King Cakes in the COVID Era
I suspect that this is going to be a good year for king cake sales, BUT there is also going to be a major crisis over the allocation of responsibility: In other words, who gets the baby now? To…
The Editor's Room
For Us, 12th Night Isn't An Ending, It's A Beginning
I have long maintained that for whatever maladies may haunt New Orleanians, post-Christmas letdown has not been one of them. While the rest of the world hauls its Christmas clutter to the shed, we deck…
Three Ways Christmas In New Orleans Is Unique From Others
New Orleans celebrates Christmas pretty much like any other American city, but it is in the nature of this city to never be totally normal; to be a bit quirky in whatever we do, and that includes the holidays. …
Bonfires on the Levee – The True Story
Because of COVID, Papa Noel will be on his own this Christmas Eve as he approaches Louisiana’s river parishes. We all know that the reason folks in St. James, and other river parishes, build bonfires on the night before…
To Jefferson Parish: Yes, Have Parades In May...Just Don't Call It Mardi Gras, Please
Orleans Parish was named after a French Aristocrat; Jefferson Parish was named after an American Statesman. You can usually count on statesmen to be a little hungrier than aristocrats and to try a little harder to make things happen.…
Carnival Denied: Learning From the "No Call Bowl"
For the first crisis, the enemy could not see; for the current crisis, we cannot see the enemy. Last time we were body-slammed as a society was due to a sight-impaired referee whose failure to see what the rest…
Facing Polio: When The Vaccines Arrived
A relative recalls the day in the ‘60s when he was taken to the gym at St. Dominic’s school. There, a nurse carried around a tray filled with small cups; each cup contained a sugar cube. For kids already…
Carnival's Choices: Harder and Harder
Imagine that you want to have a backyard barbecue but before you can you have to get the approvals of the city. An inspector visits, studies the situation, and after consultation issues a report. "Good news," he says, "you can…
Sky In The Eye
Pub Note: Errol Laborde’s Blog, the Editor’s Room, recently won First Place in the News Blog category at the Press Club of New Orleans’ annual awards competition. This was the third time that Laborde has won that award. …
Gerald Ford and Me
I had just picked up a scoop from an undisclosed source and placed it in my mental file. The scoop was that President Richard Nixon had reluctantly agreed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Watergate scandal. Nixon…
Knowledge About The College: Why Some Votes Are More Important Than Others
For all of you who are excited about the voting in the presidential election just remember one thing, electing a president is different than any other type of voting held in this country or elsewhere. Here’s the difference: An…
Lake Charles: Town, Target and Tune
Have you ever had a song keep rerunning in your mind? That’s happened to me lately. The song is by Louisianian Lucinda Williams who sings a bluesy, gravelly, gutsy style of country music. The song, which was released in…
Chief In State
A friend who was in a high school band the day President John Kennedy came to New Orleans (May 4, 1962) recalled the excitement. As the motorcade wound its way up St. Charles Avenue, the band director looked over…
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…
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…
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 and is the editor-in-chief of Renaissance Publishing. In that capacity he serves as editor/associate publisher of New Orleans Magazineand editor/publisher ofLouisiana 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.
