pass tropical depression status. Besides my paranoia, I have two other good reasons. The first reason is gas is too high to not plan ahead. If I don’t need enough gas money for a road trip I can spend that money other places. The second reason is that until we get a test run I will not trust that levee. I have to leave if anything with a tide comes. Anybody who chooses to stay the first time around is crazy in my opinion. Take everything you can’t replace with money and get out of here. If everything goes right we will be back in a few days. The good part about it is that I don’t have to worry about evacuation housing due the all my refugee relatives scattered around the south.

Honestly, I am just trying to make it to November without watching The Weather Channel for more than five minutes or seeing something on the screen so big and scary that I wonder if Nash Roberts is coming out of retirement.