My great — and hilarious — artist friend Bill Dunlap describes my upcoming book: “The House on First Street, My New Orleans Story,” as “A Year in Provence” meets “The Poseidon Adventure.” Not quite, but anyone who reads it will understand that pretty much all my money – still — is going into the big old Greek Revival house my husband and I bought in New Orleans just before Katrina. It was built in 1847 on land that is essentially pudding, and though the storm largely spared our neighborhood, there is a reason why “the money-pit” remains an apt cliche. As I type, my painter is outside “touching things up.” I can’t even remember why my carpenter is here, and a team of guys are filling up more spaces in this bottomless garden.

What doesn’t go into the literal house on First Street these days goes straight to the dastardly IRS. But I do have money in the market, being handled by Bear Stearns, in fact, and despite recent events, I am not about to give up on it. It was a scary few days — as everyone knows Bear Stearns was essentially bankrupt on Friday, but the Feds and J.P. Morgan Chase stepped in over the weekend, and, as I type [on Monday evening], the market is, amazingly, up (though not by much), while commodities, except for gold, are way down. I just don’t think it makes sense to bail. If I weren’t throwing money into this house by the bushel, and if I were made of slightly sterner stuff, I would, in fact, be buying.

An aside: The poor boys on Wall Street do not have much to cheer about these days so it was heartening to see them (as I did on CNN) literally letting out war whoops on the floor of the exchange last week as news of the Spitzer debacle broke.

A couple years ago, I sold most of my stock and had the bank put my money in liquid instruments. I missed the market’s subsequent upside, but I’m now missing the downside. If I were younger than in my 70’s I’d own more stock (although I’d make sure that I had no more than 30 or 40 percent of my money in the market) but at my age, I think one should be more interested in safety than in growth.

But then, I grew up in the Great Depression and it marked me for life. The one thing I wouldn’t do is take any advice from amateurs — like ME — about how to invest my money.

First, I have to get my money out of Bear Sterns. Then, I plan to put it under my Sleep Comfort mattress.