Could you please settle an argument? Does the mail get delivered in Orleans Parish on Mardi Gras?

Curious

Dear Curious,

Poor Old Blake. It seems as though all I get to do is settle arguments, and then the loser ends up buying dinner or drinks for somebody else! However, this time everybody wins. It is true that some post offices close on Mardi Gras, but not all of them. So some residents have bills waiting for them while they are out catching beads, but others get a day off. Hey Blake, How did Rampart Street get its name? Brent Dear Brent,

When Francisco Luis Hector, Baron de Carondelet was the Spanish governor of Louisiana from 1791 to 1797, he strengthened two of the forts that already protected the city and built two new ones: Fort St. Charles and Fort St. Ferdinand. He also added a rampart -- a fortification consisting of an embankment, often with a parapet on top -- at the back of town. The rampart is, of course, gone, but now we have Rampart Street where it used to be.

Hey Blake,

I submit a rebuttal to the claim that Canal Street is the widest street/boulevard in America. I have been to New Orleans many times, and have found the city to be unique and charming. Canal Street is indeed impressive. However, in your article you cited the width of Canal Street as 171 feet. But Commonwealth Avenue in Boston has an overall width of approximately 200 feet from building face to building face.

Don Kelly

Dear Don,

Your 'Comm Ave.,' as the locals call it, is indeed a wide street. However, in my response to the question about Canal Street, I said that it is the widest main street in America. Canal Street is not just a street; it is the street that separates uptown from downtown. And this was and is an important distinction in the history of New Orleans. While the city was waiting for the canal that was never dug, folks on both sides began calling the median strip between the roadways the 'neutral ground,' the neutral territory that separated the French in the Vieux Carre from the Americans in the Faubourg St. Mary. Since that time, the center of every two-lane street in town has been called the 'neutral ground,' a term used in no other American city.

While Commonwealth Avenue is an important and beautiful street, no one -- even in Boston -- would say that it is Boston's main street. In fact, my friends from Boston say that there are many important streets in Boston, but they would call Washington Avenue the main street if they had to name one. Even the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau declined to claim that Commonwealth Avenue is the main street of your fine city. Therefore, I stand on my claim that Canal Street -- by an Act of Congress -- is the widest main street in America.

Hey Blake,

Below I attach a scan of a poster for The Doors concert at A Warehouse on Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans. It was the group's last public performance ever with Jim Morrison, who died months later in Paris. As you can see, the date of the concert is Saturday, Dec. 12, and would have taken place in 1970. That's a few weeks before the date you said was the first concert held at A Warehouse in your column of Dec. 14, 2004. I'm wondering if anyone has any photographs -- or better yet, an audience recording -- of this historic concert, which also featured Kansas in the lineup?

Shane K. Bernard

Dear Shane,

Perhaps you might like to look at that column again. In it I wrote that the first concert at A Warehouse took place on Jan. 30, 1970. That's about 11 months before The Doors arrived for their concert. I know I'm old, but I still remember that January comes way before December.