Largest King Cake

Guinness Book of World Record's
Largest King Cake

Haydel's Bakery, a locally owned bakery for three generations, baked two huge king cakes that wrapped around the entire Superdome.  An official from the Guinness Records was there to measure and present the bakery with the new record.  The previous record was held in Houston, but one of the owners of Haydel's Bakery said the record should be held in New Orleans, where king cakes are known.  It took them days to bake.  They arrived at midnight the night before to start setting it up.  Anyone could purchase a ticket for a piece of the king cake, and all proceeds went to the Susan G Komen Foundation.



Shameful, but true about NOLA

Roads in the New Orleans area are among the worst in the nation and cost drivers who use them an additional $681 a year for vehicle maintenance, $279 a year more than the national average, according to a study released Wednesday.

Jena Street between South Claiborne and Willow Street uptown was photographed this month. 

TRIP, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that researches, evaluates and distributes economic and technical data on highway and transportation issues, ranks the New Orleans area sixth in the nation among areas of 500,000 or more people for poor road conditions.

The study said that 55 percent of the New Orleans area's roads are in poor condition, 18 percent are medium condition, 14 percent are in fair condition and 13 percent in good condition.

SHAME!!!

At least we're not the worst ...

49ers 22 - 25 Saints

Go Shockey!

SAINTS 2-0

Shazzam!

Drew Brees' new chant rocks the Superdome

Saints 14-9 Vikings

The season begins . . .with a WIN

Jackson Square Cam

Live Webcam
of New Orleans
in front of St. Louis Cathedral

http://www.nola.com/jacksonsquarecam/

You don't see the full square,
but at least you get some live glimpses of the crowds.

Krewe of NFL Kickoff

This is the seventh consecutive year the NFL has saluted the Super Bowl champions with the opening game in their stadium on a Thursday in primetime.

EA Sports is honoring the 2010 season’s opening night with a pre game parade two and a half hours before kickoff. Thursday, September 9th, the parade to kick off the Saints' nationally televised season opener will begin at 5 p.m. and will be similar in size to February's Super Bowl parade, with seven floats and eight marching bands. It will begin at Elysian Fields Avenue, proceeding down Esplanade Avenue to the river, turn on North Peters Streer to Decatur Street past Jackson Square, back to North Peter, and across Canal and Poydras streets to Tchoupitoulas Street.

New Orleans music acts such as the Rebirth and Soul Rebels brass bands perform aboard the seven floats, four of which are sponsored by EA Sports, VISA, Pepsi Max and Snickers.  The floats will also feature famous former NFL players. Though officials have not named precisely who will be in the parade, various events around town have booked appearances from Marcus Allen, Jerome Bettis, Floyd Little and Thurman Thomas, as well as former Saints favorites Morten Anderson, Joe Horn, Michael Lewis, Dalton Hilliard, Pat Swilling and Willie Roaf. It is expected that at least some of them will ride.

The NBC free concert will feature performances by Grammy Award-winning artists Taylor Swift and Dave Matthews Band, and will be broadcast live from Jackson Square, in the French Quarter across from the cathedral.  The 60-minute pregame show (begins at 6:30 PM CST) leads into the season opener between the Saints and the Minnesota Vikings at the Superdome.  Kickoff opens up the 2010 NFL season at 7:30 PM CST.

Thursday's game will be a rematch of the NFC Championship Game on January 24 (whoo-hoo, my Birthday!), which the Saints won 31-28 in overtime to advance to Super Bowl XLIV, where the Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 for the franchise's first World Championship.

Kern, the NFL and Saints team officials stressed that the pregame concert and parade were not designed with ticket holders in mind. Fans run the risk of not getting to their Superdome seats in time for championship-banner ceremonies preceding the showdown with the Vikings if they also go to the parade and concert.  The NFL has little sympathy for game-goers who can't check out the parade or concert because of the tight scheduling. NFL Vice President of Events Frank Supovitz said in August that the goal was to create a celebration for all of New Orleans, not just the 70,000-plus people "lucky enough to have tickets to the game."

The parade and concert will be televised on NFL Network and NBC. Lastly, inside the Superdome some time between 6:30 p.m. and kickoff, officials will unveil the division, conference and Super Bowl championship banners the Saints won last season. Enjoy!!!!

Are you ready for some football?

Workers set up staging on Decatur St. at Jackson Square Tuesday, September 7, 2010 as the NFL prepares for the opening day concert to lead off the league's 2010 season opener in the Louisiana Superdome against the Saints and the Vikings.

NBC describes its approach to this game as Olympics-level attention, for which the network and its umbrella of cable sibling networks plan all-day-and-then-some coverage.Reporters for CNBC and MSNBC are in the Crescent City.  Brian Williams, Matt Lauer and Al Roker are here (again).

New Orleans Saints TV coverage

Planned coverage for Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010

5 a.m. "Wake Up with Al" -- Al Roker hosts his national weather show live from New Orleans. The Weather Channel.

7 a.m. "Today" -- Roker and Matt Lauer host live from Jackson Square. Locals are welcome to hang out and watch the taping. WDSU.

2 p.m. Fox-8 News Saints Tailgate Speical. Four consecutive hours. WVUE.

3 p.m. New Orleans Saints on 6 Celebration and Countdown to Kickoff. Three-and-a-half hours in a row; former Saints coach Jim Mora is a guest commentator. WDSU.

5:30 p.m. "NBC Nightly News" -- Brian Williams will anchor from New Orleans, but the broadcast will be pre-empted locally by WDSU's pregame.

6 p.m. "NFL Live" -- Trey Wingo's daily show will have live reports from New Orleans. ESPN.

6:30 p.m. "Fourth Down on 4: Eye on the Saints"

6:30 p.m. "NFL Opening Kickoff" -- NBC's setup show, to include coverage of pregame festivities in New Orleans. WDSU and NFL Network.

7:30 p.m. Banner ceremony and kickoff. WDSU.

10:30 p.m. "Titulares y Mas" -- Telemundo's late-night show, airing at 10:30 p.m. on Spanish-language digital channel WGLA (Cox Communications channel 16), will originate from New Orleans.

12:05 a.m. "Access Hollywood" -- The syndicated entertainment program will feature New Orleans, with reporting by Maria Menounos. WGNO.

10:35 p.m. Friday: "The Tonight Show" -- Correspondent Jim Norton will be in New Orleans today to gather fan interview material for Friday's show. WDSU.Former Saints coach Jim Mora joins WDSU's coverage.

My latest addiction . . .

Lark Rise to Candleford is a British television costume drama series, adapted by the BBC from Flora Thompson's trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels about the English countryside, published between 1939 and 1943.

The series is set in the small Oxfordshire hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town of Candleford towards the end of the 19th century.  Lark Rise to Candleford chronicles the daily lives of farm workers, craftsmen, and gentry, observing the characters in loving, boisterous, and competing communities of families, rivals, friends, and neighbours.

The narrative is seen through the eyes of a teenage girl, Laura Timmins, as she leaves Lark Rise to start a new life under the wing of her cousin, the independent and effervescent Dorcas Lane, who is Post Mistress at the local Post Office in Candleford. Through these two characters, viewers experience the force of friendship as Laura and Dorcas see each other through the best and worst of times.

I had no idea this series was out there, but I was on a BBC mini-series fix lately and came across the recommendation for it.  So far, there are three seasons out with the fourth coming out the Spring of 2011.  It's a nice story of small town life set in a time of immense change full of local troubles, romance, and the joys of life.  Plus, you can easily watch it on YouTube.