Debris Humor

I'm so glad that it's ok to have a few laughs again. Saturday Night Live had some funny sketches this past weekend with references to Katrina, and our local paper has had some humorous stories along with the usual depressing stuff. One of my favorites was a song in yesterday's paper which was a takeoff of "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music.".

They called it, "My Favorite Things Are Debris." It was written by Steigman and Donna Musarra with with help from a few other folks mentioned in the article printed here.

My Favorite Things Are Debris

Water is swarming with venomous species
Elegant swimming pools teeming with feces
The rash on my haunches is starting to sting
These are the things that Katrina brings.

Houses are burning and levees are breeching
Into my water the sewage is seeping
Horrible odors awaft in the breeze
Hoping I don't catch a dreadful disease

Helicopters flying and criminals shooting
I called the police but they're too busy looting
National Guard troops all over the town
Why did it take Bush two weeks to dump Brown?

First the Dome leaked
Then the Dome reeked
Damn, the fridge smells bad!
New Orleans covered in green, purple and gold
It's not Mardi Gras, it's MOLD!

(slowly)
Boats on the rooftops and lawns full of branches
President hiding on big Texas ranches
Blue tarps on houses as far as I see
My favorite things are debris!

Local columnist Chris Rose always has interesting descriptions of goigns-on around town. Yesterday he offered this advice in his column for people returning to the city: "Do not open your refridgerator. Ever. Again." With all that I've written in my blog about the putrid appliances, this is something I could really relate to. One of Hubby's grad-students returned to New Orleans recently to check his home and did not heed this advice. He made the mistake of opening the fridge, and said it was crawling with maggots and he slammed it shut immediately. Too late. The memory of that stench will now follow him for a lifetime.

Rose writes today that the streets are now paved with appliances and wonders like the rest of us where all of this debris is going to go. He wrote "The city used to measure the success of Mardi Gras by announcing the accumulated tonnage of garbage that was collected during Carnival season. Well, by that measure, Kristina was a very successful hurricane." And for every person that returns to the city to clean out their house, more garbage accumulates.

He also notes that it's impossible to accurately portray the stench in the city until a scratch-n-sniff version of the daily paper can be produced. I will not be holding my breath for that one. Or will I? :-)

We're definitely getting a new stench today. A front moved through last night and it's very windy. The air stinks again. The debris piles keep growing. But now I am armed with humorous thoughts about it all. What else can you do?

As I sit here and write this, I am looking out the window at the debris mountain on the lawn across the street from me. Here is a photo. It's been there for almost 6 weeks now, and we have no idea when it will be picked up, so we're just getting used to it now like everyone else is. Their debris pile is worse than ours, but it's nothing compared to the pile at my friend Jeannie's house which flooded or any every house that flooded. It's a lovely debris pile just the same. And at least now I can sing along and finally enjoy my view of the debris.