Columns

Of ice, fish, and high-octane booze

More than a half century ago, Atchafalaya Basin fish buyers who knew what they were doing stopped at “Uncle Tom” Bernard’s post office before running up or down the river.

Acadia Parish School Board OKs 2023 operating budget

The Acadia Parish School Board has approved the operating budget for the 2022-2023 school year. Chief Financial Officer Justin Carrier said the budget approved by the board shows a projected deficit in the amount of $1.7 million for the General Fund.

Microaggressions and true bigotry

I was out of the country for a few weeks,so I was shocked to read up on a troubling wave of racism engulfing cartoon characters and such.

A lesson about winning the lottery

I bought my first lottery ticket recently. It was a $20 scratch-off that paid me a $40 prize. Winning produced a nice little thrill, so I bought another $20 ticket right away. And lost. I put out $40 to win $40 that day. I’ve bought three $20 scratch-offs since then and won nothing.

Have we reached the point of no return?

This is an election year. But the issues this year are not about Democrats and Republicans. The big issue is whether this nation has degenerated to a point of no return -- a point where we risk destroying ourselves, before our enemies can destroy us.

Are these the good old days for reminiscing?

“Memories/Light the corners of my mind…” — as sung by Barbra Streisand. While grocery shopping with my mother in the 1970s, I enjoyed peeking at the “Golden Age” Sunday comics in “Good Old Days” magazine and developing an appreciation of the cartoon antics my father remembered from his boyhood.

Borealis Rex: ‘A good old soul bested’

The venerable old paddle-wheeler Borealis Rex was steaming as hard as it could to get from Cameron to Lake Charles when the big hurricane of 1918 caught up to it. Forty passengers were on board, plus two engineers, the pilot, a cook, and two deck hands.

Why Italians don’t care about Jennifer Affleck’s decision

I write this sitting at a cafe in front of the Italian Parliament, waiting for the president to resign.

Comedian’s tips to living well

Comedian Carl Reiner was good at living well — and he lived well until the age of 98. I recently watched his 2017 HBO documentary, “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.”

The Road to Serfdom: Part II

In our first article we talked about the importance of knowing history when it comes to the utopian promises of Socialism and Marxism, and that F.A. Hayek’s well-known book The Road to Serfdom was an excellent guide as most utopian promises were economically infeasible.