Convention Notebook : As for Home-State Perks, Massachusetts Can’t Hack It

Vice President George Bush, whose voting residence is a rented hotel room in Houston, claims Texas as a home state. He owns a splendid summer home in Maine, so Maine too is a home state to the vice president. He grew up in Connecticut, and that makes Connecticut too a home to Bush.

Because each can claim Bush as a native son, all three delegations are being housed in Bush’s headquarters in New Orleans, the Marriott Hotel, where Bush will stay after he arrives Tuesday.

The delegation from New Hampshire is also staying at the Marriott, in recognition of the state’s role in turning around his sagging primary campaign last winter.

But what about Massachusetts, the state where Bush was actually born? It is also, lamentably, the home of Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis. The Massachusetts delegation is being housed at a Holiday Inn in Kenner, an $18 cab ride from downtown New Orleans. So much for the home state connection.

Memo to Dukakis: Now, don’t take this too seriously, but a Greek restaurant and a Greek curio shop (“Greek artists, souvenirs”) in New Orleans’ French Quarter are shuttered this week--and look like they may have been for quite some time. And the souvenir shop, in fact, is for sale or rent.

It has begun already, the war of the wacky chapeaux.

Although no one could know for sure what was in the heads of delegates, the array of what was on them offered endless cause for comment. Although much in the running was a straw hat with a red band reading “Mike-Do-Tax-Us,” headgear champion award for Day One probably should be extended to the man from St. Louis who wore a blue golf hat all but covered by the trunk and ears of a gray plush chenille elephant. The $18 chapeau came from Lebanon, Ohio, the man explained, but presented a serious problem--the pachyderm’s ears kept flapping forward. “Probably need to get some wire,” the man said somberly.

Another apparent must-have accessory for delegates at this Republican National Convention is the lapel-button rejoinder to Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s caustic “Where was George?” refrain at the Democratic convention last month. In an obvious reference to Kennedy’s automobile accident at Chappaquiddick, this red-and-white button asks: “WHERE WAS TEDDY?”

Meanwhile, a senior Bush staff member all but begged a reporter to ask the meaning of his blank white lapel button. Answer: “the Democratic platform.”

Chef Paul Prudhomme looked out across the Cajun food fans, who stood 10 deep for his cooking demonstration near the Superdome, and was not entirely pleased.

“Cooking is fun here in Louisiana, so get those serious Republican looks off your faces,” ordered Prudhomme, the most famous Cajun cook in the world, thanks to cookbooks and patented sauces and spice mixes generated by K-Paul’s, his French Quarter restaurant.

Whipping up alligator sausages in a spicy tomato sauce, he said with a wink: “We used the tail of the alligator to make the sausages, but when we went for the legs to make a stock he took off.”

That produced a few Republican smiles but there were grins all around when he passed out the alligator sausages. It was like they always say about rattlesnake--it tastes just like chicken.

Overheard in a elevator: NBC television commentator John Chancellor deep in conversation about “expectations” at the convention, and “exceeding expectations.” He mysteriously utters the code words: “Two Jacks.” What does this mean? Is NBC on the trail of who Bush will name as his running mate?

Not exactly. Locally, Two Jacks is spelled Tujague’s. It is the oldest restaurant in this oldest of old restaurant cities, specializing in creole cuisine.