Another book for Glorantha

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 23:06:18 -0700


Hi Gang,

I'm in the middle of Herbert Asbury's _The French Quarter_, about the underworld of New Orleans (he's the author of _Gangs of New York_). Great stuff in the early years under the French and Spanish, and the early American regime.

A cesspit of a town built in a swamp at the end of a long river, surrounded by savages, ignored by the far-away government, sent only the butt-ends of the army... Sound familiar? Corflu anyone?

Unfortunately, there's not the Keelboat traffic to Corflu that New Orleans got, but there's another town at the end of a river - Notchet in the Holy Country at the mouth of the Creek-Stream. The keelboats all had their resident Bully - the meanest, toughest son-of-a-gator on the boat, who alone in the crew wore a red feather in his hat. Whenever two keelboats spent the night at the same place, the bullies would have at it with any and all weapons avaliable to them. If there wasn't another keelboat tied up at the dock, they went looking for the town bully (who usually was hiding in the woods).

Early New Orleans had it's own folk heroes, like Annie Christmas, who stood 6'8" in her stocking feet, could carry three barrels off a ship (one under each arm, and one balanced on her head), who wore a necklace with a bead for each ear or nose she had bitten off a man in a fight - when she died, it was 30' long, and would have been much longer, except she only counted white men! (Mike Fink, the keelboat man, is unknown in the lower Mississippi, 'cause Annie told hi that if he ever came down she'd send him back tied under a keelboat!).

Good Stuff! Asbury is a fun author, and fills his books with both the historical and folk stories and heroes. With the success of GoNY (both movie and book) it looks like he's up for a renaissance, and I'll be there to snap up his books as they come out.

So what brought this on? John's Ducks. Who controls the river traffic on th Creek-Stream? Ducks! Combine the natural aggresiveness of these little b******s with the "Bully" tradition and you get little feathered bundles of mayhem that *everyone laughs at*. Until his kneecaps are pecked, that is (That's the standard opening move - it brings the tallfellow down to proper height, it does, and then you can stick your soggy cigar butt in his eye).

And by the way, people were getting the titters over "Snatch Breath" as a feat, what about "Good Shag" in Poveri Pondfather's Cigar Common Magic? Is sometimes a cigar *more* than a cigar?

RR
"I did not have sex with that duck!"
--Bilious Cwinton

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