History UsefulNotes / NewOrleans

New Orleans's oldest (and for a long time ''only'') pro sports team, the Saints of the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, were for many years the absolute worst team in the entire league--they went their first two decades without putting up a winning season and over thirty years without winning a playoff game. Locals obligingly rewarded this performance by nicknaming the team "the Ain'ts," and at particularly rough spots in their career, people would show up at home games wearing paper bags over their heads to avoid the shame of being known as Saints fans. After Katrina forced them to play their home games elsewhere while their home stadium, the Superdome, underwent repairs and housed thousands of displaced residents, many feared that the city would lose its team to a larger and wealthier market. In 2006, however, the Saints returned to the city with new head coach Sean Payton and powerhouse quarterback Drew Brees in tow, and went on to put up the best season in the franchise's history, nearly reaching a Super Bowl, and eventually winning one in 2009. The morale boost this gave to the city is hard to quantify, and the Saints don't seem likely to go anywhere anytime soon with one of the most dedicated fanbases in sports.

New Orleans's oldest (and for a long time ''only'') pro sports team, the Saints of the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, were for many years the absolute worst team in the entire league--they went their first two decades without putting up a winning season and over thirty years without winning a playoff game. Locals obligingly rewarded this performance by nicknaming the team "the Ain'ts," and at particularly rough spots in their career, people would show up at home games wearing paper bags over their heads to avoid the shame of being known as Saints fans. After Katrina forced them to play their home games elsewhere while their home stadium, the Superdome, underwent repairs and housed thousands of displaced residents, many feared that the city would lose its team to a larger and wealthier market. Upon returning to the city in 2006, with a brand new head coach and quarterback, the Saints put up their best season in the franchise's history, nearly reached a Super Bowl, and eventually won one a few years later. The morale boost this gave to the city is hard to quantify, and the Saints don't seem likely to go anywhere anytime soon with one of the most dedicated fanbases in sports.

%% As a perk for dedicated Tropers reading the editing page, Tchoupitoulas is pronounced "Chop it, chew less."

Ah, the Big Easy, famous for Mardi Gras, [[HollywoodVoodoo voodoo]], and {{Jazz}}. Commonly associated with Cajun culture, despite being a few hours away from any of it. Also, hurricanes--both meteorological and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_(cocktail) mixological]]. The French have a consulate there. Another claim to fame is the food; you can find almost any kind of seafood (except lobster) here. The squeamish can rest easy about how well-cooked their food is.

New Orleans has a rich cultural history. Sitting out the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River where it meets the Gulf of Mexico, the city was founded by French traders in 1718 but was likely a hub of commerce and conflict long before then as a gateway for goods and people to enter the middle of North America. The French, Spanish, British, numerous indigenous groups, and (later) Americans all fought for control of the port. Enslaved African people comprised a large portion of the city's population as the city became a major hub of chattel slavery, but the French Code Noir provided slightly more opportunities for freedom than the British system, and New Orleans soon boasted the highest population of free Black people in North America. The mixing of their cultural traditions with French Catholicism, native practices, and the many other ideas and beliefs that intersected in this place led to the development of the city's unique Afro-Creole culture.

* Music/HarryConnickJr

[[caption-width-right:330:A Crescent City montage, courtesy of Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}. From top left: A typical New Orleans mansion off St. Charles Avenue, a streetcar passing by Loyola University and Tulane University, the skyline of the Central Business District, Jackson Square, and a view of Royal Street in the French Quarter.]]

The United States obtained the city from the French with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, opening the door for American Western expansion. (The Purchase, by the by, turned into one of the greatest deals in history by accident. [[UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson Jefferson]] was '''only''' interested in buying New Orleans, and that was what the authorized sum of money covered. But in France, his negotiators found [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] so fed up with the Western Hemisphere, having just lost Haiti to a slave revolt, that he sold them '''everything''' France had in North America, doubling the size of the United States with the stroke of a pen.) The Purchase also came as a hell of a shock to the locals, as New Orleans was under '''Spanish''' rule at the time. They didn't know that Napoleon had reclaimed Louisiana for France by conquering Spain until he sold it out from under them. The final great battle of UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812 played out in New Orleans, and while it is typically pointed out that the battle occurred ''after'' the war was officially over, American history could have turned out ''very'' differently if the British military had taken the city. After the battle, the population of New Orleans grew to be one of the largest cities in the U.S., at one point closely rivaling UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} for the title of the nation's second-largest city. (The two cities share some remarkable similarities to this day, including the fact that their local accents, influenced by similar immigrant groups arriving at similar times, are shockingly close.) The strategic and economic importance of the port once again came into play during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. While Louisiana seceded and joined the Confederacy, the Union army prioritized securing New Orleans to keep the Mississippi River open, and the North held the city under military occupation through most of the war after May 1862.

* Music/AllenToussaint

If you ask for directions in New Orleans, don't expect to hear "North", "South", "East", or "West". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_metropolitan_area#.22Eastbank.22_and_.22Westbank.22 Due to the Mississippi River which curves through the middle of the city,]] you'll likely hear something like "Go up on Saint Charles Avenue" if you wish to leave the French Quarter and go Uptown, for example, even though to outsiders' eyes, Saint Charles Avenue "appears" to go south and wind back up to going north. Although it sounds complicated, it's really not that hard to figure out when you look at a map. Basically, New Orleans is laid out in grids like many other cities, but all directions stem from the winding Mississippi River, not compass points. Streets running parallel to the river have "up" and "down" directions based on the river's flow. Perpendicular streets (and these ''do'' converge and split, owing to the bends in the river) have "riverside" and "lakeside" directions (Lake Pontchartrain to the North of the city being the lake in question). These directions work on the West bank. Should you find yourself on the other side of the river, what the hell are you doing? The East bank is for locals. (Seriously, sarcasm aside, the West bank is where New Orleans keeps 98% of the cool tourist stuff. The East bank is for malls, big box stores, car dealerships, and all the other quotidian crap you find in every American city.) If you wish to study the geography a bit further, a good guide can be found [[http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Orleans#Knowing_which_way_is_up here.]] It's important to remember that "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are in reference to the location of the river. This is probably what would trip up visitors the most since there are fragments of the East Bank that are geographically west of the West Bank, and vice-versa.

The United States obtained the city from the French with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, opening the door for American Western expansion. (The Purchase, by the by, turned into one of the greatest deals in history by accident. [[UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson Jefferson]] was '''only''' interested in buying New Orleans, and that was what the authorized sum of money covered. But in France, his negotiators found [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] so fed up with the Western Hemisphere, having just lost Haiti to a slave revolt, that he sold them '''everything''' France had in North America, doubling the size of the United States with the stroke of a pen.) The final great battle of UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812 played out in New Orleans, and while it is typically pointed out that the battle occurred ''after'' the war was officially over, American history could have turned out ''very'' differently if the British military had taken the city. After the battle, the population of New Orleans grew to be one of the largest cities in the U.S., at one point closely rivaling UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} for the title of the nation's second-largest city. (The two cities share some remarkable similarities to this day, including the fact that their local accents, influenced by similar immigrant groups arriving at similar times, are shockingly close.) The strategic and economic importance of the port once again came into play during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. While Louisiana seceded and joined the Confederacy, the Union army prioritized securing New Orleans to keep the Mississippi River open, and the North held the city under military occupation through most of the war after May 1862.

The United States obtained the city from the French with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, opening the door for American Western expansion. The final great battle of UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812 played out in New Orleans, and while it is typically pointed out that the battle occurred ''after'' the war was officially over, American history could have turned out ''very'' differently if the British military had taken the city. After the battle, the population of New Orleans grew to be one of the largest cities in the U.S., at one point closely rivaling UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} for the title of the nation's second-largest city. (The two cities share some remarkable similarities to this day, including the fact that their local accents, influenced by similar immigrant groups arriving at similar times, are shockingly close.) The strategic and economic importance of the port once again came into play during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. While Louisiana seceded and joined the Confederacy, the Union army prioritized securing New Orleans to keep the Mississippi River open, and the North held the city under military occupation through most of the war after May 1862.

The United States obtained the city from the French with the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, opening the door for American Western expansion. The final great battle of UsefulNotes/TheWarOf1812 played out in New Orleans, and while it is typically pointed out that the battle occurred ''after'' the war was officially over, American history could have turned out ''very'' differently if the British military had taken the city. After the battle, the population of New Orleans grew to be one of the largest cities in the U.S., at one point closely rivaling UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}} for the title of the nation's second-largest city. The strategic and economic importance of the port once again came into play during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. While Louisiana seceded and joined the Confederacy, the Union army prioritized securing New Orleans to keep the Mississippi River open, and the North held the city under military occupation through most of the war after May 1862.

The street map of New Orleans is rightly infamous for containing a plethora of multi-cultural tongue-twisters, ''none'' of which are locally pronounced the way American English -- or their original languages -- might suggest. Examples include Chartres Street (pronounced "Chart" rather than the French city) and the Muses, a set of 8 parallel Uptown streets named after the Greek goddesses and all pronounced uniquely (e.g. Calliope Street is "Cally-op" and Melpomene is "Melp-O-Meen", infuriating Greeks and antiquarians alike). And then there is Tchoupitoulas Street, the main artery paralleling the West bank of the Mississippi. The proper pronunciation of "Tchoupitoulas" is a local [[TrustPassword Shibboleth]], withheld from tourists because it's hilarious to listen to them try to sound it out.

If you ask for directions in New Orleans, don't expect to hear "North", "South", "East", or "West". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_metropolitan_area#.22Eastbank.22_and_.22Westbank.22 Due to the Mississippi River which curves through the middle of the city,]] you'll likely hear something like "Go up on Saint Charles Avenue" if you wish to leave the French Quarter and go Uptown, for example, even though to outsiders' eyes, Saint Charles Avenue "appears" to go south and wind back up to going north. Although it sounds complicated, it's really not that hard to figure out when you look at a map. Basic rule of thumb: "up" and "down" always refer to the flow of the Mississippi, not to any cardinal directions. The other basic directions on the Westbank are "riverside" and "lakeside," depending on if the target is closer to the river or to Lake Ponchartrain, located (generally) North of the city. Should you find yourself on the other side of the river, what the hell are you doing? The Eastbank is for locals. (Seriously, sarcasm aside, the Westbank is where New Orleans keeps 98% of the cool tourist stuff. The Eastbank is for malls, big box stores, car dealerships, and all the other quotidian crap you find in every American city.) If you wish to study the geography a bit further, a good guide can be found [[http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Orleans#Knowing_which_way_is_up here.]] It's important to remember that "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are in reference to the location of the river. This is probably what would trip up visitors the most since there are fragments of the East Bank that are geographically west of the West Bank, and vice-versa.

Now New Orleans loves its Saints, even though their new winning reputation was blotted by the revelation that some of the defensive coaches ran a "bounty" scheme that encouraged Saints players to intentionally injure their opponents. The scheme ran for several years, including the Saints' Superbowl win in 2009, and killed quite a few careers when it was exposed. The Saints struggled under the penalties the NFL imposed, particularly in 2012, but rallied to return to being a top League contender with their hometown support alive and well.

New Orleans's oldest (and for a long time ''only'') pro sports team, the Saints of the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, were for many years the absolute worst team in the entire league--they went their first two decades without putting up a winning season and over thirty years without winning a playoff game. Locals obligingly rewarded this performance by nicknaming the team "the Ain'ts," and at particularly rough spots in their career, people would show up at home games wearing paper bags over their heads to avoid the shame of being known as Saints fans. After Katrina forced them to play their home games elsewhere while their home stadium, the Superdome, underwent repairs and housed thousands of displaced residents, many feared that the city would lose its team to a larger and wealthier market. Upon returning to the city in 2006, with a brand new head coach and quarterback, the Saints put up their best season in the franchise's history, nearly reached a Super Bowl, and eventually won one a few years later. The morale boost this gave to the city is hard to quantify, and the Saints don't seem likely to go anywhere anytime soon with one of the most dedicated fanbases in sports. The city's other pro sports team, the Pelicans (formerly Hornets) of the UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation, don't quite have the history of the Saints, having moved the city from Charlotte just a few years before Katrina. However, they too had their best season ever not long after the disaster. With both teams now sharing common ownership, they both seem stable finally.

If you ask for directions in New Orleans, don't expect to hear "North", "South", "East", or "West". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_metropolitan_area#.22Eastbank.22_and_.22Westbank.22 Due to the Mississippi River which curves through the middle of the city,]] you'll likely hear something like "Go up on Saint Charles Avenue" if you wish to leave the French Quarter and go Uptown, for example, even though to outsiders' eyes, Saint Charles Avenue "appears" to go south and wind back up to going north. Although it sounds complicated, it's really not that hard to figure out when you look at a map. Basic rule of thumb: "up" and "down" always refer to the flow of the Mississippi, not to any cardinal directions. The other basic directions on the Westbank are "riverside" and "lakeside," depending on if the target is closer to the river or to Lake Ponchartrain, located (generally) North of the city. Should you find yourself on the other side of the river, what the hell are you doing? The Eastbank is for locals. If you wish to study the geography a bit further, a good guide can be found [[http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Orleans#Knowing_which_way_is_up here.]] It's important to remember that "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are in reference to the location of the river. This is probably what would trip up visitors the most since there are fragments of the East Bank that are geographically west of the West Bank, and vice-versa.

New Orleans's oldest (and for a long time ''only'') pro sports team, the Saints of the UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague, were for many years the absolute worst team in the entire league--they went their first two decades without putting up a winning season and over thirty years without winning a playoff game. After Katrina forced them to play their home games elsewhere while their home stadium, the Superdome, underwent repairs and housed thousands of displaced residents, many feared that the city would lose its team to a larger and wealthier market. Upon returning to the city in 2006, with a brand new head coach and quarterback, the Saints put up their best season in the franchise's history, nearly reached a Super Bowl, and eventually won one a few years later. The morale boost this gave to the city is hard to quantify, and the Saints don't seem likely to go anywhere anytime soon with one of the most dedicated fanbases in sports. The city's other pro sports team, the Pelicans (formerly Hornets) of the UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation, don't quite have the history of the Saints, having moved the city from Charlotte just a few years before Katrina. However, they too had their best season ever not long after the disaster. With both teams now sharing common ownership, they both seem stable finally.

The street map of New Orleans is rightly infamous for containing a plethora of multi-cultural tongue-twisters, ''none'' of which are locally pronounced the way American English -- or their original languages -- might suggest. Examples include Chartres Street (pronounced "Chart" rather than the French city) and the Muses, a set of 8 parallel Uptown streets named after the Greek goddesses and all pronounced uniquely (e.g. Calliope Street is "Cally-op" and Melpomene is "Melp-O-Meen", infuriating Greeks and antiquarians alike). And then there is Tchoupitoulas Street, the main artery paralleling the West Bank of the Mississippi. The proper pronunciation of "Tchoupitoulas" is a local [[TrustPassword Shibboleth]], withheld from tourists because it's hilarious to listen to them try to sound it out.

If you ask for directions in New Orleans, don't expect to hear "North", "South", "East", or "West". [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_metropolitan_area#.22Eastbank.22_and_.22Westbank.22 Due to the Mississippi River which curves through the middle of the city,]] you'll likely hear something like "Go up on Saint Charles Avenue" if you wish to leave the French Quarter and go Uptown, for example, even though to outsiders' eyes, Saint Charles Avenue "appears" to go south and wind back up to going north. Although it sounds complicated, it's really not that hard to figure out when you look at a map. If you wish to study the geography a bit further, a good guide can be found [[http://wikitravel.org/en/New_Orleans#Knowing_which_way_is_up here.]] It's important to remember that "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are in reference to the location of the river. This is probably what would trip up visitors the most since there are fragments of the East Bank that are geographically west of the West Bank, and vice-versa.

The street map of New Orleans is rightly infamous for containing a plethora of multi-cultural tongue-twisters, ''none'' of which are locally pronounced the way American English -- or their original languages -- might suggest. Examples include Chartres Street (pronounced "Chart" rather than the French city, "Shar-trey") and the Muses, a set of 8 parallel Uptown streets named after the Greek goddesses and all pronounced uniquely (e.g. Calliope Street is pronounced "Cally-op" and Melpomene Street is "Melp-O-Meen", infuriating Greeks and antiquarians alike). And then there is Tchoupitoulas Street, the main artery paralleling the West Bank of the Mississippi. The proper pronunciation of "Tchoupitoulas" is a local [[TrustPassword Shibboleth]], withheld from tourists because it's hilarious to listen to them try to sound it out.

The street map of New Orleans is rightly infamous for containing a plethora of multi-cultural tongue-twisters, ''none'' of which are locally pronounced the way American English -- or their original languages -- might suggest. Examples include Chartres Street (pronounced "Chart" rather than the French city, "Shar-trey") and the Muses, a set of 8 parallel Uptown streets named after the Greek goddesses and all pronounced uniquely (e.g. Calliope Street is pronounced "Cally-op", infuriating Greeks and antiquarians alike). And then there is Tchoupitoulas Street, the main artery paralleling the West Bank of the Mississippi. The proper pronunciation of "Tchoupitoulas" is a local [[TrustPassword Shibboleth]], withheld from tourists because it's hilarious to listen to them try to sound it out.

The street map of New Orleans is rightly infamous for containing a plethora of multi-cultural tongue-twisters, ''none'' of which are locally pronounced the way American English -- or their original languages -- might suggest. Examples include Chartres Street (pronounced "Chart" rather than the French city, "Shar-trey") and the Muses, a set of 8 parallel Uptown streets named after the Greek goddesses and all pronounced uniquely (e.g. Calliope Street is pronounced Cally-op, infuriating Greeks and antiquarians alike). And then there is Tchoupitoulas Street, the main artery paralleling the West Bank of the Mississippi. The proper pronunciation of "Tchoupitoulas" is a local [[TrustPassword Shibboleth]], withheld from tourists because it's hilarious to listen to them try to sound it out.

* ''Film/{{Chef}}'': Carl Casper's El Jefe Cuban-sandwich truck stops in New Orleans on its cross-country trip, and adds a few New Orleans favorites to its menu. Carl bonds with his son over Café du Monde beignets.

* ''Film/TheExpendables''' main operations are based here. For some odd reason, the city is established in the first film by a sweeping crane shot of Baton Rouge, complete with the State Capitol building clearly visible during the pan.

* ''Film/TheExpendables''' main operations are based here. Oddly, the city is established in the first film by a sweeping crane shot of... Baton Rouge.

* John Kennedy Toole, author of ''A Confederacy of Dunces'', a famous novel about the city