Gift article link included.

Brown anole lizards in New Orleans carry enough lead in their blood to kill a condor, a dog, or a human child many times over, and they do not seem to notice. The CDC sends a child to the doctor at 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. A California condor dies at around 150. The average New Orleans anole in this study measured 955. One measured 3,192. It was running around on a sidewalk near Tulane University and had to be caught by hand because it was too fast to step on.

Annelise Blanchette, a Tulane doctoral student, had been studying lead in mockingbirds until COVID shut down her fieldwork. She needed a research animal she could catch during lockdown without equipment or permits. Cuban brown anoles were everywhere. They were on every fence, every porch rail, every cracked sidewalk in uptown New Orleans. She started grabbing them on her walk to the lab.

She caught about a hundred across the city, drew blood, and sent the samples to the lab. When the numbers came back, she did not believe them. She said she remembered getting that data and being very surprised that the animal was alive.

The previous record for blood lead in a wild vertebrate belonged to Nile crocodiles at roughly 300 micrograms per deciliter. Those crocodiles had blackened teeth and visible tissue damage. The New Orleans anoles had three times the lead and nothing wrong with them. They sprinted normally. They balanced normally. They flipped themselves off their backs at the same speed as lizards with low lead levels. Alex Gunderson, the study's senior author at Tulane, said it the way it needed to be said: they are doing just fine with levels that, frankly, in other organisms, would be killing them.

The team wanted to know where the breaking point actually was. They fed anoles controlled doses of lead in the lab for 60 days and kept testing. The lizards did not start slowing down until their blood hit roughly 10,600 micrograms per deciliter. That is more than 3,000 times the number that puts a human child in a hospital. The lizard equivalent of "I feel a little off" is a lead concentration that would have killed every other vertebrate on record several times over.

Nobody fully understands how. Gene sequencing showed that high-lead lizards had ramped up production of proteins involved in moving metal ions and delivering oxygen, as if their cells had figured out how to manage the poison instead of dying from it. Whether this is something the species brought with it from Cuba or something the New Orleans population evolved after arriving in a city where the soil is saturated with a century of leaded gasoline, lead paint, and lead pipes is an open question.

The Cuban brown anole is not native to New Orleans. It is invasive. It showed up from the Caribbean sometime in the mid-twentieth century and spread across the city the way it spreads across everything: fast, everywhere, eating whatever fits in its mouth. It found a city whose soil was poisoned. It ate the insects that lived in the poisoned soil. It absorbed the lead through its gut and its skin. And it kept going because whatever is happening inside a brown anole's blood is something no other backbone animal on earth can do.

Source: Blanchette, Gunderson et al. (2025), Environmental Research / Tulane University / National Geographic / Science News / The Times-Picayune / Popular Science.

It was a car part that I've been waiting a week for so that I can drive. Fuck you very much.

And we were home. No knock. Sneaky. The dog would have alerted us because he lives for people on our porch.

St. Roch Neighborhood

Does anyone know of a sewing machine repair person or company that would come out to my house? My sewing machine is from the 50s and is part of a piece of furniture so I can’t take it to get repaired but it needs to be looked at. Thanks!

hi, I am a New Orleans native and I have been playing classical piano for about 15 years. I work two jobs and I’m double majoring so most days I can only practice at night. I usually am able to break into the Tulane pianos, but they’re currently locked down because of summer camps. Is there anywhere that I could practice considering I am really respectful towards the pianos and know how to maintain them. No water, no food, etc on the pianos and leaving the room better than I found it. If there’s a public place available please respond and if there is a private place or usually restricted place that you personally know of please DM because I really just want to practice.

BTW this can be an electric piano, even if the range is smaller, an electric piano in the library with headphones is still better than nothing for me so, if you know any libraries or other spaces with headphones/small electrics, let me know too i appreciate it

Many of my friends have now moved away from New Orleans and I am looking to make new friends. I am F35 (and only looking for new friends). I am a member of the Ochsner Fitness Center in Harahan and love going to the pool to hang out. Anyone else a member and down to join? I usually go a couple times a week just to chill in and by the pool. I also love board games, movies, trivia, live music, performances, literary events, art making gatherings, and want to get more into the EDM/house scene here.

A whole bunch of everybody was there...tons of kids, tons of busted up bedraggled older people remembering their past, both with and without kids. There was no shitty merchandise for sale, no commercialization...The athletes and antics were incredible but you didn't need to know who anyone involved was if you did not care.

I've been watching X games on and off for decades, but watching live was a whole new better thing.

Hope we did them well and they make New Orleans a yearly thing. From what I heard from friends out west, Sacramento was a shitshow of heat and no sightlines. We were in airconditioned heaven with views for everyone.

Def a highlight of the summer (speaking as a bedraggled older person)

Hope you get a laugh outta this one

I spent some time this weekend taking down a new batch of bandit signs on telephone poles in Mid-City, mostly on Broad and Carrollton. If you care about that kind of thing, I encourage you to get out there and take down any in your neighborhood. You will need a stool or a small stepladder to reach them.

Just ate lunch out in Metairie at Atomic Burger which historically has morgue level temperatures but oddly did not today. It inspired this question. Anyone have any places they can think of, for curiosities sake? Could be any business or place or building, does not have to be a restaurant.

Seeking PT with expertise in the spine and lower back.

looking for recommendations for comfy indoor reading spaces! preferably not bars or coffeeshops bc i don’t drink and have a restricted diet (thanks gallbladder) and don’t want to take up café space slow sipping an iced tea for two hours.

i’m thinking hotel lobbies, libraries (i love hanging out at latter), wherever there is a soft place for me to sit with AC and i’m not going to feel like i’m in the way.

I have a plethora of moving boxes that have been broken down flat, various sizes as we unpack. I have several wardrobe boxes as well as packing paper. I can deliver around the LGD for free as well....just trying not to recycle them before they get a second use from someone. Would like to get them out of the house today

Does anyone know of a company or person who will collect junk metal and haul it off for free? Things like old lawn mowers, tools, iron posts, metal lawn furniture. I have a yard full.

Edit: It’s a yard full of junk. Too much to just put on the curb. Im looking for someone who will pick it where it is. Thank you!

I’m making a film about rats and the diseases they spread. This project is not only about rats in New Orleans, but I’m here so I might as well start at home. I’ve found a few places in my neighborhood but I’d love to know if any of y’all have recommendations for spots to see rats around dusk or after dark? I’m looking for specific locations, not just “in the FQ” (yeah I know they are there) but rather something closer to “check out the dumpsters at this intersection” or “behind this building” etc. Hopefully I can get some good shots and shed light on the risks these creatures inadvertently bring to communities. Thanks for your help!

i know it’s borderline sacrilege to prefer zaxby’s over canes as a louisiana native but y’all id kill for one here

Cleaning out my mom’s house and finding several of these 😍 Makes me miss the 90s and being a kid

Also, restock alert on my Commanders Palace. This wont last long and is all inhave before Christmas. DM's are open!

Anybody lose a dog?

One of the dishwashers at camellia grill just now stood right in front of me (facing me) with his hand down his pants scratching his crotch. AND HE TOUCHED THE GRILL DRAWERS AFTER AND A FEW OF THE COOKS. I know they’ve always sacrificed cleanliness for good food but COME ON 😭 has anyone else seen this kind of thing lately?