I have to confess that I can, at least somewhat, sympathize with the drunken yahoos that Bourbon Street is known for -- we too fell prey to the siren song of "drinking in public, just because you can." But I felt a little better about ourselves that we were drinking Abita Amber.

Later, I decided that I needed to try a Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's. I've had Hurricanes before, and they were terrible, but I wanted to see if they were better straight from the source. I'm glad I now know that it's just a terrible drink. Most fascinating was the industrial process by which the drink was made -- usually, even the most horrible well-drink involves a bottle at some point, but the Hurricane came from a pair of tubes straight out of a Brazil-induced nightmare.