Ignorant Filthy Rats

Carnival and preparations for Mardi Gras are keeping me too busy to write, so instead I thought I’d highlight some comments I received a few days ago.

Cast your memory back. Long-time readers will remember my letter to Paul Curcuru which I posted in 2006, regarding a certain abandoned grocery and the rodent population therein.

So the other night an anonymous person left the following note on that post:

I was a friend of the curcuru’s for many years; the store was owned by Joe Cucuru but was sold by his sons after he died. I believe they sold the property to a Vietnamese family.

[For the record: No. Paul Curcuru was the property owner, and may still be for all I know. The store was being rented to a Vietnamese proprietor before the flood put them out of business.]

Twenty minutes later, the same person left a comment on my follow-up post from 2008:

people living in new orleans are ignorant filthy rats anyway. you should feel right at home.

A couple minutes later, he left a second comment on the same post:

people who live in New Orleans are filthy rats anyway,whats the problem?

Apparently he tired of anonymity at that point, because this third comment bore the name Phillip Weiman.

Thank you, Mr. Weiman, for demonstrating exactly what I meant when I mentioned the “outpouring of internet-hatred” against New Orleans a couple weeks ago. Like I said then, we’ve heard it all before. We’ve read it all before. It doesn’t even faze us any more.

Happy Mardi Gras!