A sure way to get a giggle out of your young child is to challenge him or her to SPELL “Mississippi” — and fast! M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. It’s actually not as hard as it looks, once you get the rhythm of it. The Old South state of Mississippi, not the lazy “Old Man River” Mississippi, on […]
Red, Hot, and Phew!
Posted November 26th, 2010 at 1:38 pm (UTC-4)
You may have read my two recent postings about so-called “Cajun Country” in swampy southwest Louisiana. Well, it’s time to get your swamp boots and mosquito repellent on again, for right in the middle of the ancient oak trees draped in Spanish moss, and the black bayous — or slow-moving streams — full of alligators […]
Safely Rest
Posted November 24th, 2010 at 12:33 pm (UTC-4)
Even if you’ve not been to Washington, D.C., perhaps you’ve sized it up for possible places to visit. So you’re allowed to answer this question: What would you guess is the most popular tourist attraction in the capital city of the United States of America? If you said the Smithsonian Institution museums, such as the […]
Only in America: Quack, Quack!
Posted November 22nd, 2010 at 3:11 pm (UTC-4)
Let’s talk museums. Not the artsy kind we so often cover. Not the Smithsonian Institution’s many museums in Washington, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I’m talking strange museums. You see, Americans may be unique in saving and displaying all kinds of unusual, even useless, items in tiny collections devoted to just […]
Only in America: Thanksgiving Fact, Fiction
Posted November 19th, 2010 at 1:01 pm (UTC-4)
Many history majors have a hard time landing good jobs — or any jobs at all — out of college. Today’s big guns — business and entertainment — don’t pay much mind to what happened long ago. But it’s a good thing a few historians did find jobs and are fact-checking our tales about the […]
Only in America: John Brown’s Body
Posted November 15th, 2010 at 2:25 pm (UTC-4)
If you started to softly sing “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,” most Americans would quickly identify the tune as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” And they’d be right — but only up to a point. The words to one of America’s most performed — and most bellicose […]
Battle Row and Beyond
Posted November 12th, 2010 at 4:17 pm (UTC-4)
There’s a lot more to Southwest Louisiana, about which I wrote last time, than Cajun honky-tonks, alligator-infested wetlands, and pepper-sauce factories. Tucked down in the corner, away from the spooky swamps, is Louisiana’s . . . pick your analogy . . . odd duck, loose cannon, eccentricity in an already-eccentric state, or wild and woolly […]
Bayou Country
Posted November 5th, 2010 at 1:11 pm (UTC-4)
You may have had a chance to visit one of those restaurants or clubs in which the owner proudly displays photos or cartoons on the wall, depicting the famous people who’ve preceded you there. Usually they’re autographed by the celeb, or sometimes just the signatures and a little message are scrawled there. Well, I’ll have […]
