Columns

Kirstie Alley’s passing unleashed the left’s dark side

I turned 61 last week. I don’t plan on joining the celestial choir any time soon, but birthdays make me think of the opposite end of the life cycle.

Decking the malls with nostalgia

I read a great piece in the Tribune-Review about the nostalgia many Pittsburghers hold for their favorite old suburban shopping malls — especially around the holidays. Malls around the country are in trouble these days. Experts say their Golden Age ended years ago and Pittsburgh proves it.

Illegal gambling has invaded LSU!

Gambling is everywhere in Louisiana. Presently, the state has 15 so-called “floating” casinos, a huge land-based casino in downtown New Orleans, four racetrack casinos, 200 truck stop casinos and over 1,000 restaurants and bars that have video poker machines. Wow!

Did someone say … ‘Shazam’?

Saint Nick wasn’t the only man in a red suit that magical Christmas season 50 years ago. On Saturday Dec. 23, 1972, I walked from my house to Sharp’s Drive-In Market and splurged on four 20-cent comic books.

When Cat Doucet met Charles DeGaulle

French President Emmanuel Macron was offered several choices of places to visit after his duties in Washington were done. Chicago, Atlanta, and other cities were on the short list, but they had no chance to push aside New Orleans with its centuries-old ties to France.

Pawns in gender fluidity movement

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting / The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star / Hath had elsewhere its setting / And cometh from afar / Not in entire forgetfulness / And not in utter nakedness / But trailing clouds of glory do we come.

Truth is, we like to be lied to

My dog Thurber has been lying to me. It only figures, because it’s impossible to avoid mistruths these days. We just exited a miserable election cycle in which truth stretching, name calling and vote pandering were all in high gear — and inescapable.

Why do we have hate crimes?

Why do we have hate crimes? There has been a wave of mass shootings in recent weeks. At a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, a shooter killed five people and injured 17 others that has been called a hate crime.

Have you hugged a Santa impersonator lately?

It has been years since my family last dealt with the “pictures with Santa” pageantry, but Saint Nick impersonators remain an integral part of Christmas for Americans.

Organ grinders, barber poles, civilization

As with beauty, what constituted a mark of civilization in south Louisiana in days past appears to have been in the eye of the beholder. For example, the Lake Charles Commercial carried a little item in 1882, noting that, “the first organ grinder who ever came to Lake Charles ..