the galileo observer - Galileo Academy of Science & Technology

Available in softcover from PublishAmerica –- $19.95. For further information, contact theauthor: ajcompagno@yahoo.com.Ed. Note: Tony guarantees Lions a good read. As for the future, Tony says, readers can lookforward to a collection of stories that should elicit memories of a time gone by._______________________________________________________________________________________________TravelNew Orleans SnapshotsA cool Monday morning in the French Quarter, which is three times larger thanNorth Beach . . . a multi-colored cat that is camouflaged among the antiques onRoyal Street greets me . . . the Monteleone Hotel where Hemingway, Faulkner,Capote, Tennessee Williams and Eudora Welty stayed. Its Carousel Bar is still anattraction. Five years after Katrina, the Quarter is undisturbed. The locals areproud of their undefeated football Saints, shouting “Ho, Ho, Ho, Ten and 0!” TheOmni Orleans which was The Royal Orleans, where I stayed on two consecutiveweekends over 40 years ago. The 7’5” doorman is gone. This was the hotel whereall the movie stars and celebrities stayed. Brennan’s -- one of the few trulyunforgettable meals I have had – poached salmon – the other being duck a l’orangeat Aventino in Caracas. Breakfast at Mother’s is as it always has been – authenticand generous and always a waiting line outside and inside (like The Pantry in L. A.).Old men reading books in their taxis, waiting for a fare outside the elegant WindsorCourt Hotel.The trolley through the Garden District, past Loyola and Tulane Universities andAnne Rice’s former house, to Commander’s Palace, the restaurant where EmerilLagasse and other noted chefs got their first start. A menu so large it wouldn’t fit inyour suitcase. On a previous visit, the wine manager took me on a tour of the winecellar and the entire restaurant, now owned by the Brennan family, and introducedme to Sonoma County’s Rochioli wines.Back to the Quarter – the Martin Lawrence Gallery, where I bought my originalPicasso several years ago. On Bourbon Street, a silver-coasted street man with asilver-coated alligator in his hand. The man is real, the alligator not. And thejazz . . . all that jazz! Coffee and beignets at Café du Monde. I bump into Brendawho owns her own fabulous Cajun restaurant on Polk Street in S. F. (she’s visitingfamily). We exchange notes on the best fried chicken and the best po’ boy sandwich.Oysters and more oysters on the half shell – “One dozen, please!” at Acme OysterHouse, another New Orleans institution where Curtis, the bartender, pours me anAbita draft and discusses sports intelligently. Thanksgiving at The Court of TwoSisters for the jazz brunch. Pat O’Brien’s – a Reba McEntire look-a-like playing akiller piano and singing Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, etc. in the U. S.’s #1 volumebar.