I hope this lens will keep you entertained and send you to some of the odder corners of the Web.
As you will see, a lot of my time lately has been spent thinking, traveling, and writing about New Orleans in the aftermath of the disasters, both natural and manmade.
I'll also introduce you to my books, and we'll try to explore the web together. With the search function dysfunctional, it's not easy to see exactly how this site will be less chaotic than a random webpage selection on the web -- but we'll see what happens!
What It Means To Miss New Orleans
22 reasons we need our national capital of eccentricity
September 4, 2005ALL week we've been watching the immersion of a great old city. We imagine another city, less peculiar, will arise in its place. But I have this feeling it will never be quite the same nontoxic gumbo again.
For outsiders New Orleans was a place to party and eat food that is way too rich. For the folks who live there it's more complicated -- it's home. Eighty-five percent of them were born there, and they're not going anywhere permanently, so forget this idea they're going to move the city somewhere else.
It's not going to happen. New Orleans is the opposite of America, and we must hold onto places that are the opposite of us. New Orleans is not fast or energetic or efficient, not a go-get-'em Calvinist well-ordered city. It's slow, lazy, sleepy, sweaty, hot, wet, lazy and exotic.
I had a house there, up until three weeks ago, when I sold it. My friends say I'm lucky. I don't feel lucky. (To read the list, click the link below. You'll have to be a Times Select member. (Or check out my website....)
What it means....
- CLICK to read the full article
- What It Means To Miss New Orleans, New York Times
- Mark Childress Page
- My official page with bio, essays, rants, links, and more.
Disaster Tourism: Going Back to New Orleans
You've never read a travel article quite like this.
Oct. 14, 2005 | NEW ORLEANS -- When Anderson Cooper announced he was leaving New Orleans, I knew it was time for me to come. How could I stay in New York without Anderson's stand-ups from the French Quarter to get me through the night? For the millions who now count ourselves exiles of New Orleans, Cooper's nightly display of outrage on CNN was a balm, a ministration, a prime-time expression of the disaster still ongoing in our hearts: heartache and anger and grief for the people who died, for the beloved city in ruins, the pitiful specter of destroyed lives and homes and businesses, the ruination of hundreds of thousands of people and all of their stuff.But Anderson Cooper was tired. You could see it in the crinkles around his eyes, the tinny croak at the edge of his silvery voice. Who could blame him for wanting to leave? When he said he was heading back to New York, I knew it was the first sign that the country was ready to begin turning its back on the whole thing, and I just had to get down here. See, I had a house in the French Quarter until three weeks before Katrina, when I sold it. I still feel guilty about selling, even though the house stayed high and dry throughout the flood. I feel like the last guy to get off the Titanic before it sailed into history.
Disaster Tourism,
- Disaster Tourism, in Salon
- You have to watch an ad to read the whole story, but how hard is that?
CNN Top Stories
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byWhat Amazon DESPERATELY wants you to buy!
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Amazon Price: $7.50 (as of 12/27/2009) 
The Pleasures of Cooking for One
Amazon Price: $14.97 (as of 12/27/2009)
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 12/27/2009)
Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Amazon Price: $17.15 (as of 12/27/2009)
Ford County: Stories
Amazon Price: $11.00 (as of 12/27/2009)
CNN Money headlines
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byNews from London, courtesy The Guardian
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Latest headlines from The Nation
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byHeadlines from the New York Times
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New Salon
"Crazy in Alabama" merchandise you design yourself
Great Stuff on Amazon
Mark Childress stuff
One Mississippi
Amazon Price: $11.19 (as of 12/27/2009)
Crazy in Alabama
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 12/27/2009)
#3 Richard Childress Racing Clock
Amazon Price: $24.99 (as of 12/27/2009)
#29 Kevin Harvick Big 12 CD Visor and Organizer**Makes a great gift for under $13.00**
Amazon Price: (as of 12/27/2009)
One Mississippi
Amazon Price: (as of 12/27/2009)
Amazon Spotlight
A World Made of Fire
A World Made of Fire
Amazon Price: $15.95 (as of 12/28/2009)
Not everybody's cup of tea. But some people like it a lot.
by markgchildress
MISSISSIPPI, coming in July 2006. Here's my bio: Mark
Childress was born in Monroe... (more)
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