A Royal Ramble
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…
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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…
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…
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…
A buddy of mine in high school once gave up drinking Coke for Lent. He was a big fan of the drink and I knew he would be frequently led into temptation during the 40 Lenten days. I witnessed…
A journalist acquaintance talked about covering a trial recently. Life being the way it is these days he had to watch from his home via Zoom. The trial was very emotional on all sides. He recalled having covered many…
March is arguably New Orleans’ best month. Lately it has also been the most picked on. Though there is stiff competition from February and April, March is the culturally richest month, especially toward the middle when St. Patrick’s and…
Last week, on Ash Wednesday, we had lunch at Venezia’s on North Carrollton Ave. I was fortunate to be seated in such a way that I could see through the front window across the restaurant. Somewhere between the fettucine…
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 by boat on the day before…
Lundi Gras 1999 had extra excitement to it, at least for those gathered at Riverwalk near the stage at Spanish Plaza where Rex, King of Carnival, and his entourage would soon be arriving. What was different that year was…
Sometimes hard times, such as this year’s Carnival, inspire positive genius. Making its way along the internet is a brilliant parody of “Masquerade,” the stirring song from “Phantom of the Opera.” The parody absorbs the melody; plays with the…
This weekend would have been the march of the Krewe du Vieux. The rowdy krewe’s theme brilliantly matched the world of COVID:“We’ve got no taste.” No group maximizes tasteless as much as KduV. For all of us who do…
*This article originally published as Laborde's editor's note in the January/February 2021 issue of Louisiana Life Magazine Let us pause a moment to consider midnight trains: Winston Hall is a Shreveport musician, song writer and music history buff.…
So far this season, finding good news about Carnival has been about as easy as trying to catch a Zulu coconut in a crowd, but every so often circumstances take a fortunate bounce in our direction. Challenging situations sometimes…
Joe Biden once spoke at UNO. I know because I was there. As I recall he spoke in the University Center's auditorium. The room was maybe half full, which was not bad considering that all that Biden was at…
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…
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…
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. …
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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. …
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…
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.