Entergy offers a special holiday blackout

Apparently Entergy made a mistake with their brief 90 minute blackout on Black Friday. Their contracts with the city of New Orleans and Haliburton stipulate that they must do everything in their power to discourage people from returning to communities east of the French Quarter. So last night, as soon as it began to rain, the power went out again. Fourteen hours later, it is still out. The official recorded message after reporting the outage is the same as on Friday: "We expect power to be restored Saturday December 3rd." When I got a live person on the phone, I asked about that message. "It hasn't been changed since the storm," she said. Which storm? "Katrina."

What should I do with all the food rotting in the fridge? "I can't help you with that," she said.

I was thinking of dropping it off at the nearest Entergy office. "Okay," she said.

The worst part is this: I missed the Animal Planet special on reuniting people with their pets, and an entire evening of work on my book.