Columns

France and Louisiana. Good news!

My family and I are currently on an extended vacation to Paris and Provence in central France. Relations with our country never have seemed better. Our welcome was quite warm everywhere we traveled.

Forget the mint. How about a fresh pillowcase?

At the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Carlsbad, Calif., guests were piling trash and dirty towels in the hallway, and by the looks of things you’d think the staff had gone on strike.

Ready to fire up those Father’s Day memories?

It’s difficult to wrap my mind around it, but this will be my 20th Father’s Day as a father. All of those third Sundays in June have blurred together, but I certainly have warm memories of son Gideon’s everyday march toward adulthood. (He marched.

Persistence created ‘miracle’ waterway

Someone once called the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway a “thousand-mile miracle,” but there was nothing miraculous about getting it built. The miracle was that the idea for the canal came from west Texas, not south Louisiana.

A personal salute to Flag Day

It’s long past time for me to put a flagpole in the center of my front yard — one that holds a large American flag that dances proudly in the summer breeze. We bought such a flagpole for my father on his 70th birthday, shortly after he and my mother moved into a new house with a stately front yard.

In Louisiana, just tell ‘em I lied

We are used to hearing legislators in Washington call each other liars. Just a few months ago during the President’s State of the Union speech, Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia jabbed a thumbs down in the president’s direction and yelled “liar” after his comments.

Upcoming ‘Where’s Waldo’

While the contours of President Biden’s re-election campaign have yet to come into focus, early signs imply leaning greatly on surrogates to shoulder the heavy burden of promoting the president’s record and engaging in aggressive negativity against his opponent.

Do you suffer from tipping fatigue?

I shudder to imagine how Aunt Marie (God rest her soul) would react to today’s explosion of expectations for tipping. Even back in pre-inflationary times, Aunt Marie (who always worked hard for her money) was prone to greet hints for gratuities with a cranky, “I’ll give ‘em a dadgum tip, alright!

Ice cream in a block or angel food light?

With the temperature climbing higher every day, it was welcome news in Crowley in the early summer of 1923 that the town’s first ice cream plant would soon be ready for business.

Biden’s poet laureate bogus ban

Amanda Gorman, the young woman who read her highly celebrated poetry at Joe Biden’s inaugural two years ago, has proven herself to be quite adept at writing fiction in addition to her laureate skills.