My Days In New Orleans

I am back from New Orleans and finally I got to my USB cord !

French Quarter, where our hotel was located, is the gorgeous side of New Orleans especially after Katrina. New Orleans is a unique city, where, both, in its beauty, and in its beast, I felt the unsheltered harmony of survival. With its genuinely kind and easygoing people, New Orleans forms a suitable atmosphere that allows everyone to enjoy their time, whether they are in company of boring mathematicians or not.

I spent my mornings studying in Café Beignet in Royal Street, Which is full of Antique Shops and Art Galleries, ordering Beignet (a kind of doughnuts, that we call, Pirashky in Iran) and in afternoons I went around taking photos and talking to locals about New Orleans. I reserved the nights to be with friends. We walked every night along the crowded Bourbon Street; I do not recommend Bourbon St. during the day since it stinks.

Of course it is good to be home, nonetheless I’ve missed New Orleans already. These are some pictures out of four hundred photos that I took last week in New Orleans.

Louisiana Superdome, 2007
It was used as a Shelter during Katrina disaster.

Café Beignet in Royal Street, New Orleans, 2007
The gray cat waiting for charity. I named her Chimney.

Café Beignet in Royal Street, 2007
The lovely gril reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood.


The view of Saint Louis Cathedral from Jackson square, 2007

Bourbon Street, Night view, 2007

Bourbon Street, Night view,2007

To be continued…The next post will be about the French Market and the Lower Ninth Ward.

PS. (I) Regarding the Anonymous who said...

WOW! who says that mathematicians are boring! If they were, why would they hold their meetings in New Orleans! :)

H&J

You are right; New Orleans is a very interesting place, but holding a math conference in a fun place does not make the attendees less boring. Nonetheless, I agree that the definition of being boring or interesting is relative, and of course if one is a mathematician, it won’t be fun to consider oneself as a boring person. So mathematicians should think that they are interesting. Now that I think more, I know some mathematicians who are really interesting creatures, in fact I am married to one of them.

Here is my theory for this matter :

1 Non-Mathematician can handle at most 2 Mathematicians. But if the number of mathematicians is greater than 2, no matter how many of us (non-Mathematicians) are there, we will lose.

Corollary: if |{mathematicians}|> 2 then they behave as Dementors.


PS. (II)

Anonymous said...

Well, we think there are many counterexamples to your lemma! :) Note that the measure of math words we used ( in our New Orleans gatherings with you and Hossein ) was almost zero! Actually, you were the one who was more interested in talking about math stories! :)

H&J

1/13/2007 2:59 AM

My dear Anonymous [Tea Jana Ghoorban ] you are really in the state of denial.

First I need to clarify that I never said a conversation that is using math words or moreover any math related conversation, is boring. In fact they are really interesting. What I said is that Mathematicians Are Boring. And it is the saddest part, since no matter what they are doing, whether solving a very exciting Math problem or gossiping about one another, they, themselves are boring. And of course it would be really interesting to hear your Counterexamples to my Lemma. Since you really did not present any.

Answering this question may help us to understand My Point.

Frankly, Did I bore you when I told you guys some of my math stories?

If your answer is leaning toward NO, my point is proven; Talking about math is not boring so It depends who is talking about it and (Most of) Mathematicians do make any conversation boring.

And if your answer is Yes and I did bore you by my share of math stories - even though, I usually do not make any effort to hold an interesting conversation - I feel bad.

Anyhow, [Tea Bala Mi Sar] New Orleans is so full of joy that being with a group of (Mostly) boring mathematicians does not spoil it.