Tragedy!

Douglas Schantz was a Houston energy executive who, like Miss Ginger, loved the City of New Orleans and travelled there often. That's probably about as much as he and Miss G have in common: the love of a city and the spirit it represents. But really, isn't that enough?

The Houston Chronicle began following his story early Friday morning, when he didn't return to his hotel from a French Quarter bar crawl with his colleagues. For 4 days, police, private eyes, and coworkers combed the French Quarter trying to find anyone who might have seen him, or knew his whereabouts. Many suspected foul play, and hate against New Orleans spewed forth on the Chronicle Blogs about what a dangerous city it was, and how certainly he had met his fate at the hands of some evildoers.

Turns out, New Orleans is not the hell pit they imagined. Even in it's antiquity, the French Quarter is rife with surveillance cameras, and over the course of time, investigators were able to track his movement through the French Quarter. The last camera image of him shows his approach to the banks of the Mississippi, in a restricted area near the docks of the Steamboat Natchez. He never reappeared in the 4 hours of tape that followed.

Today, his body was found in the Mississippi river. No signs of foul play. No suicide note. No reason to think anything other than the guy got drunk, stumbled to the river, and fell in. Such a tragedy, really. Miss Ginger wonders where he thought he was going? And why he violated the restricted area. It's really sad, and Miss G's heart goes out to his family, friends, and coworkers. Really, just a tragic accident.

Yet, Miss G can't help but find herself angered at all the ASSHATS on Chron.com who had to leave comments about "the dangers of New Orleans." Apparently the most dangerous thing about New Orleans these days is that they overserve drunk people.

My heart breaks for his family, his friends, and his company. And my heart breaks for New Orleans.