Bring Back the Schlock

One of the notable traits of our city, lets be generous and call it a "strength", is its ability to turn any aspect of its history, good, bad, or wretched, into a schlocky tourist attraction, a part of its own self-perpetuated myth. The day is not far off when the "Katrina Tours" will start rolling: shuttle buses from the Quarter to the 17th Street Canal breach, horse-drawn carriage drivers telling apocryphal stories of "twelve feet of water in the Vieux Carré", full scale replicas of decimated 9th ward homes, a wax museum depiction of a rooftop rescue. It will happen, and, when it does, I'll know we're really back.