Ken Foster's Blog, page 2

Leaving New Orleans, heading back to New York

Everyone has a complicated relationship with New Orleans, and I'm no exception.  For the past few years, I've found the level of difficulty in living here to outweigh the benefits--because it is incredibly difficult here.  The weather is difficult.  The economy is difficult.  The degree of denial that people require in order to survive is difficult.  But when I was offered a job in New York a few months ago, my first thought was not relief but regret.  Still, I'm...

#FINDSUGARNYC

The past two weeks I've been consumed by two different lost dog stories--consumed to the point of
The latest poster for #FindSugarNYCsitting alone and crying as I scoured the Internet for news of Freckles, lost in New Orleans, or Sugar in New York.  This might seem unsurprising: I'm a dog guy, after all.  But after a while one can become numb to all of the dogs in distressing situations.  Our social media feeds are filled with people passing posts along like hot potatoes, as if...

I'm on the New York Times Bestsellers List ...Seven Years Later.

A few months ago, when it was announced that the New York Times would be expanding their bestsellers lists to include monthly specialized lists including one for books about animals, I thought: "I wish they'd had that a few years ago." Because a few years ago I published several books--I'm a Good Dog in 2012 and The Dogs Who Found Me in 2006-- that did quite well, appeared on regional lists and certainly would have ended up on the new Times list if such a thing had existed. I also wondered at...

Check out these amazing shots from our Lilly the Deer project

This weekend I'll be working on the text for our Lilly the Deer book project, so I thought I'd send out these preview images from my project partner, photographer Traer Scott.  Lilly and her family are pretty private folks, so we weren't sure how things would work out once we got there.  Would she be camera shy?  Or bored? Lilly and Traer quickly bonded, and I was left on the sidelines.  Story of my life. But look at these great photos--just a hint at what was capture...

What the CDC Really Says About Dog Bites and Pit Bulls

The actual conclusion on the CDC's report on dog bite fatalities. Having a journalist for a father doesn't necessarily guarantee that you have the skills or the interest in being a journalist yourself.  For example, look at Charlotte Alter.  In recent piece for Time Magazine, Charlotte, desperate for traffic on a story with her byline, decided to write about pit bulls.  Her hook was the now disproven story of a family who was (but actually wasn't) refused service because o...

Lilly the Deer: a collaboration with photographer Traer Scott

When I was a child growing up in rural Pennsylvania, it wasn't unusual to see a deer. Often they were in the woods just off the road. It was rare to see just one in those cases: there was usually a small group of them, startled as my own family whizzed past in a car. Or they might come wandering into our yard, looking for fruit, which they found on the trees of our neighbors. We had a huge picture window in our living room, and my mother would call me over: "Look what's in Mrs. Harvey's yard,...

A return to the industry that I love...

When I was teaching full-time, and getting paid part-time, I used to joke that I could probably make more money working at Starbucks. Turns out it's not a joke. A few months ago, after eight months working at an at-home call center for AARP (which is a whole 'nother story), I applied to work at Starbucks and discovered that, between the tips, the health insurance, the retirement contributions and other benefits, I can, in fact, make more than I did when I was teaching. Not that that is saying...

The benefits of living in New Orleans

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A lesson for developers in what not to do

I was talking with some architects last week about the ongoing Perez APC debacle in the lower ninth ward.  I wish someone had been documenting this wreck from the beginning, because it would be a great teaching film for would-be developers: do not try any of the tactics you see here! And the professionals I was speaking too agreed--they had been forwarding coverage to their colleagues in other cities, in awe at the stubborn, clumsy disrespect Perez continues to demonstrate in a community...

Sentimentality in the East Village

Sunday afternoon I walked around the old neighborhood, much of which is unrecognizable, leaving me, and even some of my friends who still live there, to wonder what used to be in that spot.  "I think all of this just opened last week," my friend said of a strip of shops on Avenue B.  And she wasn't completely joking.  It was a relief to find some things still remain.


This the building I used to live in.  Apartment 3D.  I had a choice of 2D and 3D and even though it me...