"Hellish banditti"

Magnet #1313 - Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

Louisiana's Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve is made up of about six different sites - the Barataria Preserve in Marrero, the Chalmette Battlefield in Chalmette, the French Quarter Visitor Center in New Orleans, the Acadian Cultural Center in Lafayette, the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center in Eunice, and the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux.

Lots of places to visit, I'm sure it must take days. At least, I think, that's how long my friends who brought back this magnet for me spent down there!

Depending on who you ask, Jean Lafitte was either a pirate or a privateer, a smuggler, or a patriot, creating mayhem and havoc in the Barataria area of southern Louisiana back in the early 1800s. They say he had about a thousand people working with him, helping him smuggle goods and slaves throughout the region.

During the War of 1812, the knowledge of the local area and people came in handy for Lafitte, who actually started working with General Andrew Jackson, the very man who had dubbed him Hellish banditti. Together with Jackson's troops, Lafitte's Baratarians managed to win several key victories during the war, including the Battle of New Orleans. Their efforts earned Lafitte and his men full pardons from President Madison.

Of course, Lafitte totally went back to smuggling. I suppose after doing lots of crime, which he totally blamed on the government, it's hard not to go back to what you know.

But here's what I love. All that living and ne'er do welling, all that fighting and smuggling...and in the end, no one seems to know what happened to Lafitte! While there are some reports that he lived well into the mid-1800s, no one actually knows what happened to the guy in the end.

Talk about building a mystery.

What?

Shot of bourbon

Magnet #1252 - Bourbon St.

Come on. Best. Magnet. Ever.

Or certainly the most useful, other than the bottle opener magnets I have.

My friends went down to NOLA for the ALA Conference last month and brought me back several magnets (thank you!), but this magnet is the one that's going on the magnetboard closest to whatever counter we're mixing drinks on.

What?

I do find it funny that I've never been down to New Orleans as an adult, so my association with it is of a very young and superinnocent nature, and certainly not one of the fun and debauchery that I've heard and seen and read.

Eh, maybe someday.

Readers for life - #RWA11

Magnet #1222 - Public Library of Los Angeles

A friend sent me this supercool magnet of the art deco Central Library built in 1926 in downtown Los Angeles. It's supposedly the 3rd largest library collection in the US.

Pretty neat seeing it without any major buildings around it. Because this is what it looks like now. Crazy, right, seeing it dwarfed by its glass and steel surroundings?

The library is definitely going on my ever-growing LA to-do list, they give docent tours of the building, which is apparently filled with cool details out the wazoo.

Using it for today because I'm sad I'm not in New York this week for RWA 2011. Tonight's Readers for Life autographing event usually the only night I attend when the Romance Writers of America are in town. It's their big event to benefit literacy, where they fill a giant ballroom of 400 authors and their books, and everyone gets in long lines to get their books signed.

Even if you don't want the autographs, it's always fun to meet your favorite authors and see the latest book they have to offer.

So, someone needs to go for me, and enjoy. Please and thank you.

On a wing and a prayer

Magnet #404 - Joy in New Orleans

I was planning to use this magnet a friend gave me for my really long rant I've prepared about LifetimeTV's Nora Roberts' collection of cracktastic tv movies and even more cracktastic (and quite cross-purposes) cover art for their ad campaign.

However. We'll get to that later, because dudes, I've just been validated. By Wikipedia.

So, I've been to New Orleans, but it was for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition - the last World's Fair held in the U.S. What, you know I love them!

We tacked it on to the tail end of the rather disastrous cross-country family roadtrip that I've mentioned a couple of different times. We were all tired from this like lonnnng trip, but we decided to drop by Louisiana on our way back from Houston.

True to form (for my family), I remember driving through the French Quarter, not actually walking through it. Plus, I have a dim recollection of going to see a lot of the exhibits, including a shuttle and space capsules, and seeing all the fun buildings, etc.

But, here's my most shining memory of the Louisiana World's Fair:

You'll see in that Wikipedia link this:

One of the fair's more famous attractions was the Mississippi Aerial River Transit (MART). This was a gondola lift that took visitors across the Mississippi River from the fair site in the Warehouse District to Algiers on the West Bank.

Ummm. yeah. So then if you click on the MART wiki, you see this:

In forshadowing the future problems the gondola would face, on its maiden crossing, after being blessed by Archbishop Philip Hannan, the ride would temporarily stall.

Ummm. yeah. My most shiningest memory?

Being in the gondola with my family. During a thunderstorm. The whole family, including my parents, my grandmother, 11-year-old me, the six-year-old sister, plus the three-year-old sister. Oh, and Uncle Father Oscar (the priest uncle).

Stuck. Over water. Swaying. With my mother praying, on the verge of panic.

Longest few minutes of my life. I wasn't even scared of the fact that we were over Big River. It was waiting for my mom to calm down...and us having to be very, very quiet during the crisis.

Oddly, anytime I tell that story, no one ever believes or remembers that there was an actual tram over the Mississippi River!

But, there's proof now! The gondola system was built for that World's Fair! Sadly, by 1993, they had to demolish it, due to no one wanting to ride the darn thing in real life.

And, no wonder. It had been blessed by the Archbishop, we rode with a priest, and still we were stuck in the air.

Whoa.