Columns

An unfortunate habit of steamboats

Steamboats revolutionized travel on the waterways of south Louisiana and did wonders for the economies of the places they visited.

Curing our loneliness epidemic

There is a loneliness epidemic in the United States, but there are some simple ways we can address it. A few weeks ago, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.”

To defeat Biden, Republicans could look back to 1972

Fifty-one years ago, the national Democratic Party and its presidential nominee were characterized as the party of ”acid, amnesty and abortion” in one of the more devastating, effective and enduring slogans in American political history.

A good day to celebrate an extraordinary mother

She was only 18 when rheumatic fever damaged her heart. The doctors said she’d be lucky to live into her 40s — that she was no longer strong enough to bear children. Lucky for my five sisters and me, she ignored them!

Have you heard of After School Satan clubs?

Sometimes it’s difficult to approach news items with the proper balance of bemusement, curiosity and wariness. (Sometimes it’s difficult to approach news items at all, when there are shouts of “When are you going to carry out the garbage?” and “That lawn isn’t going to mow itself!”

Picks and shovels, then bats and balls

Organized Little League baseball was still far in the future when the Crowley Rotary Club decided in the spring of 1923 to set up a four-team league for any boy between the ages of 12 and 16 “whether he be a star or whether or not he feels that he is a good player.”

Beware of legislation titled ‘fair’

When you want to persuade people that the thing you are doing is good, moral, and just, you throw in the word “fairness.” That’s what the Democrats in the Pennsylvania House did last week, when they passed — by the slimmest of margins — House Bill 300 which was dubbed, duh, the Fairness Act.

Community banks more important than ever

We have a government induced banking crisis, and it is not contained — but rather is in its early stages.

Prom season: What’s wrong with daddy?

It’s that time of year again when dads of daughters all over the country are experiencing severe headaches, watery eyes, shortness of breath and even hives. No, these symptoms are not from seasonal allergies, but from a traumatic phenomenon known as “prom season.”

What did you inherit from your mother?

As Mother’s Day approaches, it is appropriate that we discuss the physical characteristics, personality traits, coping mechanisms, etiquette rules, life ambitions, etcetera that we inherited from our mothers. Let’s discuss it in hushed tones, though.