Mystery: Where Is Bill?

I am in New Orleans, as a matter of fact.

Our residence has no internet connection. I have been compelled to rely on the kindness of strangers to post this update. A year after the great storm and flood, conditions in town are still rather primitive. But the communications company has assured me that they are hard at work on the problem, and my link to the outer world should be up and running by next week.

We shall see.

You may have seen some of the national news coverage regarding New Orleans. The city has lost more than a third of its inhabitants; former residents that were farmed out around the country after the disaster still await the federal dollars that will make it possible for them to return home.

If they want to. They may not want to. The city is still very dark. This is particularly true in the vast empty neighborhoods north of the Vieux Carre. We took notice of it driving into town from the airport at night. Looking down from the highway we could see nothing but block after block of darkened homes, punctuated by the rare occupied property decorated with Christmas lights.

Many shops have closed due to a shortage of employees and customers, but the oldest businesses continue to hang on grimly. Within the Quarter, the best restaurants and clubs carry on, and, as has been true for the last four hundred years--there is music. Sometimes it's ghostly music, but it's still there...