The New York Times looks at Randy Newman's "Louisina 1927" and its evolution via the folk song tradition. While the song's prominence after Hurriane Katrina was hardly surprising, it did strike me as slightly odd, or ironic, that a song about people being flooded to save New Orleans, or New Orleans' reputation, would be coopted to be about the destruction of New Orleans. But as this article shows, that's to be expected, given the towns tradition of reinventing songs. And certainly the callousness of authority to the destruction is the same.

In other Randy Newman news, apparently he can't outrun the damn paparazzi. LEAVE RANDY ALONE! Actually, though, this makes me wonder if I shouldn't leave a piano in my front yard, maybe it will attract Randy Newman.

The cases against three New Orleans doctors charged with murder have been closed, after the grand jury refused to indict. I thank the grand jury for standing up against this ridiculous prosecution, and hope the civil suits facing the doctors are similarly dropped. As I've said before, if their was a crime here, it was abandoning the patients for weeks without food or water, not administering a drug, and as far as I can tell, the people charged were the caregivers, not those in charge of administering the evacuation. I'm glad the doctors no longer need to fear the criminal case.