VOL. 1, NO. 25 /MARCH 25, 2010
•Life in the Circus Photo by Jenny Bono Photography
•Hope and Faith in Haiti •The Dang Yankee Goes Camping
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
On Cover: Members of Lake Area Shoppe Girls include: (in random order) Regina Ledet, Therese Deroche, Amy Springer, Sharlene Boyle Rebekah Dressler, Patricia King Michelle Woodyear, Christina Babcock, Juli Wilson, Blair Tadlock, Tate Alderson, Samantha Hebert, Kimberly Dellafosse, Bonnie Cappo, Leah White, Natalie Comeaux and Christie Harmon. Photo by Jenny Bono Photography.
GENERAL 715 Kirby St., Lake Charles, LA 70601 Phone: 337-436-7800 Fax: 337-990-0262 www.thejambalayanews.com PUBLISHER Phil de Albuquerque
contents COVER STORY 22
publisher@thejambalayanews.com
NEWS MANAGING EDITOR Lauren de Albuquerque lauren@thejambalayanews.com
Working Together: The Lake Area Shoppe Girls
7
The Boiling Pot
10
The Dang Yankee
12
Doyle’s Place
lisa@thejambalayanews.com
14
Tip’s Tips
CONTRIBUTORS Leslie Berman George Cline James Doyle David Duplechain Dan Ellender Maria Alcantara Faul Mike McHugh Mary Louise Ruehr Brandon Shoumaker Karla Tullos
16
What’s Cookin’
38
Sports Report
ADVERTISING SALES CONSULTANT Patricia Prudhomme
ENTERTAINMENT
GRAPHICS ART/PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Darrell Buck
22
REGULARS
EDITOR Lisa Yates
SALES ASSOCIATES Jody Barrilleaux Katy Corbello Faye Drake Sarah Puckett Karla Tullos
March 25, 2010 • Volume 1 • Issue 25
FEATURES 5
CASA: Hope for Abused Children
18
Haiti: Hope and Faith
34
The Things That Easter Brings
36
My Life in the Circus
40
Red Hot Books
43
Family Night at the Movies
44
Funbolaya
45
Killin’ Time Crossword
46
Society Spice
50
Jambalaya Jam
52
The Local Jam
54
Eclectic Company
36 18
ART/PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Michelle LaVoie
5
BUSINESS OFFICE MANAGER Kay Andrews Legal Disclaimer The views expressed by The Jambalaya News columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Jambalaya News, its editors or staff. The Jambalaya News is solely owned, published by The Jambalaya News, LLC, 826 Ford Street, Lake Charles Louisiana 70601. Phone (337) 436-7800. Whilst every effort was made to ensure the information in this magazine was correct at the time of going to press, the publishers cannot accept legal responsibility for any errors or omissions, nor can they accept responsibility of the standing of advertisers nor by the editorial contributions. The Jambalaya News cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations, even if they are sent to us accompanied by a selfaddressed envelope. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Copyright 2009 The Jambalaya News all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission is prohibited. Volume 1 • Issue 25
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43 MARCH 25, 2010
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A Note From Lauren Celebrating Business! As I read the cover story—which is actually 12 individual stories about some of the members of a wonderful networking/support group of women-owned businesses in the Lake Area—it struck me how exciting it is that so many women own their own businesses nowadays. And I can’t believe that I am one of them. No one in my family owned their own business. God forbid. Everyone—my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins— worked for someone else, brought home a paycheck every Friday, and didn’t think about work until Monday morning. Owning a business was too risky; it took up too much time; you could go bankrupt. It was much easier to work for someone else. My Uncle Frank’s wife, Frances, had a sister, Theresa, who owned a deli/bakery in Dorchester, Ma. with her husband, Rocco. His sister also worked there full-time. There were six kids in the family, and they all pitched in to help after school and on weekends. For years, my aunt Frances would help out every Saturday. Yes, they worked very hard. They had to get up at 4 a.m. every day to make bread and doughnuts. One night, they were robbed at gunpoint, and Rocco’s sister was shot—thankfully, only in the arm. My family would shake
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MARCH 25, 2010
their heads and tsk-tsk about those “poor people”: “They’re going through hell, they should just close it and get back to their lives already! No one should ever own their own business!” Well, they eventually did get back to their lives—after selling the business for an amazing amount of money. Because of their dedication, effort, and the high quality of their goods, people came from all over to buy birthday cakes, Italian cold cuts, and so much more. When they were ready to sell, there was someone out there ready to buy. And two of their daughters went into business for themselves: For decades, Marietta has owned gourmet restaurants on Cape Cod, and Gina owns a hair salon. What my family didn’t realize is that once you work for yourself; it gets in your blood. Yes, it’s probably one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do; and unfortunately, just because you work hard and have a good product doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make it. But that’s all part of the challenge of owning your own business. So hats off to the members of the Lake Area Shoppe Girls, and to all of our local business owners, for going for their dreams. And let’s all get out there and support them.
– Lauren de Albuquerque
The Jambalaya News is proud to welcome Jody Barrilleaux as the newest member of our professional team. Jody and her husband Dwayne were both born and raised in Sulphur. They have four grown children, Jamie, Trey, Brent, and Joni, one grandson, Tucker and another, Hudson, will arrive in May. Jody has worked as a sales associate in the printing business for five years. For the last three years, she and her husband have been living their dream, traveling and making music with Marty Haggard. “I’ve been reading TJN for a year now, and when it was time for me to get back into the business world, my first thoughts were of Phil and Lauren,” Jody said. “They’ve changed the way I look at SWLA. I didn’t even realize how much I took the warmth, caring and love that we have here for granted. So thank you Phil and Lauren, for the opportunity to be a part of the Jambalaya family!” You can listen to Jody on her radio program, “The Local Artist Showcase” on KELB radio 100.5FM on Tues. and Fri. from noon to 1 p.m., and you can watch her TV program with the same name on cable channel 6 KDLA out of Westlake. She says she likes the idea that she gets to spread “GOOD gossip” for the Lake Area!
TJN
Jody Barrilleaux
Volume 1 • Issue 25
By David Duplechain
April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, and what better way to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect than to tell the story through a local agency that provides advocacy services on behalf of these children. CASA (a program of Family & Youth) is the acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocates, and it is also, appropriately, the Spanish word for home, symbolizing the safe, loving, permanent home that all abused and neglected children long for. Children with CASA’s are less likely to spend time in long-term foster care, are less likely to re-enter the child welfare system, and have a better chance of having a safe, loving, permanent home. Simply put, abused and neglected children with CASA’s have a better chance at having a childhood. Beginnings CASA began in 1986 in Seattle, Washington, and has since spread nationwide with over 1,000 programs providing volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children. Locally, CASA began as a project of the Junior League of Lake Charles under the leadership of then Assistant District Attorney and now Family & Juvenile Court Judge Lilynn Cutrer. On September 3, 1996, Judge Billy Ezell swore in Barbara Downer, Dawn Redd, Jill Kelly, Susan Couch, Jennifer Gill, Della Rose, Monet Brashear, Kathy Chafin, and Nathalie Miller as the first in our community to “Stand up for a Child” as trained CASA volunteers. In 1999, CASA became a program of Family & Youth, and since that time has grown to provide services not only in Calcasieu Parish, but in Allen and Jefferson Davis Parishes as well. Dedication and commitment In 2009, 76 volunteers spent 1,476 hours training to be a CASA, and devoted another 3,271 volunteer hours and drove over 48,951 miles in serving 233 abused and neglected children. That’s dedication and commitment! Volume 1 • Issue 25
While these numbers are impressive, there is more to be done. The most recent statistics show that currently, there are over 440 children in foster care in Southwest Louisiana, a number that has grown substantially over the past several years. Providing a CASA for every child that needs one is a moving target, but for the sake of those children, it’s a goal that our community has to meet. CASA volunteers serve three roles. First, they are the eyes and ears of the court, gathering information about their child or children and their family that otherwise might not be available to be considered when decisions are made about what is in the best interest of that child. Secondly, CASA’s are the voice of the child, reporting the information they’ve learned, as well as the needs and wishes of the child, along with fact-based recommendations as to what they believe is the child’s best interest, to the Family & Juvenile Court Judge. Finally, CASA’s serve as a safety net, ensuring these children do not slip through the cracks of an overburdened child welfare system. While other parties in the system – judges, attorneys, child welfare workers, etc., - are all dealing with multiple cases at the same time, CASA volunteers are assigned to one—only one—case, allowing them to devote their full time and attention to their CASA children, their needs, and their best interests.
accept their first case. While it’s said that someone who can devote a day a month can be a successful CASA volunteer, the statistics show that most volunteers do spend more time working on behalf of their children. Being a CASA does require a commitment, because being a CASA has meaning and value, and it would not be so if there was not a right way to do it. While not everyone can be a CASA volunteer, there are other ways to help. Scheduling someone from the CASA program to talk to a civic group, church group or other organization to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect in our community is a start, and a great way for potential volunteers to learn about the program. Presentations are also available, for adults and children, on how to keep children safe by recognizing and taking steps to prevent child abuse. Participating in our annual Dinner at Mi CASA fundraisers (our next dinner is April 25) is a great way to learn more, to enjoy a pleasant evening and a great meal, and ensure that CASA continues to be able to provide services to abused and neglected children. Attending our annual Child Advocate Night celebration (November 23)
where we honor those who go above and beyond in their service to abused and neglected children, is a great way to send a message to these dedicated individuals and the children they serve that the community cares. While many have sought to quantify the cost of child abuse to our society, and it is substantial; statistics ignore the fact that every abused child has a face, a name, hopes, dreams, and desires, and all of this changes, through no fault of their own, when they are abused and neglected by those they love. To learn more, to volunteer, or for more information on any of these events, call the CASA office at Family and Youth, (337) 436-9533, email david@fyca.org., or visit www.fyca.org.
TJN
What it takes Becoming a CASA volunteer requires no special background, simply a love for children and a desire to help. Potential volunteers must also be able to successfully pass a thorough criminal background check. Volunteers receive 40 hours of initial training, and are required to receive an additional 12 hours annually to maintain their certification. After completion of their training, volunteers are sworn in by a Family & Juvenile Court Judge, and can then MARCH 25, 2010
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Letter to the Editor
By Chris Hughes, Master Jeweler
– Super Glue DOES NOT repair chains or rings! It will cost more to repair because the glue has to be removed. There’s no substitute for a professional cleaning and polishing or for having your stones inspected. Benchworks provides this service at no charge, no matter where you purchased your jewelry.
238 W. Prien Lake Rd. (337) 478-0477
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MARCH 25, 2010
Dear Editor, The tragedy of Murray Day’s son’s case in Calcasieu Parish has no doubt elicited feelings of sadness and despair in your readers, as it has with me and the members of our agency. Our hearts go out to the 9-year old, and we pray that he gets the counseling and love that he needs and deserves. Horrific cases such as this warrant a story on television or an article in the newspaper. Unfortunately, there are so many children in Louisiana and throughout the country who suffer from child abuse or neglect, and their stories are never told. Child abuse and neglect affects us all, either directly or indirectly. And we all must become a part of the answer to this problem that plagues our state and country. It is everyone’s responsibility to care for all of the children in their communities. Whether you’re a neighbor, a teacher, a friend, a family member, or just a passerby, no one should miss an opportunity to help a child in need. How can you prevent child abuse and neglect? Volunteer. Mentor. Support families you know and love. Pay attention to the families you may not know as well, but are part of your community. Raise awareness of the issue. Take care of your children. Ask for help when it is needed. Enroll in a parenting class.
If you see a parent who seems stressed or out of sorts, step in and offer assistance. These are but a few ways that individuals can be part of the solution. Visit our Web site at www.pcal.org for additional suggestions on what can be done to prevent child abuse and neglect. Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) Louisiana offers parenting classes, professional education, and staffs a crisis and referral line, KIDLINE 1-800CHILDREN (244-5373), in an effort to stop child abuse and neglect before it starts. Parents and community members are urged to call the KIDLINE when they need to talk about a situation in an anonymous and confidential setting; whether the situation pertains to their child or someone else’s. While we do not have all of the answers, we are working to help as many families as we can. It is only when our communities come together to help our families that the vicious cycle of abuse and neglect will end. Most sincerely, Loren Brown Public Awareness Director Prevent Child Abuse Louisiana
TJN
Volume 1 • Issue 25
The
Boiling
P l
Please submit press releases to lauren@thejambalayanews.com
L’AUBERGE DU LAC NAMES 2009 EMPLOYEE, MANAGER AND SUPERVISOR OF THE YEAR L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort recently announced its Employee of the Year for 2009 along with its Manager of the Year and Supervisor of the Year. Debra LeFrere-Williams, a table games dealer, was named Employee of the Year at a March 10 gala. LeFrere-Williams, who joined L’Auberge in 2005 as part of the opening team, received a cash prize, designer luggage, VIP parking for one year and a crystal trophy. She will use that luggage to fly to Las Vegas with a guest and join winners from all of the Pinnacle Entertainment properties for a private reception. Revenue Audit Manager Lisa Wilkerson was named Manager of the Year for 2009; she joined L’Auberge in March 2005 as part of the opening team. Patrick Quintano, an executive casino host, earned top honors as Supervisor of the Year; he joined the company in 2006. Both winners received a custom trophy and a cash prize.
Debra LeFrere-Williams, Patrick Quintano, Lisa Wilkerson WESTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WINS AT ORATORICAL CONTEST Kathyrn Reeser, 10th grader at Westlake High School, won second place in the high school division at the 2010 Oratorical Contest. The contest was sponsored by the City of Lake Charles on Feb. 27 at Central School of the Arts and Humanities Center. She was awarded $250 for her speech entitled, “It takes a Village - Community Involvement.” Reeser is a theatre student of Kerry Onxley’s and the daughter of Jason and Jennifer Reeser. Volume 1 • Issue 25
Kathyrn Reeser
ROXANNA MIZE JOINS LEADERSHIP TEAM AT FIRST NATIONAL BANK First National Bank proudly announces the promotion of Lake Charles Branch Manager Roxanna Mize to the position of bank officer. The addition of Mize and two Crowley-based officers, Jim Lyons and Jackie Sonnier, all committed FNB employees, ensures continuity in the management team. As Lake Charles Branch Manager, Mize coordinates and oversees all branch operations. With over 11 years at FNB and 24 in banking, she is committed to a friendly and practical approach with customers. Mize has committed her time and talent to serve as the FNB Lake Charles and Sulphur United Way Campaign Manage and participates in blood drives and heart walks for the Lake Charles and Sulphur employees. For more information about First National Bank, visit www.fnb-la.com.
IZZO’S WELCOMES DIANA DORTA TO MANAGEMENT TEAM Izzo’s welcomes Diana Dorta to their management team. Diana will serve as the catering and marketing manager for the Lake Charles franchise. Diana is a recent graduate of McNeese State University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications. Diana stands ready to serve Southwest Louisiana with her catering services, spotlighting the Zo-to-Go Fajita Bar. Diana’s primary focus is servicing the medical and petrochemical industries, but is equipped to handle all catering needs. Contact Diana at (337) 304-7661 or diana@izzoslc.com for your next event.
Diana Dorta
SHAMIEH NAMED TO BUSINESS FIRST BANK BOARD OF DIRECTORS Business First Bank is pleased to announce that Dr. Fayez K. Shamieh has been elected to the board of directors for Business First Bank. Dr. Shamieh is the founder and senior member of Neuro Associates in Lake Charles. He has been in private practice in the field of Neurology and Electrodiagnosis since 1979, and is affiliated with St. Patrick’s Hospital, Lake Charles Memorial Hospital, Women’s and Children’s hospital, and West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital. He served as the president of the medical staff of St. Patrick’s Hospital and president of the Calcasieu Medical Society. Dr. Shamieh has also been involved on the board of several organizations in the Calcasieu area, including the Calcasieu Community Clinic Board. He continues to be active in the Physicians for Peace missions, volunteering at least once a year to the neediest countries of the world, especially in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Dr. Shamieh is married to Amal Shamieh, and has two children, Samer and Ramez. Dr. Fayez K. Shamieh
MARCH 25, 2010
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CAMERON COMMUNICATIONS DONATES FRAMED PRINT TO MCNEESE ATHLETIC FOUNDATION Cameron Communications Media Coordinator Shireen Santhanasamy presented a framed print to Dianna Alcede, volunteer for the McNeese Athletic Foundation. The print was an auction item at the annual Denim and Diamonds fundraising event held recently at the Lake Charles Civic Center. For more information on Cameron Communications’ donations and sponsorship policies, please visit www.camtel.com/Newsroom
Routine Eye Exams • Disease & Surgery of the Eye SWLA’s Cataract Surgery Specialist Cameron Communications Media Coordinator, Shireen Santhanasamy, presents a framed print to Dianna Alcede, volunteer for the McNeese Athletic Foundation. The print was an auction item at the annual Denim and Diamonds fundraising event on March 4 at the Lake Charles Civic Center.
Donald C. Falgoust, M.D. Board Certified Ophthalmologist
1980 Tybee Lane
477-0963
WEST CALCASIEU CAMERON HOSPITAL ANNOUNCES EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR AWARD West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital recently held its 2010 Employee Awards Banquet, where it recognized over 51 employees for their years of service to the hospital. Prior to the banquet, hospital employees were given the opportunity to vote for the recipient of the Employee of the Year award. The winner was selected from among the four individuals chosen as an Employee of the Quarter for each one of the previous year’s quarters. For the first time in its 56year history, the vote resulted in a tie, with Jake Richey and Tonya Stillwell walking away with the evening’s honors. Richey, a radiologic technologist, has been with the organization for over 12 years. He currently serves as the assistant administrator for the hospital’s picture archiving and communications system. Stillwell, a physical therapist, has been with the organization for 13 years. Stillwell serves as a clinical instructor for physical therapy students. FIRST FEDERAL INVESTMENTS PROFESSIONAL ATTENDS NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE First Federal Investments financial professional Janet LeLeux, located at First Federal Bank of Louisiana, recently attended the 2010 PrimeVest National Planning Conference, held in New Orleans. LeLeux has fulfilled the financial needs of individuals and businesses with PrimeVest for three years. She has 13 years of experience in the financial services industry, and is one of more than 1,500 PrimeVest financial professionals serving financial institution clients located throughout the United States. RENEE GRANTHAM RECEIVES STATE LIBRARIAN HONOR Renee Grantham of Lake Charles has been awarded the 2010 Elizabeth Bruns Award by the Louisiana Library Association. The award is presented annually to a school librarian to recognize a program that demonstrates exemplary library usage. Grantham, who has served as a Calcasieu Parish school librarian for 24 years, has a master’s degree in instructional technology, a bachelor’s degree in business education with school library certification, and an MLIS from LSU. A leader within the Louisiana Library Association, Grantham is also a member of the American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians and the Louisiana Association of School Librarians. Grantham received her award in Baton Rouge while attending the Louisiana Library Association’s 84th annual conference. Renee Grantham
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
WOUND HEALING CENTER AT WCCH NAMES CLINICAL NURSE MANAGER Michelle Eades has joined the Wound Healing Center at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital as clinical nurse manager. Eades will be responsible for all clinical aspects of the center including providing continuity of care for patients, integrating new therapies into care and training new personnel, reviewing and reporting on patient outcomes and ensuring quality of care. A Moss Bluff resident, Eades recently served as Director of Nurses at Cornerstone Hospital of Southwest Michelle Eades Louisiana. The Wound Healing Center at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital specializes in the treatment of chronic wounds and non-responsive conditions and offers hospital-based outpatient wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. CHRISTUS CLINIC OPENS IN SULPHUR WALMART The new CHRISTUS Convenient Care Clinic inside the WalMart store on Cities Service Hwy in Sulphur held their grand opening and ribbon cutting recently. The clinic, a compliment to primary care in the Sulphur area after hours and on weekends, is open Mon. – Sat. from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for the treatment of minor care. No appointment is necessary. ALVIN TOUCHET, JR. JOINS THE SALES TEAM AT AD SOURCE Alvin Touchet, Jr. has joined the advertising sales team at Ad Source Outdoor Advertising as a new account executive. Touchet, a native of Lake Charles, was formerly an account executive with Suddenlink Media, and is a member of the Greater Lake Charles Rotary Club, and the Lake Charles Sail and Power Squadron. TJN
Alvin Touchet, Jr.
Bike Hitches Donated and Installed in Downtown Locations A new, welcome addition, specifically for bicyclists, can now be found near some business locations in Downtown Lake Charles: bike hitches. The new bike hitches are the result of a series of community meetings recently held following a request to the Downtown Development Authority by several local businesses about donating bike hitches to the city for installation near their businesses. Businesses and individual donors supplied the bike hitches (manufactured by a local company) and the city installed them based on the guidelines shown in the Downtown District’s memorial and donations policy. Participating businesses are Empire of the Seed, GiGi’s, the Yoga Center, and Sylvia’s. The public-private partnership for the bike hitches initiative was coordinated by Carolyn Woosley, who said: “We residents are very proud that Volume 1 • Issue 25
locally-owned downtown businesses have donated these bike hitches to the city. We like living in historical downtown, where we can choose to bike or walk to meet up with friends, go to art openings or enjoy the sunset by the lake. These hitches are a modest hint of several quality of life changes coming soon to downtown. “In the U.S.A., progressive cities have biking amenities. This bespeaks a progressive vision (much as does recycling and litter abatement). Bike amenities are expected by college-educated youth choosing cities for residence. “By being in sight of passers-by, the used hitch could encourage others to bike downtown. This supports a more ‘green’ health-and conservation-oriented lifestyle. It also melds with the multi-use venue of our Smart-Coded downtown.” For more information, call 491-1292. TJN MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 9
Dang Yankee The
By Mike McHugh
Yay! Let’s Go Camping! I should have learned my lesson and quit when I wrecked that camper last fall.1 But no, I had to go buy another one, and a bigger one at that! Things sure have changed since that time 25 years ago when my wife and I took our first camping trip to Canada. Back then, we were able to fit everything we needed for a whole week into the back of her Honda Civic hatchback. We still talk about the wonderful time we had on that trip, and we didn’t want for anything. Nowadays, we can’t stand leaving
home overnight to go to a campground five miles away without bringing enough gear to outfit the 171st Infantry for duty in some part of the world that’s not fit to support human life. We seem to bring everything with us except for the one thing that is an apparent must for people with campers. That one thing is a dog. All camper-type people besides us seem to have them. Even if they have never owned a dog before in their lives, they seem to go out and get one right away when the buy their first
camper. I think some RV dealers must give them away as incentives. It can’t be just any dog, though. It must be a small one, preferably no bigger than a nutria. And it has to bark loud and often. Naturally, the very first thing that my wife did when we took delivery of the camper was to go in and stake out “her” space, which consisted of the entire trailer except for one small wardrobe next to my side of the bed, which is large enough to maybe hang a swimsuit. That does me no good, however, since we never seem to go to any campgrounds that have pools. The second thing that she did was to declare one of the trailer’s two doors as strictly off-limits in terms of using it for its intended purpose of entering or exiting the unit. That was a huge letdown for me, as the one thing that excited me about the larger trailer was that it had not one, but two doors. Now, the only thing that the door is good for is to let the sun come in at the crack of dawn and blind me in the eyes while I’m laying in bed. So, what had been the unit’s single selling point for me serves only to take away my one great joy of camping—that of sleeping in. After all, what good is camping if you can’t sleep in on a
Saturday and not feel guilty about it, since there’s no yard work to get up and do? I should just go board the thing up and get it over with. There’s lots of places around here to go camping with your trailer, and I’m told that some of them even have swimming pools. State parks are usually affordable and very scenic. When you first pull into a state park on a sunny afternoon, you arrive at the gatehouse where you meet friendly Ranger Rick. He smiles and tells you about all of the camp’s wonderful amenities, none of which interest you, since you only came to drink copious volumes of beer because you don’t have to drive anywhere. He is also sure to remind you of the Quiet Hours, which begin at about the time you and your buddies will be ready to go out to sit around the campfire with your ice chest and your boom box and tell jokes that send you all into fits of raucous laughter. Don’t you dare do it! If you try, you will find that, during Quiet Hours, friendly Ranger Rick turns into the Peace Nazi. He’s worse than a librarian, because he has a big truck with lots of bright spotlights. And he’s always paying special attention to your campsite. Why? Because you don’t have the obligatory nutria dog. Dogs are apparently exempt from Quiet Hours and may bark all night long. All park rangers seem to have this peculiar auditory defect where they cannot hear the high-pitched yips of these boisterous little devils. However, should you go out walking to the latrine in the middle of the night (because no matter the size of your waste tank, it’s never big enough), and so much as step on a twig, he’s got his truck lights bearing down on you as if you were some federal prison escapee. What you didn’t know was that the guy in the spot next to yours, the one with the fifth wheel the size of a Sam’s Club, the one with the most offensive-sounding nutria dog in the whole campground, has a hotline to Ranger Rick, and he was there all night, watching for you to make the least little slip. So, my advice to you is this: if you’re looking for a place to go camping, avoid the state parks. Find a nice little private campground, preferably one that offers a bounty on nutria dogs, and also a pool—if the wardrobe your wife lets you have is big enough to hold your swimsuit. 1
Refer back to the 11/5/09 issue for the gory details of that incident. TJN
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MORE THAN 75 ARTISTS IN 16 SEPARATE LOCATIONS Candice Alexander
Adrian Fulton
FRIDAY, APRIL 9, FROM 5-9 P.M. Benita
Corley
an
y Oakm
Doroth
BELGIAN MULE-DRAWN CARRIAGE TRANSPORTATION WILL BE PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE FROM THE LAKE CHARLES CIVIC CENTER TO THE ABOVE CENTRALLY LOCATED STOPS. THE CARRIAGE RIDES ARE MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH A DONATION BY CITGO PETROLEUM. Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 11
oyle By Jim D
Life and Death and the Justice System Well, campers, I usually try to stay away from telling legal war stories in this space because nothing can be more boring to a non-lawyer than hearing about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I made a brief exception last time, because I felt it was entertaining, and gave a hint of this next story. I write about it today because I think it has broader moral and societal implications than just the “horse race” effect of one lawyer versus another. In fact, it’s a story about life and death. More than one. Let me start by telling you a little secret. Every lawyer billboard you’ll ever see says, one way or another, “I’m the best.” But lawyers know who really is the best. We see it primarily in the courtroom, comparing how we do things and how we sound when we do them to how other people look and sound. The first time I ever came across Mike Small, I knew he was the best. It’s not just his client list, which includes luminaries like Governor Edwin Edwards. It’s not just his clear self- confidence, which is a good thing to have but doesn’t win cases for you all by itself. It’s not even his formidable intellect. It is all those things wrapped together, though, and includes a big heart that allows him to understand our system just plain ain’t fair to some of the people ground between its gears. Let’s go back for a moment to the fall of 2002. Mike had been retained (and I use that term loosely, because the family could never afford his actual fee) to represent a triple murder defendant named Amanda Gutweiler Hypes, who had been charged in the deaths of her three children. Her daughter Sadie Plumm was eleven. Her son Luke Hayden was six, PAGE 12
MARCH 25, 2010
and her daughter Jessica was barely three. The bodies of all three children had been found in a downstairs bedroom in the wood frame house built by her contractor husband. The sheriff ’s office in Rapides Parish had charged Amanda based on the fire which engulfed that house, which they claim she had set in an effort to rid herself of these three kids so she could disentangle herself from a bad marriage and leave the Tioga area, where she had moved with Mr. Gutweiler. The fire that killed Amanda’s children happened on Jan. 9, 2001. This was six years after Susan Smith was convicted of drowning her two sons in the back of a car, and six months before Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in Clear Lake, Texas. Since the ancient story of Medea, mothers of dead children have been suspect in their demise, and in large measure, Amanda was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because the charred bodies of her children had been discovered on the burned-out remains of her marital bed, the first story tossed out by the Rapides Parish Sheriff ’s office was that Amanda had somehow forced her children to lay on the bed, doused them in gasoline, and set them, and the house, on fire. The only problem with that theory was that there was absolutely no evidence to support it. You see, Amanda had not been in the house at the time of the fire. She and her husband lived hand-tomouth, and she had run out of food that morning after feeding her children the last bit of rice and last slices of bread left in the kitchen. She had no idea how she was going to feed anybody that night. Then, when the mailman came, out of the blue there was a check payable to her husband for some contracting Volume 1 • Issue 25
work he had done. With a singleminded determination, Amanda decided to go cash the check at the bank where it had been written (she had no checking account of her own), but closing time was drawing near: it was almost three o’clock. She had no one at hand to keep the children. So she did what parents do in that situation. She put her oldest child in charge, gathered the children in the upstairs bedroom, put a videotape in the television, and told them to remain quiet and still until she returned. Amanda then went to the bank, where she is pictured on a timestamped video just after 3 p.m. The bank is about nine miles from her house. At 3:14 p.m., her next-door neighbor noticed smoke and flames coming from her house and called the local volunteer fire department. They arrived just after 3:30, right after Amanda had run screaming through her house trying to locate her children and was by then sitting on the fender of her car, sobbing uncontrollably, watching the house go up in a burst of fire. The fire marshal’s investigation used sniffer dogs to see if they could locate any flammable liquids, and they did alert to a couple of spots in the house and two or three on the outside and the lawn. It turned out the samples they alerted to were negative; not surprising, since the K-9 detectives had most recently been drug dogs, not arson dogs. As it turned out, no law enforcement official ever found any evidence whatsoever of gasoline poured in the house. The fire marshal did come to investigate. None of the fire marshals on the scene that day had any education beyond a high school diploma, and all learned their trade from other equally educated fire marshals. Unfortunately for Amanda, they were using “fire science” technology that was 30 years out of date. By this time, they had dug the debris away to expose the slab of the house and found “spalling,” which is a reaction that occurs when a flammable liquid burns on concrete, popping the air bubbles that remain inside. The same effect, of course, happens when a particularly hot fire puts debris directly on the concrete. Nevertheless, the fire marshals concluded these bubbles were evidence of an intentionally set fire and decided they would further investigate. So they did. They brought in a bulldozer and removed the remainder of the house. They then washed the slab with a fire hose. Volume 1 • Issue 25
As you might imagine, those who actually know what they’re doing do not recommend this particular activity. In fact, it destroyed any evidence that might have been there. This evidence could have cleared Amanda, but it was gone forever through the incompetence of law enforcement. Amanda was under suspicion, but not indictment, until an expert by the name of John DeHaan, who had a Ph.D. from a distance-learning curriculum based in Glasgow, Scotland, rendered a “scientific” opinion determining the fire was arson. You might at this point stop to wonder what evidence he had upon which to base his opinion. I wondered that for the whole eight years I was involved in this case, because there was none. When Mike asked me to assist him, I first retained the services of George Barnes of Orange, Texas. George is a retired ATF agent who has investigated many fires from a law enforcement perspective, and when he read the file in this case he was appalled. He did not believe this was an arson fire— that goes without saying. He had never represented a criminal defendant before. But he readily accepted the assignment in Amanda’s case because he thought she had been railroaded by the local law enforcement officials for reasons best known to them. George also was particularly offended by the statement law enforcement took from Amanda. At a time when there was no legitimate reason to suspect her, three days after the fire she was enticed to the local sheriff ’s substation to retrieve her purse and other personal items. While there, the deputy in charge of the investigation kept her incommunicado for a total of nine hours, causing her to miss the only funeral service held for her only three children. On the tapes of that interrogation you can hear Amanda wailing: “PLEASE give me the lie detector test PLEASE. I did not kill my children. You are wrong. I did not do this. PLEASE give me the lie detector test and let me go to my children’s funeral.” OK, campers, can you think of a reason law enforcement would refuse to give a criminal suspect a lie detector test? Take 10 seconds and think about it. Right. Because they don’t believe she’s guilty and they are concerned the lie detector test will confirm it. In the next issue: The State’s case falls apart. TJN
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 13
By George “Tip” Cline
Restaurant Wars In these uncertain economic times, there is no shortage of attempts to exploit the consumer. I have encountered a couple of questionable practices in a few restaurants lately. I’ve had unordered items placed on my bill, or have been charged for more beverages than were served. When it’s pointed out, the waiter or waitress will usually correct this without much hesitation. In some instances, however, the server will make such a lengthy and frustrating attempt to locate the error that I know people who eventually just pay it with the incorrect charges on it. This is a practice that will cost the restaurant in the long term, no matter if it’s a genuine mistake, the server is trying to raise the total to make a larger tip, or it’s the owner being dishonest. No one likes to be played for a fool. Always demand an itemized bill with an accurate accounting of your order and check the addition. If an establishment needs to raise their pricing, then they should do it above board and honestly. Food writers are known to call attention to the obvious signs of a restaurant that may have a questionable future. Cutting back on both the quality and quantity of food served is a prime indicator of a possible upcoming demise. I’m not a food writer, but we eat out often and really enjoy the restaurant experience when we receive the kind of food quality, prompt and courteous service, and ambiPAGE 14
MARCH 25, 2010
ence that we expect for the price paid. It is so disappointing to find the gumbo watered down, the stuffing more filler than delight, the smaller portion served, a less desirable product being used, etc., that ultimately give you less than you paid for. This can occur in the best of establishments; the ones you think you can always count on. They can end up on the same slippery slope as any of the others. Don’t be afraid to privately voice your opinion to the management. Take them aside and let them know that you expect your money’s worth, and that you know when you’re being exploited. A good manager will appreciate an honest, courteous evaluation and will respond appropriately. A dishonest operator is not interested in your wellbeing anyway, but at least you’ll have the satisfaction of letting them know that you know what they’re up to, and that your circle of friends will be so informed. Always let your friends know of good deals, values and opportunities—as well as any of the rip-offs you encounter. IT’S COMPLICATED Albertson’s is featuring the Monopoly game promotion again this year. They’ve added a twist: an Internet piece is included in the packet, which must be checked on-line. Talk about a pain—you’re required to jump through multiple hoops to check on your game ticket code’s outcome. Each ticket code requires Volume 1 • Issue 25
several steps to enter; there isn’t a way to just keep entering your ticket codes, one after another, as you wind up having several codes to check from most shopping expeditions. You would think that they could make it a little easier. I’ve quit checking my tickets on line—too much aggravation. HIGHWAY DEATH DECREASE DUE TO LESS DRIVERS It was nice to see that highway deaths are down to levels not seen since the 1950s. There are multiple reasons for this. Unfortunately, some of the bloom is off the rose due to the lackluster economy we are experiencing. You don’t drive as much when you don’t have a job to commute back and forth from, or don’t have as much money to pay for fuel for nonessential travel. With all the cell phoning, texting and other distracting practices drivers do while on the road, we can only wonder how high the toll would be in a strong economy. People will continue to eat, sip a drink and converse with others while they are traveling, regardless of safety considerations. It’s only human nature to multi-task when possible. We can only hope that while they’re dealing with these distractions, they can keep their eyes on the road. NOT A BIG DEAL Have you noticed that the vendors of the 12-packs of Cokes and other cold drinks are now advertising that at $4 per 12-pack, it is only 33 cents per can? Where were the signs when the 12-pack was $1.88 or $2.50? They didn’t bother to point out the per-can price of 16 cents or 21 cents then. This is just another marketing gimmick to make you think you’re getting a good deal when you’ve just been taken advantage of again. Don’t be swayed by deceptive advertising. The vendors need to make a profit and costs are rising, but trying to make you think that something is a bargain, when it’s not, is not a good way to do business. TJN
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 15
If you have a recipe and story you would like to share, e-mail us at lauren@thejambalayanews.com
What’s Cookin’ Boiling Over at The Boiling Point
Pictured from left to right: Angel Courville, Brenda Williamson, John Williamson, and Lori Quelle. The Boiling Point in Sulphur has been the goto place for patrons seeking mouth-watering seafood for Lent for the past 28 years. The restaurant was born out of a career shift for owner John Williams when an injury suddenly stopped his career as a welder. “My wife Ramona and I had to really sit down and think about what I was going to do,” John said. “She simply said that I should open a restaurant because I was such a good cook.” The rest is history. John opened his first restaurant in 1992 on Ruth Street and called it John’s Place, and still has the employees he started with all of those years PAGE 16
MARCH 25, 2010
ago, including his two daughters, Lori and Lani. With a staff of 25,The Boiling Point now serves over 300 people a day and also has a catering service and meat market. Serving up a whopping 1,100 lbs. of crawfish, 300 lbs. of sausage, and 300 lbs. of boudin before 8 a.m. keeps them busy. They also sell holiday turkeys, boiled and live crabs and crawfish along with a full line of homemade desserts including peanut butter fudge, carrot cake, pecan pie, banana nut bread, homemade jerky, and cracklings. You might know The Boiling Point from the bare-behind cook on the billboard along the I-10 Eastbound corridor. “That’s my grandson Cohen.
He’s six now and will soon be replaced by his little sister on a new ad campaign.” Look for Chloe’s debut at 11 months old on the new billboard coming soon. The Boiling Point has been voted “Best Restaurant” by the National Guide of Restaurants. “We’re so happy that people love what we love; our food,” John said. His favorite part of the job is meeting the people. “We just try our best to make everyone happy.” Below is John’s recipe for boiled crawfish that will brighten the days of Lent—minus the sausage, of course! TJN Volume 1 • Issue 25
Crawfish Boil INGREDIENTS FOR THE BOIL • 8 large lemons • 1 bag onions • 1 bag small red potatoes • 8-10 ears of corn • 4 large cloves garlic • 1 large pack of mushrooms • 1 pack of smoked sausage from The Boiling Point • 16 oz. bottle LA hot sauce • 8 oz. bottle crab boil • 1 bag of Crab and Shrimp Boil • 3 boxes of salt • 40 lb. sack of crawfish (or more depending on how many people are being served) • Large bag of ice (do not use to ice beer down) PREPARATION • Cut lemons, onions, and garlic in half and put to the side. • Fill crawfish pot a little less than half full of water, light fire, and bring to a boil. • Add hot sauce, crab boil, and 2 boxes of salt to the pot. • Add crawfish, water, and ½ a box of salt to a large washtub to purge
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them. After 5-10 minutes, empty water, add remaining salt and wash them a second time. Make sure to remove any dead fish, grass, or trash from the crawfish at this time. Making sure the crawfish are purged and very clean is essential to ending up with a tasty product in the end. • By this time, the water should be boiling, so squeeze the juice from the lemons into the pot and discard the rind. • Add potatoes, garlic, mushrooms and onions to the pot, and boil for 10 minutes. • After 10 minutes, add crawfish to boiling water. Cover them and bring back to a boil. • Boil for 2 ½ to 3 minutes depending on size of crawfish. • After the crawfish has boiled for 3 minutes maximum, turn off burner and add large bag of ice. This will prevent the crawfish from overcooking, as well as make them very juicy. • Add the ears of corn at this time. Let crawfish soak for 15-20 minutes or for desired seasoning level.
DIPPING SAUCE • Ketchup • Horseradish • Tabasco • Lemon For a seafood dipping sauce, take some ketchup, add horseradish and
Tabasco to taste, and finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Mix and dip. Enjoy!
TJN
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 17
Karen Carr, Melanie Gentry, Dr. Thomas Royer, and Molly Hagen
On Jan. 17, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake left much of the island of Haiti devastated and the survivors in a state of chaos. In Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, the health care infrastructure was all but destroyed. Basic human needs such as food, clothing and shelter were practically nonexistent. It is estimated that the earthquake directly affected more than 3 million people and killed over 200,000, with the death toll expected to rise. Weeks later, the medical needs of the people of Haiti continued to escalate at an alarming rate. In response to the crisis, Southwest Louisiana’s own Melanie Gentry; Molly Hagen; and Karen Carr; all R.N.s, embarked on a mission to provide medical help. The three clinicians from CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital, with over 90 years of combined clinical experience, departed with 21 other associates with CHRISTUS Health’s Task Force on Feb. 20. In partnership with the University of Miami Miller School of
Medicine, the team served the people of Haiti for over a week. The team was comprised of a wide range of clinical specialists from across the CHRISTUS system, including anesthesiologists, surgeons, certified registered nurse anesthetists, registered nurses with operating room expertise, and two spiritual care providers. Leading the team was CHRISTUS Health CEO Dr. Thomas Royer, a general surgeon. The group traveled with medical supplies and medication. “We had over 3,000 pounds of supplies donated by various CHRISTUS vendors, but everything was pretty much jumbled up,” Carr said. “Finding things was pretty much a challenge,” Hagan added. Their 240-bed hospital at the edge of the Port-au-Prince airport was a four-tent compound with a wooden floor, supported by steel beams. The makeshift hospital was set up with
four operating rooms, sharing the space with the Intensive Care Unit, which only had room for four stretchers. There were four operating tables (one earmarked for pediatric cases) separated by cubicle walls. The tables were 2 x 4s placed on wobbly wooden “legs” (sawhorses were most commonly used). Storage took up most of the space in the back end of the tent. The operating rooms had no running water, so hands were washed in basins of water, followed by a generous amount of germicide. Anesthesia was available, but general anesthesia was not used often, so baby deliveries were performed without an epidural. After they were used, surgical instruments were dropped into a basin of diluted bleach solution. After soaking, they were handwashed, then soaked again in the bleach solution for 10 minutes.
By Maria Alcantara Faul
They were rinsed again, and then soaked for three more minutes in vodka. After that, the instruments were dried with sterile towels, and were ready to be used again. “We ran out of vodka once, so rubbing alcohol was used,” Hagan said. The workday lasted an average of 21 hours, with 15 to 20 surgical cases a day. By the end of their stay, the team had handled 84 cases, which included wound debridements (cleaning/removing foreign objects from a wound), burn and infection treatment, appendix removal, deliveries, and so much more. As you can imagine, the tropical weather was stifling. Although the temperature in the operating room was a little better due to air conditioning vents, the air-conditioning could not keep up most of the time. One of the biggest problems the nurses encountered was keeping flies off wounds during surgery.
Their homes destroyed, earthquake victims are now living in makeshift tents. PAGE 18
MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
“There seemed to be no way to get rid of them, since the doors to the surgical/ICU tent was always opening and closing,” Gentry said. A partial solution to the problem was placing a bloody piece of cloth at the end of the OR table. The flies would find the piece of cloth, and they would stay there instead of on an open wound. “Every standard we were trained in was broken,” Carr said. “But we worked as safely as possible. The environment was completely different from what we are used to. It was physically challenging…we as medical professionals had to use our McGyver skills every so often.” “Sterile supplies would fall off the tables, and you just picked them up and went about your business,” Hagan added.
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Gentry recalled that one of the sawhorses holding the operating room table fell during a procedure. “The surgeon simply held the table up while I crawled under the table to put the sawhorses back,” she said. Everything the medical team brought was used for something or other. For example, flashlights illuminated wounds during surgery. “Most of the surgeons brought battery-powered headlights for surgery, but it just wasn’t’ enough,” Gentry said. “We often wondered why our shoulders would hurt at the end of the day. Then we’d realize it’s because we’d been holding the flashlights all this time during surgery.” Part 2: The Nurses Have a Meltdown TJN
MARCH 25, 2010
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CHRISTUS St. Patrick Hospital has established the CHRISTUS St. Patrick Arrhythmia Center, an access and assessment center, to address the needs of individuals with atrial fibrillation, a problem that is often considered a minor health problem, but troublesome for the patient. The Arrhythmia Center includes the following services: • Free consultation appointments with EKG, • Appropriate referral based on individual’s need, • Resource and information on the condition at www.christusarrhyth miacenter.org, and • Follow-up and data collection, outcomes performance. “Learning about what causes afib, what behaviors increase your risk of occurrences, and the prevalence of associated medical conditions may help you understand why the minimaze is the optimal treatment option for you,” says Cardiovascular Surgeon, Xavier Mousset, M.D. Atrial Fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. During any
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cardiac arrhythmia, the heart’s rhythm is disrupted causing abnormal contractions of the heart muscle. Atrial Fibrillation is a unique cardiac arrhythmia that directly affects the upper chambers of the heart. Atrial fibrillation occurs when irregular electrical impulses initiated in the left atrium disrupt the precision of cardiac conduction. These electrical impulses move across both atria, they cause erratic, fast, fluttery contractions that disrupt proper full contractions of the atria. Not only is the atria unable to contract as a whole chamber, which significantly reduces its ability to pump blood into the ventricles, but the rapidity of the atria’s contractions interferes with the precise rhythm between the atria and the ventricles. The rhythm of the ventricles tends to be much slower than the atria during atrial fibrillation, which distinguishes atrial fibrillation from atrial tachycardia and atrial flutter. To learn more about the Arrhythmia Center or to schedule a consultation, call (337) 430-3400.
TJN
Volume 1 • Issue 25
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337 Volume 1 • Issue 25
479-1021
SULPHUR, LA
2910 E. Napoleon St.
337
625-8714 MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 21
By Lisa Yates with photos by Jenny Bono Photography PAGE 22
MARCH 25, 2010
If you visit a number of Lake Area shops, you can’t miss it. It’s displayed on the door or window of many locally-owned businesses, including: 505 Imports, Budget Blinds of Lake Charles, Closet Tailors of Lake Charles, Renew Medical Spa, Webteknologie LLC, Whisk & Ladle, Glam & Gloss Day Spa, Social Denim, Pink & Blue Avenue, Misha’s Pets, Club Tabby, and Treesajane Shoe Salon. This widely-visible symbol – a green gift tag with white letters, “LA” on top, “SG” on bottom – is the logo for Lake Area Shoppe Girls, a pioneering coalition of 20 local women-owned businesses determined to work together to defend the region’s homegrown economy from takeover by national and global chains. Lake Area Shoppe Girls was founded by Sharlene Boyle and Rebekah Dressler, the mother/daughter team who are the co-owners of 505 Imports in Lake Charles. “All of our businesses are locally owned by women, and our message is definitely a ‘buy local’ campaign,” Dressler said. “We have a small, beloved community that we would like to see prosper, even in these current economic times. By seeking out local stores whenever possible, it helps the entire community flourish. Big chain stores have their place, but it is detrimental to local businesses if consumers only shop the big chains.” Volume 1 • Issue 25
Samantha Hebert, owner of Closet Tailors of Lake Charles
Founded in February of 2009, Lake Area Shoppe Girl’s primary mission is to promote the individual businesses and to support the 3/50 Project, a grass roots movement dedicated to saving the local economy. The goal of the movement is to encourage you to think of three local businesses that you would miss if these shops/services disappeared and collectively, between the three businesses, spend $50 per month in support of those businesses. Dressler discussed the idea of an alliance with other local business women. She said they recognized that they all faced common challenges and that their prosperity depended in part on one another’s survival. “The first four meetings were held once a month at Terra Cotta’s, and the group grew and expanded each month,” she said. “Then a decision was made to meet in a different business each week, so that each member could be familiar with their fellow member’s businesses.” The idea for Lake Area Shoppe Girls began in December, 2008, when Dressler was one of 15 national winners of a contest for entrepreneurial women called “Make Mine a Million Dollar Business.” Sponsored by the “Count Me In” organization, the contest took place in Miami and featured some of the top women business owners in the country. After three days of meeting, competing and bonding with women entrepreneurs, Boyle and Dressler decided that there was power in numbers. They came back to Lake Charles, started calling on women business owners in the area, and arranged a meeting with them to encourage and support their local businesses. “Lake Area Shoppe Girls was formed to provide resources, support and connections for women entrepreneurs,” Dressler said. “It is our misVolume 1 • Issue 25
sion to provide economic independence and entrepreneurial success to any woman with a dream or aspiration to start a business or to make a current business more successful.” She said the group meets once a month and participates in local events such as Mistletoe & Moss, the Home Show, and Taste of Home Cooking School. Dressler said they use crosspromotional marketing techniques to help each other’s businesses. “It is encouraging and inspiring to see what others have accomplished,” she said. “It is beneficial to work together, to bounce ideas off each other, and to participate in joint advertising and marketing campaigns. We especially enjoy the camaraderie and social aspects of the group as well. We have FUN!” Who can join? Dressler said the group is open to new members, as long as there are no competitive problems with an existing member. “We try to achieve variety within the group, and we prefer to have one business per industry. However, there is a mutual respect and support for all businesses; we are not opposed to several members within the same industry, if there are no conflicts,” she said. Dues are $25 a year. Dressler said some of the benefits include professional discounts. “We offer each other discounts for goods and services, ranging from 1040 percent,” she said. “We also support and participate in each other’s businesses, and we share ideas, information and strategies for success.” Dressler said it’s not a requirement of Shoppe Girls to be young and hip, but most of the members are savvy, forward-thinking entrepreneurs who just so happen to be young and energetic as well. “By pulling together, we hope not only to maintain the number of current locally-owned shops, but also to grow that number exponentially,” she said. “Growth of small businesses would be tremendous for our community … not only for jobs but for consumer’s happiness and well being in their community.”
Samantha Hebert, owner of Closet Tailors of Lake Charles, is an enthusiastic member of Lake Area Shoppe Girls, proudly displaying the logo on her office window. “We are our own little networking group of women who share everything from business successes and leads to advertising ideas, what works and what doesn’t,” she said. “If you are a female business owner, then you need to join us!” Her business, Closet Tailors of Lake Charles, located at 3109 Common Street, Suite 114, in Lake Charles serves customers throughout Southwest Louisiana, designing and installing customized closets, garages, pantries, Murphy Beds, laundry rooms and more. Hebert, 38, said her businesses slogan is “Organized for Life.” “Our design process is tailored to each client’s needs and wants,” she said. “No two designs are the same. For example, if I am meeting with a client about their closet, I take into account their wardrobe and habits. I need to know: do they like their pants hung from the waist or folded over? Are they righthanded, or left-handed? Are they
trying to eliminate a dresser from the bedroom? Do they hang or fold their sweaters? It would be useless to design a closet with shelves to hold 25 pairs of shoes when the client actually owns 50 pairs of shoes.” She said it’s the same process organizing a garage. “If the client is storing holiday Tupperware, we measure the Tupperware and design the cabinetry to ensure it will fit in the cabinets,” Hebert said. “We are very detailed in the design process. In addition, we have 3D software that helps the client visualize what the space will look like when the instillation is complete. It’s important to use every inch of square footage the client has. Wasted space is a big no-no.” She said Closet Tailors will be hosting an open house on Tues., April 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit online at www.closettailors.com/lakecharles, e-mail shebert@closettailors.com, or call (337) 564-0322, for more information. Hours for the business are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and after hours by appointment.
MARCH 25, 2010
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Photo submitted
Amy Springer, owner of Renew Medical Spa
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Renew Medical Spa is a serene, elegantly designed sanctuary to gently ease away the pressures and stresses of the outside world. It’s also a true medical spa. Amy Springer, R.N., who co-owns the business with her husband, Steve Springer, M.D., is another enthusiastic member of Lake Area Shoppe Girls. She joined for peer support. “The opportunity to share successes, ideas for improvement, staff management and growth goals with other women is priceless,” she said. “Each person brings years of life and business experience to the table. I think it’s a wonderful way to grow personally and professionally.” She said one of the benefits Shoppe Girls offers is support for each other’s businesses. “For example, Renew offers handmade jewelry by LilyBrooke Designs which is owned by Suzanne Johnson who is a member,” Springer said. “Our beautiful décor is from 505 Imports which is owned by members Rebekah Dressler and Sharlene Boyle.” Located at 601 Dr. Michael DeBakey Drive in Lake Charles, Renew Medical Spa is known for bringing Southwest Louisiana the most effective non-surgical cosmetic solutions available. Springer said cosmetic procedures are becoming easier, less painful and less expensive. She said you may be surprised to learn that yesterday’s traumatic cosmetic surgery is today’s simple injection. “We want to educate our clients on the differences in what’s avail-
able on the market today,” she said. “Renew now offers the state-of-the-art FDA approved Cutera laser for skin tightening, pore reduction, wrinkle reduction, permanent hair reduction for all skin types, and treatments for sun damage and Rosacea. We also treat acne.” Botox and Juvederm injections, and Latisse are also available. Browse www.renewmedicalspaswla.com for detailed information on all of the laser, injection and aesthetician procedures offered. The extensive menu at Renew also includes facials, massages and skin care product lines, including Obagi Medical Skin Care products, Colorescience mineral make-up and Eminence Organics skin and body products. Springer said her highly-qualified staff is committed to making your skin and overall appearance the absolute best it can be. “In celebration of Earth Month, now through the end of April, receive a complimentary relaxing organic facial with your Eminence Organics purchase.” Call (337) 436-3840 to schedule a consultation.
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Christie Harmon and Natalie Comeaux, owners of Club Tabby LLC
SOME OF THE SERVICES OFFERED ARE: First GYN Exam • Gynecology • Obstetrics Hysterectomy • Lab Work • LEEP Menopause Treatment Well Woman Exam PREGNANCY CARE Abnormal Pap Evaluation • Cyrosurgery Birth Control Counseling & Medication Colposcopy • Endometriosis Therapy Fetal Monitoring • Fertility Evaluation
Now Acccepting New Patients
If you have a little girl, you’ve probably already been to Club Tabby inside Prien Lake Mall. Owners Natalie Comeaux and Christie Harmon opened the business two and a half years ago and now proudly display the Lake Area Shoppe Girls logo in their store window. “We decided to become part of the L.A. Shoppe Girls because we felt it would provide us with support from other local business owners as well as opening opportunities we may not have had otherwise,” Comeaux said. The founders of Club Tabby worked together in the health care industry for 10 years before deciding to leave their traditional jobs and go into business for themselves. With their daughters Tatum and Abby in mind, they formed Club Tabby, a retail store offering little girls everything from makeovers to costumes and customized birthday parties. Comeaux said Club Tabby is the go-to place for the newest trend-setting items in the marketplace coupled with pampering services that will have any little girl feeling special. “Every little girl dreams of being the center of attention whether it’s being a movie star, a rock star or a
princess,” she said. “Why not embrace that feeling and let Club Tabby host her next special occasion party? From a limo pick-up to the catwalk, every aspect will be part of a day she will always remember.” This month Club Tabby is featuring a March Madness promotion, which includes: 10 percent off items on the store’s “green walls,” a “2 for $20” Webkinz, and a circulating “coupon machine.” Club Tabby is also launching details about its Terrific Second Annual Summer Camp, which will be held for four weeks starting June 14. “We have many new exciting developments in our business,” Comeaux said. “We are constantly adding to our product line. And, we’re growing our brand by opening new franchises. We are seeking qualified franchisees who may be interested in pursuing a retail opportunity with Club Tabby in the girls’ specialty retail market.” For more information, call (337) 478-3600; e-mail natalie@myclubtabby.com, or christie@myclubtabby.com. Visit online at www.clubtabby.com or in person at 676 W. Prien Lake Mall in Lake Charles. The store is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday; and, noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Dr. Gladys Miller received her medical degree from LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport and performed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also a registered pharmacist with a degree from Northeast Louisiana University. Dr. Miller, a native of Lake Charles, began her practice in the New Orleans area in 1986.
Salon Evans has 7 stylists to take care of your hair care needs. Continuing education assures you of the latest styles and products!
AVAILABLE ONLY AT SALON EVANS: The Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy a CHEMICAL FREE straightening system.
109 W. LaGrange, Lake Charles • (337) 477-6868 Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
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Michelle Woodyear, owner of Webteknologie, LLC
Mediterranean Inspired Cuisine for Lunch, Dinner and Events.
The New Rachelle is a blend of old favorites and new flavors! Lunch & Dinner Specials Daily
Michelle Woodyear, who co-owns Webteknologie with business partner Curtis McBroom, is developing Lake Area Shoppe Girls’ official Web site: www.lashoppegirls.com. Woodyear said her business is developing professional, content management Web sites that are remarkably easy for clients to maintain. She also develops develops custom Web applications for businesses. “We go beyond developing Web sites,” she said. “We partner with our customers to design solutions to take their business to the next level.” Webteknologie is located in the First Mortgage Building, across from the Target Shopping Center, at 1601 W. Prien Lake Road in Lake Charles. Business hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday; or anytime online at www.webteknologie.com. Woodyear grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. She said opening a business is something she always wanted to do. “My husband really encouraged and supported my decision to leave a great corporate job and strike out on my own,” she said. “After about a year, I felt a bit isolated and overwhelmed, so I partnered with another Web designer, Curtis McBroom. Our individual talents and skills complement each other and allow us
to serve our customers better.” Currently, they are working on an innovative iPhone application that Webteknologie will market nationally in the next year! Woodyear said she decided to become a part of Shoppe Girls in order to work with other women entrepreneurs. “Women think about business differently and have innovative ideas,” she said. “Networking with other business owners who are facing similar business challenges is a major benefit of our group. It’s great to have another business owner as a thinking partner, someone to bounce ideas off of; that’s something I miss from my days working for a larger corporation.” Like many business women, Woodyear thinks finding a balance between work and family is important. “One of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is the ability to set my own schedule,” she said. “I have been able to really put my family first and volunteer more in the community. My daughter Carli is heavily involved in theatre, so my husband Mark and I spend many hours volunteering and we love it!” To learn more, call (337) 3778536, or e-mail michelle@webteknologie.com.
Dine-in or on our patio overlooking Contraband Bayou Tue.-Sat. 11am-10pm
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Patricia King, owner of Treesajane Shoe Salon
Treesajane Shoe Salon is quickly becoming Southwest Louisiana’s premier shoe boutique with its exquisite selection of shoes, bags and accessories. Patricia “Pat” King, a native of Lake Charles, opened the business just over a year ago. “Opening a fashion store has been a lifelong dream, and respectfully, that dream came to reality in the way of a shoe and accessories venue,” she said. Located in the Hollyhill Plaza, at 1413 West Prien Lake Road in Lake Charles, Treesajane Shoe Salon offers convenient parking and attentive service once you enter the store. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday. King said her store specializes in up-todate footwear fashion and accessories you won’t find anywhere else in town. “Treesajane’s strives to bring new and innovative footwear brands to the Lake Charles area, providing you with more than department store brands,” she said. “Our market trips are always made with our customers in mind.” She said her aim is to get a feel for your personal style and to assist you in enhancing your personal appearance with quality, comfortable and stylish footwear
and accessories. King, a new member of Lake Area Shoppe Girls, said she hopes to grow her business through this unique networking opportunity. “Treesajane has recently become a part of the Shoppe Girls entity and we look forward to sharing innovative ideas, suggestions and stories of success with this wonderful group of professional ladies,” she said. Like the other Shoppe Girls, King believes the key to a strong economy is supporting small businesses in the community and bringing great products to the marketplace. “Treesajane is motivated to continue our part in community growth by providing our area with the most current trends in footwear and accessory products,” she said. She invites you to come by Treesajane Shoe Salon, “where you can always put your best foot forward.” For more information about Treesajane Shoe Salon, call (337) 564-4898, or e-mail treesajaneshoesalon@yahoo.com.
Straight Razor Cuts Balayage Highlighting Technique Color Correction Scalp Massage
Lindsay Duplechain Owner/Stylist Adrien Lyles Stylist
Neali DeRamus Perkins Stylist Volume 1 • Issue 25
Zina Green Makeup Artist By Appointment
LOCATED IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN 725 RYAN ST. • LAKE CHARLES (337) 436-5454 MARCH 25, 2010
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Leah White, owner of Budget Blinds of Lake Charles
Like many area business women, Leah White, owner of the local Budget Blinds franchise, is a goal-setter. “I set high goals to keep my business growing,” she said. “Status quo is not an option.” One of the things she did to grow her business is join Lake Area Shoppe Girls. “Getting and giving good ideas for business has been the major benefit of being part of the Shoppe Girl Group,” White said. Her business, Budget Blinds of Lake Charles, serves homeowners and businesses in Southwest Louisiana, offering complimentary in-home or business estimates and consultations, professional measuring and installation, and a rich selection of quality window treatments including shutters, blinds, draperies, shades, awnings and window film. You can find all of the topname brands at Budget Blinds of Lake Charles, including “Norman
Shutters,” “Kathy Ireland Home by Alta,” “Lafayette,” “Castec” and “Signature Series by Budget Blinds.” White said her business is consistently ranked in the top 30 of the 1,000 Budget Blinds franchises in the country. “The community has been extremely responsive to our fast, friendly and affordable window treatment services,” she said. Right now, you can get 30 percent off select “Signature Series by Budget Blinds” window treatments. Call (337) 436-2323 for details, or visit online at www.budgetblinds.com/lakecharles. Budget Blinds is located at 1827 Ryan Street in Lake Charles. Store hours are from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
4710 Common St., Suite A • (337) 564-5769 www.theporchcoffeehouse.com
15% Senior Discount All Doctors’ Prescriptions Accepted Experienced Professional Staff • Most Insurance Accepted
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Christina Babcock, co-owner of Misha’s Pets
Christina Babcock recently joined Shoppe Girls and is looking forward to working with the women in the group. “I think being a part of the Shoppe Girls group is a great way to get to know the women who make Lake Charles the unique community it is,” she said. She co-owns Misha’s Pets with Tiger O’Quain. Their pet store offers a full line of pets and supplies with two locations in Southwest Louisiana: 307 W. Napoleon in Sulphur; and, 3459 Nelson Road in Lake Charles. Their Sulphur store, which opened in 2000, specializes in reptiles, aquarium maintenance and avian husbandry. In 2005, they opened a second location in Lake Charles. “The Lake Charles location is where we carry our ‘boutique’ lines, offering luxury items for pets as well as gifts for humans, such as breedspecific artwork,” Babcock said. “At our Lake Charles location, we like to brag that we carry clothing and accessories from smaller manufacturers, therefore giving our customers a unique selection and quality not found in the retail giants. But besides that, we feel it’s important to support the other small businesses in our industry. We are constantly
Volume 1 • Issue 25
looking for new lines that are handcrafted and eco-friendly.” Dress up your pet, snap a photo, and enter it in Misha’s Cutest Canine Contest. Babcock said the $2 entry fee benefits Relay for Life. She said you can drop off your entries at Misha’s Lake Charles store throughout the month of March. Knowing the economy has been tough, Babcock started a frequent buyer program for pet owners who purchase Nutro Ultra and Science Diet products. “This program is only available at Misha’s Pets and our customers can sign up anytime,” she said. “No time to drop by the pet store and pick up a bag of food? Misha’s will soon be offering a dog food delivery service. Give us a call for more information.” You can reach Misha’s Pets of Lake Charles at (337) 480-3738; and, Misha’s Pets of Sulphur at (337) 527PETS. Be sure to ask about low cost spay/neutering services available through the rescue organization, Animal Angels. “The great thing about owning a pet store is the variety of people and animals you get to meet on a daily basis,” she said. “Whether we’re helping someone by offering advice, taking in animals they can no longer care for, or dressing a Maltese in a cashmere sweater, each day has its own rewards,” she said.
MARCH 25, 2010
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Regina Ledet and Therese Deroche, owners of Pink & Blue Avenue
If you can think it, we can plan it! Princess Tea Parties • Adult Tea Parties • Spa Parties Fun-N-the-Sun Parties • Pirates • Garden Parties Bug Parties • Bachelorette Parties • Murder Mysteries
Extras: Candy Buffett • Onsite Child Care Services Lite Catering
Contact Starr Muro (337) 309-5985 • E-mail: Starrkelly@yahoo.com
At Pink & Blue Avenue, you will find everything you need to care and provide for your baby. Owners Therese Deroche and Regina Ledet opened the business in June of 2007, responding to the growing demand for breastfeeding products, services and resources in Southwest Louisiana. Located at 4080 Nelson Road, Suite 200, in Lake Charles, Pink & Blue Avenue is a nursing specialty store to help mothers facilitate or enhance their breastfeeding experience. Deroche said Pink & Blue is a “one stop shop” for expectant and new parents interested in breastfeeding, offering a full line of nursing products. “The mission of our store is to provide guaranteed excellent customer service,” she said. “We provide custom nursing bra fittings along with advice on how to find the perfect bra; a place to weigh your baby; an extensive line of preemie to 24 month apparel; breast
pumps for sale or rent along with advice on how to pick out the perfect pump; baby shower registries; and, a large selection of specialty baby items.” In addition to running the store’s daily operations, Deroche works as an outpatient lactation consultant for the Children’s Clinic of Southwest Louisiana. This married mother of three is a native of New Orleans and has been a registered nurse since 1992, and a board certified lactation consultant since 2002. Co-owner Regina Ledet works as a lactation consultant and prenatal educator for Women’s & Children’s Hospital. She’s a native of Sulphur and is married with two children. In addition, Ledet has been a registered nurse since 1997, and a board certified lactation consultant since 2005. Together, these Shoppe Girls have been providing support for new families for the past 18 years. To learn more, call (337) 4776587, visit online at www.pinkandblueavenue.com, or e-mail info@pinkandblueavenue.com.
A Wedding Tradition Since 1962 1025 Ryan St. • 433-3637 www.navarras.com
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MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Blair Tadlock and Tate Alderson, owners of Whisk & Ladle
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Chef Tate Alderson and Blair Moses Tadlock are rising stars in the catering area. In January of 2009, they opened Whisk & Ladle - a boutique-style catering company that offers turn-key service and irresistible culinary creations at various locations, from venues to local residences. Alderson, 31, completed her classical training from Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School in Portland, Oregon. She worked in several West Coast restaurants before coming to Louisiana, where she worked under Chef Susan Spicer at her renowned restaurant Bayona in New Orleans. Tadlock, 28, graduated Louisiana State University, married and then returned to her native Lake Charles with a nearly two-yearold son. She said her love for entertaining guests and seeing people enjoy each other’s company led her into the catering industry. From assisting you with the perfect menu to coordinating memorable entertaining experiences, this young energetic team at Whisk & Ladle can make it happen. “We are a catering business that will custom create menus for our clients as well as create dishes based on our clients’ needs and dietary requirements,” Tadlock said. “For example, one of our clients asked us to do a birthday party with a Spanish theme
where we were asked to do a paella demonstration followed by a four course meal for her friends and family.” Tadlock said there was a need for this unique catering business in Southwest Louisiana. “We wanted to bring truly delicious food to the Lake Area and to give our clients the ability to dictate what items they would like to eat and enjoy,” she said. “We also wanted to be able to help our clients learn to cook well by offering a series of cooking classes.” She said membership in Lake Area Shoppe Girls has helped to grow the new business. “Being able to bounce ideas off of other business owners, steering us in the right direction and avoiding trial and error mistakes has been extremely beneficial to us,” she said. For more information, call (337) 5403027; e-mail events@whiskandladlellc.com; or visit online at www.whiskandladlellc.com.
MARCH 25, 2010
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Bonnie Cappo and Kimberly Dellafosse, ownesr of Glam & Gloss Day Spa
When GRAMMY Award winners En Vogue came to town, where did they go for spa services? Glam-N-Gloss Day Spa, of course. That’s because owners Kimberly Dellafosse and Bonnie Cappo cater to the young, hip crowd who keep up with the latest trends in the spa industry. “We are the only establishment between Houston and New Orleans that performs MINX,” Dellafosse said. “MINX is a stylish nail application for those who prefer wearing their natural nails. MINX has been featured on the Real Housewives Reality Series and they are worn by celebrities such as Beyonce, Kim Kardasian and Victoria ‘Posh’ Beckham. They are very chic.” She said Glam-N-Gloss Day Spa is a boutique day spa with a menu of services that includes a variety of massages, facial, pedicures, manicures, and make-up application services. Cosmetic teeth whitening is also available. If you like to “spa” with friends, Glam-N-Gloss Day Spa can accommodate your group with one of its “Glam Galas.” Dellafosse said the spa’s retail boutique is stocked with a line of private label skin care products, accessories, gifts candles and many other “musthave” items. “In terms of services, we highly recommend ‘The Gloss Slipper,’ our signature pedicure, or a ‘Hollywood Glow,’ our highly-requested intensive hydrating facial,” she said. She said many of her clients also comment about how much they like PAGE 32
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the spa’s décor, comparing it to a stylish Hollywood boutique. “The business of ‘spa-ing’ is a very personal type of business,” Dellafosse said. “And, to that effect we believe our uniqueness lies not only in how beautifully the spa’s décor is presented, but also in how we conduct business. We provide exemplary customer service. We pamper our clients; and, we work to create a memorable spa experience … an experience that, we believe, new clients will love and one that keeps our regular clients coming back for more.” Dellafosse said she and Cappo are excited to partner with other members of Lake Area Shoppe Girls. “There are not many venues or organizations in Lake Charles where entrepreneurs like Bonnie and I can meet to network, discuss ideas and verbalize our struggles,” she said. “So when we became aware of Shoppe Girls, we knew that this was the type of organization that would allow us to partner with other business owners and learn more at the same time.” She said they proudly display the Shoppe Girls logo at Glam-N-Gloss Day Spa, which is located at 414 East College Street in Lake Charles. Business hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; and, noon to 6 p.m. on Wednesday. Call (337) 313-0222, or e-mail glam@glamandgloss.com, for more information. Visit online at www.glamandgloss.com, or at www.facebook.com/pages/LakeCharles-LA-Glam-N-Gloss-Day-Spa.
Juli Wilson, owner of Social Denim
Whether it’s a pair of designer jeans, or a stunning cocktail dress, you can find spring’s hottest trends at Social Denim. “This season is full of color and fabulous prints,” said owner Juli Wilson. “We have lots of beautiful Bohemian maxi dresses and tunic tops arriving daily. In the denim department, look for lighter shades and distressed denim. Of course, the boyfriend jean is back and better than ever.” She said what’s new for 2010 is Social Swim – a collection of swimwear and cover ups you won’t find anywhere else. “The concept behind Social Denim is to provide unique designer collections to the women of Lake Charles,” Wilson said. “I carry lines that are exclusive to Social Denim and can’t be found between Houston and Baton Rouge.” Wilson used what she learned in the fashion industry working in Los Angeles and brought hard to find designer to the Lake Area. “I travel to market in L.A. and New York, and try to always have the latest cutting edge fashions,” she said.
Her premium denim collection includes: True Religion, William Rast, J Brand, Joe’s Jeans, 7 for all Mankind, Paige Premium Denim, Citizens of Humanity, Hudson, and PRVCY. Other apparel lines include Ella Moss, T-Bags, Splendid, Voom, Interlude, Akiko, Frock, and Bobi. Last season, Wilson introduced Social Dress, a new division within Social Denim. “It had really taken off,” she said. “The collection includes day dresses, cocktail dresses and beautiful blouses.” Wilson has a lot of exciting plans for this season, too. “We have lots of exciting events going on downtown during the month of April,” she said. “Please visit us during the spring art walk on April 9, and April 22, at the White Linen Party. Also, Saturday champagne brunches will be back by popular demand.” Social Denim is located at 706 Ryan Street in downtown Lake Charles. Store hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday; and, noon to 5 p.m., Saturday. For more information, call (337) 433-3670; visit online at www.ishopsocial.com, or www.facebook.com/socialfan.
Volume 1 • Issue 25
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Rebekah Dressler and Sharlene Boyle, owners of 505 Imports
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As the owners of 505 Imports, Rebekah Dressler and her mother Sharlene Boyle are excited to see their store’s furniture and accessories featured in national magazines. “One of our products was just featured in the Better Homes and Gardens spring outdoor publication; and, we have an outdoor lazy chair that will be featured in an upcoming Paula Dean Magazine issue,” Dressler said. Dressler said the store first garnered national attention in 2009, when Home Accents Today (a national furniture publication) named it as one of the Top 50 Rising Star Retailers in America. “Getting national recognition is a huge step for our little local business in Lake Charles,” she said. “The bonus is that it drives traffic to our online store.” She said 505 Imports just launched its online store: www.505finds.com. Dressler said the company is still in the early stages of designing products for the store and getting them photographed to be put online. “Over the next two to four months, we expect our online inventory to quadruple,” she said. Decorating magazines tout the movement towards eco-friendly
products as the top interior design trend for 2010. Dressler said that’s something her company has been doing since the business began five years ago. “We actually started introducing salvaged items – pieces made from reclaimed teak planks – before it became so popular,” she said. “Even though some other manufacturers are beginning to produce similar pieces, there are designs and styles that are in our showroom that are strictly 505.” The company is well-known for its handmade, solid wood furniture from India and Indonesia. Dressler said many of the contemporary designs come from the owners, staff and even some of the 505 customers. “We also offer a beautiful custom upholstery line with over 600 fabrics to choose from,” she said. She added more than 150 new pieces of furniture will be arriving in the showroom this spring! As founders, Dressler and Boyle proudly display the Lake Area Shoppe Girls logo in the window at 505 Imports, located at 1776 W. Prien Lake Road, Suite G, in Lake Charles. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday; and, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. To learn more about 505 Imports, call (337) 480-6505, e-mail lakecharles@505imports.com; or visit online at www.505imports.com.
Phone orders accepted with credit card.
APPOINTMENTS ONLY 562-9400
1602 W. McNeese St.
TJN
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 33
By Lauren de Albuquerque
I don’t know about you, but I’m thrilled that spring is finally here. We may have lost an hour of sleep, but the extra daylight more than makes up for it. Thoughts of spring invariably turn to thoughts of Easter. Easters in New England are different than Easters down South. In Boston, it can snow on Easter Sunday. I remember everyone shivering in their new spring clothes while the winds howled and sleet bounced against the stained-glass windows of St. Lazarus Church. That same Easter, we went out to dinner with relatives, including my great-aunt Rosie, who was pushing 90 at the time and living in a nursing home. We went to The Continental on Route 1 in Saugus, a venerable institution that’s still around to this day. Auntie Rosie didn’t have any teeth and refused to wear false teeth, but she wanted ham. Her son Anthony tried to get her to order something more logical (like soup) but if you knew Auntie Rosie, you knew that when she made up her mind, that was it. So the ham came, and of course, she couldn’t eat it. I think I was nine at the time, and even I knew that you can’t eat ham with your gums. But naturally, she’s claiming that the ham PAGE 34
MARCH 25, 2010
is too tough. So she’s grumbling away while the rest of us are enjoying our Easter repast. Then the manager comes over, all smiles, to ask us how everything is. “LOUSY!” Auntie Rosie yells, before any of us can open our mouths. Needless to say, that was the last time she was taken out to dinner. She much preferred her nursing home food, anyway. Ah, the joys of family holidays. It’s funny that the Auntie Rosie incident was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about the ghosts of Easters past. The other thing that occurred to me was that of all the people sitting around the table that day, I’m the only one who’s still alive; the only one who can tell that story. A sobering thought, indeed. But Easter, and springtime, is all about rebirth and renewal and hope. And after an especially cold winter, it’s a joyful thing to see the flowers blooming once again and to know that the wheel of the year has turned to the light. If we’re happy to have the warmth back— us with our comfortable homes, heating systems, electric blankets and Snuggies, just imagine how excited the ancient peoples were to have the mild weather return to their harsh lives.
THE ORIGIN OF EASTER The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a hedonistic festival commemorating their goddess of fertility and of springtime, Eostre. As it happened, this pagan festival occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. So, the second-century Christian missionaries altered the festival itself and made it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eostre, was eventually changed to the modern spelling of Easter.
vernal equinox is always on March 21. Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25. THE EASTER BUNNY AND HIS CANDY GIFTS The Easter Bunny is not a modern creation. The goddess Eostre was worshipped by the Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit. Known to be copious procreators, rabbits are an ancient symbol of fertility and new life.
My second Easter.
FIRMING UP THE DATE Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But in 325, the Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea. It issued the Easter Rule, which states that Easter shall be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. The ecclesiastical Volume 1 • Issue 25
According to some sources, the Easter Bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania, bringing with them their tradition of an egg-laying rabbit called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests for the hare to lay its colored eggs. Eventually, the custom spread across the U.S. and the famous rabbit became much more generous, leaving chocolate, candy and gifts. The nests were replaced with beautifully decorated baskets. According to the National Confectioners Association, over 16 billion jellybeans are made in the U.S. each year for Easter, enough to fill a giant egg measuring 89 feet high and 60 feet wide. That’s a lot of beans! For the past decade, the top-selling non-chocolate Easter candy has been marshmallow Peeps, first manufactured by a Pennsylvania-based company called Just Born (founded by Russian immigrant Sam Born in 1923) back in the 1950s. Everyone seems to love those gooey yellow chick-shaped marshmallows. THE EASTER EGG—AND OTHER TRADITIONAL FOOD The Easter egg also predates the Christian holiday. Exchanging eggs in the springtime was already a centuries-old custom by the time Easter was first celebrated by Christians. From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of rebirth and fertility in most cultures, including those of the Egyptians, Persians and Romans, who used them during their spring festivals. As Christianity spread, the egg was adopted as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection from the tomb. In Medieval Europe, eggs were forbidden during Lent. Therefore, when Easter Sunday came around, eggs were featured prominently at the holiday meal and were a special Easter gift for children and servants. When I was little, my mother would go to the local Italian bakery and come home with a special bread that was made only at Easter. It was called—what else—Italian Easter Bread—or Pane di Pasqua. It was a braided, anise-flavored sweet bread decorated with hard-boiled eggs, still in the shell. We would have it for breakfast, along with prosciutto, that wonderful thin-sliced dry-cured Italian ham that I can’t get enough of. And speaking of ham, there’s a reason it’s been a long-established Easter food. In the early days, meat was slaughtered in the fall. There Volume 1 • Issue 25
was no refrigeration, so the fresh pork that wasn’t eaten during the months before Lent was cured for spring. The curing process took a long time, and the first hams were ready around Easter time, which made ham a logical choice for the holiday dinner. The other favorite is roast lamb. Corresponding to the Passover lamb and to Christ, the Lamb of God, this dish has become a traditional symbol of Easter. NEW CLOTHES AND EASTER PARADES Why do we buy new clothes for Easter? In the early days, newly baptized Christians wore white robes all through Easter week to celebrate their new lives. Those who had already been baptized wore new clothes to symbolize sharing their new lives with Christ. In medieval Europe, churchgoers would take a walk after Easter Mass, led by a priest with a crucifix. Today, these pious walks have morphed into Easter Parades, where people show off their spring finery. In New York City, the Easter Parade tradition dates back to the mid-1800s, when the upper crust of society would attend Easter services at various Fifth Avenue churches, and then promenade down the avenue, showing off their new outfits and hats. Eventually, workingclass citizens began to show up along Fifth Avenue to check out the scene. In 1948, the film Easter Parade was released, starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland and featuring the music of Irving Berlin. The title song includes the lyrics: “In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it/You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.” To this day, the Easter Parade tradition lives on in New York City. Fifth Avenue from 49th Street to 57th Street is shut down all day to traffic, and people amble along the street admiring various Easter bonnets and Easter outfits—some rather outrageous. I understand dogs, and even cats, are getting in on the act, too. Happy Easter and Happy Spring to all of our readers! TJN
KYKZ 96 will proudly hold our 22nd Annual Easter EggHunt at Bor du Lac Park on the Lake CharlesCivic Center grounds. The hunt will take off at 10am Friday, April 2nd, 2010. This Mega-Sized Easter Egg hunt is open to all children between the ages of 2 and 12 years old. There will be thousands of eggs and lots of prizes. So get your baskets ready and come join us for the KYKZ 96 Easter Egg hunt!!!
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 35
By Phil de Albuquerque
I
t was the fall of 1984 in Houston, and the Red Show of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus had just completed its last performance of the tour. We all hugged each other and cried as we said our good-byes. We had been like a family during the one-year tour, and many hearts were touched along the way. Some signed on for another year; rehearsals would start next month. The rest of us were moving on. I had been offered another year’s contract, but I had other dreams I wanted to pursue. “Come back anytime,” said Kenneth Feld as he shook my hand and wished me well. ”I can always use a good clown.” It all began in the spring of 1982. I was studying engineering at Michigan State University and working at Owen Graduate Hall flipping burgers to help pay tuition. Since it was a graduate hall, most of the students were pretty serious, and I could tell they were under a lot of stress to complete their degree. But one student was different than the rest. Each time I saw him, he had clown make-up on and tried to do something funny. “Oh, great,” I said to myself each time he came in. “Just what I need today. Can’t he just act normal and order his food like everyone else?” But he would laugh and carry on until he decided he was done. To cut him off early, I finally asked him what he was doing in the clown outfit. “I go to Lansing each month and take a clown class,” he said as he kicked up his feet. “It helps me balance the serious time with the non-serious time. It keeps me sane!” Sane was not the word I would use to describe this guy, but the class did sounded interesting. He went on to say that they learned make-up, juggling,
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magic, and balloon sculpturing. I had always wanted to learn how to juggle, and I did need something fun to do to balance all my serious classes. So, I called Lansing Community College and signed up for the class. I never could have imagined how much fun I was about to have, and how meeting that one individual would drastically change the course of my life.
Learning to clown I clicked with my other classmates immediately. They all wanted to have fun, too. We became friends and worked together as we learned how to become a clown. (The make-up part was my least favorite!) Of course, my roommates had a field day each time I came home in my make-up. But something amazing happened that was very important to me – I started making money as a clown. I was paid to do balloon deliveries, and even got a job performing at the mayor of Lansing’s birthday party! What fun—just what I needed. One day after class, I was helping my teacher, Al Fast, pack up his props. “Hey, Phil,” he asked. “Would you ever consider traveling with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus?” “No way,” I replied, surprised. “I’m finishing my engineering degree, and then I’m going to work with my father at General Motors.” “Oh, I didn’t mean to interrupt your studies,” Al said. “I mean after you get your degree. Take a year off and travel. Then go to work at General Motors. You have something special I haven’t seen in years—your combination of
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My dad had flown down to see the show. He said he was very proud of me, and enjoyed seeing me have so much fun with all the other performers. “But I’m going to be an engineer with you, Dad!” I said. “We’ll see” Dad said with a smile. “We’ll see.”
Heading for the Big Top
Left to right: Rick Cusolito, world-famous Ringling clown Lou Jacobs, and Phil at Clown College. talent and love in your heart for people,” he said. “I never thought of it,” I said. “But, I do love to travel and I do love this clown stuff and making people happy. I guess maybe I would. I don’t know.” Al went on to tell me not to get my hopes up. “Ringling Brothers’ Clown College is said to be one of the hardest schools to get in to. Over 6,000 people apply each year and they accept only around 50 – basically, one from each state. Then you have to beat the odds again when you graduate to be asked to tour with the circus. But I would be happy to get you an application if you’d like.” I had nothing to lose. Because it’s a private school, they can ask you anything they want. And they did— questions such as “What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?” “What do you like best about people?” “When was the last time you cried?” I filled out the application and sent it in. A year went by, and I concentrated on my engineering studies. I continued making some money clowning, and even won second place in a local clown contest, but I had all but forgotten about my application to Clown College.
The next morning, my roommate and I were having coffee, reminiscing about the classes and our final performance. It was around 8 a.m. I was ready to have my bowl of Cheerios when there was a knock at my door. I thought it was my dad. I opened the door to see a limousine and a chauffer in front of me. “Congratulations, Phil! You’re the first person chosen to receive a one-year contract! Come with me,” the chauffer said. My roommate started yelling. That’s all I remember. I don’t remember getting in the limo or being escorted into Mr. Feld’s office. I just remember his big, warm smile as he reached out his hand and said, “Welcome, Phil, to The Greatest Show On Earth!” I signed the contract and looked up at him. He could tell I was astounded. “Why me?” I asked. “There are many more talented students here! They can juggle fire and ride 6-foot unicycles and walk 10-foot stilts! I don’t have any of that talent!” “I can teach all that,” he said. “You have something I can’t teach and that’s what I look for. Do you know what that is?” “No,” I said, as the word barely came out of my mouth. “What’s in there,” he said as he pointed to my heart. ”You have the heart I’m looking for. I can teach everything else.” I’ll never forget that day and that moment with Mr. Feld. Part 2: A Year in the Circus
TJN
Clown College, here I come One day, the phone rang. The person on the other end identified himself as Ron Severini, the Dean of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. He was happy to announce that I had beat the odds—I was accepted to the school! I just knew it was one of my friends joking around. “What’s your number? Can I call you back?” I asked. (This was years before Caller ID.) So I called back and couldn’t believe it—I really had been accepted. And I found out that school started three days after I graduated from Michigan State. What luck! I decided to do it. I didn’t know how to tell dad. I don’t remember the exact conversation, but somehow, I was able to tell him that I would just have some fun for ten weeks and then come back to Michigan and a career with General Motors. I was just taking some time off between college and a real job. Whew! He was OK with that. I flew down to Clown College in Sarasota, Florida. Classes were from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., six days a week for 10 weeks—in an old airplane hangar. We learned juggling, riding unicycles, stilt walking, water spitting, slaps and falls, make-up, sewing (to this day I do the sewing in our family!), pies in the face, dance, exercise, prop building, stress release, and character building— to name a few. I made some wonderful friends, and learned so much—but I was exhausted. After ten weeks, I was ready to go home to a desk job at General Motors. The last day of class was a “final exam” performance for the owner of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus—Mr. Irvin Feld, who also owned Disney On Ice and Siegfried and Roy’s show. He would watch the performance with a close eye and choose who would receive a contract with the circus. Since the school was tuition-free, we all signed an agreement before we started that we would travel with the show if asked. Out of the approximately 50 students, only ten would be chosen. Our show was fantastic, and we all high-fived each other as we left the arena. We got together later and partied for the last time—and tried to guess who would be asked to go on tour. They would send a limousine to the student’s door in the morning and drive you in style to sign the one-year contract.
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MARCH 25, 2010
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ker n Shouma o d n a r B y B
Brandon’s Bracket Hard to believe it’s been five years since my greatest NCAA basketball tournament bracket triumph. It was March 18, 2005, the second day of the first round of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. It was Friday, a cool, clear day for mid-March and the Bucknell Bison were about to become my favorite college basketball team. See, like many Americans, I was in
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an office pool. I paid $3 for three photocopies of the tournament bracket, all set to fill in the blanks with my winning predictions. There are 16 teams in each of four tournament regions, 64 teams total, with the lowest seed (16) playing the top seed and so on. I played the first two brackets almost straight up, top seeds winning most of the games, one or two nine-seeds beating the eights, one 5-12 upset, the usual. The third bracket was different. In the more evenly matched games, I took the lower seeds; I chose the mid-major teams over their elite-conference foes. I
still didn’t dare pick against the top seeds, but there was one game that intrigued me. It looked like this: (3) Kansas vs. (14) Bucknell. Ordinarily, I couldn’t see a situation in which Bucknell could come within 20 points of Kansas, which had begun the season with something like a 20-1 record. But this was my “fun” bracket, a throwaway. The other two were serious. So, I scribbled in Bucknell into the little blank square and set in motion a bracket-busting victory like no other. Long story short: Bucknell got buck nasty on Kansas. The actual game, for the most part, was a blur, but I remember the
two most important highlights. First, it was Bucknell’s Chris McNaughton, a tall, lanky fellow, awkwardly knocking down a shot in the lane with 15 seconds left to give the Bison the winning margin. This was followed by Kansas star Wayne Simien attempting his best Christian Laettner impression, catching the baseball pass, turning around, and shooting with a defender in his face as time expired. Finally, the clank as Simien’s shot banging off the front of the rim and the Bucknell bench storming the court in a wave of orange jerseys. I still get goosebumps thinking about that game. Kansas was a popular pick to win the national championship that year and the Bucknell win pretty
Volume 1 • Issue 25
much destroyed most people’s brackets, including the two “serious” brackets I filled out. But that third bracket went on a magical run that, by the time the Sweet 16 rolled around, had already clinched the office championship. The prize money wasn’t great, $20 at the most, but the glory and sheer domination of my victory still feels electric even thinking about it today. So, with that in mind, here is my bracket for the 2010 NCAA Tournament. I don’t know if there are any Bucknells laying in wait for an upset. My advice: if your gut is telling you to take Bucknell, you gotta take Bucknell. BRANDON’S BRACKET SOUTH REGION FIRST ROUND (1) Duke over (16) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (8) California over (9) Louisville (5) Texas A&M over (12) Utah States (4) Purdue over (13) Siena (6) Notre Dame over (11) Old Dominion (3) Baylor over (14) Sam Houston State (sorry, Southland fans) (7) Richmond over (10) Saint Mary’s (2) Villanova over (15) Robert Morris SECOND ROUND (1) Duke over (8) California (4) Purdue over (5) Texas A&M (3) Baylor over (6) Notre Dame (2) Villanova over (7) Richmond SWEET 16 (REGIONAL SEMIFINALS) (4) Purdue over (1) Duke (2) Villanova over (3) Baylor ELITE 8 (REGIONAL FINALS) (2) Villanova over (4) Purdue WEST REGION FIRST ROUND (1) Syracuse over (16) Vermont (8) Gonzaga over (9) Florida State (5) Butler over (12) Texas-El Paso (4) Vanderbilt over (13) Murray State (11) Minnesota over (6) Xavier (3) Pittsburgh over (14) Oakland, Mich. (10) Florida...much as it pains me to say it...over (7) BYU (2) Kansas State over (15) North Texas SECOND ROUND (1) Syracuse over (8) Gonzaga (5) Butler over (4) Vanderbilt (3) Pittsburgh over (11) Minnesota (2) Kansas State over (10) Florida SWEET 16 (REGIONAL SEMIFINALS) (1) Syracuse over (5) Butler (2) Kansas State over (3) Pittsburgh ELITE 8 (REGIONAL FINALS) (1) Syracuse over (2) Kansas State
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MIDWEST REGION FIRST ROUND (1) Kansas over (16) Lehigh...or, maybe...nah. Not this year. (9) Northern Iowa over (8) UNLV (5) Michigan State over (12) New Mexico State (4) Maryland over (13) Houston (11) San Diego State over (6) Tennessee (3) Georgetown over (14) Ohio (7) Oklahoma State over (10) Georgia Tech (2) Ohio State over (15) UC-Santa Barbara SECOND ROUND (1) Kansas over (9) Northern Iowa (5) Michigan State over (4) Maryland (3) Georgetown over (11) San Diego State (2) Ohio State over (7) Oklahoma State SWEET 16 (REGIONAL SEMIFINALS) (1) Kansas over (5) Michigan State (2) Ohio State over (3) Georgetown
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ELITE 8 (REGIONAL FINALS) (2) Ohio State over (1) Kansas EAST REGION FIRST ROUND (1) Kentucky over (16) East Tennessee State (8) Texas over (9) Wake Forest (12) Cornell over (5) Temple (4) Wisconsin over (13) Wofford (6) Marquette over (11) Washington (3) New Mexico over (14) Montana (10) Missouri over (7) Clemson (2) West Virginia over (15) Morgan State
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SECOND ROUND (1) Kentucky over (8) Texas (4) Wisconsin over (12) Cornell (3) New Mexico over (6) Marquette (10) Missouri over (2) West Virginia SWEET 16 (REGIONAL SEMIFINALS) (1) Kentucky over (4) Wisconsin (3) New Mexico over (10) Missouri ELITE EIGHT (REGIONAL FINALS) (1) Kentucky over (3) New Mexico FINAL FOUR (NATIONAL SEMIFINALS) (1) Syracuse over (2) Ohio State (1) Kentucky over (2) Villanova NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (1) Kentucky 75, (1) Syracuse 68 Brandon Shoumaker is a graduate of McNeese State University and has covered sports for more than seven years for various publications. Coaches or parents with story tips may contact Brandon at bshoumaker@yahoo.com or send him a message on Twitter (@bshoumaker).
TJN
MARCH 25, 2010
PAGE 39
By Mary Louise Ruehr
A Vicarious Vacation in Ireland I’ve been traveling all around Ireland, in the pages of some marvelous books. An Irish Country Girl is the fourth book in Patrick Taylor’s wonderful series set in 1964, but this one’s very different, so you really don’t need to read the others first. It’s all about Mrs. “Kinky” Kincaid, housekeeper for the “Irish Country Doctor” in Ballybucklebo in County Down, Northern Ireland. As the book starts, Kinky is telling the local children “a story of faeries,
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and the banshee, and the Saint Stephen’s Day Ghost” that actually happened when she was growing up on a farm in County Cork, in the south. It was 1922, and her mother, who had “the sight” (a psychic gift Kinky would inherit), warned Connor MacTaggert not to cut down a certain tree because “the faeries” lived in it. After he ignored her and cut it down anyway, oh, the things that happened to him. Then, his story gets wound up in Kinky’s memories of how she met the young man who would become
her husband. So, the ghost story becomes a love story. I delight in the way Taylor puts words together: “Icicles like sharpened crystal pencils hung from the eaves of the church roof. They absorbed and magnified the rays and dropped gently as the sun warmed the ice.” His descriptions are so pretty: “As if using sparkling hands just beneath its surface, the distant sea caught moonbeams, then held and polished them before releasing them to rise shimmering from the calm waters.” This book has a bit of everything, and I’d recommend it to readers of any age who like a good story. The Pig Comes to Dinner by Joseph Caldwell is also a ghost story, but it’s funny. This is book two of a trilogy, following after The Pig Did It. In the modern world, “hack novelist” Kitty McCloud and her new husband, Kieran, have just bought the Castle Kissane in County Kerry in southwest Ireland. Kitty writes “correction” classics (she takes well-known works and changes the ending to suit herself). One day, her nephew gives her the pig that brought Kitty and her husband together in book one. Kitty doesn’t want it, but she and the pig seem to be the only ones who see the castle’s
ghosts, two young lovers who were hanged (perhaps wrongly) because of a gunpowder plot. But as it turns out, Kieran sees them, too. And in fact Kitty thinks Kieran’s fallen in love with the girl ghost, and she’s not happy about it. Meanwhile, the arrogant Lord Shaftoe shows up, saying the castle is legally his and he’s moving in. Not without a fight, Kitty decides. Caldwell has a very dry sense of humor, and also has some nice descriptive passages, such as, “The slate roofs of the cottages were allowed to seem blue in the afternoon sun.” The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey has the elements of an Irish Gone with the Wind: romance, war, family, adventure, the desire to return home, and a strong heroine who isn’t always easy to like but who does what has to be done. In 1905, Eileen O’Neill is growing up in the family farmhouse in County Armagh in the province of Ulster. After her father is killed in a politically motivated skirmish and the family loses the house, badly damaged by fire, Eileen’s life goal is set: regain ownership of her childhood home. Grown-up Eileen finds herself inappropriately attracted to the son of a wealthy Quaker family and is drawn into the cause of Irish patriot Michael Collins: “The warrior in me had found her war,” says Eileen, who narrates her own story. Some of the writing is so lovely that I wanted to read it slowly and take in all the rich description and Volume 1 • Issue 25
north on the Mississippi River. But they can’t escape prejudice and poverty. Oh, and later there’s a little thing we now call the American Civil War. I found the book hard to read in the first few pages, with too many unpronounceable Irish words (there’s a glossary, but it isn’t complete). But don’t skip over the first part; it’s important. And the reading got much better very quickly until I found that I was so involved in the story I couldn’t put the book down. It’s a complex, layered plot focusing on love, family and loyalty. I could visualize what was happening and relate to what Honora was going through. The enjoy “hearing” the Irish accents. It’s a thoughtful, insightful book, as when Eileen reveals that, “it is the first betrayal that hurts the most. It is the first betrayal that slays innocence and leaves a scar that is never forgotten.” I was totally swept up in her life, in the Irish freedom movement, and in the engaging story. (Psst: There are a couple of absolute surprises, when I actually gasped.) Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly is an epic novel of two countries, set from 1839 to 1893 and based on the author’s own family history. At age 17, fisherman’s daughter Honora Keeley is about to enter a convent when handsome Michael Kelly steps out of the waters of Galway Bay in western Ireland. It’s love at first sight; the two marry and become potato farmers. They have a pretty good life until the potato blight hits in 1845. Oh, man, what they endure is as terrifying as any horror novel: absolutely no food; neighbors dying from disease and starvation; landlords stealing whatever goods the tenants have. When people start emigrating to America, Honora wants to leave, too, but her husband says, “We can’t all leave. … A man has a right to live in his own country, to feed his children, to follow his faith.” Yeah, not so much, it turns out. Finally, Honora and her family do emigrate, landing in New Orleans and experiencing adventure as they travel
politics are understandable, and a passion for justice comes ringing out of the pages. (Be warned: You’ll learn to hate the wealthy landlords!) Unforgettable. Irish or not, if you like a good story you can wrap yourself up in, you must not miss this one. In Shannon, author Frank Delaney introduces us to Robert Shannon. A Catholic priest in America, Capt. Shannon was a chaplain with the U.S. Marines in the Great War, and by 1922 he is a “shattered,” shell-shocked war hero. He has come to Ireland “in search of his lost best self,” believing that going back to his family’s roots along the Shannon River can somehow heal him.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited SATURDAY, MARCH 27 • 8PM TICKETS STARTING AT $35
Toward this end, the bishop has “sent out scouts” to watch and care for him along the way. It’s a road trip with eccentric characters in the midst of a revolution. I really like this author, who takes time to let the reader relax into the story and who often writes like a poet, as when he describes the river: “Her water meadows lured monks to her banks, able to see God in the sweetness of the stream.”
Copyright © 2009 by Mary Louise Ruehr. Write to OneForTheBooks@cheerful.com
TJN
Randy Travis
FRIDAY, APRIL 9 • 8PM TICKETS STARTING AT $40
*Must be 21 to attend all events. Some events may contain profanity or other content of an adult nature. Subject to change or cancellation without prior notice. Ticket price includes all taxes. Tickets available online at ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster outlets including select Dillard’s, select Kroger’s, Be-Bop Records, Major Video, Peaches, Tower Records and Wherehouse Records & Tapes stores. To charge tickets by phone, call (800) 745-3000. TICKETS AVAILABLE AT LAGNIAPPE GIFTS AND SUNDRIES, DELTADOWNS.COM AND TICKETMASTER.COM • LIMITED SEATING AVAILABLE • MUST BE 21 OR OLDER TO ATTEND
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
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Calcasieu Parish has the highest child abuse rate in the state. If you suspect that a child is being abused, call your local police department immediately. You can make the difference in a child’s life.
Book Fair 2010 March 26-27 The Book Fair is back! Don’t miss this annual event at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 715 Kirkman Street on March 26 from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. and March 27 from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. Includes new and used books, DVD movies, and audio-books on CD. Proceeds go to local charities. For additional information, contact Patty Grandy at 855-4560 or Annette Ballard at 477-6345.
TJN
Governor’s Program for Gifted Children Accepting Applications
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MARCH 25, 2010
Applications are currently being accepted for the 2010 summer session of the Governor’s Program for Gifted Children scheduled June 6-July 24 at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. The Governor’s Program for Gifted Children is celebrating its 52nd year this summer. Established in 1959 at McNeese, the program is open to junior high and high school students and emphasizes academics and fine arts. Students also participate in instrumental concerts, theatrical and musical productions, and interact with one another during the residential program on the McNeese campus. For more information about the program, including application procedures and financial aid assistance, call (800) 291-7840, or visit the Web site at www.gpgc.org.
TJN Volume 1 • Issue 25
der useum n e l l n E dren's M a D By e Chil of th r o t c Dire
Alice in Wonderland (Disney 2010) Down the rabbit hole. Alice in Wonderland meets Sweeney Todd, brought to you by Tim Burton. At least, that’s what I expected. Actually I was pleasantly surprised. The movie wasn’t half bad. You have to give credit to Tim Burton for trying. And in retrospect, he probably is the best choice for breathing new life into the classic children’s story. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is very old, distinctly British, and one of the most revisited themes in children’s literature. This time, we’re offered something new. Is it better? Well, it’s certainly different. Alice, now 19 years old, has forgotten all about Wonderland. She’s about to be asked to marry a rich Lord, 19th century-style, at a formal
garden party. Uneasy about the whole thing, she’s still a young girl at heart and not sure of what to do. Instead of saying yes or no to her suitor, she runs off, after a white rabbit seen hopping through the bushes. Of course, the theme of facing life’s choices is old as dirt, and all but the youngest of children have seen it over and over. The only thing new here is that we’re seeing it in the Alice tradition. It actually adds some meaning to Lewis Carroll’s story, which was originally created in complete fun. When the hookah-smoking caterpillar asks this older Alice, “Who Are You?” the classic line is transformed into a question about her identity, her future, and all the questions she’s been asking of herself. So, this is less a comedy nonsense story and more of a serious comment on taking control of your life. To a point. (Remember, the first time down the rabbit hole was a dream, so Alice again thinks this is all a dream. She doesn’t take things seriously for most of the movie.)
The plot is basic Narnia and Lord of the Rings: the evil Red Queen wants to take over Wonderland (locally called Underland,) using the terrible Jabberwocky and the Vorpal Blade to set up her rule. The White Queen, her sister, is in exile, and has sent the White Rabbit after Alice to slay the Jabberwocky and free Wonderland from a reign of terror. Soon after her arrival, Alice meets Johnny Mad Hatter Sweeney Todd Depp, who treats her like a long lost sister and helps her make her way through Wonderland. Fans of Mr. Depp will be delighted by his interactions with Alice, the Red Queen, and the other characters. Fans of Tim Burton may be a little disappointed at the relative lack of dark comedy in what seems like a slow, serious movie. (I wasn’t. At one point the White Queen is munching on a Butterfinger which looks like a human finger, but that’s about as macabre as it gets.) However, all of the characters are based upon the original illustrations by John Tenniel, so Tweedledum and Tweedledee are quite strange looking, as is the Red Queen, in typical Tim Burton style. For the most part, the animation and cinematography are all well done, and the music is excellent. The ending you can figure out for yourself.
This is one of many children’s movies that attempt to cash in with big name actors, big name directors, and unfortunately, weak scripts. I expect you’ll enjoy watching it with your kids, but would suggest waiting for the DVD. Thanks to Disney, it will be out in 12 short weeks. The best thing that could come of this version is if it sends your children looking for the original story, which is available free on Project Gutenberg. They’ll find the original is much more humorous and certainly more bizarre than this predictable movie, especially narrated by a caring, fun-loving parent. Happy reading. TJN
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MARCH 25, 2010
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April Four Baskets Bonnet
Candy Chicks Easter Bunny Egg Hunt Equinox Lily
New Clothes Peter Rabbit Rebirth Resurrection Springtime Sunrise
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Volume 1 • Issue 25
Killin’ Time Crossword
Crossword puzzles provided by BestCrosswords.com (www.bestcrosswords.com). Used with permission. Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
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SALVATION ARMY EMPTY BOWL All was Mmm Mmm good….at the Salvation Army Empty Bowl fundraiser! A large crowd of supporters filled the Grand Ballroom at L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort, and were treated to a variety of delicious savory soups prepared by premier Lake Area chefs in unique, handmade ceramic bowls—a token of appreciation for helping those in need. Bruce Hamilton, a Lake Charles native and author of the book No Bad Days provided a live auction of grand prizes and humorous entertainment. It goes without saying that doing the most good for a good cause will give each of us a good day!
Lori and Peter Fritzenschaft
Lorena Walls and Steven Cahee
Erin and Heath Allen
Morgan Wilson, Chuck Boudreaux and Heather Metzger
Tamyra Tinnes with Annette and Allen Garber
Monte Hurley, Brett Hooyerink and Johnette LaBorde
Bryan and Edith Beam
LAKE CHARLES SYMPHONY Music to our ears! The Lake Charles Symphony is celebrating its 52nd season, the year of its “Great Conductor Search.” The symphony performed its third classical concert of the season at the Rosa Hart Theatre recently. The audience listened carefully, as they will have input into the selection of the next conductor. By completing the questionnaires after each of the four concerts this year, they’ll be part of the selection process. The high-quality performance brought this symphony-loving audience to its feet with a loud round of applause: Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!!!! Lorraine Yelverton, Julie Faulk and Mary Beth Huber PAGE 46
MARCH 25, 2010
Fred Sahlmann, Phillip Caddy and William Kushner Volume 1 • Issue 25
Rudy and Dr. Joe Stark
Mike Dunbar and Annette Tritico
Jordan and Jonah Mulsow
Suzie Beasley, Roxanne Germany and Kayla Rigney
Suzanne Emerson and Britney Glaser
THE BLACK TIE AFFAIR And the Grammy goes to... the Calcasieu Medical Society Foundation for proudly presenting its Fourth Annual “Black Tie Affair” event. The glamorous crowd of supporters gathered in L’Auberge’s Sycamore Room for a silent auction, cash bar and hors d’oeuvres. They then proceeded to the Grand Ballroom for dining, where they were welcomed by Britney Glaser, Mistress of Ceremonies. Bishop Glen John Provost of Lake Charles delivered the invocation and President of CMSF, John W. Noble, Jr., M.D., presented several community service awards prior to the live auction and encore performance by Vince Vance and the Valiants. The proud beneficiary of this fundraiser is The Calcasieu Community Clinic, one of seven communitybased free clinics in our state. An evening to remember!
John and Dorothy McDaniel
Linda Wranosky and Yoko Broussard
Brent Flash and Peggy Kelley
Nicho Bourque and Regina Burton
Natia Young and Michelle Racca
Kizzy Carter and Chris Smith
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MARCH 25, 2010
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THE ANNUAL BLACK HERITAGE FESTIVAL If you’re hungry for mouth-watering food, terrific music and great family fun, then you should have been at the annual Black Heritage Festival! Kicking off inside the Lake Charles Civic Center, entertainers performed gospel, Zydeco, blues, spoken word and much more! Over 70 vendors displayed a wide variety of goods and services to a large crowd. The kids’ zone was rocking with entertainment and storytelling by author Monroe Tarver. “Sound the Trumpet” on this festival…all were passing a good time! Dorothy Euglon and Rosa Guidry
Karen Hartfield and Angelica Floyd
Chelsea Fontenot, Dy’Mond Gallien and Adrienne Clark
Dalvin Mulles and Ryan August
Chris Marvels and Tina Brown
The Lake Charles League of Women Voters Check us out on Facebook for up to date LWV news, information and events. Be a fan! Look for Lake Charles League of Women Voters. Want to join the League? Find out how at www.lwv-lc.org or email info@lwv-lc.org or call 474-1864. PAGE 48
MARCH 25, 2010
Volume 1 • Issue 25
MCNEESE STATE UNIVERSITY VISUAL ARTS GUMBOWL FUNDRAISER The McNeese Visual Arts Department warmed our hearts with their Annual Gumbowl Fundraising Event! The proceeds will be used to assist students attending the 44th Annual National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts Conference held in Philadelphia. The ceramic students and faculty members handcrafted ceramic bowls for each donator to receive. To top it all off, a delicious seafood gumbo lunch was provided by Brickhouse Catering & Events. A little heart and soul go a long way!
TJN
Steven Spurlock and Connie Shaw
Ken Baskin and Elizabeth Guinn
Volume 1 • Issue 25
Chelsea Semb and Heng Chi
Carol Cox and Rhonda Babin
Whitney Smith and Shane LeBlanc
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SOUTHERN EXPOSURE AT THE BLACK HERITAGE GALLERY NOW THROUGH MAY 28 The Black Heritage Gallery at 809 Kirby Street in Lake Charles, will host Southern Exposure, an exhibition featuring works of art by Southern University students and recent graduates, from March 22 through May 28. The exhibition is curated by Randell Henry, a 1979 graduate of Southern University and Associate Professor of Art. Featured in this exhibition are 14 artists, each with a unique creative vision that makes a positive impact in the world of art. This exhibit is in conjunction with the Spring Arts Walk. The opening reception is April 9, 5-9 p.m. and is free to the public. MSU DEPT. OF PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTS SPRING CONCERT MARCH 25 The McNeese Department of Performing Arts will present a free spring concert featuring the McNeese Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Rick Condit at 7:30 p.m. Thurs., March 25, in Ralph Squires Recital Hall. Also performing will be the McNeese Little Big Band directed by Tim McMillen. The bands will perform music written for big and small bands over the last 40 years including works by Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton, as well as original works for contemporary big band. For more information, call the McNeese Band Office at 475-5004. NANCY MELTON AND FRIENDS WATERCOLOR SHOW MARCH 26 Nancy Melton and Friends will open their watercolor show at the McNeese Library on Fri., March 26 from 6:30 – 8 p.m. Twenty-four artists from Louisiana and Texas will exhibit over 100 original watercolor paintings. Featured this year is Lake Charles artist Betty Chiasson Langlinais. The show will be on exhibit through April 21. Call 4776784 or e-mail nmelton@suddenlink.nekt for more information. FREE TO BREATHE BREAKFAST, 5K RUN MARCH 26-27 The second annual Free to Breathe event will begin with a breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Fri., March 26, in the Contraband Room of the Lake Charles Civic Center. The breakfast, sponsored by McDonald’s, will feature guest speaker Joan Schiller, M.D., of the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, president of the National Lung Cancer Partnership. Dr. Schiller is widely published and internationally recognized for her work in lung cancer clinical research. The Free to Breathe 5K Run will be held the following morning, March 27, with registration beginning at 7 a.m. The run, hosted by the Southwest
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Louisiana Lung Cancer Group Partnership, will begin at 8:30 a.m. Prizes will be awarded to an overall winner and top male and female finishers in various age brackets. Event-day registration is $20. For information on how to purchase tickets for the kickoff breakfast, call 540-3952.
BEATS & EATS FUNDRAISER MARCH 26 Volunteers of America will hold its Beats & Eats fundraiser on Fri., March 26, 2010 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Treasures of Marilyn’s in Lake Charles. The casual event will feature a Lenten buffet and cash bar. Dance music will be provided by X-IT-43. Products and services donated by area businesses will be auctioned. Volunteers of America will also be raffling off a signed print of “We Are Marching Again” by George Rodrigue. Raffle tickets are only $10 each for a chance to win the colorful Blue Dog print. Tickets for the event are $40 each, $70 for couples or $300 for reserved tables of ten. Sponsorships and corporate tables are available. For more info, call Volunteers of America at (337) 497-0034. MSU FRATERNITY GALA TO BENEFIT SICKLE CELL ANEMIA MARCH 27 The McNeese Zeta Mu chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity is sponsoring a benefit gala at 7 p.m. on March 27 in the Parra Ballroom of the McNeese Student Union Annex to raise funds to benefit the Southwest Louisiana Sickle Cell Anemia Association. Special guest for the event is Dr. Alice Duhon-McCallum of Lake Charles. Cost is $55 a couple/$30 a person and includes food, music and a presentation about sickle cell anemia. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact call (337) 290-2552. SWLA GARDEN FESTIVAL MARCH 27-28 This year’s Southwest Louisiana Garden Festival will be held March 27-28 in the Burton Coliseum on the corner of Gauthier Road and Gulf Hwy. in Lake Charles. Those attending can find out where to obtain gardening products, accessories and services, and learn about garden clubs and plant societies in Southwest Louisiana. The Southwest Louisiana Master Gardeners will host the 11th annual pre-show Gumbo and Silent Plant Auction in the Burton Coliseum from 6-8 p.m. on March 26. The cost is $10. Tickets may be picked up at the LSU AgCenter, 7101 Gulf Hwy, Lake Charles, or at the door. Participants are urged to enter the Burton Coliseum at the south entrance opposite the Livestock Show Barn. It is handicapped accessible. 4-H members will collect the $2 entrance fee for adults; children 12 years and under can enter free. For additional information, call (337) 475-8812, ext. 23.
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8TH ANNUAL LEAGUERS & LINKS GOLF TOURNAMENT MARCH 29 The Junior League of Lake Charles, Inc. announces the 8th Annual Leaguers & Links Golf Tournament on Mon., March 29, hosted by presenting sponsor Contraband Bayou® Golf Club at L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort. Teams of four players can register for $400 by filling out a registration form online at www.jllc.net or by calling 436-4025. Registration at the clubhouse begins at 11 a.m. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and tee time is at 12:15 p.m. Prizes include $10,000 hole in one, $500 1st place low gross, $400 2nd place blind draw and $300 3rd place blind draw. Sponsorship opportunities include a $250 hole sponsor and a $1,000 hole sponsor with one free 4-man team. For more information about the Junior League of Lake Charles, Inc. visit www.jllc.net. TEXTURAL RHYTHMS: CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN QUILTS APRIL 9-MAY 22 The City of Lake Charles is proud to present “Textural Rhythms: Constructing the Jazz Tradition, Contemporary African American Quilts.” The opening reception will take place during Spring Art Walk Fri., April 9 from 5-9 p.m., at the 1911 Historic City Hall Arts & Cultural Center at 1001 Ryan Street. The exhibition will hang in the second and third floor galleries through Saturday, May 22. Jazz, like quilting, is a woven art form. Textural Rhythms unites the two most well known and popular artistic forms in African American culture—jazz and quilts. The exhibition includes work from some of America’s best-known African American quilters, and is part of a national tour over containing approximately 64 quilts from 55 artists of the Women of Color Quilters Network. Historic City Hall Arts and Cultural Center is open
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Mon. through Fri., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are gladly accepted. For more information, call 491-9147 or visit www.cityoflakecharles.com. ICM PRESENTS BOOGALOO 2010 APRIL 17 The Imperial Calcasieu Museum (ICM) invites you “Back to the Future” for Boogaloo 2010 on Sat., April 17. The lively fundraiser for the museum will be held at the newly restored Cash & Carry Grocery. Dress as your favorite personality from the 30’s to 2010. While costumes are not mandatory, they sure are fun! Tickets are $40 for members, $50 for non-members. Sponsorships start at $250 and include a bunch of perks! Call the staff at ICM for more information at 439-3793. TIDBITS OF HISTORY: THE FIRE OF 1910 APRIL 6 The Tidbits of History Program at the SWLA Genealogical & Historical Library will uncover littleknown facts of the great fire of 1910. The greatest loss was not the buildings, but the destruction of most of the records of Calcasieu Parish. Among the few that survived were the complete 1908 and 1909 tax records. Through the years, other records of this time period have surfaced. In addition there are many newspapers that have been indexed that were published before the fire. These indexes help with records that were lost. The program will be held at 411 Pujo Street at 10 a.m. on April 6. Genealogist Linda Gill will also present the program at 7 p.m., April 26, at the Piccadilly Cafeteria on Ryan Street for the SWLA Historical Society meeting. TJN
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To list your event e-mail: lauren@thejambalayanews.com
The
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24 Alvin Touchet @ OB’s Bar & Grill, 7 p.m. Paul Gonsoulin @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. David Pellerin @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 9 p.m. Mike LaVergne/Benji Abshire/Wayne Mouille @ Caribbean Hut, 9 p.m.
• Fayuca/Gravity A &
THURSDAY, MARCH 25 • Nothing More @ McNeese State University, 4 p.m. • Jeff Thibodeaux & Friends @ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • Mike Zito @ The Porch, 7 p.m. • Tom Brandow @ Jimbo’s The Spot, 7 p.m. • All The Essentials @ Hot Topic, Prien Lake Mall, 7 p.m. • Matt DelRossi @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8 p.m. • Static @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 8 p.m. • DJ Ezekial/Truman Holland (inside) @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. • Research Turtles @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 10 p.m.
•
• • • •
FRIDAY, MARCH 26 • Al Roger & Louisiana Pride @ DI’s Cajun Food &
Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • The Lakeside Gamblers @ The Porch, 7 p.m. • Hoobastank/Noyola @ L’Auberge du Lac
Casino, 7:30 p.m. • Matt DelRossi @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8:30 p.m.
• •
• • • •
Michael Garfield @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. Twangsters Union @ My Place, 9 p.m. Thingfish/Looks That Kill @ Carribean Hut, 9 p.m. Briant Lloyd Smith and Hot Gritz @ Blue Duck Cafe, 9 p.m. Sean Vidrine @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 9 p.m. ISIS @ Club 1Sixty5, Coushatta Casino, Kinder, 9 p.m. When the Word Was Sound/Shuggie Watts/DJ Dispo Riks @ AJ’s Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m. Marianne & The Republic @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 11 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 27 • Brent Rodgers @ The Porch, 9 a.m. • Scotty Pousson & The Pointe aux Loups Cajuns @ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • Thingfish @ The Porch, 7 p.m. • Brad Garrett @ Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 7 p.m. • Creedence Clearwater Revisited @ Delta Event Center, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8 p.m. • Matt DelRossi @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8:30 p.m. • Laurel @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 9 p.m. • James Reese Band @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 9 p.m.
• ISIS @ Club 1Sixty5, Coushatta Casino,
Kinder, 9 p.m. • Ashes of Babylon @ Luna Bar & Grill, 10 p.m.
Marianne & The Republic @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 11 p.m. SUNDAY, MARCH 28 • Tom Brandow @ Jimbo’s The Spot, 3 p.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 29 • David Pellerin @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 9 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 30 • Jay Ecker Jazz Duo @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 • Alvin Touchet @ OB’s Bar & Grill, 7 p.m. • David Pellerin @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 9 p.m. • Chris Shearman @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 1 • Felton LeJeune & The Cajun Cowboys @ DI’s
Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • Tom Brandow @ Jimbo’s The Spot, 7 p.m. • Willis Prudhomme @ Gator Lounge, Delta
Downs, Vinton, 8 p.m. • Jag @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino,
Westlake, 8 p.m. • The Chris Gray Band @ Mikko, Coushatta Casino,
Kinder, 9 p.m. • Time Machine @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill,
L’Auberge du Lac, 10 p.m. FRIDAY, APRIL 2 • Travis Benoit & Allons Dancer @ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m.
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MARCH 25, 2010
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• Choke/Black Feratu/Goatwhore @ • •
• • • • •
• •
Hard Rack Billards, 7 p.m. Survive the Musical/Wildfires @ Hawg Wild, Sulphur, 8 p.m. The J. Wesley Haynes Trio/The Vagabond Swing @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. Soul Vacation @ Micci’s Piano Bar, 9 p.m. The Video Stars @ OB’s Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. Briant Lloyd Smith and Hot Gritz @ Blue Duck Cafe, 9 p.m. Willis Prudhomme @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 9 p.m. T-Broussard & The Zydeco Steppers @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 9 p.m. No Idea @ Mikko, Coushatta Casino, Kinder, 9 p.m. Meriwether/Mothers Anthem/The Silent Planet @ AJ’s Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3 • Mack Manuel & The Lake Charles Ramblers @ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • Sinizen/Eleven Fingered Charlie @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. • Losers Reunion @ AJ’s Bar & Grill, 9 p.m.
• Willis Prudhomme @ Gator
FRIDAY, APRIL 9
Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 9 p.m. • Romallice @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 9 p.m. • No Idea @ Mikko, Coushatta Casino, Kinder, 9 p.m. • Plush @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 11 p.m.
• Various Artists @ Louisiana Railroad
Days Festival, DeQuincy, 1 p.m. • Briggs Brown & The Bayou Cajuns
• •
SUNDAY, APRIL 4 • Tom Brandow @ Jimbo’s The Spot, 3 p.m.
• •
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7
•
• Alvin Touchet @ OB’s Bar & Grill, 7 p.m. •
THURSDAY, APRIL 8 • Various Artists @ Louisiana Railroad Days Festival, DeQuincy, 5 p.m. • Lesa Cormier & The Sundown Playboys @ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. • Louisiana Express @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8 p.m. • Keith McCoy & CEO @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 8 p.m. • Bayou Katz @ Mikko, Coushatta Casino, Kinder, 9 p.m. • Grievous Angel @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 10 p.m.
• • •
•
@ DI’s Cajun Food & Music, Basile, 6:30 p.m. Randy Travis @ Delta Events Center, Delta Downs, Vinton, 8 p.m. She Craves/Forever Falls @ Luna Bar & Grill, 9 p.m. Out Of Order @ Cigar Club, 9 p.m. Briant Lloyd Smith and Hot Gritz @ Blue Duck Cafe, 9 p.m. Louisiana Express @ Gator Lounge, Delta Downs, Vinton, 9 p.m. Ridin’ High @ Caribbean Cove, Isle of Capri Casino, Westlake, 9 p.m. Bayou Katz @ Mikko, Coushatta Casino, Kinder, 9 p.m. Butt Roxx @ AJ’s Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m. Matthew Moss/Kris Harper Band/Do Not Destroy @ OB’s Bar & Grill, 9:30 p.m. Hells Bells @ Jack Daniels Bar & Grill, L’Auberge du Lac, 11 p.m.
TJN
MONDAY NIGHTS: Abita Beer Night
WEDNESDAY NIGHTS: Mondo Martini Night
THURSDAY NIGHTS: Be Well Night
Thurs. Mar. 25 @ 10:00 TRUMAN HOLLAND (acoustic inside) Fri. Mar. 26 @ 9:00 FAYUCA & GRAVITY A w/ MICHAEL GARFIELD & Ds@str Sat. Mar. 27 @ 9:00 ASHES OF BABYLON Wed. Mar. 31 @ 9:00 CHRIS SHEARMAN Fri. Apr. 2 @ 9:00 THE J. WESLEY HAYNES TRIO & THE VAGABOND SWING Sat. Apr. 3 @ 9:00 SINIZEN & ELEVEN FINGERED CHARLIE (reggae!) Fri. Apr. 9 @ 9:00 SHE CRAVES & FOREVER FALLS Fri. Apr. 16 @ 9:00 BPM from Montegomery, Al. (reggae<rock) Sat. Apr. 17 @ 6:00 EARTHFEST - PAPER PLAINS, FRESH NECTAR, COLORCAST VETERAN & MORE! Fri. Apr. 23 @ 9:00 JABARVY CD RELEASE PARTY! Volume 1 • Issue 25
MARCH 25, 2010
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Bob Newhart and the GRAMMY Museum By Leslie Berman People are always telling me that I have a great memory for odd facts and the details of long ago events, as if I was purposefully storing up trivia morsels and anecdotal view-masters to relish during discontented winters. I think they’re wrong, because I can only remember what I can’t readily forget. For instance, I’m a great fan of and participant in the GRAMMY Awards, and I know a lot about how to vote and who I’m going to vote for. But if I were a true trivia buff, I would know who won what in which year. And, I would certainly have known that standup comedian/actor Bob Newhart is a three-time GRAMMY award winner – for Best New Artist, Best Comedy Performance – Spoken Word, and the shocker, to me, anyway, for Album of the Year. (When will we ever again see a spoken word album win the year’s best album against all the music bests? Never!) All three honors were presented during the third GRAMMY Awards in 1961, for his groundbreaking comedy LPs, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” and “The Button Down Mind Strikes Back,” multiple million-sellers which were both released in the previous year. (You can get copies of these and his other comedy recordings from www.bobnewhart.com.) Some of Newhart’s most memorable standup routines were recorded for “Button-Down Mind,” including “Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue,” in which the eccentric president rejects advice from his slick publicist, and “The Driving Instructor,” in which a harassed teacher tries to keep his cool under fire from a pupil’s scary mistakes. In the late 1950s, when Newhart first delivered them, one-sided conversations in which the straight man leaves the audience imagining and guffawing at the provocative inanities and mishaps of the neverheard second banana, these bits were a new kind of standup – clever, underplayed, the escalating punch lines delivered with exquisite timing, paced by Newhart’s natural stammer. That’s right, it’s not just a comedic device; he really does stammer, Newhart insisted to the 200-member audience during his interview with GRAMMY Museum Executive Director Bob Santelli, as the first comedy guest of the Museum’s public programs and archiving project. Stammering, he lectured us, is a manner of speech that is never to be confused with its lower life-form cousin, stuttering. “I’ve always been a stammerer,” Newhart explained, “so I’m used to people finishing my sentences.” Despite that provocation, Santelli avoided the pitfall almost entirely, allowing Newhart to speak for himself through a well-crafted interview. The former accountant revealed his start in comedy: He and a bored friend would phone each other at the end of the work day, and riff freely for their PAGE 54
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own amusement, until Newhart’s friend moved away, and he had to continue their conversations one-sidedly. And, he talked about both of his popular sitcoms – the “Bob Newhart Show” starring Suzanne Pleshette, in which Newhart played a Chicago psychologist, and the “Newhart” series, featuring brothers Larry, Daryl and Daryl, in which Newhart played a Vermont innkeeper – and, of course, to his astonishing GRAMMY wins, for an album that was recorded live before his FIRST ever nightclub audience. Newhart closed his interview by performing a taste of the GRAMMY-winning stand up bit, “The Cruise of the U.S.S. Codfish,” in which he portrayed the clueless captain of a mutinous submarine crew. At the end of the performance, Santelli showed us Newhart’s gifts to the museum: signed scripts, a prop telephone, and one of those ubiquitous cardigans worn on either or both of the sitcoms. MORE ABOUT THE GRAMMY MUSEUM I was gifted the courtside seat to hear Bob Newhart, and with a whirlwind tour of the highlights of the 16-month old GRAMMY Museum (opened in conjunction with the GRAMMY’s 50th year celebrations), courtesy of my old friend Tracy Strann, who’d just been named its Director of External Affairs. The museum is wonderful, with loaned artifacts from all over the musical and GRAMMY-winning universe, like Michael Doucet of Beausoleil’s fiddle, one of Bob Newhart’s GRAMMYs, which in those days were black gramophones on a gold base, and a special exhibit of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including the single diamond-encrusted sparkling glove and a variety of military and suit-of-lights toreador-style jackets. But more importantly, the museum is filled with interactive displays that educate as they entertain, including an award-winning timeline that brings history and musical styles to life via touch table. The exhibit, called “Crossroads,” allows visitors to explore nearly 150 genres of music by grabbing those of immediate interest, which open up to reveal photos, songs, and artists’ voices describing the musical style and its impact, and then revealing that genre’s connections to other musical styles at their crossroads. As president of the Music Museum of Southwest Louisiana, still archiving our first major gift of objects and ephemera, I had more than a few pangs of exhibit envy. I arrived at the museum near closing, so I missed what may be
the most exciting part of the experience for wouldbe GRAMMY recording artists – a chance to work in the eight pods where you can learn to record different musical sounds using a variety of techniques under the virtual guidance of famed musicians, producers and engineers. According to the museum’s brochure, the “In the Studio” experience uses “touch-screen interactivity and one-of-a-kind film footage to take you inside the recording process” so users will feel that they are in a real studio, where they can hear the results of making various creative and technical choices. I’m definitely going to make a special trip when I’m next in Los Angeles to take that ride at the GRAMMY Museum. (More info from www.grammymuseum.org.) I used to worry that putting music in a museum would be like putting trees in Joni Mitchell’s “tree museum” – that it would be all that’s left when paradise is paved and the last live song’s played until the music’s over. But it’s had exactly the opposite effect. The new music museums show you how exciting music is and can be, and why and how you can get involved in making it with hands-on exhibits. Try the Experience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and Vienna, Austria’s Sound Museum, where you can find out how different sounds are mad, by playing with a whole room full of sound-generating toys and equipment. Leslie Berman’s career in music spans four decades, and includes stints as a folksinger, music teacher, coffeehouse booker, concert promoter, publicist, festival director, music journalist, album notes writer, artist manager, trade organization president, entertainment attorney, and president of the Music Museum of Southwest Louisiana. She prefers all things musically eclectic, and votes on the GRAMMYs as a member of the Recording Academy. She can be reached at leslie@leslieberman.com.
TJN
Michael Jackson Exhibit
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