Tag Archives: New Orleans

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St. Joseph’s Day- March 19

Like most Americans, New Orleanians too celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, although here in New Orleans we also celebrate St. Joseph’s Day. There already was a parade through the Quarter last weekend in St. Joseph’s honor and March 19 (St. Joseph’s actual feast day) will be quite the day for viewing of the altars throughout the city. The tradition, which is Sicilian in origin but carried on locally by Italian-Americans and people of all nationalities and faiths, includes baking cookies and cakes and preparing foods for the altar. According to a legend, a drought and famine during the Middle Ages caused much suffering in Sicily. People prayed to St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, and promised to thank him with food altars on his feast day, March 19, and give away the food to all. Supposedly on midnight of March 19, it started to rain and broke the Sicilian drought. Many now create altars to thank St. Joseph for their personal prayers as well.

The altars are found in churches, businesses and homes throughout the city and when you leave after viewing, you will receive a fava bean. The fava bean will bring you luck throughout the year. Part of the tradition requires that no money be spent on the altar, so its creators must beg for all items. Once the day is over, the altar is broken down and its content donated to the poor.
St. Joseph’s Day has another connection to food: it is also the traditionally the last day to plant summer tomatoes for this region. <p><a href=’http://www.wwltv.com/news/List-of-local-St-Joseph-altars-197132801.html#.UT9OAMHCzhU.wordpress’>List of local St. Joseph altars | wwltv.com New Orleans</a>.</p>

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Super Bowl Bicycle Share · Bike Easy

Besides the many places to rent or buy a bicycle in New Orleans, it seems that bike sharing has finally come to the Crescent, at least for a short time. Check out Canal or Julia Streets for a chance to see how this works-I love using this system in cities that I visit, like Toronto and Washington DC.

Super Bowl Bicycle Share · Bike Easy.

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Time Banking

TimeBanking.

What is it? How does it work?

There are hundreds of TimeBanks around the world. TimeBanking is based on the belief that our communities work better when all of our contributions are valued. It rejects the notion that we belong in separate classes of “givers” and “receivers” and establishes a way to reward all types of work — caring for our children, elders, and others who need it, building community, helping out our neighbors.

TimeBanking is about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour is counted as a TimeBank Hour that you can spend on having someone in the network do something for you. You earn TimeBank Hours for each service you perform. Instead of members “owing” the one person who helped them individually, we can choose to give and receive the many talents and skills of all the members.

TimeBanking connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. It provides ways for us all to contribute and benefit.

Timebanking can be a very effective way to bridge gaps across different demographics, bring people together as a community, build a resource base to solve problems or realize dreams, connect people with needed goods and services, and give people a way to feel valued and do what they like to do.

How do we start a TimeBank?

For an opportunity to learn more about timebanking and have your questions about about the process of participating in a timebank answered, join Stephanie Rearick, co-founder of Dane County TimeBank in Madison, Wisconsin (www.danecountytimebank.org), as she speaks to us about her experiences!

When? Monday, September 26 at 7 p.m.

Where? LHA Community Center, 621-623 N. Rendon (in Mid-City, btwn. St. Peter and Toulouse)

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Not so Fresh Quarter

The ongoing marsh fire in New Orleans East is menacing many elderly and asthmatic citizens of New Orleans and may continue for another day. Rain is forecasted over the weekend, but this is a not a simple brush fire, but one that exists above and below ground, making it harder to extinguish.
This is not the first time in recent memory smoke or smells have hit the old city hard, and is at least the third major event since August 2005 (warehouse fires during the levee breaks on the waterfront and the oil spill on the Mississippi in 2008) and of course, who can forget BP’s destruction of the gulf, endangering health far and wide when their shoddy oil rig exploded in 2010.
Interestingly though, the city’s air is quite clear and clean most of the time, which makes the overwhelming smell and sight of thick smoke this week even more unbearable, especially in the drip of summer.
The French Quarter seemed to get a whole bunch of the smoke and made those old houses useful as chimneys for a few hours. Lucky for the residents of the Quarter, there are plenty of air-conditioned bars and restaurants in which to escape…
Story

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Joy returning to Canal Street sooner or later

As a French Quarter teenager, I might have been the last of those who saw first-run movies at the Joy Theater. It gave downtown living another facet, long before Canal Place and even way before Black Pearl’s now-defunct Uptown Square movie house. Yes we had Prytania, but that was about it.

I welcome more activity to the American Sector to build more everyday life for the French Quarter.

WWL story about Joy