Saturday, February 27, 2010

An Italian in New Orleans

New Orleans fan can't wait to return: A letter to the editor
By Letters to the Editor February 23, 2010, 5:20AM


I'm an Italian graduate student studying in Boston, and I'm writing this letter to share how I fell in love with New Orleans during Mardi Gras 2010 and how this changed some of my ideas and understandings about the United States and some of its citizens.

What I found in New Orleans was a mix of national feelings, culture and warm people. I enjoyed every second that I spent with the family that hosted me, and I remained astonished while interacting with people, as this was different from where I live and other places I have visited throughout the world.

In New Orleans everyone wanted to give me good feelings even during the most common routines such as buying something or asking directions! This warmness is unique worldwide.

I realize that there is a very strong community feeling and people are proud of being part of the New Orleans dream. I think that the people I met love New Orleans so much that they were able to let other people love it as well.

I'm now back in my Boston office, but I came back enriched with some remarkable feelings. I've found a place in the United States where life goes on in a calm way and people are so warm and genuine that foreigners fall in love with the city.

All my lab mates now know how incredible the people in New Orleans are, and I'm looking forward to revisiting this great city as soon as possible.

Renato Umeton
Cambridge, Mass.

Friday, February 26, 2010

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION - and Dark Skies

AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF DELEGATES
Resolution: New England 1 (A-09)


Introduced by: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont Delegations

Subject: Advocating and Support for Light Pollution Control Efforts and Glare Reduction for Both Public Safety and Energy Savings

Referred to: Reference Committee, Chair)

Whereas, Our AMA has long advocated for policies that are scientifically sound and that positively influence public health policy; and

Whereas, We in the AMA have an opportunity to influence and promote legislation at both the national and state level on energy savings through a reduction in light pollution; and

Whereas, Light pollution is increasingly recognized as a waste of energy and a public safety issue; and

Whereas, It has been calculated that over 10 billion dollars in wasted energy could be saved with the use of full cutoff streetlights; and

Whereas, Emitted glare light is wasted light and accounts for about 40% of the light emitted by standard streetlights (cobras), it is therefore a significant source of wasted electricity, and this contributes to excess carbon dioxide production and possibly global warming; and

Whereas, Numerous states (Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming), many municipalities, and several countries have now enacted Light pollution control measures; and

Whereas, Light pollution control legislation is being proposed in Congress; and
Whereas, Streetlight glare causes decreased nighttime visibility by pupil constriction, and thus leads to diminished nighttime visibility and creates a safety hazard i,ii,iii,iv,v,vi,vii; and

Whereas, Many older citizens are significantly affected by glare as the eye ages, leading to unsafe driving conditionsn viii,ix,x,xi,xii,xiii,xiv,xv; and

Whereas, Glare light is also light trespass and is intrusive and unwanted in households and dwellings; and

Whereas, Light trespass has been implicated in disruption of the human and animal circadian rhythm, and strongly suspected as an etiology of suppressed melatonin production, depressed immune systems, and increase in cancer rates such as breast cancers xvi,xvii,xviii,xix,xx,xxi,xxii; and

Whereas, Light trespass disrupts nocturnal animal activity and results in diminished various animal populations’ survival and health xxiii;

Therefore be it RESOLVED,
That our American Medical Association advocate that all future outdoor lighting be of energy efficient designs to reduce waste of energy and production of greenhouse gasses that result from this wasted energy use (New HOD Policy);

and be it further RESOLVED,
That our AMA support light pollution reduction efforts and glare reduction efforts at both the national and state levels (New HOD Policy);

and be it further RESOLVED,
That our AMA support efforts to ensure all future streetlights be of a fully shielded design or similar non-glare design to improve the safety of our roadways for all, but especially vision impaired and older drivers. (New HOD Policy)

Fiscal Note: Staff cost estimated at less than $500 to implement.
Received: 03/30/09

i US Department of Transportation, Phase II of ENV project, Chapter 3: Discomfort and Disability Glare Study, 2005

ii Schieber, F, Kline, DW, Kline,TJB, Fozard, JL (1992). Contrast Sensitivity and the visual problems of older drivers. Warrendale, PA . Society of Automotive engineers (SAE Technical paper No. 920613)

iii Olsen, PL, and Aoke, T, (1989) The measurement of Dark Adaption level in the presence of glare, Ann Arbor, MI: Transportation Research Institute, University of Michigan, (report No. UMTRI-89-34).

iv Adams, AJ, Wong, LS, Wong, L, and Gould, B. (1988). Visual Acuity Changes with age: Some new Perspectives. American journal of Optometry and Physiological optics. 65, 403-406.Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (2007), Development of a Uniform discomfort/Disability glare metric for roadway lighting

v Brabyn, J.A., & Haegerstrom-Portnoy, G., & Schneck, E. (2000). Visual impairments in elderly people under everyday viewing conditions. Journal of Visual Impairments & Blindness, 94 (12), 741-755.

vi Guirao, A., & Gonzalez, C., & Redondo, M., & Geraghty, E., & Norrby, E., & Artal, P. (1999). Average Optical Performance of the Human Eye as a Function of Age in a Normal Population. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 40 (1), 203-213.

vii Ngai, P., & Boyce, P. (2000). The effect of overhead glare on visual discomfort. Journal of the Illuminating Engineering Society, 29 (2), 29-38.
viii Owsley, C, et al. Impact of Cataract Surgery on Motor Vehicle Crash Involvement by Older Adults, JAMA 2002;288:841-849.

ix Rubin GS, Adamsons IA, Stark WJ. Comparison of acuity, contrast sensitivity, and disability glare before and after cataract surgery. Arch Ophthalmol. 1993;111:56-61.

x Elliott DB, Bullimore MA. Assessing the reliability, discriminative ability, and validity of disability glare tests. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1993;34:108-119.

xi Kloog, Stevens, Richard, et al., Light at Night Co-distributes with incident breast but not lung cancer in the female population of Israel, Chronobiology International 25(1): 65-81 (2008)

xii Schernhammer ES, et al. (2001) Rotating Night Shifts and the risk of Breast Cancer in the Nurse’s Health Study. J National Cancer Institute. 93: 1563-1568

xiii Schernhammer ES et al. (2006) Night Work And the risk of Breast Cancer. Epidemiology 17:108-111

xiv Pauley, SM (2004) Lighting for the Human Circadian Clock: Recent Research indicates that Lighting has become a Public Health Issue Med. Hypotheses 63:588-596

xv Hahn, RA (1991) Profound Bilateral Blindness and the incidence of Breast Cancer Epidemiology 2:208-210

xvi Feychting, M et al (1998) Reduced Cancer Incidence among the Blind Epidemiology 9:490-494

xvii Brainard, GC et al, (2001) Action Spectrum for Melatonin Regulation in Humans: Evidence for novel Circadian Photoreceptor J. Neurosci 21:6405-6412

xviii Blask DE et al, (2005) Melatonin-Depleted Blood from Pre-menopausal Women exposed to light at Night stimulates growth of human-breast cancer xenografts in nude rats Cancer Research 65:11174-11184

xix McGwin G, Chapman V, Owsley C. Visual risk factors for driving difficulty among older drivers. Accid Anal Prev. 2000;32:735-744.

xx Elliott DB, Bullimore MA. Assessing the reliability, discriminative ability, and validity of disability glare tests. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1993;34:108-119.

xxi Vos JJ. Disability glare: a state of the art report. CIE Journal. 1984;3:39-53.

xxii Owsley, Cynthia et all. Visual Risk Factors for Crash Involvement in Older Drivers With Cataract, Arch Ophthalmol. 2001;119:881-887

xxiii Gray, Robert. Predicting the effects of Disability Glare on Driving Performance, Proceedings of the forth International driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training and vehicle Design.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Keeping the Night Sky Dark

Second in a three part Dark Sky series

"Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself." -Verlyn Klinkenborg, "Our Vanishing Night," National Geographic magazine, November 2008

Last week in the first article of our three part series on Dark Skies , we took a look at the Dark Sky movement, some of the impacts and examples of light pollution here in the Denver area, and considered ways to choose exterior lighting fixtures that do not contribute to light pollution.

The effects of light pollution run far deeper than wasted energy in the form of light directed at the skies and minimized visibility of stars. More insidious impacts of light pollution are engaging a wider community than astronomers and sustainability advocates, such as cancer researchers and sleep experts.

From an evolutionary standpoint, human lives have long been regulated by night (dark) and light (day) cycles. Light/dark cycles regulate our internal timeclocks, or circadian rhythms, and are critical for the production of hormones and immune system function.

For thousands of years, our ancestors woke with the rising sun and went to sleep when cued by darkness. Until the industrial era, firelight, and later, gas lamps, were the only “artificial” light available after nightfall. Even then, artificial light was characterized by a golden glow similar to the warmth of a dimmed incandescent bulb.

Our nighttime world stands in marked contrast to this. Viewing a map of the earth at night, our cities glow like stars in the sky, and we have worked assiduously to render the night a replica of day time through excessive use of artificial light, certain that this makes us more secure.

What have we accomplished? Numerous studies indicate that high levels of artificial light do not create a safe night environment. In our quest for security, we have managed to skew circadian rhythms and, in the last 80 years alone, render more damage to our ability to sleep, our immune system function, and our blood sugar regulation than our predecessors managed to achieve in thousands of years.

Various studies from locations around the globe show increased cancer risk among women in industrialized countries, as well as shift workers. What do these people have in common? Exposure to artificial light at night.

Dr. George Brainard, a researcher at George Washington University who studies the impact of light on sleep cycles, notes the impact of a light on participants in sleep lab research. Participants slept in a completely darkened room. After control data was taken, a light emitter the size of a dime was taped to the back of each participant’s knee. The effect of this minimal amount of light on the skin? Sleep cycles were significantly disrupted, and immune system function was suppressed. Any light exposure at night, particularly in the cooler (more blue) portion of the light spectrum, suppresses melatonin production, which in turn promotes wakefulness. And with melatonin suppression comes diminished Natural Killer cell (NK) and T cell production, the front line of immune system function.

The danger of night time light’s effect on human health is significant enough that the conservative American Medical Association (AMA) has voiced a formal position decrying the impacts of light pollution and recommending immediate action to minimize it. According to the AMA, "Light trespass has been implicated in disruption of the human and animal circadian rhythm, and strongly suspected as an etiology of suppressed melatonin production, depressed immune systems, and increase in cancer rates such as breast cancers." Find more information on this important step in supporting Dark Sky legislation here.

As individuals, we can take action in our homes to guard ourselves against the effects of light trespass. Add blackout curtains or blinds in bedrooms to make sure they are completely darkened at night. If a light is required, such as in a child’s room, use a nightlight in the amber or red portion of the spectrum, which is shown to have much less impact on the dark-adapted eye and circadian rhythm than light in the blue portion of the spectrum. Talk to neighbors to respectfully request that their glaring spot light is redirected and shielded.

The next step is to eliminate the sources of light trespass outside the house. In our third and last article in this three part Dark Sky series, we will consider ways to interact with the community at large to promote Dark Skies and enact regulations for Dark Sky compliant lighting.

Lisa Barter is a lighting designer with extensive experience in the architecture and interior design fields. She is the principal of 3i Design, LLC, a lighting design and interior architecture consulting practice. She welcomes your questions and ideas, and you can reach her via email: inspire@3interiorize.com

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Dark Skies improve your green lifestyle

First in a three part Dark Sky series

As we round the corner into a new year, many of us are taking time to assess what's working in our lives and what we want to improve. If a more sustainable or green lifestyle is on your list, then 2010 is the perfect time to commit to eliminating light pollution and supporting the fight to keep our skies dark so we can see the stars, save energy, and minimize some very serious health impacts from uncontrolled light at night.

Light Pollution: An Overview
Light pollution is any adverse effect of artificial light including sky glow, glare, light trespass, light clutter, decreased visibility at night, and energy waste. Denver suffers from serious light pollution caused by uncontrolled light directed up toward the sky. The good news is that light pollution is, in many cases, easier and less expensive to remedy than other types of pollution. And the changes can begin with your own choices about exterior lighting at night.

Examples of Light Pollution
A great example of light pollution is a post-top lantern, often nostalgic in style, which emits light in all directions. Standard "cobra head" streetlights, though they have an opaque top, emit light above a 90 degree angle, which means that they are not Dark Sky compliant. Another is billboard lighting that aims upward. A common residential offender is a lantern style fixture in which the bulbs are visible and the light escapes in all directions.


For local light pollution, look no further than 6th Avenue west of downtown. The floodlights between the access road and 6th Avenue mounted on poles, with regular "cobra head" streetlights below are much brighter than necessary, poorly positioned to light the road, and are a source of glare to drivers as well as the people who live nearby. Driving the Denver metro area, look for these "glare bombs" and post their location in the comment section at the bottom of the article. They're everywhere.

Why Is Light Pollution a Problem?
Remember lying in the grass as a child and looking up at the stars? Our children, as well as those of us who enjoy stargazing or taking in meteor showers, like November's Leonid shower, are missing out on that opportunity. Much more serious implications of light pollution include disruption in human circadian rhythms, sleep cycles, and immune system function, as well as a deleterious effect on animal reproduction. In addition, light directed at the sky is, in all cases, a waste of energy, no matter how exciting it appears. A closer look at the links between light pollution and human health issues will be explored in the other articles in this three part series.

How Can We Make It Better?
In an ideal world, we would no longer attempt to mimic the glow of daylight in our night time world, and instead, would lower all ambient light levels since the dark-adapted eye needs much less light than a bright-adapted eye in order to see.

Here's the good news. As individual citizens, we can make exterior lighting choices at our homes and workplaces that do not further light pollution. The International Dark Sky Association, which is dedicated to preserving dark skies and pushing for legislation to enforce dark sky compliance in communities, has published a list of fixtures that can be used in all types of outdoor applications without lighting up the night sky, angering neighbors, or wasting energy. Let's explore some common elements.

1. Assess your requirements. Determine where you really need light. Don't use light as "decoration" or for visual effect at night.

2. Direct light where it is needed. Remember that at night, less is more.
Concentrate fixtures only where needed. Choose fixtures that can be aimed, and keep them aimed toward the ground.

3. Avoid glare. Glare actually compromises safety, as it can render an attacker or intruder invisible. Glare is often caused by an unshielded source, such as a fixture where the bulb is visible.

4. Use lower wattage bulbs. More light does not mean more safety. The dark adapted eye can best see at night when there is uniformity of illumination. A bright light against a dark background causes pupil contraction, so the dark background beyond the bright light is invisible.

5. Use "full cutoff" fixtures, which means that less than 1% of their light output is emitted above 90 degrees from horizontal.

6. Make sure that the light source is not visible when viewing the fixture straight on.

7. Keep in mind the motto "Lights Down, Stars Up".


For some Dark Sky compliant light fixtures, check out the International Dark Sky Association's approved fixtures or Skykeepers.org approved fixtures. Both websites are filled with information about dark skies and how to take action to minimize light pollution.

Resolve this year to take action on behalf of keeping our skies dark. Think of light pollution as light leak. If light fixtures were water faucets, and any light emitting toward the sky was a drip, we'd fix it immediately. Let's address light pollution with the same zeal we apply toward other matters of sustainability and energy waste, and encourage those around us to do the same. If your neighbors have bright lights that shine into your bedroom at night, check out this great resource on how to address the topic with diplomacy.

In the next two articles in our three part Dark Sky series, we'll address more specifics on fixture selection and how light exposure at night affects our health.

Lisa Barter is a lighting designer with extensive experience in the architecture and interior design fields. She is the principal of 3i Design, LLC, a lighting design and interior architecture consulting practice. She welcomes your questions and ideas, and you can reach her via email: inspire@3interiorize.com

Monday, February 15, 2010

Waste and Green Living and the Web of Life

Want to do your part to change the world for the better?
Take a look at Raj Patel's Blog. It is mind fodder for finding how you can influence change, in your life and in your world.

Think change will take HUGE alterations in how we live, think we need whole sale Revolution? I'd like to suggest that you should think again. I think that the only way we can change is in an evolutionary fashion. Granted some times external events cause the "punctuated equilibrium" type of evolutionary change to appear more obvious. Cataclysmic changes (Flood, Nuclear War, The Plague, Meteor, Ice Ages, Climate Change) result in only those with the "winning genes/skill sets", or luck to be in the right location, to survive. But all change is gradual, even the change that happens in the larger global community.

These days much of what "happens to us" as a global community (part of the web of life) is done to us and for us by "Market Forces". These market forces are like a large, fast flowing river, seemingly hard or impossible to fight against. But there are back eddies were interesting things are happening. Nature teaches that even large fast flowing rivers change their flow, in features like oxbow lakes, or deltas. It's our challenge to find how to work with the large, fast flowing river of Market Forces until we figure out how to influence them so that they serve the web of life as well as they have served corporations.

So far I've figured out a few ways to waste less.

I have learned how to eliminate plastic bags and replace them with cloth.

I learned the joy of shopping at the Salvation Army or Thrift City or Goodwill. And of returning "gently used" items from our home to those same places.

I recycle, even though I have to pay $140.00 a year for it which some people consider ridiculous. But the thought of usable stuff ending up buried in a Landfill just seems stupid.

Another is to shop locally as much as possible. I shop in the following order:
Every Saturday I get produce via a Farmers Market so that my eating and actions more directly support the people who are growing the food.
I then infill with goods from Local grocers, and as much as possible local producers milk, butter, yogurt, local seafood,
I admit that sometimes economics still forces me to buy somewhere big boxish. But when I do this I buy in bulk just like our ancestors did. Think Buckboard into town type shopping trips. If I go more than quarterly I'm doing it wrong.
and only the things I need that I'm not really buying locally even when I shop at a local store. These shopping trips take no less than 4 hours. These 4 hours include the list making, it's important to know exactly what you are going for and to stay on task, travel time of course, the actual shopping, the loading and unloading of the buckboard and then storage. Storage includes lugging the stuff into place of course but it also includes separation into the smaller packets of mostly meat that we freeze for later use, just like our ancient ige age ancestors.

Raj's says that research indicates that "US per capita food waste has progressively increased by about 50% since 1974 reaching more than 1400 Calories per person per day".

Not quite 3 years ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Some times change feels Cataclysmic. Even though, as it turns out its been in my genes all along, but my dad died from cancer before he had a chance to be affected by diabetes. I only discovered that his brother, my uncle, had diabetes after my brother and I were diagnosed. But I digress.

Last February, after 2 years of figuring out how to eat as a diabetic, I cleaned out our pantry, condiment cupboard and refrigerator. I did this because the pantry & fridge just didn't look the way they used to. The condiment cupboard is essentially my husband's domain but since I was working on the pantry & fridge it got tackled too.

As I stood back and looked at the pantry it was quite amazing at how much space I have now that I (and we as a family) don't eat as much carbohydrates. Today there is much less pasta and rice on the shelves, but more variety (especially in the local rice types available in our area) in both. There are fewer dry cereals and even less flour and sugar for baking. Now don't get me wrong... we still have sweets. There are the boxes of brownie mix for school bake sales and a brown sugar for my husband's grandmother's famous Pillsbury Prize winning "Chewy Cake". I still bake bread. There are nuts for adding to sugar free yogurt and the perennial tomato paste and diced tomatoes. There are some canned soups, grapefruit and tomato juice leftover from hurricane season, along with some canned meats. There are lots of various condiments. My cooking husband LOVES his condiments. But all in all there is less food.

The refrigerator/freezer has slowly transformed as well. I still buy in meat in bulk and mostly from big boxes because it is cost effective. But now we separate the bulk packages into almost twice the number of portions before we freeze it. This way defrosting a package of flank steak or pork tenderloin ends up being an easy way to exercise portion control. Cook less, eat less, store less leftovers. These days we are able to look at the leftovers at the end of the week and toss any leftovers we haven't and therefore aren't going to eat (or feed to the pups) and because the portions are so small feel a bit less guilty about doing it. At the end of the week there is less food in the fridge as well.

We're trying to do what we can to change our lives and in the process changing the world by gradually changing our little corner of it. But it seems that we still have a long way to go. I think if we each do what we can in our own eddies of the global river of existence we can gradually change via market forces how we evolve.

Sometimes its hard for folks to express their spiritual teachings or personal values in their everyday world. But I to think that I'm learning to do what I can to follow Aradia's Words on Nature:

Respect Nature in all ways. Take only that which you must from Her, and remember nothing can be taken except that something be given.

Nature teaches all living things all that must be known. She teaches birds to make their nests, animals to hunt and survive, children to crawl and walk. She teaches life. Once She taught all people of Her ways, but they chose to go their own way. They chose to oppose and to control Her. But for Strega there can be no other way than Nature. A Strega must live in harmony with the Forces of Nature.


It seems that Raj wants the rest of the world to figure this out as well.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Heros & Symbols

Before you read the Mark Lorando article below let me do a bit of stage setting. Bacchus is one of the big weekend before Mardi Gras Parades. Bacchus has a history of having celebrity kings. Drew Brees was chosen as monarch way before the Saints won the SuperBowl. He was chosen because he embodies what is best about us all. Football was just the mechanism to bring him to our and the world's attention. His work off the football field and his ambassadorship for New Orleans was why the Bacchus organization wanted him regardless of how the Saints season ended. “Truthfully, we’re not honoring Drew for his accomplishments on the football field,” Brennan said. “His philanthropy, what he does for children…he’s an incredible ambassador for New Orleans. He’s a pillar of our community. You could not pick a better man in the city of New Orleans to be the king of Bacchus."

Even though the 2010 SuperBowl broadcast was watched by more people than ever before, if you aren't in the Gulf South you probably have no idea what the Saints winning the Superbowl means to this region. Maybe the article below will help those of you who live outside the region to begin to understand. And, during the end of the "God Year", maybe it will help you to appreciate the power of Myth and Symbols.

Hey Drew!
If the Mardi Gras Nation had more time to talk, here's what we would tell Bacchus as he passes
Sunday, February 14, 2010 By Mark Lorando Staff writer


This is what he will hear:

"Drewwwwww!!! Ohmygod!!! Ohmygod!!! Right here, Drew!!! I'm open!!! Throw me something, Drew!!! I love you, Drewwwwww!!! Who Dat, Baby!!! Will you marry me, Drew?!?!?!? I know you're married, so am I. We can work that out!!! Really!!! My husband won't mind, he's got a crush on you, too!!! Drewwwwww!!! Drewwwwww!!! Ohmygod, did you see that?!?!?!? He threw it right to me!!! You da man, Drewwwwww!!!"

But that's not exactly what the Who Dats on the parade route want to say.

It's hard to be eloquent when a float is rolling past. So little time, so much pressure -- you wait seven hours on a curb in the hopes of catching something, anything, directly from the hand of Super Bowl XLIV MVP and Bacchus 2010 Drew Brees. How can you possibly be expected to get his attention AND snag a flying doubloon AND put everything you're feeling into words in just a few, fleeting seconds?

You can't. So Drew is going to have to read between the lines. He's going to have to know that when we say all of that, what we really want to tell him is this:

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing your broken shoulder to town and rebuilding yourself right alongside us.

Thank you for teaching us how to finish strong.

Thank you for always facing adversity with your shoulders back, your head up, your upper lip stiff, your eyes on fire.

Thank you for giving us Feb. 7 to ease the pain of Aug. 29.

Thank you for reminding every woman in New Orleans, and Katie Couric, how it feels to have a schoolgirl crush. (Katie, sweetheart, we know he's a dreamboat, but try not to be so obvious next time.)
Thank you for making your beautiful family part of our beautiful city. So many star athletes parachute in for the season and catch the first flight out. You put down roots. That means a lot to us. It makes you one of us.


One suggestion: The next time you play in the Super Bowl (Feb. 6, 2011, in Dallas, see you there!), have Brittany and Baylen watch the game on the sideline on a Mardi Gras ladder. Every time you get flushed out of the pocket, he can scream, "Throw me something, Daddy!"

How cool would that be?

If we're going to go to the Super Bowl every year, we might as well give it a little New Orleans flavor.

Remember how you felt when you held Baylen in your arms after the Super Bowl? How you held him close and saw all of your hopes and dreams for the future in his little face and you cried?

Well, that's how the Who Dat Nation feels when we look at you. You are a son of New Orleans now. In you we see the best of ourselves, and a future filled with possibilities, and a pride that moves us to tears, too.

This is the part the national media always gets wrong. They see us crying, and they think it's because you have "given the people of New Orleans a reason to feel good about themselves."

If we heard that once last week, we heard it a hundred times.

But that's not it at all. We've always felt good about ourselves. New Orleans is home to some of the most fascinating, fun-loving, hard-working, resilient, creative, smart, sexy, generous, loving, tolerant people on the planet. We have some of the richest culinary, musical, artistic and architectural traditions in the world. What's not to feel good about? Do Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest look like events organized by people with an inferiority complex?

Please.

We celebrate ourselves from January to December. What we have needed is someone worthy to represent us. Someone the rest of the world can associate with New Orleans who is not on the way to jail, hell or an NFL Films blooper reel.

The national symbols of New Orleans have too often been laughingstocks and losers. We've always known we deserved better.

You're better.

That's why we get choked up. Not because we don't think we deserve you. Because we know how much we deserve each other.

So, like we said: Thank you. For representing. And for allowing us to go completely overboard about you. We know that nobody could be as good as we're making you out to be right now. But we've been a little bit hero-deprived around here lately. If it's not too uncomfortable up there, we'd like to keep you on the pedestal a little while longer.



And one last thing, Drew.

You know that fistful of black-and-gold doubloons you're holding? Right here, big boy. Come to papa. The game is on the line and I'm Jeremy Shockey. Cock that golden arm and let 'em fly. Put them where you've put everything since the day you hit town:

Right in the sweet spot.

. . . . . . .

Features editor Mark Lorando can be reached at mlorando@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3430. Comment and read more at NOLA.com/living.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Unity, Teamwork, Symbology

Saints victory teaches us about unity, teamwork: A letter to the editor
By Letters to the Editor
February 10, 2010, 1:36AM


History has taught us that although it might not happen immediately, eventually the unanimity and camaraderie that pervaded our beautiful Crescent City will, more than likely, wither and die.

For several weeks, and peaking in what will, in all likelihood, shamefully come to pass as a few short hours, all the things that we so ignorantly see as separators -- race, gender, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation, to name a few -- just didn't matter.

All too soon, some slight -- real or imagined -- will redraw the lines that were erased as we cheered on our blessed "Boys."

Perhaps the Black and Gold are showing us a solution. Part of the enjoyment of watching them work their magic is the very manner in which it was worked.

They played hard. They played as a cohesive team. There was little individual grandstanding. They played like gentlemen. And, finally, they appeared to genuinely enjoy themselves -- win or lose.

Tragedy and triumph alike have shown us that we can function as that thing we hold so dear in these parts: a family.

As is usually the case, the solution is so simple that we look past it every day: We must make a choice, have faith and work every day toward our goal.

Here's to us, as we have yet another thing of which we can be proud. Here's to the New Orleans Saints! May the brotherhood, and sisterhood, they fostered not be lost.

Eric Ettinger
New Orleans

Friday, February 12, 2010

Muses & Little Girls growing up

In 10 short years MUSES has become one of New Orleans signature parades (and my daughter's favorite). This parade is a must see for her and her friends, this year despite the fact that it was COLD! and the parade had to be postponed until Friday and it was the last parade of the night. What happened at the Friday night parade celebration this year is that my daughter found her Mardi Gras Mojo. She found out that she can get the attention of people in a crowd, look them in the eye, have them react positively to her. It is a taste of what it means to be a blossoming female. It was empowering for her.

At Mardi Gras, Krewe of Muses puts its best foot forward
By John Pope, The Times-Picayune
February 10, 2010, 10:40PM


While Staci Rosenberg was watching a male colleague rollick in the 2000 Krewe of Druids parade, a thought came to her that would eventually change the way hundreds of women celebrate Mardi Gras.

“I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, and there’s not a parade I want to be in,’” said Rosenberg, a lawyer. When she returned home, Rosenberg started calling some of her female friends, asking, “If I started a krewe, would you be in it?”

What resulted was the Krewe of Muses, a hard-charging, wildly creative, women-only Carnival club.

Thursday night, toting bags full of shoes bedecked with glitter, nearly 800 Muses will climb aboard floats for their 10th anniversary ride, reveling in the notion that their Type-A approach to everything from satire to swag has catapulted their parade to the top of revelers’ must-see list. Another 800 women are on a waiting list to ride.

“We’re all perfectionists, and we always want to outdo ourselves — and everyone else,” said Virginia Saussy, who is in charge of floats and themes. “We’re very competitive, but our biggest competition is ourselves.”


Muses’ processions have become known for their humor, whimsical marching groups that include platoons of male Elvis Presley impersonators and batonless majorettes of a certain age, jabs at politicians, and just the merest hint of naughtiness.

How naughty? For the first parade, members dressed in virginal white, and the title of the last float was “Is That It?” The next year, the final float proclaimed, “It’s Always Better the Second Time.”

“I realized after Year One that there was room for bad girls in Mardi Gras,” Kathy Conklin said with a smirk. ‘I tend to think of (the all-female Krewe of) Iris as well-behaved women. I think Muses struck a chord for not being so well-behaved.”

The sole of the parade

And of course, there are the shoes. Lots of shoes.

Riders throw all kinds of outlandishly spangled footwear — from high heels to platform shoes to boots — and marchers carry outsize, brightly colored fiber-optic outlines of high heels between floats.

Finding and decorating shoes for the parade is a year-round affair. In addition to real shoes, members toss beads with little red high heels that have become iconic — and coveted.

Originally, those trinkets were supposed to be limited to the first parade.

But shortly after Muses’ debut, when Saussy and Rosenberg were wearing red-shoe beads at a party, Saussy said a police officer told them: “You guys are going to be big. There was a brawl in a gay bar last night over a pair of Muses beads.”

“We thought, damn, this could be something big,” Saussy said. “Now we’re all about shoes.”

In addition to the beads, some members sport charm bracelets with all manner of high heels, and shoe-shaped plastic earrings dangle from earlobes. The riders of one float call themselves Soul Sistas, proclaiming their affiliation with black shirts, each of which sports a dramatic high-heel shoe with an ankle strap.

And, of course, there is Muses’ dominant symbol: a huge pump, covered with 350,000 points of fiber-optic light, in which each year’s honorary muse rides. This year’s luminary is political consultant Mary Matalin, chosen because one of the attributes of Calliope, this year’s muse, is that she is the goddess of eloquence, Saussy said.

No one is exactly sure why shoes have become such an important part of Muses, although some members suggested that it stems from an inherent female interest in footwear. Another member pointed out that the krewe’s early years coincided with the popularity of “Sex and the City,” in which Carrie Bradshaw and her gal pals were obsessed with stilettos bearing such high-fashion — and high-price — names as Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo.

Foot in the door

During this year’s party, where members inspected the floats and socialized, Rosenberg sat near the big shoe’s toe. The krewe has clearly taken over her life: Rosenberg wore a Muses jacket over a Muses T-shirt over a Muses turtleneck, and on her right wrist, a black bracelet spelled out “MUSES” in big rhinestones.

At first, she said, it was difficult for anyone to take the women seriously, even after the City Council voted to let the krewe take to the streets in 2001.

Dionne Randolph, who books bands and marching groups for the parade, said it was tough to get bands to participate in the first parade because they weren’t sure whether the new krewe would be able to pay them. And because Muses paraded on a week night, Randolph knew some schools might be reluctant to let their musicians march.

But organizers knew that if they could book a major band, others would follow.

Randolph, an environmental engineer, had a distinct advantage: Her husband was a graduate of St. Augustine High School, where he played drums in the Marching 100.

“I knew I could do it,” she said — and her charm offensive was rewarded: St. Augustine signed up.

With that booking, other groups joined and have returned year after year, Randolph said, along with marching groups, some made up of men whose wives are riding.

Extending a hand

But there’s more to Muses than flashy footwear and a spiffy parade. From the beginning, the organization wanted to be active in community organizations, especially those benefiting women and children, said Conklin, who is in charge of outreach.

At first, the krewe enlisted elderly shut-ins to make riders’ masks, and they let schoolchildren design headdresses. In the wake of the destruction associated with Hurricane Katrina, Muses gave the New Orleans Police Department $50,000 to help cover Carnival overtime.

Muses members also stepped up during the organization’s darkest hour, after Latasha Bell, a 20-year-old single mother, was fatally shot while watching the 2004 parade.

One member helped pay for Bell’s funeral, Saussy said, and the organization set up a trust fund for her son, David Anthony Powell, raising about $25,000 in the first year.

The next year, when the parade passed the spot on St. Charles Avenue where the shooting occurred, “across the street was the family with a big sign that said, ‘David Anthony Powell loves the Muses,’” Saussy said.

After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, members said there never was any doubt that Muses would roll in 2006.

Cecile Tebo, a social worker and administrator of the New Orleans Police Department’s Crisis Unit, described riding in Muses in 2006 as “mental health at its finest.”

“It was a moment to escape out of the heartache,” she said, “and to be members giving the city such a wonderful party and give people a moment when they could escape as well.”

As Muses gets ready for Thursday night’s 10th parade, Saussy had a simple explanation for the organization’s survival.

“We want all the little girls who are on the street to grow up and do what we’re doing, to perpetuate it.”


John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3317.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

On our own terms

Pride in New Orleans Saints fills a city that is All-American and all New Orleans: A guest column by C.W. Cannon
By Contributing Op-Ed columnist
February 09, 2010, 3:22PM


One thing that observers of Super Bowl XLIV, here and elsewhere, agree on, is that for the Crescent City, the win is about "more than football." But what does this mean? What is it about?

Most commentators point out that the suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina is what makes the victory especially meaningful. It's true that the Super Bowl puts New Orleans back in the media spotlight for the first time since 2005, and in far more pleasant circumstances. If nothing else, this time we had time to do our hair and select our best outfits. But a consideration of how Saints fans have reacted to their star turn on the national stage suggests that something even more than triumph over unnatural disaster is afoot. The drama of the Saints season represents nothing less than the attempt of New Orleanians to control their own representation in the national culture, and to define their membership in the American community on their own terms.

The biggest sign of this process of self-definition is a linguistic phenomenon -- yes, dat one. The very notion of a "Who Dat Nation," rather than simply "Saints fans," suggests that New Orleanians, wherever they are, wish to be considered a type of special entity within the broader "America." While this type of exceptionalism existed before Katrina, it was greatly exacerbated as a result of the storm, when admirers of the region's unique cultural aspects began to cherish more than ever what they feared could be lost in the post-K era. In a more complex sense, the idea that the "Who Dat Nation" is not limited to the New Orleans area media market suggests that New Orleans is a state of mind, a cultural attitude, more than a geographic entity.

The vernacular origins of "who dat," and the way "dat" is inserted in a variety of other formulations, bespeak aspects of a New Orleans character that fans wish to promote: working class, casual, playful, colorful. The racial ambiguity of the phrase is also significant, especially in light of post-Katrina media coverage of the city's racial difficulties.

Like so much in New Orleans culture, the chant has African-American provenance but has been embraced and claimed, comfortably and convincingly, by people of all hues.
(Nola here: and with respect to Mr. Cannon In New Orleans talking this way is more than just African American. My German grandparents and great aunts & uncles said: "des" - these, "dat" - that, "dem" - them and "dose" - those.)

While there's no question that racial animus complicates day-to-day life in the metro area, white and black residents alike chafe when outsiders emphasize this disagreeable fact too much. A mayoral election offers citizens an opportunity to vent legitimate frustrations, but for a national football championship, New Orleanians put on their best face for national observers -- who, for a tourist town like ours, we all realize are also potential paying guests.

While New Orleanians love being different, they don't want to be so different that they're not considered American at all. This is the other thread in the drama of Super Bowl XLIV. The Lombardi trophy is only available to a limited fraternity of major American cities. As much as they emphasize their own special character, Who Dats insist that this victory is evidence that this special character does not exclude them from the American community.

This, too, is a sensitive issue given the last time New Orleanians were on TV. The paradox of wanting to be different and wanting to be true-blue (or gold) American is illustrated best by the flap over the NFL's attempt to claim "who dat" as its own intellectual property. The message from the black-and-gold tribe was clear: we deserve to go to the Super Bowl and win, but we'll make our own t-shirts, thank you.

It will be very interesting to see how Mardi Gras 2010 compares to Mardi Gras 2006. Anybody know how to dye blue tarp gold?

C.W. Cannon is the author of a novel, "Soul Resin." He teaches English at Loyola University and can be reached at cwcannon@loyno.edu.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Characters Welcome

When people hear New Orleans (and the surrounding area) they think lots of things that they don't think about other places. It's a blessing and a curse.

We are a place filled with what other places might call oddity but with what we know to be character.

What do you think of when you hear "NFL Cheerleader"? I bet you it's not Chrissy Hamilton, white girl from St. Bernard Parish and graduating from the College of Pharmacy at historically black Xavier University.

What do you think of when you hear Male dance team? Betcha it's not the 610 Stompers who participated in the Buddy D Parade and then Saints SuperBowl Parade. In a city of characters, a group of ordinary men with extraordinary moves. Indeed.

These samples were both taken from the February 10th Living Section of the New Orleans Times Picayune. There are many more where these come from.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Fairy Tales & Magic

Perhaps you're tired of hearing me talk about the symbolic and mythical proportions of a football team and its season. But

Here in New Orleans a political pundit has used Fairy tales to describe our 5 year journey from PreKatrina to PostSuperBowl.

And Sports Writers talk of Magic.

Given the folks talking are older males, I'd say myth and symbology still has a place in how we humans relate to the world.

New Orleans enjoys fairy-tale endings: James Gill
By James Gill
February 10, 2010, 6:24AM

Once upon a time, there was a town where gingerbread houses lined the streets and men could become king for a day, although not everyone believed it was real.

Even those who kinda liked the place figured time had passed it by. And bad things kept happening there.

After a big flood killed many of the inhabitants and drove many more away, the ones who remained seemed to have fallen under some malign influence. Nothing else could explain their bizarre behavior and affections.

They passed up opportunities to get rid of their burgomeister, who was plainly pixilated, or their man on Capitol Hill, who was just as plainly crooked.

They didn't care because they were consumed with more important matters. Their biggest fear was that the town's football team would move away. When the owner hankered for a distant land where the stars at night are big and bright, gloom would descend on the old town by the river.

Outsiders could not understand why, because the team had been letting everyone down for decades. It was not as though the team were ever going to win the biggest game of the season, for crying out loud.

Wipe the town off the map, the cry went up. Only idiots would live at such a low elevation in a hurricane zone. Besides, all the aid sent their way gets stolen. T
hey party all the time, shoot one another in the street and half of them can't read.
The calumnies multiplied. It seemed we'd need a bigger miracle than Cinderella to get out of this jam, but fortune began to smile at last.

The crook -- Dollar Bill they called him -- came up for election again and this time he lost, although maybe the inhabitants of the funny old town didn't deserve much credit for that. A new system was in place and a lot of people were so confused they didn't show up for the last round. No matter. It made no difference in the long run because old Bill soon got sentenced to prison.

No magic was required to persuade Tom Benson to abandon plans to move his team. Benson was no more saintly than any cut-throat businessman, but he got such a good deal that he discovered a deep and abiding affection for the old town.

Suddenly the Saints demonstrated that nice guys -- and they brought in lots of guys who really helped with the recovery of the old town -- could play football too.

The curse had not been lifted yet. The goofy mayor was on the way out, but he was working on a legacy of racial strife and urging citizens to keep resentment in their hearts as they went to the polls to choose his successor.

But the town was by now weary of Ray Nagin and decided the only question was who was qualified to run the town he had brought so low. The election went off without rancor at the first go, so that there were no distractions from the big game the next day.

There was no more talk of letting the town die. If football heroes could grow so dedicated to it, the world could see the old place couldn't be a dead loss after all.

Suddenly, millions wanted the town to win the big one and sat glued to their TVs.
But they don't go for Cinderella stories in Vegas, and the experts said the old town was in for a disappointment. They got that wrong and the hooting and a hollering and hugging of strangers went on in the streets for hours.

When the players got back home, they put on a parade. And, even in its darkest days, everyone agreed that the old town could organize a parade like nowhere else.

They all lived happily ever after, except for the town lawman Mr. Letten, who completely ran out of crooked officials to put in jail.

Right. It's a fairy tale.

James Gill is a columnist for The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jgill@timespicayune.com or at 504.826.3318.

The New Orleans Saints season was "magical"
By Peter Finney, Times-Picayune
February 09, 2010, 10:28AM


FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. -- On the morning after, having saluted the winning coach Sean Payton and MVP of Super Bowl XLIV Drew Brees, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still was shaking his head after leaving the media center.

"You think of the story and all you do is keep coming back to the word 'magical,' " he said Monday.

All week long, it was a story told -- over and over -- how this championship was more than just a football game, how the New Orleans Saints were more than just a football team, how the success of the Saints demonstrated the "value of sports," not only to a city, but to a region.

The "magic" was the most widely watched Super Bowl, attracting in the range of 106.5 million viewers.

As the party continued -- non-stop -- in the Crescent City, Drew Brees was on his way to New York for a Monday night appearance on the "Late Show with Dave Letterman."

Sean Payton, who spent Sunday night sleeping with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after New Orleans defeated the Colts 31-17, was preparing to join his players for a parade in New Orleans today.

And that was only the beginning.

On Saturday, Tom Benson will be the Grand Marshal of Endymion.

On Sunday, Brees will reign as Bacchus.

On Monday -- Mardi Gras Eve -- Payton will go from head coach to Orpheus.

Next Tuesday, for the first time, the city will be celebrating Mardi Gras II, March Gras I having begun sometime in September, when the Who Dat Nation began serious marching to Roman Numerals XLIV.

Let me be honest.

I still have a hard time believing what I'm experiencing.

On Sunday, I arrive in the press box at Sun Life Stadium, I look down at the end zone painted black and gold, I see the letters S-A-I-N-T-S, and I'm asking myself, "is this for real?"

Then you watch a football game, having witnessed some hard-to-believe magic two weeks earlier, and, sure enough, there was more.

First you see some Peyton Manning magic, an 10-0 deficit for the Saints, and then you see some Who Dat magic: an unbelievable gamble at the start of the second half ("I wasn't worried, I was terrified," said Tom Morstead about executing a knuckleball onside kick).

There was more magic, of course.

Brees completed his last 10 passes, something exceeded in a Super Bowl only by Joe Montana. He also completed passes to seven receivers on a single drive, something no quarterback has done -- and he did it on the winning drive. Tracy Porter's game-clinching interception of a Manning pass was magic at its finest.

Think about it.

This season, Payton's Who Dats beat five teams with quarterbacks who won Super Bowls -- the Giants, Patriots, Cardinals, Vikings and Colts.

Now the Who Dats have one.

You look at Brees, and you realize, among the impressive attributes he has, one is the manner in which handles celebrity.

He mixes a warrior mentality with a genuine modesty that sets him apart from many in the business operating at the elite level.

During the week, he told the story of a phone call he once received from Manning when the Colts' quarterback was in the early stages of his NFL career -- and Brees had won a big game at Purdue.

"Peyton had already done some great things as a professional," Brees said. "He had established himself. I felt honored by the call from someone like him."

Brees meant what he was saying. From his high school days, a 6-foot quarterback had been one of the game's classic overachievers, clearing one hurdle after another, a journey that included major surgery on his throwing shoulder.

Once more Sunday, he proved to the world, at age 31, he has the credentials of a legend whose impact now carries far beyond someone who throws touchdown passes.

Drew Brees believes in destiny.

He has made all Who Dats believe in magic.

. . . . . . .

Peter Finney can be reached at 504.826.3405.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Only in New Orleans

They did it.
The Saints won the SuperBowl.
The Who Dat Nation is euphoric!

If the locally made video doesn't do it for you.... (Shame on the NFL.... GREEDY.... GREEDY.... GREEDY....)

watch this short CBS segment
to see how myth and symbols help create community.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Dancing in Drag with the Dead

New Orleans is and always has been full of characters. Buddy Diliberto was one of them. He was a local sports caster who once claimed that if the Saints made it to the SuperBowl he'd wear a dress on Bourbon Street. Buddy died in January 2005.

Last Sunday thousands of men, most straight, but I'm sure some gay, danced in drag down Bourbon street in his honor and in honor of the fact that the Saints made it to the Superbowl. So that's:
- years of sports casting by a local character,
- a Win in the last playoff game of the football 2009 season the Sunday before,
- one week for, Bobby Hebert the guy to who took over for Buddy D (and who probably had a good deal to do with the original reasons Buddy D made the off hand comment) to plan a parade resulting in thousands of people on the street , mostly straight men in drag.

There are more than a few theories floating around about why 5 years after his death people remembered his promise and followed through en mass.
"He's the connection people have to when they were younger, watching the games with their dad or grandpa," he said. "There are all these people whose parents lived through all the bad times but died before this day finally came. Buddy connects to all of them, because he was there from the very beginning. He's the common thread."

But I think another reason is that New Orleanians understand the importance of honoring the ancestors and maintaining the link to those on the other side. It is just a part of who we are and what we do here, naturally. We celebrate death with our Jazz Funerals and we celebrate the dead. Granted in unique ways. Last weekend Bourbon Street was one big offering on the collective New Orleans Lare Shrine for Buddy D.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Mythic Proportions & Lupercus

On January 30th I posted about the Mythic Proportions of the New Orleans Saints.
Yesterday there were 2 articles in the Times Picayune newspaper about how the football team had shown that while New Orleans has a complex racial history this amazing football team and season has shown that we can and do have Racial Harmony in the Who Dat Nation.


There was one article on the Front Page
Here are 2 excerpts:

"Is it an illusion? Of course it is; it's a sporting event," he said. "But if this sense of optimism and unity is this universally shared, it's a powerful illusion and maybe it's not entirely illusionary."

"I say, enjoy the feeling, enjoy the moment and understand that if we want to feel this way for a long time, it will take a lot of work, sacrifice and compromise after the Super Bowl," he said. "One thing for sure, it's a good taste of what community feels like."

There was another article in the Sports Section. Here are a few excerpts:
"If you spend most of your professional life writing about games people play, you also will spend plenty of time listening to friends asking: Why?"

"Walk down any New Orleans street and look at the smiling faces, the Who Dat fist bumps, and you'll know this is why sports are relevant. It has the potential to touch and unite an entire community unlike anything else in our culture."

"This wasn't just a victory lap for the sports fan. It was a cathartic scream, a cheer, a dance, a hug, a high five, chest thump, fist bump, a lay-on-the-lawn-and-kick-my-hands-and-feet-in-the-air-in delirium. It was a community feeling not just of overwhelming joy, but the release of mountains of frustrations, disappointments and sorrows that had nothing to do with football."

"And during that moment, when everything else escaped, when the entire city was cheering and crying together and letting it all go, something very, very nice was left behind. Suddenly, we were all family again."

OK, since it is Lupercus, let's stop and think about this a minute. Wild Catharsis. Letting it all go. Done, like wolves howling, in a group and driven by God energies blending with Goddess energies to create community.

And as quoted by 2 'outsiders' doing a documentary, just so you know this isn't all local navel gazing.
"In fact, we actually saw people coming together over something as, in some respects, weirdly irrelevant as a sports team," he said. "But maybe that's what it takes, that sort of oddball thing to bring a town together.

"And it was very, very real. We were witnessing this cathartic moment of unity, and that was a cool thing -- and it remains a very cool thing. This football team accomplished this very cool thing."

And this folks is what myth and ritual are all about. This is what our stories and rituals done in the company of others should be all about. Our myths and rituals should seek to reach deeply into the human psyche and bring people together. The Sports Section article also speaks to why it is important to repeat rituals regularly whether every Full Moon or annually.

"I'm not saying this solves all the problems, but I believe it will bring people a step in that direction. Wherever they were before, they will be a little bit higher, a little bit further along the road than they were before the game -- and they'll stay there."

Monday, February 1, 2010

Helping Haiti

Shirts, shoe drives benefit Haitian earthquake survivors
Monday, February 01, 2010 By Susan LangenhennigFashion writer
Marilyn Cutrone's "Be A Saint, Heal Haiti" shirt is black and gold, but its message is bigger than any football season.


"I was obsessed with CNN, watching the coverage of Haiti," said Cutrone, whose New Orleans design company, AnnaDean, makes shirts with local themes. "I have two children of my own, and what I was seeing was breaking my heart. I wanted to do something, and I wanted to do it quick, before people forget."

Cutrone researched Haitian culture, picking the saint reference not as a way to capitalize on the home team's success, but as a representation of Haiti's deep spiritual roots. "The cross is an authentic Haitian religious symbol," she said.

All proceeds from the $28 shirt, which are sold at Mirabella, Azby's, Palm Patch, Angelique's and Ah-Ha boutiques, will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Other designers and retailers also are helping to keep Haitian survivors in the public consciousness. If you've already text- messaged a donation to charity and want to do more, here's a list of ways to get involved.

Jaclyn McCabe of The Voluptuous Vixen boutique in the French Quarter is offering customers a 10 percent discount if they donate a box of feminine hygiene products for Haitian women.

"I got an e-mail from a friend of a friend looking for supplies for a local hospital in Haiti," McCabe said. "While at the store shopping for supplies to send, I walked down the feminine hygiene aisle, and it occurred to me there would be a great need. I filled my cart."

McCabe will send the products to the Haitian Community Hospital. For a view of the medical staff at work, check out the Haitian Community Hospital on Facebook. To donate, drop off products at The Voluptuous Vixen boutique, 538 Madison St., or call 504.529.3588.

Local Feet First boutiques are accepting donations of men's, women's and children's shoes for Soles4Souls, a Nashville, Tenn.-based nonprofit that helps to get needed footwear to disaster victims around the world.

Soles4Souls coordinated more than 1 million pairs of donated shoes to people in need in the aftermaths of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Asian tsunami.

Though the drive is particularly seeking sturdy shoes for people living in the rubble and twisted metal of the earthquake zone, no donations will be turned away. Shoes may be dropped off at the Feet First stores, 4119 Magazine St. and 526 Royal St. For details, call 504.899.6800.

Creed, the renowned French perfume house, uses Haitian vetiver grass for one of its signature fragrances. To help the Caribbean island nation, the company will donate 5 percent of proceeds from sales at creedboutique.com to ADRA, an organization working to provide medical services and water purification.

Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer who became famous for the red, white and blue Obama Hope poster, has designed a T-shirt to support recovery efforts. The gray shirts with the heart design sell for $15 at Cafe Press. All proceeds benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

. . . . . . .
Susan Langenhennig can be reached at slangenhennig@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3379.



You can also download this video to help send funds to Haiti.