Columns

Is country music cool?

The rhythm-and-blues-tinged 1962 Ray Charles album “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.” John Travolta’s mechanical-bull-riding adventures in the 1980 film “Urban Cowboy.” The star-making 1990 “No Fences” album by Garth Brooks.

Tarzan movie had a spy story, too

World War I interrupted the filming when the first Tarzan movie was made in the swamps near Morgan City in 1917, and that led to some international intrigue, including the arrest of one of its crew members as a notorious spy.

My childhood neighborhood did not raise assassins

I grew up in Bethel Park, the middle-class suburb south of Pittsburgh where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks lived with his parents. Crooks’ attempt to kill Donald Trump last weekend has filled my old neighborhood with shock and sadness.

Crowd watched as famous aviator glided in

Jimmy Mattern was never as well known as Charles Lindbergh, but he was at the height of his fame when hundreds of people from across south Louisiana turned out to hear him talk about exploits every bit as riveting as Lindbergh’s celebrated adventures.

Do you talk with your hands?

Somewhere over the years, karma gave me the finger. It all started with an incident in Mrs. Jones’s high school English class. Classmate Tracy Holder was unconsciously performing multiple animated hand gestures as he delivered an emphatic observation. Unnoticed, I smugly imitated his gesticulations.

The dangers of political propaganda

It is an old childhood truism that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” In the United States, where speech is protected with a constitutional and social ferocity like no other country in the world, this has always been the default position.

How to lower auto insurance cost in Louisiana

Louisiana legislators met last week to find legal solutions that will lower the cost of automobile bill insurance throughout the state. Hey, all you guy and gal lawmakers. There are no new laws that will make any difference.

Climate change in the good old days

When William S. Cary built an ice house next to Bayou Teche in Centerville in 1850, the (Franklin) Planters’ Banner proclaimed that “the project … has contributed more to the health, comfort and luxury of the population” than anything yet seen.

A hairy situation for balding men

As our country goes to pot, I find myself more focused on personal matters, such as this hopeful item I read on MSN.com: Researchers have identified a molecule called osteopontin, which is a potential game-changer for people who are losing their hair.

Are you ready for the Summer Olympics?

Just because there are trained professionals dealing with the infrastructure, logistics and marketing of the Summer Olympics, it doesn’t let the rest of us off the hook.