Point Made

We had a primary election Saturday. As I have mentioned in a previous entry, we had several Republican candidates, four considered serious and one Democrat, who want to be the next Governor. The challenge for the eventual winner is that they are left to try to figure out how to save this state from the financial disaster that term-limited Governor and woeful presidential candidate Bobby Jindal left behind and the projected deficit in the next budget. This morning we find that there will be a runoff. The Democrat, John Bel Edwards, and the Republican David Vitter, currently a US Senator, will face off. Vitter suffered a horrendous attack by his own party contenders during the race. He survived because of his reputation as a staunch conservative and the truckloads of money spent by his Super PACS. Bel Edwards is a West Point Graduate, former army ranger, and minority leader in the state legislature. As a "southern" Democrat, he runs on credentials that feature pro-gun, pro-...

Post Disaster I refer to this post-disaster period, not because of Katrina or Isac, two hurricanes that inflicted physical and psychological terror on this area. No, I'm referring to the horrible start to the season by the local NFL Football Team, The New Orleans Saints. Said team made an effort toward respectability when they beat the Dallas Cowboys and unexplainably fell back in a rout inflicted by the Philadelphia Eagles. Ah, but our Prime Time showoff's really performed in the smacking down of the previously unbeaten Atlanta Falcons. And so, the air is fresher. Really the humidity has abated, and it has become cooler. There is a smile on most faces. Even here, not everyone lives and dies for the "ain'ts," as they are affectionately referred to when they are losing. If there was only a way of playing their entire schedule in the Primetime slots of Monday, Thursday, and Sunday night Football, this team might go to the Super Bowl. Instead, they languish at 2...

The cloud under which LSU resides. Normally a university under a cloud implies scandal, but fortunately for Louisiana State University, it really is clouds that are affecting their football program. Earlier this fall, LSU had scheduled one of those games all of the big schools put on the calendar. If the game didn't count in the standings, it would kindly be referred to as a scrimmage. Unfortunately, it does count. Like all of the big powerful teams, LSU was granted the privilege of getting drubbed by their team, which is spoken about as a possible National Champion and a Heisman Trophy candidate at running back, to McNeese State. The shadowy benefit to our sacrificial lamb is "national" exposure. Coach in Visitor's Locker room The steam rolls in from the shower room. The overhead lights flicker seemingly in time with the muffled chants of the LSU fans screaming for blood. "Gentlemen, I know that we did not play our best half of football today. L...

Travel to Wisconsin: Appleton's Art on the Street allowed me to touch base with some old friends. My friend Lenny Nagler was exhibiting at Coventry Gallery for this Friday night event. Some of his friends in this circle are also friends of mine.  A big surprise was the appearance of the somewhat reclusive Bob Levy. Bob is a long-time friend and member of The Royal Order of Toads. Since his divorce, he has been in a long-term funk. His decision to move back to the East Coast seems to bring him some peace. Bob agreed to attend a film and join us for dinner the following day. It was good to see him on the road to recovery. The Family got it together for me on Sunday morning. I had a jolt when my 14-year-old Granddaughter, Grace, walked out of her bedroom in high heels. It seems you have to practice walking in that type of shoe. The Homecoming dance is coming up, and she was getting in shape.  My Princess Warriors are, one by one, evolvin...

There are always the Grandkids. They are reason enough for going back, and it always will be. But there's more. I have tried, pretty successfully, I think, to keep in touch with many of my friends in Wisconsin. Len Nagler and I will be going to a Packer Game while I'm there. John B and I will have breakfast. We will talk about getting old gracefully (It's not a pretty process). My son-in-law Dan and I will share our sorrows about the Badgers' failure to look respectable against their SEC opponents. He feels bad. I live with it. Michelle Mooney is going to let me stay with her while I visit the Milwaukee Film Festival. I expect to see Leon, Jon, Charles, Ken, Bill, Larry, Jeramey, Dave, Tom, and Harry. I already have a date for lunch with Whitney. I know I'll see Sis, Mary, Cathy, Darlene, Carolyn, and Anne. So, it's not that I've slipped the tethers and floated away. My roots are still in Wisconsin, and those roots are what will bring me back again and ag...

As many of you know, Maria suffers from SAD . This was getting worse every year. As I explained to some of our friends, it wasn't the snow or the cold so much as the seemingly endless stretches of cloudy days in a Wisconsin winter. I can accurately report that Louisiana is a cure for that problem. I log the weather every morning in my journal. The usual entry looks like this. Morning temperature, the mid-seventies,  Skies Fair Wind, Calm Barometer, 30 inches Dewpoint, the mid-seventies Predicted high, the low to mid-nineties Feels like temperature, the mid-nineties to low one hundred Chance of rain 20% My doc says I can't wait any longer. As if my ankle fusion and two knee replacements aren't enough, I'm having my varicose veins zipped out. Since there is a recovery period, I'm waiting until I return from my visit to Wisconsin. My doc tells me that once the veins are out, the water retention that has been plaguing me will go away, and I will have ...

We may have been the only house on the block or maybe even in Louisiana to turn off our air conditioning and open our windows this week, but we did. For two comfortable nights with only a ceiling fan and our stick fan rotating in the bedroom, we slept with the windows open. We fell asleep to the night sounds of the Louisiana bayou country singing to us. Yes, the days go hot. However, the cool front that dipped down from up north (thank you) lowered the daytime temperatures and the humidity to a tolerable level. I learned something this week. See to me being able to ride my moped year-round also entailed mowing lawn as a component. Seems that is not true, My neighbor John pointed out to me that sometime in November we will mow the lawn for the last time in 2015 and not have to resume until May of 2016. Mock Jury Maria and I served on a mock jury this week. It might be a testimony to the justice system that the two combatants in this dispute, after almost eight years, preferred to sub...