Friday, October 6, 2017. When I left the radio station at about six, the buzz in the newsroom was that New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu had announced a curfew beginning after six tomorrow night, until the current tropical storm is gone. The logic makes sense: with the storm due to pass very close to New Orleans during the night, drivers on potentially flooded streets might get into trouble. But if the whole city is ordered to stay home, nobody will be in the restaurants. That infuriated a good many restaurateurs, who had to send all their employees and customers home. On a Saturday evening, yet--the moneymaker for most restaurants. But that is tomorrow, and I still have time for dinner tonight. Chef Andrea Apuzzo caught my attention when he called in with his twice-weekly, lengthy commercial tonight. He had some fresh sardines. These are not the ones gotten out of a can, but fresh fish brough in from the Mediterranean. They're about five inches long and two inches wide, with the skin, head, tail, and a lot of bones still attached. The flavor makes a big statement. This is not for timid eaters, but enough gourmets order the sardines that Andrea has them on hand most of the time. I love them. The pair of sardines before me were just what I was in the mood for. (You may well wonder what mood goes with a hurricane and fresh sardines.) I finished this meal with a beautiful fillet of flounder, out of the same broiler as the sardines, but with a much milder taste and a butter-and-caper sauce. I considered how long it might before I get a meal like this again. Andrea usually gets me to sings few songs in the bar while I am there. It requires very little persuasion. The real musician of the evening is Bobby Ohler, who plays a fine trumpet, guitar, and piano. I've run into him before; he plays with Ronnie Kole a good deal. A lot of people in the bar are regular radio listeners of mine, or so they said. All this kept me at Andrea's until well after eleven. I thought I'd better get home to see where Tropical Storm Nate is. Not yet a bonafide hurricane, it is crossing the Caribbean and then the Gulf of Mexico with breakneck speeds between twenty-five and twenty nine miles per hour. This ia a good thing: a fast-moving storm dissapates faster. However, it can also have higher wind speeds from the direction opposite the one Nate was traveling. This we know: Tomorrow will be the big, bad day.