LOUISIANA GROWNThe state’s tomatoLast summer, in the produce department of Dorignac’s Food Center, I was assailed by a wonderful fresh scent that was flower-like. Following my nose, I came to the source of the fragrance: a bin heaped with gleaming…
Go to St. Joe’sNewly refurbished and snatched from decay, St. Joseph Plantation is another jewel that can be added to the precious necklace of plantations encircling both banks of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Driving either…
FORK IN THE ROAD Bull RunOnce you’ve reached the simple white Spanish façade of Pamplona Tapas Bar and walked through the pepper-red door, you might find yourself looking instinctively for Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power or Papa Hemingway himself. This eatery…
Just a few years ago it would have seemed preposterous: the idea that a modest New Orleans neighborhood could help teach the world how to build sustainable, affordable housing. Today the thought is not at all far-fetched. Credit for the…
“Alec’s” best kept secretI had a relative who briefly took over my great-grandmother’s home in Avoyelles Parish in the ‘50s and redecorated the old place. She stripped the doors off of ancient solid-mahogany armoires and turned them into bookshelves painted…
CAUSE TO CELEBRATEWorth all the fuzzIt’s been 57 years since Ruston held its first festival to rightfully celebrate Lincoln Parish’s stellar fruit –– the succulent sunset-colored orb known as the Ruston peach. The 2008 Squire Creek Louisiana Peach Festival will…
Music and food have long danced the Cajun waltz in Louisiana, but the courtship between food and music reaches back before Louisiana was even Louisiana. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare wrote of the intrinsic connection some 400 years ago, as Duke…
Sally Heller’s multimedia installations are visual journeys that take the imagination through the looking glass into a fantasy and theatrical swampland of shimmering silver mylar, wrapping paper, webbed pipe cleaners, plastic plates, chicken wire mesh and whiffle balls. They entertain,…
Marie Bossard and Tony Adrian live in a “green” house in the quaint community of Prairie Laurent, near Breaux Bridge. They catch rainwater and create their own electricity. Imagine having a $0 electric bill and a $0 water bill. Here…
Early last summer, after paying $4 for a pint of ice cream, I did a quick mental calculation and was horrified to realize what I might spend over the next few months feeding my habit. So I bought a small…
I was raised in the city by a former farm boy, but, to his chagrin, my father’s farm-forged values were not always enthusiastically embraced by his citified offspring. It drove my daddy to distraction, for instance, that his teenaged daughters…
Springfield’s celebrationThere is a party going on in a far southeast corner of Livingston Parish, marking the arrival of visitors from 170 years ago.They came not by cars but by goods-laden schooners from New Orleans, through Lake Pontchartrain and Lake…
WHAT'S HOTShow us your tats. Shreveport-Bossier City’s first tattoo convention’s festivities included a tattoo contest, a customer etiquette class and an auction to benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children. The tattoo contest allowed participants to enter their body art. B.J. Clements,…
Sometimes green isn’t so good. Take Bayou Des Glaises, for example. The waterway, which meanders from its head near Simmesport down through Avoyelles Parish, is often colored algae-green, especially around Moureuville where the water moves slowly. Not far upstream is…
Take a drive to Alabama for a weekend on the Gulf. Built by Aronov Realty in a spectacularly beautiful location adjacent to the 4,200-acre Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Martinique on the Gulf is a classic beachside community offering a…
The Interstate 20 billboard that announces to Atlanta commuters that “soul is waterproof” lifts the spirits of displaced New Orleanians. It is true that Atlanta, long New Orleans’ bigger, newer, richer rival, has plenty of stuff that the Crescent City…
Ben Franklin famously said that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. He’s mostly right, but he forgot one other thing –– dirty diapers. But just because they’re a necessary evil doesn’t mean that they can’t also…
Sad but true: In rankings designed to reflect environmental sensitivity among states, Louisiana often has found itself in the single digits. In the past few years, though, the state has shown progress in climbing into more respectable ecological territory. Through…
Out-of-date Shreveport telephone directories are being converted to fresh new paper products. Transit buses in Baton Rouge and Monroe are cruising along on cleaner-burning fuel. Solar panels are powering modern homes and historic plantation properties alike. Newly rebuilt New Orleans…
Don’t tell Maggie Mae Renfro the times are a-changing –– because, honey, she’s seen it all.In her lifetime she has witnessed the turning of two centuries, the rise of the United States into a world power, two world wars, the…
Zachary Taylor, who, though born in Virginia, spent part of his adult life living in Louisiana near Baton Rouge. By what nickname was he best known?A. Old Rough and ReadyB. TippecanoeC. Old HickoryD. ZThere has been one presidential nominating convention…
Northern LouisianaThrough April 27. The American Soldier, A Photographic Tribute. Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, Shreveport (318) 632-2020.April 3. ULM Presidential Lyceum Series: James Carville and Mary Matalin. University of Louisiana, Monroe (318) 342-5447.April 4, 11, 18, 25. Brown Bag Concerts.…
Dear Friends,Louisiana’s African-American Heritage Trail is our newest offering for both travelers and Louisiana citizens. It is a collection of sites around our state that showcase the contributions of African Americans to history and culture, to food and music, to…
