As I sit writing this, we are four days away from the Saints vs. Rams in the NFC Championship Game. The weather outside is dreary and cold, but the spirit in New Orleans is completely immune to any attempts to bring us down. Fingers, toes, every appendage in this city is crossed and you can be sure that this Sunday, every little game day superstition will be followed, no matter how ridiculous.
It’s the Saints. It’s the Super Bowl. It’s king cake hitting office breakrooms. It’s Mardi Gras plans being made. It’s Jazz Fest announcements. For the live theatre lovers (like me), it’s Hamilton arriving in March. Basically, in Southeast Louisiana, we have plenty of good thoughts to keep us warm in these colder months.
This is a city of warmth, and not just the kind that keeps you firmly in flip flops and sno-balls six months out of the year. It’s a city where strangers will sometimes start talking to you as if you’re their close friend (something that definitely threw me off for a while). It’s a city with its own language, its own music, its own food, its own speed, and hospitality — both inside and outside our restaurants and hotels — that just can’t be touched.
When you come here, as millions do each year, all of those things either speak to your soul in a way that nowhere else does, or they don’t.
Ratings pop up all the time praising places like Minnesota and Iowa and Nebraska for low crime and ease of living, but having lived in the North for years, I can tell you that no matter how high the scores, it’s just not enough.
Happy Mardi Gras y’all and happy reading,
Kimberley Singletary
Managing Editor
Kimberley@BizNewOrleans.com
