New Orleans Magazine May 2012

Food + Drink

LIFTING A GLASS Bill Goldring

Recipient of the 2012 Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award

I had three days’ notice when my baby arrived. Most parents get nine months to prepare, and I suppose if you count all 18 months of adoption preparation that I’d been through, I should have been twice as organized as any biological parent. The call came on a Friday from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese […]

Food + Drink

Cobbled Together

In May, the bag is definitely mixed

How to Survive a Graduation

It’s a long, hard struggle, but when you finally make it to graduation, it’s like being born all over again. Everybody is real glad for you, but nobody wants to watch the whole thing. Me, I only go to the graduations of people I myself personally gave birth to. At least for a birth you […]

Police and Katrina – in Retrospect

Last month we saw what, we trust, will be the last sentencing of a former New Orleans police officer because of a Hurricane Katrina-related incident. Ronald Mitchell received a 20-month sentence after being convicted of obstruction of justice and lying in the case of a man Mitchell shot in front of the Ernest N. Morial […]

Drama in the Classroom

Where acting makes an entrance

My Father’s Mirlitons

During his retirement, my late father became an accomplished mirliton farmer. He grew them in his backyard where the vines climbed ambitiously over two trellises. Mirliton growing requires some skill; the right parts must intermingle to produce offspring. In season, the trellises would be loaded down with what seemed to be hundreds of the prickly […]

Letters

LINGUISTIC CAUSES Re: The ongoing debate: Poor Boy versus Po-Boy Thank you for fighting the good fight to maintain the proper name for our iconic New Orleans sandwich. I have a running dispute about this with my daughter, who otherwise is a true New Orleans purist. Every time I hear “__’ boy” used, it’s like […]

Popcorn Socialism

BLOGS FROM THE NEW NEW ORLEANS

One Man’s Island

Tom Gamache’s sculpture garden

Julia Street with Poydras the Parrot

The Pursuit to answer eternal questions

Mother’s Day Considered

Ways to celebrate it

Drama at Sea

Somewhere in the Caribbean, between the western tip of Cuba and the Yucatan peninsula, a small boat bobbed over the waves as it rushed through the dark from Cancun to Royal Caribbean Cruise line’s Voyager of the Seas. Four hours earlier the captain had announced to the cruise ship passengers that this action would take […]

Food + Drink

Two for the Season

Creative lunches and new to the cake scene

Lagniappe

Blue Crabs Get Respect

New Orleans chefs and avid local diners have long held local blue crab in high esteem. Now, people worldwide can tell at a glance that there’s something special about Louisiana blue crab. This spring, the international Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) designated Louisiana blue crab as a “certified sustainable fishery.” Once this London-based nonprofit certifies […]

Wellness

Healthbeat

• On May 7, Touro Infirmary will offer “My Aging Brain: Prime Years Seminar.” This free seminar will examine decline in memory and mental quickness in relation to age. Touro speech-language pathologist Chelsea Temple will discuss the anatomy of the brain, normal aging, how it changes and things to do – and not do – […]

New Libraries Speak Volumes

One of the mantras of post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has been to not just rebuild, but to rebuild better and smarter. To get a sense of how this can play out, just take a walk through the newly restored and thoroughly rethought Rosa F. Keller branch of the New Orleans Public Library system. Located in […]

Humor at the Keyboard

Sam Adams was a pioneer of local musical parodies

5 Tips for a Crawfish Boil

1) Crawfish are messy. For easy clean-up, cover tables in plastic bags and set up garbage cans at the end of each table so that guests can easily dispose of the shells. If you have the crawfish boil at a park or public space, make sure to start cleaning up before the sun starts to […]

Marquee

OUR TOP PICKS OF THE MONTH’S EVENTS

Pushing Afrobeat Anew

Seun Kuti’s uptempo take on his father’s legacy

Food + Drink

Warm Weather, Cool Openings

May is when the hot weather really starts. It also signals the end of the season during which purists can enjoy raw oysters. Since the advent of modern refrigeration, the common justification for eschewing uncooked oysters is no longer valid, and while hot weather does increase the incidence of a bacterium that can cause serious […]

Nick Spitzer

Sometimes the best gifts are the ones that surprise you. So, when I went to meet “American Routes” host and noted cultural multi-hyphenate Nick Spitzer, I was a little intimidated. I had met him socially before and he has always been personable, but now I was going to interview him. Enter his realm, so to speak, […]

Re-Bridging Bayou St. John

The historic Magnolia Bridge over Bayou St. John has been closed to vehicles for decades but it still sees plenty of traffic. The iron span, a durable relic of the bayou’s history as a commercial waterway, serves as a daily gathering spot for neighbors out enjoying the bayou scenery and it’s been pressed into service […]

The Alienation of Sal Perricone

“Alienation – an individual’s estrangement from society.” – The American Political Dictionary, Fifth Edition, 1973 n what may have been their last interview together, United States Attorney Jim Letten and Senior Trial Counsel Salvador “Sal” Perricone sat in the Feds’ new downtown high-rise office on Poydras Street. It was Friday afternoon, Jan. 20, 2012. Both […]

Making It Right

Weighing benefits of sustainable building

Boils of Summer

Something under the skin