Columns

Wavy floors were harbingers at Bayou Chene

Today you would have to dig through more than ten feet of silt to find any remnant of the Bayou Chene community that once flourished in the middle of the Atchafalaya Basin. That makes it only a little harder to find than when it was a reasonably prosperous settlement.

Guest editorial

B.I. Moody’s life was a panorama of postwar America In the diverse fields of business, journalism and politics, it’s difficult to name anyone who did things with the aplomb and success of B.I. Moody.

It’s time for Biden to pass the baton

As talk builds about whether Joe Biden is mentally and physically capable of withstanding a re-election campaign or serving another four years, it’s only be a matter of time before the most difficult of conversations with the president will occur.

What does the end of free refills mean?

So, now the fuzzy purple critter isn’t the only “grimace” I’ll associate with the McDonald’s chain.

Everybody wanted to be on Old Spanish Trail

The celebration of Rayne’s Old Spanish Trail Day on September 23 is a reminder of how important that roadway (essentially the old Hwy. 90) was to south Louisiana, and also of the town’s connection to a significant bit of OST history.

It’s all about football at LSU!

I was paying my bill at the local supermarket here in Baton Rouge when the lady at the cash register asked me, “Are you going to the game in Tiger Stadium Saturday night?” I paused for a minute, then told her: “I think my days going to Tiger Stadium are over.”

The root cause of education crisis

A recent op-ed by The Advocate newspaper questioned whether “School Choice” and the “political plea to let the state money follow the child” was just “Campaign Rhetoric” that fails to address the root problem of poverty—as Louisiana’s child poverty rate is the second highest in the nation—and that...

Jimmy Buffett was a super-spreader of happiness

There’s a reason the name “Jimmy Buffett” elicits immediate joy in the hearts of millions: happiness contagion. A study conducted by Harvard University and the University of California followed 5,000 people for 20 years to determine if happiness was contagious.

‘Pleasure seekers’ were caught in great storm

After the hurricane on Sept. 8, 1900, that destroyed Galveston, the headline in the Abbeville Meridional read, “We Missed the Storm.” It’s true that south Louisiana felt nothing like the Texas coast, but we were not entirely missed.

How are you in the best friend department?

“So, Dan – what are you doing tonight?” After 40-plus years, I can still hear one of my best friends from college asking that dreaded question.