Quiet New Year

My New Year's Eve was a quiet one at home. Being a party pooper I was asleep again before midnight, and didn't even see the fireworks show on Lake Pontchartrain (behind my n home). Because of the destruction in the area local police forces have banned any private fireworks from being discharged this year. The fire hazards are too prevalent for shooting of them now. And it was much quieter here New Year's Eve night because of that.
I guess those who shot off fireworks did it "quietly" (I did hear some being discharged). In the city itself the celebration was very low keyed. With a population of only 70,000 to 100,000 people now, New Orleans, battered form the storm had only a small New Year's Eve blowout. It is odd that a city of parties would be so quiet in welcoming out the year that produced the storm that destroyed it. But residents are not easily found in New Orleans these days. Ringing out the worst year in the history of our city, there were a few events one could attend.
There were memorials, a jazz funeral for 2005 and a Jackson Square (heart of the city's French Quarter) late night party. Instead of the traditional Time Square dropping ball imitation, the city lowered a giant replica of a gumbo (a seafood stew/soup famous here) pot atop a building in the French Quarter. I would venture to say that most of the celebrants were not locals or tourists (rare specimens here since the city died) but rather contract workers in the city to rebuild private and public buildings that were damaged or destroyed.
There are a huge number of construction workers in New Orleans, and they occupy most of the hotel rooms in use. I think the two jazz funerals are representative that there is a little life left here, perhaps a little hope that we will exist in some recognizable form some day in the future. The traditional funeral march of jazz musicians (in normal times, when a jazz musician dies, he is given a "public "jazz funeral" on the city streets). Bystanders marched and sang to the upbeat music behind the musicians as they played notes of hope that we are putting the dead carcass of Hurricane Katrina to rest.
A New Year has started in a new, rebuilding New Orleans.
The top spam mail headlines for 2005 have been announced by AOL. It seems that the old raunchy porno come-ons are being blocked by anti spam programs, and now more subtle ways must be used by spammers to get through to potential customers. The number one spam line used this year (I know you must have seen it) was 'Donald Trump Wants You- Please Respond'. I doubt Donald wants either o us, but saying so does garner the attention of many who see the headline.
This year's spam headlines show a trend because six of the top ten were "special order spam". That's spam in which the sender pretends to be a friend or part of a legitimate customer-driven transaction. Those kinds of spam seem to get through spam blocking software regularly. So spam today is more "personal" Examples of the "personal" appeal on this year's list include the headlines "your mortgage application is ready" and a simple "thank you". Among other winners this year was the all too common headline "penis patch" (I refuse to say whether I responded to that one. So don't ask!) "Body Wrap", "Lose 6-20 inches in an hour", "Get an Apple iPod", "It's Lisa, I must have sent you to the wrong site", "Breaking Stock News", "Thank you for your business", and "Your $199 Rolex Special Included". Uh....just so there is no misunderstanding here. Your $199 Rolex is NOT included in my lame blog...
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