The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: October fifth, communing with the spirits of New Orleans.

Cradled in a moist nest inside a sweeping crescent of the wide Mississippi, the city of New Orleans is perpetually damp. Water penetrates everything, from the humid air and damp soil, to the creeping vines and crumbling old brick, to the rivers of sweat that flow from the brows of its human inhabitants. Roofs leak, books mildew, solid forms melt and warp with time, dreams dissolve into reality. In New Orleans, everything rots, but nothing ever truly dies.

Founded by the French, ceded to the Spanish, sold to America, New Orleans is haunted by royalty and rogues. Its cemeteries are packed with pirates, aristocrats, adventurers, ladies of the night and numerous citizens done in by passion. Its licentiousness has liberated legions of conventioneers, partyseekers, salesmen and honeymooners. It's a place where voodoo's still practiced and which, if Anne Rice is accurate, harbors more vampires than you can shake a stake at.

Poet, author, NPR commentator and long time New Orleans resident, Andrei Codrescu recently decided to get in touch with the darker spirits of his adopted city. He relates his experience in the latest issue of National Geographic Traveler, a supporter of our program.

Starting at the House of the Rising Sun and ending in a death suite at the Hotel Provincial, Codrescu gets into New Orleans' haunted heart, shedding his own ironic, appreciative light on places where the undeservedly famous and undeservedly anonymous lived and died. He reveals a shabby but chic city that believes in life after death and where any errant spirit will feel right at home.

FMI For guided tours of New Orleans historic tombs contact
Save our Cemeteries 504-525-3377 or www.saveourcemeteries.org; Cemetery/Voodoo Tour 504-947-2120 or www.tourneworleasm.com; Haunted History Tours 504-861-2727 or 888-6444-6787.

For information on New Orleans Halloween celebrations 10/22 to 11/1, call 800-672-6124 or www.neworleanscvb.com

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