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05/14/12
Please help me understand Shelby Stanga. I know this: He is one of the lumbermen featured in the History Channel’s reality show, “Axmen.” There are several axe swingers from across the country on the program. Stanga is the Louisiana guy who spends his time in a Tangipahoa parish swamp mostly pulling out sinker logs. He has a dog named Piss Willy who understands French but only in the dialect spoken by Stanga, Oh, yes, he’s a TV star, a big star.
I remember the History Channel back when I thought the “H” in its logo stood for Hitler. The Channnel’s programmers, however, have apparengtly found a formula of real people doing real things - "Ice Road Truckers," "Pawn Stars" - and it must be working.
I am especially...
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05/07/12
When the NFL finally announced its player suspensions due to the “bounty” scandal last week the good news was that the bad news was over, at least on this particular issue.
As bad as things have been, however, I keep reminding myself that nothing could be worse than the season of '05.
Most of us were in our Katrina exile that season and not much was going well, including the Saints games.
Ideally the team should have provided some relief from our misery, but during that season, instead they added to the worry. The franchise was playing its home games in San Antonio. With the Superdome practically destroyed and the population of New Orleans dispersed, there was concern that the team might not ever come back. The phrase “San Antonio Saints” made...
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04/30/12
Next Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, a day that is clearly misunderstood. It is not, as many people believe, a Mexican independence day, and the victory it represents was not over the Spanish but the French. Also, the date’s popularity has more to do with marketing than with history and a lot more to do with beer than with tequila. The fact that, in New Orleans, it usually coincides with the second week of Jazz Fest is a happy coincidence.
In the 1860s France had used war as an excuse to collect back debt, but its real motivation was to have a presence near the American border to equalize the emerging United States powerhouse.
What followed was one of those classic tales of the poorly equipped, undermanned home country standing up to the powerful invader - somewhat similar...
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04/22/12
Tom Benson has said that the Hornets should have a name that reflects local color. Here's my suggestion of the one name that does that but also connects with the franchise's and the city's past.
1. We are a town that buzzes. New Orleans is such a lively city there always is a buzz as in “things are buzzing.” The name suggests the city's vivaciousness.
2. Buzz, as in the sound that winged insects make, also links to the name Hornets. The one negative to changing the team name is that it muddles the franchise's 24-year history tracing back to Charlotte. But there were players back then, such as the early fan favorite Muggsy Bogues, who at 5-foot-3 was the shortest player in the NBA, just as in the Chris Paul era and beyond there are...
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04/16/12
This year marks the 14th anniversary of I last saw Ernie K-Doe perform at the Jazz Fest. To paraphrase one of his greatest songs, “but now he’s gone, we feel so bad.” Nevertheless his legacy lives on and will get more attention this year with the publication of Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans by veteran music writer Ben Sandmel.
I’ll begin by conceding that Ernie K-Doe is a subject about which I am hardly impartial. His “T’ain't it the Truth” is my all-time favorite New Orleans rhythm-and-blues-era recording. The song about lost love begins with a female chorus lamenting, “But now she’s gone you feel so bad, because she’s the best girl you ever had,” setting the tone for K-Doe’s melancholy...
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04/09/12
Baseball season, having begun anew, brings to mind Nellie Fox, who once played second base for the Chicago White Sox. Fox was distinguished for the wad of tobacco that puffed one of his cheeks. I know because as a kid his baseball card was in my collection. In later years he would be remembered for something else among men of my generation. The Topps company produced the cards that had an action shot of the player in front and then trivia and statistics on the back. Included in the package was a slab of pink chewing gum. Enough gum and we too could puff out our cheeks, just like Nellie Fox.
Since the card came wrapped there was always a bit of mystery as to which player we would get. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays cards were off the charts in schoolyard trades. Then there were the...
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04/02/12
There are many New Orleans expatriates located throughout the country. Now a chocolate bunny is one of them. Last Easter season this blog reported that the Merlin’s Chocolate brand had quietly been sold to the R.M. Palmer’s company of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Until then, Merlin’s had been the local bunny. Originally its plant was in Uptown New Orleans; and then, it moved to Elmwood. Most chocolate bunnies look and taste the same, but only Merlin’s could add a tag to the box proclaiming that it was made right here in New Orleans. True to its magician’s name, Merlin’s disappeared in a puff. Ponchatoula-based Elmer Chocolate Company was left as the only local large-scale candy manufacturer. Its products are classics, including the marshmallowy...
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03/26/12
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03/19/12
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03/12/12
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Errol Laborde holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of New Orleans and is the editor in chief of Renaissance Publishing. In that capacity he serves as editor/associate publisher of New Orleans Magazine and editor/publisher of Louisiana Life magazine.
