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July 4, 2013

contents

>>>>>>

LAGNIAPPE MAGAZINE • JULY 4, 2013 • VOLUME 31 NUMBER 13

56 26 WEEKEND ESCAPES — SUNSET • Sunset is a small, picturesque Louisiana town full of Cajun accents, Cajun food and antiques from around the world. Learn what Brad Goins found there.

32 HEALTH CARE REPORT • Usher Syndrome is one of the diseases that’s unusually high among Cajuns. Also, Louisiana and Texas have the country’s highest rate of Leprosy (or Hansen’s Disease). Find out why.

46 SOLID PLANS FOR SOLID MEALS • After decades of serving food to the hungry, Abraham’s Tent needs a new building.

Supporters are making it happen.

54 POLITICAL NOTEBOOK • Lagniappe debuts a new feature — Political Notebook. In the first edition, political gurus John Maginnis and Jeremy Alford speculate on Bobby Jindal’s likely run for governor.

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56 CAJUN MUSTANGERS • Few things excite the American soul more than the Mustang sports car. That excitement is at the heart of the Lake Area’s Mustang club — the Cajun Mustangers.

Lagniappe Magazine Serving SWLA Since 1983 Publishers Bob Hartnett Greg Pavlovich Editor Brad Goins Associate Editor Karla Wall Assistant Laura Landry Layout & Design Mike Manis Advertising Sales Tanya Alsobrook Patty Hebert Chester Rogers Classified Manager Kenny Pierce Distribution Manager Edward Frazer Contributing Writers Jeremy Alford Dr. Dale Archer Duane Bergeron Angie Dilmore Todd Elliott Rocke Fournet Arthur Hebert John Maginnis Nola Mae Ross Rick Sarro Chuck Shepherd Vic Wukovits Office Phone (337) 433-8502 Office Fax (337) 433-8964 Mailing Address PO Box 3292 Lake Charles, LA 70602 Shipping Address 2906 Deaton Street Lake Charles, LA 70601 Editorial e-mail edit@thelanyap.com Advertising e-mail ads@thelanyap.com Classified e-mail class@thelanyap.com Lagniappe Magazine is published the first and third Thursday of each month.

Manuscripts, photographs, comments and queries are invited. Return postage must accompany all materials submitted if return is requested. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Opinions presented by the columnists in this publication do not necessarily express the views ofLagniappe Magazine.

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departments 6 10 12 14 17

Up Front Pierre Sez Out & About Tech Bytes LA Politics

20 22 24 54 68

Weird News Taking Charge File 13 Political Notebook Band Schedule

69 72 73 74 76

What's Happening Reel Talk Mounted Memories Sarro On Sports Classified

July 4, 2013

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up

front Grab A Feather And Knock Me Over Those of you who trust the findings of the major pollsters have reason to believe that Louisiana just got the best news it’s gotten in years. In a study released by Gallup on June 11, the pollster found that among the 50 states, Louisiana had the highest percentage of workers who are engaged in their jobs.

The headline of the story read “Louisiana Workers Most Engaged In Jobs.”

Gallup explained that “engaged employees are involved in and enthusiastic about their work. Those who are not engaged are satisfied with their workplaces, but are not emotionally connected to them — and these employees are less likely to put in discretionary effort.”

Gallup apparently maintains something called the “employee engagement index.” The giant polling organization gives workers who are interviewed the chance to describe themselves as engaged, not engaged or actively disengaged.

Workers in Louisiana topped the list, with 37 percent saying they were engaged.

That was more than a full percentage point ahead of the No. 2 state, Oklahoma.

Even if you have reservations about this sort of polling, you must at least give Gallup credit for its sample size. More than 150,000 U.S. workers were surveyed.

Louisiana workers are most engaged. This is one of the last things I would have expected Gallup to conclude about Louisiana. Down through the years, we Lagniappe writers have interviewed some local contractors who feel that local workers have a we’ll-get-to-it-when-we-get-to-it-approach. But the Gallup findings look pretty clear.

Those who feel that good news about Louisiana should be publicized, get busy.

The news isn’t going to get much more positive than this.

And More Good News Recently the Up Fronter’s run a couple of stories that indicate there are more serious readers in the Lake Area than one might think. A big indication of that is what goes on at the book rack that stands right at the front entrance of the Walgreens on Ryan Street.

The rack holds books in the Images of America series that relate to Southwest Louisiana. In addition to the widely reviewed volume on Lake Charles, there are now volumes on the history of the area’s oil industry, McNeese and the town of Scott.

Walgreens has a hard time keeping the rack stocked. I see the new books come in. I also see that a few days later, most have been sold. It’s not unusual to see titles sold out entirely. And it’s not because they’re not being restocked.

I conclude from all this that we have some fierce readers here, at least when it comes to local history. Some might argue that Images of America books are primarily photo books, and, of course, they’d be right. But I know that when I see the shots in these books, I usually want to read the explanatory notes.

Another good point about these books sales: the books aren’t cheap. I think the standard of photography in Images of America volumes is always high, and the books are worth the price. Still, the volume of sales in this Walgreens shows that people are making something of a sacrifice for these reading opportunities.

I’ve been meaning to get this good news into print sooner. But as readers will

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July 4, 2013

recall, I’ve had a great number of extremely important Southwest Louisiana news stories to pack into the column in recent issues.

Thanks Again, Bro Moss Regional Hospital is the latest local institution to be destroyed by the Bobby Jindal steamroller. If you didn’t know how things were going in the rest of the state, you’d think Jindal had some sort of vendetta against Calcasieu Parish. I’m sure all sorts of people in the area are crossing their fingers in hopes that McNeese will survive Jindal.

Jindal can play it dumb and use all sorts of simple slogans about no tax increases. In fact, that might be pretty smart politics if he didn’t take it to the point where the typical voter finds out that no new taxes means that the typical voter is going to wind up losing an awful lot of stuff.

However many slogans Jindal may use, I say he has only one budgetary policy: budget by meat ax. Once enough jobs are sliced away and enough pensions are chopped up, no words can make the situation sound pretty.

Privatize The Trees!

We were told that what happened at Moss Regional happened as part of the Jindal juggernaut for privatization. Anyway, I thought about the whole thing and came up with this question: Is there nothing else we can privatize?

The answer came to me immediately. Water. We get our water from the government. But maybe some people think the government charges too much for water.

Of course it does. The government pays for engineers and people who went to school and studied water works and high dollar workers like that. We could give our water works to a private corporation and put the people who really know how to run a water works — corporate executives — in charge. I guarantee you the amount you pay for water will change dramatically. Will it go up or will it go down? Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

What about garbage? As far as I know, since I moved to Lake Charles, I’ve never gotten one bill for garbage collection. If a storm blows through my yard, I haul all the tree limbs out to the curb and somebody comes and picks them up. I’ve never gotten a bill. I say it’s a miracle.

But wouldn’t it be better to privatize all that? When I lived in Illinois, garbage collection was privatized. If you owned a house, you picked one of the dozen or so garbage collection companies in the phone book and contracted with the company.

The company picked up your garbage once a week, usually for $30 a month or so (in 1990s prices).

Now, the company gave you a limit as to how much garbage it would pick up at that price. Let’s say it was two cans of garbage a week. If you needed to get anything else picked up — an old couch, a pile of scrap, what have you — that was an additional one-time fee: $45 as I recall.

So, let’s say that in the mid ‘90s, a homeowner paid an average of $75 a month for garbage pick-up. By now it’s probably $100; maybe more.

What’s that? I hear somebody saying, “Wait a second, Super Brad. I don’t want to pay $100 a month. I like things the way they are.”

My first reaction is, you’re entirely forgetting the primary principle of economics, which is the Goins Doctrine. And what is that? I’m surprised you don’t remember. The Goins Doctrine is that everything will be OK if we just don’t raise taxes on rich people. Next time, please remember it. It may also help you to chant these comforting words: be calm, be calm, don’t worry.

‘Shot Nine Times’ When the record company started promoting 50 Cent before his first big album dropped, it pushed a story about 50 Cent being shot nice times (and surviving, of course). This was supposed to show that 50 Cent had street credentials.

Chris Rock made a good joke about the whole thing at the first awards ceremony 50 Cent attended. Rock said, “I’m really looking forward to seeing 50 Cent perform.

I’ve heard a lot about the ‘shot nine times,’ but I’ve never heard any of the music.”

That was a pretty good funny. But there’s nothing funny about the way the casino we’ve been promised for years keeps being promoted but never gets seen. At this point, I’d be hard pressed to give even odds that I’ll see Ameristar or what the hell ever the casino is supposed to be called these days. Did anyone reading this ever see Sugarcane Bay?

Da Muse The Baton Rouge Advocate recently reported on Earl “Nickey” Picard, a Lafayette city marshal who’s been writing poetry, or what some might call verse, for 70 years now.

The article begins with consideration of one celebrated Picard couplet: “Me and God, we talk every day.

“We pause a while, take time to pray.”

The Advocate reported that “Lafayette’s city marshal pulled off Moss Street and into the U.S. Post Office parking lot to write down the words.”

Thank the Lord for small favors.

However, not all was well with the Advocate story. For some reason, the Advocate didn’t quote any Picard poems in their entirety. In fact, all that was quoted in the rest of the story was two more couplets. I’ll do all I can and quote them in their entirety: “Did you ever see an accident?

“Where bodies as well as steel were bent?”

“That man, a bar, his day’s work done.

“Time for a drink no harm in just one …”

Picard is 81. Yet in spite of that, “Picard’s written work has never been published in a book,” reports the Advocate. Can that be? The Advocate may have had some typo problems in the story.

Picard has, says the story, “been awarded over the years … for composing poems about wearing a badge.” And here I sit with no awards.

Picard, who told the Advocate that “he listens when his muse calls,” notes that, in his case, “when it hits you, you pull over and write.”

If Picard’s verse has hit you and you’d like to read more literary poetry, try the volume Chicken Soup for the Muse, or go directly to the Hallmark section of your local big box and let the muse grow great within you.

I didn’t have time to think up a really long and complex verse tribute to Marshal Picard. But fortunately my muse kicked right in! Here’s the result: TRIBUTE TO MARSHAL PICARD One fine day, I’ll write a poem.

And when I write these words, you’ll know ‘em.

My words will make you feel good stuff.

If you’re a male, they’ll make you tough.

They’ll make you think of good old things Like hopscotch, cartwheels, kites and strings.

They’ll warm the cockles of your soul Like sunshine warms the prancing foal.

When you need blessings, heed your muse.

You’ll get more poems than you can use.

Your words will flow like PBR. You’ll be a poet and poetry star.

All good things come to those who write, So write that poem and write it tight!

‘He’s, You Know, Dick Cheney’ Once a pretty good chunk of the public finally figured out how extensive the Obama administration’s surveillance program is, President Obama went on PBS to talk to Charlie Rose about it. Here’s what the president said: “Some people say, ‘Well, you know, Obama was this raving liberal before. Now he’s, you know, Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney sometimes says, ‘Yeah, you know? He took it all lock, stock and barrel.’ My concern has always been not that we should do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism, but rather are we setting up a system of checks and balances?”

My concern is that I don’t believe what politicians say. It’s nothing against Obama in particular. It’s a nonpartisan nonbelief.

So, just what is this system of checks and balances?

Rose wondered the same thing. Well, said the president, “you’ve got Congress overseeing the program.”

Oh, Congress oversees it. That’s the system of check and balances?

But wait; turns out there’s more. When Rose suggested the NSA program could be a little more open, Obama said, “It is transparent. That’s why we set up the FISA court.”

Here’s what CNN just wrote about the FISA court: “That body … operates in secret, and its locations are considered classified. It has approved the vast majority of the requests it has received for warrants, though those orders are also kept secret.”

Are you feeling the transparency there? Is this the first time you realized that transparency develops from secrecy?

Well, hey, we don’t pay politicians to reassure us, do we? And the moment I find out what we do pay them for, you’ll be the first to know.

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OBG-1 Opens WCCH Location

develop and enrich the Arts Council’s impact in SWLA. Supporting the arts directly translates to supporting SWLA’s growth as a vibrant and diverse region.

Individual memberships begin at $50 and the new business membership level begins at $150. New membership perks have been added this year, which means in addition to receiving exclusive invites and newsletters, members can now have access to pre-sale tickets for events and receive VIP treatment at selected events.

For each $50 purchase, members will also receive a Golden Raffle Ticket which will put them in a drawing to win one of a variety of prizes. The drawing will be held on Monday, Aug. 19, at Central School. Ticketholders don’t need to be present to win. Customized sponsorship packages to fit any business budget are also available.

Memberships can be purchased online at artsandhumanitiesswla.org or at the Arts Council office at Central School. For details about membership or sponsorship packages, call the Arts Council at 439-2787.

West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of OBG-1 of West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital. The office is located at 1200 Stelly Ln. in Sulphur.

OBG-1 offers services for women’s health issues, including pelvic pain, infertility, menstrual disorders, breast disorders, pregnancy, and contraception.

Sulphur First Baptist Church, 517 S. Huntington St. in Sulphur, on Wednesday, July 31, 9 am-7 pm, and Thursday, Aug. 1, 9 am-4 pm. Supplies will be distributed Wednesday, Aug. 7, 8 am-2 pm, and Thursday, Aug. 8, 2-7 pm, at 112 E. Thomas St. in Sulphur.

To donate for the program, call 5282273 or mail a check to 200 N. Huntington St. Sulphur, LA, 70663, and write “Back to School” in the memo area.

New Life Coach, Business Service Consultant in LC

Vincent Donates For MSU Radio Station

Businessman Mark Senegal recently opened Senergy, a life coaching and business services consulting firm in Lake Charles.

The company will provide help and information on starting a business, making career choices, becoming a professional, creating positive life habits, breaking negative life habits, overcoming fear, becoming a motivational speaker, and mentoring. For more info, call 309-7349.

Ada Vincent recently donated $25,000 to the McNeese State University Foundation for the operation of the new McNeese radio station, KBYS, to be launched in 2014. The non-profit station, which will be located at 88.3 FM, will be supported by volunteers from McNeese and the community. Programming will include several music formats, information about McNeese cultural events, news and announcements related to weather and road conditions.

Care Help of Sulphur will host the following life skills classes this summer: • July 10: How to save on energy bills, with Lydia Aboagy of Entergy.

• Aug. 14: How to sew a pillow case dress and how to cut a pattern, with April Nunally.

Classes will be held 10-11 am in Care Help’s Social Service waiting room. Classes are open to anyone, regardless of income. To register, call 528-2273.

For more information, visit Care Help’s Facebook page or care-help.org.

Care Help Back To School Program

Jeff Davis Bank Changes Name To JD Bank

McNeese Football To Be Televised

Care Help of Sulphur is accepting applications for its 2013 Back To School program.

The program will provide up to 400 Sulphur students in grades Pre-K through 12 with uniforms, basic supplies and a gift card to Payless Shoe Store.

Applicants must be a resident of Sulphur and meet the income guidelines.

Applications are available at Care Help’s Wise Penny Thrift Store at 200 N. Huntington St., or on the agency’s Facebook page, “Care Help of Sulphur.”

Applications can be dropped off at

Jeff Davis Bank and Trust Co. has officially changed its name to JD Bank.

The new name reflects how its customers commonly refer to the company.

The bank’s updated signage will reflect the name change and include the refreshed logo at the bank’s 18 branches.

McNeese football will be featured in four televised games in 2013, one on the Southland Conference Television Network, two on ESPN3 and another on Comcast SportsNet Houston, the league announced on Tuesday.

McNeese’s home opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sept. 7 has been pushed back to a 7:30 pm kick-off and will be televised on CSN. The Southland TV Network package that consists of eight games, kicks-off on Oct. 5 when the Cowboys visit Central Arkansas for a 3 pm start.

Arts Council Membership Drive The Arts Council of SWLA’s annual membership drive is currently underway.

The campaign raises funds that not only provide operating support, but also

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McNeese’s Homecoming game against Sam Houston State on Oct. 19 will be broadcast by ESPN3 and will kick-off at 7 pm, while the Cowboys’ Nov. 16 home contest against Northwestern State will be carried live on ESPN3 at 7 pm.

McNeese opens the season on Aug. 31 at South Florida. Season tickets are currently on sale and can be purchased by calling 337-562-4MSU.

Film Fest Entries Open Sept. 1 Louisiana Film and Video Art is currently seeking entries for its second annual Lake Charles Film Festival, which will take place Oct. 4-5 at Central School of the Arts and Humanities, 809 Kirby St. in Lake Charles. Entry deadline is Sept. 1.

To be eligible for entry, films must have been completed after Jan. 1, 2011, and run under 151 minutes long.

Categories include Feature Film, Documentary, Short Film, Foreign Film, Home Grown, Student, Music Video and Animation. All place winners will receive a certificate and a trophy. The first place winner in each category will be entered into the Best of Show — Feature and Best of Show — Short categories.

Films from Sowela and McNeese State University students may be submitted for free. For more information and a submission form, visit lakecharlesfilmfestival.com.

Rural Water Association Convention The Louisiana Rural Water Association will hold its annual convention July 8-12 at the Lake Charles Civic Center. The convention is moving to Lake Charles after 16 consecutive years of being held in Alexandria.

The conference is geared to all personnel involved in the water and wastewater industry for the state of Louisiana.

Approximately 134 exhibit booths will be featured, and more than 1,000 people are expected to attend.

The schedule will include certification review classes, technical classes, an awards ceremony and luncheon, guest speakers and more.

For more information, contact Patrick Credeur, executive director; Rusty Reeves, deputy director or Angela Hargrave, assistant office manager at 337-738-2896.

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1930 ETHEL 433-5882

July 4, 2013

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Kickin’ School Pay Can Down De Road Again A school boad committee recently voted not to have an election for millage dat would have given teachers a raise uf $200 dollars a month. De boad members tinkin’ out loud pointed out dar wuz two udder school taxes dat would be comin’ up dat might get knocked down if a third one wuz put in de mix.

Now teachers have not had a raise in forever an’ have been beaten down wit’ rules an’ regulations big time by de Jindal boys. De danger uf teachin’ in public schools in our parish haz increased as well.

Now you might say teachers knew what day wuz gonna get paid when day enrolled in college, and dat is true. An’ day accepted dat when day started teachin’.

What day didn’t sign up for wuz increases in safety issues, more gubment watchdogs, an’ less take home pay because uf all de udder increases.

Dat, my franz, iz why so many Calcasieu teachers are leavin’ de system and gettin’ jobs somewhere else … eeder in education or udder professions.

Way To Go, Randy Mayor Randy had a nice ad in de Sunday paper recently thankin’ de voters uf Lake Charles for reelectin’ him. An’ unlike mos’ politicians, Randy did very little braggin’ on himself, but instead pointed to all we need to do to handle de growth we’re goin’ to experience in de next few years.

But me, I say let’s look at all Randy and de City Council have done de last few years. Downtown haz gotten a complete facelift. Bidnesses are movin’ back downtown. Find dat happenin’ anywhere else in Louisiana. De old Sears buildin’ project, de Civic Center improvements, de improvements to water and sewage, de extension of Enterprise Blvd. — and we can go on and on — Randy an’ de Council did all dat.

When de Louisiana Municipal Assoc. had dar convention here las’ year, all you could hear were words like “amazing,” “fantastic,” and “we knew Randy could do it.” We, de local folks, knew Randy could do it an’ he has done it. But if you know Randy, you know he doesn’t rest very long. He’s already got other projects de city iz workin’ on to make Lake Charles better. Congratulations, Randy, on a great job.

Good News For Ft. Polk Lookin’ at losin’ 5,000 soldiers at Ft. Polk in de troop reduction act, folks in Vernon, Beauregard, Rapides, Allen and Calcasieu went to work, pestering de livin’ daylights out uf congressmen and senators to keep dis cutback from happenin’.

Calcasieu would’ve lost a lot uf tax dollars spent on entertainment, lodgin’ an’ food if de reduction had happened.

But George Swift and de res’ uf de staff at de Chamber Southwest got to work on dis an’ did dar part to keep dat reduction from happenin’. Tanks to de completion of de four-lanin’ uf Highway 171 a few years ago, many soldiers would radder go to Lake Charles dan Alexandria for weekend fun. An’ a lot mo of dem are doin’ it.

All in all, de good news is dat de Vernon parish military complex will see a drop uf maybe 200 troops — a far cry from de 5,000 it could have los’. Thanks to our congressional delegation, our two senators and all who worked to save beaucoup many jobs in our state.

Boys Scout Issue Ain’t Over Yet Az you know, de United Way uf Southwest Louisiana has made some big time cuts to de amount uf money de local Boys Scouts will get next year. De United Way says de cut iz a result uf Boys Scouts not followin’ United Way requirements regardin’ “at risk” children.

In a recent Saturday issue uf de American Press, two letters addressed de issue.

De firs’ wuz from a United Way volunteer who sits on de Allocations an’ Review Committee (de folks who determine what agencies get how much uf de money you

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July 4, 2013

give); dat wuz written by Robyn Elias, who did a good job uf explainin’ why de cuts wuz made.

Anudder letter wuz sent by 20-year supporter uf de Scouts Pam Honeycutt. Pam haz been a scout master and a whole buncha udder tings in de Scouts. She claims two-thirds of the 54 uf de boys in her troop meet de United Way at-risk requirements.

Dose were two good letters from folks buttin’ heads on dis issue. A lot mo folks on both sides in dis area are buttin’ heads.

Havin’ been involved wit’ United Way for 15 years, me, I can tell you dis is not good for United Way. Boy Scouts iz supported by lots uf good folks who’ll see to it de Scouts get de money day need.

De local United Way haz had problems de last few years, an’ we hope de boad uf directors will address dose issues; udderwise, contributions may suffer.

Kennedy’s Right John Kennedy, Secretary uf de Louisiana Treasury, wuz makin’ one uf hiz regular stops in our area recently. In addressin’ de media, he pointed out de time to get de money for roads etc. for big industries comin’ in iz now.

Now me, I very seldom agree wit’ Kennedy for a variety uf reasons, but in dis case I do. When you invite folks over for a cochon de lait, you don’t wait to get started on de cookin’ ‘til de folks get dar. Well, dem industries have accepted our invitation to come to Southwest Louisiana, an’ it’s time for our legislators an’ congressional delegation and Mary an’ Vitter to get crackin’.

Now Sowela haz gotten a lot uf state money for trainin’ and dat’s good. But we need money for roads an’ udder infrastructure. An’ while we at it, dis might not be a bad time to look at expandin’ public transit to include West Cal. Work beginnin’ a new I-10 bridge would also be a big plus.

What we are sayin’, folks, is it takes money to make money, an’ we need money from de state now to have our house in order so dat we’ll be able to generate millions upon millions uf dollars back to our state and local gubment.

STEM Iz A Good Start Me an’ Sedonia watched a program on Louisiana Public TV de udder night about de STEM program. Dat stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

You probably sayin’, “anudder gubment money trowaway program.” Dis it is not. STEM schools are preparin’ kids for high-payin’ jobs when day get out uf high school. Mo an mo schools systems are learnin’ dat not everyone wants to go to college when day leave high school, an’ day want to go to work right away. Dis STEM program allows dem to do jus’ dat.

In de program, day showed kids in North Louisiana schools learnin’ how to do all sorts of stuff dat will make dem work-ready de day day put on dat cap and gown.

Since we’ll have all dem new jobs, we hope to see some uf dem STEM schools in our area soon.

DNA Legal. But How Will It Be Used?

De U.S. Supreme Court ruled a few days ago dat when a person is arrested de cops can take hiz DNA sample. De ACLU an’ udder groups had argued dis wuz illegal. Law enforcement argued DNA wuz de new fingerprint.

De Louisiana District Attorneys Assoc. claims it’s good for makin’ arrests on cold cases. Louisiana State Police claim it’s helped dem solve 5,000 crimes in our state.

Accordin’ to news stories, de DNA samples are stored in a national bank an’ can be pulled up by number only. Recently, KPLC did a story on de local lab dat serves a five-parish area. Day told uf how DNA samples had helped solve a whole buncha cold cases in our area.

Now some local folks aren’t too crazy about dis idea an udders could care less.

One defense lawyer sez local folks are more concerned about who iz listenin’ in on dar cell phone conversation. Ain’t it a strange worl’ we live in?

Deep Taughts While Watchin’ MLB 10) Baseball is borin’. How long before we see football on TV? 9) Will my fran Max de broker get me some good ceegars for my birthday?

8) Could something like dis Alex Hernandez murder ting happen in our area or New Awlins?

7) Did de heat or humidity make my chocolate soufflé go flat?

6) Does Sedonia tink I’m crazy enough to pick tomatoes in dat hot sun?

5) When are day gonna have seedless watermelons dat taste like watermelons?

4) Why iz all dem fellers at de Ceegar Club always borrowin’ my cutter an’ my lighter?

3) Is LSU gonna get enough recruits in to make it back to Omaha next year?

2) Why does my Entergy bill look like de national debt?

1) Will T-Claude really have a fish fry at his house or is he just joshin’ me again?

Final Shot My fran Lefty wanted to learn Spanish, so he plopped down $450 for dat Rosetta Stone language kit 6 months ago. I axed him recently how he wuz comin’ wit’ hiz lessons. He sed he went trew de whole ting and all he can say is Taco Bell.

‘Til next time, lache pas la patate.

July 4, 2013

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OUT & ABOUT

arthur hebert

B&O Kitchen 3011 East Burton, Sulphur • 337-625-4637 Open Monday-Friday, 6 am-6 pm, Saturday, 7 am-4 pm

This is yet another place that I’ve known about but passed by numerous times. The menu in the Lagniappe dining guide looked appealing, and I finally stopped in. They have a huge selection of meat and stuffed products to choose from. I barely scratched the surface.

My first visit was more of a supply run. I did get a couple of boudin balls to nibble on while returning home. They barely lasted until I reached the interstate. The coating seemed to be Panko, but the winner in this dish was the chunk of pepper jack cheese buried in the middle. It was a treat.

I also got jerky and cracklins. The cracklins were the standard pork belly type you get these days. They were cooked until the meat was perfect, leaving uncooked pockets of fat — not my favorite. The jerky, while full-flavored, was too thick and not dried all the way.

The regular and smoked boudin suited me just fine. Both types had a good ratio of pork to rice. The seasonings seem to contain a lot of black pepper, which made for a different kind of heat, which I enjoyed. While the smoked boudin was good, I like mine with a bit more smoke on it.

I also purchased some hogs head cheese. It was done in the old-fashioned way I just adore. Needless to say, it didn’t last long. I pulled several items from the freezers, including shrimp and okra gumbo, boudin stuffed quail, and marinated ribeye to cook later. The gumbo was as fine an example of dish I have ever put in my mouth — a definite keeper. Since the quail came two to a package, I experimented and deep-fat fried one and cooked the other in my table-top convection oven. Both tasted excellent. The bacon wrapped around the quail breast kept it juicy and well flavored. In the end, the deep fat fried won out, just because the steam coming from the boudin plumped it, giving it a nice presentation.

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tasting the one from B&O, that’s probably changed. No longer do I have to travel 60 miles. To say it compared favorably to my standard is an understatement. The flavor, which was outstanding, had penetrated throughout, and the meat was tender. It had a little kick, but not excessive, just right. I’ll be back for this.

On the next visit, I tried a sandwich and a burger. The menu is somewhat cryptic, and if you’re not a regular you’ll have to ask about the items. I got a stuffed pork roast sandwich. It was simplicity itself, consisting of white sandwich bread with mustard and a couple of slices of phenomenal roast. It was cut off a shoulder roast stuffed with the trinity and cooked to perfection. Simple is sometimes best. I could taste every nuance of porky flavor, with mustard adding a bite. The other sandwich I got was served on a bun and called gaudidaun. The base layer is either tasso or brisket, your choice. I opted for the tasso. I have never seen tasso like this. It was red, but looked and felt like pulled pork. It was flavorful and moist. The meat was topped with a pan fried boudin patty, mayonnaise on the bottom and mustard on the top. Excellent rustic fare you would expect at a store deep in the country. However, you can get it here for a song.

If you grew up in the area, this is the place to connect with your roots. You need to try this place.

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July 4, 2013

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TECH BYTES

vic wukovits

Extend Your iPhone Battery Life Being an iPhone owner can be an experiment in frustration, when it comes to battery life. As you might guess, I’m a heavy iPhone user, and I constantly fight the battery battle to keep my iPhone alive all day long. In this battle, there are a number of tools and techniques at my disposal, and I will share some of these with you to help you in your fight for battery life.

The first option for extending your iPhone battery life is to manage the settings on your device. By default, there’s a lot of stuff that is turned on in your iPhone settings, and managing these can significantly extend your battery life.

1. Turning on Auto-Brightness will use the ambient light sensor to adjust the screen brightness automatically. In darker places, your screen will be darker, and it will be brighter when you need it in bright places. If you are outdoors a lot, this won’t be too significant, but you can also reduce your screen brightness manually. Dim equals more battery life.

2. Turn off your Bluetooth if you aren’t using it. If you have a car or headphones that can connect via Bluetooth, that’s great, but turn it off if you aren’t using them. Leaving Bluetooth on means your iPhone is constantly waiting for incoming data and that eats your battery.

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3. Not on a Wi-Fi network? Turn off Wi-Fi; it’s the same principle as with the Bluetooth, as your iPhone is constantly waiting for data or looking for networks.

4. If you aren’t using your Internet on the phone or in a location with no 3G or 4G, turn it off. Your iPhone needs more power to receive these signals, and if you know you are only talking or texting, turning it off will increase your battery savings.

5. Your iPhone includes a built-in GPS, which allows your apps to do all kinds of cool stuff. This also means that your iPhone is constantly sending out location information, and this can suck your battery life. Turn off Location Services to conserve it.

6. Using your iPhone for email can be very productive, but having it look for new data constantly can be a big battery drain. By turning data push off, you are reducing the number of times your iPhone is hitting the network, saving your juice.

7. You can also check your email accounts less often. By setting Fetch to hourly or even manually, less connections means less battery used.

8. Putting your phone to sleep and waking it also uses more battery, so try to do it less often. When your iPhone is

running very low and you are expecting a call, don’t do it. Your iPhone will wake itself when you get that call.

9. Your iPhone automatically puts itself to sleep, a process otherwise known as Auto-Lock. Setting your AutoLock to 1 minute will help to lessen your battery consumption.

10. Finally, try to use your iPhone less. Keeping it on for long periods of time playing games, browsing the Internet, or watching movies will eat your battery life up quickly. Be judicious about your usage, depending on where you are and your proximity to a charging source.

Another option for extending your battery life is to purchase an extended life battery. There are a number of options out there, but I’m currently using a unit from MaxBoost.

The Defender Atomic Air comes in Matte Black and Glossy White, and features a 2400mAh extended battery that supposedly doubles the life of an iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 comes with a nonremovable 1440mAh battery, so this Atomic Air should do better than double it. Of course, any extended life battery

adds some bulk to your iPhone, but as with most, the MaxBoost protects it rather well with the battery built into a case that covers the iPhone.

July 4, 2013

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LA POLITICS

john maginnis

Will Jindal Run Against Landrieu?

Gov. Bobby Jindal started his 64parish tour with a perfectly sensible statement: “The people of Louisiana shouldn’t have to come to Baton Rouge to see their governor.” Many legislators would agree, having spent two months in Baton Rouge barely seeing him at all.

The road show gives the governor the opportunity to move around the state, sign some bills and take some credit, which can’t help but lift his sunken approval ratings a few notches.

Even with his new itinerary, he is hardly lowering his national profile. His “stop the bedwetting” screed to Republicans in Politico has elicited its expected reaction: ridicule by Democrats, shrugs from mainstream Republicans, but cheers from the group that matters most to him, the party’s right wing. His appeal to reject the “panic and apology” and to “kick the other guys around” is a train whistle to Republicans waiting to be led into the fight.

And which fight would that be? The one about winning back the country, starting with the mid-term elections of 2014. Jindal’s lap around the state, coupled with his breast-beating call to arms to the conservative corps, seems the prelude to his next great political quest. My guess is the governor is preparing himself to run against Sen. Mary Landrieu next year. Not necessarily because he wants to, but because he has to.

Opposing Landrieu may be essential to

not only furthering his national ambition, but also remaining relevant in state politics in years to come.

Assessing his situation, Jindal may realize that his presidential prospects for 2016 are less than stellar, but, in future years, still hopeful. The Senate would give him a political life while he waits for his time to come.

Republicans, of course, already have a Senate candidate, U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, who has the firm backing of Sen. David Vitter. With the junior senator running interference, Cassidy seemed to have the field cleared for his challenge to Landrieu. But not quite. In March, retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness entered the race, and quickly gained the endorsement of the Tea Party Leadership Fund. A leading conservative group in Washington, the Social Conservative Fund, has refused to endorse Cassidy, citing his troubling moderate votes. Cassidy has not been fully embraced by the state’s religious and social conservatives, who respect Vitter but pledge allegiance to Jindal.

The governor, if you’ve noticed, has yet to put his arm around Cassidy. They were getting there, but after his re-election last year, Cassidy fired consultant Timmy Teepell, who is Jindal’s top political advisor and very close friend.

Beyond all that, the big political

players, in state and out, are waiting to see if the congressman can run a statewide campaign full throttle and take the fight to worthy opponent Landrieu. Is he as tough as that guy they read about in Politico, waiting in the wings as he puts on his “big boy pants?”

The governor has time to make his move, and if he does, the congressman

would have little choice but to step aside and run for re-election. Yet there is that sense that Jindal doesn’t want to go to Washington and be one of 100. There are worse things, however, than giving up the job he loves. If he stands back for Cassidy, who then loses to Landrieu, perhaps costing Republicans control of the Senate, it won’t be Vitter who will be blamed for not doing all he could, but Jindal.

It could be worse for him to have Cassidy win. Jindal would quietly finish his term, while Vitter may well run for governor. Were the senator to win, he would appoint his successor to finish his term. Vitter would then have his hands on the top three positions in state politics, and would methodically work down from there, as citizen Jindal looks on powerlessly.

Compare that to Jindal winning the Senate seat by waging a nationalized campaign that ties Landrieu to President Obama. Then Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne would move up to become governor and be the odds-on favorite to win a full term in 2015, thus blocking Vitter from seizing power.

The Senate race would be a very steep challenge for Jindal, but his candidacy would have a not-so-secret appeal. For those middle-of-the-road voters who have had enough of him as governor and dread having Vitter follow, sending Jindal to the Senate would be the quickest way to get rid of them both.

Jindal Finishes Legislators' Work Legislators left Baton Rouge feeling pretty full of themselves for having defied the governor by rewriting his budget to their liking. That included showing their compassion for the struggling parents of severely disabled children by appropriating more money for in-home assistance than did Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Their self-satisfaction, however, turned to outrage when Jindal vetoed the extra $4 million that would have whittled down the lengthy waiting list of parents needing help to take care of blind, autistic or paraplegic children.

Democrats cried the loudest but even Republicans were appalled. “Wow??

Governor sticks it to disabled community,” tweeted Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge.

The governor was made to look heartless. But the Legislature, as Jindal pointed out in editorial letters, was irresponsible. They included the extra money without the means to pay for it, along with other add-ons. Instead, the creative budget-writers blithely instructed the administration to make $40 million in unspecified cuts to higher education and health care to balance things out. So why were they surprised when Jindal vetoed the extra $4 million for the disabled, as well

as more money for family violence programs, children’s health clinics and arts grants?

Legislators can still respond to the governor’s rejection and come to the aid of those whose lives they profess to improve. But that would entail inconveniencing their own lives by returning to Baton Rouge for a special veto session.

As many as they will disappoint, lawmakers will surprise none when more than half of both houses return their ballots before July 11 opposing a veto session.

Legislature to disabled community: Wait till next year.

Now there was a simple way for lawmakers to address the governor’s veto without returning after adjournment.

That was to have passed a budget two weeks before adjournment, comfortably within the 10-day window the governor had to veto legislation. It wouldn’t have been easy to muster the two-third majority to override his veto, but it would have been far less difficult to do while legislators were still in session.

Veteran legislators can offer a hundred reasons why it’s impractical if not impossible to pass a budget before the last day or two of the session. But the

solution is no harder than what your mother told you when you failed to complete your homework at night. They just have to manage their time properly.

Legislators could adopt a timely budget schedule on their own, or they could make themselves do it. One of the more sensible pieces of legislation offered this year was a proposed constitutional amendment that set deadlines for the House and the Senate to pass the appropriations bill within 16 days of final adjournment.

The resolution by Rep. Ray Garofalo, R-Chalmette, passed the House, 90-9.

But in a three-minute hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Chairman Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, chided Garofalo for a timetable that gave the Senate only a fraction of the time the House would have with the spending bill. “How did you come up with those numbers?” demanded Donahue.

Garofalo replied, “If you like, we can push it back so the House has less time.”

“I am going to push it back,” retorted the chairman, before recognizing Sen. Claitor, who promptly moved to defer the bill, which is legis-speak for killing it.

Donahue was defending the upper

chamber’s prerogatives, but he didn’t need to be so dismissive. After all, it was he who shook up the Senate’s leisurely approach to budget-writing this session.

He did the unheard of by holding hearings on the appropriations bill while the House Appropriations Committee was still considering it.

There is not one good reason why the two panels can’t contemporaneously work through the time-consuming testimony of agencies, colleges and nonprofits, since those officials all come with the same sob stories about needing more money. With that scheduling strategy, both houses could easily pass the budget in six weeks instead of eight.

Had the appropriations bill landed on the governor’s desk on May 21 instead of June 6, he would have thought twice, three times, before drawing his red line through the $4 million for the developmentally disabled, knowing he would face an override vote the next day.

Instead, he was able to undo what the Legislature had done, because they had left the building, and he knew they weren’t coming back. How convenient for them both.

July 4, 2013

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The audit, released in March, revealed improper use of city vehicles, improper department head appointments, improper compensatory leave payments and exceeding budget amounts approved by the Westlake City Council.

Gambling Revenues Rise In April

LOCAL NEWS STORIES OF THE PAST TWO WEEKS Charter School Bus Service The Board of Trustees of Lake Charles Charter Academy and Southwest Louisiana Charter Academy has contracted with Student Transportation Specialists (STS) of McKinney, TX to provide expanded bus transportation for both schools beginning in Aug. 2013.

The agreement with STS calls for a fleet of 12 air-conditioned buses to be stationed at the two schools.

Transportation will now be available to students in the City of Lake Charles as well as those students living in the Iowa, Bell City, and LeBleu areas.

LCMH, Moss Deal Finalized The deal between Lake Charles Memorial Health Systems and W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center is finalized, officially bringing Moss Regional’s inpatient and emergency services to Memorial Hospital.

Moss Regional Medical Center will now be called W.O. Moss Memorial Health Clinic.

Inpatient, emergency and surgery

services have been transferred to Memorial’s Oak Park Campus. Some surgery and inpatient services for patients living in West Calcasieu and Cameron Parish will be provided by West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital.

The Moss campus will remain open and offer services for asthma, gynecology, hypertension, infectious diseases and minor procedures; primary and urgent care clinics will also be offered as well as chemotherapy, dermatology, ophthalmology, rheumatology and pharmacy services.

Bond Commission Approves Projects The Louisiana Bond Commission has approved more than $340 million for projects, including extending a water line to serve additional customers in Waterworks District 5 of Wards 3 and 8, and a pipeline extension project in Westlake.

The commission approved $325,000 in special assessment waterworks improvement certificates for Waterworks District 5 of Wards 3 and 8. An existing

water line will be extended along McCown Road east to Boys Village Road. The project will provide water service to more than 100 residents and is expected to cost $641,000. Also approved was $450,000 for the City of Westlake to fund extending a natural gas pipeline to an existing industrial pipeline. The commission also approved $395,000 in taxable sewer bonds for wastewater improvements in the Town of Hornbeck in Vernon Parish. The commission also refinanced existing debt, resulting in $5.6 million in savings to local government entities. One of the projects was in Waterworks District 11 in Cameron Parish. The commission refinanced $1.375 million in revenue refunding bonds, resulting in $85,000 in savings.

DA Won’t Prosecute Westlake City Officials

Sixteen of 18 state-regulated casinos won more money in May than in April, while L’Auberge took in $819,564 in May , 2.7 percent less than it did in April. L’Auberge still won almost $10 million more than its nearest competitor.The news was better for Delta Downs and Isle of Capri. Delta Downs saw a 12.6 percent increase in revenue in May, while Isle of Capri reported a 10 percent increase. Delta Downs took in $17.1 million in May, almost $2 million more than in April, and double its nearest competitor. The Isle took in $12 million, over $1 million more than the previous month.

The figures released Thursday show that, statewide, gamblers lost $214.2 million — $17.8 million more than in April and $10 million more than May 2012.

Construction Begins On Chennault Hangar Construction of the $21 million Hangar H project at Chennault International Airport Authority began recently.The new hangar, which should be completed by June 2014, will create 500-800 permanent jobs, said executive director Randy Robb.

The hangar — measuring 112,000 square feet, plus 6,000 square feet of office space — will support the growth of Aeroframe Services.

Following a state audit into the City of Westlake, the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney’s Office said it did not find anything “that rises to the level of prosecution.”

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WEIRD NEWS

chuck shepherd • illustrations by felix falgoust

The $250,000 Gold Shirt Datta Phuge personifies India’s national obsession with the beauty of gold. For special occasions, he outfits his “knuckles, neck and wrists” with golden “signet rings, chunky bracelets and a medallion,” wrote BBC News in April. Phuge had just purchased a crinkly gold tailored shirt made for him for $250,000. The 7-pound shirt (from Rankar Jewelers in the city of Pune) has a velvet lining to keep it from irritating Phuge’s skin. He must always travel with a bodyguard.

Backyard Barnyard The Dept. of Agriculture reported recently that in four of America’s largest cities — New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Denver — nearly one home out of 100 keeps chickens, either for a fresh egg supply or as pets. This practice gives rise to chicken-related entities as Backyard Poultry magazine, MyPetChicken.com and Julie Baker’s Pampered Poultry store. Among the most popular products are strap-on cloth diapers for the occasions when owners bring their darlings indoors; that is, cuddle their “lap chickens.” Also popular are “saddles” for roosters, to spare hens from mating injuries.

March that Susan Muranishi negotiated a contract that pays her $301,000 a year, plus “equity pay” of $24,000 a year, so that she makes at least 10 percent more than the next highest paid official. In addition, she gets “longevity” pay of $54,000 a year and a car allowance. Further she will be paid that total amount per year as her pension for life (in addition to a private pension of $46,000 a year that the county purchased for her).

— Congress established a National Helium Reserve in 1925 in the era of zeppelin balloons. Most consider it no longer useful. The House of Representatives recently voted 394-1 to continue funding it because of “fears” of a shortage that might affect MRI machines.

— In rare bipartisan action, congressional military “experts” of both parties are about to force the Army to continue building Abrams tanks even though the Army has said it doesn’t want them and can’t use them. The tank manufacturers, of course, have convinced Congress that it needs the contracts, no matter what the Army says.

Government In Action — Maryland has now added a tax on rain. To reduce storm water runoff into the Chesapeake Bay, the Environmental Protection Agency assessed the state $14.8 billion, which the state will collect starting in July by taxing “impervious surfaces” — any land area in its 10 largest counties that cannot directly absorb rainwater, such as roofs, driveways, patios and sidewalks.

— The Washington Post reported in April that the federal government is due to spend $890,000 this year to safeguard nothing. The amount is the total fee for maintaining more than 13,000 short-term bank accounts the government owns that have no money in them and never again will. Closing the accounts is easier said than done, according to the watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste, because the accounts each housed separate government grants. Congress has previously required that before the accounts are closed, the grants must be audited within 180 days. However, there is no penalty for missing the deadline.

— It’s good to be the county administrator of Alameda County, Calif. (on San Francisco Bay, south of Oakland).

The San Francisco Chronicle revealed in 20

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Great Art — The Jewish Museum in Berlin is staging what’s become known as the “Jew in the Box” exhibit for the purpose of teaching visitors about Judaism. A knowledgeable Jewish person sits in a chair in a glass box for two hours a day and answers questions from the curious.

Both supporters and critics are plentiful.

— The weather in Hong Kong on April 25 wreaked havoc on American

Next Time, Get A Designated Passenger Danielle Parker was hospitalized and awaiting DUI charges after a crash near Gaston, N.C., in March, even though she had been in the passenger seat of the car. She had handled the wheel for a moment because Brittany Reinhardt, 19, in the driver’s seat, was busy texting. Reinhardt, who was apparently sober, was charged with aiding and abetting a DUI.

artist Paul McCarthy’s outdoor, 50-foottall piece of inflatable art in the West Kowloon Cultural District. “Complex Pile” (a model of an arrangement of excrement) got punctured. This pleased McCarthy’s critics, who claim that his work has often centered around bodily functions.

Police Report — News of the Weird has reported several times on the astonishing control that inmates exercise at certain prisons in Latin American countries, with drug cartel leaders often enjoying lives nearly as pleasurable as their lives on the outside.

According to an April federal indictment, similar problems have plagued the City Detention Center in Baltimore, where members of the Black Guerrilla Family operate with impunity. Between 2010 and 2012, corruption was so pervasive that 13 female guards were charged, including four women who bore the children of the gang’s imprisoned leader, Tavon White.

Cellphones, drugs and Grey Goose vodka were among the smuggledin contraband. The indictment charges that murders were ordered from inside.

Baltimore City Paper reported 14 stories in 2009 and 2010 on the gang-related corruption at the center, but apparently state and federal officials failed to be alarmed at that time.

— Chicago police have arrested Shermain Miles, 51, at least 396 times since 1978 for crimes ranging from theft (92 times) to prostitution and robbery. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Miles is a virtuoso at playing “the system” to delay her proceedings and avoid jail time.

— Alvin Cote, 59, died in February of poor health in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, following a “career” of

843 public-intoxication arrests.

Readers’ Choice — Stan Worby, 39, made headlines around the world when he hauled fugitive Daniel Frayne, 27, into a Bradford, England, police station. Worby was dressed as Batman. It turns out he was just helping his friend Daniel turn himself in (on an outstanding arrest warrant).

In a separate incident in April, the two friends had been arrested together and charged with burglarizing a garage in Bradford.

— In a confessional in the April GQ magazine, the sportswriter Buzz Bissinger (creator of TV’s “Friday Night Lights”) admitted that his narcissism had caused him to impulsively buy 81 leather jackets in a three-year period. He also bought 75 pairs of boots, 41 pairs of leather pants, 32 pairs of upscale jeans, 10 evening jackets and 115 pairs of leather gloves, along with other extravagances.

The Weirdo-American Community In Newtown, Conn., local environmental officials announced on April 29 that they were investigating the discovery of “200 to 300 one-gallon plastic jugs” filled with urine in a home “in a state of disrepair.” No charges were filed against the homeowner.

Officials sought to assure neighbors and users of the property that there was no health hazard. The average person, reported the Connecticut Post, produces about six cups of urine a day.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!

July 4, 2013

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TAKING CHARGE

dale archer, MD

She’s Bad News!

Dear Dr. Archer, My son is 30 years old. He moved away from home a year ago with his girlfriend of two years. After nine months of living together, they broke up, and she returned home. Good riddance.

Five months later, I heard he is dating a girl from his past. This woman is recently divorced, with two children, ages 3 and 1. They are talking every day, and she’s going out to see him for a weekend.

I am not happy about this.

They were friends growing up, and for a short period they dated. It was Christmas, and my son was very generous with gifts to her. Two days later, she broke up with him. Now she’s back home, living with her parents, who live on the same street as me, and is dating him again.

I do not like her, and no one in the family does, either. She’s bad news. Do I say something to my son?

I’m angry that this is happening.

Whenever I see her, she doesn’t even say hello!

Should I say something to him or not?

Megan

ticular in general.

You do not like her, and she doesn’t say hello. Do you tell her hello? I ask because it sounds like the answer would be no. If your son is interested in this woman again, I suggest you offer an olive branch.

I’m not saying to become best friends; I’m saying be polite — you might actually be surprised at what you find.

Give her the benefit of the doubt. If you

{

Dear Megan, First of all, your son is 30. He is old enough to decide whom he wants to date.

That he gave this woman Christmas gifts and she broke up with him two days later doesn’t bother me — they were teens.

Teens do immature and impulsive things, so give her a free pass for that. Also, you didn’t like the ex your son lived with, either, so it could be you are being too par-

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There are attractive men and women everywhere, and some of them are gawked at on a daily basis. Your husband was clearly caught up in his attraction and lost all his common sense.

spend a lot of time with her and then decide you really do not care for her, then tell your son — one time, and one time only — what you think. Then drop it. The rest is up to him. You have no control after that.

Your son is a man, and he has the right to choose his girlfriends. Evidently there is something in this woman he likes.

If you want to remain in his life, I strongly urge you to speak your mind once if you must, but then let it go. You never know — she could possibly be in your future for a long time. Don’t set yourself up to be the bad woman here. Good luck.

Dear Dr. Archer, My husband and I took a cruise vacation with some friends. We took a

guided tour, and my husband could not be extracted from the side of the tour guide! He was always near her, always talking to her, and seemingly chasing her.

He would walk with her, not me.

My friends commented on it, as well as some of the other travelers. I did not see it until he wandered out one night, and ended up being an hour late for an event on the ship. I was so embarrassed and hurt, but it didn’t end there. There were many evenings I could not find him on the ship.

We fought about it while on tour, and he admitted he had a strong physical attraction and was mesmerized by her. But, he says he didn’t cheat on me because he didn’t have intercourse with her.

I’m completely devastated, and since we have returned home sex is different, and not in a good way. We talk about it and he says “get over it” and “I didn’t have sex with her,” and that it’s over and he will never see her again.

The problem is that after 18 years of marriage, I don’t think I can get over it.

It was demeaning.

Help me, please. I cannot share this with anyone else.

Susy Dear Susy, First of all, of course your husband was in the wrong for chasing a woman whom he found mesmerizing, while leaving you alone on vacation. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

There are attractive men and women everywhere, and some of them are gawked at on a daily basis. Men are visual creatures, and your husband was clearly

caught up in his attraction to the guide and lost all his common sense. I’ll repeat: It was wrong; he was wrong; and you were wronged. But, at this point, you can either continue punishing him endlessly (which also punishes you), get a divorce or get over it. Those are your three choices.

If you keep harping on the subject, you’re simply killing what marriage you have left. Before you know it, the marriage will be unsalvageable. If that’s what you want, save both of you the pain and suffering and just file for divorce now.

However, if you want to save your marriage, take to heart the words of Tom Krause: “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.”

If your marriage was good prior to this, and if you take Krause’s advice, and mine, you’ll choose to get over it. Give him the benefit of the doubt, and embrace those 18 years of marriage. He knows how you feel, you’ve made your point, so start living again! Quit nagging and harping; it’s time to move on.

If you can’t get over it but want to, then tell him you need marriage counseling. If he’s not willing to go, then go yourself. Become independent and fulfill your needs and wants. Make time for yourself, and I bet your husband will start taking a new interest in you and hopefully you in him.

You cannot control his actions. You only have control of your own. You’ve let him know this was a bad thing, and that it will never be acceptable again. I say give him another chance, but whatever you decide, I wish you luck.

Dear Dr. Archer, My husband and I are in our late 20’s, and I’m currently expecting our first child. Our relationship was fine until we discovered I was pregnant.

Since that discovery, our marriage has not been the same.

It was an unplanned pregnancy.

My birth control pills failed, even though I never missed one day and used them exactly as directed. In any case, the moment we found out I was pregnant, we stopped having sex. It didn’t worry me much at first, but then days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Initially it was “I’m tired” or “I don’t want to hurt the baby” and such.

Eventually he came clean and said my size bothered him.

I have grown to doubt our entire relationship. I feel his reason for not wanting sex is superficial, and now I’m resenting him because I feel I just have a roommate, not a husband. He is not affectionate at all and shows no emotion about the baby. He won’t even come with me to prenatal appointments.

He doesn’t want to spend time with me because he would rather spend it with his friends smoking weed. Yes, that’s our other problem. We pay all our bills late, but somehow there’s always money for the weed.

I am at home, unable to work for the time being due to medical reasons. I still cook and clean and do everything for him. He never has to do anything in the house because I always attend to him. Yet, he says I’m lazy and don’t do anything because being at home isn’t really anything special.

Basically, I’m not sure if I want this life with him anymore. I don’t want someone who bases their feelings on how I look. Especially since it’s because I’m pregnant. Secondly, the marijuana use is just too much for me. I don’t mind doing the housework, since I’m home anyway and it’s my contribution to the family, but I don’t like him thinking that some magical ghost does everything while I sit on my bum.

Should I even bother trying anymore? Or am I just being overly emotional? I’m not sure of anything anymore. Please help.

Concerned

left you basically alone. I can well understand the distress this is causing you.

Talk to your husband and let him know you need a husband, not a dependent. He doesn’t like your size? He needs to grow up and deal with it — you’re pregnant, and you’re pregnant because the two of you had sex. He helped create another life, and he needs to deal with it, not run away — which is what he is doing.

Tell him you need consideration and help. Yes, he works, but so do you.

Housework is work, make no mistake about it, and soon the baby will arrive, and you will have even more work. Lay down the law; you can do this because what you want and expect is not asking too much.

Do not allow your husband to tear

you down any longer because life threw a surprise. You want a husband, a lover and a good father. If your husband cannot provide you and the family with this, then it’s time to talk to an attorney, because things will get worse over time, not better. Now is the time to find out if he will return to being a partner or if he has permanently checked out.

When it comes to family, it’s not all about him — or you. It’s the family unit.

The healthy family will work together, and respect and love each other. Having your husband call you lazy destroys self-esteem and self-worth, and for him to say these things while you’re pregnant — well, there’s just no excuse. None. He must start treating you with respect.

And if pot is a problem, he’s got to

stop.

There’s not wiggle room here. Either he shapes up, or he ships out. The choice is his to make. If he refuses to see the light, then you need to seek a good family attorney and make sure you have child support in place once your precious child is born. I sincerely wish you much success.

Dr. Dale Archer is a board certified psychiatrist who founded the Institute for Neuropsychiatry in Southwest Louisiana.

He is a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN Headline News and other national TV programs, and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Better than Normal. Visit him at DrDaleArcher.com.

Dear Concerned, First, you are not being overly emotional. During pregnancy, your hormones go through dramatic changes that affect levels of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain). This can cause heightened emotions and moodiness. But what you describe is a very real problem and, considering the circumstances, I believe you’re holding up better than most.

Birth control pills are 99 percent effective; only abstinence is 100 percent effective. I understand the pregnancy was a surprise, but your husband is half the reason for this — you did not do it alone.

He is acting like a spoiled child, which is the last thing you need.

My biggest question is why do you attend to his every need if he thinks and says you do nothing? If you continue the way you’re going, nothing will ever change. You will have to make things happen, because presently he’s getting it all his way while you’re getting nothing in return. It’s sad that the time when you need him most, he has checked out and July 4, 2013

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FILE 13

brad goins

On The Use Of The Term “Liberal” Before I moved to Lake Charles, it never occurred to me that I might be what’s called a “liberal” on talk radio. I hated the Clinton administration. I hated NAFTA and GATT, Clinton’s campaign lie about refusing to give China most-favored nation trading status and his military adventurism.

To the degree I formed opinions about partisan politics, I did so purely according to personal inclination. I certainly didn’t want to be involved in partisan politics in any way, least of all by voting for this or that. I thought then what I still think now: that partisan politics

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is a joke and a hustle. I followed partisan politics because I thought it was often amusing, in an absurdist kind of way, and because politicians reveal a tremendous amount about human behavior.

Then I moved to Lake Charles and started writing for Lagniappe. And I found out I was a liberal. I didn’t figure this out for myself. I was told I was a liberal by the people who live here. I was told this over and over and over and am still being told.

It must have begun shortly after I started writing my Up Front column early in 2000.

A few months after the column’s debut, some stranger pulled me aside in a local restaurant. “Thanks for speaking for us,” he whispered in my ear.

Then he walked away at a pretty brisk pace.

Thanks for speaking for us? Us? Who are us? I wondered. It was a curious thing.

But I suppose I forgot about it as soon as I got back to whatever food and beer were waiting for me at my table.

A couple of months later, I was sitting in a spacious and upscale office, talking to the broker who sat in a leather chair behind a big desk. The door was closed.

Throughout the conversation, he’d been talking to me in his customary voice. But then the conversation shifted to what I wrote for Lagniappe. And the broker did a remarkable thing. He started whispering — in his own office.

“Thank you for supporting us liberals in the magazine,” he whispered. “There aren’t many of us here.” After he said that, he turned the volume of his voice back up.

Two things flabbergasted me about this encounter. First, this person thought I was a liberal. Second, he was, apparently, so scared about being a liberal in Lake Charles that he would only whisper about it even when he was secure in the safety of his private office.

Down through my years in Lake Charles, I’ve been told on a pretty regular basis that I’m a liberal. I almost always hear this secondhand. Here’s an example of the

sort of remark I frequently hear: “So and so says he doesn’t read your stuff because you’re too liberal.”

These comments always leave me befuddled. I feel like I’ve been accused of trespassing in a country I’ve never set foot in. I feel like a character in a Kafka story: tried and convicted without ever knowing what the charge was.

Although I’ve never done it, I’ve thought about dragging out old copies of my Up Fronts and saying to some accuser, “What about this?” What about the numerous times I’ve slammed President Obama for failing to keep his promise to close Guantanamo Bay; for his use of the Justice Department to prosecute U.S. citizens he knows were mistakenly arrested according to the terms of the Patriot Act; for his continuation and elaboration of the program of unconstitutional spying on U.S. citizens that was initiated by the Bush administrations; and for his farcical and wasteful beer and Slurpee summits?

I don’t think it would matter if I said “What about this?” to those who say I’m too liberal. Partisan politics and ideological politics aren’t amenable to reason, logic, rational argument or extended argument. If they were, what wonders the human animal might achieve.

Partisan politics are the things of plati-

tudes, power and expediency. If there were ever a thing less worthy of being taken seriously, it’s partisan politics. And indeed, it’s just by not ever taking it seriously that we get whatever enjoyment, humor and knowledge there is to be gotten from it.

But some people take partisan politics very seriously — in fact, as seriously as they take anything. My guess is that almost all those who say they don’t read my stuff because it’s too liberal are the sort of people I call “talk radio people.”

As a rule, when I’ve been around such people, I haven’t enjoyed their company. It seems to me that they’re always mad at the world. They often speak as if they were angry at something — often something the exact nature of which goes unmentioned.

Sometimes they talk in such an aggressive and emotional way that they begin to frighten me.

It would be convenient to say that they construe all sorts of things that aren’t really political as being political. But I think the anger is more pervasive than that. It goes beyond the political. It’s easy for a person to become irritable when all the things that are important to him are going wrong. And the mixture of irritability and ideology is like an unstable explosive.

The sort of people I’m talking about quickly become angry at me if they dislike some trivial opinion about a trivial matter that I’ve haphazardly uttered in order to make conversation. They aren’t mad about my politics; they’re mad because something I’ve said about an indifferent topic irks them.

I hope that more or less brings me to the only point I want to make in this essay.

It seems to me that in Southwest Louisiana in 2013, the word “liberal” is an adjective that means “uttering or writing statements that are disliked by anyone who consistently listens to talk radio, views Fox News or endorses tea party ideology.” And it’s not far from meaning “uttering or writing statements that are disliked by anyone in Southwest Louisiana.”

I guess the key thing to take out of that is that I feel the use of the term “liberal” in

regard to Brad Goins has little or nothing to do with politics. I think politics is a sewer, and I don’t take it seriously. How could I be a liberal?

On the other hand, I am someone who takes a pretty lackadaisical approach to the expressing of opinions. Half of what I do in Up Front is work toward a cheap joke. If a politician of either party acts like an oaf, I figure out some way to have at least one laugh at his expense. And I sure can’t make fun of Louisiana Democrats when there aren’t any Louisiana Democrats to make fun of.

To create the sort of political satire or irony I create, I freely ride on any hobby horse that happens to be around, freely jump on any bully pulpit in sight, and freely express all sorts of opinions about sundry

matters that don’t matter a hill of beans in the general scheme of things.

I used to find a lot of humor at the prospect of ordinary people who fly into foam-at-the-mouth rages at the mere mention of this or that “liberal” or “conservative” fad. But I’m beginning to tire of the joke.

Maybe 13 years of living in a place where people are afraid to utter the word “liberal” except in a whisper or as an insult has given me pause and gotten me to ponder the matter a little too much. Isn’t there something just a little extreme in all this? Is there something unhealthy in it? Is there, possibly, something potentially dangerous in it?

The hours and hours and hours of selfcensorship I put myself through as I write

Up Fronts — is this good journalism? Is it a failure of nerve? Or is it a very prudent act of self-protection that I should engage in even more?

Power is a real thing. Politics is useless except as a means to power. Partisan politics, or any ideological politics, is never systematic, and is therefore never worth taking seriously. Politics as it is practiced by the typical politician is farcical.

But the current use of the word “liberal” — that’s nasty. And as any halfway decent columnist will tell you, you’d better think long and hard before you put a dirty joke in print. Some people don’t like that kind of joke. And some people have a very low tolerance for things they don’t like.

July 4, 2013

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A

lthough Sunset’s main claim to fame is its assortment of antique shops and flea markets, don’t assume this story will only be about antiques. We’ll look at such diverse subjects as deer sausage, jalapeno truffles, a drop ceiling made from old barn windows and a very big, very orange and very cocky rooster. There’s a lot to see, eat and buy in Sunset and the small towns around it.

If you want to stop somewhere on the relatively short drive from the Lake Area to Sunset, you might try Rayne.

Rayne has several characteristics that make it unusual. For instance, it has some type of artistic depiction of a frog every 50 feet or so. There are a variety of statues, paintings, murals — all of frogs.

A house And that’s not all there is in the way of outdoor art. In front of the police station is a statue of a police officer that’s about four feet tall — quite a bit smaller than life size. Make of this what you will.

Candyland Another interesting thing about Rayne is its two locations of Candyland Cottage & Ice Cream Shoppe. In addition to the 26

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25 flavors of ice cream, 30 flavors of syrup and 36 flavors of jelly beans, there are shelves and shelves of candies of every kind. I saw several candies I haven’t seen since my childhood.

Fudge is a specialty here. I had a few nibbles of the praline cheesecake fudge and can vouch for it. Truffles are another specialty.

My gigantic dog Barnabas was eager to take a few licks off my two-scoop waffle cone of cake dough ice cream.

rooster at Sunset Antique Market.

Young Gabriela Guillen of Church Point, who had just graduated from a nearby elementary school and was celebrating with a trip to Candyland, was brave enough to hold the ice cream out to Barnabas, who licked it politely.

And now for Sunset. The downtown area of Sunset is small enough that one could walk it in 15 minutes. But the many small businesses in the area are

flourishing.

The main drag is Napoleon Avenue. (I guess it’s the only drag.)

Napoleon Avenue is also Highway 182. It’s well traveled and well policed.

The observance of the speed limit is just one of the qualities of small town life in evidence here.

You’ll hear much stronger Cajun accents in and around Sunset than A traditional barber shop still in use in Sunset. you will in the Lake Area.

Virtually every resident I talked with had goods: a sundial, wicker furniture, sets of a noticeable accent. Conversation is golf clubs, old farming implements.

Long before I visited Bayou Some important to the culture here. Even people who are working hard seem to find it Stuff, I was the proud owner of one of natural to pause if they encounter some- the store’s trademark Bayou Some tiedyed T-shirts. Tie-dye fits perfectly with one who wants to talk.

As in many small Louisiana towns that the milieu of Bayou Some Stuff. The thrive on the antique, restaurant and windows at the front of the store are decsightseeing trades, business hours are orated with (among other things) a photo typically Thursday through Sunday. That of the street signs for the intersection of means the weekends are always prime- Haight and Ashbury Streets in San Francisco and a sign that reads ALL time.

PEOPLE ARE CREATED EQUAL MEMBERS OF ONE HUMAN FAMIBayou Some Stuff My wife Nydia and I started our tour LY. Room separator beads cover one of Napoleon Avenue with a visit to window.

Bayou Some Stuff Thrift Shop (331Inside the shop, there’s a variety of 5577; Thursday-Saturday 9 am-5 pm) metal and ceramic hand-crafted peace whose motto is “cum dig tru da stuff.” signs that could be hung up on a wall or The front porch is packed with an in front of a window. There’s also a large assortment of apparently unrelated number of peace sign necklaces that

owner Marvel Guidry makes with fused stained glass. (Right next door her sister runs a fused stained glass art studio, where she also sells her work.)

The ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture theme is evident throughout the store. For instance, there’s a photo of John and Yoko’s bed-in. There are also plenty of goods Brad prepares for arrest. from the time. A BIC pocket pen priced at 29 cents is for sale in its original, unopened dogs playing accordions. I think these are a funny, whimsical alternative to the package.

If you’re not sure you’re going to Blue Dog series, which got old for me catch all the references to ‘60s and ‘70s some time ago. culture, not too worry. There are plenty of stylish and practical items that don’t require a knowledge of popular culture.

Bayou Some stocks pop and op art furniture as well as furniture in a variety of 1950s and 1960s styles. (Indeed, this sort of furniture is for sale at all the antique shops and flea markets in Sunset.)

Goods at Bayou Some Stuff are arranged by category. For instance, Elvis memorabilia are grouped together, as are hunting-related goods. There’s an entire room of baby items, and a huge rack of vintage clothing.

In parts of the store, there’s some pretty meticulous organization. One tie rack holds only “nerd and geek ties.” In a large bureau, each drawer bears a label such as “cable wires,” “remotes” and “adaptors.”

My wife Nydia, a recent convert to the Sunset scene, bought my last set of Christmas presents at this shop, selecting a large framed photo of Lenny Bruce, a hand-painted 1960s Pink Panther Christmas tree ornament, a ‘50s LP titled How To Be Very, Very Popular and the aforementioned shirt.

Other local art work on display in the Funky Flea includes a taxidermied bat behind glass in a cypress shadow box and a birdhouse constructed entirely of fragments of plastic (perhaps from toys or old hardware).

Sunset Antique Mall Adjacent to Funky Flea is Sibille Street. Follow this street until it intersects with Leo Richard Lane, and you’ll soon come to the Sunset Antique Mall. The whole journey is a matter of two or three blocks.

The Sunset Antique Mall is presently made up of two very large buildings that were once sweet potato warehouses.

Huge ads for yams on the sides of the antique shops are in fact murals that have recently been painted by owner Vince

Nicholson’s niece Julie.

Goods I saw in the first large building included: — A Fender Vibro Champ amplifier; — Numerous old issues of Classics Illustrated and Teen Confessions comics; — Two shelves of Miss Cutie Pie cookie and jam jars; — Bell jars full of marbles; —Hand-painted lead Civil War soldiers (a real beauty to behold, but probably not in my budget); — Several bookcases of Catholic literature, art and memorabilia; — Empty bags of rice once packaged in Rayne; — Many antique dolls, including dolls with American Indian themes; — Small plastic bags with antique continued

The Funky Flea Bayou Some Stuff has some thematic overlap with a store down the street called The Funky Flea, where owner Claudette sells “mid-century funky stuff.” She sits in front of a tapestry that reads “When the power of love overcomes the lover of power, the world will know peace.” — Jimi Hendrix.

It doesn’t bother Claudette that, to some degree, her shop has the same emphasis as Bayou Some Stuff. “We all work together — all of our shops [in downtown Sunset],” she says.

The Funky Flea is a somewhat more upscale venue than Bayou Some Stuff (although there are still many flea market goods). One big and immediately noticeable difference is that the Funky Flea spotlights the work of “a dozen local artists.”

The work “Italian Renaissance Lady 1750” by porcelain artist DDD does resemble a portrait of an especially charming, rosy cheeked Renaissance lady painted by an especially talented Renaissance artist.

Also on display are the hand-tinted photographs of Harriet Blum and the work of Baton Rouge and Houma artist Mary Moffit Aycock, whose sketches and water colors of fashions seemed particularly good to me.

Then there are Kathleen Whitehart’s humorous “Zydeco Chien” paintings of July 4, 2013

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hinges, nails, cabinet door handles, etc.

In the nearby barn is another 5,000 square feet of goods.

Here I saw a child’s acoustic guitar with flower decals on it; an unopened Revell model kit of the Mummy; a Crystal Radio Kit; an early dictation device called

an Edison Master Shaver and an old copy of the book Freemasons Morals And Dogma. (The $75 price is probably in line for an item that’s likely very rare.)

Here I made my main purchase of the trip. I bought several plastic bags full of

small, assorted toys. The total cost was a bit more than $10 dollars. A number of the toys turned out to be bronze or pewter. Several had originally been sold in Asian countries (including one labeled “Occupied Japan.”) I considered myself to have made a find.

Nydia made a haul on her favorite collectibles — politically incorrect post-

cards from the 19th and early 20th century.

In both of these barn-size buildings, there are abundant goods that are divvied up among the dealers who sell them.

Vince Nicholson is the owner of this huge enterprise, which was once, he says, a “working sweet potato farm.” He first bought the property intending to use the farm buildings as rental properties. But the initial tenants were disappointing. “I had no [rental] income,” he says. Visitors suggested the buildings would be ideal for housing large quantities of antiques.

The grounds are patrolled by a huge bright orange and green rooster (“Gumbo”) who decided he was in the mood for a showdown with my huge mastiff and hound mix Barnabas. (This meant, unfortunately for Barnabas, that he had to stay in the car while we shopped.)

You can learn more about this massive enterprise at sunsetantiquemarket.com or at the operation’s Facebook page. The stores are part of the Louisiana Antique Trail, whose site you’ll find at louisianaantiquetrail.com.

Sunset Rail Stop Flea Market If you go back down Napoleon and right past Bayou Some Stuff, you’ll see what looks like a big railroad crossing sign. It’s actually a sign for the Sunset Rail Stop Flea Market (312 Anna St., 337-945-9188; Thurs.-Sat. 10-5; Sun. noon-4). Just turn left down Railroad Avenue and you’ll come right to it.

Again, it’s a matter of a few blocks.

Karen Domengeaux has owned the flea market for two years. It was formerly a feed store and warehouse. One room was used for the selling of live chickens.

At some point in the distant past, the railroad ran right past the front door. A cotton gin once operated on the property behind the shop.

The enormous rough wooden support posts with their wooden Vs spreading out and up near the top still stand 10 feet apart. The double floor and the walls

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were all made of cypress, which has been preserved from the original building.

When Domengeaux realized that a number of old windows from the old building had been preserved, she figured these could be used as a drop ceiling that would improve on the tin ceiling that had been planned. If you ask, she’ll turn on a fluorescent light above the windows that illuminates them as you look on. It’s quite a sight, not least for its hints of the mystery of old buildings.

The 100-year old store counter came from the old Sibille Bros. General Store that was run by Domengeaux’ grand-

mother in Bristol, La. (As you may recall, Sunset Antique Market sits only a few feet from Sibille Street.)

The building houses the goods of 26 dealers. The variety of goods is limited only by the size of the building, which is pretty substantial. While I don’t consider myself an antiquer, one of the items I do keep an eye out for is the aluminum

Things French, and especially things Parisian, are prominent here. There are several handmade French soaps. Scents are big, both in soap and dried flowers.

Lavender is obviously a favorite.

Other goods include Spanish sea salt and carob soap and the artistically packaged Femmes Fatales Bewitching soaps.

“We’re still growing, evolving,” says owner Heather Wager. The new shop sells “a little bit of everything. We specialize in vintage weddings.”

Many bridal gowns, at least some of them beaded, are for sale. I was more interested in the women’s black and white lace vests that sold for just $29 each. I assume these are to be worn only in the home, but they say you should never assume.

Wager’s husband salvages arches from old local buildings. One curves over the passage from the front to the back of the shop. Her husband also crafted the unique cedar branch trellis that rises up on each side of the stairs to the shop.

Romantic Remnants will eventually expand into a large old barn next door.

This should increase retail space fivefold or so. Vintage furniture and home furnishings will be among the goods in this new space.

Café Josephine glasses that were somewhat common when I was a kid. I saw two sets of them here (and no sets anywhere else).

In addition to usual flea market goods, you can expect to find a good amount of old farming and Cajun house tools, furniture and artifacts.

Romantic Remnants This small shop (337-288-3211) is part of the series of buildings that make up the Sunset Rail Stop Flea Market.

Although there are old things on sale here, I’d say that at present the enterprise is somewhat more of a gift shop than an antique shop or flea market.

For dinner, my wife and I decided to try Sunset’s high profile dining spot, Café Josephine, which is on Napoleon right across from the Funky Flea (818 Napoleon St., 337-662-0008, www.cafejosephinesunset.com). We wanted to get Cajun food indicative of the area, but avoid mounds of deep-fried seafood.

We started with a bunch of biscuits a little bigger than bite-sized nestled in a wooden miniature pirogue. These biscuits were soft and very buttery and had a scone-like consistency. They were a bit sweet, but didn’t have the excessive cookie-like sweetness that most scones in this country do.

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appetizer: the Crabmeat Nachos. These nachos were made of a very thin buttery dough that had been freshly fried — something along the lines of sopapilla.

The sauce was buttery, substantial and had a bit of a spicy edge to it. I wondered whether there might be a roux in it. For Nydia, who’s half Texan and half Cajun, the combination of crabmeat and nachos was a dream come true.

The nachos were as delicious as the biscuits (and a whole lot richer). This appetizer alone could make a meal for two people. As substantial as it was, I was determined to try a substantial entrée, the Out of the Woods, which includes deer sausage, rabbit and quail with flour tortillas. I have a hard time resisting new dishes, and this combination of meats was an entirely new

one for me.

Although my carving knife was very sharp, I admit I wasn’t very skilled at carving my quail and rabbit and wound up eating quite a bit of both by hand. It occurred to me that perhaps just the deer sausage (there were two long links) were meant for the tortillas (although I felt they tasted best when all three meats were included). I was especially pleased with some of the rabbit skin that had been a little charred during grilling. All the meats were tasty. The sausage seemed like fine ground beef that had been skillfully grilled.

Even tastier than the meats were the finely chopped, marinated and fried vegetables that made a sort of bed for the entrees. These veggies, which no doubt Gabriela Guillen feeds ice cream to Barnabas in Rayne.

included onions and sweet peppers, had a sweet taste and may have also included some fruit.

Topping the dish were two generous slices of baked tomato. I suggest cutting the tomato fine and putting tomato, fried vegetables and whatever meat you like on your tortillas.

The entrée comes with three balls of yam baked in a praline crust. The balls sit in a small bowl of praline sauce. These balls alone make a generous dessert for any adult. (They leave a very sweet taste in the mouth, so if you don’t want to run the risk of this taste overpowering that of the main dish, save the yam balls for last.)

My only reservation about my entree was a small one: three tortillas weren’t enough for me. I asked for more and got them promptly.

Nydia’s entrée was the Seafood Pasta, which features shrimp, crab meat, scallops and smoked oysters with angel hair pasta and a white cream sauce. She loved it. I ate quite a bit. I couldn’t complain about having seafood in every bite. The scallops were a special treat. Again, the sauce had a bit of a bite, which worked well. There was nothing excessive about the sauce; it was the right amount in the right consistency.

Café Josephine is certainly a match for the seven or eight four- and-five stars restaurants I’ve eaten in. All the food tastes unusually good, and I could detect no flaws in the preparation. The spicing is unique, stimulating and satisfying throughout.

Owner Troy Bijeaux works the room, moving from table to table. This man is on a mission to prepare food that’s tasty and out of the ordinary. Indeed, if I understand it correctly, he sees this as something of a divine mission.

Bijeaux and I share confusion about cooking shows that present chefs who spice an entrée with only a little bit of salt and pepper. We’ve also both stopped at too many places where what’s called Cajun food is under-seasoned deep fried seafood served in massive quantities.

“There’s so much better here,” says Bijeaux.

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plenty in the small towns around it.

While Sunset is 8 miles south of Opelousas, Washington is an equivalent distance north. Drive through Washington (which has been around since 1720) and one of the things you’ll notice is a large rusted-out Jax beer sign that stands where it’s always stood.

A shop called Old Wood Accents is just what it sounds like — a store that sells goods made from piles and piles of old barn, house and commercial wood, and may sell the wood itself.

Then there’s the big draw of Washington: The Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall (123 Church St., 337-8263580; Fri.-Sun. 9 am-5 pm).

Unless you’re uninterested in antiques, flea market goods or old things in general, you’ll be able to spend an entire day in this place. I was looking solely for books, and I spent half a day. (And I didn’t have time to see anything like all the books there. I wound up buying 16 — all but one priced at $1.)

The dozens of dealers selling goods here are housed in old classrooms and a big gym. You’ll see plenty of old farmhouse furniture here.

If you like food, lots of pastries (including big white and velvet cakes and a cream cheese cake), and large and elaborate ice cream desserts, you may wish to take a break and dine at the Old Schoolhouse Café, which is housed right in the antique mall. My old-fashioned hamburger tasted just like an old-fashioned hamburger. Nydia ate a club sandwich made with layers of chicken salad on cinnamon raisin bread. I didn’t taste this sandwich, but Nydia told me she thought it was delicious. It’s the sort of sandwich whose size may make it a twomeal deal for some.

The Cajun plate lunches are popular.

(The barbecue was sold out by the time we came for lunch.)

This is called a ‘50s Diner Style restaurant. It’s full of photos and magazine clippings of cultural icons (not just from the ‘50s, but from the ‘20s through the ‘70s). Many clippings are placed under the glass that tops the tables. Glass cases hold old toy and model cars from the 1950s and 1960s.

Although we didn’t have time to go to it, the Steamboat Warehouse Restaurant is another popular destination in

Washington. Indicative of this venue’s distinctive twist on South Louisiana food is the dish Sidesaddle Angels, with shrimp stuffed with oysters, wrapped in applewood spiced bacon, fried and served with remoulade sauce. Another distinctive offering is the Catfish Diane, which is stuffed with crabmeat and shrimp, broiled and topped with a creamy seafood sauce that includes fresh bluepoint crabmeat. In addition to seafood, specialties include oven roasted quail and a variety of steaks. Visit steamboatwarehouse.com or call (337) 826-7227.

Grand Coteau Travel a few miles east of Sunset and you’ll come to Grand Coteau. Here you may wish to visit the Jesuit monastery and its beautiful and spacious garden.

The seminary is located at the Jesuit Spirituality Center at St. Charles College at 313 E. Martin Luther King Drive (call 337-662-5251).

Grand Coteau has its own contingent of antique and gift shops and Cajun restaurants. There’s also a tea room and a cake shop.

Arnauldville Arnauldville, which is a few miles east of Grand Coteau, is a haven for artists, musicians, dancers, writers, culinary experts and champions of the French language. There are many artists’ studios, as well as an instrument restoration shop, Bayou Teche Brewing, the coffee shop The Little Big Cup and a number of Cajun restaurants. On the last Saturday morning of every month, a “breakfast en francais” is served at La Table Francaise.

All the sites discussed in this story are in St. Landry Parish, whose biggest city is Opelousas. You may find it convenient to do what we did and stay at a motel in Opelousas and make our excursions from there. But if you want to immerse yourself more thoroughly in the small town atmosphere, you can stay in the La Caboose B&B in Sunset (145 S. Budd St., 337-662-5401). You can stay in a caboose or train car or railroad mail car. If you want to speak French, the staff knows it.

For more info on St. Landry Parish, visit cajuntravel.com.

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SILENT DISEASE Many Have Never Heard Of Usher Syndrome, A Disease That Makes Cajuns Deaf From Birth

BY BRAD GOINS

USHER SYNDROME is one of the little-known diseases that’s far more common among people of French-Acadian descent than among the general population.

Usher Syndrome is marked by hearing loss and a type of eye disease (retinitis pigmentosa or RT) that causes the gradual degeneration of the retina. This damage of the retina harms night vision and peripheral eyesight and eventually causes tunnel vision.

Usher syndrome patients can also have mild to serious problems with balance.

The most severe form of the disease is Usher Syndrome Type 1. With Type 1, the child is deaf at birth. Hearing aids may not benefit a child with Type 1. In Type 1, problems with night vision usually begin by the age of 10. Blindness will eventually be complete.

The longer a Type 1 child can see, the easier it will be to intervene in the development of his disorder. However, the child will lag behind other children in certain developmental areas. For instance, difficulties in maintaining balance cause babies with Usher Type 1 to take 18 months or longer to learn to walk.

Usher Syndromes Types 2 and 3 are less extreme forms of the illness. Most children with both of these types of Usher will be able to benefit from hearing aids. Children with Type 2 shouldn’t

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have any problems with balance. Vision problems develop a few years later with both types. A Type 3 child can be born with normal hearing (although the hearing will eventually deteriorate).

Although Type 1 children can’t benefit from hearing aids, some may get positive results from cochlear implants.

In February, television station KATC of Lafayette reported on an infant with Usher Type 1, Hunter Faucheaux, who had regained his hearing by means of cochlear implants. You can follow the development of this case at angelicears.blogspot.com/. He recently celebrated his second birthday, which was his first birthday with hearing.

When Usher Becomes Common

Two-year-old Hunter Faucheaux of Lafayette is enjoying his new ability to hear via cochlear implants.

In the most general statistical terms, in the U.S., there is a one in 25,000 chance a baby will be born with Usher Syndrome. One in every 1,000 infants in the country is born with hearing loss.

The chances of being born with Usher Syndrome increase dramatically among the Cajuns of Louisiana and the Acadians of Canada. One of every 20 children born to people of FrenchAcadian descent has Usher Type 1.

Rates of the disease are also high among Finns, Northern Swedes and Ashkenazy (East European) Jews.

How Usher Is Transmitted Usher Syndrome is a genetically inherited disease. One can only get it by being born with it.

It’s caused when a single defective gene is carried by both parents of the affected child. If there is a group, such as Cajuns or Finns, that has an aboveaverage incidence of the defective gene; and members of this group have children with each other; the incidence of the disease goes well above the norm.

If both parents have the defective gene that causes Usher Syndrome, there is a one in four chance that their child will be born with Usher Syndrome.

Note that the parents under discussion don’t have Usher Syndrome themselves; they just have the defective gene that causes it. Such parents are called “carriers.” Since they have the same sort of hearing and vision as everyone else, it usually doesn’t occur to them that they could be carriers of Usher Syndrome.

They may not even know of the disease.

Mutations among at least half a dozen genes can cause Usher Syndrome Type 1. In Acadians, there is one defective gene — called USH1C — that’s considered to be responsible for the disease.

When this gene is healthy, it produces a protein called harmonin. Among Acadians who have Usher Syndrome, the gene doesn’t produce the protein associated with it.

Information about the USH1C gene disorder is relatively new; the gene disorder was discovered in 2000.

Researchers at the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care at the LSU Health Sciences Center are trying to discover a genetic test that detects USH1C. There are some genetic tests that may detect the presence of the defective genes that cause Usher Syndrome. If you want to learn more about these tests, visit www.GeneTests.org and search for the term “Usher Syndrome.” There is also ongoing research of genetic tests for Usher Syndrome. To learn about genetic tests you might be able to take as part of continued

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a research study, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov and search for both “Usher Syndrome” and “Usher genetic testing.”

A Short Learning Curve Obviously, a history of Usher Syndrome in the family is a strong indicator of the presence of the defective gene. One challenge in detecting a family history of Usher Syndrome is that the syndrome wasn’t found in Acadians until 1966.

This late date is one indication of the fact that knowledge of Usher Syndrome has come only recently in the history of medicine. Indeed, the disease only received a name in the last century.

The symptoms of the disease were reported for the first time by German ophthalmologist Albrecht von Grafe in 1858. He and his students had discovered several cases in Berlin.

The name “Usher Syndrome” began to be applied after 1914, when the condition was described in detail by the Scottish ophthalmologist Charles Usher.

Usher correctly determined the manner in which the disease was transmitted genetically.

Gallaudet University reunion. Kitty Fischer is first on the left of the third row; her husband Lance is last on the right of the back row.

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continued

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As time goes by and more people become aware of Usher Syndrome, the evidence of its incidence increases. At least one prominent contemporary researcher, William J. Kimberling, believes that as many as 1 in 10 U.S. infants born with hearing loss have some form of Usher Syndrome.

Treatment There is no cure for Usher Syndrome.

Once the disease has been diagnosed, doctors can determine whether a child can benefit from hearing aids or cochlear implants.

Children with Usher Syndrome should receive special educational programming geared toward the nature and severity of their symptoms. Children with Type 1 may learn American Sign Language and receive Braille instruction. Those with severe balance problems may receive orientation, mobility or independent living training.

There is some evidence that the taking of Vitamin A supplements may help those with Usher Syndrome. If you’re interested in this form of treatment, read the data about it at the Web site of the National Eye Institute and the Foundation for Fighting Blindness.

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Research In February, the journal Nature Medicine published the results of a study conducted by researchers led by Jennifer Lentz of the LSU Health Science Center.

The researchers injected RNA they had made in the laboratory into mice suffering from Usher Syndrome. One injection enabled a mouse to hear for several months.

In some way, the RNA seems to prevent or compensate for the malfunction of the defective genes that cause Usher Syndrome.

It would, at the very least, be years before such an injection could be used on human beings. But at least the positive results with the mice show that the first steps on the journey towards successful maintenance of the conditions have been taken.

One Cajun’s Story Parents and relatives of those who suffer from Usher Syndrome may derive some comfort from the recently published book Orchid of the Bayou by Cathryn Carroll and Catherine Hoffpauir Fischer.

Kitty Fischer grew up deaf and dumb in Cajun Louisiana. At first, her parents and other relatives believed she was

mentally retarded. For a time, her parents took her to various folk healers.

When these efforts yielded no positive results, Fischer went to the Louisiana School for the Deaf, where she eventually began to thrive.

She went on to obtain a degree from Gallaudet University (a university for the deaf in Washington, D.C.), marry a deaf New Yorker, become a librarian in Washington and start a family.

It wasn’t until she had her first child in 2001 that Fischer was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome. It was at this point that she learned that her problems with sight would eventually develop into full blindness.

Aware of the prevalence of the disease among Cajuns, Fischer returned to Louisiana to try to discover the fundamentals of her Cajun heritage.

She did uncover something of a family history of Usher Syndrome. She learned that one of her ancestors had been called “Le Sourd” (the deaf one) and that Lesourd had been a surname in her family.

Following The Progress The relative newness of information about Usher Syndrome means that researchers of the condition have a bit of

catching up to do. Public awareness must also catch up. For the vast majority of the populace, Usher Syndrome is an unknown disease.

Although it may not seem like it to those who are afflicted with the condition, there are worse diseases than Usher Syndrome. Harsh as it is, Usher Syndrome is less harsh than Tay Sachs — another disease that afflicts Cajuns at an above-average rate and one that always kills its victims within the first four years of their lives.

Those afflicted with the less pronounced forms of Usher Syndrome can often lead a relatively typical life, especially in their early years. Half of Usher patients are able to read and see fairly well into their 50s.

For those concerned about Usher Syndrome, one reasonable course of action is to try to stay abreast of research about the testing, genetics, treatment and maintenance of the disease.

You can find a list of groups with information about Usher Syndrome at www.nidcd.nih.gov/directory. You can also reach the NIDCD Information Clearinghouse at 1 Communication Avenue, Bethesda MD 20892-3456; 800241-1044; or send an email to nidcdinfo@nidcd.nih.gov.

LEPROSY MYSTERY Shedding Light On Why This Mysterious Disease Is More Common In Louisiana Than Anywhere Else

BY ANGIE KAY DILMORE

WHEN THE AVERAGE PERSON hears the word “leprosy,” he or she possibly imagines a Biblical scenario, with suffering beggars banished outside the city gate, waiting for Jesus to come heal them.

The person may not realize the disease still exists in the modern world.

While quite rare (only 150-250 documented new cases in the United States each year), leprosy, or Hansen’s Disease as it is now called, is still present the world over. In the United States, the percentage of new cases is highest in Louisiana and Texas.

The disease is named after the Norwegian doctor who first discovered the responsible germ in the late 1800s.

Through the ages, there have been many myths and misconceptions regarding Hansen’s Disease, and a corresponding negative stigma attached to those who have fallen victim. The doctors and researchers at the National Hansen’s Disease Research Program at Louisiana State University strive to dispel those myths.

“Hansen’s Disease is curable,” states Dr. David Scollard, chief of the National Hansen’s Disease Program clinical branch in Baton Rouge. “You don’t have to be afraid of it. It’s just another infection like other infectious diseases and we have really good treatment.”

Hansen’s Disease is caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium leprae.

These bacteria attack the skin and cause lesions in the early stages. In later stages, the nerves in the hands and feet are affected and the disease can become quite debilitating.

A total of 95 percent of the world’s population has

people early and diagnosed and start treatment early, we can have a very good outcome with no disability whatsoever,” says Scollard. “If diagnosis is delayed, either because the patient doesn’t bring it to the doctor or the doctor doesn’t recognize the disease, then there’s more opportunity for nerve involvement and complications to develop.”

RESEARCH

A doctor examines a patient at Carville in 1959.

a natural immunity to the disease. “It’s a relatively difficult disease to acquire,” says Dr. Richard Truman, chief of the Microbiology Department at the National Hansen’s Disease Program. “Few people have the genetic susceptibility to the infection.”

From 1894 to 1999, the center for Hansen’s Disease treatment and research was located at the leprosarium (a facility to house and treat persons with leprosy) in Carville, La.

the patient-run Conversation at ille circa 1960s. canteen at Carv

This facility was the only leprosarium on the mainland United States. Patients diagnosed with the disease came from all over the country to live at Carville.

Before 1941, there was no cure for Hansen’s Disease. When patients were sent to Carville, it was basically a life sentence.

In 1941, Dr. Guy Faget, the physician on staff at Carville at the time, discovered an antibiotic, Promin, which could successfully treat the disease. Once this cure was found, patients still came to Carville for treatment. But over the next 50 years, the focus evolved from an inpatient facility to an outpatient center.

Today, all Hansen’s Disease patients are treated on an outpatient basis. The program has been located in Baton Rouge since 1999.

Purposes Of The Research Program

In addition to patient treatment, the program conducts extensive research into the disease. “[The research program] is unique in having several medical and scientific specialties all focused on this one disease,” says Scollard. “We have microbiology, pathology, immunology, molecular biology and so on.”

While once thought to be transmitted only via human to human contact, researchers have discovered that armadillos play a role in the transmission of the disease. Truman directs the armadillo research. He says, “Recent studies have shown that armadillos in the southern United States also harbor this infection and they appear to be able to transmit the disease to humans in this region. The highest risk would be if you had direct contact with the animal, especially contact with fresh blood or tissue, as people would have if they were preparing the animals for eating them or preparing the flesh for other purposes.”

Because the disease exists in these wild animals that cannot be treated for the disease, Hansen’s, although rare, will likely never be fully eradicated. The risk of contracting this disease is very low. “Even in high endemic (where the disease is more common) countries, household contacts and people who may be sharing the same genetic predisposition only have a 1 in 300 probability of contracting the disease.

Of missionaries who have served in endemic countries, fewer than 2 percent ever develop the disease.”

The disease has been endemic in the Louisiana region since the 1750s. It likely came from Europe and Africa. No one is certain when the disease became present in armadillos. “We believe that armadillos contribute to 50-60 percent of the cases we see in the southern United States,” says Truman.

TREATMENT Because the Hansen’s Disease Program is federally funded, medical care and the antibiotic regimen to treat the disease are provided free of charge to any patient in the United States.

Early diagnosis and treatment is key. “If we can get

TRAINING AND EDUCATION One aspect of treating Hansen’s Disease is the importance of recognizing the disease early and starting treatment in those early phases before too much debilitation can occur.

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tions. We also have an awareness lecture on our website that gives an overview of the disease.

“A challenge to us all the time is that this is a rare disease, and many doctors think, mistakenly, that they’ll never see it.

So they don’t prepare themselves. And then they’re very surprised when they find a case.”

The Carville Leprosarium.

REHABILITATION The program also offers rehabilitation, which provides specialized care for patients who’ve developed long-term disabilities related to the disease.

When the doors at Carville officially closed in 1999, there were still a few patients remaining on campus – patients who may have lived there most of their lives and had no other place to go. The legislative bill for the Hansen’s Disease Program provides long-term care for these

them in the recognition and treatment of the disease. “We have an annual symposium,” says Scollard. “It’s the one place you can come for a comprehensive course on this disease.

“We do a number of lectures around the country to different medical schools and other scientific and medical organiza-

On the surface, it seemed like a lovely place to live.

But the patients were nonetheless isolated and separated from society. When photographs were taken at the facility, most patients put their backs to the camera because of the stigma and shame associated with the disease.

Restless Leg Syndrome?

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patients. Some live in nursing homes and others remain on the Carville property in an assisted living arrangement.

Life At Carville In 1894, seven patients – five men and two women – were transported from New Orleans up the Mississippi River by barge to a dilapidated home on an abandoned sugar plantation. This marked the beginnings of The Louisiana Leper Home in the town that would later be called Carville.

The patients were on their own until 1896, when four sisters from the Catholic Daughters of Charity in Maryland arrived to provide care for them.

In 1917, an Act was passed in Congress to establish a national leprosarium in Carville, but details were delayed for four years due to WWI. By the 1930s, the population at Carville swelled to 400 patients. The government commenced a new building project in 1933 to comfortably house them all. The facility was revolutionary at the time, with care given to ensure the patients’ comfort.

“Elsewhere around the world, such people would simply be banished,” says Scollard. “When the United States government designed Carville, they designed it with elevated covered walkways.

Screens protected [the patients] from

insects. The living quarters were pleasant.

There was a store, good food, and a good hospital. Other countries used Carville as a blueprint or model [for their own institutions.]”

The patients at Carville enjoyed recreational activities, such as bicycling on the 2 1/2 miles of walkways, boating, fishing and gardening. They had picnics, played golf and made crafts, such as pottery, rugmaking, leather work, knitting, woodworking and model airplanes. They played sports and table games like dominos. There was an amusement hall for Christmas pageants and other theater productions, a reading room and library.

The cafeteria served hearty, wholesome Creole Cajun cooking. Like elsewhere in Louisiana, the residents celebrated Mardi Gras.

On the surface, it seemed like a lovely place to live. But the patients were nonetheless isolated and separated from society. When photographs were taken at the facility, most patients put their backs to the camera because of the stigma and shame associated with the disease.

“Each patient had a unique experience, depending on their life circumstances, support of their families and community and their experience once they became patients here,” says Elizabeth Schexnyder, curator of the National Hansen’s Disease Museum. “Everyone had their own story describing the emotional experience of separation from family and what that meant.

“And that meant different things in different decades. Prior to 1941 and treatment availability, when a patient came to Carville, they expected to be here forever.

They may have left behind spouses, children, or they may have been a child themselves, separated from their communities, their support, from everything they thought their life would be.”

“In a word [it was] ... exile,” adds Scollard. “The prospect of being separated from friends and family was very painful for them.”

Some patients tried their best to find purpose in their lives and make the best of it. In 1931, patient Stanley Stein began publishing a newsletter from Carville called The Sixty-Six Star, and later, The Star. He used this world-renowned publication as a vehicle to educate the public on Hansen’s Disease and dispel the myths surrounding leprosy. He fought for equal rights for leprosy victims, wrote letters to newspaper editors, and even took on encyclopedia publishers if they cited incorrect information.

The Star is still published biannually in an online format.

After Faget discovered a cure for Hansen’s Disease in 1941, the patient population slowly began to decline at Carville as patients recovered and outpatient treatment eventually became the norm. The history of the disease of leprosy is a positive story of medical success and hope for patients where there once was none.

The National Hansen’s Disease Museum The National Hansen’s Disease Museum is located on the historic grounds of the now-relocated National Hansen’s Disease Program in Carville.

The museum contains photographs, oral histories, videos and artifacts from the leprosarium. The museum is free to the public and open Tuesday-Saturday 10 am-4 pm at 5445 Point Clair Road, Carville, La. For more information, call Elizabeth Schexnyder at (225) 642-1950 or see the website hrsa.gov/hansensdisease/museum/.

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SHOULDER PAIN? The Sooner You Have A Treatment Plan, The Better Off You'll Be

PEOPLE RARELY REALIZE how often they lift and stretch until they’ve lost their ability to move easily and without pain, according to orthopaedic surgeon and shoulder specialist J. Trappey, MD, with Center for Orthopaedics, an affiliate of Imperial Health.

“Many people choose to suffer rather than seek medical help for shoulder stiffness and pain because they think their symptoms are just something they need to accept, and they are afraid surgery is their only option,” says Trappey. “But that’s not the case at all. In fact, 90 percent of shoulder problems will get better with lifestyle changes and non-surgical treatment options.

It’s also important to realize many of the conditions that cause shoulder stiffness and pain are progressive and will get worse, not better, if left untreated.”

Trappey says stiffness and pain in the shoulder can be an indicator of several problems. Although the cause is often obvious, such as excessive use or injury, there are times when the onset of shoulder pain isn’t immediately known. “Problems with the shoulder are very common, and it’s not unusual for patients to have little idea as to what’s caused it,” Trappey says. “This is especially true for patients aged 40 and older — the most common age group to experience pain and stiffness.”

Trappey says rotator cuff tears and shoulder arthritis are common culprits. He

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notes that shoulder arthritis causes pain and stiffness by wearing down the normal smooth cartilage of the joint. This weardown leaves a rough surface behind, which impedes proper movement of the joint.

One of the most common causes of shoulder stiffness is adhesive capsulitis, more commonly known as a “frozen shoulder.” Trappey says it’s vital that patients visit a trained orthopaedist when experiencing symptoms of frozen shoulder, because its course can often be abbreviated by early

treatment.

“Frozen shoulder is often triggered by a relatively minor trauma which leads to shoulder swelling and pain,” explains Trappey. “The patient often stops moving the shoulder secondary to the pain and swelling. This lack of motion can lead to stiffness, which in turn leads to more pain.

This can lead to a perpetual cycle of pain and stiffness that often needs some intervention to break the cycle.”

Therapy and possibly injections early

can often prevent a prolonged course of frozen shoulder.

If you’re experiencing any type of shoulder stiffness or pain that lasts longer than a day or two, or that recurs regularly, the best advice is to see a physician to determine the cause and treatment,” says Trappey. “Earlier treatment can often prevent further damage within the joint, restore pain-free mobility, and eliminate the need for surgery to correct a more serious problem.”

LCMH, Moss Deal Finalized The public-private cooperative endeavor agreement between Lake Charles Memorial Health System and Louisiana State University Health System went into effect June 24, officially bringing Moss Regional Hospital’s inpatient and emergency services to Memorial.

W.O. Moss Regional Hospital will now be known as W.O. Moss Memorial Health Clinic.

The inpatient, emergency and surgery services have transferred to Memorial Hospital’s Oak Park campus. West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital will provide some surgery and inpatient services for patients living in the WCCH service area.

The outpatient clinics and services that were previously offered at Moss will continue. These include the asthma clinic, chemotherapy, dermatology, gynecology clinic, hypertension clinic, infectious disease clinic, minor procedure clinic, ophthalmology, rheumatology, pharmacy ser-

vices, primary care clinics and urgent care clinic.

A new medical office building will be built on the Moss campus, at an estimated cost of $4 million. The emergency room at Moss is now an urgent care clinic to serve minor emergencies from 7 am to 10 pm.

Patients with major emergencies can visit the Memorial emergency room 24 hours a day.

Much of the specialty care, which is currently sent to other hospitals in the LSU Health System, can be provided by Memorial, allowing patients to stay closer to home. The goal of the new configuration is improving access to primary and specialty care for Moss Regional patients, giving them more options and the ability to access services in our region.

Around 225 former Moss employees are now employed in the same capacity by the Memorial Health System.

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SUN DAMAGE Ways To Prevent And Reverse Skin Damage From The Sun

Are you spending long, lazy days relaxing in the summer sun and working on your tan?

Skin care experts advise you to reconsider this pastime if you want to maintain youthful, healthy skin as you grow older.

Most people feel that having a suntan makes them look and feel better, but is it really worth it? Against the temporary benefits of a golden summertime glow, you have to weigh the long-term damaging effects to your skin – wrinkles, lines, rough patches, and age spots, not to mention the risk of skin cancer.

In fact, according to Tana Garcia, skin care consultant with the Aesthetic Center in The Eye Clinic, 90 percent of wrinkles are due to sun exposure, or photo-aging.

“Almost all – 90 percent or more – signs of aging are caused by exposure to the sun, and most of the damage occurs in our younger years,” she explains. “A tan is actually the skin’s way of protecting itself from the sun’s harmful rays, and is the first sign of damage.

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“Fortunately, it’s never too late to counter the effects of years of sun worshipping, and it’s certainly not too late to prevent further damage.”

The sun’s long-and short-wave ultraviolet rays, or UVA and UVB, damage the skin in several significant ways. The sun causes the top layer of dead skin to thicken in a protective response. The skin becomes stiff, scaly and rough.

But this “protective” response doesn’t stop the sun’s damaging rays, which penetrate further to the living epidermis and thins it from its normal 20 cell layers to as few as two layers, leading to a “thinskinned” appearance.

The sun can penetrate the deepest layers of skin, destroying collagen, the spongy protein that gives skin its structure, firmness and elasticity. This results in sagging skin and wrinkles. UVA and UVB rays also activate free radicals — molecules that attack the lining of the cells. They literally tear apart the skin, resulting in altered skin structure and visible signs, such as uneven

skin texture, sagging and discoloration, often called “sun spots.’”

Though much of the damage from the sun takes years to appear, some signs show up very quickly. Fair skin wrinkles more readily than dark skin because it contains less pigment, which acts as a natural sunscreen to block some of the sun’s damaging rays. Garcia says even if you don’t sunburn, exposure to ultraviolet radiation will still age your skin.

Now for the good news: Even if you’ve spent years in the sun in search of the perfect tan, it’s not too late to reverse some of the damage. Garcia says the skin has a remarkable capacity to repair itself.

“Advances in skin care products and treatment techniques give us an arsenal of options to help repair sun-damaged skin.

For example, a 30-year-old who treats damaged areas and begins protecting her skin now might be able to bring her skin back to where it was at the age of 20. The earlier you start, the better.”

Skin care treatments and products that

contain glycolic, salicylic or alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) can be used to help slough off dead skin cells to reveal the newer, moister skin below, explains Garcia.

“Many of these may stimulate the growth of new collagen as well, helping to restore a more youthful appearance. Products with antioxidant vitamin C are recommended to help neutralize the destructive free radicals and to help smooth wrinkles.”

Regardless of your age, Garcia says you should prevent further damage to your skin by limiting your exposure to the sun and always applying sunscreen. “Many quality moisturizers and makeup foundations include an SPF (sun protection factor) of at least 15. We recommend applying an SPF of 30 or higher for all skin types.

When you look for a sunscreen, look for one with the seal of approval from The Skin Cancer Foundation.”

She advises that people be liberal when they apply sunscreen because most people only apply 25 to 50 percent of the recommended amount of sunscreen.

TOOTHSAVING TIPS SUMMERTIME IS FUN TIME for kids.

And just as playing sports, learning to ride a bike and playing tag are part of a child’s summer, so is chipping or injuring a tooth in the pursuit of these activities. In fact, according to pediatric dentist Dr. Eric Sanders, injuries to the teeth are more common than most parents realize.

“Childhood tooth injuries can occur when a child falls on the playground, is playing a sport, or just goofing around with a sibling at home,” says Sanders. “Often, the injury looks worse than it is, because even a small puncture wound in the mouth can bleed a lot.”

Combine the blood with pain and swelling, and it may seem like you have an emergency situation on your hands. Sanders says once an oral injury is detected, it’s important to calm the child down and stop the bleeding in order to assess the situation. “ Your child is likely to be in a state of panic, so it is important for you to remain calm and reassure them that you can help,” says Sanders. “By placing a small piece of folded gauze at the spot of injury and having them bite down on it, you can begin to slow the bleeding. Sips of cool water and sucking on an ice pop can help with the pain and swelling.”

Sanders offers the following advice.

Treatment for an injured tooth: • If a tooth is chipped or cracked, collect all the pieces of the tooth, and make sure pieces of tooth are not imbedded in the lips, tongue or gums.

• Rinse the mouth with warm water.

• Put a cold compress on the tooth.

• Contact your child’s dentist for further follow-up and care, as sharp or jagged tooth edges may need to be smoothed, and further treatment may be needed to preserve the tooth and root.

If the tooth has been knocked out: • Hold the tooth by the crown (the top of the tooth), not by the root. Plug the sink to prevent losing the tooth down the drain, and gently rinse the tooth with milk (do not scrub the tooth or use tap water, as it contains chlorine and may injure the tooth.)

• If your child will cooperate, place the tooth back in your child’s mouth in its socket, and have your child bite down on a gauze pad placed over the tooth.

• If you cannot replace the tooth in your child’s mouth, place it in milk or inside your own mouth, between your cheek and teeth to be bathed in saliva, until you get to the dentist.

• Contact your child’s dentist immediately for further follow-up and care.

The tooth can often be placed back in its socket, but this must be done quickly.

There are also some steps you can take to prevent tooth injuries, says Sanders.

“Teaching your child not to walk or run with objects in their mouth, and teaching them not to chew or suck on hard, sharp or pointed objects can help lessen their risk of tooth injuries. Also, if they play sports, they should definitely wear a mouth guard to prevent injuries.”

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Lindsey Janies Photography

GET 'EM CHECKED If You're A Boomer, Make Sure Regular Eye Checkups Are A Priority

IN A SENSE, the Baby Boomer generation will always be the “young generation.” Many Boomers have refused to don their mothers’ housecoats, listen to their fathers’ polka albums or take their parents’ shuffleboard vacations, and instead have formed their own “younger” definitions of aging.

However, while a Boomer can choose to live with youthful exuberance, keep in shape with exercise and a healthy diet, or discover the benefits of cosmetic medicine, the body does still continue to age. One of the most prevalent affects of aging occurs in vision. Some age-related eye conditions are very serious, and cause blindness if left untreated, while others may not cause blindness but can impair the way one lives his or her life.

“People put up with more vision problems than they have to,” says William B. Hart, MD, an ophthalmologist at Hart Eye Center. “Many people will avoid dealing with a condition because it makes them “feel old.” But if it’s not treated, an eye problem can have serious effects on one’s vision. It can also make one feel fatigued, and can cause eye strain and headaches, which are feelings that would slow anyone down.”

Here’s a look at the four most threatening age-related eye diseases: Glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

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Glaucoma Glaucoma is a disease caused by increased pressure within the eye. The pressure damages the eye’s optic nerve, which is used to carry visual messages to the brain. In most cases, glaucoma doesn’t present any obvious symptoms. But if it’s left untreated, it can cause vision damage and even blindness.

“More than half the people who have glaucoma do not know it because they are not experiencing vision problems or pain,” says Hart. “Unfortunately, many patients do not seek treatment until they have irreversible vision damage. In most cases, if glaucoma is caught early in a dilated eye examination, we can prevent vision loss.”

Cataracts Cataracts are one of the most common age-related physical conditions. In fact, according to Prevent Blindness America, more than 22 million Americans age 40 or older have the disease.

“A cataract is something most of us will develop at some point in our lives,” says Hart.” Over time, the eye’s natural lens deteriorates, and then a film (cataract) develops over the lens that clouds the vision. If a cataract is left untreated, it can cause severe vision loss and even blindness.

“Unfortunately, cataracts will not go away with laser treatments, change of diet or home remedies. The only way to remove this cloud from the lens is cataract surgery.

Fortunately, there have been many advances in cataract surgery. Cataract surgery is now an outpatient procedure that replaces the clouded lens with an artificial lens. In fact, recent advancements, such as the Tecnis Multifocal Intraocular Lens (IOL), have the potential not just to improve your current, “older” vision, but also to provide clear and crisp youthful vision.”

Macular Degeneration Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in Americans age 60 and older. According to the Archives of Ophthalmology, a professional medical journal published by the American Medical Association, 1.75 million U.S. residents have advanced AMD, with the associated vision loss. This number is expected to grow, reaching almost 3 million by 2020.

AMD occurs when fluid leaks from abnormal blood vessels growing beneath the macula, the most sensitive part of the retina. The macula is responsible for central vision. This leakage can cause severe and permanent vision loss, including blindness.

“AMD often develops slowly, and it may take time to notice a decrease in vision; however, an exam at your eye doctor’s office can detect the disease immediately,” says Hart. “The best weapon we have against AMD is early detection. We can take measures to stop the disease in its

tracks, but we are unable to reverse damage that has already happened.”

Diabetic Retinopathy Diabetes is one of today’s most prevalent medical conditions. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 24 million Americans, which amounts to 8 percent of the U.S. population, have diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of the disease experienced by half of America’s diabetics.

The condition occurs when fluctuations in blood-sugar levels cause changes in the retina’s blood vessels. The retina is where visual images are formed. For some people, the blood vessels swell and leak fluid; with others, abnormal blood vessels grow on the retina’s surface. Both occurrences can cause vision damage and, in some cases, blindness.

Just as with glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration, the early stages of diabetic retinopathy usually occur without symptoms.

We approach the world through our vision, so it only stands to reason that one of the best ways to stay youthful and healthy is to maintain good eye health.

After age 50, it’s important to have yearly eye check-ups. A number of conditions other than eye disease can affect your vision. Some occurrences that seem harmless or normal may not be.

DENTAL IMPLANTS

BY MATT YOUNG YOUR MOUTH is the most critical component of your outward appearance.

Transcending all cultures and backgrounds, a smile can denote amusement, relief, gratitude and triumph. It can represent happiness and even pride.

Unfortunately, smiling doesn’t come easily for everyone. Some are self-conscious about missing or diseased teeth.

Many are uncomfortable with the idea of dentures or a bridge, or have experienced discomfort due to dentures or a bridge.

Dental implants are a great solution for some, helping them regain a strong, healthy bite — often in as little as one or two trips to the dentist.

“Dental implants can be a more convenient and stable option for tooth replacement,” says Dr. Steven Park, a dentist at Robinson Dental Group in Lake Charles. “Implants are the closest thing to regaining the natural tooth, providing a more natural feel that not only makes a patient feel more physically at ease, but also helps them regain confidence in their smile.”

A dental implant is an artificial root that is inserted into the jaw to replace the tooth, mimicking its original, natural structure. The implant consists of three pieces: an anchoring root, an abutment and a crown.

Many dental implant procedures are performed in the dentist’s office. Various forms of patient sedation may be used, including oral and intravenous sedation as well as nitrous oxide. Each surgical procedure is different, depending on the clinical situation, as well as the preferences of the patient.

The traditional form of implant placement involved a three-stage procedure. Robinson Dental Group offers a more advanced one-day procedure. The

new procedure is a more convenient, faster and cost-effective method of placing dental implants.

The precision of the procedure is enhanced by the latest 3-D dental imaging technology, the i-CAT scanner. This scanner provides highly accurate and detailed three-dimensional views of the anatomy of a patient’s mouth with a high-resolution, real-time scan of bone, teeth, tooth orientation, tooth and nerve relation, airways and sinuses.

“An i-CAT scanner gives us the ability to place an implant with the utmost precision,” says Park. “Its detailed scans are used to identify the precise surgical position and depth for the implants, allowing for greater patient comfort and shorter treatment time than traditional implant procedures. The scanner also allows our patients to better visualize and better understand the implant process.”

Park lists the following as benefits to dental implants: • can replace one or more missing teeth • can be customized to fit your personal needs • can provide a long-term solution for tooth replacement • do not rely on other teeth for support • can enhance food choices • can improve speech • can improve self-esteem.

“If you are in good health, have healthy gums and have adequate bone to support the implant, you are probably a good candidate for a dental implant,” says Park. “Your dentist will carefully review your medical history and conduct a thorough dental examination to determine if you are a good candidate.”

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B

efore I ever entered Abraham’s Tent, I could tell from the look of the aged entrance that this was a building that had served its purpose.

When you enter Abraham’s Tent, if you go to the first room on the left, you go straight to the heart of the operation: food preparation — and the extreme heat it generates.

In the massive kitchen, there’s a battery of well over a dozen stovetops.

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Their perpetually burning pilot lights generate heat even when no cooking goes on.

More heat is created by the large number of freezers and coolers in the kitchen, and, of course, the workers.

A full wall of large fans is meant to move the hot air to the outside. But results are mixed. On the morning I visited, plans for a cooked lunch had been scrapped in the fear that temperatures in the kitchen would rise too high. It had

been overcast all day; a few minutes before a thunderstorm erupted, the kitchen thermometer sat at 80. A worker told me it had already topped 100 several times in June.

Holes, Leaks And Crumbling Tiles But heat’s not the whole story. There’s the physical condition of the kitchen (and the rest of the building). On the kitchen ceiling, a number of tiles are in

the process of coming undone. Some have been replaced; some have been nailed back in makeshift repairs.

A set of windows in the rear of the food prep area has buckled outward.

The flooring is a wide variety of mismatched tiles and woods. One type of flooring quickly transitions to another type from another time. The sense is that what one is walking on is very old.

Outside at the loading dock, the situation is worse. Exterior boards along the

dock wall have all rotted away at the bottom; the bottom parts of the boards are no longer attached to the building.

Even before the rainfall starts, water spills steadily over the edge of several parts of the roof. Under one of these water spouts, there’s a large area of wood rot with a hole in the wood that’s easily visible from where I stand, a good 50 yards away.

Problems With Proximity Another concern at Abraham’s Tent is the inconvenient arrangement of the rooms. It’s hard to prepare and serve or deliver 300 meals a day in a

facility that wasn’t designed for the task.

To take an example, there’s an enormous pantry (with more freezers and coolers generating heat). But the pantry’s 30 feet down the hall from where the food is prepared. And it holds too much food for the room’s size. One set of shelves contains a few hundred cans of greens. Another set holds, perhaps, 500 cans of corn. When an item’s stock has grown too big to be stored, it gets prepared for the next day’s meal.

Another room, another 15 feet down the hall, contains napkins, cutlery and other supplies for meals.

A full wall of large fans is meant to move the hot air to the outside.

But results are mixed.

On the morning I visited, plans for a cooked lunch had been scrapped for fear that temperatures in the kitchen would rise too high.

A worker told me it had already topped 100 several times in June.

Still further down are the two large dining rooms. Here, too, heat can become a problem when as many as 200 diners, and 15 or more servers, sit in and move around the room between 11:30 am and 12:30 pm.

In short, as Abraham Tent’s board member Eddie Conner puts it, “You’re cooking over here, and you’re delivering food way over here.”

Solid Meals And Real Community On tables in the serving area sit piles of a variety of breads, cans of V8, bags of flour and other dry goods. One woman takes two paper bags of food, mostly bread. It’s thought that clients take such food to make meals when the center isn’t open. This is particularly important on Sunday, the only day of the week the center doesn’t serve a meal.

On the day I visited, the lunch consisted of a ham croissant sandwich, a bag of Sun Chips, a banana, a large slice of bundt cake and, for those who wanted them, a can of Diet Pepsi and a cup of ice cream. Diners also had the option of taking a large tub of tuna fish salad, presumably for eating at later meals.

Because the croissant was rich, the lunch that was served on the day I visited would probably take a person through an entire day. I did notice that a man sitting across from me went back for a second meal. He was putting his bananas aside.

My dining companion, Conner, asked the man where he would go for lunch if this place weren’t open. “I don’t know,” he answered. He said he takes a fourcontinued

Here, both tiles and other ceiling fixtures have fallen out entirely, leaving a gaping hole.

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Exterior boards near the loading dock have rotted to the point they are no longer attached to the building.

hour round trip on city buses to get this lunch.

I get the feeling that many people here have at least a fairly severe mental handicap.

In the large group of diners, there are two children, probably seven or eight years old. These children are now no longer getting lunch at schools. Conner says that a week after our visit, he and his Rotary group served a meal on a day when 11 children showed up for lunch.

During the meal, some diners talk to each other; some don’t. People do seem to recognize each other. In the hustle and bustle and occasional crowding, there seems to be a real sense of community and camaraderie.

No one gets loud. Loud, aggressive people or those using four-letter-words are told to leave, as are any diners who are obviously drunk or high. If they don’t want to go, sheriff’s deputies will be glad to escort them.

Heat can become a problem in the

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serving and dining area. In each of the two large rooms, there’s a single window unit. On the overcast day I visited, that was enough. When the sun beams down and the dining hall is crowded, heat can become severe.

Clothing And Medicine Across the hall from the dining area, one large room is full of used clothing and stocked with medicines. Lilly, a retired nurse, runs this operation with no heat or cooling. The two standing fans provide little relief.

Once a month, Dr. Phillip Conner visits. Although he treats ailments of the clients, much of what he does is to verify that the clients need particular medicines and that they take them in the proper way. Like many who are old or who have one or more chronic disorders, some of the clients take seven or eight pills a day.

Lilly finds out which forms of Medicaid clients can use. Once she’s found the plan that will deliver the medicine for no cost or the cheapest cost, she gets the doctor’s and client’s signature on the medicine request form. She spends the entire next day filling out the complex forms.

Although Abraham’s Tent will arrange to have pain killers sent to a doctor’s office, it never keeps any pain killers or narcotics on the premises.

It’s clear that Abraham’s Tent accomplishes much with the space it has. But could it do more if it had a space that worked for it rather than against it?

Pearl’s Perspective Many people see Pearl Cole as the driving force behind Abraham’s Tent.

She’s dedicated more than 20 years of her life to supervision of the organization’s program. Eddie Conner calls her “one of the most respected directors of a non-profit in our area.”

Cole wants to make it crystal clear that she’s not any way unappreciative of the building that houses Abraham’s Tent.

“I’d like to emphasize how grateful we are to have the building,” she says.

“The School Board [which rents the building to Abraham’s Tent for a nominal sum] has been awesome to us. …

We’ll be forever grateful.”

She also appreciates the fact that the School Board kept the building standing.

Years ago, the Board sold all the land around the building.

But even in this great act of generosity, there was an indication that the building must have some sort of problem.

Otherwise, says Cole, the “School Board could have fixed the building, but [instead they] vacated it.”

In the quarter century that has passed since, problems that might once have been relatively minor have become unmanageable. “It’s just old …” says Cole. “It’s too much. The years have taken their toll.

“Our health is at risk [because of the condition of the building]. We’re talking about a building that has everything in it.

Poor people have enough problems [without having to worry about these health risks].

“There’s holes everywhere in the building … By the time we get one hole closed we’ve got another one. … We continued July 4, 2013

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“It’s just old …

The years have taken their toll.

There’s holes everywhere in the building …

By the time we get one hole closed we’ve got another one.”

--- Pearl Cole

have a squirrel problem …”

And that’s not the only problem with infestation. “We’ve got bees in the walls.” Beekeepers are called in every year or two to address the problem; however, “a year later, they’re back.”

“I’m always tense,” says Cole. “When somebody messes with the wrong wall, [I’m wondering] what’s going to happen?”

Cole says hurricane damage accelerated the deterioration of the building.

“Lots of shifting [of the building went on] after Rita,” she says.

Cole says she and her people have made good faith efforts to maintain the building. In addition to calling in beekeepers and others, Abraham’s Tent had a new roof put on 15 years ago, New ceiling tiles were put up throughout the building at about the same time.

But these are, in the end, just Bandaids stuck on a grievously ill building.

And even if, by some bizarre stroke of luck, the group were able to refurbish the property entirely, would it be a good idea to do so? After all, Abraham’s Tent doesn’t own the building. “It’s the school board’s property,” says Cole. “[Even if we could somehow manage to fix it,] it still won’t belong to us.”

The Plan The state of things is evident. “We need a place for Abraham’s Tent,” says Cole.

A group organized by members of the Abraham’s Tent board of directors has acquired property for a new building for Abraham’s Tent, drawn up plans for the building and undertaken a massive fundraising campaign to get the money that will be needed for the project.

The group has contracts on two large lots just a few feet from Abraham’s Tent’s current location. [These lots sit adjacent to the UPS building.] One will be for the new building and the second for any expansion that will be needed.

“We’ve been pursuing donations five short months,” says board member Robert Piper. In that period, the fundraisers have gathered $370,000 in cash, $330,000 in pledges and $200,000 in inkind donations [building materials, labor and so forth].

The fundraisers are offering a threeyear pledge option. Thus, all the money won’t be in hand until February, 2016.

But fundraisers hope to have all the contributions pledged by the end of this year.

It’s expected that the total cost of the building and land will be $1.6 million.

The fundraisers are hoping to begin construction of the new building in the fall. Under the present plan, they would still have 10 months of construction time 50

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to raise money.

The architect of the proposed structure is Gayle Zembower.

Once it’s completed, says Piper, the new building will be one that “respects people who are using the facility and allows them to keep their dignity and is inviting.”

Board members such as Piper and Eddie Conner are keeping in mind what will happen to Abraham’s Tent and its clients after the building is completed.

They’re considering, for instance, ways of keeping insurance costs low in a building where cooking is a major activity.

They’re also keeping in mind the possibility of unanticipated needs that may arise in the future. “When we turn [the completed building] over, they’ll never have a debt,” says Conner. “We’d like to leave a few bucks in [Abraham’s Tent’s] coffers.”

Paraphrasing Pearl, Piper says, “Everybody’s got to eat. It’s a problem everyone understands. People are very receptive.

“It’s a matter of awareness — letting people know what we’re doing.”

Pearl Cole is convinced this big, adventurous project will work. “We feel positive,” she says. “I am extremely hopeful.”

If you’d like to be part of the fundraising effort, call Abraham’s Tent or call fundraisers Robert (540-8070) or Jennifer (529-7390).

You can also mail a contribution or pledge to Abraham’s Tent at P.O. Box 19124, Lake Charles 70616. No amount is too small. Also, remember that contributions in kind will gladly be accepted. Building materials and labor are highly desired contributions.

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Wilmington Mississippi River Shreveport

20

Red River

Alexandria Bundick River 49

Lake Charles

Mississippi River Baton Rouge

10

55

ATLANTIC OCEAN

12 10

Lake Pontchartrain

New Orleans

Gulf of Mexico

Tampico Cancun

Bay of Campeche Vera Cruz

SAN SALVADOR

CARIBBEAN SEA NICARAGUA

2013 ATLANTIC TROPICAL STORMS / HURRICANE NAMES: BARRY CHANTAL DORIAN ERIN FERNAND

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GABRIELLE HUMBERTO INGRID JERRY KAREN

LORENZO MELISSA NESTOR OLGA PABLO

REBEKAH SEBASTIEN TANYA VAN WENDY

Disaster Prep For Your Business When it comes to disaster readiness, can a business owner ever be too prepared? According the Association of Small Business Development Centers, more than one in four businesses will experience a significant crisis in a given year. Of those businesses that experience a disaster and have no emergency plan, 43 percent never reopen.

Is your small business vulnerable? A survey conducted by TNS NFO and commissioned by Office Depot found: • Three-quarters (71 percent) of small business owners do not have a disaster preparedness plan.

• While 52 percent of owners claim to burn important files on a removable media device in order to keep data secure, only 11 percent keep copies at an off-site location.

“Not having a plan or back-up system in place can result in a business closing for good,” says Tom Serio, director of global business continuity management for Office Depot. “Just as you would prepare your home and family for a potential disaster, it’s important that you also ready your business.

“There are simple and affordable solutions that will help protect you, your employees and your business.”

Having weathered four major hurricanes in 2005 at the company’s corporate headquarters and its Gulf Coast store locations, Office Depot is using its real world experience to educate small businesses about disaster preparation.

The company offers a free brochure titled “Expecting the Unexpected: Disaster Preparedness Strategies for Small Business.” This booklet provides

tips and recommends products for disasters.

According to Serio, the key to effective planning is to protect your most valuable assets: your people and your data.

He recommends following these tips: • Build solid contact lists: Keep contact information for employees, local emergency services, and key vendor and suppliers updated and easily accessible.

Establish a clear process for communicating.

• Back-up data: Protect your business from faltering after a disaster by backing-up key data at least once a week. Copy data to removable media, including CD-R and DVD-R discs, or to removable drives, such as an Ativa Flash Drive.

• Secure your data: Move back-up software to a secure off-site location.

Store copies and documents you use in day-to-day operations in a secure and fire-proof location. Periodically review stored data to ensure that the correct data is being copied and that it can be restored if necessary.

• Organize supplies: Make sure you have the supplies you need to withstand any interruption. These include such important business tools as a laptop, a car charger and the basic office supplies you need to run your business.

“You’ve worked hard to build your business. Don’t leave its future to chance,” says Serio.

For the complete brochure visit, www.officedepot.com/getprepared.

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john maginnis Early Senate Contest Waged In D.C. If you’re looking for local signs of next year’s battle for the U.S. Senate, then look further north. That’s where Sen. Mary Landrieu, a New Orleans Democrat, and GOP Congressman Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, her lead challenger on the 2014 ballot, are plying their trade.

More specifically, they’re trading blows in Washington, D.C., over federal legislation on topics ranging from health care and flood insurance to immigration.

Debates about other issues, on which they will surely differ, are expected to follow.

Cassidy has a surrogate fighter in junior Sen. David Vitter, a fellow Republican from Metairie. While Landrieu may have the advantage in seniority and committee clout, Vitter is helping the challenger bring his fight to the upper chamber.

When it came to the cost of flood insurance, Cassidy was able to get the House to pass his amendment to a FEMA funding bill delaying massive

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jeremy alford

rate increases for one year. Vitter, in a letter to the senior senator, called for Landrieu to use the language from Cassidy’s provision to amend the homeland security appropriations bill that will go through the subcommittee she chairs.

On immigration, Cassidy and Landrieu appear to be staking out opposing positions on the bipartisan bill that would enable the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants to eventually qualify for citizenship if they pay back taxes and fines, learn English and pass criminal background checks.

Supporting the bill could pose more hazards for Landrieu than opposing it would for Cassidy. Only 3 percent of registered voters in Louisiana are Hispanic. What’s more, support for immigration reform is weaker among Landrieu’s base, African-Americans, than among Democrats as a whole.

Senate race. According to reports on file with the Federal Election Commission, Landrieu’s biggest donor over the course of her career on the Hill is the pro-choice group Emily’s List, with more than $108,000 in donations. One of Rep. Bill Cassidy’s biggest donors for the current cycle is Koch Industries at $10,000.

Koch is a major player in national Republican politics.

Major donors in Louisiana may have to pick sides or play both, especially along the coast, where Cassidy’s House district was recently expanded. Over the course of her career, Landrieu has received $85,000 from Edison Chouest Offshore, while Cassidy has received $70,800, making the mega-shipyard his largest donor.

help his dropping poll numbers, but it could also serve another purpose — as a litmus test for the developing U.S. Senate race.

“The people of Louisiana shouldn’t have to come to Baton Rouge to see their governor,” he said before making his first stop in Alexandria.

Another Candidate For Senate?

Donors From Opposite Sides

Taking a lyrical cue from Willie Nelson, Gov. Bobby Jindal is on the road again with a 64-parish tour on which he will be signing bills and announcing new projects. Being out among voters could

Meanwhile, the nation’s political class is wondering what set him off in his “enough already” screed in Politico, a D.C. insiders publication. In a flaming opinion piece, he attempted to energize the GOP by criticizing its “excessive navel gazing,” “feelings of inadequacy”

Donors from outside Louisiana who fit into the traditional framework of conservative versus liberal will help frame the

Jindal's call to action included colorful platitudes like “get on the offensive,” “kick the other guys around,” “put on your big boy pants” and, above all, “stop the bed wetting.”

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Your favorite musician?

ISAAC HAYES. You like Shaft?

OH YEAH. I’VE BEEN ON THE RECEIVING PART OF THAT SOMETIMES.

American supports should only be lifted if the sugar industries in competing nations lose their subsidies and tariffs, he says.

It’s called a “zero-for-zero” policy.

Supporters, like the America Sugar Alliance, suggest that U.S. trade negotiators should begin by targeting Brazil, which provides nearly $2.5 billion a year in sugar subsidies, helping the country gain a nearly 50 percent market share of global sugar exports.

Nonprofit Targets “Criminalized Journalism” Media Matters, which bills itself as a “progressive research and information center,” is zeroing in on legislation Jindal signed into law after the spring regular session that makes it a crime for

reporters and editors to publish the names of concealed handgun permit holders and applicants.

On its website, the nonprofit has posted quotations from editorial leaders from the New York Times, USA Today and Washington Post, among others, describing the new Louisiana law as “absurd” and a requirement that “media organizations should have to pay a price” for the truth. Penalties include six months in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

The news builds on the resentment of local media outlets after Jindal refused, at the urging of the Louisiana Press Assoc., to open up more records in his office to public view.

and “panic and apology” approach to politics.

His call to action included colorful platitudes like “get on the offensive,” “kick the other guys around,” “put on your big boy pants” and, above all, “stop the bed wetting.”

The combination of his state tour and literal tour de force only adds fuel to the resurrected speculation that Jindal may yet jump into the Senate race, potentially forcing out Congressman Bill Cassidy.

Quotes From The Quorum “If diversions are the cure for the coast, then I think the medicine is going to kill the patient.”

—Capt. George Ricks, opposing state plans for a large diversion of Mississippi River water and sediment in St. Bernard Parish, in The Advocate.

When syndicated radio host Jim Engster asked Kip Holden who his favorite musician is, the Baton Rouge mayor mentioned Isaac Hayes.

—Engster: You like Shaft?

—Holden: Oh yeah. I’ve been on the receiving part of that sometimes.

Resurrection Of Former Congressmen Even though they’re no longer in office, Louisiana’s former congressional members are never too far removed.

Such is the case with former Congressman Charlie Melancon, a Democrat from Napoleonville, who recently sent out an email asking folks to donate money to the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

“When I was president of the American Sugar Cane League, I worked closely with Mary on the issues important to our industry,” Melancon wrote.

“Mary never wavered in her support of the sugar growers in Louisiana. In farm bills, trade agreements and any legislation affecting agriculture, Mary stood up for Louisiana’s farmers.”

Melancon’s successor, former Congressman Jeff Landry, a Republican from New Iberia who failed to secure his own re-election last cycle, is also out and about in D.C. — and talking about sugar.

He’s been advocating an idea on Capitol Hill that involves domestic sugar farmers, like those in Louisiana, abandoning price supports from the federal government.

While that’s exactly what sugar cane boosters fought to avoid in the latest federal farm bill debates, Landry has an important qualifier to his stance.

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F

ew material possessions spark passion in the hearts of Americans as much as a really cool car. Just ask anyone in the Cajun Mustangers Club in Lake Charles.

Rodney Breaux, regional director of the group, was in his early twenties when Mustangs first galloped onto the automotive scene in 1964. He watched the fun, exciting television commercials and dreamed of owning a Mustang some day.

But he was newly married, in the military, and couldn’t afford one at the time. Twenty-four years later, in 1988, Breaux found his dream car — his first of many Mustangs.

“I always thought it would be nice to own one,” he says. “When I found a ’65 coupe for sale one day, I went ahead and bought it.”

For many club members, once

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By Angie Kay Dilmore they buy that first Mustang, one is never enough. Veteran Mustanger and club vice-president Tom Jaques bought a new Mustang convertible in 1966. After he sold it several years later, his wife told him she had liked that car. So in 1977, he bought a 1965 convertible.

“That was my show car,” says Jaques.

“Since then, it’s been a hobby with me. I’ve participated in both regional and national shows, and I’ve won quite a few first place awards. I re-built two ‘65 fastbacks and two ‘65 convertibles.

It took about two years to take each of them apart and put them back together and make them show-

quality.”

Over the years, Jaques has owned many Mustangs. “Probably too many to count,” he admits. He currently owns a 2008 Shelby convertible, GT 500.

Though some of the club members have owned many Mustangs throughout their lives, each has a favorite.

Jaques’ most beloved car was his second Mustang — the 1965 convertible he painstakingly restored himself.

He proudly describes the car: “It was Wimbledon white and had a dark brown top, black pony interior, 289 four-barrel fourspeed transmission with power steering, front disc brakes, AM/FM Ford radio and air conditioning.”

Jaques recently sold that car after enjoying it for 35 years. Though he has often had four or five Mustangs at any given time, Jaques is 77 years old, and says, “I’m down-sizing.”

Origin Of The Cajun Mustangers

In 1988, soon after Breaux bought his first Mustang, he took it to a car wash and heard that a few Mustang owners in town planned to start a Mustang club. He and Jaques attended that first meeting and have been members from the beginning, both serving on the board in some capacity for most of those years.

The club is a social group where members can talk shop, swap stories, plan events such as pony rides (when a group of people travel somewhere together in Mustangs), gatherings at continued

the local Sonic Drive-Ins, car shows and fundraisers for charities.

Monthly Meetings

The club meets the first Tuesday of each month at Ryan’s Restaurant in Lake Charles at 6:30 pm. All Mustang enthusiasts are welcome. Owning a Mustang is optional.

Annual Car Show

Last April, the Cajun Mustangers held their annual car show at Tarver

Ford in Sulphur. In the past, they limited the show to Mustangs, but this year, in order to include more people and host a larger gathering, they opened the event up to any car. Over 100 cars were on display.

The show included the judging of the vehicles, door prizes, a silent auction, a split-the-pot raffle, music and food.

The Mustangers have always been charity-minded.

This year, they raised $3,000 for the Wounded Warriors organization.

Car Restoration

For classic car lovers, a big part of their hobby often includes the tedious but rewarding process of taking an old beat-up fixerupper and returning the car to her former glory. Breaux, Jaques and club president Ralph Unglaube have each been through this

process on more than one occasion.

When Unglaube was in college, he admired a 1969 convertible, but postponed buying it. Someone else bought the car. Soon after, Unglaube found a 1970 convertible advertised in the Thrifty Nickle. He spent two years restoring that car.

Later, a friend wanted Unglaube to buy his 1969 Mach I, but Unglaube hesitated because it was in poor condition. The friend persisted, and Unglaube eventually bought the car.

“I hauled it home on a flatbed truck with about seven pickup truck loads of parts. It took me six years to restore that car.”

Club members often help each other, both with the labor and with the process of finding parts. Jaques helped Unglaube re-do his Mach I.

Mustang Club of America

The Mustang Club of America (MCA) is the national Mustang organization. It sponsors national car shows and sets the standards for the judging of Mustangs at shows.

Members of the Cajun Mustangers have participated in many MCA events since the club’s formation. As the group’s regional director, Breaux serves as the liaison between the local club and the national organization. He recalls attending and assisting at several MCA events.

To commemorate the Mustang’s 25th anniversary in 1989, 17 European Mustang owners shipped their cars to America for a cross-country pony ride.

Their journey began in Maine. They spent a night in New Orleans.

The next day, Breaux and Mustanger founder Dan Bates escorted the group from New Orleans to Lake Charles. Bolton Ford provided a meal for the travelers on the lakefront. continued

The club meets the first Tuesday of each month at Ryan’s Restaurant in Lake Charles at 6:30 pm. All Mustang enthusiasts are welcome.

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Breaux and Bates continued their escort to the state border and members of the Southeast Texas Mustang Club took over from there.

For the car’s 30th anniversary in 1994, Breaux drove his ’65 fastback to the national show in Charlotte, NC. As a younger man, President Bill Clinton had owned a 1967 6-cylinder convertible. Both Clinton and his former car were on-site at the 1994 show.

The president took the car for one last spin, and then the car was placed in the Museum of Automobiles near Petit Jean State Park, Ark.

Mustang’s Golden Anniversary

April 2014 marks the Mustang’s 50th birthday, and MCA intends to celebrate with a grand party. The group has planned two simultaneous pony rides: one starting in California and the other in Maine.

According to Breaux, one of these groups will stop in the A couple of Breaux’s Mustangs: A yellow 1970 convertible and a 1969 Mach 1 R-Code

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Lake Charles/Sulphur area on April 8, 2014. Tarver plans to provide a meal for this mass of Mustang aficionados.

The two pony ride groups will converge in Mustang, Okla., for the largest gathering of Mustangs in the history of the car. They expect over 2,000 Mustangs, both new and vintage.

On April 17, 2014, MCA has planned simultaneous Mustang car shows – one in Las Vegas and the other in Charlotte.

Club Sponsor

The Cajun Mustangers were originally sponsored by Mike Shetler and his car dealership in Sulphur. Shetler continued to sponsor the club until a year ago, when he sold his business to Phillip Tarver of Tarver Ford.

As the Mustangers’ sponsor,

Tarver provides many benefits to the club. When a customer purchases a new Mustang, Tarver donates $65 to the Cajun Mustangers ($50 for MCA dues, $15 for local club dues).

The car buyer is automatically a member in the club for a year. When the Mustangers held their annual car show last April, Tarver donated $1,000 for their charity, the Wounded Warriors, and provided lunch for the car show participants.

many – made more than any other car ever produced – that makes them special.”

The Cajun Mustangers currently have around 20 members. The group is always open to new membership.

On one last Mustang-related note,

‘'A Unique Little Car’

People love Mustangs for different reasons. Some, like Jaques, simply love the sleek design. For others, Mustangs invoke a youthfulness and memories of a bygone era.

“They are a unique little car,” says Breaux. “And the fact that [Ford] made so

Breaux has a 1973 silver convertible Mustang with white top and white interior for sale.

For more information about the car or the club, call Breaux at 409-7551470.

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Maintenance

SUMMER IS a good time to catch up on auto maintenance. Spend an afternoon on some simple auto maintenance procedures and you’ll thank yourself in the end.

Here are some basic maintenance tasks everyone should undertake every summer.

Radiator flush: The coolant in your radiator doesn’t last forever. Over time it

can break down and start to corrode the inside of your radiator. This can lead to cooling problems and radiator repair.

Air filter: You should replace your air filter twice a year, so now’s a good time to get that five-minute job out of the way.

Tread depth: Summer traveling can, of course, involve driving in the rain. The tread on your tires must be ade-

quate for rainy weather; otherwise you could end up in a ditch, or worse. It takes one minute to check the tread depth on your tires. While you’re at it, you should check your tire pressure, too.

Windshield wipers: Winter weather can be brutal to your windshield wipers, making them almost useless if you get caught in a summer rain shower. Replace them at the beginning of the summer and you won’t have to worry.

Brakes: It’s a good idea to inspect your brakes twice a year just to be sure everything is up to snuff. Go ahead and check your brake fluid while you’re at it.

Battery: Corrosion is very likely to build up during winter weather driving.

Check your battery posts and cables to ensure you won’t have any starting problems.

Headlight bulbs: Sometimes you don’t notice you have a bulb out. Now’s a good time to see whether you need to replace a headlight bulb. If you’re the head of a family, in charge of a car, or the main driver, car safety doesn’t just start with you — it ends with you as well. Keep that in mind before you begin any long trip that will pose a challenge to even top notch vehicles.

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Mechanics EVERYONE NEEDS A GOOD MECHANIC. HERE'S SOME TIPS ON HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU

MANY PEOPLE take their vehicles to the same auto repair shop that their family has always used, without considering that there could be a better-priced, higher-quality repair shop nearby.

In many ways, your mechanic is like a doctor; he or she has to diagnose and solve what’s wrong with your vehicle, and the quality of solution depends purely on the mechanic’s experience and diagnostic tools. Just as you want to go to the best doctor, you want to go to the best auto repair specialist. Your car’s “health” keeps you and your family safe, so searching for a top-notch facility is of the utmost importance.

Here’s how to find, assess and choose the right car repair shop:

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Finding Car Repair Shops The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, a nonprofit organization that tests and certifies automotive repair technicians, recommends looking for a repair facility in advance — before you need one — so that the decision is not rushed.

Ask friends and family members about the car repair shops they use and how they feel about them.

Check www.ase.com to locate industry-reputable Automotive Service Excellence-certified car repair shops. The designation means the shop’s technicians have passed rigorous training and meet the highest standards. Conduct a search

on car-authority site Edmunds.com to locate accredited car repair shops in your state. ASE certification applies to both the shop and the technicians, since auto repair specialists must undergo training and testing every five years to maintain their ASE certification.

If you do a lot of traveling, look for a shop that is backed by a national warranty program, covering both parts and labor for 12 months or 12,000 miles.

Checking Out Repair Shops First, call the shop to be sure it handles your particular car’s make and model. Ask about the shop’s days of operation and hours, since you may find that this new shop is open in evening hours, allowing you to drop off and pick up your car more conveniently than your previous shop’s hours allowed. Is the shop open on weekends? Convenience is an important factor in the shop you choose.

The ASE suggests, “Consult local consumer organizations about the reputation of the shop, and inquire about the number, nature and resolution of complaints.” The Better Business Bureau is a good consumer organization to consult.

Read online reviews of the shop — on Yelp, for example — but take these reviews with a grain of salt, since some glowing reviews may be posted by friends of the owner and some negative reviews may be posted by generally unhappy people venting their frustrations over prices that are quite realistic.

Always look at specific details in any written review, paying attention to comments about repair solutions, friendliness of the staff, fair pricing, discounts and warranties.

Visit shops in person, and keep in mind that a busy shop won’t have time to take you on a tour. You’re just there to look around for signs of a thriving business. The ASE says, “Look for a tidy, well-organized facility, with vehicles in the parking lot equal in value to your own vehicle and modern equipment in the service bays.”

While you’re inside the facility’s office, look for signs of orderly paperwork, modern computer systems (as opposed to ancient technology) and posted policies about warranties and other matters. “Look, too, for community ser-

vice awards, plaques for civic involvement, customer service awards, membership in the Better Business Bureau and other consumer groups,” says the ASE. A great shop will also likely post their labor rates, fees for testing and diagnostic work, methods of payment and whether or not they’re also a state-licensed inspection center.

The ASE says that when you do choose a car repair shop, “start with a minor job, and reward good service with repeat business and more complex work.” Recommendations to friends and family help the shop as well.

Buy New Before you decide to install a used auto part from the list below, think carefully. Most of the parts in this list wear away with mileage and are probably well on their way to uselessness at the moment you’re putting them in your car.

The parts listed below should never be purchased used: air bags air filter airbag sensors ball joints battery bearings brake discs/rotors brake light switch brake pads brake shoes catalytic converter clutch disc cooling fan switch cylinder sleeves distributor cap engine bearings fuel lines fuses gaskets head studs headlights ignition coil ignition condenser ignition points MAF

muffler muffler hangers oil filter oil pressure switches and sensors piston rings radiator hoses rotor shifter bushings shock absorbers spark plug wires spark plugs strut bearings strut inserts thermostat timing belt timing chain tires valves voltage regulator water pump wheel bearings wheel cylinders

Novus Auto Glass You Deserve the Best Repair and Replacement Family owned and operated by Jerry and Vera Hollier, Novus Auto Glass is celebrating 28 years of business. They started with the philosophy of the best product, the best service, and the best warranty, all provided by locally owned people with 70 years of combined experience!

They offer auto glass replacement, auto glass repair, state inspections, after market mirrors and parts, and reglue rear-view mirrors.

Vera and Jerry Hollier Novus Auto Glass is NGA certified (highest and NGA Certified certification for glass replacement), and use only and are pleased to OEM glass for replacments. They offer a lifebe at your service! time warranty on all of their work.

Employees include Leslie Olivier, manager of their Lake Charles branch, Don Fontenot, manager of the Kinder branch, Daniel Bordelon, certified replacement technician, and Jennifer Laborde, manager of the Sulphur branch.

When you need auto glass work request Novus, because you deserve the best.

1590 Maplewood, Sulphur • 527-7540 4419 Lake St, Lake Charles • 477-2582 Kinder • 738-2577 July 4, 2013

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lake area

people

Fruge Named CEO Of WCCH Janie Doucet Fruge, RN, MSN, MBA, was recently named chief executive officer of West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital, replacing Bill Hankins, who continues to serve the hospital as vice president of business development.

Prior to serving in her most recent role as chief operating officer, Fruge served as chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care. She holds a bachelor’s in nursing from McNeese State University and a master’s in business administration and nursing from the University of Phoenix. Fruge has been with West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital for 19 years.

Stegall Joins CSE T. L. Stegall recently joined CSE Federal Credit Union as Chief Information Officer.

Stegall is a graduate of Sulphur High School and McNeese State University with a degree in Computing Science. He holds several Cisco certifications, and has over 20 years of experience in the areas of telecommunications and information technology.

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Fruge

Stegall

Doga New Owner Of Kwik Kar Brian Doga has taken over as owner and operator of the two local locations of Kwik Kar — 212 Sam Houston Jones Pkwy. in Moss Bluff and 720 W. McNeese St. in Lake Charles.

Both locations offer all preventative maintenance services as well as most automotive repair services. Kwik Kar is also the only local independent shop that carries Wynn’s products, which is preferred by most dealerships.

Doga has more than 15 years of experience in the automotive service industry and has brought with him an experienced and eager crew to meet your expectations in tomorrow’s service needs.

For more information, call 4292165, visit their Facebook page at SWLA Kwik Kar, or contact Brian directly at brian@swlakwikkar.com.

DeRosier Receives Patriot Award Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier recently received the Patriot of the Year award from City of

Doga

Peshoff

Stewart

Lake Charles Mayor’s Armed Forces Commission.

The award is presented annually to three individuals and one company in recognition of patriotic service to the community. The remaining three award presentations will be made at the Lake Charles Civic Center on Saturday, June 29, at the Seventh Annual Southwest Louisiana Patriot’s Ball.

MSU Players Named To SLC All-Decade Teams The Southland Conference, in celebrating its 50th anniversary, has released the baseball all-decade teams for the 1980s and 1990s and McNeese, which had six players named to the all-70’s team last week, has a combined 14 players named to the two squads.

Five players have been named to the 1980s all-decade team: Steve Boulet, Jeff Gremillion, Roger Hickernell, Charlie Phillips and Chip Stratton; nine to the 1990s all-decade team: Ben Broussard, Terry Burrows, Clint Gould, Deron Hofstetter, Jason Lecronier, Ryan Robertson, Jon Saylor, Mike Trahan and Brian Vidrine; and six to the 2000s alldecade squad that includes players from 2000-09 only: Bryan Cartie, Danny

Brown

Robbins

Davis, Chris Howay, Charlie Kingrey, Kevin Mitchell and Chris Williamson.

Gremillion remains the only player in conference history to earn the triple crown (league leader in hitting, home runs, RBI in the same season).

Terrell Joins Million Dollar Round Table Barry Terrell Jr., a CFP in Lake Charles, recently achieved membership in the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table.

The Million Dollar Round Table is an international, independent association of the world’s leading life insurance and financial services professionals. MDRT members demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge and offer outstanding client services.

Peshoff Named Program Director Denise Peshoff, RN, BSN, a Lake Charles native, was recently named the new program director of the Wound Care Center, a part of the Lake Charles Memorial Health System.

Peshoff graduated from McNeese State University with a bachelor’s in nursing. She’s spent the last 12 years

working in home health, particularly acute and pediatric care. The last five of those years have been in home health management.

In her new role with Memorial, Peshoff will be responsible for the overall management of the Wound Care Center, including overseeing its operations and budgeting.

For more information on the Wound Care Center, visit lcmh.com/wound-care, or call 494-6700.

FNB Promotes Stewart Jayne Stewart has recently been promoted to assistant vice president, loan officer and branch manager of the Westside location of First National Bank DeRidder.

Stewart has 29 years of experience at FNB DeRidder.

Jones, Ryker Receive Certification West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital recently announced Angie Jones, RN, and Rhonda Ryker, radiology technologist, as having both received the designation of Certified Breast Patient Navigator through the completion of the National Consortium of Breast Center’s Breast Patient Navigator Program.

A breast health navigator educates patients, acts as the single point of contact for the patient, and provides support and links to community resources. “We work to streamline appointments and paperwork so that if something comes back positive, the issue is resolved promptly and the patient isn’t left waiting or wondering where to go or who to turn to next,” says Ryker.

For more information on the breast health navigator program at West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital, call 5287320.

head coach Jay Artigues, current Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard and ULM head coach Jeff Schexnaider. He’s also coached at Sam Houston State, Northwestern State, and served as an assistant coach at LSU. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, West Monroe High School.

During his playing days, Hill pitched at LSU for Skip Bertman. A twoyear letterwinner and academic All-SEC performer in 2001, Hill was also part of the Tigers’ 2001 and 2002 NCAA Regional Championship teams. He appeared in 19 games in his final season at LSU, throwing 19 innings while compiling a 1-1 record with two saves and 27 strikeouts before a shoulder injury ended his season.

Brown Named Moss Administrator Bernita Loyd Brown was recently named administrator of the W.O. Moss Memorial Health Clinic.

Brown will continue as vice president of support services of the Memorial Health System.

A Colfax, Louisiana native, Brown joined Memorial in 1990 as a clinical dietician. She has served as a diabetes dietician, clinical nutrition and dietary manager, director of nutritional services and assistant vice president of business development. She holds a bachelor’s from Louisiana Tech University and a master’s from McNeese State University.

She’s a member of the American College

of Healthcare Executives, McNeese State University Graduate Board, Southwest Louisiana Center for Healthcare Services Board, and the Fellowship of Christian Student Athletes Board.

Robbins Promoted At Isle Of Capri Beverly Robbins has been promoted to director of security at Isle of Capri.

Robbins began her employment with the Isle of Capri in November of 1998 as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and security officer. In January of 2000, she was promoted to lead officer. She became a shift manager in 2007. She graduated from Del Mar Technical Institute in Corpus Christi, Texas, as a Licensed Practical Nurse. In 1998, she graduated from Sowela Technical Institute as an Emergency Medical Technician. Prior to entering the security field, she spent 10 years at Louisiana Home Health Agency.

MSU Track Members Named To SLC All-Academic Teams McNeese’s Jasmine Webb, the Southland Conference outdoor champion in the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as a part of the championship 4x100 meter relay team, is one of six McNeese track and field athletes to be named to the 2013 SLC All-Academic squad, recently released by the league office.

Webb, a junior from Dallas, was the high-point scorer at the outdoor track

Hill Named MSU Baseball Coach Justin Hill, a 10-year coaching veteran in the college ranks including the last five years as an associate head coach at Southeastern Louisiana and LouisianaMonroe, was recently named head coach for McNeese baseball.

Hill, 33, replaces Terry Burrows who resigned following the 2013 season.

A West Monroe native, Hill has spent the past several years learning from some of the best head coaches in college baseball, including legendary coaches Skip Bertman and Mark Johnson, former Southeastern Louisiana

and field meet hosted at McNeese, with 22.5 points. She holds multiple school records including the 60-, 100- and 200meter dashes as well as a record in the 4x100 relay. She earned a 3.43 GPA in general studies.

Joining Webb on the women’s allacademic team are Jasmine Cornelius, the conference outdoor champion in the long jump, and Paige Lynch, who ran the opening leg of that 4x100 relay team while also finishing seventh in the 100meters at the conference meet.

Cornelius, a junior from Elgin, Texas, was an automatic selection along with Webb and earned a 3.44 GPA in biological sciences. Lynch, a senior from Rosenburg, Texas, compiled a 3.75 grade point average in exercise science.

Three Cowboys were named to the men’s all-academic team: Jarrett LeBlanc, a two-time recipient of the award; Alex Bruce-Littlewood, an automatic selection; and Stephen Eccles.

LeBlanc, a native of Hathaway, compiled a 4.00 GPA in exercise science and was the conference runner-up in the 10,000 meters at the outdoor championships. He placed third at the Southland cross country championships.

Bruce-Littlewood, a native of London, earned a 3.44 grade point average in environmental science. He finished third in the 5,000 meters and was fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the league outdoor championships and was the conference champion in the 1mile run at the conference indoor meet.

He also placed second at the SLC cross country championships and earned NCAA Division I South Central Region honors after a 24th place finish at the regional meet and was named the league’s cross country student-athlete of the year back in the fall.

Eccles, a sophomore from Lake Charles, had a 3.41 GPA in chemical engineering. He finished second in the javelin event at the Southland outdoor championships.

Mancuso Appointed To Commission

Sanders Gives To Scholarship Fund Dr. Eric A. Sanders, a 2010 McNeese State University graduate, has established the Theresa Sanders Memorial Scholarship. Sanders will provide the funds through the McNeese Foundation. Discussing the gift, from left, are Sheila Sanders and Dr. Sanders, with their daughters, Megan, 5, and Maya, 7, with Marianne White, McNeese planned giving coordinator.

ROY'S MEAT MARKET

Sheriff Tony Mancuso was recently appointed to the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.

The commission serves to develop and implement comprehensive strategies aimed at saving lives and preventing injuries on Louisiana highways.

JULY SPECIAL! RIB-EYES $7.49/LB! SPECIAL #1 • $74.95 5 lbs Shoulder Steak • 5 lbs Pork Chops • 5 lbs Hamburger (Chuck) • 4 Whole Fryers (or) 20 lbs Leg Quarters SPECIAL #2 • $82.95 5 lbs Shoulder Steak • 5 lbs Sausage • 5 lbs Round Steak • 5 lbs Hamburger (Chuck) SPECIAL #3 • $95.95 5 lbs T-Bone Steak • 5 lbs Round Steak • 5 lbs Shoulder Steak • 5 lbs Hamburger (Chuck)

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SPECIAL #8 • $95.95 5 lbs Calf T-Bones • 5 lbs Calf Sirloin • 5 lbs Calf 7 Steaks • 5 Calf Hamburger • 5 lbs Pork Neck Bones July 4, 2013

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THURSDAY, JULY 4 Coushatta Coushatta Legends in Concert; Cayenne Dharma Open mic 8 pm Delta Downs LA Express Isle of Capri Bernie Alan Band L’Auberge Liquid Society Eli Young Band; Jack After Dark Luna Live TBA

THURSDAY, JULY 11 Coushatta Legends in Concert; Joe Harmon & The Harmonics Dharma Open mic 8 pm Isle of Capri Static L’Auberge Liquid Society Everclear, Live, Filter & Sponge (Summerland Tour); Jack After Dark DJ San-D Luna Live TBA

karaoke Annie's 9pm Friday; Saturday Bourbonz 8pm Tuesdays Chicageaux Bar 8pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday Club 90 8pm Saturday Coolers Thursday Crickets 8:30pm Friday DeQuincy VFW 7-11pm Friday; 6-10pm Sunday

FRIDAY, JULY 5

SATURDAY, JULY 6

Cigar Club Wayne Dylan Coushatta Legends in Concert Cowboys Club 7 Radio Delta Downs LA Express Dharma Selfawarewolf Isle of Capri Charlie Daniels Band; Caribbean Cove Twangsters’ Union L’Auberge Jack Goes Country JB & The Moonshine Band w DJ Eric Scott& Broussard w DJ Eric Scott Luna Live Even Flow Yesterdays Geno Delafose

Cigar Club Kory Fontenot Coushatta Legends in Concert Delta Downs LA Express Dharma Street Side Jazz Band Isle of Capri Dog Hill Stompers L'Auberge Jack After Dark Luna Live Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys Yesterdays Richard LeBeouf & Two Step

FRIDAY, JULY 12

SATURDAY, JULY 13

Cigar Club Second Nature Coushatta Legends in Concert; Karma Delta Downs Brian Best Dharma Herban Cat w Luke Young Isle of Capri Chubby Carrier & The Bayou Swamp Band L’Auberge Jack Goes Country Luna TBA Yesterdays Junior LaCrosse & Sumfin’ Sneaky

Dirty Rice Saloon 7pm Thursday Frosty Factory 9pm Thurs thru Sat Handlebars Club Tuesdays & Thursdays Huddle Up Thursdays Isle Of Capri 8pm-Midnight Wednesday Kaw-Ligas Tuesday thru Saturday Mike's Place 8pm-until M,W,F Linda's Lounge 8:30-11:30 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; 9-1 Saturday Neighborhood Bar 7pm Thursday No Name Lounge 8-Mid Friday, 7-11pm Sunday Old Town Tavern Fri/Sat Nights

Cigar Club Street Side Jazz Band Coushatta Legends in Concert; Karma Delta Downs Event Center; Billy Ocean; Gator Lounge Brian Best Dharma Dolo Jazz Suite w AF THE NAYSAYER Isle of Capri Johnny Guinn & Rue Louisianne L’Auberge Jack After Dark DJ San-D Yesterdays Leroy Thomas & Zydeco Roadrunners

R-Bar 8pm Friday Sam's Cove 9pm Thursday Shorty's Ice House 9pm Friday Slim's Yesteryears 9pm Thursday Spot Bar & Grill Fridays Sports Pitt 8pm Thursday, Friday, Saturday Sulphur VFW 9pm-Mid Saturday Tiki Bar 8pm Friday Texas Longhorn Club 9pm Thursdays, 1am Fridays Fax listings to 433-8964 or edit@thelanyap.com

big names July 5: Charlie Daniels Band at Isle of Capri July 12: Maze w Frank Beverly at River Center, Baton Rouge July 12: John Mayer at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Houston July 19: Kid Rock at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Houston July 20: Matchbox 20 & Goo Goo Dolls at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Houston July 25: Black Sabbath at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Houston August 1: P.O.D. at House of Blues, Houston August 2: Courtney Love at House of Blues, Houston August 10: Sammy Kershaw at Heymann Center in Lafayette August 18: Lil’ Wayne at Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Houston September 4: Blue October at House of Blues, New Orleans 68

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26TH ANNUAL CFMA FESTIVAL JULY 19, 20, 21

Jo-El Sonnier

The 26th annual award-winning Cajun Music and Food Festival will take place July 1921 in Burton Coliseum.

The event will feature live music, including a concert by JoEl Sonnier Friday at 8 pm. Cajun food, beer and drinks will be sold. No ice chests will be allowed.

General admission for Friday night will be $10. VIP tickets, with reserved seating near the stage and a private meet and greet with Sonnier, along with an autographed photo, are $20. Corporate tables for eight with advertising sign on table are $200. Admission on Saturday and Sunday is $7, with children under 12 admitted free.

For more information, visit cfmalakecharles.org.

SATURDAY, JULY 20 • 9 am: doors open • 9:15 am: opening ceremonies • 9:30-11:30 am: Lesa Cormier and Sundown Playboys • 11:45 am-1:30 pm: Ron Granger and Cajun Soul featuring PT Scrubbers • 1:30-1:45 pm: introduction of queens, live auction • 1:45-3:45 pm: Jackie Callier and Ivy Dugas and The Cajun Cousins • 3 pm: dance troupes recognition • 4-6:15 pm: Chris Miller and Bayou Roots • 5:30 pm: silent auction closes • 6:30-8:15 pm: Lakeview Playboys • 8:30-10 pm: Ron Miller and the Midnight Ramblers • 10:15pm-midnight: Garrett Judice and Static

SUNDAY, JULY 21 • 8 am: French Mass • 9 am: coffee and donut social • 9 am: arts and crafts open • 9:15-11:15 am: Red Saltzman and the Rambling Cajuns • 11:15-11:45 am: crowning of 2013 royalty • 11:45 am-1:45 pm: COD with Harry Young • 1:45 pm: raffle ticket drawing • 2-4 pm: Briggs Brown • 2:30 pm: dance troupes recognition

July 4, 2013

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‘LATE NIGHT CATECHISM 3’ TO COME TO LCCC

TOURNAMENT OF STARS FUNDRAISER

“Til Death Do Us Part: Late Nite Catechism 3” will take place at the Lake Charles Civic Center’s Rosa Hart Theatre on Sunday, August 11, at 3pm.

After teaching countless students about the saints, venial sins, limbo and more, Sister is now offering up hilarious lessons on the Sacraments of Marriage and the Blessing of the Sick, including her own wacky version of the Newlywed Game. Classroom participation is a must, so bring along your sweetie and your sense of humor for a session with the feisty couples counselor.

Ticket prices range from $32 to $52. To purchase tickets, call the Lake Charles Civic Center Box Office at 491-1432 or visit Ticketmaster.com and search St. Martin de Porres Late Nite Catechism 3.

For press information, interview requests and photography, contact Joe Whitbeck at 478-3845 or joe@whitbeck.com.

Tournament of the Stars will hold its annual scholarship fundraiser Saturday, July 27, 7 pm, in the Buccaneer Room in the Lake Charles Civic Center.

Proceeds from the fundraiser support the Israel McReynolds Scholarship fund.

Each year, Tournament of the Stars awards scholarships to deserving students in the Calcasieu Parish area. This year, 10 students will receive scholarships, an increase of two over last year.

At each year’s fundraiser, the organization recognizes an individual whose dedication and support of higher education, community and family deserves recognition as well. This year’s honoree is Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach.

Entertainment for the evening, sponsored by Delta Downs Racetrack, Casino and Hotel, will include City Heat, jazz saxophonist Mickey Smith, Jr., and duo Lerone Rubin and Teka Briscoe.

Tickets are $50, and are available at the Lake Charles Civic Center box office or online at tournamentofthestars.com. For more information about table sponsorships and ticket purchases, call 405-9130 or 491-1466.

ACADIA PLAYERS TO STAGE TWILIGHT BAYOU Acadia Players Community Theatre in Crowley will present Twilight Bayou July 11-13 at 7 pm, with a matinee performance Sunday, July 14, at 2 pm. All performances take place at the Historic Rice Theatre in Crowley.

The two-act play, written by teen playwright Aaron Bertrand, is set in the Atchafalaya Swamp area in fictional Duhon Cove, where 16-year-old Jolie returns after leaving Florida. Making the transition from the beautiful bright colors of Florida to the many shades of camouflage is the least of Jolie’s worries. She also has to deal with a new circle of friends, a new school, the reunion with her mother, and the whispers of mysterious disappearances by swamp monsters. For more information, call 337-581-8507, visit theacadiaplayers.com, or check out the Acadia Players Facebook page at facebook.theacadiaplayers.

TUTEN GARDENING PROGRAMS Friends of Tuten Park will host the first in a series of community gardening educational programs Thursday, July 18, 6-7:30 pm, at the Tuten Park Education Building, 3801 Nelson Road.

Guest speaker will be Kurt Unkel, owner and producer of Cajun Grain.

Attendees will learn the basics of sustainable and organic gardening with information on preparing the garden bed, weed and pest control, and necessary supplies. Unkel’s work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Cooking Light and Louisiana Cookin’ magazines, and he was included in the film Harmony, which aired on NBC. Seating is limited to 25, and reservations are required. For reservations, email golden.tradewell@cityoflc.us.

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MSU LEISURE LEARNING WATERCOLOR CLASSES All are invited to “Paint Beautiful Louisiana,” watercolor classes instructed by Nancy Melton, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, July 16, 18, 23 and 25, 6-8 pm.

For more information, call McNeese Leisure Learning at 475-5616, email nmelton@suddenlink.net or visit nancymelton.photoreflect.com.

XAVIER ALUMNI JAZZ FUNDRAISER The Lake Charles Chapter of the Xavier University of Louisiana Alumni will hold its third annual fundraiser, An Evening of Jazz, on Saturday, July 20, 6-10 pm, at the Lake Charles Civic Center.

The funds raised will help support scholarships for Lake Area students and will also help fund the new St. Katherine Drexel Chapel on the New Orleans campus.

The event will feature local jazz artists, food and a silent auction. XULA alumnus and U.S. Coast Guard Commander Will E. Watson and Ulysses Thibodeaux, chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, will be recognized for their contributions to community life in SWLA. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Civic Center box office or by calling 240-6303.

LEIGH ANNE TUOHY KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WOMEN’S FALL CONFERENCE

SUMMER POPS On July 13 at 7:30 pm the Lake Charles Symphony will open its 56th season with Summer Pops 2013 featuring “Madmen Across the Water: Songs of Elton John” at the Lake Charles Civic Center. Guest artists “Madmen Across the Water” will be joined by a choir of 40 — 20 high school show choir students and 20 local adult professional singers — all performing Elton John’s most popular hits spanning his entire career to date.

Summer Pops is an annual tradition in the SWLA area that began over 30 years ago. Each year brings a fun and exciting introduction to those who are experiencing orchestra music for the first time and to those who look forward to Summer Pops year after year. The Summer Pops concert allows the Symphony to perform with non-classical artists. Exposure to programs such as Summer Pops has proven effective in gaining new audiences for symphony orchestras all over the country.

Jeans ‘n Classics is the producing arm of the featured guest artists whose slogan is “Classic Rock Meets Orchestra.” Their musicians understand orchestra culture and are committed to help in the building of younger, loyal audiences for symphony orchestras across Canada and the United States. Jeans ‘n Classics appeals to an age group from 25 to 65, with a heavy concentration in the Classic Rock audience. For ticket information, call 433-1611 or visit www.lcsymphony.org.

Leigh Anne Tuohy

The Women’s Commission of Southwest Louisiana recently announced that Leigh Anne Tuohy, the woman who inspired the movie The Blind Side, will be keynote speaker at the commission’s Fall Women’s Conference.

Portrayed by Sandra Bullock in the movie, Leigh Anne Tuohy is the real life mom whose family adopted homeless teenager Michael Oher. Tuohy is also the author of two inspirational books: In A Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of Joyful Giving, coauthored with her husband Sean Tuohy, and Making It Happen.

Tuohy owns Flair 1, an interior design firm, with her mother and partner, Virginia Roberts. Her work has been featured on HGTV and in numerous publications.

Tuohy’s firm has designed for a long list of celebrity clients.

MSU SUMMER ENGINEERING ACADEMY McNeese State University’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology will offer a summer engineering academy July 15-Aug. 2 for high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing science and engineering careers. The summer program will give students a broad exposure to engineering disciplines (chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical) by offering hands-on projects dealing with real life engineering issues, according to Dr. Nikos Kiritsis, dean of the college.

Classes will be offered from 8 am-4 pm, Monday through Friday, in Drew Hall. Day trips are scheduled to the NASA Space Center in Houston, Creole Nature Trail, New Orleans, Avery Island and a canoe trip. Cost is $1,000 per student and includes on-campus housing, meals, transportation and lab supplies.

Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the Starlab portable planetarium and learn how to navigate the night sky using a variety of telescopes.

For more info, call 475-5875.

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REEL TALK

duane bergeron

White House Down Columbia Pictures, Rated PG-13 In Hollywood, imitation isn’t just the sincerest form of flattery; it’s a way of life.

If one production team comes up with an idea for a film, often another team creates a similar film.

One of the best examples of this occurred in 1998, when two teams came up with different approaches to a film depicting Earth on a collision course with an asteroid. The two movies in question — Armageddon and Deep Impact — were both hits, but Armageddon became the year’s most successful feature.

A similar situation is happening this year. Last March, Olympus Has Fallen was released to a successful box office performance. It was an action thriller about terrorists attacking the White House. And now, we have White House Down as part of the summer mix. And its storyline is very similar to Olympus. White House Down got off to a bad start at the box office.

John Cale (Channing Tatum) is a member of the U.S. Capitol Police Department and is responsible for protecting the speaker of the house (Richard Jenkins). He’s trying to get a job on the Secret Service detail protecting president James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). He asks his friend Carol (Maggie Gyllenhaal) for assistance in trying to get on the detail. Carol is a high ranking agent on the Secret Service.

However, the job interview does not go well. In trying to mend fences with his daughter, Emily (Joey King), Cale takes her to the White House for both the interview and a tour of the facility.

While Emily is taking videos of the White House as the tour progresses, she gets video shots of men posing as a maintenance crew working on the White House theater. It turns out the men in question are domestic terrorists, part of a group that later explodes a bomb in the U.S. Capitol and follows that up with an attack on the White House from within. Secret Service director Martin Walker (James Woods) goes right to work trying to get Sawyer secured and away from the danger.

Cale and Emily wind up getting separated from each other after the first attack, and through a series of events Cale becomes the only protection Sawyer has.

As Secret Service agents are slaughtered left and right, Cale tries to get Sawyer out of the White House to avoid capture. But the terrorists are able to outthink Cale at every move. With the Pentagon preparing a Delta Force attack on the White House, Cale and Sawyer are running out of time, as the military force approaching the structure is ordered to take down the entire building if necessary.

This film is atypical of director Roland Emmerich’s usual approach to the action genre. Emmerich is regarded as heir apparent to the late Irwin Allen, the director responsible for 1970s era “disaster” pictures such as The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Emmerich has made his mark on modern day disaster features such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and 2012 (2009). He is no stranger to big budget special effects extravaganzas.

White House Down is credible and entertaining, but because it follows Olympus Has Fallen, it doesn’t stand out as a high level summer popcorn feature, as Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Man of Steel have.

Though there are some thrilling action scenes, the quality of the effects could have

been better. And while Tatum and Foxx are very talented actors, they are unable to show a wide range in their performances.

Why? Because basically they are being required to portray cardboard and stereotyped characters. Every member of the cast is a formulaic caricature of some paint-by-thenumbers character that has been used in many action features from the past.

Granted, there are some emotional scenes, but the performances are so stilted and one-dimensional it’s hard to develop any kind of concern or connection to these characters.

White House Down is a well-produced, mindless action entertainment product, but if you’re looking for something meaningful, forget it. This film is totally escapist fare, and the old adage “be sure to check your brain in at the door” is totally appropriate.

When I see a representation of the action genre I’m looking for something of substance within the style. In this case, there is no style at all. Emmerich’s motion pictures make money, but it would be nice if he could give audiences something of substance.

White House Down delivers on the thrills and excitement, but that’s all.

Beyond that, there is nothing else worth mentioning.

Accidents • Wrongful Death • Serious Personal Injury Criminal, Domestic Law Cases

Larry A. Roach (1932-2003) Barry A. Roach • Larry A. Roach, Jr. Fred C. "Bubba" LeBleu • David M. Hudson 72

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2917 Ryan St. • Lake Charles (337) 433-8504 • Fax (337) 433-3196

MOUNTED MEMORIES rocke "soybean" fournet

Time To Chill Out When summer finally got here, it did so with a vengeance. A few late cool fronts early in the summer may have lulled some of the local natives into a false sense of comfort, but make no mistake — it’s hotter than Hades now.

Afternoon thunderstorms that can provide some relief have been few and far between lately. The low was 80 degrees this morning, with the air so thick you could cut it with a knife. One recent afternoon, it was 96 degrees at 5 pm, and it never did cool off.

This is the heat and humidity that Louisiana is famous for, and it does not disappoint. For the next few months, it would be wise not to try to fight the heat. It’s bearable early and late, and plumb comfortable at night.

Time your outings carefully, or be prepared to roast.

They have got it right south of the border, where they surrender to the heat during peak times by taking a cool siesta. If the heat is getting to you, it may be time to chill. It’s an opportunity to give all the fishes and yourself a welldeserved break. Vegetate a little, and become a spectator for your favorite team.

Youngsters are way better equipped to

St. Louis Catholic High School wrestling team.

Maddie Caire of the Galaxy soccer team doing her thing

withstand the heat, and we need to fill the stands!

For all their sweat our crimson-faced young athletes certainly deserve the sup-

port. Don’t forget a cushion; those bleachers are bone hard and unforgiving.

She shoots; she scores! That’s Maddie Caire of the Galaxy soccer team doing her thing. At age seven, these kids put on a great show, and it’s free!

In this league, the team that has the most fun is declared the winner A novel idea, but their coach, Chris Caire, is secretly keeping score of every goal. The idea is to get a great workout, but more importantly to have some fun, too!

The trademark of the Galaxy team is their matching pink bows and shoe laces.

When questioned about the girls’ attire,

Coach Caire had no comment.

The seed is wisely being planted for these youngsters, teaching them the joy that can be derived from participating in sports.

The benefits are innumerable and last a lifetime. This is what sports is all about. Go Galaxy!

The St. Louis High School wrestling team put together an awesome record last year, and they have picked up right where they left off. There is nothing like quality competition to improve your skills and conditioning. The Saints are mixing it up with the cream of the wrestling crop in a series of elite tournaments this summer.

Led by Coach Terry Gage, the Saints are gaining momentum and getting their groove on. The team’s senior leader, state champion Lehrue Stevens, won his weight division and went undefeated throughout the tournament. Also, Conway LeBleu, a junior and returning state champ, had his game face on. He represented St. Louis well, and with style and determination, taking on the best of a quality field in a recent Elite Tournament in Wartburg, Tennessee.

These guys will be a force to be reckoned with during the regular season.

Become a spectator and athletic supporter by cheering on your favorite athletes.

Go Saints!

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SARRO ON SPORTS

rick sarro

It took upwards of four weeks of sifting through 140-plus applicants, but the search committee narrowed it down to two candidates, and finally the McNeese Cowboys settled on their new head baseball coach.

U.L.-Monroe assistant head coach Justin Hill is the program’s 13th bench boss, replacing Terry Burrows, who stepped down after six years leading the Cowboys. Hill is considered an “up and comer” in college baseball circles, and after three assistant coaching gigs — at Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana and, most recently, U.L.Monroe — it was time for him to break out on his own.

The McNeese job was obviously appealing to the 34-year-old Hill, as he is from Louisiana (West Monroe), pitched for a short time at LSU, and knows the back roads of the Southland Conference.

He also recognized the fertile landscape of baseball talent in Southwest Louisiana.

“The ability to recruit here jumped out at me. It’s a lot easier to recruit here simply from a location standpoint.

There’s a lot of talent in Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana. Lake Charles is two hours and 15 minutes from downtown Houston, and there is a history of being able to attract junior college players from Arizona, Oklahoma or Texas.

McNeese has so many things to offer,” said Hill.

McNeese athletic director Tommy McClelland pointed out that 140 coaches applied for this job, saying “This is clearly a destination job. It’s a testimony to McNeese that people want to come here and know they can succeed here.”

McClelland waited for the internal search committee to get it down to two

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Photo By Matthew Bonnette

McNeese Baseball’s New Boss

finalists, which included Hill and Alabama assistant coach Bobby Barbier.

Among the qualities McClelland was seeking in a new head coach was an emphasis on “maintaining our high academic standards,” development of players both on and off the field, being “a great fit for McNeese and the community‚” and a resume that points to not only a great coach but also a great recruiter.

That last point about recruiting came up often in the press conference introducing Hill and during the new coach’s first

comments to the media. Hill’s coaching expertise is pitching, but his forte appears to be recruiting, and that was clearly what separated him from the pack to become the last man standing. “(Recruiting) could have played a role in it, just because of the things that are on my resume, with the players I have had a chance to recruit. Bobby (the other finalist for the job) is a great friend of mine, and that was one of the hardest things, knowing I was going up against Bobby.”

McClelland made no bones about it.

The baseball program must recruit better players as a starting block to build a consistent winning foundation and attitude.

Over the last decade, there have been critics of the program who complained that more than a few blue chip stars did not stay home and wear the blue and gold. But that criticism is unjustified when those MIA players include the likes of Wade LeBlanc, Gavin and Garrin Cecchini and Jared Foster. Players of that stature are bound for D-1 schools like Alabama or LSU, in the case of LeBlanc and Foster, respectively, or straight to the major league draft, as was the case for the Cecchini brothers.

A lower- to mid-level school like McNeese is simply not going to land players at that level. What can and has happened is securing talent pretty close to that level and developing that talent into rising stars. Over the span of 10 years, the Cowboys have done that, with players like Jace Peterson (Hamilton Christian), Seth Granger (Iowa), Jared Gauthreaux (Barbe), Chris Denton (Barbe), and Ran and Dooley Prince (Sulphur).

That’s a pretty impressive list of local talent that chose to play for the home team. Toss in newbies from last season like SLC Freshman Pitcher of the Year Bryce Kingsley (Barbe) and infielder Andrew Guillotte from Sam Houston High.

So McNeese has been infused with Southwest Louisiana born and bred talent. That isn’t the reason for seven losing seasons over the last 10 years. The Cowboys haven’t had a strong pitching arm and a supportive offense working in tandem at the right time long enough to mount a threat as true contenders in the Southland Conference.

Hill intends to change that by being a familiar face at the local ballparks and unearthing pitchers wherever they can be found. “(Recruiting locally) is going to be a point of emphasis for us. The area (prep) coaches are going to see us being visible at their games. We want to be out seeing the local games and seeing the players in action. We want to make this area a priority. We want the local players who want to be here so it’s a right fit for them and McNeese‚” Hill explained.

When it comes to seeing the best baseball talent the entire state has to offer, the fact that Sulphur has been awarded the Louisiana baseball state tournament is not lost on Hill. That was another drawing card for him and the McNeese position.

Hill knows the importance of public relations, of consorting with the media and selling McNeese baseball to the masses. He says he and his staff (he hopes to retain McNeese assistant coach Matt Collins) will be “involved in the community,” and a part of Southwest Louisiana.

Yes, Hill is well aware that he must repackage and resell the product that is Cowboys baseball to the fans. When you don’t have winning records to back you

up, you better get the buying public to like you first. It’s a start toward selling more tickets.

If the recent College World Series in Omaha showed us anything (besides the fact that being among the top seeds doesn’t mean a hill of beans in baseball) it’s that pitching and defense now rule the collegiate game, and you better be well equipped in those areas if you want to compete in the world of small ball.

“Our first emphasis has always been pitching. If you have the right guy on the mound, you can win any ballgame. It doesn’t matter who you are facing.

Momentum in baseball is defined by your next day’s starting pitcher. To me, the teams with the best pitching and defense will be the best and most consistent teams,” noted Hill.

The Cowboys’ new boss has been busy getting his family settled down south and getting started in recruiting (there’s that word again). When we spoke after his official introduction, Hill wasn’t exactly sure who was coming back from the roster and what he has to work with.

I’m sure he knows by now. He said there are “a lot of things right about McNeese baseball,” and added that he had a very good conversation with Burrows, even though Hill chose to keep the specifics to himself.

The numbers over the last three seasons have not been good enough to either be in or advance far into the conference tournament. McNeese is 2-6 in the SLC tournament over their last three appearances, and have not secured an NCAA post season invite since the 2003-04 season, which was Todd Butler’s last as head coach.

The only way to be NCAA worthy is to win the SLC tournament. That 10-year gap without an NCAA bid has played a significant role in the task of recruiting, fundraising, the program’s reputation, fan interest and overall attendance. It’s been a drag on progress, even though Burrows worked through it, with stadium improvements and increased booster involvement.

SLC champion Sam Houston State was sent to the Baton Rouge regional last month and put a scare into LSU, losing 8-5. The BearKats were competitive, which has Hill thinking someone will break out of the Southland pack and win an NCAA regional one day. He won’t predict when, but that day will come.

“You’re always a year closer. If you have some guys on the mound with the right situation with the right draw in the right regional, depending on all those things, you have a chance to do it. To me you are a year closer and somebody is going to win one. It’s just a matter of who,” says Hill.

McNeese was seeking a recruiter with a consistent A game and a coach with a winning history. They got both in Hill. He pitched for and learned some early coaching from LSU legend Skip Bertman. His 10 years on the bench in division one ball has been highlighted with three conference championships and three NCAA regional appearances. He’s a bit of a brain cell, according to his dad, with a bachelors degree from LSU and a masters from Northwestern State.

Hill, who is married and a father of two girls, will need all of his baseball

prowess and charm to reenergize the program from the inside out. He admits he is comfortable wearing many hats and doing many chores that come with running a smaller D-1 team, but he relishes the challenge, and his coaching career has been preparing him for just this situation.

“Sometimes when you do something differently, it injects a different type of energy in the program. When you are out there working with the kids, and they see you getting after it, being organized and respecting them, they are going to give

“Our first emphasis has always been pitching. If you have the right guy on the mound, you can win any ballgame. It doesn’t matter who you are facing.” - Justin Hill

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you a different effort. Because the bottom line is the kids don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” said Hill.

I’m not sure if that is an original line, but it sure is a good one.

Hill went on to say he doesn’t expect the players to automatically respect and trust him. He will work to earn their respect and trust, but he quickly adds he hopes in turn the players can do the same with him.

Respect, trust, communication, relationships — the building blocks that form a team.

Justin Hill has learned this, as a player and assistant. It’s time now to put all of that preparation to work as a first-time head coach.

He’s in charge of the Cowboys now, and McNeese is banking on Hill’s history of success following him here.

July 4, 2013

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LANDSCAPING

services CONTRACTORS

Gaspard's Cleaning

services

BOAT & RV STORAGE - 6102 COMMON STREET. SECURED STORAGE! Call 337564-5377 cr _________________

services

ADVERTISE NOW IN LAGNIAPPE CLASSIFIEDS .. 433-8502 _________________

k0621

BOAT & RV STORAGE

announcements

BOAT & RV STORAGE - 6102 COMMON STREET. SECURED STORAGE! Call 337564-5377 cr _________________

stuff 4 sale

J O S E P H ’ S LIMESTONE Limestone or Calbase $160 for 2 tons; $250 for 4 tons; and $350 for 6 tons. Also 4 yards of sand or topsoil for only $125, or 14 tons of bottom ash for $300. Ponds dug and excavation work completed.

We do dozer, tractor, and concrete work as well as house pads, culvert installation and even demolition.

Best prices, hauling available every single day. Free estimates! Call 437.1143. n0816

announcements RV PARK/LAKE SPRING IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, that means camping season in SWLA! 25 minutes north of Lake Charles, Longville Lake Park110 acre scenic stocked pond with boat launch. Full RV hookups available. Call or come by for your campground reservations! 337-725-3395 7115 Hwy 110 East, Longville, LA. k1220

_________________

services A/C & HEATING CONTACT ALL SEASONS AIR & HEAT in Lake Charles.

We offer sales and service for all makes and models of heaters and air conditioners. Our team of contractors provides residential and commercial heating and cooling services. Call today! 337855-1446 k1220

_________________

PLACE YOUR AD CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY! class@thelanyap.com _________________

FALL LANDSCAPE PACKAGES for every budget! We use state of the art software to show you what your landscape can look like. $100 OFF any new landscape project when you mention Lagniappe! SWLA Lawn and Landscape Licensed, Bonded, Insured 337-625-5625 K1018

services

stuff 4 sale

announcements

LAWN & GARDEN

SALVAGE

RESTAURANT LOCATION!

S&S LAWN CARE for your mowing and trimming needs call David at 337-884-0342 or 337-588-4000 k0517 _________________

OVERKILL SALVAGE

services

Call Today!

337-309-7301

FENCING FENCEMAKERS We build chainlink, barbed, privacy, electric, net, wooden, and security fences, free estimates.

Call David today at 337-375-4747. k0920 _________________

_________________

announcements

services

RETAIL / OFFICE

HOME REPAIR

RETAIL OR OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE. "Single or double available. Includes conference room usage, kitchen, 2 handicap accessible bathrooms, parking in front and behind building. 154 W. McNeese. Call Castle Real Estate today for details!

337-480-6555 ph _________________

ALL TYPES OF ROOFING, siding, mobile home skirting, licensed and bonded.

Call Jimmy today at 337-499-7807. ph _________________

services CONTRACTORS HOUSE LEVELING, HOUSE LIFTING. CALL ONE STOP CONSTRUCTION. Sill and truss replacement, foundation repair, general remodeling, etc.

References available, free estimates, licensed and insured. All work is warrantied. Call us at 337-309-7301. k0920 _________________

"If it's sunk, we can get it up!"

stuff 4 sale TRAILERS

Trailers Aluminum, Steel, Horse, Stock Motorcycle, Cargo, Gooseneck, Bumper, Lowboy, Equipment

Mark Pedersen Equipment Co. 337-436-2497 an

k0920

VERY HIGH TRAFFIC LOCATION ON HWY 171 IN MOSS BLUFF! Adjacent to Bronco Stop. Full kitchen, dining area, tables, drink machines & more. Call Wali today and open your dream restaurant! 337-244-4423 gp _________________

services ELECTRONIC E X C A L I B U R INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Systems-"If it's electronic, I can fix it"Excellent service at an exceptional cost. Full on-site services for all your technology needs!

Excalibur ITS.com or call Ivan at 337-912-1490 k1220

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Southwest SW Manufactured HOMES & RV'S Housing, Inc. NEW • USED • REPOS • SALES & SERVICE

LAND/HOME PACKAGES

ZERO DOWN TO QUALIFIED BUYERS Corner of Hwy 90 and Hwy 171

www.swhomeslc.com 436-5593

services LAWN & GARDEN HINTON AND MOSS LAWN SERVICELicensed, bonded, and insured. Residential and commercial. Free estimates, call 337515-5255 k1004 _________________

Tree Removal, Stump Grinding, Land Clearing, Demolition, Crane Work, Debris Hauling.

Bonded. Insured.

License AR 1604 337-884-6881

PERSONAL TRAINING Erick FranklinHead Trainer at The Gym. Offering customized workout plans for Jr. High to College aged athletes looking to improve.

Strength & Conditioning, Wide Receiver Training, Agility & Conditioning classes available, including many more!

AFFORDABLE RATES. 337-660-5717

g0502-2012

k0816

services LAWN SERVICE S & S Lawn Service ~ For mowing and trimming, and all your lawn and garden needs; both commercial and residential. We are licensed and insured, and welcome free estimates. For a yard your neighbors will envy, call David at 884.0342 or 588.4000 k1018 _________________

WOW! 2004 HARLEY DAVIDSON SOFTAIL FATBOY 9000 miles, garage kept, lots of custom and chrome, only $8500. CALL 337302-0016 _________________ PLACE YOUR AD CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY! class@thelanyap.com _________________

Start an Exciting Career in Emergency Communications Entry Level $24,900 year w/benefits Apply at 911 Hodges Street, 2nd floor.

Equal Opportunity Employer July 4, 2013

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services

announcements

MISC. SERVICES

HAIR SALON

Sell that Junk Car for Cash! I will buy your junk car, truck, van, motor home, or trailer. I also buy ATV’s, motorcycles, and even farm equipment. Even if it’s not running, you can make from $400 to $600. Clean your yard up, and decide what you’ll spend your extra money on! HELP WANTED Experienced mechanic needed.

Call now at 526.9533. k1018

COUNTRY CLUB HAIR - Where a haircut still comes with a lollipop and a smile.

Over 25 years in business. Walk-ins welcome. Located on 1214 Country Club Rd. Open Tuesday-Friday 8:30-5:30, Saturdays 8am-2pm. Call 4744722 k0816 _________________

Your friends will be talking about it for years to come ...

MAGICIAN HARRY JOSEPH Interactive magician Harry Joseph will perform a variety of magical entertainment for your Birthday Party, Special Event and Church Actvities. Professional and lots of fun!

337-540-3938 harryjoseph00@gmail.com

CABINET SHOP Custom Countertops Affordable Pricing Professional Custom Woodwork Entire Lake Charles Area

302-6903 PLACE YOUR AD CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY! class@thelanyap.com _________________

DOWN ON THE BAYOU

RARE COINS Gold & Silver Coins Currency Mint & Proof Sets All Coins Graded w/Photograde I BUY COLLECTIONS

GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD $37,500 PER ACRE OR MAKE OFFER

KEMBLE GUILLORY CALL 802-5402

SOUTH LAKE CHARLES 478-2386 884-2386

PLACE YOUR AD CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY! class@thelanyap.com _________________

services FENCING

NEW! CUSTOM

3 ACRES ELEVATED LAND

FENCEMAKERS We build chainlink, barbed, privacy, electric, net, wooden, and security fences, free estimates.

Call David today at 337-375-4747. k0920 _________________

Tree Removal, Stump Grinding, Land Clearing, Bonded. Insured.

License AR 1604 337-884-6881 g0502-2012

real estate MOBILE HOMES

services PLUMBING RAPHAEL BENOIT CUSTOM HOME BUILDERS - Home improvements, Remodeling & Additions. New Home Construction. Serving SWLA since 1993.

Call Raphael Benoit at 337-802-6522 k0816 _________________

MOBILE HOME TO BE MOVED. 3/2, BO over $8,000. Camper for rent. All bills paid. 2 acre lot south of Lake Charles. 477-6243 or 564-5859 gpnmr _________________ PLACE YOUR AD HERE AND START GETTING RESULTS! CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY class@thelanyap.com _________________

PAPER HEROES Buying U.S. Coins & Currency

Gold, Silver, Coins & Sets

MAGIC THE GATHERING TOURNAMENTS HELD WEEKLY

services CONSTRUCTION

BOUCHER & SON'S CONSTRUCTION ~ YOU’VE FOUND THE RIGHT COMPANY! Give us call for all your construction, carpentry, painting, and damage repairs. Licensed, Bonded, and Insured.

Member of the Better Business Bureau.

Give Tom a call at 337-474-2844 (office) or 337-842-1455 (cell) AND SEE HOW AFFORDABLE UPGRADING YOUR HOME CAN BE! 474.2844. k0313 _________________

real estate CORPORATE LEASE Approx 3500 sf, 4BR, 3 BA, minutes from beach, L'Auberge and boat launch. Fully furnished, turnkey, large patio, bbq pit, fenced yard, $2750 per month. 713-829-2974, ask for Ron Wiggins.

478-2143 3941 Ryan Street, Lake Charles

ph

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Larry A. Roach, Inc. A PROFESSIONAL LAW CORPORATION

Accidents • Wrongful Death Serious Personal Injury Criminal, Domestic Law Cases

k1220

Laundry W rld Larry A. Roach (1932-2003) Barry A. Roach • Larry A. Roach, Jr. Fred C. "Bubba" LeBleu • David M. Hudson

2917 Ryan St. • Lake Charles (337) 433-8504 • Fax (337) 433-3196 78

LAGNIAPPE

July 4, 2013

Do Your Laundry in 4 Minutes!

2 minutes to drop off 2 minutes to pick up 4319 Common St. • 474-8748 2501 Hwy 14 • 433-7503

Professional Wash, Dry, Fold/Hang Service Dry Cleaning Available PUT US TO WORK FOR YOU TODAY!

announcements WE WILL BUY! SELL THAT JUNK CAR FOR CASH! I will buy your junk car, truck, van, motor home, or trailer. I also buy ATV’s, motorcycles, and even farm equipment. Even if it’s not running, you can make from $400 to $600. Clean your yard up, and decide what you’ll spend your extra money on! HELP WANTED Experienced mechanic needed.Call now at 526.9533. k1018 _________________

services AUTO REPAIR

YOUR SOURCE LAWN & GARDEN TIRES 477-9850 478-6565 527-6355 "People you trust, products you depend on"

announcements

services

RETAIL / OFFICE RETAIL OR OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE. "Single or double available. Includes conference room usage, kitchen, 2 handicap accessible bathrooms, parking in front and behind building. 154 W. McNeese. Call Castle Real Estate today for details!

337-480-6555 ph _________________

announcements NEW PRODUCTS NEW PRODUCT OR INVENTION? Have 20 connections in China and Vietnam for manufacture of new products. Let us know what you have or need. Call Bryan or Ron today 1-800-634-5816. ph _________________

KNOX FENCE FLIGHT TRAINING! VISION AVIATION, LLC; LICENSED INSTRUCTOR(S).

Fly to new heights with our one of a kind “Discovery Flight” to see the sights for only $65!

Makes a unique and adventurous gift. Gift Certificates available now. Call and reserve your fun at 478.7722. k2013apr

Don’t blend in, make your home stand out with a customized fence.

Choose your own design or one of ours. We also do chainlink, ornamental, aluminum and iron fencing. Can install electric or solar gate operators. Call for a free estimate. Licensed and insured, 20+ years of experience.

Ask for Steve at 337.540.6973 k0621

JUNK CARS SELL THAT JUNK CAR FOR CASH! I will buy your junk car, truck, van, motor home, or trailer. I also buy ATV’s, motorcycles, and even farm equipment. Even if it’s not running, you can make from $400 to $600. Clean your yard up, and decide what you’ll spend your extra money on! Call now at 526.9533. k1018 _________________ PLACE YOUR AD HERE! CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY! class@thelanyap.com _________________

classified FULL-TIME SATELLITE TECHNICIANS NEEDED for well-established company.

Paid training, $500 sign on bonus, paid weekly.

Call Josh @ 888-959-9675 or submit resume to careers@satcountry.com

services DOORS WHY PAY MORE FOR DOORS 800 instock Doors Windows & More. 489-4313 csta15 _________________

2002 Pewter, 3rd row, runs great, financing available!

2003 CHEVY MAZDASUBURBAN TRIBUTE Black, runs great, financing available!

1999 Silver, come come see it,see financing available, call Luke 302-2912 2006 GMC FORDYUKON ESCAPE Pewter, it, financing available, call Papania Luke 302-2912!

2002 626MARINER Come drive it!

2005 MAZDA MERCURY Come drive it!

2002 SUBURBAN 165k, comereal drive it today!

2008 CHEVY HYUNDAI SANTA FEGrey, White, leather, nice, come drive it today!

Cash for Junk Cars Need Extra Cash?

WE ARE NOW BUYING CARS • TRUCKS VANS • ATV’S • MOTORCYCLES

services BOAT & RV STORAGE BOAT & RV STORAGE - 6102 COMMON STREET. SECURED STORAGE! Call 337564-5377 cr _________________

Also Motor Homes, Trailers and Farm Equipment. Not running? You can still make $400 and up! Get your yard cleaned up while deciding how you’ll spend your extra money!

announcements

CALL 526-9533

WE WILL BUY!

classified k0621

These & more quality vehicles... call Luke Papania today at 302-2912!

803 E. McNeese • 337-562-9211

SELL THAT JUNK CAR FOR CASH! I will buy your junk car, truck, van, motor home, or trailer. I also buy ATV’s, motorcycles, and even farm equipment. Even if it’s not running, you can make from $400 to $600. Clean your yard up, and decide what you’ll spend your extra money on! HELP WANTED Experienced mechanic needed.Call now at 526.9533. k1018 _________________

HWY 90 CONSIGNMENT STORAGE Cars • Trucks • Boats • RV's Mobile Homes • Vans Safe and Secure Storage forThose Big Items in Your Way! CONSIGNMENT: Your items can be put up for consignment to make that extra money when you decide you no longer need storage for you item. Good prices, and large customer base to purchase any items you store with us.

Call now and make some room OR some cash for your items: 337.526.2533

UTEC

Utility Truck & Equipment Co. Boat Trailer Axles & Springs • Flat Beds Service Bodies • Truck Cranes • Tool Boxes Fabrication • Big Truck P&B We're At Your Service!

24-Hour Road Service 1432 BROAD ST • 433-5361 July 4, 2013

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HOUSE LEVELING

Laundry W rld

LIFTING AND MOVING GUARANTEED 2-YEAR WARRANTY FOR ALL LABOR AND MATERIALS! Foundation Repair • Concrete Slab Stabilization Licensed, Bonded and Insured • References

CALL ONE STOP

337-309-7301 RETAIL / OFFICE

NEW PRODUCTS

RETAIL OR OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE. "Single or double available. Includes conference room usage, kitchen, 2 handicap accessible bathrooms, parking in front and behind building. 154 W. McNeese. Call Castle Real Estate today for details!

337-480-6555 ph _________________

NEW PRODUCT OR INVENTION? Have 20 connections in China and Vietnam for manufacture of new products. Let us know what you have or need. Call Bryan or Ron today 1-800-634-5816. ph _________________

announcements

real estate MOBILE HOMES MOBILE HOME TO BE MOVED. 3/2, BO over $8,000. Camper for rent. All bills paid. 2 acre lot south of Lake Charles. 477-6243 or 564-5859 gpnmr _________________

NOW SERVING OYSTERS! Drive-Thru Daiquiri Window Longer Dining Hours M-F 10AM-6PM SAT 10AM-4PM

2707 HAZEL 433-2135

4319 Common St. • 474-8748 2501 Hwy 14 • 433-7503

services

announcements

SHOP A-LOT DELI

2 minutes to drop off 2 minutes to pick up

for well-established company.

Paid Training, $500 sign on bonus, paid weekly.

Call Josh @ 888-959-9675 or submit resume to careers@satcountry.com

Professional Wash, Dry, Fold/Hang Service Dry Cleaning Available

www.onestophouseleveling.com

DINING OUT

Do Your Laundry in 4 Minutes!

FULL TIME SATELLITE TECHNICIANS NEEDED

PLACE YOUR AD HERE AND START GETTING RESULTS! A lot of people are paying way too much for classified advertising. Don't be one of them! CALL LAMONT AT 660-8877 TODAY class@thelanyap.com _________________

THE

TRANSMISSION SHOP We work on all transmissions!

5817 Common Street Lake Charles 337-540-3795 337-540-6908

PLACE YOUR AD HERE AND START GETTING RESULTS! Don't pay too much for classified advertising.

Unless you like to, of course. Save some money! CALL KENNY AT 433-8502 TODAY class@thelanyap.com _________________

C. Scot LaFargue Owner

classified

Call Samantha @ Rhino Real Estate

337-304-6686 337-433-9434 Our Address: 1027 Enterprise Lake Charles, LA 70601 Charming Home In Sulphur-$55,000. 3 bed/1 bath located on close to a full acre. Go by and have a look at this ideal family home at 1301 Sherwood, call for appointment viewing.

738 Kirkman St.-4 bed/3.5 bath around 3500 sq. feet, Bonus 1000 sq. feet on 3rd floor ready to finish out. Features FOUR fireplaces! Wood floors, updated kitchen and baths, pocket doors, walk-in closets, new paint, electrical and plumbing for $269,500.

2 Acres behind Apostolic Church on Gulf Highway. $35,000 Manufactured homes welcome 715 Magazine St. $179,000 3/2 move in ready, 2300 square feet 7653 Clara Dr $169,000 3/2. On almost an acre. Split floor plan, granite, large master bath and closet 1117 Common St. 3/2.5 $210,000 almost completed new construction Westlake land-14 acres on a canal with dock, utilities run and ready for a new house. 500 square feet building included $350,000.

Moss Bluff lot in established neighborhood with storage building, $35,000.

80

LAGNIAPPE

July 4, 2013

Transform Your Patio, Walkway, Driveway, Living Areas, Pool Deck and More!

View our virtual portfolio online at www.creativeconcretebyron.com

We can stamp or stain any pattern and any color for permanent beauty!

CALL US TODAY FOR A FREE CONSULTATION!

855-8333 540-0943 Ron Guidroz, owner LICENSED, BONDED AND INSURED

LEGEND

LANDSCAPES Licensed & Insured

337-499-4664 Commercial & Residential • Landscape Lawn Care • Hardscape Seasonal Bedding & Clean-Ups • Maintenance July 4, 2013

LAGNIAPPE 81

Tournament of the Stars will hold its annual Scholarship Fundraiser, Saturday, July 27, 2013 at the Lake Charles Civic Center at 7 pm. Each year Tournament of the Stars awards scholarships to deserving students in the Calcasieu Parish area.

Proceeds from the fundraiser support the Israel McReynolds Scholarship fund.

This year ten students were awarded scholarships, which is an increase of two additional scholarships from last year’s scholarship awards. The Tournament of the Stars organization hopes to increase its giving with community support of its fundraising activities.

Each year the organization’s annual scholarship fundraiser not only recognizes the students who have been awarded the scholarships but it

recognizes an individual whose dedication and support of higher education, community and family deserves recognition as well.

This year’s honoree is Mayor Randy Roach. A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana and 1969 graduate of LaGrange High School, Mayor Roach embodies the spirit of community, family and giving.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Accounting from LSU and his law degree from LSU in 1976. He is married to Nancy Seger Roach and they have two children and five grandchildren.

Mayor Roach served two terms (1988-1996) as a State Representative in the Louisiana Legislature representing District 36, which included part of Calcasieu and Cameron parishes. In the Legislature, he served on numerous committees and was an appointee in 1998, by Governor Mike Foster to serve as Chairman of the Governor's Task Force for the Continuation of the T.I.M.E.D. Program, to improve and expand projects for the four lane highways and related economic development matters.

Mayor Roach was elected as Mayor

of Lake Charles in 2000 to fill the unexpired term of the previous mayor. In 2001, he was re-elected and began his first full term on July 1, 2001. He was re-elected in 2005, 2009 and again in 2013. As mayor, he has worked closely with city and parish governments and other agencies to form partnerships and pool resources that benefit not only Lake Charles, but also the entire Southwest Louisiana five-parish area.

Mayor Roach’s accomplishments are too many to list therefore it is our sincere hope that you will join Tournament of the Stars and its Board of Directors, Saturday July 27th as we honor Mayor Roach for his commitment to education, his dedication to family, and service to our community.

July 4, 2013

LAGNIAPPE

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Charlie Daniels band friday, July 5 • 9:00pm

Tickets are just $25 & $35 Tickets available online or at the Banana Cabana Gift Shop.

WIN UP TO $1,000 CASH! Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in July.

18 winners will be selected between 9:00pm and 11:00pm on Fridays & Saturdays and between 2:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday.

PLUS, Enjoy FREE Birthday Cake and Champagne Saturdays in July • Noon & 8:00pm at Kitt’s Kart

I-10, Exit 27 Lake Charles, LA • 1-800-THE-ISLE (843-4753) www.isleofcapricasinos.com © 2013 Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. See Fan Club ® for complete details.