get the rock n roll kids off of my porch, ian

Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos (Dynamite Shrimp)

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A decadently rich chocolate pie nestled in a graham cracker crust garnished with fresh whipped cream and chocolate shavings. This decadent chocolate pie is perfect for potlucks, birthdays and neighborhood shindigs.  A chocolate lovers dream come true!

https://www.smalltownwoman.com/rich-chocolate-pie/

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Gosh, so many wonderful things to see and do!

If you’re visiting the French Quarter, there are so many amazing things to see and do there other than just Bourbon Street.

Free Tours by Foot is a local tour company (pretty much what it says in the name— free walking tours, although I think you need to sign up ahead of time/can choose to tip your your guide) which I really like and have signed up for both with out of town friends and with local friends. They have all sorts of tours— cemetery tours (the famous Cities of the Dead), architectural tours, ghosts tours… I would avoid anything labeled a vampire tour though since we don’t have vampires in this city, just ghosts and loup garoux! There’s also a Garden District tour which, if you’re into architecture, is pretty neat.

On that note, there are two house museums from the 1700-1800s in the Quarter— the Herrmann-Grima House and the Gallier House (James Gallier is arguably Nola’s most famous architect, and it’s his home which is now open as a museum).

It’s also always fun to stroll through Jackson Square, to see St. Louis Cathedral and maybe have your fortune told. The French Market sells all sorts of interesting knick knacks, and is right next to Cafe Du Monde on the edge of the Square.

For authentic live jazz music, Preservation Hall is a must— they do like 3 shows a night but you have to get in line early.

I would have to recommend Antoine’s for authentic New Orleans creole cuisine— you can enjoy some of their famous dishes in the casual Hermes Bar, or make an occasion of it and dress up to dine in the regular restaurant. They usually do a ~$20 prix fix 3 course lunch around the holidays, with 75¢ martinis, if you happen to be visiting later in the fall. (Many of the “Grande Dame” restaurants in the city offer prix fix meals— definitely worth looking into!)

Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar is the oldest continuously operating bar in the country— it’s a fun place to stop off if nothing else!

The New Orleans Museum of Art is located out in City Park, which is an incredibly picturesque backdrop crawling with the city’s famous Live Oaks. The sculpture garden is also pretty amazing there, and depending on the time of year there are outdoor movies in the garden. Also, Cafe Du Monde has a second location at City Park for beignets.

For other live music venues, I recommend wandering down Frenchmen Street— there are tons of bars and venues with live music most nights, and you can just come and go as your fancy takes you. The Maple Leaf Bar uptown also has great local live music (but it’s LOUD— expect your ears to ring).

I DEFINITELY recommend taking the streetcar from Canal Street all the way Uptown to Audubon Park. It’s a great way to take in the sights of the city in a calmer atmosphere than the Quarter.

Audubon Park is probably my favorite place in the whole city. It’s just a really peaceful place to enjoy towering live oaks, egrets, herons, and picturesque views. It can be especially refreshing to grab a daiquiri and enjoy it while you walk. (Also we have a GREAT zoo which is right by the park)

If you want incredible views overlooking the river, consider grabbing a cocktail at the Hot Tin at the top of the Pontchartrain Hotel on St. Charles Avenue. Some other famous bars are the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel, the Carousel Bar, and the local favorite, Cure.

If you want to shop, go to Magazine Street. It’s filled with tons and tons of locally owned businesses.

If you want to see some alligators and can travel outside of the city: Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours out in Marrero is the way to go.

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.