New Orleans Magazine January 2007

INSIDER’S: Special Advertising Section

Be on the lookout for American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women magazine cookbook, Love Your Heart. The 100-page cookbook will be available in major grocery stores’ checkout stands nationwide beginning February 6, 2007. Here is a preview of what you will find in the book: Vanilla Flans with Berry CoulisServes 4; 1 flan and 3 […]

Caring for the Heart: Special Advertising Section

Jan. 26, 2006: It should have been an ordinary, albeit busy day for Slidell-resident Cheryl Dampier. Dampier, a successful realtor, had a closing scheduled for 10 a.m.. She awoke about 6:30 a.m., mentally running through what she had to accomplish that morning. But, something did not feel quite right. “I felt a tightness in […]

Lagniappe

Heart Disease and Women: Special Advertising Section

Jan. 26, 2006: It should have been an ordinary, albeit busy day for Slidell-resident Cheryl Dampier. Dampier, a successful realtor, had a closing scheduled for 10 a.m.. She awoke about 6:30 a.m., mentally running through what she had to accomplish that morning. But, something did not feel quite right. “I felt a tightness in the […]

GO RED’S: Special Advertising Section

1. Make a date and keep it. Each year on your birthday schedule a check-up with your doctor. Have your blood pressure checked and ask your doctor to help you reach or maintain a healthy lifestyle. 2. Tone up as you tune in. Step, march or jog in place for at least 15 minutes a […]

Heart Disease: Special Advertising Section

For too many years in America, heart disease was considered a man’s disease. It was generally accepted among private citizens and the medical community that heart disease was more likely to hit the male population, due to their lifestyles, physical makeup and stress associated with their work. No one knows how many women lost their […]

MARCHING MADNESS

GREATER NEW ORLEANSJefferson Parish (504) 736-6101www.jeffparish.netFeb. 4 Krewe of Little Rascals, Metairie. 11 a.m.Feb. 9 Krewe of Excalibur, Metairie. 7 p.m.Feb. 10 Krewe of Caesar, Metairie. 6 p.m.Feb. 11 Krewe of Rhea, Metairie. 3:45 p.m.Feb. 11 Krewe of Centurions, Metairie. 4:15 p.m.Feb. 14 Krewe of Thor, Metairie. 7 p.m.Feb. 16 Krewe of Aquila, Metairie. 7 […]

ERROL LABORDE’S COMMENTARY: Responses

Here’s what you are saying…Re: Errol’s Commentary on 1/29I thought this article was truly inspiring and captured the sentiments of a lot of N’Awlins natives, even myself. I now live in Grapevine, TX close to Dallas, but my home and heart is still in New Orleans/Metairie. After 55 years it is hard to start over […]

History

STREERCAR: PARADE GEOGRAPHY THAT WAS

On the Sunday before Mardi Gras, the priest at St. Anthony Church on Canal Street always had to hurry his homily – either that or compete with tractor noise from outside and an occasional trumpet echoing from St. Patrick Street. Lower Canal Street, from the cemeteries to Carrollton Avenue, experienced no bigger day than Mardi […]

LOCAL COLOR: Nirvana in the Pines

SOMEWHERE IN STONE COUNTY, MISS.Carmen Kelley is moving like an amped-up bolt of lightning, jumping between tables at her Lake Toc-O-Leen Catfish Restaurant off Mississippi Highway 26. She is a wisp, in black pants and white blouse, with a mile-high 1950s-style French twist adoring her head like a crown. She is non-stop, running from kitchen […]

CHRONICLE’S: Flambeaux with Flair

Want a Mardi Gras you’ll really remember? Want to be in a parade? Consider this: you could get paid $30 or so, plus tips, and prance along in front of a guaranteed audience ready to applaud your every movement – you, too, could carry a flambeau! Flambeau carriers bear a heavy burden these days. Historically […]

MODINE’S: HOW TO REVIVE A KING CAKE

This is a story about King Cake shrinkage.Now, a King Cake is the easiest cake in the world to sneak a slice of without nobody knowing. If you cut a wedge out of a regular cake without asking, you’re in trouble – especially if it was for birthday party purposes or something like that. But […]

Fleur de Lists

Carnival’s Hottest Krewes• Muses. Thursday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m. This all-female krewe does good satire on its floats and good deeds in its community life. Muses’ throws are some of Carnival’s most creative. Bonus points: This krewe has actually put up money to pay for police protection. • Le Krewe d’Etat, Friday, Feb. 16, 6:30 […]

Blaine Kern’s Alla Bye

Float builder Blaine Kern is walking through the den of the Krewe of Alla, showing off some of the floats the club will parade on the streets of Algiers and Gretna this year. He sounds like a father talking about his children. CHERYL GERBER PHOTOGRAPH “That one’s ‘Cinderella.’ They still have flowers and gold leaf […]

New Orleans at the Time of COMUS

By the mid-1850s, Mardi Gras in New Orleans was a rough and rowdy affair that threatened the very existence of the festival. From the imagination of several men sprang the scheme for a lavish parade. The result, in 1857, was the Mistick Krewe of Comus – the prototype of organized Carnival parades and balls, known […]

March of the Muses

“If I start a parade, do you want to be in it?” From a simple phone call made by Staci Rosenberg in 1999, to a krewe of over 1,100 women a mere seven years later, the Krewe of Muses is a powerful and inclusive group of diverse women out to have fun – and help […]

HOME: ESCAPE TO THE GARDEN DISTRICT

NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGESThe bad news is that Hurricane Katrina flooded their Lakewood South home with seven feet of water. The good news is that they sold their flooded house and moved into a wonderful house in the Garden District. “We always loved the Garden District,” says Ann Marie Jackson. “When we first dated, I lived in […]

FOOD: Krewe of Roux

If you are a turkey-on-Christmas, ham-on-Easter kind of person, you may wrack your brain every Carnival season over what to serve at a parade party or how to feed out-of-town guests crashing at your house. Face it, there is but one Carnival food – King Cake. That’s what I’ve told food writers for years when […]

BIZ: Bagging Market Share

Stroll into Dorignac’s Food Center almost any afternoon of the week and you’ll see a familiar scene: piles of groceries rolling on the checkout counters, shoppers and carts jamming the aisles. Activity at the Metairie market is so heavy that you might guess the store is even busier than it was in the days before […]

SPEAKING OUT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY COMUS

Depending on how you count it, this year is truly the 150th anniversary of the continuing celebration of Carnival parades in New Orleans. One-hundred fifty years ago, in 1857, the Mistick Krewe of Comus staged its first parade. Though there had been miscellaneous parades on Mardi Gras in New Orleans before, Comus set the template […]

NEWS BEAT: Jazz Fest boosts black heritage

When the Zulu parade rolls this year, it will be doing so with a little help from its friends. Ditto for Mardi Gras Indians who enliven the Carnival scene and other holidays, the second line parades that keep a distinct slice of New Orleans culture vibrant and the small, grassroots museum that honors these and […]

MUSIC: Second Time is a Charmer

Samuel Charters is an esteemed writer on American popular music; a man whose long career exploring jazz, blues and Latin music has been interlaced with novels and writings about Sweden, where he made a home. His story as a writer begins in New Orleans as a young emigreé from California. He was drawn to the […]

NEWS BEAT: Xavier leader, B.B. King share stage

Former President John F. Kennedy established the Medal of Freedom in 1963 to honor people contributing to the national interest, world peace, cultural or other endeavors. President George W. Bush, Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney attended the White House ceremony presenting this year’s awards to Xavier University President Norman Francis and nine others, […]

RESTAURANT INSIDER

February food and drink is so obvious – King Cake, chocolate, snacks from the Carnival carts along the Avenue and of course, delectable dishes from the restaurants … THE KING OF CAKES Everyone has their favorite and I’m personally missing the serious, every-topping-in-the-joint rendition from Antoine’s on Freret Street, but meanwhile there are plenty of […]

Recipes

TABLETALK: Sugar and Spice

New Orleans’ mantle of culinary tradition is proud but heavy, and it has stifled the creativity of local pastry chefs to some degree in the past. As a result, there are lots of places to go to enjoy an excellent bread pudding or sinful slice of pecan pie, but not too many that serve up […]

NEWS BEAT: “Re-Greening” the City

When members of the Gentilly Civic Association learned at one of their meetings that the first major project of a new campaign to replant trees around New Orleans would zero in on Elysian Fields Avenue, the response was jubilation. That’s not surprising, says Jean Fahr, director of Parkway Partners, since residents have seen so many […]

PERSONA: SYNDEY BYRD

If you’ve attended a Mardi Gras Indian parade, Carnival parade or ball, you’ve seen photographer Syndey Byrd. Or, maybe not. Her work taking documentary photography means that she has to blend into the background so people aren’t aware she’s there – or as she says, “disappear.” The irony in that is Byrd, herself, is so […]

JULIA STREET

Dear Julia and Poydras,I recently saw a news bit concerning the opening of the new Silver Slipper Casino in Mississippi. This hit me between the eyes, as old memories came to mind. My uncle Joseph Columbo opened The Silver Slipper Nite Club at 426 Bourbon St. Later on, he, with my father Anthony “Tony” Porretto, […]

Things To Do

MARQUEE

Chocolate Kitty II – Party in the CityOn Friday, Feb. 16th, there will be a truly unique party at the Dragon’s Den. In full Mardi Gras spirit, guests are invited – until 4 a.m. – to join premier underground female turntablists and DJs, including DJs: Soul Sister, Beverly Skillz, Bomshell Boogie, Robyn Steel, Lady Fingaz […]

Lagniappe

NOLA Flur De Lis Shirts

Lagniappe

21st Annual Tennessee Williams Festival

NEW ORLEANS – Prize-winning authors, thespians and a myriad of other creative souls will unite this spring in celebration of the 21st annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, March 28-April 1, 2007. The lofty list of participants includes Pulitzer Prize-winners Richard Ford and Yusef Komunyakaa; best-selling authors Barry Gifford, Haven Kimmel, Michael Lewis, Sharyn McCrumb, […]

ERROL LABORDE’S COMMENTARY: WHO DAT IN THE LAND OF “QUI EST- CE?”

When this quick trip to St. Bart in the Caribbean was scheduled, I had given no thought to the possibility that the Saints would be hosting a playoff game on the night we arrived. We were bouncing on a ferry cutting through choppy water at the same moment that folks back home were bouncing around […]

ERROL LABORDE’S COMMENTARY: RECONSIDERING THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS

Whenever the Battle of New Orleans is the topic, the discussion usually ends with the ironic note that, unknown to the battle’s participants, a treaty that ended the war had been signed weeks before. Word had not yet been received from Belgium that in its port City of Ghent, the War of 1812 had been […]