Columns

By John Blanchard

By Stephen Waguespack

August 29, 2015 marks the 10-year anniversary of New Orleans’ direct hitfrom the now in famous Category 5 mega storm, Hurricane Katrina. The power of the massive, 127 mph hurricane compromised the below sea-level city’s levee system, causing levee breeches that led to wide spread flooding in over 80 percent of the city. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of un paralleled proportion in Louisiana. Over 1,000 people lost their lives in the storm, and hundreds of thousands of residents lost their homes and liveli hoods. People who had evacuated from New Orleans returned to a city that, for a time, see med to be without hope.

Let me tell you about “Mike the Magnificent”, an English setter which knew more about bird (quail) hunting than most hunters and liked nobody, but would hunt with anyone because that was what he was bornto do. He had a little swagger about him and his hard head. He was a gift from our dear friend and long time and long ago friend, the late FredNielsen of Winnsboro in Franklin Parish.

To view more please log in or subscribe to the digital edition. 

These are the dog days of August, most certainly. Farm boys of the Great Depression recall them quite vividly in the days of picking cotton in the burning sun, feeling the heat on yourback and making it to the end of the row to get a pull on the water keg  which gave only “wet”, not cool, but near boiling point liquid. The keg had no shade, neither did the pickers. Life was simple then. No ice water, but a big chunk from the icehouse on Sunday for ice tea. Sleeping under a mosquito bar was no fun since it cut off any breeze, which might come through an open window in your bedroom. Being hot or fighting the humming insects? There was no window fan since there was no electricity. However, we went to war and kicked the hell out of the Japs and Germans and later, some 70 years later, we were called the Greatest Generation. We are getting out of the way of brilliant boys and girls, which we claim. Thanks, we trust you because we all want to remain free.  

tests so many similar candidates this early in a race is nothing more than a name ID poll. Name ID is one thing Trump has mastered better than anyone else,  thanks in large part to reality TV.Whether a true candidate for the long haul or a flash in the pan that will soon be voted off the island, it is astonishing that he is credibly convincing some to hire him as president only a few years removed from milking every dollar of profit from the phrase “You’re fired” on “The Apprentice.” Speaking of astonishing, the Democrats have their own reality show going on right now and you would be hard pressed to  ake characters like this up.