Archive for the ‘Characters’ Category

The mayoral race is starting to heat up, kinda-it’s gone from cold to tepid, but there’s nobody out there galvanizing anybody. So far there are a few people I really don’t like, but none that get me fired up.

I think the overall feeling is: “Meh. Anybody’s better than Nagin.” Mayor Nagin who, it should be noted, is about to take yet another publicly funded trip with his wife, this one to the Mexican Yucatan. In the last few months he’s been to China, Australia and Cuba, but I guess the man’s got to get as much as he can in, ’cause soon he’ll have to reach into his own pocket for these things. (Or, even better- in jail, which tends to curb your itinerary.)

So, yeah, people are stepping up to run against him, and inevitably some candidates fall to the back of the pack. In trying to break out of the herd James Perry has decided to take the road less traveled, though I’m not sure I would call it the high road:

Wow.

Couple that with this morning’s NPR promo for an afternoon story on Jefferson Parish trying to keep out black low income residents (complete with a local sound bite: “It’s not about race! It’s about stable neighborhoods!”) and boy howdy, aren’t we just an interesting bunch of people today.

At least the moron justice of the peace who wouldn’t marry interracial couples (for the sake of the children. He was driven by boundless altruism, y’all) was forced to step down. My favorite part of that was that his wife said they were shocked at all the attention it had gotten, they just didn’t understand it. They didn’t do anything wrong, they say, what’s all this fuss? And you look at them on the teevee and realize that by god, they mean it.

But. Let’s keep an eye on progress. The yokels didn’t know what they’d done wrong, but others did, and took action. I’m sure the Jeff Parish good-ol-boys’ way of thinking is under pressure, too, and NPR’s attention will keep the light shined on them as they scurry around.

As for James? Well, I’m not sure if that ad represents evolution or devolution, but I have to say that cussing old people are pretty funny. And I’m sure it really pisses off the bigots, too, so that’s got to count for something, right?

I’ve always been a huge Gaiman fan. He’s both softened and sharpened himself since he became a grown up and had his kids. He just seems a genuinely decent sort. Anyway, I guess I’m feeling mushy on a humid Sunday afternoon, so here’s Gaiman reading one of his poems, “Instructions,” about how to behave if you find yourself in a fairy tale.

My favorite verse:
Walk through the house. Take nothing. Eat nothing.
However, if any creature tells you that it hungers,
feed it.
If it tells you that it is dirty,
clean it.
If it cries to you that it hurts,
if you can,
ease its pain.