Today I spent most of my time at the women's center tabulating what the parents of members of the Newcomb classes of 1909, 1919, 1929, and 1939 did. The oldest group and the youngest group had the most who listed "planter" or "farmer" as their work. Probably the biggest category for all four classes was "merchant" and the next biggest was "sales and brokers."

The first three classes were reasonably specific about their occupations, but the class of 1939 gave much more general descriptions, and a lot ended up in miscellaneous, including the person who listed "glatcher" as the paternal business. (I just checked the dictionary and there is no "glatcher" listed. However, there was "glatt kosher" which refers to meats butchered and prepared to the highest standards of kosher products. Hmm?)

Getting from the Tulane/Newcomb campus to my Tuesday afternoon appointment took me through some different areas of New Orleans. Along St. Charles Avenue things look fairly okay. But once I got off the main street I found the same piles of debris in front of houses, various trucks that end up blocking the road, and evidence of damaged trees. I got to where I was going early so I went a bit further and stopped at a Burger King for a Hershey sundae pie and senior drink. That was fine, but when I was ready to leave, I found the one-way street on which I was going to exit blocked by a debris truck. I had no choice but to go the wrong way to St. Charles where there was a traffic person who moved the cones blocking the street so I could get out. I got the impression that she had moved those cones a bunch of times already, but she was quite cheerful.

And for the first time since Katrina I encountered a traffic slowdown on the highrise! It wasn't due to lots of cars but to the presence of a stuffed chair and a recliner on the road. The stuffed chair was right on the lane line and easily avoided; however, the recliner was mostly in the middle lane, forcing that lane's traffic to briefly semi-merge right.

Yesterday I ended up reading an entire mystery book. Therefore, today I need to find another piece of mind candy to start on. Reading is so addictive.