Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Women still avoiding New Orleans

LA Times via Houston Chronicle:

There were shots of Southern Comfort lined up on the bar at the Coyote Ugly Saloon in the French Quarter the other night, as usual, and the jukebox was playing a gravelly rock 'n' roll anthem. All would have been well in Mike Badon's world, except for one thing.

Brassieres still dangled from the ceiling at the bar, which is famous for attracting uninhibited females, but the facts on the ground were these: To the patron's left was a row of police officers from New York State. To his right, three burly contractors were amusing themselves by showing each other photographs on their cellphones.

In fact, the only unattached woman within earshot was the bartender, Tara, who, Badon noted, is his cousin. He bought her drinks anyway, and tried to look at the bright side.

"If you weren't my cousin," he said, "I'd be all over you."

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Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina barreled into New Orleans, life has flowed back into the streets of this city — but in certain areas, it is a life noticeably bereft of women. City officials guess that New Orleans now has a population of 150,000 during the day and 75,000 at night, after the commuters have left.

The male-to-female ratio is most obvious in the French Quarter, where workers come to blow off steam in the evenings, but it crosses into other areas. Professional men — their wives and children settled elsewhere until the end of the semester — gather in threes and fours at local restaurants. On Friday afternoons, they leave the city by bus or car or airplane, staying away just long enough to get a taste of family life.

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