infobong.com

Over at Slate.com, Ari Kelman has a short piece that provides historical background about New Orleans and its efforts to control the influx of water into the city. The main thing I take away from the story is the discrepancy between New Orleans' physical position that make it an ideal site for trade and the landscape that make it a difficult city to sustain. He says, "Geographers refer to this as the difference between a city's "situation"—the advantages its location offers relative to other cities—and its "site"—the actual real estate it occupies."

I took a class with Kelman when were both at OU. It was a summer American studies class emphasizing film, and the main thing I remember is his breathlessly positive comments on an essay I wrote about Buster Keaton's The General. It's still fun to see old prof's names pop up like this.