I used to be guilded with a guy that lived in New Orleans. Back in the EverQuest Luclin days, we grouped for experience and raids almost every night and he would often tell amusing anecdotes of the action outside his tiny, little apartment near the French Quarter … the police activity, the public urination, the roaming bums, the fem flashers, the street urchins, the trannies.

He had chosen to live in New Orleans after college, he told us, because it was the most interesting city he could imagine, and I have no doubt that it was all that and more. We parted ways in EQ after a time, as often happens in gaming — no hard feelings, nothing personal, but people move on, never to be heard from again. And so it goes.

I’ve been to New Orleans many times myself, mostly for business, a couple times by choice. No city, that I know, seemed so full of possibility: the dark alleys, the brillantly lit mansions, the ancient cemeteries, the dirty drinking dives, the tiny restaurant counters, the buzzing neon, the rueful music.

Wandering the streets at night, even vampires seemed possible.

It was with a great deal of sadness that I watched New Orleans crumble today. Whether it will ever rise from its knees again, no one can say. I surely hope so; I fear maybe not.

Then again, in New Orleans, anything is possible.