It was another hot day for biking, but the afternoon ride ended at R.’s delightful 50th birthday party at a pool.  I was hot and sweaty when I got there, and the heated pool was not quite as refreshing as I’d hoped, but the party was lots of fun and the birthday girl looked amazing.  After the party I took myself to dinner and some light reading, followed by a ride to S.’s house for a surprising movie.  On my road home I saw this fantastic sign for “New Orleans’ Original Downtown Quiznos Sub” at Baronne and Union.  Now, New Orleans banks on its originality, on a kind of produced authenticity, in all the paradoxes of that sort of phrase.  New Orleans has a romanticized history, one that is used to sell tourist experiences now, capitalizing on a nostalgia for which there is often no prior experience.  S. pointed me to a book recently–I’m forgetting the name at the moment–that argued New Orleans is like a national historical park, and that history is our present tourist industry.  As they say, “only in New Orleans.”  But Quiznos?  We’re stretching that whole “New Orleans Original” thing a bit too far.  Then again, the sign does expose, in its very absurdity, just how produced for consumption so much “originality” is.