Columns

Is a platonic partnership right for you?

Fact: families take many forms. Grandparents rear grandchildren. Never-married siblings share the ancestral homeplace until death. High school sweethearts get married in a fever but gradually drift apart. BFFs move in together for emotional/financial support after spouses die.

In Louisiana, it’s all about the football coach!

Perception and reality often intertwine. At Louisiana’s flagship university as well as other major universities across the country, any talk of the so called “revered tradition of amateurism” has gone by the wayside.

A hero of the Battle of New Orleans

Jean Lafitte was probably the most famous French-speaker at the Battle of New Orleans, fought Jan. 8, 1815. But there were some others — mostly former Napoleonic soldiers — who made a good account of themselves.

What Sidney Poitier taught us about ourselves

When my sister texted to tell me that Sidney Poitier had passed away, and I started crying. All I could do was conjure up the black and white image of a beloved movie, “A Patch of Blue,” the film that made me fall in love with Poitier.

The emperor has no clothes!

The year 2021 can only be described as one of massive delusion (or deceit) in Washington, D.C.

How’d you like one across the lip?

A YouTube video magically transported me back to what I was watching on Thursday, January 13, 1972. The clip from NBC’s red-hot “Flip Wilson Show” features Flip as a standup comedian being heckled unmercifully by guest Redd Foxx.

From 50 comic books to 50 years

One of the unexpected packages that came in my holiday mail was a box containing a little plaque proclaiming me a member of the 50 Year Club of the Louisiana Press Association.

You can’t force us to ignore biological realities

The other day I was engaged in a surprisingly civil Twitter conversation with a person who identified as a “trans” woman. I took that to mean that she was a biological male, but presented as a female. I was right.

New Year. New laws. New disparities.

The pastiche of new state laws taking effect as the New Year begins underscores how different we are — at least in the eyes of legislators — on matters small and large.

Hold men accountable when they commit crimes

I regularly deal with women who’ve been sexually abused in other countries. Many of them do not report the assaults to law enforcement, because in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the police are unlikely to take rape and harassment seriously.