THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION. Division of labor emerges in the French Quarter.

In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming "tribes" and dividing up the labor.

As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.

While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods - humanity.

The Quarter had the advantages of being located on the precolonial high ground, as well as supplies of comestibles to draw upon. Robinson Crusoe, forsooth!

Yes, wealthy people feasted on steak and quaffed warm champagne in the days after the storm. But many who stayed behind were the working poor - residents of the cramped spaces above the restaurants and shops.

Tired of waiting for trucks to come with food and water, residents turned to each other.

Johnny White's is famous for never closing, even during a hurricane. The doors don't even have locks.

Since the storm, it has become more than a bar. Along with the warm beer and shots, the bartenders passed out scrounged military Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water to the people who drive the mule carts, bus the tables and hawk the T-shirts that keep the Quarter's economy humming.

I think I have some less grim material for this week's classes. Read the rest.

Elsewhere in the Crescent City, attention turns to the fate of the Super Dome. To paraphrase General Patton, "Corporate-welfare stadiums are monuments to the folly of mankind." Get rid of it.