I Shouldn't be Blogging, but . . .

It is way too late for me to be starting this post, since I have to get up wickedly early, but I'm going ahead and seizing the carp.

From the news stories I'm getting here, the Greater New Orleans metropolitan area has become a world of its own. It sounds like something straight out of a post-apocalyptic science-fiction novel. The hurricane alone was unbelievable enough, but the looting and the still-in-force evacuation order pushes it into the realm of the absurd. Apparently, Slidell, Louisiana, a bedroom community on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain where I lived for three and a half years, got hit by the center of the hurricane and is still under three feet of water. The strict enforcement of the evacuation order has turned it into a ghost town - while Mississippians are returning to the old houses and picking through the rubble, Slidell is empty. There are doubts as to whether Slidell will even exist as a town by the time the crisis blows over. People may have moved on by then. We've heard some reports from some of our old friends from the area; one family evacuated to Texas, where they will probably stay for the foreseeable future, and another family is holed up on the fourth floor of a bank building in New Orleans' central business district. It all still seems surreal to me. This stuff just doesn't happen in America, land of purple mountain majesties and fruited plains.

People, why aren't you posting recommendations? So far only four of us are represented on that slick new recommendations page. Don't you do anything besides slave away at schoolwork, skip class to practice your bassoon, and tour Idaho? Surely there are objects of art and literature that deserve to be shared with the TASP community; please do it!

I've been reflecting on Dylan's culture calculus game (see Dylan's comment to Sophie's "oh, lots of things" post). It has great potential. Is there non-differentiable culture, which is so simple that it is impossible to knock off? Sadly the answer is probably no, but, just for fun, any nominees? I would pick Dan Brown, probably. Now if you integrate Dan Brown, who would you end up with? Umberto Eco is somewhere along the line, but he's an integration or two further up, certainly. What about young Bob Dylan? If you differentiate him, would you end up with old Bob Dylan? That would be about too cool for words, but you'd probably get Simon and Garfunkel instead. If you integrate Dylan, would you get Woody Guthrie? Probably not . . . wow, that was pretty nerdy, but fascinating, you must admit. And it is incredibly late, so I only have time for one more point of interest, the report from the Misspellings in News Stories Detective:

A motorcycle lies buried in ruble from a home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina . . .

Sam