A fond farewell to actor Ricardo Montalban who died today at the age of 88. To many, he is remembered as the voiceover for the Chrysler Cordoba, extolling the virtues of its soft… Corinthian leather. Others will always see him alongside the diminutive Herve Villechaize, both resplendent in white formal wear, declaring “I am your host, Mr. Roarke. Welcome… to Fantasy Island!”

For me, a closet pre-Trekkie high school senior in 1982, the year Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released, Montalban will always be remembered as Khan, the only man to push James T. Kirk to the limits of his abilities and the only actor to push William Shatner to the limits of overacting. I have the perverse hope that Montalban managed to conjure Khan’s last words (from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick), “To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!” Rest in peace, Ricardo, in thickly cushioned luxury.

The headline reads: Ex-FEMA head Brown evacuated in Boulder wildfire

And it’s not even from The Onion.

There has to be a way to insert this into every English dictionary under the word ‘irony’. There just has to. Heck of a job, cosmos.

Happy holidays, New Orleans. If you spot someone at a club trying to dance like the kid in the orange shirt, that could be me.

The Rouses at 400 N. Carrollton in Mid City is surrounded by fire trucks and NOFD personnel at the moment. Looks like there was a flare up in the rotisserie. The store is open, with fans blowing smoke out the doors, but the hot food area is closed for the time being. Hopefully no one was hurt. The number of succulent roast chickens that may be casualties of this incident remains unknown.

Gustav, Ike… Frosty? My kids have now seen snow come down twice in New Orleans and my oldest is only 7. So much for “it never snows here!” Global warming will be a tough sell for them too.

Aside from the kids going completely bonkers over the weather, the best image of the day was my neighbor HOSING the snow off his car this morning. Which is just about as clever as putting out a fire with a blowtorch.

Daddy, do we have to watch this?

My 7-year old son has said these words to me dozens if not hundreds of times. Usually they’re uttered when I’m watching the news, any golf tournament without Tiger Woods or, lately, a presidential debate. For the first time Sunday, I heard them during a Saints game.

I took my son to his first Saints game at the Superdome during the 2006 season. He was all of five years old. The Saints beat the Buccaneers thanks in part to Reggie Bush’s first touchdown as a pro, a lightning bolt punt return down the sideline. We leaped out of our seats and cheered until our throats were sore. My son was hooked for life. In the last two seasons, we’ve been to the Dome for a few more games, all of which the Saints somehow won. I hoped against hope that the Saints he would come to know would make all the big plays, win all the big games and be a team of joy and celebration, an escape from the trials and challenges of life in New Orleans. I hoped my son would be spared the feeling that pervades this city on a Monday morning following a Saints loss. The feeling that this isn’t what a team on it’s way to the next level, what a season leading up to the Superbowl or what a pivotal game against a division foe is supposed to look like.

My son is only seven and he knew things didn’t look right in Sunday’s game against the reviled Falcons. When Jerious Norwood turned a 5-yard toss from rookie QB Matt Ryan – by the way, is there any team more adept than the Saints at making rookies and second string QB’s look like Tom Brady? – into a 67-yard high-stepping touchdown run with 14:40 left in the game, my young Saints fan had seen enough. I turned off the TV and we went out into the yard to have a catch.

Daddy, let’s play two-hand touch! I’m gonna be the Giants!

The way things look right now, can you blame him?

Anyone need a lift?

You may have to snag a free ticket to the art exhibits down at the Contemporary Arts Center in order to be able to ride the shuttle. Be sure to do that on your first day. You will not be required to actually look at any of the art, however.

After a few days you may begin to arouse suspicion, so it’s important, when boarding the shuttle, to act like you give a fuck about celebrations of international contemporary art.

Thanks to NOLAfugees for a valuable tip that will save you some change on your daily commute AND just might increase your appreciation of contemporary art. If you live in Central City, the Prospect.1 shuttle can take you to work, or to places you never even dreamed of.

Hopefully no one was injured when a truck carrying a load of Taaka vodka overturned and deposited gallons of liquor on an I-10 off-ramp. Just in case, I’m heading over with plenty of ice… and olives.

Oui, On Peut – Yes, We Can! features musicians Dirk Powell, Christine Balfa, Jeffrey Broussard, Zydeco Joe Citizen, Corey “L’il Pop” Ledet, and Linzay Young offering up a zydeco version of Will.i.am’s Yes We Can. The video was filmed at the Whirlybird in Opelousas, Louisiana. A click on the map coordinates at the bottom of Whirlybird’s homepage curiously transported me to a Googlemap of the Lousiana Department of Corrections on I-49 in Opelousas. Whether that’s some inside humor (can the Boudreaux-bama and Thibodeaux-bama jokes be far behind?) or just a lack of an actual street address, it don’t get more pro-America than this. He toi!

Well, you know, I admire so much Senator Obama’s eloquence. And you really have to pay attention to words.

Just again, the example of the eloquence of Senator Obama. He’s health for the mother. You know, that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything.

-Senator John McCain, October 15, 2008 Presidential Debate

Separated from the facial expressions and gestures that accompanied these statements, it’s a little tough to glean what Sen. McCain was trying to say here. In fact, having heard them delivered in the context of the debate, I’m still having trouble believing he meant to say what he said. McCain was probably trying to warn voters not to be taken in by a slick talker like Sen. Obama. But that isn’t what McCain said. He said something more like: watch out for this one, he’s eloquent *wink wink*. He even said it twice. And very ineloquently. As if eloquence, the command of language, the fluency and mastery of speech, the power of verbal expression, is something to be downgraded.

Ironically, a smidgen of eloquence on McCain’s part would have gone a long way towards making his statements minimally comprehensible. I’d say that McCain not only admires Obama’s eloquence, he envies it.