Columns

Will this be your best Christmas?

When writing advertising copy, I sometimes find myself desperately searching for a zinger of a tag line – and settling for trite admonitions such as “Make this the best hunting season ever” or “Make this the best summer vacation ever.”

Homeowners insurance may become unaffordable

Just when you thought the insurance crisis along the Gulf Coast, particularly in Louisiana, could not get any worse, along comes Congress to try and really muck up the problems faced by property owners who are trying to protect the value of their homes.

Was cane syrup the best Christmas buy?

Last-minute Christmas shoppers looking for bargains are nothing new, and merchants have accommodated them for a long time.

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. — William Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations on...

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.