He grew up listening to swamp pop music. The only difference was that his Pop was one of the swamp poppers. This week’s Inside Louisiana podcast is a fun romp through the music that echoed across Louisiana during the…
We need to talk. Seriously. New Orleans is heading toward big trouble and it is going to take we citizens to save it. Last week, LSU economist Loren Scott delivered his annual Louisiana Economic Outlook address. Usually the speech is…
Save this column, it could be a collectors’ item. These words will attempt something seldom seen in journalism, and that is to identify the exact location of a place that did not exist. That, in itself, made the evidence more…
Several times Lake Pontchartrain has faced serious pollution issues and each time it has survived largely because the lake, when given a chance, has had the ability to cleanse itself. Once closed to public swimming, folks these days are…
I have come to realize, in this terrible year, what medical science has probably known all along but has been too shy to say: We all need football. Even those who do not like the game are benefitted by…
There are more legends about life along the Mississippi river than there are curves in its path. (Well, almost as many.) This week’s “Louisiana Insider” podcast examines the legends and the dynamics of the mightiest of rivers. Mary Ann…
The best of what is new in Louisiana is the subject of the latest edition of “Louisiana Insider.” This week Melanie Spencer, managing editor of Louisiana Life Magazine, joins us to celebrate the winners of La Nouvelle Louisiane awards…
Capitol Ideas Here’s a hint. The place is in Baton Rouge. OK, I guess you need more information, but first, what prompted this discussion? In this a year that best be forgotten, except maybe for LSU’s football trophy, there has…
I know a woman who tells the story that when she was a little girl, a long time ago, her family had a ritual of having dinner at Commander’s Palace every Friday night. “Oh no,” she and her siblings complained,…
Last week's news of the death of Morgus the Magnificent raises a question: Is it indeed possible for Morgus to have died? He spent so much of his life working on inventions to better the world we would have…
This week, Mark Romig, chief marketing officer for tourism development at New Orleans & Company, joins host Errol Laborde to explore one of the world’s most colorful cities – New Orleans. They talk about the future, tourism, the Saints…
On the evening of Aug. 26, 2005, the Saints played a pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens in the Superdome. The Saints had split the first two preseason games including an impressive win on the road against the New…
This week, Jeremy Alford, the publisher and editor of LaPolitics Weekly, joins host Errol Laborde to explore the state’s capitol city. They talk about politics, LSU, favorite haunts and things to do. Enjoy songs, stories about Earl and Huey…
Carnival parades have been threatened by external crises before. In 1979, all the parades in New Orleans were cancelled because of a strike by the city’s police. Some of the krewes, including most notably Endymion, marched in Jefferson Parish…
In this week's episode, listeners will hear from Elvis, early blues singer Leadbelly and stories about Hank Williams. The latest episode is about Shreveport, which was once the site of the Louisiana Hayride, a Saturday night country music show…
This year is going to be different. Each August 29 as we reach another anniversary, this time the 15th, we remember Hurricane Katrina and the levees that broke. Heaven knows there is much to recall. Everyone who was living…
In the first episode of "Louisiana Insider," Errol Laborde and Cheré Coen travel to Lafayette, Louisiana. There's music, food and a whole lot of history! THIS OR THAT Cheré Dastugue Coen…
For those of you who have strong feelings about a presidential candidate, please chill. This blog does not endorse either Joe Biden or Donald Trump. It is instead a befuddlement about how we got where we are. In an…
A sure indication that the day was going to be slow was that one of the few diversions was a film entitled “Fantastic Fungi: The Magic Beneath Us.” Slow days have been plentiful in the COVID-19 era, but mercifully Phase…
When we last heard from the former New Orleans Zephyrs, our Triple A minor league baseball team, they had been renamed as the Baby Cakes. After hearing fan reaction to what was supposed to be a locally endearing name…
Yogi Berra, the great catcher of the New York Yankees, was once asked about a famous Italian restaurant in his hometown of St. Louis. Berra. who was known for his malapropisms gave one of his all-time great responses: “Nobody…
Several years ago, the then French Ambassador to the United States visited New Orleans. One morning, he hosted a breakfast (croissants and coffee) at the French consulate home on Prytania Street. After the ambassador spoke, telling about the commerce…
My pick of the buzz phrase for wicked 2020 is “New Normal.” It is used often to describe the way things are going to be different as we make our way through COVID-19. Offices spaces will change; so will…
One semester in college I had a professor who started every class with the same question, “Is anybody here from Clarence?” After the first couple of classes it was evident that none of us was from the Natchitoches Parish village,…
If you had dined at Tujague’s Restaurant anytime between the years 1856 and 2013 you would not have had to think very hard about what to order. Known as a “Table d’hôte” menu there would be five courses, four of which were…
“Staycations” is the operative word in travel this year. With the world travel market in a tizzy, destinations are appealing to locals to revisit home. That’s the theme of this issue, as it is for many magazines. This is the…
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Float builder Blaine Kern’s death last week, at 93, brought to mind the story of a former Rex Captain, Darwin Fanner, who in 1956 hired the 29-year-old Kern to build the Rex parade. Kern had been building the ALLA…
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Maybe what we all need these days is a big dose of Voodoo. If so, this Tuesday, June 23, is St. John’s Eve. That’s a high holy day in the Voodoo world. New Orleans, as far as I know,…
Let us pause for a moment and remember Spring 2020... A moment is all it should take. Or it could take a lifetime if you are obsessed with chronicling grief. Surely Spring 2020, which ends next Saturday, June 20,…
I know, we should be cautious of messing around with Mother Nature, but just for fun let us propose this argument: We have wondered about warts, colds, viruses and crabgrass and now each time a tropical system enters the…
Errol LabordeErrol 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. Errol is also a producer and a regular panelist on Informed Sources, a weekly news discussion program broadcast on public television station WYES-TV, Channel 12. Errol is a three-time winner of the Alex Waller Award, the highest award given in print journalism by the New Orleans Press Club. Errol’s most recent books are "Krewe: The Early Carnival from Comus to Zulu" and "Marched the Day God," a history of the Rex organization. In his free time he enjoys playing tennis and traveling with his wife Peggy to anywhere they can get away to, but some of his favorite spots are the Caribbean and historic locations around Louisiana. You can reach Errol at (504) 830-7235 or errol@myneworleans.com.
