Louisiana has always had some dry parishes where booze was limited by local law, but the state and especially New Orleans did not take too well to the period from 1920 through 1933, when alcohol sales was curtailed nationwide. Prohibition…
Last Sunday afternoon (June 6) around 6:15 I was driving toward the river on Canal Street waiting for a light to change on the block between South Rampart St. and University Place (Now called “Roosevelt Way”). All was quiet,…
What does it mean when the top 10 movies set in Louisiana are discussed, two of them have the word “Easy” in the title? After much discussion, we have concluded that it is probably only a coincidence because the competition…
Some kids were playing on Omaha Beach, building sandcastles. Nearby an adult couple walked along the sand at shore’s edge, presumably looking for shells, the nautical kind rather than those fired from cannons. The shards of war have long…
For many, the image of Jewish settlements in the United States have been mostly on the East Coast and in major cities. However, there has long been a Jewish population spread across the South and in rural areas. Dating back…
Not to be bragging or anything, but I once happened to meet and talk to the Queen of the Creole Tomato Festival. The festival is held annually in the Dutch Alley section of the French Market. Given the demands…
Bre'r Rabbit was a trickster who loved to defy authority and who pulled his stunts throughout the South. He is known for finding seclusion in briar parches but in Louisiana, his spiritual home was Laura Plantation where former slaves told…
Sometimes neighboring political bodies join together to forge historic agreements. Few are as anticipated by those who remember the old days along the lake as the efforts by Jefferson Parish’s and New Orleans’ councils to redevelop West End. The…
Don’t you just hate it when you’re walking in the yard of an old farmhouse and there is a ghost staring out the window? How about that strange noise some folks claim they have heard coming from the barn? And…
According to the legend, “the night was clear, and the moon was yellow, and the leaves came tumbling down.” At this point Lloyd Price, a native of Kenner who was one of the top rhythm and blues performers of…
Louisiana was one of the pioneering states at offering free healthcare to its citizens. And there were several state-run Charity hospitals, with the New Orleans facility being one of the largest in the nation. James Ciaravella, a retired surgeon turned…
Several years ago, when e-mail was young, I got a message from a freelance writer in New York state who was pitching a story idea. A couple of times during our exchanges she used the word “scrum.” Born and…
Louisiana, we know, is the creation of many ethnic groups but one that doesn’t always get the credit it is due is the Sicilians. The port of New Orleans was the largest arrival point of migrants from the island off…
Pamela Marquis, a longtime contributor to various titles at Renaissance Publishing, died unexpectedly on May 4. A devoted gardener, Marquis’ gardening column and other contributions to New Orleans Homes kept readers in the know not only with trends and…
May Day, last Saturday, was spent at a St. Joseph’s Day altar. I know, according to the calendar, someone got the dates wrong, but a world turned upside down has made the liturgically improbable more possible. Two local churches…
Revolutions sometimes start in the presence of a bottle of wine. This was probably one of them. A man I know had dropped by the office with a mission on his mind. It was mid-September. A week earlier he…
We hoped to peacefully co-exist with the bees, allowing them to use our yard in return for pollinating the garden in the back. But then they started working their way through a vent in the bathroom and once in, began…
Huey Long is such a part of the legend of Louisiana politics one might think he was governor for decades. In fact he did not serve a full term, but his impact would last for decades. From his perch as…
When we last had a chance to see the former New Orleans Baby Cakes in person in 2019 they were playing their final games on Airline Highway. The franchise, it was announced, was relocating to Wichita, Kansas where community…
Imagine a Lieutenant leading a platoon through a French village during World War II. He has questions to ask the locals but everyone in his group only speaks English. What does he do? He calls for the soldier from French…
We were regulars at a certain neighborhood restaurant and always knew the food to be good and the service efficient, but on a Friday night a few weeks ago things just were not right. Service was slow; very slow.…
Imagine being Vice-President of the United States and having killed Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Imagine that later in his career the same person possibly committed sedition by trying to make the newly purchased Louisiana territory…
Our driver was from London. As he made his way toward the city, we talked about the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that had taken place only a few weeks earlier. I told him that practically all…
What is the better fish for eating, red drum or red snapper? They’re both good but food writer Stanley Dry know the differences. Dry has a long list of credentials including being food editor for Louisiana Life magazine and the…
Here is a description of what Roy Orbison looked like to me when he performed at the Jazz Fest in 1985: A stick. A black stick on a stage, with a stick band behind it. Oh, and the stage seemed…
Is Voodoo a religion or is it a way of life? According to Sallie Ann Glassman it is both. Glassman, who travelled to Haiti to study Vodou and to be initiated into the priesthood explains the complexities including the parallels with…
After a year of experiencing just about any gathering as being “virtual,” we should be craving assemblies that are “actual” even if the congregation is just rabbits. There was a charm about the bunny village on display each year…
Churches in the Black community are historically known as places where preachers preach with more fervor and where choirs rock the house with hand-clapping joy, hoping for better days. A documentary produced by Louisiana Public Broadcasting entitled, “Louisiana’s Black Church,…
When Rite Aid pharmacies first opened in New Orleans in 1997 the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania company already faced a hostile crowd. The chain had bought out locally owned Katz & Besthoff drug stores, affectionally known as “K&B.” The hurt began…
It all began with the word “Acadian," which became Americanized to “Cajun” and then popularized to define life’s necessities including a two-step in Mamou and the spiciness of fried chicken. Join Errol Laborde, executive editor of Louisiana Life, along with…
