Here's how an idea spins wackily out of control:

1. You're on a family trip. You think, "hell, maybe I'll snap a few pics for the paper - maybe they'd be interested, maybe not."
   
   
2. Then you hit the Ninth Ward, go into shock and just keep taking as many digital images as possible.
   
   
3. Then you fly home and tell your editors "Hey I took some pictures. Maybe we could do an online slideshow or something."
   
   
4. Then they say "great" and "maybe you can write a little print teaser to go with it."
   
   
5. Then you say "uh sure" and write about seven to 10 inches.
   
   
6. Then they say "we want a little more."
   
   
7. So you say "um okay" and expand it to about 15 inches.
   
   
8. Then they say "We want more of like, you in this. How did you, like, feel?" Christ.
   
   
9. Repeat the previous two steps about 45 times until the package is at 30 inches, runs A-1, and even includes - I fuck you not - a frickin map of New Orleans pinpointing my grandparents' house.
   

*shudder*

*cringe*


That was about the point I began to seriously question if this thing had taken a life of its own, focusing waay too much on the writer and not the Katrina victims who continue to struggle. The point I worried I was gonna look like a complete asshole with this story.

...

...More of an asshole.


I grew up spending my summers between Nawlins and Baton Rouge. I've never lived in New Orleans. I've never watched water stream through my living room - watch an entire city collapse in real time. There are literally thousands upon thousands who were more qualified to write this column.

Seriously, who does this asshole think he is?

This afternoon, however, on the drive back to God's Country East I checked my voice mail and a Crescent City resident who happened to be visitng the desert thanked me for a "true picture of New Orleans" and letting everyone know "what's going on there."

...

...

[Phew!]

So far no one's called to tell me what a douchebag I am - especially putting the location of my grandma's old house in the mother-effing paper. But, of course, speaking from experience that could change at any moment. And there's always the lovely comments board on this frickin forum. Thank you in advance.

So check out the narrated photo slideshow, linked a little ways down the page on the right with the camera icon - that's really all I wanted to do with this originally. 'Turned out to be a really gratifying project, I'll admit. 'Didn't feel like work - one of those "they're paying me to do this?" moments that makes it very hard to go back to hard-hitting parking study stories.

*sigh*


********************************************************************************

In other similar news you can repeatedly slam your nuts in a drawer ... OR you can watch Spike Lee's new heartbreaking, gut-wrenching four-hour HBO documentary on Katrina. If you've seen it, you can understand how I came away from the first two hours saying, "Crap - maybe I should, like, touch-up that Katrina column I wrote last week."