ROX #94: Hangover Cures

B: ROX #94 is a bittersweet episode for me. We shot 80-odd interviews on Bourbon Street on one afternoon in the summer of 2005, about a month before Katrina. That footage symbolizes happier times to me now — New Orleans before the flood.

Of course many of the people on Bourbon Street are not New Orleanians but tourists from out of town. But many are locals, on their way to or from work or just goofing off. See if you can tell who's on vacation and who's native. And then wonder who's still in New Orleans, who lost everything in the flood, who maybe even died. We may never know.

Adding to the bittersweet flavor is the fact that the friends who helped shoot that footage were dispersed by the disaster, and it would appear they're not coming back.

Originally we'd planned to interview Dr. Jeffrey Weise, perhaps the nation's leading expert on the subject of the alcohol hangover. He'd agreed to do the interview, then apparently got cold feet. We were thinking of doing an interview with a sock puppet instead, but then Katrina hit. By all accounts Dr. Wiese served with distinction in the crisis that followed the storm. We didn't feel like poking fun at him anymore, and besides, the focus of the episode had shifted.