Novelist Mark Childress, a part-time resident of the Big Easy, names off some of the great things about New Orleans. Here's a few:

1. The turtle soup at Galatoire's is presented in a white porcelain tureen, then ladled into your bowl by a waiter who reveals with a wicked smile that the turtle's name was Fred.

3. Nowhere else in the country do so many Roman Catholic churches coexist peacefully with so many voodoo shops.

10. Locals go to the Maple Leaf and Tipitina's (been there!! - BD) to hear music. Also to Frenchmen Street, a cluster of 10 or 12 small bars and clubs featuring, on any given night, 10 or 12 kinds of music, about 8 of which will be funky. (The other four will be too loud.) Usually at the better places there's a Neville involved, or a Marsalis.

20. Piety Street is one block over from Desire. Not a long walk at all.