Last night I cheered until my throat was raw.

The New Orleans Saints have won the Super Bowl!!

I just want to keep saying that.

The New Orleans Saints have won the Super Bowl!!!!

A friend reported from home that the French Quarter was “one big screaming beery orgasm.” Yeah you rite!

“It meant so much more than football,” said Bruce Nolan in the Times-Picayune.

It meant victory for a recovering city that in some places still bears the dirty water lines of Hurricane Katrina. Victory for people who lived two years in trailers. Victory for new post-Katrina friends who fell in love with New Orleans rebuilding it. Victory for New Orleanians cheering in exile from Alaska to Miami. Victory on Facebook and on Twitter. Victory on Bourbon Street, on Caffin Avenue, in Chalmette, in Lakeview and St. Tammany.

Not only that, Mitch Landrieu won the New Orleans mayoral election on Saturday, in a landslide of 66%. The countdown begins to May 31, whereafter C. Ray Asshat is exiled to the Land of Nod forever.

Not only that, it’s the last full week of Carnival, and Mardi Gras is in nine days.

This will be a very good nine days.

Today’s agenda:

1) Get up.
2) Make a pot of Community Coffee & Chicory.
3) Chill Abita Turbodog and Purple Haze.
4) Heat red beans.
5) Wait for the Super Bowl to start.

In the meantime, here’s a song to listen to, which comes from my old 1983 45rpm single. Sung by Aaron Neville, it’s “Who Dat? (History of the Saints)”, the one I posted the lyrics to the other day. I’ll leave it up for a few days. Listen, sing along, and …

WHO DAT!!!!!!!!!

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I’m sure Buddy D and Ashley are watching the game together.

In case the NFL hadn’t noticed, we’ve been singing and chanting “WHO DAT!” for years, and the first Who Dat song came along in 1983, basically a version of Aaron Neville singing “When the Saints Go Marching In” with a chorus of football players chanting “Who dat sayin’ dey gonna beat dem Saints? WHO DAT? WHO DAT?” … comme ça:

Better than that was a new song based on “The Saints” but with new lyrics, written and produced by Carlo Nuccio. I’ve got it at home on a 45rpm single but unfortunately I can’t find that anywhere in a public place where you can listen to it. Here are the lyrics, and extra points go to those who can get the references without clicking the links:

Oh when the Saints first came to town
When The Great McNutt and Morgus was around
When interest rates just had one number
That’s when that Who Dat fever came to town

Who could forget old Archie Who?
And who dat kicked twice as far with with half his shoe
And Willow Street could not believe the numbers
That came to scream and shout and whoop.

Do you recall dem Aints? Now that’s a drag
80,000 people all wearing bags
Yeah 80,000….did you hear that number
If they could just beat Atlanta I’d be glad.

Then one day along came a Bum
With some ideas that seemed to work where he come from
Well I’ll say this, he did improve the numbers
We thought for sure our day had come.

They had these rumors going round
It said dem Saints was gonna leave dat Who Dat town
But the Who Dats came out in numbers
They sure turned that idea around.

Now the Who Dats are dancing again
They do the Benson Boogie every time they win
Now everybody’s singing WHO DAT!
They know they’re gonna boogie again.

Because the New Orleans Saints are winners!
Now everybody sing along.

Oh when the Saints go marchin’ in
Oh when the Saints go marchin’ in
Oh I wanna be in dat numbah
When da Saints go marchin’ in …

WHO DAT SAYIN’ DEY GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS!
WHO DAT! WHO DAT!

Now Carlo Nuccio has given us a new Saints song, “Glory Bound,” with the stupendously fabulous Theresa Andersson on lead vocals, with Aaron Neville once again providing the “Saints” chorus. It’s available from the Louisiana Music Factory, or via download from CDBaby or iTunes. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the song will go to the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic, providing health care for hundreds of uninsured New Orleans musicians.

Preview the song below, and have a look at the official video:

Continue reading …

Oh my God. The Saints are in the Super Bowl.

I never thought I’d live to say those words.

Thing is, I don’t give a half a crap about football. I don’t follow sports. I couldn’t be any less interested. But the Saints are different. They’re not just a sports team — they’re part of the soul of the city.

We’ve been through a lot. Losing seasons in which we only won a single game all year, the “Aints” and paper bags, contentious team owners, threats to move the team out of the city, then a glancing blow from a hurricane, the failure of the levees and all that came after. Now the Saints are in the Super Bowl. It’s been such a long road, and will be so great for the city no matter what. I’m in tears here, and I don’t even give half a crap about football.

You want to see some unbridled joy? Have a look at the moment the game was won, and the reaction from one of my favorite writers and her husband, one of my favorite chefs.

Pessimists said they’d believe the Saints would get into the Super Bowl when pigs could fly. I think I just say a pig fly by my window … on its way to be turned into cochon de lait and fed to a WHO DAT NATION!

Here’s a great piece about the city and its team that ran on ESPN — you’ll have to click to watch it in another window, since for some reason they won’t let us embed it.

The Saints are in the Super Bowl. Yes, these are strange and beautiful days.