Columns

It’s the season of the long goodbye

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. I didn’t write that. It was actually Billy Joel in “Say goodbye to Hollywood” from the Turnstiles album. Love that album, which I’ve always thought was very underrated.

What was your favorite summer job?

With the school year ending and the economy slowly reopening, let’s reminisce about the illustrious history of summer jobs.

My beef with beef

There are few things I enjoy more than grilling up tasty steaks for a group of close friends, but red meat isn’t going to be on the menu this summer. The cost of beef is higher than ever.

Unsolicited advice for the 2021 grads

By the time most of you read this, my son Gideon will have marched across the gymnasium floor and received his high school diploma. I have brainstormed some sage advice for Gideon’s next phase and hope that his fellow grads nationwide can benefit.

Sugar for the stills left little for coffee

When south Louisiana men were hauled into court during Prohibition and accused of making moonshine whiskey at least a handful of them seemed genuinely surprised to find out that the mess of tubes and barrels discovered in their cabins was actually a still.

There’s value in work, like it or not

The disappointing April jobs report should surprise absolutely no one, given that we now have a government more interested in providing incentives for people not to work rather than paving the way to gainful employment. What this approach fails to account for is the value of work itself.

Ever have a near-death experience?

My late father once confided his belief in “universal knowledge.” He felt that God gave humans finite, physical brains to prevent them from knowing EVERYTHING. That theme is echoed in the book I’m currently reading: “Forever,” by Bruce Greyson, M.D.

The marsh mud was too soggy

One of the things President Biden talked about when he recently visited Lake Charles was the need to protect our coastline against rising tides generally and storm surges in particular. It’s not a new idea.

Biden’s budget focused on the wrong enemy

President Biden’s budget proposal increases spending on the welfare state but is cutting defense spending on an inflation adjusted basis — and to make matters worse, is also requiring some of the Pentagon funds go to “mitigate impacts of climate change.

Your call is not really important to us

I’ve been hacked. Officially. Someone pretending to be me — go figure — has applied for unemployment benefits in my name. By the way, if you, whoever you are, really want to serve as my stuntman, there are a variety of situations in which you could actually be helpful to me.