“The Creole Tomato” is an Onion-style source of news for New Orleanians in the wake of Katrina.
This one is so insanely funny (if you’re from there) it took me five minutes to stop laughing enough that I could read it to Gina.
Thousands Desperate To Know Where
They “Got They Shoes”
Hurricane Katrina evacuees face a different world. Gone are the jobs; the houses; even the certainty of three hot meals a day; and as thousands poured into the Houston Astrodome, Red Cross volunteers became overwhelmed with the onslaught of evacuees demanding to know where they “got they shoes.”
Said one volunteer, “It’s true that many evacuees had their shoes ruined as they trampled through waist deep water, but we here at the Red Cross simply did not anticipate this level of desperation in regards to foot attire.
“Once their necessities were met, the evacuees kept demanding of us, ‘Tell me where I got my shoes.’ I would just try to reassure them that although they lost their footwear in the storm, we would do everything in our power to see to it that they received adequate replacements. But this never seems to appease them. They walk off giving us disgruntled stares.”
Oh, OK, OK.
There’s this common little good-natured scam in the tourist areas of New Orleans where a native will walk up to you and say “I bet you a dollar I can tell you where you got your shoes”.
After lots of hemming and hawing and joking and fast-talking, the tourist who falls for it is told “You got your your shoes on your feet, and you got your feet on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. Pay up.”