“Life in New Orleans is all about making the present--this moment, right now--as pleasant as possible. So New Orleanians, by and large, aren't tortured by the frenzy to achieve, acquire, and manage the unmanageable future. Their days are built around… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“The place looked more like a genteel horse farm than the roar-and-fume venues where they usually played. Vast, grassy ranges stretched in every direction, with neat, sun-shaded shooting platforms at the head of each. Men—and a few women—were stretched out on the platforms, aiming rifles downrange. Others stood laughing and talking, holding rifles in cases. But for the occasional snap… — Dan Baum Copy Share
“Anybody could rise above anything in America. ... No, they can't, Marie said, from the backseat. How was I supposed to break out of… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“That was the point of Mardi Gras, was it not? To serve and honor all the people, to bring into hard lives a touch of royalty and grandeur…To put on a spectacle such as this, free of charge, was an honor. New Orleans was sick and wounded, but no other city in the world had a celebration quite like this.… — Dan Baum Copy Share
“Other people's children went off to college, which for years Ronald had interpreted as a positive thing. Lately, though, he wasn't so sure. The children who went off to college hardly ever came back. It was as though the hard work of getting that college degree bent them out of shape, focused them too much on their own personal achievement.… — Dan Baum Copy Share
“But this home over here: it needed paint but had flowers neatly planted all the way around it. That one over there had a… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“The first time I saw Marcey Parker she was happily firing a submachine gun through a window.” — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“In New Orleans, no matter how much money you had in the bank, you looked on poverty every day.” — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Life in New Orleans is all about making the present--this moment, right now--as pleasant as possible. So New Orleanians, by and large, aren't tortured… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“Americans, whether armed or not, were still looking everywhere but at social class when parsing the texture of their lives. It wasn’t so much… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
“New Orleanians are notoriously late showing up, if they show up at all, because by and large they don't keep calendars. Calendars are tools… — Dan Baum Copy Share Image
