NO

(2)

I forgive my snobbery of course on the ground that it is hard-won snobbery. There is nothing phoney about my snobbery. It is all real snobbery. I am even something of a philosophical snob, but I have to admit that here I am on shakey ground. I probably know more about philosophy than you do, but nevertheless... so my philosophical snobbery is appropriately relative, nowhere near as absolute as, say, my musical snobbery. Which is a good thing.

And so when I watch current events I do so from the point of view of a snob. Which brings us to the point of this dittie: the current extremely sore spot in American culture relating to that phoney American Icon, New Orleans (boom).

I must admit that for me New Orleans has always been one of THOSE icons: grossly overvalued culturewise. Indeed, NO was always below my radar. But since the recent disaster I have learned that NO is a major economic center and ought to be valued as such. I chalk it up to the furtherance of my education, but I remain a skeptic regarding the cultural value of the big NO.

Should we rebuild it? Of course. And we should inport Dutch engineers to consult with (boom) the US Army Corps of Engineers. But should we try to recreate it?