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.

Oh, the Vieux Carre of New Orleans has some amazingly expensive homes. So if you need opulence there, you can have it.

There could be a gentification effort along the waterfront, as long as methods of transport other than ships are now in effect. You know, converting those weedy waterfront warehouses to upscale condos, restaurants and shops.

Of course the present residents might not appreciate the deep-pocketed Nouveaus moving in.

Ever been down... I think it's Water Street, or possibly River Street, in Savannah? It's very gentrified along the pedestrian street, now, though the upper storys are still a bit run-down and raffish-looking. And pretty.

Add some gargoyles to the top of this, and I think we have Van Dyke's Folly.

Yep, Sullivan. The man knew tall buildings.

Like this, Connie?

Ooh, nice! And you've placed them between every other pair of arched windows. Very nice.

They're really just scaled-down and twiddled-with versions of the eagle on the fountain. I could replace them with proper gargoyles, if you like.