Columns

Perpetual anger no help amid pandemic

Good grief: Apparently, America has yet to move past the anger phase regarding COVID-19. In 1969, you see, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

The road across the prairie

There wasn’t much to see on the road stretching across the prairie from Opelousas to Lake Charles in the middle 1870s, if accounts from two travelers can be believed. Lake Charles was the seat of Calcasieu Parish; Opelousas was the St. Landry seat.

NFL player deserves the bench

Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson isn’t the kind of person a father points to and says, “Son, I want you to grow up to be just like him!” While D-Jax has made some Philadelphia hearts melt and flutter with his pyrotechnics on the playing field, I can no longer “deal” with Jackson.

Amid pandemic, take pen in hand

I can’t recall the last time I wrote or received a handwritten letter — but it’s time to send such letters again. The reasons why the handwritten letter died are obvious: e-mail, text messaging and cellphones.

If COVID isn’t a national tragedy, what is?

“My fellow Americans, I am today ordering that Monday, August 3, shall be a national day of mourning. All of us should take time on that day to honor the memories of more than 134,000 souls taken by COVID-19. Flags will be lowered to half staff.” — Donald J. Trump, President.

Do you have a favorite heat wave story?

Much of the nation is experiencing a prolonged heat wave, so of course your humble columnist counterintuitively conjures up WARM MEMORIES to comfort himself.

A look back at President Nixon’s All-Stars

During a normal Major League Baseball season, by mid-July fans would be anticipating the annual All-Star Game. But in 2020, COVID-19, the great killjoy, has forced the game’s cancellation, the first time since 1945 when World War II travel restrictions interfered and no players were selected.

Are you fed up with anonymous sources, too?

What spoils even more evening meals than robocalls?

River of worry in this divorce

Each spring and summer, when the Mississippi begins to rise, we start to hear from folks who think it will change course into the Atchafalaya, flooding half of south Louisiana.

Put off tax payments until 2021

All presidents must deal with things they did not expect FDR had the Great Depression and World War II. Kennedy had the Cuban Missile Crisis. George H. W. Bush had Saddam Hussein. And Donald Trump has had COVID-19. Despite what critics say, Trump has responded well to the coronavirus pandemic.