A Presidential Story: When Power Eludes
Election years remind me of a friend who tells the story of once going camping with a buddy at Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas. The year was 1970 and all was quite except for the squawks of…
The Editor’s Room
Redirecting The Swoosh
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…
Why We Need Football
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…
Morgus The Magnificent: Lessons Learned
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…
Katrina: As The Storm Approached
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…
Distant Drums: Hopes and Concerns for Carnival
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…
Katrina's 15th vs. COVID-19
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…
Biden vs. Trump: Why We're Here
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…
There's Only One Thing Worse Than Being Called a Baby Cake...
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…
K-Paul’s: Stories du Jour
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…
Two Countries, Two Revolutions
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…
Can "Normal" Really Be "New?" Just Asking
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…
![Viareggio Mascot [1]](https://wpcdn.us-east-1.vip.tn-cloud.net/www.myneworleans.com/content/uploads/2020/06/VIAREGGIO-MASCOT-1.jpg)
Blaine Kern In Viareggio
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…
![Ceremony![1]](https://wpcdn.us-east-1.vip.tn-cloud.net/www.myneworleans.com/content/uploads/2020/06/ceremony1.jpg)
Need Help From Voodoo? This Might Be The Week
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,…
Spring 2020: The Lost Season
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,…
Should We Try Again To Neutralize Hurricanes?
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…
Of Masks, Disasters and Governors
Ninety-three years ago the Governor of Louisiana was Oramel H. Simpson, who had ascended to the post from being Lt. Governor. Among his accomplishments was to sign a bill outlawing public masking except on Mardi Gras and at masquerade…
Evangeline At A Time Of COVID
We have all experienced our Evangeline Oak moments this year. In 1928 Huey Long, then a little known candidate for governor, stood beneath the St. Martinville oak and made a speech that is a classic in American politics. Referring…
Memorial Day on a Different Battlefield
Next Monday is Memorial Day, a time for remembering our military. The day feels a little different this year because, in a sense, we are all in another world war, only the enemy is invisible. As in the two…
A COVID Lesson: No One Rules Absolutely
This week is the 75th anniversary of VE day, a celebration of the date, May 8, on which the peace treaties were finalized and World War II ended in Europe. The battles in the Pacific still raged, but for…
Why Carnival Should Persevere
During the immediate post-Katrina days of 2005 Mayor Ray Nagin went to the Northshore one Sunday evening to talk to a group of displaced New Orleanians. They wanted to know about the condition of the city and when they…
Bullying With A Purpose
Usually when the word “bully” is used in the vicinity of City Hall the reference is to the reigning mayor and not to the mayor’s correspondents. To have been elected, all mayors must have some diplomatic skills; but to…
When Zooming Goes Viral
During our 2005 Hurricane Katrina exile we were in a coffee shop in upstate Alexandra. At a nearby table were two coeds who, we had learned from a brief conversation, were from Sweden and were attending the University of…
Thinking About Italy This Easter Week
A tour guide at the back of the boat was pointing to some of the sites as the craft raced toward Bellagio (the real village not the hotel in Vegas). Italy’s lake region is one of the most picturesque…
Three Times (At Least) Mardi Gras Helped Save New Orleans
This Mardi Gras marked 163 year since Comus started what would be the continuing parading tradition. The current Carnival post-season is the first time that a virus has ever been an issue. To the discussion, I submit the following: 1872…
Joseph and Patrick: The Lost Feast Days
Late in the afternoon last Thursday, March 19, I stood at the front door of Angelo Brocato’s. In the world of Italian confections Brocato’s is perhaps the best there is, including the old country. There is significance to the…
When Life Turns Everything Upside Down
For most of our Katrina exile we stayed at a relative’s home in the central Louisiana town of Marksville. One Sunday evening I needed to get a fill-up at the nearest gas station, which was down the highway at…
Lindy At The Vatican
This Friday, March 13, will be the birthday of the late Lindy Boggs (1916), who during her career served as a member of congress and then later was Ambassador to what is officially known as “The Holy See.” No…
Speaking Of Tandems
Usually when people have travel stories, the tale seldom centers on the part when the airplane was taxiing on the runway. For August Perez III, a glimpse through the window would open the way to a major innovation in…
Lundi Gras - The Making of a New Old Tradition
There are some old traditions in Carnival. There are also some traditions thought to be ancient, but really are not. One of the latter is “Lundi Gras.” While, the practice of Rex arriving…
The Editor's Room
Weekly Commentary with New Orleans Magazine’s Errol Laborde
about
Errol Laborde holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of New Orleans. He also serves as executive editor of New Orleans Magazine and 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 Press Club of New Orleans. He also received the National and City Regional Magazine Association Award for Best Column for his New Orleans Magazine column, beating out 76 city magazines across the country. In 2013, Errol received the award for the "Best News Affiliated Blog," awarded by the Press Club of New Orleans.
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.
