Just in passing I'll note that my house/tea room is in Tangley Mews, 23.6 Non-Euclidian Square.

It's a wedge-shaped lot, and tucked into the spot where the Mews borders on Blackwood Parish, Victoria, and The Old Quarter; if I recall it correctly.

Okay, is it wrong of me to want to retcon the map?

Here's the thing. I've been looking at it from the perspective of trying map out how the city grew from it's beginnings to now, and it just seems to me that the current map is in error as to the location of the Old Quarter. It ought to be where The Medina is. Cities as old as Sang Sacre tended to be founded as close to water as possible, either river or sea, preferably both. If we assume that the Old Quarter is the oldest part of the city, then it ought to be at the mouth of the river. I could maybe see it if it were adjacent to the river, where Dalrymple is, except that then the Old Quarter wouldn't be on the Artery, which is ridiculous, because the Artery has always been the main road in Blood, and would naturally connect the oldest part of the city to the rest of the world. The current mapped location almost makes the Old Quarter practically a suburb.

Say the map was, in fact, wrong, then you could chart the growth of the city as:

• Old Quarter;
• Blackwood, Tangly Mews, Dalrymple;
• Central Trade Zone;
• Fong Sai Square, The Medina, Greenwood;
• Victoria, Dogtown, Little Saigon;
• Bresilico, Mission Hostileros, The Flats, Hy-Brasil;
• Van Dyke's Folly

Makes sense to me, DX. Can you rejigger the map? I don't have a copy of it.

Well, maybe we should get a little more input from some of the other residents before we do it. I mean, it COULD just have been a typo. OTOH, if you look on the back of the map, it says published by Aeshma McNally.

Well, you know, we maybe just call it the Old Quarter because we like the name. Or maybe a kid found a coin there.

Maybe we should leave a message in Press about revamping/expanding Sang Sacré, so everyone can weigh in?

The Medina is older than any other part of the city. Traditionally a Medina is a separate older section walled off within an arab city. Also, it's water front property, and the Old Quarter is not. (Try telling ita that her apartment in the Medina no longer gets an ocean breeze.)

That noted, rejigger away. The Central Business District is the area where all the wharfside businesses first started and it's gotten sort of neglected because it's got a less glamorous name. But that's why it's where it is.

If I remember my French, the Vieux Carre--ie, the cool part of New Orleans--means Old Quarter/Section, doesn't it? I'm thinking that's the part of town far enough from the river to avoid the worst of the plagues so that the rich folk would build nice houses. It might also mean that it's the oldest part not to be destroyed.

Whatever, though, so long as The Folly is tall and has gargoyles, I'm happy.

That said, though again . . .

23.6 Non-Euclidian Square

I adore this address, but it leads to these thoughts--the postal system! Yes, we have our guided paper airplanes and our wireless schedule updaters, but who do you think delivers the newspapers, the straightforward invitations, the fliers! Yes, it's the Sang Sacre Postal System! Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night nor golem plagues nor outbursts from mad scientists shall stay them on their appointed rounds! Where else can you find mail carriers who routinely carry Fiend-B-Gon and holy symbols and No Fail "There's No Place Like Home" Talismans (patent pending), which will bring back those unlucky enough to stumble on stray interdimensional portals on their appointed rounds.

Though they do avoid causing permanent harm to those they meet out and about. Today's assailant might be tomorrow's recipient of some important mail, after all.

(During the recent fires in Southern California, we got many a snarky phone call from people saying "I thought it said 'Neither rain nor snow' and all that! Why aren't you delivering the mail?" Unfortunately we could not say what we wanted, which was, "The post office burned down, sir, and half the route is actively on fire. Also, the air quality is such that people have been told to stay inside. So, no, the carriers are not going to be walking around your neighborhood in fatal air with the chance that they're going to be cut off by a forest fire. Though we can try to deliver to your house if you'll come along with them, they'll only going to within a quarter mile of the firelines." Sigh)

If I remember my French, the Vieux Carre--ie, the cool part of New Orleans--means Old Quarter/Section, doesn't it? I'm thinking that's the part of town far enough from the river to avoid the worst of the plagues so that the rich folk would build nice houses. It might also mean that it's the oldest part not to be destroyed.

Vieux Carre is right on the river, though. Jackson Square is about 100 feet from the Mississippi. The really nice house are out in the Garden District, which is a little inland. Matters not. Hec has spoken. We'll fanwank it somehow.

Never mind, all I know of the Big Easy I learned from watching tapes of their news broadcasts for a couple of years. Much fun, when the healthy chef comes to town to preach the gospel of low-fat, low-sodium. "Not use butter? But--why? Don't we want it to taste good? Really, you can go too far with this low-fat thing, too, don't you think?" Puzzled Cajuns staring at horrified dieticians, big fun in the bayou.