[Terra Nola documents the long-distance love affair between a New Yorker and New Orleans.]

So I was sitting near a window in my local coffee bar the other day when this young woman walked by me. She was wearing a T-shirt that simply said "Ray Nagin for President." Now, mind you, I live in Brooklyn, in New York City, not in New Orleans (or in LA for that matter).

As she passed me by we exchanged knowing half-smiles through the glass. The absurdity of Nagin running for president was even more absurd than seeing that T-shirt outside of the French Quarter. The French Quarter, as we all know, is where tacky yet often witty T-shirts are born...and where they go to die.

You will recall the "Chocolate City" T-shirt of yesteryears that hit the scene mere moments after the phrase was uttered by Ray Nagin. Still others expanded on that idea by presenting Mr. Nagin as Willy Wonka and cast New Orleans as the Chocolate Factory. Ringing a bell at all for ya?

This T-shirt was different though, in that it represented a possibility of the future, not the reality of the past. Mr. Nagin made the "chocolate city" comment--for real, yo, it was in the papers--but he has yet to admit he is interested in throwing his hat in the ring for President of the United States of America. Note I said "yet."

Now, I am not about to get involved in a political discussion with you about Ray Nagin, his politics, and whether or not he would make a good president. Since I am in no way, shape or form a citizen of New Orleans, it is not my place to discuss such things, or to even cast my opinion of them. I leave that to my bloggingneworleans colleagues. They tend to have opinions on such things and don't mind sharing them.

No, I'd rather discuss with you, or ponder, really, how politics have made their way into the T-shirt business, how what information we know comes in the form of a witty slogan on a piece of crappy cotton stretched across the chests of unsuspecting tourists.

In the case of my new-found (from afar, through glass) friend of Nola, I suspect she either is a lover of New Orleans like myself who couldn't resist the tongue in cheek notion of Nagin running for election, or was just trying to get someone to ask her who the heck Nagin is.

See, around these parts, Hurricane Katrina or no, a lot of people STILL don't know who Ray Nagin is. If I weren't so obsessed with everything that goes on in New Orleans I too might be just like everyone else and assume he is some politician from the South, or worse: that he was the guy who coined the "Chocolate City" phrase.

It's said when your entire legacy can be summed up in the form of a stupid T-shirt. Seriously.

Speaking of legacies, one of my favorite T-shirts from the Quarter that I started seeing moments after the stores reopened was one that was frank and to the point. It said "F_CK FEMA," only there was a fleur de lis where the "U" should be.

That short, sweet statement pretty much summed up the sentiment of the entire population of New Orleans, from what I could tell. Now that we know all about the toxic environment of the FEMA-provided trailers that sentiment perhaps has never rung so true.

In New York City you see plenty of T-shirts that use the word F_CK, but never do you see any taking aim at local politicians. Perhaps it is because Bloomberg and Guiliani before him weren't as colorful as Mr. Nagin, nor so free with their speech.

Either way, the T-shirt business in New Orleans makes for the best reading outside of the Times Picayune. Want to know what's going on in town when you get there? Forget the local paper, just check out the T-shirts in the Quarter. You'll get all the info you need to know, boiled down into juicy, entertaining bites.

Last time I was in town, which was just before the one-year post Katrina anniversary, I noticed the same T-shirts I'd seen hanging around when I was down for Jazz Fest. Those that didn't refer directly to Nagin described the population's general feelings about the hurricane, surviving it, and living to tell--or drop the F-bomb--about it.

We'll see what lurks in the Quarter next time I hit town. I've never bought a T-shirt in New Orleans outside of those I got at Jazz Fest, but something is begging me to get one of those "Chocolate City" tees just to have for future reference. I don't plan on ever wearing such a T-shirt in public, but perhaps I will wear it to bed.

Frankly, I don't want to spend the time explaining what the phrase means to those who don't know. In this case, what they don't know won't hurt them. I do wonder, however, how many people--if anyone--stopped my friend with the "Ray Nagin for President" T-shirt to ask who he was or, if they did know, if she seriously considered his candidacy.

I decided I didn't want to know whether or not she was serious. I immediately took it for a joke. I may be in the minority on this...or not. Again, not my call to make.

I can think of a T-shirt I'd like to see in the Quarter: "My life was blown away by Hurricane Katrina and all I got was this lousy formaldehyde-laden trailer ."

What about you? Anything you'd like to see printed on a T-shirt? I'm sure the list goes on for miles....

By the way, I am certainly not the first to consider the notion of Mr. Nagin running for president. Just go to google and type in "Ray Nagin for president" and have a ball with all the links--pro and con opinions--that pop up.