DISAPPEARING TO DEATH
As I mentioned in my last post, the number of newspaper articles on Bayou St. John drowning victims I’ve come across in my travels...
IMAGINING THE LULING TWINS
I just plunged down a deep, deep rabbit hole, and am now writing myself out. Yesterday, I stumbled across a mention of the Luling...
BUNDLES, BLOOMERS, AND BICYCLES
As many cities move toward more bike-friendly infrastructure, including our own, let’s take a trip back to the bicycle craze of the 1890s...
OLD FISH, NEW FISH
Don’t let those wind-induced ruffles on its surface fool you: our Bayou St. John doesn’t have a current of its own to speak of. Like all...
BOYS OF THE BAYOU: THEN AND NOW
While attending last week’s July 4th boat parade on Bayou St. John, led by the Krewe of Kolossos, I was reminded of a letter I came...
FANTASIES OF HISTORY-SIFTING
In 2013, as part of FEMA’s Environmental and Historic Preservation program, archaeologists conducted a dig at the colloquially-named...
NOT-SO-SECRET VOODOO CEREMONIES
From Wikimedia Commons: 1920 painting of Marie Laveau (1794–1881) by Frank Schneider, based on an 1835 painting by George Catlin. Source:...
SEARCHING FOR A GHOST TRENCH
Last weekend, I went searching for a bayou’s ghost. When the French arrived on the scene back at the end of the 17th century, a small...
NEW ORLEANS' OLDEST FIRE HYDRANT
Given the recent rejection of a property tax by New Orleans residents to help fund firefighter backpay, I figured I would focus on a...
CURED MEAT & MONSTERS OF THE DEEP
Big Walking Gator at Lake Woodruff. © Andrea Westmoreland. From Wikimedia Commons This past January, I wrote a post in which I quoted...
