On Tuesday morning, I drove an open-hearted, fuschia-haired writer and literary blogger, Carolyn Kellogg, around New Orleans. Maud Newton sent her to me. Carolyn's on the road and she called Monday to say she was in town for the night. So we took off to look at the flooded neighborhoods and to talk.

Today the interview she did with me is on the Los Angeles Times book blog Jacket Copy. I hope I don't sound like a numbed out fool. We were talking intently when we turned into the Lower Ninth Ward and then my brain froze. I hadn't been down there in a couple of months, and to see a neighborhood vanquished - and its people - freezes my brain.

Carolyn's driving from Pitt where she just finished grad school back to LA where she lives, and blogging from the road. I put the press on her to move to New Orleans, buy a shotgun and teach high school, because that's what I do when I meet someone I like who doesn't live here but maybe could. I want to capture the good people who come through town and keep them here to help us rebuild. But she loves her city, too.