Well.

I found out from Chris that our friend Marie and her family (recently of Slidel, Louisiana) are alive and staying with another friend, Adrienne, in Birmingham. That's good news. The bad news is, unsurprisingly, that they have lost everything.



I just turned on the itunes and the first song up was "Jambalaya (on the Bayou)" by Hank Williams. The second song? "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey.



The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, just had a debate with his challenger, Angela Merkel. I think he beat her pretty bad, but I'm not sure how the average German will take it. One interesting thing from the debate was that, given the chance, Merkel was unable to bring herself to comment in any way about what is happening in the US right now, whereas Schröder used it to make a point about the need for a robust and decisive government. Another thing was that Schröder clearly ruled out any chance of a coalition with the new left party (die Linke). This means he's gambling on an absolute victory. He's bold, I'll give him that.