Columns

Yes, with all this wet cold weather it’s time for a hearty bowl of Vietnamese Fish Soup …. Gaaack! Yep, I know AND I don’t mean a good Louisiana Courtboullion over rice. This is an actual whole fish boiled in a thin broth. I was astonished to find that it sounded a whole lot like a tongue-in cheek recipe I found a few years back called “Fish Head Soup” and featuring my nauseous pictures. Soooo, please suppress the gag reflex and read on.

Let’s get shakin !! As most of you know it’s CRAWFISH SEASON, most southerner’s favorite season. When you think crawfish surely you think of corn, potatoes, maybe mushrooms, garlic, and lemons. I think of the drinks I’ll be having with them if you know what I mean…all jokes aside, I think of family and friends coming together peeling crawfish, laughing, and having a good time.

I’m Catholic, which means no meat on Fridays during Lent! What a coincidence that crawfish season is in full swing during the 40 days of lent! Growing up many Fridays during lent meant a crawfish boil. My parents would invite all our family and friends over and we would have a boil.

Most history buffs occasionally venture off into areas they know little about but that is one way to gain additional knowledge. Early medicine and early doctors of DeSoto Parish are today’s topics. Of course there are plenty of doctors that would know more about early medicine than this writer but have you seen any of them take the time to write about it?

Medicine as we know it today is almost solely a 1900’s and 2000’s development. Until the early 1900’s there were only a few drugs and most of them came from plants. Aspirin, quinine, morphine and it derivative of paregoric, either and chloroform all were plant based. In early times and even to some measure today illnesses were personal. When a person was sick they were referred to as “indisposed, confined, under the weather or puny”. Early obituaries usually referred to the deceased as “God took them to their rewards or they were called home to Jesus”.

The Meatloaf That Keeps On Giving

The actual name of the MyRecipes dish was “French Onion Meatloaf ” but I figured with a title like that no one would be curious enough to read my column. Besides the onion haters would gag and not even think about giving something sounding like that a look. I think my title sounds a little more interesting and it’s actually pretty descriptive, too.

Let’s get shakin’ Well, we have now laid Mardi Gras and Carnival Season 2023 to rest. A lot of us are gearing up for lent! With Easter and Spring right here around the corner.

Gardens are being tilled, diets are being altered to remove/work off some of that winter weight and everyone’s ready for Spring and Summer.

My favorite time of year is the southern Spring (my allergies would disagree) but I live for the blooms, fresh planting, everything turning green again, and amazing vegetables and fruits beginning to sprout. No matter if you grow them yourselves or buy from friends, a roadside stand, or the market. There’s nothing like fresh vegetables.

Jazzing up Mardi Gras

Let’s get shakin’ Next to Mardi Gras one of the biggest festivals in the Big Easy is of course Jazz Fest. Personally, I’m not a fan of New Orleans Mardi Gras, it’s just too many people. Don’t get me wrong I love New Orleans! I even once owned and lived in the famous Octoroon Mansion on Royal St. next to the Cathedral (yes it was haunted.)

The history, the nightlife, and of course THE FOOD. Arguably some of the best food you can find. If there’s anything I love more than food (and of course a good stiff cocktail) it would be music. Well, Jazz Fest got ya covered. From Jazz to Blues, Country, to Pop, and top 40, they’ve got it all.

What a differ ence a century can make in our lives and particularly in the prices of things. In 1918 the U.S. was in WWI with many of its young men in battle with their lives on the line while combating the Germans; but there was another enemy taking thousands of lives. This enemy was very similar to today’s Chinese Virus. Known as the Spanish Flu, this virus killed thousands of people all over the world. An uncle in WWI told of carrying bodies of the dead soldiers and stacking them by state on the railroad platform in New Jersey to be put in boxcars to be shipped to their homes for burial. It is very interesting to compare the difference in the attitude of this present virus and the few deaths experienced so far in comparison to the thousands of deaths due to a similar flu in 1918.

The Big Chill

Just when I was beginning to think the poles had flipped and the Ark-La-Tex was now occupying England’s Latitude the sun popped out Friday. We are flipping back to the South. Man, what a miserable week of steady rain and temperatures right above freezing. Of course that was preferable over what our neighbors over in the Dallas area were getting. In fact, I was feeling pretty lucky because I’d just moved a big stack of firewood into the dry, had my fireplace crackling, a big pot of homemade vegetable soup on the stove, AND the thermostat set on a comfortable 64 degrees.

The power of positive mind thought processing is a detrimental part of one life for you become of that in which you think you should think of your self. Many days I have risen and had that negative thought of this world. By that I meawhen my eyes used to open my first thought was another day in the unfair ugly world until I understood that the world isn’t ugly. It’s your own perspective of it that makes it ugly because that’s what you have put in your though of mind by it already being that as you think of it it’s exactly what you received in return. Remembers whatever energy you release into universe is what you are anointed in return. If you put that same energy in awakening and seeing another beautiful day in this world you will see how different your day will be as we manifest negative results, one should always have a positive mind frame and the finger at others for the problems you may endure in life but there are always three fingers that are pointing back at you.

During and after the Civil War Louisianans were faced with many unbearable problems. Our northwest Louisiana area faced the hardship and cruelty inflicted by the Carpet Baggers (Northern troops and individuals sent after the war to enforce privileges for the Negros). But central and south Louisiana had tremendous problems with the Jayhawkers.

The Jayhawkers were a terrifying and widespread group of notorious mongrel men whose goal was to cause havoc in the area. It appeared to have originated in Winn Parish and spread eastward and southwards. Whatever their motivation they formed violent gangs to take advantage of the war’s chaos to rob, steal and murder.