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The Ledners’ entire house, in fact, appears to be one of these post-Katrina miracles. Designed and built by Mr. Ledner in the mid-1950s, the house, which has the jaunty silhouette of a World’s Fair pavilion, looks as fragile as a piece of cut crystal. It was flooded for weeks, and the elegant built-in furniture was left warped and moldy, the fine-grained Arkansas pine paneling was stained and a lifetime’s worth of possessions were ruined. Mr. Ledner considered tearing much of it down. But there it stands, denuded of most of its landscaping but largely rebuilt, the comfortable, unconventional homestead the Ledners have known for 50 years.
The house is one of 40 or so modern but eccentric New Orleans residences that Mr. Ledner has designed over six decades, and that have made him something of a local institution. (The most famous, built in 1962 for a pair of ardent smokers, has a procession of 1,200 gold glass ashtrays running just below its roofline; it now belongs to the mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin.)
An American flag plastered on the first steel column for the Freedom Tower at ground zero was removed Wednesday after the builders realized the stars and stripes were on the wrong side of the flag.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey removed the decal on the 31-foot column after The Associated Press and other media questioned the display of the flag, with the 50 stars on the right side instead of the left. Readers also called the AP after seeing the news agency's photograph of the column in Wednesday newspapers.
"It's painted backwards," said Bill Dolphin, 73, of Ocala, Fla. "When it's laying down, it's correct. When it gets lifted up into the air, the blue field should be on the other side."