As the saying goes, time to fish or cut bait. I've clicked on all my "regular" journal reads, read the new posts, and now it's time for me to think of something to write--preferably, brilliant, incisive, humorous, thought-provoking.

Yeah, right.

This morning no bird parts remained on my doorstep--just feathers. And from the feathers I verified that it was indeed a tufted titmouse. A slow and dumb tufted titmouse.

I have tried very hard today to ignore the TV--I really don't care to relive a year ago, because it reminds me of just how my life has changed, even though I was so lucky to have no damage to my house or other buildings.

I managed to find noontime news on the Chicago station WGN. That way I learned what the rest of the world was doing.

I was almost right about the reason for Bush to be approaching the CBD (Central Business District) from the east--he had been touring the Ninth Ward.

The paper today is full of before and after pictures. If you're interested, look for the online version of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Why the name "Picayune?" A picayune used to be a
Spanish small-value coin in Louisiana. Spanish in Louisiana? Wasn't Louisiana French?

It was French, then some European wars shifted Louisiana to Spanish control, and finally back to French control just before Jefferson bought it. He got it for a bargain price largely because France was broke after all the warring. Jefferson was only after New Orleans, but he was offered the entire Louisiana territory for such a good price that he couldn't turn it down.

Louisiana has had a total of ten flags flying over various parts of it in its history. The area I live in is known as the Florida Parishes, because the six (I think that's the number) parishes east of the Mississippi River were part of the Spanish Florida Territory at one time.

Back to the newspapers--at one time there were a lot more papers, among them the Picayune, the Times, the States, the Item, and the Bee (in French and English.) When we lived here in the sixties the morning paper was the Times-Picayune, and the afternoon paper the States-Item. That was still the case when we returned in 1976.

A few years later the publisher dropped the afternoon paper and the one daily paper became the Times-Picyune -- States-Item. For a while it was cool with double funnies, but that gradually got cut back. And I forget when it dropped the States-Item part of its name.

Katrina has had its effect on the paper--it's not nearly as long as it used to be. They used to have a Sunday TV guide for the week. Now it's one page each day, with only the 7 PM - Midnight shows listed, and no little notes about some of the shows.

End of history trivia for the day.