New Orleans

During the past 20 years, I've visited New Orleans more than 60 times. I can actually fly to New Orleans in less time than it takes me to drive to work each day.

When my friends ask if I would ever consider moving there.

Without thinking, I immediately responded "no, I would not even consider moving there because you see, for the past 20 years, New Orleans has been and remains, my mistress."

A mistress who always welcomes me with open arms, embracing me into a culture of great music, fine food, wonderful men and amazing history; after which she lets me go.... hungry to return again.

New Orleans may be the most written about of all American cities. Yet, very few serious studies have been made that haven't fallen into either the "moonlight and magnolia" romantic view or become stridently critical, perhaps baffled at a place which constantly confounds preconceptions.

Tropical in climate, lush in setting, exotic in architecture, sensual, if not hedonistic, in atmosphere, New Orleans is a worldly, yet bustling seaport whose very name evokes romance and myths.

No wonder, then, that most writers perpetuate old myths, create new ones, or at the least get lost in the intellectual and critical miasma that is as natural to New Orleans as the fogs of the swamps and lakes that surround it.