Lagniappe: February 7 - February 13, 2017

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WEEKLY

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LAGNIAPPE

F E B R U A RY 7 , 2 0 1 8 - F E B R U A RY 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | w w w. l a g n i a p p e m o b i l e . c o m ASHLEY TRICE Co-publisher/Editor atrice@lagniappemobile.com ROB HOLBERT Co-publisher/Managing Editor rholbert@lagniappemobile.com GABRIEL TYNES Assistant Managing Editor gabe@lagniappemobile.com DALE LIESCH Reporter dale@lagniappemobile.com JASON JOHNSON Reporter jason@lagniappemobile.com KEVIN LEE Associate Editor/Arts Editor klee@lagniappemobile.com

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BAY BRIEFS

State legislators and the attorney general’s office are scrambling to introduce ethics reforms.

COMMENTARY

Throw pizza at Mardi Gras? Yes, please.

BUSINESS

A new Hampton Inn & Suites in Saraland will feature 101 guest rooms as well as 900 square feet of meeting space.

CUISINE

Successfully exploring a fresh diet option at Abba’s Mediterranean Café.

ANDY MACDONALD Cuisine Editor fatmansqueeze@comcast.net STEPHEN CENTANNI Music Editor scentanni@lagniappemobile.com

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STEPHANIE POE Copy Editor copy@lagniappemobile.com DANIEL ANDERSON Chief Photographer dan@danandersonphoto.com LAURA RASMUSSEN Art Director www.laurarasmussen.com BROOKE O’DONNELL Advertising Sales Executive brooke@lagniappemobile.com BETH WILLIAMS Advertising Sales Executive bwilliams@lagniappemobile.com

COVER

Local law enforcement officers recall some of the highlights of Mardi Gras past. Also, the story of how Mobile raised Joe Cain.

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ALEEN MOMBERGER Advertising Sales Executive aleen@lagniappemobile.com DAVID GRAYSON Advertising Sales Executive david@lagniappemobile.com MELISSA EDGE Editorial Assistant events@lagniappemobile.com ROSS PRITCHARD Distribution Manager delivery@lagniappemobile.com

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ARTS

The Mobile Opera is returning to the Murphy High School Auditorium for its Winter Gala.

MUSIC

JACKIE CRUTHIRDS Office Manager jackie@lagniappemobile.com CONTRIBUTORS: J. Mark Bryant, Asia Frey, Brian Holbert, Randy Kennedy, John Mullen, Jeff Poor, Ken Robinson, Ron Sivak

ON THE COVER: MARDI GRAS 2018

BY LAURA RASMUSSEN POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 3003 Mobile, AL 36652.

Editorial, advertising and production offices are located at 704 Government St., Mobile, AL 36604. Mailing address is P.O. Box 3003 Mobile, AL 36652. Phone: 251.450.4466 Fax 251.450.4498. Email: ashleytoland@lagniappemobile.com or rholbert@lagniappemobile.com LAGNIAPPE is printed at Walton Press.

All letters sent to Lagniappe are considered to be intended for publication.

Member: Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and Alternative Weeklies Network All rights reserved. Something Extra Publishing, Inc. Nothing may be reprinted, photocopied or in any way reproduced without the expressed permission of the publishers.

Individuals may take one copy of the paper free of charge from area businesses, racks or boxes. After that, papers are $3 per issue. Removal of more than one copy from these points constitutes theft. Violators are subject to prosecution.

For Lagniappe home delivery visit

www.lagniappemobile.com/lagniappehd

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The Pine Hill Haints are becoming a Mobile Mardi Gras staple. They return to headline The Merry Widow’s Joe Cain Day lineup Feb. 11.

FILM

In “Battle of the Sexes,” Emma Stone is sympathetic and uplifting as Billie Jean King, beloved champion of tennis and women’s rights.

MEDIA

More changes at al.com.

SPORTS

College softball squads at the University of Mobile, Spring Hill College and the University of South Alabama prepare for the 2018 season.

STYLE

This time of year it’s all Mardi Gras, all the time.

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Hands off the Cowboys

GOING POSTAL

AM/NS Calvert committed to compliance Editor: As was reported online by Lagniappe, AM/NS Calvert has been cited by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for air and water permit violations. The violations cited in the ADEM order relate to a facility on our site that regenerates acid for reuse in a steel pickling process.

While AM/NS Calvert is the official permit holder for this facility, the management and operation of the facility is contracted out to an experienced acid regeneration service provider. Within hours of the issues being brought to our attention by ADEM, we worked with the contractor to ensure operations were again compliant with our permits.

Since then, we have made substantial investments in new monitoring controls and have required process and procedure improvements by our contractor that we are confident will prevent this from reoccurring.

We have also reviewed the environmental processes of all of our other onsite contractors and are requiring additional environmental training for them as well.

We at AM/NS Calvert have the good fortune of producing a material that is not only one of the strongest, but unlike alternative products such as aluminum, is nearly infinitely recyclable. The recycling rate of steel is 69 percent in North America — more than paper, aluminum, plastic and glass combined. Steel can be remade and used again and again without losing the properties that make it so strong and resil-

ient, and it can be done with a much smaller environmental footprint than most competitive materials.

We understand that the sustainability of our business not only depends on natural resources, it depends on our ability to manage these resources in reliable and responsible ways. Even as the steel industry has become more advanced in its technologies and products, we must still work to overcome its old and outdated reputation as a poor steward of our environment and its resources. Consumers, customers, neighbors and our employees are placing greater value on the importance of clean air, land and water. They have ever-higher expectations that we will not only comply with environmental laws and regulations, but continuously improve. For this reason — as well as the value each of us at AM/NS Calvert personally place on clean air, water and land — we must ensure our environmental processes are solidly reliable and continually look for innovative ways to reduce our footprint.

AM/NS Calvert is not only committed to full compliance with all of our environmental permits. We are committed to continuous improvement in environmental sustainability. This commitment must be a shared responsibility with our employees and with our contractors.

Scott Posey Director of Communications AM/NS Calvert

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Editor: Mobile’s city government has no business censoring the Comic Cowboys or any other group participating in public events. No doubt the Cowboys’ satire can ruffle feathers. But is that not the essence of political satire? Is that not why the Founders thought it imperative that the Constitution guarantee the right to free speech?

Whether the oftimes irritating observations of the Cowboys or the cries for justice voiced by those marching from Selma to Montgomery, they both enjoy by right the protection of the First Amendment.

If citizens are truly concerned about keeping Mobile’s Mardi Gras parades a “family event,” then how about banning the exploitation of young girls who prance down the street gyrating like

strip club pole dancers? That practice is, indeed, repulsive and should be deemed contrary to good taste, public moral, and achievement of a “familyfriendly event.”

I am not a member of the Cowboys nor do I always agree with either their message or the manner in which that message is sometimes displayed, but that is no basis for banning them.

The Cowboys were organized (like the Zulus in New Orleans) to poke fun at the pretensions of Mardi Gras “royalty” and to point out that many times the emperor has forgotten his clothes. They don’t discriminate among political parties, races, creeds, colors, religions, sexes, etc.; they throw their barbs at anyone and everyone. That is a healthy thing in a free society.

I urge you to keep the government’s hands off the Cowboys.

Michael Gewin Mobile

Don’t broad-brush the FBI

Editor: In light of the Nunes memo and news reports spotlighting the activities of the FBI, I am compelled to comment. I do not know what the FISA Court knew or did not know regarding the issuance of surveillance warrants or who paid for the “dossier” or the motivation behind it. There are multiple versions describing the warrant application to the FISA Court.

However, I spent 30 years as a special agent with the FBI and 22 more years with another judicial agency.

During this time, I worked with and alongside some of the finest men and women who have dedicated their lives to the FBI and the Department of Justice.

The rank-and-file men and women of the FBI and DOJ are dedicated, hardworking, conscientious and committed to keeping our country safe from enemies, foreign and domestic. These men and women are professional and nonpartisan in carrying out their sworn duty to serve and protect. They should not be viewed in the same light as the few who became biased and political.

Our country and democracy are safer today because of the individuals who pledge themselves to Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity.

Daniel Stankoski Fairhope

CORRECTION

In the Jan. 31 issue of Lagniappe, an erroneous photo was run with the story titled “Flying High: Prosecutors celebrate late U.S. Attorney Billy Kimbrough.” The gentleman pictured in the thumbnail photo in the printed version of that story was not former U.S. Attorney Billy Kimbrough.

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BAYBRIEF | STATE LEGISLATURE

Best behavior LEGISLATORS, AG LOOK TO RETOOL STATE ETHICS LAWS

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BY JASON JOHNSON

espite claims from detractors that it could weaken state ethics laws, Sen. Trip Pittman (R-Fairhope) is standing by a bill he says would clarify rules about the kinds of business relationships Alabama politicos are allowed to maintain in office.

It’s one of several pieces of pending legislation that could tweak the criminal statutes that have led to high-profile public corruption charges since their adoption in 2010.

While he says he supports “strong ethics laws,” Pittman said speculation often arises when business owners with active customers or clients are elected to a public position.

“Once you get elected there’s always a question of why people are doing business with you, and I was trying to separate those,” he said. “When you have a business and customers before you run for office, just because you’re elected doesn’t mean you have to lose your existing business or those business relationships.”

Pittman’s own business relationships drew him into an ethics investigation in 2010 after his company, Pittman Tractor Co., received a $639,000 contract to deploy protective boom for the city of Fairhope in the wake of the BP oil spill.

The project was funded with grants Pittman was overseeing in the Senate, which led to an ethics investigation. While Lagniappe covered the story extensively at the time, Pittman disclosed for the first time last week that the matter was also investigated and cleared by the FBI and a federal grand jury.

Because his company had a history of working with the city of Fairhope, Pittman said it wasn’t unusual to have been awarded the contract — one he said the city always “selected based on the best price and performance of the work.”

“I felt comfortable as a matter of point because I had an existing relationship with the city,” he added. “The only regret I have is that there’s a perception of something maybe having happened that was improper, and what that does is diminish people’s confidence in their government.”

Pittman said he hoped his current bill, SB 221, could “clarify” some of those issues.

While the ethics commission currently issues opinions to public officials about the legality of their activity in the private sector, Pittman’s proposal would streamline and expand the commission’s duties.

If passed, his bill would require the ethics commission to record all of the business relationships that exist when candidates qualify for office, and that information would then be submitted along with their required statement of economic interests.

It would also prevent legislators from accepting compensation from any new business arrangement without approval from the ethics commission, which would issue a pre-approval based on factors such as an official’s experience in the service being provided, how it compares to prior business activity and whether the level of compensation is unusual.

Even though documents detailing those arrangements are considered public records, the bill would allow the commission to seal them if a legislator can show how the release of those documents might harm themselves or any of the parties involved.

That said, the main criticisms of the bill have focused on a single provision that would shield lawmakers from any civil or criminal liability involving an approved business arrangement, so long as the information submitted to

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the commission was truthful.

When asked about it, Pittman even seemed a bit unsure of this provision himself.

“When you carry legislation, you take ownership of all of it, but every part of the bill is not something I necessarily initiated,” he said. “I can see how you could say that could go too far, but if you’re going to go through this and get the approval, it’s almost like a formal ethics opinion now. Still, that language may be a bit too much.”

Pittman said that and other issues could be addressed as the bill proceeds, though he didn’t seem confident about its lifespan in the current session. It’s worth noting that, after an unsuccessful bid for the U.S Senate in 2017, Pittman isn’t seeking re-election.

There are other bills in the Legislature aiming to make changes to existing ethics laws, though. One would give legislators more authority to appoint members of the ethics commission, while another aims to clarify that incentives related to economic development projects should not be considered lobbying.

However, the most anticipated bill is probably one most lawmakers haven’t seen, and that is a “substantive” ethics reform package from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office that has yet to be introduced or find a formal sponsor.

Pittman told Lagniappe he’d reviewed a marked-up copy of Marshall’s proposal, but wasn’t able to discuss yet. Spokesman Mike Lewis later confirmed the attorney general’s intent to move the proposal forward soon.

“The [AG’s] office has been working for 18 months on legislation to clarify and strengthen Alabama’s 2010 ethics law,” he said. “Furthermore, it is our goal to have our substantive ethics reform bill introduced this legislative session.”

While little is known about what changes Marshall might be considering, they’re sure to be a focal point in his campaign to keep the position he was appointed to by former Gov. Robert Bentley in 2017. Pittman also said he’d carry Marshall’s bill if no one else in the Senate is willing.

Given the number of legislators forgoing re-election to pursue more lucrative private interests, Pittman said strong ethics laws are needed to help ensure statewide political offices are viewed as a public service, not a savvy career move.

Paraphrasing the famous quote from George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm,” Pittman said in the Alabama Legislature “All are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”

“Some members are able to do things that allow them to make a living being a legislator, but everybody doesn’t do that,” he said. “If you’re going to serve, there are things you’re going to forgo. Instead of term limits, I think the key is having strong ethics laws so people understand this is public service, and there is a financial sacrifice.”

BAYBRIEF | MOBILE

No end in sight MOBILE COUNCIL APPROVES EXTENSION OF SALES TAX INCREASE

BY DALE LIESCH

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he city’s sales tax rate will stand at 10 percent for the foreseeable future, after Mobile city councilors approved an extension of a 1-cent sales tax increase for another five years. The extension, by a 6-1 vote, gives the council a funding stream for its popular Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) until Sept. 30, 2023.

Councilwoman Bess Rich voted against the extension and was instead in favor of a recommendation from an ad hoc committee she chaired that would replace the current sales tax increase with a combination of a garbage fee and a 10-mill property tax increase. The state Legislature would have to approve a measure that would allow the city to have a referendum on a property tax increase.

Quin Hillyer, a member of the ad hoc committee, told councilors the “extra penny” would be a “long-term detriment” to the city. He said the 10 percent sales tax would cause a downward spiral for local businesses and urged the council to “within a year” provide the public with a plan to provide alternative funding.

“Let the citizens decide not whether to fund the [CIP] program, but on its source of funding,” Hillyer said.

Sales tax, he said, was proven to be more volatile than other forms of tax revenue, adding sales taxes were detrimental to business and are the most regressive form of taxation. He added that the city’s tax structure was “grossly imbalanced” due to its reliance on sales taxes.

In a letter, Rich admonished colleagues for failing to listen to members of the ad hoc committee they appointed.

She added that if no changes are made, the city will once again have to transfer money from the capital budget to the general fund in order to allow the city to operate properly.

Councilwoman Gina Gregory voted for the extension, but said she supported researching alternative forms of revenue. She also touted the CIP and what it has helped the council and the administration to accomplish in three years.

Councilman John Williams admonished “opponents” of the sales tax increase for not lobbying members of the Legislature sooner, in order to have a plan in place before now.

“If opponents of the tax spent their time going to the Legislature instead of throwing colleagues under the bus, it may already be done,” Williams said.

Williams said the extra sales tax is helping the city reduce debt via efficiencies found by Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office. Williams said it’s helping to rebuild infrastructure and revitalizing the economy. He added that it is not chasing business away.

“Amazon came to us without any economic incentives,” Williams said.

Councilman Joel Daves voted to approve the extension, but also seemed open to exploring new revenue sources.

Councilman C.J. Small also supported the tax increase, but indicated he would be willing to research alternatives.

He also argued that approving the five-year extension didn’t mean the council couldn’t review it in two, three or four years if an alternative presented itself.

Councilman Fred Richardson said he thought the city would have a hard time convincing the financially strapped state to approve a tax for the city’s use.

“If they can’t pass a tax to pay their own bills, I don’t think they’ll pass a tax to pay ours,” Richardson said. “If

they passed it, they’d put most of it over to them, anyway.”

Gregory reminded Richardson that the state would not be passing a tax for the city, but would instead be allowing the residents to vote for it.

Stimpson told councilors a reduced sales tax rate of 9 percent would be great. He reminded them the CIP is not tied to the increase, but rather the sales tax increase is a source of revenue for it. He said the city’s leadership could find alternatives.

In other business, the council delayed for a month a vote on the final approval of a settlement between the city and Waste Management over the diversion of yard debris from the WM-managed Chastang landfill.

The city currently disposes of yard trash, or construction and demolition waste, at Dirt Inc., even though a 1994 contract dictates that the entire waste stream, including yard debris, should be sent to the landfill 40 miles away.

WM has successfully sued the city’s Solid Waste Disposal Authority over the diversion previously and had threatened to do so again before working out a settlement with the city.

The settlement includes an annual $378,000 payment to WM for the diversion in order to avoid another multi-million-dollar lawsuit.

City Attorney Ricardo Woods told councilors in spite of the amount, the settlement saves taxpayers money because Dirt Inc. charges a much lower tipping fee than Chastang.

In addition to the settlement, Woods asked the council to approve renewal of a $2.8 million contact with Gulf Hauling & Construction for receiving, processing and disposing of the yard waste. While Woods said a delay would be OK, he cautioned that WM’s patience could run out and they could sue again.

“We don’t want to stand on the train tracks and see the light coming and say ‘what’s that light,’” Woods said. “Especially in light of an $8 million judgment already awarded to them.”

Jaime Betbeze, an attorney for WM, said following a pre-conference meeting that the company was satisfied with the delay as long as the settlement was progressing.

Asked by council attorney Wanda Cochran if the city was named in the initial WM lawsuit, Woods answered “no.” When asked by Cochran if there was a judgment against the city, Woods again said “no.”

Cochran initially asked for the month-long delay to allow her to review the documents in question.

Also, in response to the city of New Orleans and tweets from Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Stimpson on Tuesday gave other cities, such as New Orleans, the official OK to celebrate Mardi Gras, since Mobile was the home of the first organized Carnival celebration.

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BAYBRIEF | MOBILE

Human resources FEDERAL JUDGE TOSSES DISCRIMINATION CASE AGAINST CITY

BY DALE LIESCH

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United States District Court judge has found for the city of Mobile and the Mobile County Personnel Board (MCPB) in a lawsuit claiming racial and gender discrimination in the Parks and Recreation Department.

In an order dated Jan. 31, Judge Kristi DuBose entered a summary judgment for the city and against Katrina Frazier, a longtime Parks and Recreation Department employee.

In the suit, Frazier argued that she was passed over for a series of promotions because of both racial and gender discrimination, as well as in retaliation for filing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the city.

Court records indicate Frazier was passed over for a number of promotions within the department, including recreation superintendent and director, multiple times.

Starting in July 2014, another candidate was chosen over Frazier for the position of recreation superintendent. The following month, the city passed over Frazier for the position of director of parks and recreation.

In December of the same year, Frazier was not chosen for the position of recreation program supervisor at the Connie Hudson Senior Center.

In 2015 the city did not fill an open position of superintendent of recreation, even though Frazier had applied for it twice and was interviewed three times. In 2016, the city did not fill a director of parks and recreation position when it became available again.

In each case, Frazier argues she was not chosen for the jobs due to racial and gender bias.

“Frazier was determined to be qualified for each position to which she applied,” the order read. “Frazier contends each denial involved some manifestation of unlawful discrimination, including gender, race, and retaliation. As a result of these contentions, Frazier filed two EEOC charges of discrimination.”

For the position of recreation superintendent, for which she applied in 2014, Frazier argued that then Parks and Recreation Director Sherryll White selected Julius Shine, a black male, over her. Frazier argued Shine was less qualified for the position than she was because he only had an associate’s degree at the time and she had a master’s degree.

On the argument that it discriminated against Frazier because of her gender, the city argued that while she had more education, Shine had more experience and “was the most qualified for the job.” The position required a bachelor’s degree, or a mix of education and experience. Shine had worked for the city since 1992 and had served as athletic program manager since 2008.

On the claim of racial discrimination, the city contends that since Shine is also black they can’t be held accountable for racial discrimination.

While DuBose argued against that rationale in her order, she did grant summary judgment in favor of the city on this charge because the city had “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons” for choosing Shine.

Later in 2014, Executive Director of Public Works Bill Harkins selected Dan Otto, a white male, to serve as White’s replacement as interim parks and recreation director. Frazier’s was among the three names given to Harkins by

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the MCPB. Although Frazier interviewed for the permanent job two months later, Otto was selected again.

Frazier claims she missed out on a position as recreation program manager for the Connie Hudson Senior Center due to retaliation for an EEOC complaint. Despite being listed among 10 names for the position, Frazier was not selected for a final round of interviews for the position.

She claims Otto became aware of the complaint before the interviews were conducted.

Ultimately, Ashley Flowers, a white woman, was chosen for the position.

For this charge, the city again argued it had legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for selecting Flowers. The court agreed.

“Frazier has not put forth sufficient evidence to permit a reasonable fact-finder to conclude Frazier’s qualifications exceeded those of Flowers, such that racial animus in the city’s decision could be inferred,” DuBose

FLOWERS ACQUIRED AN ADVANCED DEGREE, MANAGED A BUDGET AND WORKED WITH SENIORS. A REASONABLE PERSON VERY WELL COULD HAVE SELECTED FLOWERS OVER FRAZIER. wrote. “Flowers acquired an advanced degree, managed a budget and worked with seniors.

A reasonable person very well could have selected Flowers over Frazier.”

Frazier applied and interviewed for a second superintendent of recreation vacancy after Shine was demoted in April 2015. Otto interviewed Frazier on Nov. 19, 2015. In notes that he forwarded to human resources, Otto questioned Frazier’s loyalty, according to court records.

Otto did not fill the position after interviewing two additional candidates.

Frazier would interview for the position again with Parks and Recreation Director Matt Capps.

Capps again left the position open.

In the case of the second recreation superintendent vacancy, DuBose wrote that Frazier’s claim raised a “difficult question” in this circumstance because of Otto’s comment in his notes.

“Although Otto proffers a different explanation, when viewed in a light most favorable to Frazier, a reasonable jury could find her EEOC charges were a reason Otto did not promote Frazier,” DuBose wrote. “Otto stated he did not promote Frazier because Otto believed she lacked necessary supervisory and budgetary experience. Indeed, next to where Otto wrote ‘questionable loyalty,’ he observed that she oversold her experience and the number of individuals she supervised.”

DuBose, however, argued that Otto’s comment alone did not make his belief that Frazier lacked supervisory experience “implausible.”

City Attorney Ricardo Woods did not comment on the lawsuit or the order. Frazier’s attorney, Temple Trueblood, also had no comment. It is unclear whether the case will be appealed.

BAYBRIEF | EDUCATION

Flawed by design?

MCPSS OFFICIALS ADDRESS REPORT CARDS, FAILING SCHOOLS

BY JASON JOHNSON

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fter a handful of local schools received negative state designations, Superintendent Martha Peek and members of the Mobile County School Board are questioning the motives of Alabama’s lawmakers and pushing back against criticism from local officials.

Last week, the state Department of Education released the first report cards for individual schools. Scores at MCPSS schools ranged from failing to near perfect in some cases just a week after an annual list of “failing” schools included nine from the district.

In all, eight MCPSS schools received As, 15 received Bs, 32 received Cs, 16 received Ds and seven scored an F. Several of the schools previously deemed failing also receive an F, though others weren’t listed but did receive an F. While Peek repeatedly acknowledged MCPSS has much room for improvement, she also expressed concern that both of the recent state assessments have been based, at least in part, on results from a test that’s no longer administered because it failed to align with state standards.

She also noted that ALSDE changed the criteria the new report cards were based on two months before their release — shifting from a broader set of measurements that she and other educators spent two and half years developing through a statewide assessment committee.

“I think we need to not brand, grade and sort schools as well as students or make major decisions based on these scores from a single test,” Peek said. “I think people should see all of what’s happening in the school and not to react dramatically to one test.”

According to ALSDE, the report cards measured fac-

tors such as academic achievement and yearly growth on statewide standardized tests. Across the state, the results from last year’s ACT Aspire were mixed, with most school systems falling into the A-C range.

While no school system received an F overall, there were 95 individual schools that did.

In addition to test scores, the percentage of students meeting state standards and annual graduation rates were considered when grading high schools, and all schools were measured by the percentage of students who had 15 or more absences a year.

For MCPSS, one of biggest setbacks was its scores on the ACT Aspire given to students in grades 3 through 8 and high school sophomores in 2017. Those scores showed the system’s academic achievement to be around 57 percent — just below the state average of 60 percent.

The day before the report cards were released, members of the school board joined Peek in expressing frustration with how state officials have chosen to calculate failing schools and the perception that can create for schools and students.

The Alabama Accountability Act and the State Report Card Act were both passed in the name of greater accountability in public education, but both have been widely criticized by teachers and administrators, including Peek.

“Do we have areas that need improvement? Yes, absolutely, but what I feel so strongly about is that every year a score or a list overshadows what is done for every student,” she said. “I question the political motives.”

Since its passage, the AAA has designated any school in the bottom 6 percent of statewide reading and math scores as “failing,” which allows students there to transfer to

another, nonfailing public or private institution.

The law created tax credits for parents, but also a dollar-for-dollar reduction for businesses and individuals who contribute to organizations that grant scholarships to those students. Those deductions ultimately divert money that would otherwise go to the state’s Education Trust Fund.

According to the state, $21.9 million has been credited to 3,894 individual donors since 2013 and just over $43 million has been credited to 130 corporations in the same time period.

Even school board president William Foster had sharp criticism for both accountability measurements, telling the press last week they were “designed to continue failure.”

“I want our children to have the best that we can give them, and I don’t want my children, my grandchild or anyone else’s child or grandchild to be referred to as failing because they’re not,” he added. “They’re simply in that category because 6 percent has to fail.”

Commissioner Reginald Crenshaw seemed to take issue with suggestions that poor performance by schools in Mobile’s inner city has impugned economic development efforts.

“I can’t think of any industry leaders that came out to Blount or Vigor High looking to put their kids in school. They can put them in whatever school they want to, and that’s all right, but to say we’re hurting industry is not fair,” he said. “When looking for individuals to hire, they’re looking for those who have graduated and are workforce ready, not one test score.”

Crenshaw didn’t specify who those claims were coming from, but Commissioner Robert Battles made comments implying some of those concerns were at least shared by city officials.

“Y’all talking about the city, well, the city is upset because it does make a difference,” Battles said. “I know most of those people who come in for these jobs, they go to Baldwin County.”

Mobile City Councilman Fred Richardson has even openly entertained the idea of a city-run school system in Mobile, and there are rumors that idea could have support among some of his colleagues. However, there’s been no open discussion of that idea since August 2017.

Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s office also declined to address Battles’ claim, though Stimpson briefly addressed the issue on Twitter, writing, “One failing school is not acceptable — much less nine. Our schools are the cornerstone of our city. Now is the time to solve this problem.”

That got attention at MCPSS, where many teachers and administrators fired back tweets of their own. Peek invited Stimpson to work with the district on “issues in the city that impact education.”

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BAYBRIEF | BALDWIN COUNTY

Animal issues GROUPS CRITICIZE TREATMENT AT BALDWIN ANIMAL SHELTER

BY JOHN MULLEN

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he Baldwin County Commission is under fire from some animal rights groups over the operation of the Baldwin County Animal Shelter in Summerdale.

Some of the interaction between county commissioners and members of some animal rights groups have become quite testy on social media and through email exchanges.

“We’ve had some pretty direct conversations with them and emails going back and forth,” Commissioner Tucker Dorsey confirmed. “There’s some stuff they are concerned about with adjusting the policies and procedures.”

Commissioner Skip Gruber said criticisms of the shelter are unwarranted.

“We’ve had a rescue group that’s been bad-mouthing about the shelter, how terrible it was and that animals were starving,” Gruber said. “We were trying to put a positive swing on the animal shelter because it’s not bad.

We’ve got some very capable people out there and they were chastising our employees and saying they were not qualified.”

At Tuesday’s regular County Commission meeting, commissioners put in place some policies to solidify procedures and regulations at the shelter. The commissioners voted to approve the “Baldwin County Animal Shelter Standard Operating Procedures Manual” and “Baldwin County Animal Shelter Rescue Handbook.” The commission also agreed to a professional services agreement for veterinary services with Dykes Veterinary.

“The animal shelter advisory board has given us some

recommendations for some policies in regards as to how we manage the shelter,” Dorsey said. “It has everything to do with safety issues with the animals and different processes. There’s not anything exciting or sexy in there but we’re real excited about having a real comprehensive policy and procedure process for the animals sheltered there.”

On Jan. 23 County Administrator Ron Cink gave a first-quarter report on the shelter to commissioners detailing how many dogs were brought in, sent out to foster homes, reunited with owners, adopted and euthanized.

Since taking over the shelter from the state in October, 63 dogs were reunited with their owners, 148 were adopted and 114 were rescued. Sixteen dogs were euthanized, including five with canine parvovirus, seven with other illnesses or injuries and four for behavioral issues.

Resident Mac McKleroy says the number of euthanized pets has risen since the county took over and he has worked on a petition questioning methods at the shelter and calling for the resignation of Gina Jones, the county’s humane officer.

“There’s been a lot of discussion previously about when Alabama ran the shelter,” McKleroy said. “It was no-kill in that what our idea of no-kill is that no healthy dogs were put down. We went from what we consider zero percent to 5 percent, and that concerns us.”

Gruber defended the practices of the shelter and said the facility was never intended to be a complete “no-kill” shelter.

“It’s not a no-kill shelter and no one said it was or anything like that. If we have sick animals or dogs with

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parvo or stuff like that, and we have vicious animals,” euthanasia is sometimes warranted, Gruber said.

Dogs are not put down at the shelter and decisions on which ones are euthanized are not made there, Gruber said. He said the animals are assessed by professionals before being put down.

“We have veterinarians who look at this stuff for us,” he said. “As a matter of fact, the veterinarians are the ones that are putting them down. We are not licensed to put an animal down at the animal shelter. We did not want to handle that. We thought it would be better to let the veterinarians do that so we don’t have to handle all the medicines and all that other stuff it takes to do that. It’s out of our hands. We let the vets do it and I think it’s a great way to do it.”

Another speaker at the meeting, Patricia Kruger with the animal rescue group The Mylo Foundation, questioned the use of a panel of veterinarians to select which dogs are euthanized.

“When I have a problem with my dog, I don’t call my vet — I call my dog trainer,” Kruger told the commission.

Her group is also a supporter of the petition and after the meeting criticized the commission in a post on its website.

“We presented our petition to an unmoved and sometimes unwelcoming Baldwin County Commission today,” the post stated. “Our objective today was not to make demands but to extend the olive branch and ask to work together for the sake of the animals. The commission replied to our humble request by acknowledging they had no intention of working with the people.”

Dorsey and other commissioners defended the shelter employees and said the county has worked with people in the community to make improvements and run the shelter.

“We’re excited about the animal shelter and the folks we’ve got working there,” Dorsey said. “A lot of the folks we’ve got working there have really been worn out and blasted. The petition was basically asking us to fire our folks over there. We’ve got some great folks over there and most of it is I’m standing up for our folks and what we’re doing over there.

“We’ve instituted this advisory panel which is a good cross-section of rescue folks, veterinarians, people who are knowledgeable about the animal shelter, that the four commissioners have no idea about. We know what we want for the outcome and we’ve got good people helping us to do that.”

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the commission accepted the resignation of Steven Savage from the animal shelter advisory board and appointed Dusty Feller to complete the four-year term.

BAYBRIEF | BALDWIN COUNTY

Pet project

GULF SHORES PROVIDES $1 MILLION GRANT TO HELP LOCAL ZOO

BY JOHN MULLEN

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t’s been a long time coming, but Steve Jones believes the much talked-about and hoped-for relocation of the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is going to happen soon. Recently, the project received a $1 million nudge from the Gulf Shores City Council.

But the longtime councilman wasn’t present when the City Council agreed to grant the money to the zoo foundation to help secure financing needed to relocate and construct a new zoo north of the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores. The 25-acre site is on County Road 6 east of Alabama 59 in Gulf Shores.

Jones, chairman of the board of the zoo foundation, recused himself from this particular agenda item on Jan. 29 and left the room. His colleagues passed it unanimously in his absence.

Jones said the zoo foundation began exploring the possibility of funding the new location through a bond issue years ago. The fruition of that work could come as early as March 3 when the zoo hosts “A Night on the Wild Side” fundraiser officials hope will be a celebration of the closing of the deal. The event will be held at Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores.

“We’re excited because as difficult as it’s been, we’re finally going to realize this mission and this dream of actually getting this project started and finished once and for all,” Jones said. “Call it a two-year process but now we’re

down to the final 30 days, hopefully getting fully funded and beginning the project and get the project built from start to finish and open it in less than two years.”

Jones said it was a complicated process aimed at securing more than $26 million to fund purchasing more land, building the new zoo and setting up a new corporation to run a restaurant and other amenities at the site. Attorneys told the foundation operating businesses on the site to compete with private businesses could jeopardize the zoo’s nonprofit status, Jones said.

“The bonds are actually going to be sold on the open market,” he said. “They have a lot of stipulations, regulations and hoops for us to jump through with regard to what they expect us to do and it’s pretty onerous. There is a private investment company that finds projects like this and decides they are worth investing in. One investment group is purchasing this entire package. All of the revenues that the new project is going to generate are all pledged to the repayment of these bonds.”

Gulf Shores will present the $1 million in 2020 once construction is complete, Griffin said.

The $26.3 million bond issue will help refinance existing zoo debt and buy an additional 71-acre parcel next to the new 25-acre site, with about $16.5 million for the construction of the new zoo. Griffin also said a sale of the current zoo location is in the works.

Super move GULF SHORES NAMES INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT

BY JOHN MULLEN

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wo weeks ago a big hurdle presented itself to open split negotiations between Gulf Shores City Schools and the Baldwin County Board of Education. The county refused to even consider negotiations unless the new city system had a superintendent in place.

“We never deemed it a hurdle to begin with and we’re not concurring with their position,” Gulf Shores Board president Kevin Corcoran said.

But on Monday, the Gulf Shores School Board allayed county fears it would be going against state law by negotiating without a superintendent in place. In a specially called meeting on Feb. 5, Gulf Shores named Suzanne Freeman, Ph.D., as interim superintendent.

“This certainly alleviates that,” Corcoran said.

“Although we don’t share that view, we don’t want to spend the weeks and months it would take to fight that scenario. By naming an interim superintendent we can move to the nuts and bolts of the negotiations.”

Baldwin County Superintendent Eddie Tyler said he hopes the city team next comes around to the county’s way of thinking on an opening date for Gulf Shores schools. The city board hopes to be up and running for the 2018-19 session but the county wants to wait another year.

“Now we must come to agreement on a realistic separation date — realistic being more than five months away,” Tyler said. “I believe that everyone is served better by us working in partnership with time and planning, as opposed to a rushed transition.”

Baldwin County is looking to build a new

grades 7-12 school in Orange Beach with the opening date set for fall 2019. The county would also like to see the separation from Gulf Shores to begin in the same term.

The city of Orange Beach is donating land on Canal Road for the site of the new campus but has so far delayed transfer of the land to the county through several city council meetings. Tyler attended a meeting in Orange Beach on Feb. 1 announcing a new after-school program and told the crowd preliminary plans for the school are in the works.

“As superintendent, I must be confident that we are making decisions for what’s in the kids’ best interest and not ours nor the politicians,” Tyler said. “Schools in the area are overcrowded and I have nowhere to send 600 children. Since last year I have been clear that we would not have facilities available until next year, 2019. We stand committed to an official separation for next year.”

Gulf Shores didn’t have to go far to find Freeman, who is already leading the Gulf Shores negotiation team in her role as education consultant.

Freeman has served as superintendent for two city breakaway systems, Trussville near Birmingham and Pike Road in Montgomery County.

“As one who has sat through hours and hours of meetings with Dr. Freeman at the helm, she is imminently qualified to negotiate this,” Corcoran said.

Gulf Shores School Board Attorney Bob Campbell said Freeman’s fee will remain the same, $35,000, but she will add her new title of interim superintendent.

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ELECTION 2018

Wills & estates FIVE CANDIDATES QUALIFY FOR BALDWIN COUNTY PROBATE JUDGE

BY GABRIEL TYNES

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he 2018 election cycle features statewide campaigns for governor, the Legislature, attorney general and other positions. Locally, county commissions, sheriffs, judges and coroners will be elected. The primary election is June 5, with runoffs July 17. The general election is Nov. 6. Qualifying for the election closes at 5 p.m. on Feb. 9.

Thus far, five candidates have announced their intent to succeed Baldwin County Probate Judge Tim Russell, who will have “aged out” of his position this year. To serve on a court, state law requires judges be under age 70 at the time of election.

Last week, State Rep. Matt Fridy of Shelby County introduced legislation to increase the age limit to be elected or appointed to a judicial office from 70 to 75. The bill is pending in the House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee.

Baldwin County Probate Court is responsible for all deeds and records, commitments, adoptions, guardianships, conservatorships and licenses. Russell said he presided over 1,600 cases last year in courtrooms in Bay Minette, Fairhope and Foley. The court generated around $40 million in fees and revenue in 2017, he said, a source of income for the Baldwin County Commission.

Currently, the candidates qualified to appear on the ballot include: • Harry D’Olive, a sixth-generation Baldwin Countian who currently lives in Spanish Fort with his wife and their daughter. He has served as a deputy sheriff and as mayor and councilman in Silverhill.

D’Olive graduated high school from Bayside Academy and earned a bachelor’s in criminal justice from the University of South Alabama. He graduated from the Southwest

Alabama Police Academy and served 15 years with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. He also served as a court police officer with the 13th Judicial Circuit Court Police in Mobile for three years, and was assigned to the Probate Court section. He later returned to law school and graduated from Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in 2000.

D’Olive currently serves as a Baldwin County Assistant District Attorney assigned to the Child Support Division.

However, he was in private practice for approximately 14 years where he specialized in probate and real estate Law. He also served as prosecutor for Bay Minette Municipal Court for 12 years. D’Olive also served as a deputy attorney general for the Alabama Department of Transportation in order to handle condemnation proceedings in Probate Court.

• Max Hansen, according to a statement, is president and CEO of B.L.I. Inc., the Daphne-based private investigative firm he founded in 1990. A U.S. Army veteran, Hansen served as an investigator for the Baldwin County District Attorney’s Office, as a deputy and investigator with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and as an officer with the Daphne Police Department prior to launching his own business.

A lifelong resident of Baldwin County, Hansen is a graduate of University Military School and the University of South Alabama. He is married to the former Lisa Ann Bradford of Gulf Shores. They have two children, Ann and Hunter. A former Scoutmaster with the Boy Scouts of America, Hansen also coached Daphne Little League baseball for 13 years. He and his family are members of St. James Episcopal Church in Fairhope.

• Alan Lipscomb, according to his campaign website, is a lifelong resident of Baldwin County, having grown up in Fairhope and graduated from Fairhope High School in 1974.

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He graduated from the University of South Alabama in 1978 and Cumberland School of Law in 1994. He has been in private practice in Baldwin County since that time.

Lipscomb’s practice is concentrated in probate, dealing with guardianships, conservatorships and adoptions, and he is experienced in commercial and residential real estate transactions.

Other areas of concentration include an active practice dealing with wills, estates, trusts, elder law issues and consumer bankruptcy. He served as legal counsel for the Baldwin County Board of Realtors. He is a member of the Alabama Bar Association and the Baldwin County Bar Association.

Lipscomb has also been active in local charitable organizations, having served as counsel and on the board of directors of Eastern Shore Affordable Housing Inc., and is currently the director of St. Joseph’s Way Inc., a local organization that helps provide low-income housing for those in need. As a hobby, he writes children’s stories and is a published author.

• Matthew McKinzie is the youngest of six children born to Elroy McKenzie Jr. and Charlotte McCue Vilain of Fairhope. He attended Fairhope public schools and graduated from Gulf Coast Academy in Mobile in 1988. He served five and a half years in the United States Marine Corps.

While serving his country overseas, McKinzie decided on a career in law enforcement, enrolling in the South West Alabama Police Academy. After graduating, he went to work as a city police officer in Eufaula and one year later became an Alabama State Trooper, where he served for 20 years as a highway patrol officer, a hearing officer and a fraud investigator. He currently serves as the Post Commander for the Mobile District Driver License Office; which includes Mobile, Baldwin, Choctaw, Washington, Clarke, Monroe, Escambia and Conecuh counties.

McKinzie, his wife and two daughters enjoy spending time on their small farm and tending to their animals.

• James “Lynn” Perry, a partner at Daniell, Upton and Perry P.C. in Daphne, said he believes his 29 years in law practice, providing counsel to clients in areas such as contracts, wills and trusts as well as real property matters, gives him the needed experience for the position.

Perry received his business degree from Mississippi State University and his law degree from Mississippi College School of Law. He is actively involved in the Baldwin County Bar Association and the Alabama State Bar Association, where he also serves as a Bar Commissioner for the district.

Perry was selected as a Super Lawyer and is A-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating in legal ability and ethical standards. In addition, he is board certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and in Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy by the National Board of Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy.

Perry and his wife have two children. They attend Spanish Fort United Methodist Church and are involved in numerous civic and locally sponsored family activities.

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COMMENTARY | DAMN THE TORPEDOES

Let the good food fly

ROB HOLBERT/MANAGING EDITOR/RHOLBERT@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN AVERAGE WAS GOOD ENOUGH, I’LL ADMIT. LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, I HELD MY HANDS OUT ASKING FOR MORE OF WHAT, IN RETROSPECT, REALLY WASN’T ALL THAT SPECIAL. BUT THAT CHANGED A FEW YEARS AGO. ”

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to be empty and you look like a jackass, or maybe it contains something you really don’t like — stale honey buns for example.

But no matter what, when some unidentifiable food box is caught, everyone wants to see what it is. And if it’s a full box of noodles or oatmeal pies, you can form your own little fiefdom and play lord of the manor by handing out food to the strangers who clearly covet your prize and envy your skills. Give them some — but not too much!

Save enough for the kids’ lunches that week.

We’ve all been ruined for parades in other towns. They’re lame events where people just line the streets to watch other people walk or drive past. Totally senseless. If someone isn’t throwing worthless trinkets or totally worthwhile food products, a parade is a snoozer.

So I just want to remind those in charge of the parade food supply that when you opened Pandora’s Box to better tasting MoonPies, you changed the game. You can’t go back now and try to put Pandora back in her box, or whatever it was Pandora let out of the box. I’m on too much of a roll to try to access the burned-out Greek mythology section of my once-wondrous brain. But you get my meaning.

We should be getting fancier with our food throwing. Bring back the good MoonPies. Start tossing freezer-packed filet mignon. Imagine how happy the crowd would be catching a 14-inch pizza. Pepperoni and sausage, please. Thin crust.

You want to give New Orleans something to envy? Keep those good eats flying. Sooner or later they’re bound to realize our fancy MoonPies are waaaay better than their halfnaked college girls and has-been celebrities.

THEGADFLY

It was like someone was tossing Girl Scouts Thin Mint cookies to the unwashed masses. How could it get any better? It couldn’t and didn’t.

Before we knew it, the krewes pulled back on the reins and PB and mint became rarities. Last Mardi Gras I caught nary a one and so far, in two parades attended this year, any type of MoonPie has been tough to come by.

That’s not saying they’re not being thrown, I just haven’t seen them.

Mostly what I’ve caught so far has been oatmeal pies, which despite their overall stickiness and marshmallowy ways, still seem a little like catching a Healthy Choice dinner. (Actually, looking at some of the Mardi Gras ball pics posted online it might not be a bad idea for our revelers to toss out Healthy Choice or Lean Cuisine.) Just kidding! I don’t want that healthy stuff either. I want the MoonPie to move back into its rightful place at the head of Mobile’s Mardi Gras smorgasbord.

Last week there was a story about how the “Sweet Home Alabama” Tourism Commission bought billboard space in New Orleans to “troll” them about how Mobile actually had the first Mardi Gras. What they forgot is the people in New Orleans are too busy looking at naked boobs to pay attention to billboards, so the message was probably lost. Note to the tourism department: Buy some boob space next year and you’ll get more bang for your buck.

Frankly I thought the billboards were a little desperate. We need to get the Mardi Gras chip off our shoulder, Mobile! I lived in New Orleans in my early 20s, long

ago, back before the advent of cell phones and indoor plumbing. Yes, there’s no way we’ll ever catch the Big Easy when it comes to raunchiness and flamboyance, but our Mardi Gras has something theirs doesn’t: thrown food.

That’s always been our edge in the Mardi Gras competition. Not family friendliness.

If you want family friendly in New Orleans you can just go to the Metairie parades.

But we’ve perfected throwing food. New Orleans may have naked women, but we have Ramen noodles. They have world famous B-list celebrities as kings and queens of their parades (I once saw Corbin Bernsen as king of Endymion. No kidding!), but we have bags of slimy boiled peanuts. And MoonPies, of course.

Frankly, when I’ve been back to New Orleans after years of enjoying Mobile’s version of the big party, I miss the food. Plastic beads are fine, but you can’t eat plastic beads, unless you’re really wasted on Hand Grenades from Tropical Isle. Even so, beads will never soak up alcohol like a MoonPie or maybe even a loaf of Wonder bread. I’ve caught that before, too.

For those who disparage Mardi Gras as an elitist relic of antebellum history, the idea of the krewes literally throwing bread or whatever they cleaned out of their refrigerators to the ravenous masses may be too much to take, but for the rest of us it just brings a different level of excitement. When you see a box or bag fly high into the air and your spider senses start tingling telling you that box or bag probably contains food, the heart pounds harder and blood rushes to the appropriate food-catching muscles.

Sure, there are times the box turns out

Cartoon/Laura Rasmussen

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here was a time when average was good enough, I’ll admit. Like everyone else, I held my hands out asking for more of what, in retrospect, really wasn’t all that special. But that changed a few years ago.

It started when the Mardi Gras maskers began throwing the peanut butter MoonPies. Since time immemorial we’d all been steeped in the traditions of rolling around on the ground trying to pry a chocolate or banana MoonPie out of some 7-year-old’s hands. Or leaping into the air using what little athleticism Father Time and 50 years of Pizza Hut hadn’t taken away to nab the less-thanaverage vanilla MoonPie or the downright disgusting caramel MP. But that first year of the PB MoonPie changed everything. There was a MoonPie finally worth tearing an ACL for! I just remember how quickly the old standards became passé — hardly worth bending over for unless you needed something to give to one of your kids so he wouldn’t try to eat your precious PB. Some people, like my brother Brian, tried to bridge the gap between old and new by smashing the PB with a Nanner and creating a strange Elvis tribute MoonPie mashup, but I wasn’t looking back.

The next year was Mardi Gras nirvana, as not only were the PB in plentiful supply, but the mint chocolate MoonPie arrived on the scene, and it was even better.

FROM THE ORIGINAL. ENOUGH SAID.

COMMENTARY | THE HIDDEN AGENDA

Mobile gets its troll on ASHLEY TRICE/EDITOR/ASHLEYTOLAND@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

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aissez les bon temps rouler! We are in the final stretch. Our houses all look like Toomey’s threw up inside of them. Loads of beads, smashed MoonPies and unopened bags of ramen are scattered about, as are filthy stuffed animals that look as though they may have spent some time in a landfill before being tossed off a float. Freshly dry-cleaned tails and gowns hang outside closet doors waiting to be donned at various balls. Ahhh, the Gras! What’s not to love?

I mean, I guess there’s the traffic, trash, idiot adults who elbow your children out of the way to get those diseased stuffed animals and amateurs who puke in Bienville Square. But other than that, it’s pretty damn fabulous.

But even in this time of great fun and frivolity in our city, there are a couple of things going on raining on our parade, so to speak. So I thought, why not complain about those things instead of just letting the good times roll. Hey, I’m just trying to temper our bon temps. We don’t want to get spoiled, now do we? You’re welcome.

The poor folks who live behind this major development have for the most part voiced support for the project overall, but they have just wanted to — UNDERSTANDABLY — make sure they had good barriers between their properties and the store. And this composite wall was a huge slap in the face. And I don’t blame these residents for being upset. The fence does look really weird.

To me, with any development like this, in any part of the city, the very first consideration should be the barrier protecting the existing residential property owners and it should always be constructed to the highest possible standards.

If the developer needs to cut some corners, do it on the other side of the wall. There is something to be said about good fences making good neighbors. And those fences are usually not made of “composite material.”

I am excited about the Publix too, but I think it’s pretty lousy of the developers not to give these folks their brick wall. But what’s even lousier is how Councilman Fred Richardson has treated these people, his own constituents.

You see, a few of them also dared to voice their concerns about noise coming from the AC Trolling New Orleans units. You know, sounds they may hear while So, as y’all all saw, the Alabama Department sitting in their backyards or trying to go to bed of Tourism placed billboards in New Orleans at night. Instead of Richardson acting as THEIR reading, “You are 114 miles from America’s advocate and communicating their fears to the Original Mardi Gras.” This caused a comment developer and the city, as he should, he went war on multiple news sites between Mobilians up on a Saturday in the middle of the day and and New Orleanians and a friendly Twitter war recorded the sounds coming from the ACs and between Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and posted a video with the text “IS MIDTOWN former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. On PUBLIX AC TOO LOUD: LISTEN AND YOU Tuesday, Mayor Stimpson held a press conferDECIDE.” ence to continue this “war” by reading a proclaFirst of all, who even knows if the ACs were mation “authorizing” New Orleans to continue on during this time. It was a Saturday during using our Carnival traditions. Oh snap. the day, before the store has even opened. But I love some good-natured ribbing over Mardi secondly, even if they were on full blast and he Gras, and I am proud we get to accurately and personally perceived them to be quiet enough proudly claim we are the “Mother of the Mysand this to be a non-issue, he still shouldn’t have tics.” Any time I am traveling and people find trolled his own constituents like this. Ridiculous! out I am from Mobile and ask about it, one of the first things out of my mouth when describing Fred, you represent the people of District One, not the developer. The developer has PR firms our fair burg is, “We are the birthplace of Mardi Gras. New Orleans copied us. It’s all of the fun of and lawyers to do that for him. Probably lots of them, in fact.

Mardi Gras, without all of the tourists.”

Look, I get that residential property owners Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed the can get a little over-anxious too, to say the least. spectacle of the back and forth this year. And it has definitely raised Mobile’s Mardi Gras profile, There have been several projects in this city that neighbors have raised all kinds of hell about that BUT let’s be careful not become the University I have been like, “Soooooo, you’d rather have of Central Florida of Mardi Gras. We don’t want that vacant, crap building next to you than a cool, to declare ourselves the original and the best so much (even though we are) that people start roll- brand new (fill in the blank.) Um, OK then.”

I know it’s a constant struggle between develing their eyes and pitying us. We want to always opers/commercial real estate folks and homeownbe able to say “bless their hearts” about New ers. And striking the right balance is often tricky.

Orleans’ Mardi Gras, not the other way around.

But the neighbors I have talked to who live around this project have not been like that. They Trolling your own constituents have been largely supportive. They just want On Saturday, Feb. 3, District One City their damn brick wall and to make sure the place Councilperson Fred Richardson took to Faceisn’t going to be too loud, which is UNDERbook to troll his own constituents over the new STANDABLE. midtown Publix being constructed at Old Shell But their councilperson has been anything but and Florida. understanding.

What was all the fuss about, you ask?

I know the good councilman thinks of this Well, there was a stop-work order issued project as his, another feather in his cap. And recently after residents who live nearby UNDERthat’s fine, but Fred, you can own it and be STANDABLY complained that instead of a maproud of it and still be a good advocate for your sonry wall being erected around the property (as residents to make sure their rights aren’t infringed they thought had been promised), a fence made upon. In fact, that is your job. You work for them, out of “composite material” was going up. not the developer. That cute little Facebook video After reviewing the plans, City Council attorney Wanda Cochran issued an opinion that the was really tone deaf on your part and precisely one of the reasons you aren’t president of the developer could indeed construct a composite council right now. material fence on part of the site because the Ultimately, I hope the developer will do right masonry wall was only called for on Edington Drive, not on South Edington Drive, and the stop- by these folks and we can just get back to worrying about BOGOs instead of brick walls, or work order was lifted. So essentially the developer was able to get around this on a technicality. lack thereof.

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COMMENTARY | THE BELTWAY BEAT

Abortion no magic-bullet issue for ALGOP

BY JEFF POOR/COLUMNIST/JEFFREYPOOR@GMAIL.COM

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ast week, Alabama’s new U.S. Sen. Doug Jones voted against a bill called the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” The legislation, if passed and signed into law, would have banned abortions at 20 weeks. The 20-week threshold marks the point in gestation at which fetuses supposedly can feel pain.

Jones’ loyal Alabama opposition decried his anti-life vote.

“After today’s vote, we now see Sen. Doug Jones’ true colors,” Alabama Republican Party chairwoman Terry Lathan proclaimed after his “no” vote. “We will not forget his vote to block this bill banning late-term abortions. It is disgraceful that Sen. Jones, who claims to want to ‘give voice to the challenges that face so many of our most vulnerable Americans’ would refuse to be a voice for the most vulnerable of them all: innocent lives in the womb.

“As one of the strongest pro-life states in the nation, Alabamians will hold Sen. Jones accountable for this vote and every move he makes in the future regarding legislation that supports life at all stages,” she added.

That’s a fair and appropriate criticism.

Doug Jones may very well lose his reelection bid in a few years, but it will not be because of how he voted on abortion.

Right out of the gate, when Republican voters decided Bible-thumping social conservative Roy Moore would be Jones’ opponent, Jones was asked about legislation that might “ban abortion after 20 weeks or something like that,” as MSNBC’s Chuck Todd put it.

“No, I’m not in favor of anything that is going to infringe on a woman’s right and her freedom to choose,” Jones replied. “That’s just the position I’ve had for many years, it’s the position I continue to have.”

The point is Alabama voters knew Jones’ radical position on the abortion issue, and regardless, they elected him to be their senator last December.

Even if Jones bucked his party and voted with the pro-lifers, the abortion issue is essentially settled, with the battle lines largely drawn at the margin of the issue. Further, at a time when Congress struggles to pass a bill to keep the U.S. government from shutting down, are we really thinking there will be any significant change in abortion laws in our lifetimes? Abortion just is not going away, for now.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v.

Wade in 1973 that abortion was legal. Much like the gun debate, which has an actual constitutional amendment defining gun ownership as a right, the legal standard on abortion is also unlikely to change in the immediate future.

It is not that the American people are coming around to favor abortion as they have with same-sex marriage. Opinion is

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roughly split when asked if Americans are asked if they consider themselves to be prolife or pro-choice. That divide has remained consistent over the last two decades, according to Gallup.

Also according to Gallup, the trend over the last five years has been an increase of support of same-sex marriage; according to its most recent survey, Americans favor same-sex marriage by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

Republicans can and should issue their strongly worded statement condemning Democrats for their unwillingness to regulate abortion. The GOP should not abandon having a pro-life stance. The right to life is a cornerstone of conservative philosophy.

However, it isn’t the needle-mover it once was and relying upon this issue as a firewall to keep a Democrat from stealing a seat is no longer an option. Put simply, the Republican constituency motivated by bringing an end to abortion is dwindling.

Perhaps there are fundraising aspects.

Some Republicans are still probably willing to donate money to a candidate or political organization if they are stalwart in their opposition to abortion.

Otherwise, while it is admirable to take a principled stand, making the pro-life position the centerpiece of a candidate’s platform will not be what pushes him or her over the finish line in a general election. Granted, it might win a candidate a primary — but if you are an abortion advocate, you probably should not be running on the GOP ticket, at least in Alabama.

As we learned last December, the majority of Alabama general voters seem to have adopted a bizarre mutation of the so-called Buckley Rule. The Buckley Rule encourages supporting the most electable conservative candidate, generally in the primary. In the Alabama mutation, it turned out to be supporting the least-crazy candidate during the general election, which turned out to be Doug Jones over Roy Moore.

Attacking Jones on abortion is valid, but it will not be his undoing, or he wouldn’t be a U.S. senator right now.

The focus in Washington, D.C., for the last few weeks is on a House Intelligence Committee memo alleging wrongdoing by the Department of Justice and the FBI in investigating associates of President Donald Trump.

Once the debate about the inside baseball of the process settles down, the more significant discussion could be about civil liberties and how government can overstep. What is Sen. Jones’ position on FBI wiretapping associates of political candidates?

Of course, when it is time to press redstate Democrats on something, the country may have moved on from this. When that time comes, however, the issue du jour probably will not be abortion.

COMMENTARY | THE GRIOT’S CORNER

The importance of our story

BY KEN ROBINSON/CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

n the very memorable and stirring movie “Amistad,” which chronicles the true events surrounding the slave revolt that took place in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad as it sailed from Cuba, there is one particularly profound and inspiring scene. Abolitionists working to secure the freedom of the 53 African captives go to the venerable, aged John Quincy Adams for help.

The son of John Adams, America’s second president, John Quincy Adams had by this time lived quite a full life.

Lawyer, diplomat, United States senator, secretary of state, the nation’s sixth president: his list of accomplishments was second to none. But some of his most celebrated days came after he left the presidency. The only president to do so, he became a member of the House of Representatives after leaving the White House and served there until his death. While in Congress, he was a vocal and staunch antislavery advocate.

It would be John Quincy Adams who would eventually argue the Amistad Africans’ case successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court. But for now, abolitionists representing the captives in lower court humbly yet persistently sought his advice on courtroom strategy.

A most capable lawyer, Adams was a firm believer that the side that won in the courtroom was usually the one that could tell the best story. So, emphatically, he asks the abolitionists: “What is the Africans’ S-T-O-R-Y?” In other words, what is their history? The abolitionists may know “what” the captives are (Africans), but do they know “who” they are? Do they know their story?

Stories are important. Whether it be an individual, an organization or a nation, our stories matter. They represent the essence and sum of who we are. In a city as old as

Mobile, with its rich and varied history, you better believe there are some very compelling stories woven throughout the city’s more than 300 year history.

However, few are more compelling than that of Union Missionary Baptist Church and the story of those who founded it. Union Baptist is not the oldest African-American church in Mobile, Stone Street Baptist Church holds that honor. But the founders of Union Baptist Church are incredibly unique in history. Like those aboard the Amistad, the founders of Union Baptist Church were kidnapped and brought here from Africa against their will on the ship Clotilda. In fact, they are the last recorded slaves to be brought to America.

Unfortunately, unlike those on the Amistad, no great American hero such as John Quincy Adams would advocate for them and gain their freedom. Unlike the Amistad captives, funds would not be secured to provide them safe passage back to their African homeland. Union Baptist Church, then, stands as a testament to the capacity of the human spirit to overcome the trial by fire of tragedy and misfortune, and find within the ashes of disappointment the hope and courage to move forward.

In early January of this year, it was the telling of this story that Union Baptist Church member Joycelyn Davis and I started conferring about. The church will celebrate its 149th year on Sunday, Feb. 11, and with the observance taking place during Black History Month, we felt a column would be timely and worthwhile to share with the community at large.

With the recent discovery of what is believed to be the remains of the Clotilda, it appears that this year’s church celebration, and the overall story itself, will take on more

profound meaning.

Union Baptist Church is located about three miles north of downtown Mobile in an area long known as Plateau. Now, however, the area is most fittingly referred to as Africatown. It has been given a historic designation, placed on the National Register of Historic Places, become part of the Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail, and in 2016 the Mobile City Council gave Bay Bridge Road, the road Union Baptist sits on, the honorary designation of Africatown Boulevard.

Union Baptist Church is the spiritual center of Africatown and Davis is proud to be an up-and-coming griot — a keeper and teller of the stories — for Union Baptist. She is learning under the church’s and Africatown’s longtime historian/storyteller, Lorna Gail Woods.

Davis told me Woods has for decades been an advocate for Africatown and a repository of the history of their community and place of worship. Fortunately, I had the extraordinary pleasure of being taken on a tour of Africatown

by Woods and listening to her speak passionately about her community and church. She brought Africatown’s history alive.

She spoke of her ancestor Charlie Lewis, who had been brought over on the Clotilda. She spoke of his brother Cudjo (Kazoola) Lewis, the last surviving member of the 110 Africans brought to this strange new land against their will.

She spoke of how they banded together. Of how, desperately longing for their homeland, they made a home — a community — for themselves and kept their customs and history alive.

According to Woods, Union Baptist Church epitomized the closeness and support found in Africatown. It was a school, community center, place of worship and place of refuge. The church even served as a communications center.

Cudjo Lewis, she recalled, was the church bellringer, and she vividly remembers as a child how he could ring the church bell in such a way that you knew what happened in the community by the sound of the bell. The church was the lifeblood of the community.

When members of Union Baptist gather this Feb. 11, it is stories like these and many others that they will be coming together to keep alive.

In the movie “Amistad,” John Quincy Adams — as he stood before the justices of the Supreme Court, appealing to them to look to the creed of liberty and freedom held by America’s ancestors to find the inspiration and courage to free the Amistad Africans — declared, “Who we are is who we were.”

Stories matter. And for members of Union Baptist Church, their story should forever give them, and us, cause to hope, endure and succeed.

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 17

BUSINESS | THE REAL DEAL

Hampton Inn under construction in Saraland

Providence Medical Group adds clinical staff

Certified Registered Nurse Practitioner Alexis Allen has joined the clinical staff of Providence Medical Group at Tillman’s Corner, 5100 Rangeline Service Road North, Mobile. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and her master’s in nursing at USA. Allen comes to Providence Medical Group from the Mobile County Health Department. She is board certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and has a special

BY RON SIVAK/COLUMNIST/BUSINESS@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM medical interest in hypertension, diabetes and women’s health.

Elizabeth Simpson, a physician assistant, has joined the clinical staff of onstruction is currently underway on a new Per a news release, the Level 1 Trauma Center earned Providence Medical Group at Snow Road, located at 9971 Airport Blvd. in West Mobile. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physician AssisHampton Inn & Suites in Saraland, according to the honor because of education provided to patients and tant Studies at USA. Simpson comes to Providence Medical Group from Sunrise a news release. Grand opening is targeted for Octo- their families by staff members, the presence of a donaber 2018. tion committee, donor family recognition, participation in Dermatology and has a special medical interest in dermatology and the treatment of acne. She is board certified by the National Commission on Certification of The 63,500-square-foot property is located on 2.5 acres National Donate Life Month activities, as well as donaPhysician Assistants. and part of the Infirmary Health System’s north campus on tion education offered to the community.

Providence Medical Group is the area’s largest nonprofit network of primary Shell Street, situated on the northwest side of the intersecMichael Scott, COO of the Alabama Organ Center, care and specialty physicians, with more than 20 locations across South Alabama tion of Interstate 65 and Highway 158 in Saraland. presented the award during a management meeting, Hampton Inn & Suites of this size typically generate recognizing USA Medical Center team members for their and southern Mississippi and 70 physicians with specialties including family around 30 new part-time and full-time jobs in the area, per efforts to help others receive the gift of life through organ medicine, endocrinology, rheumatology, general surgery and radiation oncology.

More information can be found on its website the news release. The hotel site will also be adjacent to a donation. new Publix-anchored shopping center, which will include In the United States, more than 123,000 people are on a new Cracker Barrel restaurant, also under construction. the national organ transplant waiting list, with nearly 3,200 Medal of Honor Park survey Promoted as helping facilitate Medal of Honor Park development, the city of The $15 million project will be one of the first to in Alabama, according to the National Organ Center, AlaMobile recently rolled out a survey on its website asking Mobilians to assist in feature Hampton Inn’s newest design plan for the brand, bama’s nonprofit organ and tissue recovery agency. offering a significantly new appearance. The hotel will Despite the need, only 30,000 organs are transplanted helping identify implementation priorities as part of the decision-making process replace a previous Hampton Inn that closed in 2017. It will nationwide every year, as 22 candidates die daily waiting in future plans for the community park.

The questionnaire has been described as brief, requesting information about feature 101 guest rooms and/or suites as well as 900 square for a donor. preferred types of activities locals may want implemented at the park. Topics feet of meeting space accommodating up to 70 visitors.

For more information, and to register to be a donor, include sports, special events and the playground. The survey will also request Other amenities at the hotel will include an outdoor pool, visit the AOC website at www.alabamaorgancenter.org. information on what improvements need to be made, including safety and mainfitness center, sundry shop, Wi-Fi and business center.

As a state-certified Level 1 Trauma and Burn Centenance. Locals can choose a variety of priorities such as the fields, playground, Hampton Inn & Suites is a brand of hotels trademarked ter, USA Medical Center serves as the major referral

by Hilton Worldwide and one of the largest hotel franchis- center for patients with traumatic injuries, from southern restrooms and other site amenities.

According to a news release, the survey will help shape implementation plans es in the country. The Hampton franchise includes more Alabama, southeast Mississippi and portions of northwest that will provide a framework for near-term park improvements and future develthan 2,300 hotels in nearly 20 countries.

Florida. Last year, USA Medical Center served patients opment of facilities over the next 15 years. from 53 counties.

“I encourage all of our citizens to take part in this survey, especially those who The Medical Center’s designated trauma team — USA Medical Center recognized The Alabama Organ Center recently honored University which includes trauma surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons regularly utilize this park,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said. “We want your insight as we create the vision for Medal of Honor Park for years to come.” of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile with its 2017 and neurosurgeons — treats an average of five critically A link to the survey can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JLGift of Life Award, given annually to hospitals demonstrat- injured patients a day, which is more than 1,700 people a 7PHK2, or visit the city of Mobile’s website for more information. ing a commitment to successful organ and tissue programs. year. USA Medical Center is a part of USA Health.

C

18 | L AG N I A P P E | Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 19

CUISINE THE REVIEW

After Fat Tuesday, the Mediterranean Diet beckons

ABBA’S MEDITERRANEAN CAFÉ 4861 BIT AND SPUR ROAD MOBILE 36608 251-340-6464

BY ANDY MACDONALD/CUISINE EDITOR | FATMANSQUEEZE@COMCAST.NET

20 | L AG N I A P P E | Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8

Photos | Daniel Anderson

H

ere we are, a good solid month into 2018, and I am doing my best to put in a few foot miles and sling a couple of weights here and there. But as my old pal Kelley McKee once (or twice) said, “You can’t outrun poor nutrition.”

Turns out he was right. You can’t do 1,000 jumping jacks and expect to drop the pounds if you’re slamming Big Bufords and Checkers fries after two bottles of wine at midnight on a Tuesday.

That’s the kind of program that keeps the scale heading in an unfavorable direction. And though I am not really tempted by fast food, there are several things I could change about my diet that would put me on the right path. Chip snacks are the hardest to give up. I still eat a lot of charcuterie, and salty meats and cheese apparently aren’t as good for you as I’d like to believe.

With all the fad diets out there the one I don’t consider a fad (though it isn’t talked about as much these days) is the Mediterranean Diet. Fashioned around fresh ingredients, minimizing anything from a can or box and incorporating a lot of fish as well as plant-based proteins such as beans and nuts make this not only a healthy but delicious diet. To get our midweek meal plan jumpstarted, we decided to give Abba’s Mediterranean Café a chance.

Just off of Old Shell Road, Abba’s is in the little strip of shops on Bit and Spur. It had been a while since I’d eaten there so it was time Katie got to have a little jolt of Mediterranean food in her newfound city.

Of the three other tables that sparsely populated the dining room, we got the feeling they were regulars. I particularly got a kick out of the little old ladies just a table away talking about the shortcomings and attributes of their house sitters as they enjoyed their meals.

Along with an actual paper menu there was a dry-erase board with crudely scribbled specials. We set sail on this sea with an appetizer called Shrimp Abbie ($7.95). There was a little confusion and a bit of a language barrier as our waiter asked if we wanted two of them. Apparently this is a single serving, but I didn’t care. I assured him one would be enough, and we were met with a plate of sauce on which a half dozen or more plump shrimp were placed. Billed as a spicy cream sauce, it had a lighter reddish hue and a slight amount of heat that came at you in waves.

I commented to my dining companion that it would be great to have

Just off of Old Shell Road, Abba’s is in the little strip of shops on Bit and Spur. some bread to dip in the sauce, but I then realized that would directly violate the rules of the diet. Already I was eating healthier, even if it was cream sauce.

With the fog of confusion lifting from the appetizer conversation, our kind waiter managed to sell us on the soup of the day, lentil ($3.95 per cup). I only like lentils in small doses but this cup was better than decent. One of our other neighboring tables brought to everyone’s attention that there were whole garlic cloves in her soup. It was made clear by the chef that this was intentional. Our soup was no different, and I frankly enjoyed the garlic, cooked enough to remove the sting and yielding a sweeter taste. There was a good splash of vinegar, but with the garlic I’d say this is a good one for flu season.

For my entrée, I had Sammy’s Lamb ($18.95) with rice.

Three big chunks of lamb were topped with a vinegary wine reduction sauce that softened up a generous amount of cabbage, mushrooms and walnuts. Normally I like my lamb still baaing, but this wasn’t that cut of meat. This was more like a lamb meatloaf, kind of like chunks of what you’d normally slice for a gyro. I’m in no way saying it was bad, just that it wasn’t what I was expecting. The rice had a bit of color to it, maybe a little tomato.

We went in here having heard a buzz about the grouper ($14.95). It was served with your choice of blackened, Lamona or Debrenda. Katie chose the latter, though we’d never heard of the preparation, choosing solely on the use of artichokes.

Lightly battered pan-fried grouper was in an orange-col-

ored sauce smothered with tender, crisp vegetables, heavy on red peppers, yellow bell peppers, artichoke hearts and asparagus. The fish was cooked perfectly and the only real complaint was that the large asparagus was a little on the woody side.

Maybe the peppers overpowered the fish a bit but in all it was a fun time, served with a side of pasta with a little cheese and a little olive oil, kind of like pasta with cacio e pepe.

The chef was very hands on and engaging with each customer, asking about our dishes, and told us he’d bring us some baklava ($1.50) for dessert. This pistachio version is like one I unsuccessfully attempted to make from an Egyptian cookbook given to me by Cliff Fulkerson. I kept burning the pistachio! Having it done right was incredible, with the only sweetness coming from the nuts and a bit of honey.

I also ordered a lemon icebox pie ($4.95) that tasted like the boxed ones in the grocery freezer section. I’m not complaining.

A couple glasses of cabernet ($6 each) and a hot tea ($1.95) left us with a bill in the $70 range with a good bit of leftovers.

The verdict is: I like this place. I think maybe it’s a little under-seasoned but the veggies and fish are very fresh, using organic when available. The Mediterranean diet may be a little lower in sodium than I’m used to but more herbs could take care of that. I’d love to have known the lamb was meatloaf, but I didn’t ask. Also, that may have bumped the price up to the $30 range.

Give this place a try. Bring your own wine and pay a corkage fee.

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 21

DUNKIN DONUTS ($)

DONUTS, COFFEE & SANDWICHES 1976 Michigan Ave. • 442-4846 3876 Airport Blvd. • 219-7369 505 Schillinger Rd. S. • 442-4845 29160 US Hwy 98 • 621-2228 $10/PERSON • $$ 10-25/PERSON • $$$ OVER 25/PERSON

COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE ALL SPORTS BAR & GRILL ($) 3408 Pleasant Valley Rd. • 345-9338

AL’S HOTDOGS ($)

MIKO’S ITALIAN ICE ($)

HOTDOGS SANDWICHES & COOL TREATS 3371 Dauphin Island Pkwy • 300–4015

MOMMA GOLDBERG’S DELI ($)

E WING HOUSE ($)

195 S University Blvd. Suite H • 662-1829

SANDWICHES & MOMMA’S LOVE 3696 Airport Blvd. • 344-9500 5602 Old Shell Rd. • 287-6556

EUGENE’S MONKEY BAR ($)

MONTEGO’S ($-$$)

15 N Conception St. • 433-2299

FATHOMS LOUNGE

SMALL PLATES AND CREATIVE COCKTAILS 64 S. Water St. • 438-4000

FRESH CARIBBEAN-STYLE FOOD & CRAFT BEER 6601 Airport Blvd. • 634-3445 225 Dauphin St. • 375-1576

MOON PIE GENERAL STORE ($)

CLASSIC HOTDOGS, GYROS & MILKSHAKES 4701 Airport Blvd. • 342-3243

FLOUR GIRLS BAKERY ($)

107 St Francis St #115 • RSA Bank Trust Building

ATLANTA BREAD COMPANY ($-$$)

FIREHOUSE SUBS ($)

MUFFINS, COFFEE & WRAPS 105 Dauphin St. • 433-9855

BAKE MY DAY ($)

FIVE GUYS BURGERS & FRIES ($)

SANDWICHES, SALADS & MORE. 3680 Dauphin St. • 380-0444

OLD-FASHIONED SOUTHERN BAKE SHOP 156 N. McGregor Ave. • 219-7261

BOB’S DINER ($)

GOOD OLD AMERICAN COOKING 263 St. Francis St. • 405-1497

BRICK & SPOON ($)

3662 Airport Blvd. Suite A • 525-9177

BUCK’S DINER ($)

CLASSIC AMERICAN DINER 58 N. Secion St. Fairhope • 928-8521

CAFE 219 ($)

SALADS, SANDWICHES & POTATO SALAD 219 Conti St. • 438-5234

CAMELLIA CAFÉ ($-$$$)

CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN FARE 61 Section St. • Fairhope • 928-4321

809 Hillcrest Rd. • 634-2285

HOT SUBS, COLD SALADS & CATERING 6300 Grelot Rd. • 631-3730 BURGERS, MILKSHAKES & FRIES 4401 Old Shell Rd. • 447-2394 4663 Airport Blvd. • 300-8425 5319 Hwy 90 • 661-0071 1225 Satchel Page Dr.• 378-8768

FOOSACKLY’S ($)

FAMOUS CHICKEN FINGERS 29181 US Hwy 98 • Daphne • 375-1104 7843 Moffett Rd. • 607-6196 1109 Shelton Beach Rd. • 287-1423 310 S. University Blvd. • 343-0047 2250 Airport Blvd. • 479-2922 7641 Airport Blvd. • 607-7667 2558 Schillinger Rd. • 219-7761 3249 Dauphin St. • 479-2000

FOY SUPERFOODS ($) 119 Dauphin St.• 307-8997

GULF COAST EXPLOREUM CAFE ($)

CAMMIE’S OLD DUTCH ($)

HOMEMADE SOUPS & SANDWICHES 65 Government St. • 208-6815

CARPE DIEM ($)

SEAFOOD & SANDWICHES 212 ½ Fairhope Ave •Fairhope • 928-4100

CLARK’S KITCHEN ($-$$)

3869 Airport Blvd. • 345-9544 5470 Inn Rd. • 661-9117 28975 US 98 • Daphne • 625-3910

MOBILE’S CLASSIC ICE CREAM SPOT 2511 Old Shell Rd. • 471-1710

DELI FOODS, PASTRIES & SPECIALTY DRINKS 4072 Old Shell Rd. • 304-0448 CATERING 5817 Old Shell Rd. • 622-0869

CHAT-A-WAY CAFE ($)

QUICHES & SANDWICHES 4366 Old Shell Rd. • 343-9889

CHICK-FIL-A ($)

107 St. Francis St. • 415-1700 3244 Dauphin St. • 476-0320 3215 Bel Air Mall • 476-8361 4707 Airport Blvd. • 461-9933 435 Schillinger Rd. • 639-1163 1682 US HWY 98 • Daphne • 621-3215 30500 AL 181 • Spanish Fort • 621-3020

CHICKEN SALAD CHICK ($)

GUMBO SHACK ($-$$) HOOTERS ($)

JAMAICAN VIBE ($)

MIND-BLOWING ISLAND FOOD 3700 Gov’t Blvd. Ste A • 602-1973

JERSEY MIKE’S ($)

AUTHENTIC SUB SANDWICHES 29660 AL-181 • DAPHNE • 626-3161 3151 Daupin St• 525-9917 7449 Airport Blvd. • 375-1820

JIMMY JOHN’S ($)

SANDWICHES, CATERING & DELIVERY TOO 6920 Airport Blvd. • 414-5444 9 Du Rhu Dr. • 340-8694 62 B Royal St. • 432-0360

CHICKEN SALAD, SALAD & SOUP 2370 S. Hillcrest Rd. Unit R • 660-0501 5753 Old Shell Rd. • 408-3236 1802 US Hwy 98 Suite F• 625-1092

JOE CAIN CAFÉ ($)

CHI-TOWN DAWGZ ($)

1252 Govenment St.• 301-7556

CHICAGO STYLE EATERY 1222 Hillcrest Rd. • 461-6599

CONNECTION FROZEN YOGURT ($) 1880 Industrial Pkwy. • 675-2999

CREAM AND SUGAR ($)

COFFEE, BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DESSERT 351 George St #B • 405-0003

DAUPHIN ST. CAFE ($)

HOT LUNCH, DAILY MENU (INSIDE VIA) 1717 Dauphin St. • 470-5231

D’ MICHAEL’S ($)

PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS, GYROS & MORE 7101-A Theodore Dawes Rd. • 653-2979

D NU SPOT ($)

PIZZAS, SANDWICHES, COCKTAILS 26 N. Royal St. • 338-2000

JONELLI’S ($)

JUDY’S PLACE ($-$$)

HOME COOKING 4054 Government St. • 665-4557

LICKIN’ GOOD DONUTS ($)

MOSTLY MUFFINS ($) NEWK’S EXPRESS CAFE ($)

OVEN-BAKED SANDWICHES & MORE 1335 Satchel Page Dr. Suite C. • 287-7356 7440 Airport Blvd. • 633-0096 Eastern Shore Center • Spanish Fort • 625-6544

NOURISH CAFE ($)

HEALTHY WHOLE FOODS & MORE 101 N Water St. (Moorer YMCA)• 458-8572

O’DALYS HOLE IN THE WALL ($) 562 Dauphin St.• 725-6429

OLD SHELL GROWLERS ($) GROWLER STATION AND BITES 1801 Old Shell Rd. • 345-4767

PANINI PETE’S ($)

ORIGINAL SANDWICH AND BAKE SHOP 42 ½ Section St. • Fairhope • 929-0122 102 Dauphin St. • 405-0031

AT FLU CREEK 831 N Section St. • Fairhope • 990-7766

THE BLIND MULE ($)

DAILY SPECIALS MADE FROM SCRATCH 57 N. Claiborne St. • 694-6853

REGINA’S KITCHEN ($-$$) SANDWICHES, SUBS & SOUPS 2056 Gov’t St. • 476-2777

ROLY POLY ($)

DROP DEAD GOURMET

RED OR WHITE

THE SUNFLOWER CAFE ($)

A PREMIER CATERER & COOKING CLASSES 1880-A Airport Blvd. • 450-9051

ROYAL STREET TAVERN

SOUTHERN COOKING & THEN SOME 1716 Main St. Daphne • 222-4120 INSIDE VIRGINIA’S HEALTH FOOD 3055 A Dauphin St • 479-3200

THYME BY THE BAY ($-$$)

33 N Section St. • Fairhope • 990-5635

TIME TO EAT CAFE ($)

DOWN-HOME COUNTRY COOKIN 7351 Theodore Dawes Rd. • 654-0228 13665 N. Wintzell Ave. • 824-1119

TIN ROOF ($-$$)

SOUTHERN CASUAL FAMILY DINING 10800 US HWY 31 • Spanish Fort• 621-4995

TP CROCKMIERS ($)

AMERICAN RESTAURANT & BAR 250 Dauphin St. • 476-1890 LIGHT LUNCH WITH SOUTHERN FLAIR. 226 Dauphin St. • 433-6725

GREAT SMOOTHIES, WRAPS & SANDWICHES. Du Rhu Dr. • 378-5648 570 Schillinger Road • 634-3454

CHUCK’S FISH ($$)

SEAFOOD AND SUSHI 551 Dauphin St.• 219-7051

CORNER 251 ($-$$)

SANDWICHES, SOUTHWEST FARE, 7 DAYS 1203 Hwy 98 Ste. 3D • Daphne • 626-2440

ROYAL KNIGHT ($)

LUNCH & DINNER 3004 Gov’t Blvd. • 287-1220

ROYAL STREET CAFE ($)

BAKERY 5638 Three Notch Rd.• 219-6379

SATORI COFFEEHOUSE ($)

MARY’S SOUTHERN COOKING ($)

COFFEE, LUNCHES, LIVE MUSIC & GELATO 3 Royal St. S. • 415-3000

SERDA’S COFFEEHOUSE ($)

7 SPICE ($-$$)

HIGH QUALITY FOOD & DRINKS 251 Government St • 460-3157

HEALTHY, DELICIOUS MEDITERRANEAN FOOD. 3762 Airport Blvd. • 725-1177

DAUPHIN’S ($$-$$$)

4861 Bit & Spur Rd. • 340-6464

HIGH QUALITY FOOD WITH A VIEW 107 St. Francis St • 444-0200

DUMBWAITER ($$-$$$) FIVE ($$)

KITCHEN ON GEORGE ($-$$)

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FOOD 351A George & Savannah St. • 436-8890

LAUNCH ($-$$)

ABBA’S MEDITERRANEAN CAFE ($-$$) ISTANBUL GRILL ($)

AUTHENTIC TURKISH & MEDITERRANEAN 3702 Airport Blvd. • 461-6901

JERUSALEM CAFE ($-$$)

MOBILE’S OLDEST MIDDLE EASTERN CUISINE 5773 Airport Blvd. • 304-1155

MEDITERRANEAN SANDWICH COMPANY ($)

GREAT & QUICK. 3702 Airport Blvd. • 308-2131 274 Dauphin St. • 545-3161 2502 Schillinger Rd. Ste. 2 • 725-0126 6890 US-90 • DAPHNE • 621-2271

NOJA ($$-$$$)

TAZIKI’S ($-$$)

OSMAN’S RESTAURANT ($$)

FAR EASTERN FARE

1500 Gov’t St. • 287-1526

85 N. Bancroft St. Fairhope • 990.8883

AUTHENTIC FOODS FROM HIMALAYAN REGION 3210 Dauphin St. • 287-0115 400 Eastern Shore Center • 459-2862

GREAT LUNCH & DINNER 3607 Old Shell Rd. • 445-8700 LOCAL INGREDIENTS 203 Dauphin St. • 690-6824

INVENTIVE & VERY FRESH CUISINE 6 N. Jackson St. • 433-0377 SUPREME EUROPEAN CUISINE 2579 Halls Mill Rd. • 479-0006

MINT HOOKAH BISTRO ($) GREAT MEDITERRANEAN FOOD. 5951 Old Shell Rd. • 450-9191

MEDITERRANEAN RESTAURANT & HOOKAH 1248 Hillcrest St • 634-9820 MEDITERRANEAN CAFE 1539 US HWY 98•Daphne • 273-3337

ANG BAHAY KUBO ($$)

‘CUE

ROYAL SCAM ($$)

HOME COOKIN’ LIKE MOMMA MADE. 2804 Springhill Ave. • 473-4739

RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE ($$$)

SUSHI BAR 650 Cody Rd. S • 300-8383

SAGE RESTAURANT ($$)

DELICIOUS, TRADITIONAL THAI CUISINE 28600 US 98 • Daphne • 626-5286 3821 Airport Blvd. • 344-9995

BACKYARD CAFE & BBQ ($) BAR-B-QUING WITH MY HONEY ($$) BBQ, BURGERS, WINGS & SEAFOOD 19170 Hwy 43 Mt. Vernon. • 829-9227

BRICK PIT ($)

GUMBO, ANGUS BEEF & BAR 72. S. Royal St. • 432-SCAM (7226) EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE & TASTE 271 Glenwood St. • 476-0516

INSIDE THE MOBILE MARRIOTT 3101 Airport Blvd. • 476-6400

4513 Old Shell Rd.• 473-0007

BAMBOO STEAKHOUSE ($$) BANGKOK THAI ($-$$)

BANZAI JAPANESE RESTAURANT ($$) TRADITIONAL SUSHI & LUNCH. 312 Schillinger Rd. • 633-9077

A FAVORITE BARBECUE SPOT 5456 Old Shell Rd. • 343-0001

SOUTHERN NATIONAL ($$-$$$)

COTTON STATE BBQ ($)

VON’S BISTRO ($-$$)

BENJAS ($)

TAMARA’S DOWNTOWN ($$)

CHARM ($-$$)

THE TRELLIS ROOM ($$$)

CHINA DOLL ($)

DOWNTOWN LUNCH 101 N. Conception St. • 545-4682

DICKEY’S BARBECUE PIT ($-$$)

DEW DROP INN ($)

MCSHARRY’S ($-$$)

STEVIE’S KITCHEN ($)

DREAMLAND BBQ ($)

22 | L AG N I A P P E | Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8

FALAFEL? TRY SOME HUMMUS

OLLIE’S MEDITERRANEAN GRILL ($-$$)

CUPCAKE BOUTIQUE 6207 Cottage Hill Rd. Suite B • 665-3003 SANDWICHES, SOUPS, SALADS & MORE 41 West I-65 Service Rd. N Suite 150. • 287-2793

BISTRO PLATES, CRAFT BEERS & PANTRY 2304 Main St. • 375-2800

NOBLE SOUTH ($$)

6358 Cottage Hill Rd. • 725-6917

SIMPLY SWEET ($)

SOUTHERN NAPA

WILD WING STATION ($)

COFFEE AND DONUTS 759 Nichols Avenue, Fairhope • 928-7223

YAK THE KATHMANDU KITCHEN ($-$$)

COFFEE, SMOOTHIES, LUNCH & BEERS. 5460 Old Shell Rd. • 344-4575

AUTHENTIC IRISH PUB 101 N. Bancroft St.• 990-5100

GRILLED STEAKS, CHICKEN & SEAFOOD 312 Schillinger Rd • 607-7200 901 Montlimar Dr • 408-3133

LIVE MUSIC, MARTINIS & DINNER MENU. 26 N. Royal St. • 338-2000

MAGHEE’S GRILL ON THE HILL ($-$$)

MICHELI’S CAFE ($)

CLASSIC BURGERS, HOTDOGS & SETTING 1808 Old Shell Rd. • 473-7872

BRIQUETTES STEAKHOUSE ($-$$)

323A De La Mare Ave, Fairhope • 990-0003 1104 Dauphin St.. • 478-9494

WAREHOUSE BAKERY & DONUTS ($)

GREAT DESSERTS & HOT LUNCH 23 Upham St. • 473-6115

DELISH BAKERY AND EATERY ($)

BAY GOURMET ($$)

216 St Francis St. • 421-2022

HIGH QUALITY FOOD & DRINKS 251 Government St. • 432-8000

ROSHELL’S CAFE ($)

MARS HILL CAFE ($)

3011 Springhill Ave. • 476-2232

3758 Dauphin Island Pkwy. • 473-1401

WINE BAR, CRAFT BEERS & BISTRO 6808 Airport Blvd. • 343-3555

2550 Dauphin Island Pkwy S. • 307-5328

THE WINDMILL MARKET ($)

ROSIE’S GRILL ($-$$)

FOOD, WINE & MORE 5150 Old Shell Rd. • 341-1497

THE PIGEON HOLE ($)

113 Dauphin St.• 436-0989

WRAPS & SALADS 3220 Dauphin St. • 479-2480 2906 Springhill Ave. • 479-4614

FOOD PAK

FIREHOUSE WINE BAR & SHOP

THE HARBERDASHER ($)

UNCLE JIMMY’S DELICIOUS HOTDOGS ($)

334 Fairhope Ave • Fairhope • 928-2399

WINE, BEER, GOURMET FOODS, & MORE. 720 Schillinger Rd. S. Unit 8 • 287-1851

SMOKEY DEMBO SMOKE HOUSE ($)

OPEN FOR LUNCH, INSIDE GULFQUEST 155 S. Water St • 436-8901

PUNTA CLARA KITCHEN ($) R BISTRO ($-$$)

DOMKE MARKET

POUR BABY

AWARD-WINNING BARBQUE 1111 Gov’t Blvd. • 433-7427

TROPICAL SMOOTHIE ($)

FUDGE, PRALINES & MORE 17111 Scenic Hwy 98 • Fairhope • 928-8477

A LITTLE VINO

SAUCY Q BARBQUE ($)

THE GALLEY ($)

BBQ AND MORE Jubilee Sq.Ctr. Hwy 90, Daphne • 210-2151 McGowin Park Ctr. Satchel Paige Dr. • 471-1050 7721 Airport Blvd. • 380-8957

22159 Halls Mill Rd. . • 648-6522

BARBEQUE & MUSIC Bayfront Park Dr. • Daphne • 625-RIBS 701 Springhill Ave. • 410-7427 4672 Airport Blvd. • 300-8516

BAKERY, SANDWICHES & MORE 750 S. Broad St. • 438-1511 4464 Old Shell Rd. • 342-8546 107 St. Francis St. Suite 102 • 438-2261

POLLMAN’S BAKERY ($)

SALLY’S PIECE-A-CAKE ($)

GREAT SANDWICHES, COFFEE & MORE 1087 Downtowner Blvd. • 643-1611

MOE’S ORIGINAL BAR B QUE ($)

5401 Cottage Hill Rd. • 591-4842

GREAT FOOD AND COCKTAILS 609 Dauphin St. • 308-3105

BAR FOOD 271 Dauphin St • 438-9585

PUB FOOD AND DRAFT BEERS 251 Dauphin St. • 287-6871

SLAP YOUR MAMA GOOD HOME COOKING 220 Dauphin St. • 432-6262

SUNSET POINTE ($-$$)

THREE GEORGES CANDY SHOP ($)

PAT’S DOWNTOWN GRILL ($)

HOMEMADE LUNCH & BREAKFAST 104 N. Royal St. • 434-0011

MAMA’S ($)

MEAT BOSS ($)

4701 Airport Blvd. • 408-3379

9 Du Rhu Dr. Suite 201 167 Dauphin St. • 445-3802

3915 Gov’t Blvd. • 219-7922

LODA BIER GARTEN ($)

SUGAR RUSH DONUT CO. ($)

RIBS, SANDWICHES & GREAT SIDES 3314 Old Shell Rd. • 479-9898

360 Dauphin St • 308-2387

SEAFOOD, ASIAN & AMERICAN CUISINE 69 St. Michael St • 375-1113 CASUAL FINE DINING 104 N. Section St. • Fairhope • 929-2219 CONTEMPORARY SOUTHERN CUISINE Battle House Hotel, Royal St. • 338-5493

THE WASH HOUSE ($$)

17111 Scenic HWY 98 • Point Clear • 928-4838

THAI & SUSHI 5369 D Hwy 90 W • 661-5100 THAI KITCHEN & SUSHI BAR 960 Schillinger Rd. S • 660-4470 3966 Airport Blvd.• 343-5530

CUISINE OF INDIA ($$) LUNCH BUFFET 3674 Airport Blvd. • 341-6171

FUJI SAN ($)

THAI FARE AND SUSHI 2000 Airport Blvd. • 478-9888

GOLDEN BOWL ($)

HIBACHI GRILL & ASIAN CUISINE 309 Bel Air Blvd • 470-8033

HIBACHI 1 ($-$$)

2370 Hillcrest Rd. Unit B • 380-6062

ICHIBAN SUSHI ($)

JAPANESE & CHINESE CUISINE 3959 Cottage Hill Rd • 666-6266

KAI JAPANESE RESTAURANT ($-$$) QUALITY FOOD, EXCELLENT SERVICE 5045 Cottage Hill Rd. • 607-6454

LIQUID ($$)

AMAZING SUSHI & ASSORTMENT OF ROLLS. 661 Dauphin St. • 432-0109

RICE ASIAN GRILL & SUSHI BAR ($) 3964 Gov’t Blvd. • 378-8083

ROCK N ROLL SUSHI ($$)

273 S. McGregor Ave • 287-0445 6345 Airport Blvd. • 287-0555 940 Industrial Pkwy • 308-2158 6850 US HWY 98 • Daphne • 753-4367

STIX ($$)

610240 Eastern Shore Blvd. • 621-9088

TASTE OF THAI ($$)

9091 US-90 Irvington • 957-1414

TOKYO JAPANESE STEAK HOUSE ($$) UPSCALE SUSHI & HIBACHI 364 Azalea Rd. • 343-6622

WASABI SUSHI ($$)

JAPANESE CUISINE 3654 Airport Blvd. S. C • 725-6078

FROM THE DEPTHS BAUDEAN’S ($$)

FRIED, GRILLED, STEAMED & ALWAYS FRESH 3300 River Rd. • 973-9070

THE BLUEGILL ($-$$)

A HISTORIC SEAFOOD DIVE W/ LIVE MUSIC 3775 Hwy. 98 • 625-1998

BONEFISH GRILL ($$)

ECLECTIC DINING & SPACE 6955 Airport Blvd. • 633-7196

BOUDREAUX’S CAJUN GRILL ($-$$) QUALITY CAJUN & NEW ORLEANS CUISINE 29249 US Highway 98 Daphne. • 621-1991

CRAVIN CAJUN/DIP SEAFOOD ($) PO-BOYS, SALADS & SEAFOOD 1870 Dauphin Island Pkwy • 287-1168

ED’S SEAFOOD SHED ($$)

FRIED SEAFOOD SERVED IN HEFTY PORTIONS 3382 Hwy. 98 • 625-1947

FELIX’S FISH CAMP ($$) UPSCALE DINING WITH A VIEW 1420 Hwy. 98 • 626-6710

FISHERMAN’S LEGACY ($) DELI, MARKET AND CATERING. 4380 Halls Mill Rd. • 665-2266

HALF SHELL OYSTER HOUSE ($)

30500 AL-181 • Spanish Fort • 206-8768 3654 Airport Blvd. • 338-9350

HURRICANE GRILL & WINGS ($-$$)

9 Du Rhu Dr. • 340-6611

GULF COAST CUISINE, REINVENTED 200 E. 25th Ave. • Gulf Shores • 967-5858

ISLAND WING CO ($)

PIZZA, SUBS & PASTA 1368 ½ Navco Rd.• 479-0066

MANCIS ($)

A TASTE OF ITALY. BYOB. 28691 U.S. Highway 98 • 626-1999

LUCY B. GOODE ($$)

WINGS, SEAFOOD, BURGERS & BEER 7721 Airport Blvd. Suite E-180 • 639-6832

LULU’S ($$)

EVERYTHING BAKED OR GRILLED 2617 Dauphin St. • 476-9464

LIVE MUSIC & GREAT SEAFOOD 200 E. 25th Ave. • Gulf Shores • 967-5858

MUDBUGS AT THE LOOP ($)

1715 Main St. • 375-0543

OFF THE HOOK MARINA & GRILL ($)

MUG SHOTS ($$)

CAJUN KITCHEN & SEAFOOD MARKET 2005 Government St. • 478-9897

CAJUN INSPIRED/FRESH SEAFOOD & MORE 621 N Craft Hwy • Chickasaw • 422-3412

RALPH & KACOO’S ($-$$) THE SEAFOOD RESTAURANT 1595 Battleship Pkwy. • 626-0045

R&R SEAFOOD ($-$$)

LAID-BACK EATERY & FISH MARKET 1477 Battleship Pkwy. • 621-8366

RIVER SHACK ($-$$)

MCSHARRY’S IRISH PUB ($)

BRILLIANT REUBENS & FISH-N-CHIPS. 101 N. Brancroft St. Fairhope • 990-5100 BAR & GRILL 29740 Urgent Care Dr. • Daphne • 662-9639 6255 Airport Blvd. • 447-2514

OLD 27 GRILL ($)

BURGERS, DOGS & 27 BEERS & WINES. 19992 Hwy.181 Old County Rd. Fairhope • 281-2663

LUCKY’S IRISH PUB ($)

SEAFOOD, BURGERS & STEAKS 6120 Marina Dr. • Dog River • 443-7318.

IRISH PUB FARE & MORE 1108 Shelton Beach Rd •Saraland • 473-0757 3692 Airport Blvd • 414-3000

LOCAL SEAFOOD & PRODUCE 6036 Rock Point Rd. • 443-7540

WINGS, TENDERS, HOTDOGS & SANDWICHES 312 Schillinger Rd. • 633-5877

THE GRAND MARINER ($-$$) THE HARBOR ROOM ($-$$) UNIQUE SEAFOOD 64 S. Water St. • 438-4000

WEMOS ($)

THE SEAFOOD HOUSE ($-$$)

MAMA MIA!

TIN TOP RESTAURANT & OYSTER BAR ($$)

DELIVERY 350 Dauphin St. • 431-9444

751 Azalea Rd. • 301-7964

SEAFOOD, STEAKS, & EXTENSIVE WINE LIST 6232 Bon Secour Hwy County Rd. 10. • 949-5086

WINTZELL’S OYSTER HOUSE ($-$$) FRESH SEAFOOD FOR OVER 75 YEARS 605 Dauphin St. • 432-4605 6700 Airport Blvd. • 341-1111 1208 Shelton Beach Rd. • Saraland • 442-3335 805 S. Mobile St. • 929-2322

IS THE GAME ON?

ASHLAND MIDTOWN PUB ($-$$) PIZZAS, PASTAS, & CALZONES 245-A Old Shell Rd. • 479-3278

BAUMHOWER’S ($)

WINGS, BURGERS & PUB GRUB 6880 US-90 #14 • Daphne • 625-4695

HEROES SPORTS BAR & GRILLE ($) SANDWICHES & COLD BEER 273 Dauphin St. • 433-4376 Hillcrest & Old Shell Rd. • 341-9464

MARIA BONITA AGAVE BAR & GRILL ($-$$)

PINZONE’S ITALIAN VILLAGE ($$) AUTHENTIC ITALIAN DISHES 312 Fairhope Ave. • Fairhope • 990-5535 PIZZA, PASTA, SALAD & MORE 102 N. Section St. •Fairhope• 929-2525

PIZZERIA DELFINA ($)

PASTA, SALAD AND SANDWICHES 7143 Airport Blvd. • 341-7217

BEACH BLVD STEAMER ($) C&G GRILLE ($)

TAQUERIA CANCUN ($)

PALACE CASINO:

AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FLAVOR 3733 Airport Blvd. • 414-4496

TRATTORIA PIZZA & ITALIAN ($$)

NO GAMBLING CASINO FARE

ITALIAN FOOD & PIZZAS 11311 US HIghway 31 Spanish Fort• 375-0076

VIA EMILIA ($$)

MOUTH WATERING MEXICAN FOOD 1175 Battleship Pkwy • 625-2722

GRIMALDI’S ($)

MEXICAN CUISINE 260 Azalea Rd. • 375-1095

ITALIAN, STEAKS & SEAFOOD 18 Laurel Ave. • Fairhope • 990-0995

CINCO DE MAYO ($)

FRESH CUISINE NIGHTLY ON MENU 1709 Main St. • Daphne • 626-6082

DON CARLOS MEXICAN RESTAURANT

GUIDO’S ($$)

HOUSE OF PIZZA ($)

MELLOW MUSHROOM ($)

PIES & AWESOME BEER SELECTION 2032 Airport Blvd. • 471-4700 5660 Old Shell Rd. • 380-1500 2409 Schillinger Rd S • 525-8431 29698 Frederick Blvd.• Daphne • 621-3911

MIRKO ($$) PASTA & MORE

STALLA ($$)

EXOTIC CUISINE AND SUSHI

BLU ($)

TERRACE CAFE ($)

WIND CREEK CASINO:

777 Beach Blvd.Biloxi • 877-877-6256

RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE ($$$)

763 Holcombe Ave • 473-0413

SATISFACTION ($-$$)

EL MARIACHI ($)

MARCO’S PIZZA ($)

CQ ($$-$$$)

212 Fairhope Ave. • 928-8108

1252 Gov’t St. • 301-7556

LA ROSSO ($$)

JIA ($-$$)

29669 Alabama 181 • Spanish Fort • (251) 625-3300

EL CAMINO TACO SHACK ($)

JONELLI’S ($)

EL PAPI

615 Dauphin St • (251) 308-2655

1980 Beach Blvd. Biloxi • 800-747-2839

THE DEN ($-$$)

HALF SHELL OYSTER HOUSE ($-$$) HARD ROCK CAFÉ ($)

3958 Snow Rd C. • Semmes • 645-3400

BURGERS AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

LOCAL SEAFOOD AND 40+ BEERS

HARD ROCK CASINO:

ENCHILADAS, TACOS, & AUTHENTIC FARE Ok Bicycle Shop • 661 Dauphin St. • 432-2453

INTERACTIVE ASIAN DINING

COAST SEAFOOD & BREW ($-$$)

BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, LATE NIGHT

DAUPHIN ST. TAQUERIA ($)

STEAKS, SEAFOOD, FINE WINE

PLACE BUFFET ($-$$)

AMAZING ARRAY OF MOUTH-WATERING FOOD.

ITALIAN COOKING

Bel Air Mall • 476-2063

MIGNON’S ($$$)

TREASURE BAY:

GAMBINO’S ITALIAN GRILL ($)

CAFÉ DEL RIO ($-$$)

158 Howard Ave. Biloxi • 800-725-2239

BR PRIME ($$-$$$)

TASTE OF MEXICO 5452 Hwy 90 W • 661-5509

GREAT PIZZA. LUNCH & DINNER 4356 Old Shell Rd. • 342-0024

LARGE BREAKFAST, LUNCH OR DINNER MENU

STACKED GRILL ($-$$)

FINE DINING ESTABLISHMENT.

AZTECAS ($-$$)

RICH TRADITIONS, STEAK, SEAFOOD

BEAU RIVAGE:

875 Beach Blvd. Biloxi • 888-952-2582

HOMEMADE PASTAS & PIZZAS MADE DAILY 5901 Old Shell Rd. • 342-3677

SEAFOOD

ROOSTER’S ($)

TAQUERIA MEXICO ($-$$)

WINGS, PO-BOYS, BURGERS 210 Eastern Shore Center, Hwy. 98 • 929-0002

3300 W. Beach Blvd. Biloxi • 877-774-8439

CARTER GREEN STEAKHOUSE ($$-$$$)

3172 International Dr. • 476-9967

TAMARA’S BAR & GRILL ($)

CASUAL & RELAXING, EXTENSIVE MENU

POOR MEXICAN ($)

LATIN AMERICAN FOOD 211 Dauphin St. • 375-1076

ROMA CAFE ($-$$)

INTERACTIVE ASIAN DINING

HIGH TIDE CAFÉ ($)

HEARTY MEXICAN FARE 736 holcombe Ave.• 473-0413 3050 AL 181 • Spanish Fort • 621-7433

PIZZA & PASTA 107 Dauphin St. • 375-1644

SEAFOOD, STEAKS, WINE

TIEN ($-$$)

ISLAND VIEW:

OLÉ MI AMIGO ($-$$)

RAVENITE ($)

THIRTY-TWO ($$$)

MEXICAN CUISINE 3977 Gov’t Blvd. • 660-4970

CORTLANDT’S PIZZA PUB ($-$$)

BUTCH CASSIDY’S ($)

BURGERS & BEER 916 Charleston St. • 433-9374

QUAINT MEXICAN RESTAURANT 5556 Old Shell Rd. • 345-7484

THE BUFFET ($-$$)

5055 Cottage Hill Rd. • 308-4888 2394 Dawes Rr. • 639-3535 2004 US 98 • Daphne • 265-6550

CALLAGHAN’S IRISH SOCIAL CLUB ($)

PAPA’S PLACE ($$)

LOS ARCOS ($)

BUCK’S PIZZA ($$)

BUFFALO WILD WINGS ($)

FAMOUS BURGERS, SANDWICHES & WINGS 60 N. Florida St. • 450-0690

830 W I65 Service Rd. S • 378-5837 4663 Airport Blvd. • 342-5553

OLÉ MI AMIGO!

COMFORT FOOD 1716 Main St. Ste. C • Daphne • 281-2982

BEST WINGS & SPORTING EVENTS 6341 Airport Blvd. • 378-5955

NAVCO PIZZA ($$)

AMERICAN FARE & ROCKIN’ MEMORABILIA EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE & TASTE SOUTHERN FAVORITES BUFFET

INTIMATE & CASUAL WITH DAILY SPECIALS ELEGANT ATMOSPHERE & TANTALIZING ENTREES LOUNGE WITH COCKTAILS & TAPAS MENU

303 Poarch Rd. Atmore • 866-946-3360

FIRE ($$-$$$)

PRIME STEAKS, SEAFOOD & WINE

GRILL ($)

CONTEMPORARY & OLD-FASHIONED FAVORITES

SCARLET PEARL:

9380 Central Avenue D’Iberville • 800266-5772

FUEGO ($-$$)

HARRAH’S GULF COAST:

CHEF WENDY’S BAKING ($-$$)

FUZZY’S TACO SHOP ($)

MAGNOLIA HOUSE ($$-$$$)

CLASSIC ALL-AMERICAN CASUAL CUISINE WITH OVER 100 OPTIONS.

HACIENDA SAN MIGUEL ($-$$)

FLAVORS BUFFET ($-$$)

OUTSTANDING MEXICAN CUISINE 2066 Old Shell Rd. • 378-8621 5713 Old Shell Rd.• 338-9697

TASTE OF MEXICO 880 Schillinger Rd. S. • 633-6122 5805 US 90 • 653-9163

LA COCINA ($)

AUTHENTIC MEXICAN CUISINE 800 N Section St. • Fairhope • 990-0783

280 Beach Blvd. Biloxi • 288-436-2946

MADE-TO-ORDER FESTIVE TREATS AND SPECIALTY CAKES.

UNDER THE OAK CAFE ($-$$)

FINE DINING, SEAFOOD AND STEAKS

WATERFRONT BUFFET ($$-$$$)

ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET

CHOPSTX NOODLE BAR - $-$$

THE BLIND TIGER ($-$$)

SOUPS, SALADS, FRESH SEAFOOD, AND MORE

VIETNAMESE SANDWICHES, PHO, AND APPETIZERS.

quality food and simple unique cocktails

SCARLET’S STEAKS & SEAFOOD ($$$)

IP CASINO:

BUTLER’S BAR & LOUNGE ($$)

850 Bayview Ave. Bilox • 888-946-2847

SAVORY STEAKS AND SEAFOOD

EXTRAORDINARY DRINK MENU, COCKTAILS

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 23

CUISINE | WORD OF MOUTH ers have made the decision to close the midtown watering hole to focus on other ventures. Late last year, Matt Golden announced he was expanding his popular LoDa Bier Garten to West Mobile, in the building formerly occupied by The Hungry Owl. Old Shell Growlers focused on take-out beer and small plates, but always had dozens of brews on tap. Early readers of this newspaper may have a final fleeting chance to say goodbye.

The Facebook post continued: “We have appreciated your support and patronage over the last year and a half and hope to see you all on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (Feb. 5-7) from 11 a.m. until 10.p.m. to close this chapter with a final super sale!

“We will have 50 percent off, drink-in or carry-out. Remember, our friends at LoDa Bier Garten are there for all of your craft beer needs and make sure to visit the new LoDa Bier Garten opening soon in West Mobile.”

Indeed we will.

More kudos for Callaghan’s, plus Dixie Beer relaunch

BY ANDY MACDONALD/CUISINE EDITOR | FATMANSQUEEZE@COMCAST.NET

Alabama Credit Union fundraiser for school meals

Photo | Facebook

Callaghan’s was named one of the “Top 150 bars in the United States” by New York Daily News.

E

very time you turn around, Callaghan’s receives another award or national recognition. The latest is from the New York Daily News, which placed it in the Top 150 Bars in the United States. That’s high praise for our little watering hole. Owner John Thompson says, “It’s all in who you know, I guess.” My guess is payola.

Callaghan’s is also the spot for the relaunch of Dixie Beer in Mobile! Like so many of her residents, New Orleans’ hometown brew was washed away by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.

The brew is now available across metro New Orleans and will soon be in the bars of Mobile!

What better day to see the return of Dixie Beer than Joe Cain Day, and what better bar than Cally’s! Dixie Beer reps will be on hand with giveaway items as Grayson Capps gets the party going as only he does. I’m certain there will be plenty of Wild Mauvillians descending upon the corner of Marine and Charleston. It’s THE Joe Cain Day party.

Congratulations, JT. Try not to get a big head over this.

Old Shell Growlers closes

24 | L AG N I A P P E | Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8

According to a Facebook post, the owners of Old Shell Growl-

According to a letter from President and CEO Steve Swafford, Alabama Credit Union will host the fourth annual Bids, Brews & Beats Concert and Silent Auction benefiting Secret Meals on May 5 from 1-5 p.m. at the Flora-Bama Lounge and Oyster Bar. Guests will enjoy live music while supporting Secret Meals by bidding on great silent auction items.

In 2008, Alabama Credit Union started Secret Meals for Hungry Children with just 18 schoolchildren. Today, the Secret Meals program serves more than 2,500 children across the state by quietly slipping packages of food into their backpacks every Friday.

Along the Alabama Gulf Coast and Perdido Key area, it serves Gulf Shores Elementary, Fairhope Elementary, Foley Elementary, Swift Elementary, Florence Howard Elementary and Warrington Elementary, totaling 245 children receiving weekend food packs through Secret Meals, with plans to add more schools this coming school year.

With a fundraising goal for these schools of $20,000, the credit union is asking for donations to the silent auction. Any item of any value will directly impact the life of a child in Alabama.

The entirety of the contributions go toward purchasing Secret Meals food packs for South Alabama and Northwest Florida’s neediest children. All donations are tax deductible. The difference you can make in a child’s life through Secret Meals is no secret at all! Find out more on secretmeals.org.

Recycle!

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 25

COVER STORY

Mardi Gras from ‘the other side of the barricades’

I

JASON JOHNSON/REPORTER

Mixon said he’s been beaten to Spanish Plaza by some of the more dedicated attendees several times.

He said seeing it all line up just as a parade starts is satisfying.

“To stand right there at the Civic Center and watch all that come together is kind of amazing,” he added. “You just don’t realize standing on the other side of the barricades all the little things that have to happen to make it all work.”

Despite the grueling schedule, Mixon said Mardi Gras is usually an eventful and fun time for officers, especially those who work the same area year after year. That familiarity earns officers friends among the revelers and also gives them an idea of what to expect in certain areas.

One of most recognizable officers anywhere on the main parade routes is probably MPD Sgt. Jeremy March, who’s known on YouTube as “The Dancing Cop.” He’s been known to cross the barricades at Dauphin and Royal and join a dance line or two, and that’s earned him a bit of following.

“People know me from that corner because a lot of them come back every year. One time a gentleman was trying to cross the street while the parade was going, and obviously I couldn’t let him,” March said. “He got kind of angry at me and started saying a few choice words, but then the crowd actually kind of [verbally] turned on him. I just thought, ‘Man, if I ever have to fight a guy or something at my corner, I’ve got about 300 people backing me up.’ So, that’s good.”

Law and Order: Carnival Unit

A lifelong local, Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said he can remember parades that went down cobblestone streets. Since then, and as former chief of police in Mobile, he’s seen a number of changes to Mardi Gras over the years — most of them for the better, he said.

Calling Mardi Gras in the recent past “more tame,” Cochran noted that there used to regularly be fights during the lull between parades. Today, most of the police action focuses on underage drinking, traffic enforcement and minor, ticketable offenses such as crossing a closed barricade.

When asked about a Mardi Gras memory that stuck out in his mind, Cochran didn’t reflect on a large number of arrests or a particularly unruly crowd. Instead, it was runaway mules. …

“Years ago, back when the Knights of Revelry emblem float was pulled by mules, something spooked them on Government near the Admiral Hotel, and they just took off. That guy was up in the top of this thing hanging on for dear life because they were flying, and that float was swinging back and forth and hitting barricades,” Cochran said. “There were band members jumping the barricades trying to get out of the way. Plus, it was the lead float, so it probably went three and half to four blocks before it got hung up and stopped. … Fortunately, no one was hurt.”

On a more serious note, Cochran said once when he was with the MPD, a police surgeon attached to one of the squads had to spring into action and save an officer’s life. Cochran said he’d been shot in the leg, severing an

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Illustration | Laura Rasmussen

n the early hours before a weekend parade — before the first revelers arrive to to stake out a favorite street corner — local police are starting the long, stressful but seldom unentertaining days that make America’s original Mardi Gras celebration possible.

With hundreds of thousands of people and a few dozen horses converging on downtown Mobile all at once, it takes a massive police presence not only to ensure everyone’s safety, but to make sure all the moving parts of the parading process roll right along with those “bon temps.”

“It’s truly one of the most intensive operations we’ll do all year,” Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said.

“There’s quite a bit that goes into it. We have to pull personnel from patrol, special operations, our SWAT team, the mounted unit, traffic … just the sheer amount of man hours they put in, from my perspective, is really astronomical.”

Those hours are usually overtime for Mobile Police Department officers, many of whom work weekday parades after a full shift of their regular duties and take on those schedules for weeks.

While preventing crime and ensuring public safety are always at the forefront, many of those officers are there to help visitors get where they’re going, enforce parking, set up and direct parades, and control crowds that exceeded 75,000 in the early days of the 2018 Carnival season.

According to Battiste, it takes a different approach from other police operations and can require officers to use their discretion in setting priorities. While officers are never going to overlook criminal activity, Battiste said there’s a “much softer approach” during Mardi Gras.

He said asking someone to pour out an open container of alcohol is far easier than trying to arrest them among hundreds of people. Though, for those who might think of disregarding such a request, Battiste noted MPD has the ability to “effectively arrest” in any sized crowd.

“It’s Mardi Gras — it’s a good time in our city that highlights some of the better things that happen here, and we want to make sure people that come here have a good time, but we also want them to know they are safe,” he added. “We know 90 percent of the people coming down are there to have a good time — they go to the same spot every year, they have fun and when it’s over, they go home. We want them to be able to do that.”

Lagniappe spoke with law enforcement officers from various agencies recently about their experience during Mardi Gras over the years, and there were some common themes shared by all of them. One of those was issues with parking, or as one officer said, the apparent inability of certain individuals to read very clearly marked signs.

Before his promotion, Cpl. Jonathan Mixon was with MPD’s traffic unit and spent most of his Mardi Gras telling people where parking was allowed and where it was prohibited. That can be hard enough on a normal day in Mobile, but in the height of revelry — while trying to keep Conti and Church streets clear so first responders can quickly access the parade routes — it can be an allout undertaking.

“We always try to help people when we can, but folks end up parking wherever,” Mixon said. “People right in front of a tow-away sign will ask, ‘Can I park here?’

After a while I’ll just start saying, ‘You can, but it’s one of the $125 spots. It comes with a free mile walk to get your car,’” he said, noting the fee for towing and the distance to the nearest impound lot.

One thing Mixon said most people don’t realize is the multitude of moving parts that come together for a parade to start rolling — many of which involve the MPD. If there’s a parade at 6:30 p.m., officers are there by 3 p.m. If it’s a morning parade, the call is at 6 a.m., though

artery near his hamstring.

“The doctor was on the scene in, like, a minute, and actually stuck a finger into the severed artery and truly saved this guy’s life by having knowledge of what to do in that situation,” he added.

As for Mixon, he shared a story that, at least initially, appeared to be another tale of poor parking in Mobile. However, it ultimately led to what he described as one of the easiest justifications for an arrest he’s ever had to give in a court of law.

It was Joe Cain Day — the “People’s Parade” — and the year was 2006.

Still working traffic at the time, Mixon said he and maybe three other uinformed officers were staged at the Canal Street exit off of Interstate 10, where many congregate around the Civic Center and some park illegally.

It was there Mixon said the group watched a guy stagger across Canal and start walking up the off ramp. There was a brief discussion about arresting the gentleman for public intoxication, but according to Mixon, it was Mardi Gras and he was walking under his own power. Good enough.

“I thought surely if he’s going up there to a car, he’s going to climb in it and go to sleep, but no. He took the Pepsi Challenge,” Mixon said. “He probably drove a whole 200 feet before we stopped and arrested him. There wasn’t any point in putting him through field sobriety tests, he could barely stand. We just put him in a car and took him two blocks to the Metro Jail.”

Wherever he is today, that gentleman at least had a chance to avoid becoming an easy arrest, but that was not the case for the fellow who ran into Sgt. Randall Dueitt a few years ago. That night Dueitt was one of the officers working undercover in plainclothes with MCSO’s narcotics unit.

Dueitt said he’s never smoked, but for some reason always kept a cigarette lighter on him when working undercover, and that evening, one unlucky reveler just happened to ask him for a light.

“Honestly, I just assumed he wanted to light a cigarette, but I gave it to him and he reached back behind his ear, pulls out a joint and just lights it up.

You gotta remember there are no less than five narcotics officers standing around him at this point,” Dueitt said. “I asked him if could get a drag, and once I get possession of the evendeice we all pulled our badges out … you can only imagine the expression on his face.

“At first he was like, ‘this is bullsh*t’ and was pretty upset, but about halfway back to the paddywagon we keep at our command post, he just busts out laughing and says, ‘I know I’m in trouble, but I’ve got to tell you, this is one the craziest things that’s ever happened in my life.’”

However, even the cops can manage to find a little trouble during Mardi Gras.

March, the dancing cop, said the police working parade routes take their job of protecting and assisting the public seriously, but can get a little more irritable as the parades drag on toward the end of Mardi Gras week. That’s when he said some kind of stress reliever can help improve the morale of everyone involved, but it can also get you written up.

“A few years ago, on the last two days, some of the officers and I brought water guns down to Mardi Gras. When the parades aren’t going, we typically ride around and make sure everything is good and try to be seen. Well, I was riding in the paddywagon at the time and we would make periodic stops at other officers’ locations, drive up and start shooting them with these water guns. We all got written up, but I think it was worth it. It did kind of liven things up a bit for us.”

COVER STORY

Raising Cain, literally DALE LIESCH/REPORTER

T

he man responsible for reviving Mardi Gras in Mobile after the Civil War may be one of the only Mobilians to be buried three times.

Joe Cain lies in eternal rest with his wife, Elizabeth, at the historic Church Street Cemetery downtown, but the couple was actually buried in Bayou La Batre first, Wayne Dean said. Dean, who portrays Cain’s alter-ego, Chief Slacabamarinico, during the Joe Cain procession the Sunday preceding Fat Tuesday each year, said he was present when the Cains were moved in the late 1960s.

Before the move in 1966, Dean said Joe Cain was like a footnote in Mobile’s Mardi Gras history. At the time, Julian Rayford, the original Slacabamarinico, was concerned the city wasn’t doing enough to honor Cain, Dean said. The move prompted the first procession on Shrove Sunday.

“They wanted him to be more known for what he did,” Dean said.

The Cains were moved a second time within the Church Street Cemetery, Dean said. There current resting place is near the entrance and close to where Joe Cain’s parents are buried.

The initial move had two goals. The first, getting Cain some recognition, “we’ve accomplished quite well,” Dean said. “Joe Cain is more well known in our area than the governor.”

The second reason, which allows revelers to go downtown and parade without paying a fee, has been harder to accomplish.

“The city has limited the number of units,” he said. “They’ve since relaxed that.”

Before the procession, which now occurs on Joe Cain Day, Dean said there weren’t very many activities on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. Dean was home from his studies at the University of Alabama when the first procession took place in 1969. The first ceremony was “very much a memorial,” Dean said, and included a priest. There was no money for a band. “[The next year] was when it first started to take off,” Dean said. “I helped with marketing.

We got the word out so well.”

Now, the procession includes a series of parades but begins with a visit to the cemetery from a group called the Merry Widows, owner of Secret History Tours Todd Duran said.

He said the second move might have been predicated on the popularity of Cain himself and cemetery managers not wanting visitors to disturb other resting places.

“I just find the whole situation interesting,” he said. “It’s all part of the mythology of Joe Cain.”

Visitors now arrive at the cemetery between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and wait for the Widows to open its gates at around 9:15 a.m., Duran said.

“People always arrive early and sit on the wall so they can see what’s going on,” Duran said. “The city is very tolerant of it.”

Some visitors wear costumes and even bring step-ladders, he said.

“I think people like the theatricality of it,” Duran said. “It’s almost done like a jazz funeral.”

Duran credited books by Dr. Ann Pond for some of his knowledge. Pond’s books “The First Cowbellian: Mummers and the Birth of America’s Mardi Gras” and “Masons and Mardi Gras: Secret Origins of Mystic Krewes” are good examples.

For instance, Duran said Cain was invited to a fireman’s parade in New Orleans on Lundi Gras in 1868. He witnessed the parades in New Orleans that year before bringing the tradition back to Mobile the next year.

Duran hosts a Mardi Gras-themed walking tour through downtown. The tours begin at Serda’s Brewing at 3:30 p.m. on parade days.

The price of the tours is $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 6 to 12.

Following Mardi Gras, Duran will host a general Mobile history tour. He’s currently working on a website, but those interested can visit Secret History Tours’ Facebook page for more information.

As Dean mentioned, the Joe Cain procession, or the “People’s Parade,” has been plagued recently by infighting between the traditional footmarchers and a group of revelers who take to floats, known as the Joe Cain Parading Society.

In 2014, organizers of the parading society said city permitting fees caused them to document and charge footmarchers for participation in the parade. Many marching organizers were outraged at the prospect of having to pay to participate in the parade on Joe Cain Day. Dean said the city has since loosened the regulations and anyone who would like to can now march on Joe Cain Day. Dean said because the Joe Cain footmarchers have their own permit, anyone can join them.

“The footmarchers had always been there and been unlimited,” Dean said of the parade on Joe Cain Day. “It took a couple years to convince the powers that be. This is the first year anyone can join [since 2014].”

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ART ARTIFICE

Opera returns to Murphy High for Winter Gala

BY KEVIN LEE/ARTS EDITOR/KLEE@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

I

n a battle between beauty and a bug, the former will prevail. That’s Scott Wright’s aim anyway.

The Mobile Opera general and artistic director has to get past an unwelcome visitor that has made the rounds this winter: the flu. It wasted no time settling in.

“Thursday night, I was conducting rehearsals at the University of Mobile for the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ up there.

We started at 6:30 and 7:30 or 8 o’clock we took a little break, and coming back from the break I was feeling dizzy, really bad, and told them ‘I think I need to excuse myself and get home while I can still drive,’ and got in the bed and shook like an aspen leaf,” Wright said.

He’s in good company this year — including this writer, whose own flu encounter resulted in four days at Mobile Infirmary — but it doesn’t ease Wright’s sense of urgency.

That’s because the clock is ticking through his recuperation in preparation for the third incarnation of Mobile Opera’s annual Winter Gala Concert on Feb. 17. “[Mobile Opera] has frequently had some kind of winter feature as a placeholder between our regular operas six months apart. For several years we used to do the American musical theater, a semi-stage version, and we had several shows like ‘Sweeney Todd’ and one that was a variety show kind of thing, another that highlighted Southern performers,” Wright explained.

They wanted to change it up, to utilize choruses during a dormant period. That first Winter Gala in February 2016 featured the Mobile Opera chorus with four soloists performing Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” and

Congrats to local students

Antonín Dvorák’s Mass in D Major. Staged in Midtown’s Trinity Episcopal Church, they were able to implement the restored facility’s new pipe organ.

“That was just packed and we really couldn’t fit all the people in for that one,” Wright recalled.

Last winter found them in The Steeple for a pair of performances. As the chorus ran through the songs, a pair of screens above the stage flashed photos from regularseason performances.

When attendees file into Murphy High School Auditorium on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m., they’ll witness the latest in this shifting production. This time around, they will hit all high notes by skimming from a pair of operas, “Carmen” and “Rigoletto.”

“They’re two of the most popular operas in the world.

There are other operas that are great operas but don’t have the number of highlights. There’s so much that’s known from them that everybody, including Elmer Fudd, has some connection with it,” Wright said.

“Rigoletto” features soprano Kathryn Hedlund, tenor Myles Garver, baritone Andre Chiang and mezzo-soprano Rachel Gibson. “Carmen” features Hedlund, Chiang, Gibson and tenor Peter James Lake. Pianist Eric Andries will accompany.

Seating is open and all seats are only $25. Students pay $10 with an ID. For ticket information call Mobile Opera at 251-4326772.

“I’m doing narration along with Stacy Driskell to ac-

Rescheduled chamber concert mid-February

AS FAR AS FUTURE WINTER GALAS, WRIGHT HAS VARIOUS IDEAS AND THE FLEXIBILITY TO MULL IT OVER. THOUGH FULL OPERAS CAN TAKE YEARS TO IRON OUT AND STAGE, THE FOOTPRINT FOR THE MIDWINTER SHOWCASE IS FAR SMALLER.” by the disaster, then restored.

It’s also a return to origins for Mobile Opera. The opera utilized the 1,000plus auditorium after its 1946 inception until the Mobile Civic Center Theater was completed in the 1960s.

As far as future Winter Galas, Wright has various ideas and the flexibility to mull it over. Though full operas can take years to iron out and stage, the footprint for the midwinter showcase is far smaller.

“There’s a friend of mine who does a show that is all these famous women of opera, and another lady that has a one-woman show about becoming an opera singer. Those things interest me, so I think next year maybe something different, I just don’t know what it is,” Wright said.

The Parker String Quartet was set to play Mobile when the early-October arrival of Hurricane Nate forced a change in plans. The quartet is set to make up the show on Feb. 18, 3 p.m. at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center on the University of South Alabama campus.

The Parker Quartet has played concerts at St. John’s College, festivals in Maine, Colorado and Virginia, the National Gallery of Art and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in the last year or so.

This Grammy Award-winning string ensemble will perform a program featuring Mozart’s Quartet in B-flat Major, Györgi Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 and Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6.

Single concert tickets are available at the door on the day of the performance. Tickets for Mobile Chamber Music are available by calling 251-633-8840 or online at mobilechambermusic.org.

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Christie classic on Fairhope stage

As the grand dame of British mystery writers, Agatha Christie certainly proved her mettle when she penned the short radio play “Three Blind Mice” in 1947. She took the kernel of a true-life tale about a pair of brothers who suffered abuse at the hands of a rural Shropshire farming couple. The title later changed to “The Mousetrap” and, after debuting in London’s West End in 1952, it has run ever since.

This eight-member whodunit classic — a collection of strangers become trapped in a snowbound boarding house with an unknown killer — will be featured at Theatre 98 (350 Morphy Ave., Fairhope) Feb. 16 through March 4.

Friday and Saturday curtain is at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees are at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets run from $12 to $18. Four performances are already sold out.

For more information, call 251-928-4366 or visit theatre98.org.

ARTSGALLERY

Mobile-area students took home national awards and earned recognition at the 2018 Junior Theater Festival Atlanta, which took place Jan. 12-14.

Eastern Shore Repertory Theatre had a pair of groups at the festival. Their younger division, Eastern Shore Rep Kids, won a Freddie G Outstanding Production and performed “Right Before Your Eyes” from Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach.”

Sunny Side Theater’s Lauren Westbrook won a Freddie G Award for Outstanding Student Direction and Choreography.

Eastern Shore Repertory Theatre students joined forces with students from Ohlook Performing Arts Center of Grapevine, Texas, to perform “Give A Little Love” from “Bugsy Malone Jr.” in honor of legendary songwriter Paul Williams.

The Junior Theater Festival Atlanta united 6,000-plus students and educators from 130 educational musical theater groups representing 30 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

company the opera, if I don’t lose my voice,” Wright said. He’s also scheduled for a short musical number that would likewise be changed if his flu-wracked larynx doesn’t cooperate.

Wright feels opera is more entwined in our lives than many of us realize.

Numbers we’ve heard all our lives in snippets have a chance to fully manifest if witnessed live.

“I think so many people, like even when you hear the beginnings of, like, ‘La donna e mobilé’ or the beginning of the habañera from ‘Carmen,’ just that little musical figure, people know it even if they can’t name it. People have to latch onto it emotionally, because that’s what these operas are doing. That’s why they’re two of the most famous operas in the world,” Wright said.

This is the second Winter Gala in a venue linked by the 2012 Christmas Day tornado that raked through Midtown. Trinity Episcopal Church sits just a quarter mile north of Murphy’s auditorium, and both structures were ravaged

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MUSIC

BY STEPHEN CENTANNI/MUSIC EDITOR/SCENTANNI@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

FEATURE

The Haints come marching in

Photo | Facebook

The Pine Hill Haints are becoming a Mobile Mardi Gras staple. An American traditional bluegrass/folk/honky tonk/country band, the members themselves describe their unique Southern roots music as “Alabama ghost music.”

BAND: JOE CAIN DAY CELEBRATION FEATURING THE PINE HILL HAINTS, SISTER SISTER AND THE SHUNARRAHS DATE: SUNDAY, FEB. 11, 7 P.M. VENUE: THE MERRY WIDOW, 51 S. CONCEPTION ST., WWW.THEMERRYWIDOW.NET TICKETS: $10 IN ADVANCE/$15 DAY OF SHOW, AVAILABLE AT VENUE AND ITS WEBSITE

F

or many years, The Pine Hill Haints Centanni: I was up at Auburn around the same have made an annual pilgrimage time you guys were starting up The Pine Hill to the Azalea City and provided a Haints. I lived in the Neil House/Dexter Arms soundtrack for those celebrating Joe apartment complex that backed up to Pine Hill Cain Day. Formed in Auburn in the Cemetery. late ‘90s, The Pine Hill Haints speBarrier: Yeah, man! One of our drummers cialize in what they call “Alabama Ghost Music.” lived in there.

Created years before the modern Americana craze, Centanni: One thing that sticks out about this truly unique, eclectic sound is a skillful blend your band name is that one night we saw a bunch of early country, bluegrass, traditional folk and of ghostly figures up in the cemetery dressed in blues infused with a punk rock attitude.

Civil War-era clothes and candles everywhere. It Over the years, The Pine shook us up, until we found Hill Haints have peppered out they were doing an event their albums with songs that in the cemetery. Your band’s provide a Romantic interpretaname always reminded me tion of Mobile culture, which of that incident, and I always can easily be witnessed in wondered if y’all had seen the their latest release, “Smoke.”

THE NEW ALBUM HAS A LOT same thing and were inspired As the group was making their by it.

OF MOBILE UNDERTONES. way east, front man Jamie Barrier: You know, the Barrier indulged Lagniappe only gigs that we could get WE DID A BIG TOUR IN with a conversation dealing were the house parties. We with their new album, modern played all over Ross Street ENGLAND TWO YEARS AGO, Americana and the band’s love and Magnolia and Gay streets.

AND IT WAS ALMOST LIKE A I remember the first time affair with the Azalea City.

Stephen Centanni: What that we played downtown on MOBILE LINEUP. WE CALLED College Street. A Confederwas your first Mobile Mardi Gras experience like? ate vampire club approached IT ‘THE MYSTIC ORDER OF Jamie Barrier: The first us and asked us to play the one was Joe Cain Day maybe vampire ball. I wonder if that’s THE PINE HILL HAINTS.’ 18 years ago. It’s hard to what you saw. describe it when you’re from Centanni: There’s no tellNorth Alabama. When you go ing. So, you must have played to a parade up there, you watch a few fire trucks the Malformity House up there, I take it. and a few classic cars, and you wave and clap. I Barrier: Yes, we played there many times. wasn’t prepared to see a casket with veiled ladies Some people would argue that we had our first throwing moonpies at me. The madness of it all is show there. just incredible.

Centanni: The Pine Hill Haints were doing Centanni: What’s been your most memorable the Americana thing before the industry put a Joe Cain Day show, and why? label on the style. With that said, what do you Barrier: It’s hard to pick and choose one. think these days when you see all these bands There was one at the Alabama Music Box where under that label? the Monotonix from Israel played. I wouldn’t say Barrier: It depends on what side of the bed that it was any more memorable than any other I woke up on as to how I answer that question. one, but it was a good one.

I don’t know, man. Back then and to this day,

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we just love Johnny Cash and John Lee Hooker. It’s a simple thing, and it wasn’t planned.

What’s going on today is just a whole different animal. I love to wear cowboy shirts and boots, but I love that the music has nothing to do with that. We’re the last band in the world to set up a Facebook page.

A lot of what’s going on now has no soul to it. It’s a different animal from what we’re doing. We’re like fanboys of old music, and modern music, too. We just have a big love for that old music. We have a big love for the blues. We’re more on the John Lee Hooker side than the Townes Van Zandt side, not to pick on somebody who likes Townes. It’s just how it’s always been with this band.

Centanni: The Pine Hill Haints gave birth to other bands, such as The Wednesdays and Counterclockwise String Band. What keeps all of you coming back to The Pine Hill Haints?

Barrier: There’s a lot of things. With The Wednesdays, we love punk rock and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s like liking Jelly Roll Morton or Louis Armstrong. I would go on tour with The Wednesdays or The Quadrajets. I’d be like, “Yeah, we’re working these clubs and working these towns!” With the Haints, we’re actually doing that. You get to play a lot of places that you usually wouldn’t ordinarily get to do. The audience gets to dance and interact. The Wednesdays is music for the young, and it’s extremely loud.

Rather than pretending like I’m living the dream, I’m actually living the dream with the Haints. I love fiddle music and stuff, but I couldn’t do that with The Wednesdays. With the Haints, some nights we’ll do a whole lot of fiddle. There’s just a lot more than you can do with it.

Centanni: You’re on tour in support of your new album, “Smoke.” What’s it like taking your sound out of the South? What kind of reaction do you get in other regions?

Barrier: It makes it better. A lot of the things that people grow up with, they can’t stand it. When you get far away from home, that’s gone. The music becomes a little more exotic.

The new album has a lot of Mobile undertones. We did a big tour in England two years ago, and it was almost like a Mobile lineup. We called it “The Mystic Order of The Pine Hill Haints.” We had a drummer from Mobile. Katie [Barrier] is from Mobile and our bucket player Travis [Hightower]. So a lot of those songs came out of that for the new record, in a way. We wrote another Joe Cain song and a moonpie song. We introduced some brass to the band and gave a little Dixieland flavor to some of the stuff.

Centanni: It’s still Haints, but it’s definitely a little different.

Barrier: Yeah, I know that we’ve played some of the Mardi Gras shows in Mobile, and a brass band would open. We didn’t even need to be there. You can’t compete with a brass band. It’s so good. I come from North Alabama, and I’m into music a certain way. Not being from Mobile, when I first encountered it, it appeared to be the richest, most overlooked thing in the world.

Where I’m from, we get all kinds of attention through Muscle Shoals. Mobile is such a fascinating place. It’s got everything New Orleans does except the tourists. It’s got just as deep a history and beautiful music and food. We’re trying to rep it a little bit.

Centanni: J.D. Wilkes from Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers worked on “Smoke” with y’all, didn’t he?

Barrier: He did. He always wanted to. There’s actually a record we did years ago that’s long out of print, and he played harmonica on that too. It’s called “Tales from the Front Porch.” I’ve seen that album go for $200-$300 on eBay. He came down and did half the record with us. We tour with him a lot. Last year, he came down and did half our shows with us. He’s an incredible harmonica player.

Centanni: For those who have never been to a Pine Hill Haints Joe Cain Day show, what can they expect?

Barrier: It’ll be louder, faster and noisier than usual. We love those slow, quiet country songs, and we do a lot of them. This is the Joe Cain show. You better come with something hard. That’s what they want.

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MUSIC BRIEFS

Bigger and badder

BY STEPHEN CENTANNI/MUSIC EDITOR/SCENTANNI@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

Band: Boosie Badazz, Yung Bleu, B. Will Date: Monday, Feb. 12, with doors at 9 p.m.

Venue: Soul Kitchen, 219 Dauphin St., www.soulkitchenmobile.com Tickets: $35 in advance, $45 day of show, available at venue, its website, Mellow Mushroom and by calling 1-866-777-8932

Photo | Atlantic Records Press | Boosie Badazz

Many denizens of the Azalea City use Lundi Gras to recuperate from Joe Cain Day in preparation for the madness of Fat Tuesday. After the Infant Mystics roll through Downtown Mobile, Soul Kitchen will feature a lineup of hip-hop acts that will make it hard to resist keeping the party going into Mardi Gras Day. Hailing from the mean streets of Baton Rouge, Boosie Badazz (aka Lil Boosie) has established one of the most dedicated cult followings in modern hip-hop. Even a five-year stint in the Louisiana State Penitentiary did not weaken his following. Lil Boosie’s unique voice and smooth flow deliver a poetic commentary filled with roughneck visions of his reality. The crowd can expect to hear cuts from his seven-album catalog, including his latest effort, “BooPac.” Mobile-based verbal assassin Yung Bleu will be lending support. Since signing to Boosie Badazz’s Bad Azz Music Syndicate label, Yung Bleu is the latest hip-hop artist to step beyond the local hip-hop scene and into the national spotlight. Yung Bleu’s style is a fresh mix of mellow beats and versatile lyrical delivery that is a welcome addition to the Dirty South.

Another Bad Azz Music Syndicate artist will complete the lineup. B. Will will bring a set of charismatic hip-hop from Shreveport to the mix. The unbridled energy of his style should energize the Soul Kitchen crowd.

Grayson Capps continues his Joe Cain tradition

Band: Grayson Capps Date: Sunday, Feb. 11, 5 p.m.

Venue: Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, 916 Charleston St., www.callaghansirishsocialclub.com Tickets: Free Mardi Gras in the Azalea City is filled with traditions, and Grayson Capps’ Joe Cain Day performance at Callaghan’s has become a beloved tradition for many Mobilians. After the madness of the Joe Cain Day procession, this singer-songwriter keeps spirits high with a performance that tends to fill the corner of Charleston and Marine. Capps satisfies his audience with favorites such as “Poison” and “Ol’ Slac,” his musical tribute to the namesake.

Capps will also entertain the crowd with tracks from his latest release, “Scarlett Roses.” Instead of forcing the creation process, the singer-songwriter chose to let the tracks on this album flow naturally. This technique resulted in nine tracks that perpetuate Capps’ raw sonic interpretation of reality set to a musical style that mixes warm folk with country twang.

Collectively speaking

Band: Jon Dee Graham with special guest Ben de la Cour Date: Sat., Feb. 10, with doors at 7:30 p.m.

Venue: Satori Coffee House, 5460 Old Shell Road, www.satori-coffee.com Tickets: $5 donation at the door/free to USA students

Those wanting to wind down after the Mystics of Time parade should look no further than Satori Coffee House. The University of South Alabama’s Independent Music Collective will be holding an intimate performance by Austin-based singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham.

From roots rock to punk, Graham boasts a versatile career. He is also the only musician to be inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame three times. Graham’s bright acoustic and thoughtful verses thrive in a live context.

Ben de la Cour will set the mood with a dose of his trademark “Americanoir” sound. Before settling in Nashville, this Brooklyn native spent time traveling the world, taking on roles ranging from bartender to boxer. With a life rich in experience, de la Cour has generated a musical style filled with warm vocals and sincere lyrics. His local audience should have no trouble forming an emotional bond with his music.

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AREAMUSIC LISTINGS | February 7 - February 13

WED. FEB 7

Bluegill— Matt Neese Blues Tavern— Art, 8p Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— Ryan Balthrop, 6p Callaghan’s— Phil and Foster Cockeyed Charlie’s— JJ Felix’s— Tropic Flyer Flora Bama— Don and Karen McNatt, 11a// Neil Dover, 3p/// Mario Mena, 7p//// Rhonda Hart and Jonathan Newtown, 7p Lulu’s— Adam Holt, 5p Soul Kitchen— Marco Benevento, 8p

THUR. FEB 8

Bluegill— Justus Browning Blues Tavern— George Eberlein Trio, 8:30p Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— David Chastang, 6p Callaghan’s— Bobby Butchka Cockeyed Charlie’s— JJ Felix’s— Grits N Pieces Flora Bama— Gove Scrivenor, 1p// Dueling Pianos, 4:30p/// Mark Sherrill, John Joiner, Chris Newbury, Jose Santiago, 5p//// Brandon White, 9p//// Johnny B Duo, 9:15p Le Bouchon— John Cochran, 6:30p Lulu’s— Lefty Collins, 5p Manci’s— Ross Newell McSharry’s— String Slingers, 7p Moe’s BBQ (Mobile) — Rock Bottom Duo, 7:30p O’Daly’s— Chronic Blues, 10p

FRI. FEB 9

Alchemy— Chronic Blues, 10p Beau Rivage— Chaka Khan, 8p Big Beach Brewing— Christiana Christian, 6:30p Blind Mule— Rock Eupora// The Hallers/// South Carlen, 9p Bluegill— Bruce Smelley, 12p// Gram Rae Duo, 6p Blues Tavern— Disciples of the Crow, 9p Bone and Barrel— Marlow Boys, 8p Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— David Chastang, 6p Brickyard— Philo, 10p Cockeyed Charlie’s— DJ Will the Chill El Camino— The Leavin’ Bros, 7:30p Felix’s— The Unknown Band Flora Bama— LeaAnne Creswell Trio, 2p// Jack Robertson Show, 5:30p/// Smoky Otis Duo, 6p////

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Mario Mena Band, 10p//// Jo Jo Pres, 10:15p Hard Rock (Center Bar) — Supercharger, 9:30p IP Casino— Willie Nelson and Family, 8p Lulu’s— Jimmy Lumpkin, 5p McSharry’s— DJ Carter, 10p Moe’s BBQ (Daphne) — C Dub and the Money Monies, 8p Moe’s BBQ (Foley) — Blue Yonder, 6p Moe’s BBQ (Mobile) — Travis Posey, 7:30p Moe’s BBQ (Semmes) — The Dunaway Brothers, 6:30p Pour Nelsons— Certainly Unsure, 10p Soul Kitchen— Riley Green, 9:30p

SAT. FEB 10

Bluegill— Jimmy Lumpkin, 12p// David Chastanf Trio, 6p Blues Tavern— Soul River Levee, 9p Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— Boudreauxs Zydeco, 6p Callaghan’s— Chris and Timmy Cockeyed Charlie’s— DJ MBIZZLE The Elk’s Lodge— Theodore Arthur and the Gulf Coast Jazz and Blues Orchestra Felix’s— Bust Flora Bama— Al and Cathy, 1p// J. Hawkins Duo, 2p/// Jack Robertson, 5:30p//// Lee Yankie Trio, 6p//// Yeah, Probably, 10p//// Bruce Smelley Duo, 10:15p Hard Rock (Center Bar) — Supercharger, 9:30p IP Casino— The Australian Bee Gees Show, 8p Lulu’s— Phil and Foster, 5p Manci’s— Brittany Grimes, 7p McSharry’s— DJ Tiger, 10p The Merry Widow— Blow House Brass Band and Jefferson Street Parade Band, 8p Moe’s BBQ (Foley) — Alex Wilkerson, 6p Moe’s BBQ (Mobile) — Charlie Wilson Duo, 1p// The Side of 4-, 7:30p Moe’s BBQ (Semmes) — Double Shot, 6:30p Soul Kitchen— Project Mardi Gras 2, 10:30p Top of the Bay— Philo

SUN. FEB 11

Big Beach Brewing— The Poarch Ninjas, 3p

Bluegill— Quintin Berry, 12p// Jimmy Lumpkin and the Revivals, 6p Blues Tavern— John Hall Jam, 6p Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— David Chastang, 6p Butch Cassidy’s— Josh Ward and Faith Piotrowski Callaghan’s— Grayson Capps The Elk’s Lodge— Theodore Arthur and the Gulf Coast Jazz and Blues Orchestra Felix’s— Brandon Bailey Flora Bama— Jason Justice, 12:30p// Perdido Brothers, 4p/// Kevin Swanson, 7p//// Smoky Otis Duo, 8:30p Garage— Journey 2 Mars, 2p Lulu’s— Cadillac Attack, 5p McSharry’s— Trad. Irish Session, 6:30p The Merry Widow— The Pine Hill Haints// Sister Sister/// The Shunnarahs, 7p

MON. FEB 12

Butch Cassidy’s— Jimmy Lee Hannaford & Jose Santiago Callaghan’s— Phil and Walon El Camino— Rondale, 7:30p The Elk’s Lodge— Theodore Arthur and the Gulf Coast Jazz and Blues Orchestra Felix’s— Matt Bush Flora Bama— Cathy Pace, 3p// Mario Mena, 7p/// Petty and Pace, 7p Lulu’s— Brent Burns, 5p The Merry Widow— The Red Clay Strays, 8p Moe’s BBQ (Mobile) — Rock Bottom Duo, 7:30p Soul Kitchen— Boosie Badazz, Yung Bleu, BWILL, 10p

TUE. FEB 13

Bluegill— David Chastang Boudreaux’s Cajun Grill— Ryan Blathrop, 6p Butch Cassidy’s— Chris Powell and Tim Dennis Fairhope Brewing— Green Drinks Felix’s— Bobby Butchka Flora Bama— Johnny B Trio, 11a// J. Hawkins Trio, 12p/// Rebecca Barry & Bust, 3p//// Perdido Brothers, 4p//// Kyle Wilson Band, 7p//// Al and Cathy, 8:30p Garage— Fat Lincoln, 5p Live Bait— Brandon Styles, 7p Lulu’s— Albert Simpson, 5p Moe’s BBQ (Mobile) — The Ayers Brothers, 1p// Phil and Foster, 7:30p O’Daly’s— Red Clay Strays, 5p

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FILMTHE REEL WORLD

‘Battle of the Sexes’ is dramatic, straightforward with strong acting

B

BY ASIA FREY/FILM CRITIC/AFREY@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM

“

AREA

THEATERS CARMIKE CINEMA’S Wynnsong 16 785 Schillinger Rd. S. (251) 639-7373 CRESCENT THEATER 208 Dauphin Street (251) 438-2005 HOLLYWOOD STADIUM 18 1250 Satchel Paige Dr. (251) 473-9655 RAVE MOTION PICTURE JUBILEE SQUARE 12 6898 U.S. 90 Daphne, (251) 626- 6266

attle of the Sexes” lobs some easy ones over the net, and the result is extremely watchable, if not extremely memorable. Emma Stone is sympathetic and uplifting as Billie Jean King, beloved champion of tennis and women’s rights.

This film follows her as she defects from the Pacific Northwest Tennis Tournament and forms her own women’s tennis tour when the men’s tour, helmed by the condescending Jack Kramer (Bill Pullman), scoffs at approaching remotely equal pay, assisted by World Tennis magazine editor Gladys Heldman (Sarah Silverman) and sponsored by Virginia Slims cigarettes.

As the Women’s Tour increases in popularity, we meet the over-the-top villain Bobby Riggs, played with great humor and huge false teeth by Steve Carell.

Riggs himself, when the film finds him, is more of comedian, huckster and hustler than tennis player, so of course Carell is perfect. Kept on a short leash by his wealthy wife (Elizabeth Shue), he concocts a plan to ostensibly put women tennis players in their place by challenging one to a tennis match. After he handily beats the No. 1 women’s tennis

player, King — who initially opposed the idea — feels she has no choice but to beat him.

The film suggests Riggs’ outrageous level of chauvinism was exaggerated for effect, and that he was simply, and cannily, tapping into the sentiment of the day to make money. Eventually King tells Jack Kramer that Riggs’ attitude is just a sideshow act, and that Kramer’s true beliefs are exponentially more damaging to women. This softens the viewer a bit toward Riggs, plus the fact that Carell is playing him.

To balance out the fact that “Battle of the Sexes” tells a true story many people already know, the private struggles of both Riggs and King are the background for the film. King is married to a man in the film, a sweet, supportive and handsome man who is devoted to her career and turns a blind eye to the fact that, as she is slowly discovering, she is attracted to women.

This movie is rated PG-13 and actually fills that kind of difficult niche of movies you can watch with your parents, but there is some mild same-sex smooching.

The budding romance between King and a pretty hairdresser who joins them on their tour is given pretty soft treatment, as the difficulty of facing and

openly stating her sexuality is a fairly significant topic in the life of Billie Jean King. While the reality of that romance became pretty brutal, and a lawsuit brought by the hairdresser ultimately outed King against her will, this film concerns itself with the easier to digest story of the most watched tennis match of all time, the “Battle of the Sexes” that gives the film its name.

Since the entire match was built on spectacle, it’s no surprise it makes a dramatic, straightforward movie. It’s interesting but not fascinating, but it’s a good story and it seems like stories about misogyny are perennially timely. Even if we know the outcome, it’s fun to watch, with compelling performances from some of everyone’s favorite movie stars.

This is a nice, safe film that glosses over some of the nitty-gritty to present an uplifting narrative, but far be it from me to begrudge you a bit of uplift in the form of plucky Emma Stone putting on glasses to portray an even pluckier reallife heroine and, even if the truth was less neatly wrapped up than what we get here, it feels pretty good to cheer at the ending.

“Battle of the Sexes” is currently available to rent.

CARMIKE CINEMAS 23151 Wharf Ln. Orange Beach (251) 981-4444 COBB THEATRES PINNACLE 14 3780 Gulf Shores Pkwy Gulf Shores (251) 968-7444 EASTERN SHORE PREMIERE CINEMA 14 30500 Alabama 181 #500 Spanish Fort, Al (251) 626-0352 Information accurate at press time; please call theaters for showtimes.

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Photos | 20th Century Fox / Universal Pictures

Emma Stone and Steve Carell star in the true story of the 1973 tennis match between World No. 1 Billie Jean King and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs. In the latest in the “Fifty Shades” franchise, Anastasia and Christian (Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan) get married, but Jack Hyde continues to threaten their relationship.

NOW PLAYING I, TONYA AMC Mobile 16 PHANTOM THREAD AMC Jubilee Square 12 THE SHAPE OF WATER All listed multiplex theaters.

GET OUT Regal Mobile Stadium 18 HOSTILES All listed multiplex theaters.

PADMAAVAT AMC Mobile 16 MAZE RUNNER: THE DEATH CURE All listed multiplex theaters.

MOLLY’S GAME AMC Classic Wharf 15, Cobb Pinnacle 14 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Regal Mobile Stadium 18

12 STRONG All listed multiplex theaters.

FOREVER MY GIRL All listed multiplex theaters.

DEN OF THIEVES All listed multiplex theaters.

PADDINGTON 2 All listed multiplex theaters.

THE POST All listed multiplex theaters.

THE COMMUTER All listed multiplex theaters.

DARKEST HOUR All listed multiplex theaters.

INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY All listed multiplex theaters.

JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE All listed multiplex theaters.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN All listed multiplex theaters.

FERDINAND

Eastern Shore Premiere Cinema STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI All listed multiplex theaters.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI AMC Classic Wharf, Regal Mobile Stadium 18, AMC Jubilee Square 12 COCO All listed multiplex theaters.

NEW THIS WEEK FIFTY SHADES FREED

The poster says “don’t miss the climax,” and I’m going to assume this represents the best writing involved with this project. All listed multiplex theaters.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS FEBRUARY 7, 2018 - FEBRUARY 13, 2018

GENERAL INTEREST

Presbyterian Church. Call 251-625-6888.

African-American Read-In Join Mobile Public Library, Toulminville branch, as special guests and community partners celebrate black heritage in reading, poetry, storytelling and songs. Feb. 5-8. Call 251-438-7075.

Toastmasters Toastmasters International meets regularly at six locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Visit www.toastmasters.org for more information.

Learning Lunch History Museum of Mobile’s Learning Lunch, Feb. 7 at noon, features Mardi Gras Trail author and historian Ann Pond speaking on “Mobile’s First Mardi Gras.”

Call 251-301-0270.

Raising Roses Come to Bellingrath Gardens and Home at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 14 for “Raising Roses,” a seminar with Linda Guy on pruning techniques, fertilization and black spot prevention. Call 251-459-8727 or email bellingrath@bellingrath.org.

Dauphin Island Boardwalk Talks Boardwalk Talks are held the first and third Wednesday of each month at 11:15 a.m. at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, 101 Bienville Blvd. Call 251-861-2141.

Republican Women Knollwood Republican Women meet Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2 p.m. at Gordon Oaks, 3145 Knollwood Drive. Speaker is District 6 Representative Bess Rich.

Midtown Optimist Club Join Midtown Optimist Club every Wednesday at noon for lunch at Azalea City Golf Course. Call 251-348-3542.

FUNDRAISERS

Book Discussion Join Chris Warner at Page & Palette in Fairhope for a discussion of his new book, “They Met at the Alabama-Florida Line,” on Thursday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m. Visit pageandpalette.com.

Writer discussion Join fiction writer Michael Knight Thursday, Feb.8, at 5 p.m. in the Student Center Terrace Room at the University of South Alabama as he talks about his latest collection.

Walk with the Curator Visit the Mobile Botanical Gardens every second Thursday of the month for a walking tour of the grounds. Free for MBG members, $10 non-members. Call 251-3420555.

Practical Gardening Class A six-week class at Mobile Botanical Gardens on how to look at your landscape and select plants, soil preparation, proper plant maintenance and more. Thursdays through March, 6:30-8 p.m. Call 251-3420555 or visit mobilebotanicalgardens.org.

Foley Public Library Book Sale Join Foley Public Library for its annual book sale Friday, Feb 9, and Saturday, Feb. 10, 9 a.m. to noon, 319 E. Laurel Ave. Call 251-943-7665.

Chinese New Year Parade Children of the World invite you to join them for their Chinese New Year parade Saturday, Feb. 10, at 10 a.m. in downtown Fairhope. Fairhope United Methodist Church, 155 S. Section St. Visit childernoftheworld.com/events.

Blakeley Cruise/Walk Blakeley State Park is hosting a special cruise combined with a short walking tour of the ghost town of Blakeley on Saturday, Feb. 10, starting at 8:30 a.m. Call 251-6260798 or visit blakeleypark.com.

Winter Walk at Bellingrath Learn about the interesting winter borders and containers throughout the gardens from Bellingrath’s horticulture management team.

Winter Wednesdays sessions are held each week in the Magnolia Room, 10:30-11:30 a.m., through Feb. 28. Call 251-459-8864.

TOPS Take Off Pounds Sensibly meets every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Spanish Fort

Many More Miles Baldwin Bone & Joint’s annual collection of shoes for the homeless outreach program continues through Saturday, March 24. For drop-off locations, call 251-621-5387.

ARTS Art Talk: Do What?

Do what? Do it! Elizabet Elliott, curator of programs at the Mobile Museum of Art, will discuss this rather unusual exhibition on Thursday, Feb 8, at 6 p.m. Visit mobilemuseumofart.com.

“Nana’s Naughty Knickers” South Baldwin Community Theatre (2022 W. 22nd St.) presents “Nana’s Naughty Knickers” Feb. 7-10 at 7:30 p.m. each night.

Visit SBCT.biz or call 251-968-6721.

Garden Sketch Club Join Mobile Botanical Gardens every Friday for art in the gardens. Artists meet 2-4 p.m., with guidance and advice available from Derek Norman. All levels of experience are welcome. Admission $5 for non-members. Call 251-342-0555 or visit mobilebotanicalgardens.org.

Art demonstrations Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Welcome Center Series is held weekdays through Feb. 28. Art demos, various days at 10 a.m. at the Orange Beach Welcome Center (23685 Perdido Beach Blvd.), lectures are each weekday at 2 p.m. at the Gulf Shores Welcome Center (3459 Gulf Shores Parkway). Visit GulfShores.com/ WelcomeCenter.

MUSEUMS “Titanic: Honour & Glory” “Titanic Honour & Glory” will run through April 15 at the History Museum of Mobile. In addition to the exhibition, the museum will host monthly events. Call 251-301-0273 or gavin.snyder@historymuseumofmobile.com.

“Right on Course” The United States Sports Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives is open free to the public weekdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. One of the newest exhibits is “Right on Course.” Visit www.asama.org.

GulfQuest guests to a time when the last of the great dinosaurs roamed Earth and swam the seas. Visit www.gulfquest.org.

Fairhope’s Founding Learn more about the 1894 founding of Fairhope at the Fairhope Museum of History, 24 N. Section St. The museum is open daily (except Sunday and Monday), 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 251-929-1471.

Little Discoveries “Outside the Box,” aimed at children age 6 and under, explores how innovation and creativity can lead to a world of possibilities, starting with a simple cardboard box.

Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Call 251-208-6893 or email jholland@exploreum.com.

Thursdays at MMoA Every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., the Mobile Museum of Art offers free admission to all visitors. No reservations necessary.

MMoA is at 4850 Museum Drive. Call 251208-5200.

SPORTING EVENTS/ACTIVITIES Joe Cain Classic The fun will begin at 8 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, in downtown Mobile. The Joe Cain Classic is a 5K run, featuring a one-mile walk/run and a quarter-mile “moonpie” dash for kids of all ages. Visit bayarearunner.com for more information.

New classes for all ages Classes offered at LeFlore High School include Art For Kids (ages 6+), Art for Adults, Pre-Ballet & Tumbling (ages 4-6) and Self-Defense for Women & Girls (ages 12+).

Call 251-208-1610 or visit MOBILECAP. ORG. Group rides South Alabama and Mississippi Mountain Bike Association invites all levels of cyclists to join them every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. at USA Bike Trails and Sunday at 9 a.m. at Chickasabogue Park. Email carrie@ rideSAMBA.com.

Weekly 1K/5K Every Thursday evening at 6 p.m., join Red Beard’s Outfitter and Cortlandt’s Pub in the Spring Hill Village Shopping Center for a 1K or 5K run and walk. No cost to participate.

Bingo Join Via! Health, Fitness, Enrichment Center at 1717 Dauphin St. for bingo every Tuesday and Thursday, 1:30-3:30 p.m. Call 251-478-3311.

Bridge Lessons The Mobile Bridge Center offers free bridge lessons each Tuesday at 6 p.m. at 1510 University Blvd. Arrive a few minutes early to register. Call 251-666-2147, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Fitness and athletics classes Try something new this year! Classes are being offered at Palmer Pillans Middle School. Tai Chi, bellydance, candlelit yoga, Piyo Tone and piano. Call 251-463-7980 or visit mobilecap.org

“Windows to the Sea” “Windows to the Sea” is the latest permanent exhibit at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Estuarium. Visit disl.org.

Pickleball for adults (indoors) Offered at Palmer Pillans Middle School on Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon. Great sport for all ages combines tennis, ping-pong and badminton on a court one-fourth the size of a tennis court. Call 251-463-7980 or go to communityactivitiesprogram.com.

“Savage Ancient Seas” “Savage Ancient Seas” will transport

Ballroom dance Azalea Ballroom Dance Club hosts

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dances the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, 7-9:30 p.m. at Via! Health, Fitness & Enrichment Center, 1717 Dauphin St. Call 251-623-9183 or visit azaleaballroomdanceclub.com.

Ballroom dance The Moonlight Chassé Ballroom Dance Society hosts dances the first and third Monday of every month, 7-9:30 p.m. at Hot Wheels Skating Rink in Daphne. Email cassief13@aol.com.

WORKSHOPS How to use your smartphone In order to take advantage of your phone, you have to know they exist, how to navigate to them and how to make them work. Class covers Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, texting and more.

Classes are on Monday, 6-7 p.m., at Palmer Pillans Middle School. Call 251-208-1650 or go to mobilecap.org.

PUBLIC MEETINGS Baldwin County Commission: First and third Tuesday at 8:30 a.m., 322 Courthouse Square, Bay Minette. Work sessions are the second and fourth Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. rotating between Bay Minette, the Foley Satellite Courthouse, the Fairhope Satellite Courthouse and the Baldwin County Central Annex Building in Robertsdale. www. baldwincountyal.gov Baldwin County Planning Commission: First Thursday at 6 p.m., 22251 Palmer St., Robertsdale, www.baldwincountyal.gov.

Bayou La Batre City Council: Second and fourth Thursday at 5:30 p.m., 13785 S. Wintzell Ave., www.cityofbayoulabatre.com.

Chickasaw City Council: Second and fourth Tuesday at 7 p.m., 224 N. Craft Highway, 251-452-6450.

Citronelle City Council: Second and fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m., 19135 Main St., 251866-7973.

Creola City Council: Second and fourth Thursday at 6 p.m., 190 Dead Lake Road, #A, 251-675-8142.

Daphne City Council: First and third Monday at 6:30 p.m., 1705 Main St. Work sessions are the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m., www.daphneal.com.

Dauphin Island Town Council: First and third Tuesdays at 7 p.m., 1011 Bienville Blvd., www.townofdauphinisland.org.

Elberta Town Council: Third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. in the town hall.

Workshop meeting on the second Tuesday. townofelberta.com.

Fairhope City Council: Second and fourth Monday at 6 p.m., 161 N. Section St. Work sessions are held before each council meeting at 4:30 p.m., www.cofairhope.com.

Fairhope Planning Commission: First Monday at 5 p.m., 161 N. Section St. For more information visit www.cofairhope.com.

Foley City Council: First and third Monday at 5:30 p.m., 407 E. Laurel Ave. Work sessions begin at 4 p.m., www.cityoffoley. org.

Gulf Shores City Council: Second and fourth Mondays at 4 p.m., 1905 W. First St., www.gulfshoresal.gov.

Mobile City Council: Tuesdays at Government Plaza, 205 Government St. Pre-council meeting begins at 9 a.m.; council meeting begins at 10:30 a.m., www. cityofmobile.org.

Mobile Planning Commission: First and third Thursdays at 2 p.m., 205 Government St., www.urban.cityofmobile.org.

Orange Beach City Council: First and third Tuesdays at 5 p.m., 4099 Orange Beach Blvd., www.cityoforangebeach.com.

Prichard City Council: Every Thursday at 5:30 p.m., 216 E. Prichard Ave., www. thecityofprichard.org.

Satsuma City Council: First and third Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 5464 Old Highway 43 Satsuma, AL 36572, 251-675-1440.

2018 MARDI GRAS 2018 MARDI GRAS PARADE SCHEDULE

THURSDAY, FEB. 8

• Mystic Stripers, 6:30 p.m.,

Route A, Mobile

FRIDAY, FEB. 9

• Crewe of Columbus,

3 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• Le Krewe de Bienville,

5 p.m., Route A, Mobile

MONDAY, FEB. 12

• King Felix and Floral Parade,

noon, Route A, Mobile

6:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• MLK Business & Civic Organization,

6:45 p.m., Fairhope

• MLK Monday Mystics,

SATURDAY, FEB. 10

• Northside Merchants,

• Maids of Jubilee,

• Foley Mardi Gras Parade,

3 p.m., Route D, Mobile

3:30 p.m., Route D, Mobile 4 p.m., Route D, Mobile

11 a.m., downtown Foley

• Order of Mystic Magnolias,

noon, Route A, Mobile

• Infant Mystics,

12:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• Order of Doves,

• Floral Parade,

• Knights of Mobile,

• Mobile Mystical Ladies,

1 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• Order of Angels,

1:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• Krewe of Mullet Mates,

6:45 p.m., Fairhope

7 p.m., Route F, Mobile 7:30 p.m., Route F, Mobile

TUESDAY, FEB. 13

• Gulf Shores Mardi Gras Parade,

10 a.m., Gulf Shores

2 p.m., Mullet Point

• Order of Athena,

6 p.m., Route A, Mobile

• Knights of Revelry,

6 p.m., Orange Beach

• King Felix,

6:45 p.m., Daphne

• Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association,

• Mystics of Time,

• Mystics of Pleasure, • Shadow Barons,

SUNDAY, FEB. 11 • King Elexis Parade,

10:30 a.m., Route A, Mobile 12:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile 1 p.m., Route A, Mobile 2 p.m., Route B, Mobile

• Orange Beach Mardi Gras Parade,

2 p.m., Orange Beach

2 p.m., Route E, Mobile

• Comic Cowboys,

2:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile,

• Order of Myths,

• Joe Cain,

• Loyal Order of the Firetruck,

2:30 p.m., Daphne

• Joe Cain Marchers,

1:30 p.m., Route A, Mobile 6 p.m., Route C, Mobile

For Mobile route maps, visit mapscityof mobile. org/ Event_MardiGrasParades.html.

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MEDIA MEDIA FRENZY

AL.com webpage to see changes soon

A

BY ROB HOLBERT/MANAGING EDITOR/RHOLBERT@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM ccording to the first Advance Local update of the year, al.com will soon see a reworking of its home page, which will serve as the test model for all of the company’s websites nationwide.

This news comes just a month after the Newhouse Corp. announced all of the entities that had been separated over the past few years would now be rolled back into one under the Advance Local Media LLC moniker.

“Peter Weinberger, John Hassell, Matt Jaeger and the Innovation team are putting the finishing touches on an exciting new home page, which will initially be tested on al.com before rolling out to the rest of our websites,” CEO Randy Siegel and President Caroline Harrison said in the update.

The update also revealed the company’s revenue hopes were not realized in 2017, which will likely lead to cutbacks in some areas.

“Our hardworking sales teams finished 2017 with their best quarter of the year. However, our full-year sales performance in several markets was not as strong as it needed to be to achieve our goals, which is why we continue to focus on new revenue initiatives as well as expense controls,” it read.

Locally some of those controls appear to be moving the sales administration in Mobile to Birmingham. We’re also told by insiders the company may be moving all of its employees to the first floor of its Royal Street offices and renting out the top two floors.

In New Orleans the Times-Picayune/nola. com team has also recently moved to smaller offices and the paper narrowed its paper width an inch to 10.75 and has made its entertainment tabloid, Lagniappe (no affiliation!), a section in the paper.

There have also been 11 layoffs at the Advance-owned Portland Oregonian, as well as a layoff of five positions at Advance Central Services in Louisiana.

Despite not hitting revenue goals, the company continues to put its future hopes almost entirely in digital revenue. Siegel and Harrison’s update said companywide there are now 11 million website followers, and they are still looking for ways to bring in more through use of social media.

“While we’ve focused on core platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, our reporters are doing much more with Snapchat stories, finding audiences on Reddit and delivering flash briefings on Alexa,” the update said.

Scarbinsky calls it quits

Birmingham News and al.com sports columnist Kevin Scarbinsky has announced he’s leaving the news business after 33 years.

Scarbinsky’s columns were well-known statewide and his coverage of all the major college sports programs has often led the way.

He announced his departure last week and said he has taken a position as vice president of marketing for the Bruno Event Team.

Maloney kills it in SB ad

Commercial watching has long been almost as big a part of the Super Bowl as the game itself, and with sky-high rates, most of the spots go to big, national companies.

Sunday’s game was no different, and the consensus around the office was that Tide stole the show with its many commercials imitating spots for other products. But one of the locals who stole the show, in my opinion, was the spot for Maloney, Frost and Lyons LLC. Attorney David J. Maloney has long been known for the tagline “I will personally return your phone call” on the firm’s many television commercials. And his commercial telling drunk drivers he’d never represent them also got a lot of attention, especially after he was arrested in May 2016 under suspicion of driving while under the influence. The case was later dismissed, but the attention did seem to coincide with fewer commercials featuring Maloney.

But his ad Sunday night may have announced a return to the ring. It hilariously took swipes at many of the other personal injury attorneys we’ve all come to know for their ubiquitous billboard and over-the-top TV ads. But the killer was Maloney giving a nod to his own legal problems by altering his famous tagline to say, “I will personally return your call … from almost anywhere” as he stood inside a jail cell.

Love him or hate him, the commercial was brilliant.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE SURPRISE ENDINGS

BY PRISCILLA CLARK AND JEFF CHEN / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ ACROSS 1 Small house in the Southwest 7 Covert missions 15 Select 18 Wading birds 20 Light, catchy tunes 21 “Je t’____” 22 Cite 23 Pimp launches career in rap … BUT HAS AN EPIC FAIL! 25 Father of Paris, in myth 26 Apple buy-product?

28 Relax, with “out” 29 Assessed 30 Cabby saves prostitute …

WITH HIS BLATHERING! 33 Labatt, for one 34 Composer known for mood music 35 Relinquish 36 Something coming off the shelf?

38 Tropicana products, for short 41 Floor 43 Guy makes a new best friend … WHO TURNS OUT TO BE A COMMUNIST! 50 Beverage called a “tonic” in Boston 51 Inclines 54 Enya’s land 55 Appropriate 56 Retired pool shark returns … TO WIN FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING! 60 “____ Revere, Engineer” (best-selling 2013 children’s book) 61 Facial expression often accompanied by “Heh, heh, heh” 62 Big dipper 63 Pink-slip 64 ____ Equis (Mexican beer) 65 Chap gets life lessons from kid … WHO’S REALLY AN ANDROID! 70 One side in college football’s “Big Game” 72 Blue 74 Bitcoin, e.g.

75 Utopias 78 Shoves (in) 81 West Coast officers track wise-cracking detective … TO A BOVINE! 86 One with a role to play 87 Bullets, in cards 88 First “America’s Funniest Home Videos” host 89 Glamorous Gardner 90 Friends gather for a funeral … AND COOK UP AN ENORMOUS STEW! 93 “Bali ____” 94 Lively tune 95 Symbolic bird in “On Golden Pond” 96 Recipe amts.

100 “Angel dust” 102 Kind of knot 107 Bog monster emerges … WITH A NEW LINE OF SNACK CRACKERS! 111 Shakespearean king 112 Auto safety feature to prevent skidding, for short 115 Man, for one 116 Greeting on Maui 118 007 gets fired … AND LANDS A JOB AS A SCOTTISH TAILOR! 121 Out early 123 Playing ____ 124 “Spamalot” writer 125 Drained 126 Object of veneration by ancient Egyptians 127 Casualty of a crash?

128 One side of a ledger

five, e.g.

15 High mark in Spanish class?

16 “Mon ____” (words of endearment) 17 Energetic 19 “Bon” time 21 Some 24 Color changer 27 Flick 31 Carpentry rod 32 Gift on a string 33 Spiner of “Star Trek: T.N.G.” 36 Destined (to be) 37 Singer Sands 38 Goes (for) 39 In song, Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt’s first name 40 Mix and match?

42 ____ Gay (W.W. II plane) 44 Fifth sign 45 “____ Gang” DOWN 46 Grp. with the motto “Until 1 Goldfish, e.g. every one comes home” 2 Sidestep 47 Gran Torino, e.g.

3 Balkan capital 48 Part of a score, maybe 4 Mountaineer’s tool 49 Dentist’s directive 5 Skynet’s T-800’s, e.g.

52 Lacking pizazz 6 One who’s passed the bar: Abbr. 53 “____ I” (“Same here”) 7 Parent’s scolding 57 Position sought 8 Praised by some M.B.A.s 9 “____ Poetica” 58 Kind of shot 10 Letters on a video surveil- 59 Olympics unit lance screen 66 Concern of an orthopedic M.D. 11 Trendy smoothie ingredient 67 Howls 12 Force on earth, in brief 68 Org. that’s found by 13 Bussing on a bus, for short? accident?

14 Two plus two equaling 69 Piece of chicken

70 Symbols on Irish euro coins 71 Video intrusions 72 Tracker’s clue 73 Sole part 76 Astronomical event 77 Goodies in a goody bag 79 Swarm 80 Hindu honorific 81 Burger topper 82 Backtalk?

83 Miner’s find 84 Immigrant’s class, in brief 85 Bounded 91 Sneaked a peek 92 Part of T.G.I.F. 97 Slops 98 Wallops 99 T-shirt choices, briefly 101 What drones lack 102 2008 Israeli political biography 103 Relatives of Tonys 104 Sum up 105 ____ Scott 106 “Positively Entertaining” cable network 108 Le Pew of Looney Tunes 109 “That’s the truth!”

110 Makeshift ghost costume 112 Warring 113 Florida city, informally 114 Brand of tools 117 Says further 119 Great time 120 Sworn statement 122 G.P.’s grp.

ANSWERS ON PAGE 48

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SPORTS UPON FURTHER REVIEW

College teams seek success on softball diamond

BY J. MARK BRYANT/SPORTS WRITER/SPORTS@LAGNIAPPEMOBILE.COM/TWITTER @GOULAGUY

M

obile County has always fielded some of the best college softball teams in the nation. The 2018 season looks no different, as the University of Mobile, Spring Hill College and the University of South Alabama take aim at more honors.

University of Mobile

The Rams are coming off an impressive campaign, during which they were 40-19 overall and 18-8 in the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC), and advanced to the NAIA national tournament. More success appears in the cards, as UM is picked second in the conference’s preseason poll.

At the helm this year is head coach Alison SellersCook, who has moved over from leading the Spring Hill program. At SHC, she produced an overall record of 329263, including the 2013 season, in which she led the Badgers to a 49-17 mark and finished as national runner-up.

Sellers-Cook has extremely high hopes for her new squad.

“We have 13 returning players and a good many freshmen coming in, and I brought five players with me [from Spring Hill], so we have a lot of talent,’’ she said. “I have very high expectations for this bunch. I know they did extremely well last year, and with who they have coming back, who is coming in and who have come with me, I think it’s just going to really mesh together and it’s going to be a fun ride.”

Sellers-Cook said she has great leadership from center fielder Tyler Winkler and infielder Victoria Lewis, who was an all-SSAC player last year along with catcher Ashley Sprayberry and outfielder Emily Fleetwood.

On the mound, sophomore Hope Cain returns along with seniors Sydney O’Connor (both second-team allSSAC) and Karley Sanders. Danielle Clark, a Spring Hill transfer, was all-conference in both her freshman and sophomore years.

Other key players who have all-league experience are Maddie Burchell and Savannah Woodruff. Payton Adams is expected to contribute after missing her freshman year because of an injury. Maegan Walding is another returnee.

The Rams opened play last weekend in the Gulf Shores Invitational. Their first home action is Feb. 24 against Stillman.

Spring Hill College

The SHC softball program enters a new era as former University of South Alabama baseball head coach Steve Kittrell takes the reins as the head coach.

“We’re a fairly young team,” he says. “So we’re going to have to experiment with our lineup in the early parts of

the season by getting a lot of people in the game and in a lot of different positions. With that said, the players all have great attitudes, work ethics and character.”

Kittrell admits that his infield has suffered some early injuries and may not be the lineup he originally penciled into position. Freshman Caroline Hart will be at third base while freshman Hannah Fillmore will take care of shortstop. Freshman Brittany Hartung will see playing time on the left side of the infield, while sophomore outfielder Sarah Johnson might also serve on the infield as the season progresses.

Freshman Delaney Thomas out of Baker High will handle second base, but Kittrell expects to have her play shortstop if needed. Senior Randi DeArmitt is scheduled at first base, but freshman Hannah Brenton from Mobile Christian will share time in the role. Behind the plate, junior Aly Fowler moves into the starting job, but Kittrell says sophomore Cassidy Mehr will share the duties.

Badger pitching will feature depth this season with Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference relief pitcher sophomore Baylie Doiron (6-3 record, 2.32 ERA) moving into the starting slot backed up by Brenton. Sophomore Julia Waters and freshman Tiffany Hughes of Gulf Shores will also see time in the circle.

Johnson will open in left field and senior Brooke Vosloh moves into center. Right field will be patrolled by freshmen Carlisle Jamison and Kelsie Authement. Junior Tiffany Fairchild is available to play many positions.

Spring Hill closed out the 2017 campaign with a 33-16 overall mark and 17-2 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association record. As the sports program is still in the transition phase to NCAA Division II, the Badgers were not eligible for postseason play.

Spring Hill opened play last week in the Gulf Shores tournament. The first home action is Feb. 17 against Kentucky State.

University of South Alabama

No one can accuse the Jaguars softball team of playing a soft schedule. The squad is slated to face 15 teams that reached national postseason play a year ago.

“I feel like we’ve put together a challenging schedule and look forward to the opportunity to compete against some of the best teams in the nation,” head coach Becky Clark said. “Every year we strive to play the best schedule possible and I think we have done that again this year.

I look forward to it and anticipate great things from our team in the spring.”

With a roster that features 10 newcomers and 13 underclassmen, the early portion of the schedule will test the Jaguars as 19 of their first 22 games are away from

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Photo | University of Mobile

Emily Fleetwood of the University of Mobile is a junior from Citronelle who was all-conference last year after leading the Rams with a .382 batting average.

Jaguar Field.

The campaign gets underway Thursday as South hosts Alabama in a game that is already sold out. The Crimson Tide made its 19th straight NCAA tournament appearance last season and is the only program to appear in every Super Regional since its introduction in 2005.

The Jaguars went 35-20 last season, including a 15-12 mark in the Sun Belt Conference. Three returning players — pitcher Devin Brown, infielder Kaleigh Todd and outfielder MC Nichols — represented the state over the summer against the U.S. Women’s National Team last summer helped. “Playing against the USA team was a great experience for all three and I am sure something they will always remember,” Clark said.

Other returning veterans are Kristian Foster, Megan Harris and Savanna Mayo. Following a short campaign in the fall, Clark highlighted the play of Katelyn Gruich and Abby Krzywiecki. Of the 10 newcomers joining the roster, expected to contribute early are Alexis Reid, Brittani Reid, Kamdyn Kvistad, Hannah Smith, Amanda Flynn and Carmen Byrd.

“This group is focused and shares a common purpose,” Clark said. “You can always tell when a team wants to be good or wants to talk about being good.

So far they have been doing the little things that good teams do.”

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SPORTS FROM BEHIND THE MIC

Recruiting winners translates into winners on field

BY RANDY KENNEDY/CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

f you’re ever tempted to wonder what all the hype is about concerning National Signing Day for high school football prospects, then you should check out this list.

These are the 20 highest-rated prospects to play for Nick Saban since his Alabama dynasty began. You don’t have to be a college football expert to see a pretty clear trend here.

Starting with the highest-rated player, the list includes Najee Harris, Cyrus Kouandjio, Andre Smith, Julio Jones, Eyabi Anoma, Cam Robinson, Da’Shawn Hand, Trent Richardson, Landon Collins, Reuben Foster, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Tony Brown, Alex Leatherwood, Ben Davis, Dylan Moses, Marlon Humphrey, Dee Milliner, Derrick Henry, Calvin Ridley, Jonathan Allen and Rashaan Evans.

Of the 20 players, the closest one to a bust would be Tony Brown, who just completed his career having won two national championships and three SEC titles. The final game of his college career was a start and solid performance in the national championship game against Georgia.

Once he proves to be one of the fastest players and best athletes at the NFL Combine he will be drafted and have a chance for a productive NFL career.

You may not be familiar with the name Eyabi Anoma but that’s only because he’s still in high school. Anoma is the highest-rated defensive player Saban has ever signed and is expected to be an immediate contributor rushing the passer next season.

Ben Davis, the son of Alabama’s all-time leading tackler Wayne Davis, has had a slow start to his career. But he has a national championship ring and three more years

to see if he can match his incredible athletic ability with actual production on the field.

Harris, Leatherwood and Moses were true freshmen last year, but all three have already proven they’re going to be stars. When the national championship game was being decided, Harris and Leatherwood were on the field as key offensive contributors.

As for the other 14 who have already completed their college eligibility? They have at least two things in common: They were all superstars in college. And they were all high draft choices into the NFL, or are within a couple of months of reaching that goal.

The important point is not that Julio Jones and Landon Collins and Derrick Henry lived up to and even exceeded their lofty projections coming out of high school. The real key is that not one of the 20 players has been a bust.

There are certainly examples of players who were not highly rated as a 17-year-old developing into a great player.

That’s why nearly every NFL game is littered with players from Sam Houston State or Weber State or Richmond.

But that doesn’t change the math. A recent study showed two out of every five players who were five-star recruits go on to have long and successful NFL careers.

That’s still a relatively low 40 percent, but compared to all other players it is incredibly high.

If you’re wondering how the top recruits in Auburn history have done at the college level and beyond, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

Starting with the most highly rated, here are the 15 five-star players who have signed with Auburn since 2001:

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Byron Cowart, Derrick Brown, Michael Dyer, Tray Blackmon, Montravius Adams, Carnell Williams, Christian Westerman, Carl Lawson, Roc Thomas, Calvin Ashley, Trovon Reed, Tre’ Williams, Ben Obomanu, Jason Campbell and LeMarcus Rowell.

There are some star players there who have led the Tigers to huge wins, including Williams, Lawson, Obomanu and Campbell.

Cowart, Dyer, Westerman, Thomas and Rowell didn’t complete their careers at Auburn. Brown is a current star and Ashley will be able to show his talents this fall as a redshirt freshman.

Recruiting is not an exact science. The team that wins the recruiting national championship this week is not guaranteed to win anything on the field beginning this fall.

But there’s a reason why first-round picks are more valuable to NFL teams

RECRUITING IS NOT AN EXACT SCIENCE. THE TEAM THAT WINS THE RECRUITING NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP THIS WEEK IS NOT GUARANTEED TO WIN ANYTHING ON THE FIELD BEGINNING THIS FALL.” :

than seventh-round picks. It’s because the players who are considered by the experts to be the best prospects succeed at a higher rate than the players who are considered slightly less talented.

So, cheer for the diamond-in-the-rough, overachieving player who is going to work hard to achieve his dreams. He might just beat the odds and become a star.

But know that the prospects with all the stars next to their player profiles are the ones who will likely be starring on the college level and beyond.

Randy Kennedy writes a weekly column for Lagniappe and is co-host of “Sports Drive” every weekday from 3-6 p.m. on WNSP 105.5 FM, the country’s first all-sports FM station.

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STYLE FEATURE

How one dairy farmer created an Elberta fantasy land

BY GABI GARRETT

area for a sausage festival, he found these neat attractions and felt he had to let fellow tourists, and Alabama residents, know about the hidden treasures. Fillers also added the details to his blog.

“It’s funny, because I get calls all the time asking me ‘Can I have a birthday party at Bamahenge?’” Fillers said. He directs questions to the Barber Marina, but when we asked about the real story behind the man who put these roadside phenomena in the Elberta woods, he responded, “No one knows.”

As luck would have it, all three of these unique attractions are in driving distance of each other.

Bamahenge

If your future plans don’t include seeing one of the seven wonders of the world — Stonehenge — don’t fret, you have Bamahenge in your backyard. Just 200 yards off the main road, through the clearing of the forest, you’ll find a real lifesize replica of Stonehenge. There is a small description plaque that talks about the summer and winter solstice significance, but of course, nothing about the unique ownership and the “why” behind this construction. This makes Bamahenge almost as much of an enigma as Stonehenge.

Each stone is 21 feet tall and 104 feet across, as close to identical to the original as possible. It was designed to be storm proof by Mark Cline.

Lady in the Lake

C

reativity is a wild mind and disciplined eye,” said Dorothy Parker.

Among the wild minds and disciplined eyes lives George Barber, an Alabama success story who created his own unique roadside attractions in Elberta, just an hour’s scenic, forest-filled drive from the Mobile Bay area.

After researching Mr. Barber, you’ll find the list of his accomplishments is lengthy and diverse. His resume reads: previous race car driver, real estate developer and chairman of Barber Dairies. In 2003, he expanded to Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, near Birmingham. His ventures have gained him millionaire status.

Barber has also held a Guinness World Record for owning more than 1,400 motorcycles, covering vintage styles up to modern-day. This landed him in the Motorcycle Hall

“

of Fame in 2014.

The top of his list of unique life accomplishments includes the commission of an artist and entertainer, Mark Cline, to create life-size dinosaur sculptures, which now live in the woods in Elberta. The dinosaurs are paired with a replica of Stonehenge, lovingly named “Bamahenge.”

To complete the trio, at Barber Marina you’ll find a large woman named “Lady in the Lake” who sits in the water by the pier.

Today, visitors often find out about these neat roadside attractions from a) urban legend or b) a man named Michael Fillers, who loved the attractions so much he created a Facebook group.

Fillers created the page with information, including specific addresses and directions to help others spend a fun day in Elberta. After learning he would travel to the

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She’s a seasonal lady, so keep an eye out for her return come springtime.

This is an approximately 50-foot woman sitting in the Barber Marina, though if she stood she’d be 108 feet tall. Barber purchased her from Cline, who had mixed reviews of his art piece from other interested buyers. She can now be viewed by all tourists, instead of belonging to just one collector.

Dinosaurs

Just past Bamahenge, you’ll see a T. rex poking his head through the trees.

You have to peer closely into the woods or you’ll miss all four. The fun of this trip is the hunt. Take a photo and share with your friends that Alabama isn’t just about hunting and fishing, we have dinosaurs in the woods, too, you know.

Want to see the magic for yourself?

As with all great roadside urban legends, there will be no “real address.”

Head toward Barber Marina in Elberta, on Barber Parkway. You may see fellow adventure seekers parked alongside the woodsy road, and this is where you’ll see Bamahenge. Directly down the road you’ll see dinosaurs peaking through.

To visit the lady in the lake, head to Barber Marina.

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STYLE HOROSCOPES A NEW KREWE FOR YOU

F U T U R E S H O C K

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ANSWERS FROM PAGE 40

AQUARIUS (1/20-2/18) — Your prowess on the washboard will finally come in handy as you join The Pine Hill Haints on stage. You’ll be dismissed after attempting a solo with a musical saw. You’ll host the inaugural ball of the Mystics of Fear of Missing Out. PISCES (2/19-3/20) — You’ll have a full year of strange coincidences when you obtain a lock of Grayson Capps’ hair during his Joe Cain Day show at Callaghan’s.

You’ll sew a Mardi Gras train for the queen of the Krewe of Daydreaming.

ARIES (3/21-4/19) — You’ll proclaim yourself heir of the House Targaryen and attempt to control the Mystics of Times’ three dragon floats. You’ll foster the secret society known as the Knights of Impulsiveness.

TAURUS (4/20-5/20) — Finding little comedy in the recent stock market scare, you’ll fail to crack a smile until Ash Wednesday. You’ll begin a divisive parading group known as the Humorless Cowgirls.

GEMINI (5/21-6/21) — Conceding that New Orleans may actually have the bigger and better Mardi Gras doesn’t make you less a Mobilian, it makes you more a rational human. You hold a charter membership in the Order of Indecisiveness.

CANCER (6/22-7/22) — Trying to keep good on your pledge of a “Litter Free Mardi Gras,” you’ll scour the parade route for the one strand of beads you could not account for once you got back to the car.

You are the head of recruitment for the Krewe of Carnival Narcs.

LEO (7/23-8/22) — You’ll declare your personal space by building a wall around 20 square feet of pavement behind the barricades. You’ll employ an agent to enforce passport restrictions and QC test generic candy. You’ll organize the allinclusive Mobile Bay Area Parading and Non-Parading Society.

VIRGO (8/23-9/22) — In protest of what appears to be a shortage of MoonPies at local Mardi Gras parades, you’ll stand on the corner and pelt people on oncoming floats with undesirable oatmeal pies. You have been inducted into the Knights of GFY. LIBRA (9/23-10/22) — You’ll rush to the furnace to smelt your doubloons, hoping their weight as bullion will set you up for early retirement. You’ll be cited by ADEM for exceeding air quality standards.

You’ll ride on the lead float for the Order of Ordinary Orderlies.

SCORPIO (10/23-11/21) — You’ll conceive a screenplay for Nic Cage’s newest movie in Mobile, an action-based thriller about a sacred scroll buried under Mardi Gras Park. You’ll resign from the Krewe of Cat People to join the Knights of Dog People.

SAGITTARIUS (11/22-12/21) ­­— Against the advice of your most recent dietitian, you’ll eat your weight in funnel cakes and chickens-on-a-stick. You’ll form an shadowy LLC to obscure the principals in your new krewe, the Nutria Maidens.

CAPRICORN (12/22-1/19) — You’ll dress in black and join Joe Cain’s Merry Widows at the Church Street Cemetery Sunday morning. It won’t be the first time you’ve had a bloody mary at a graveyard and it won’t be the last. You’re the king of the Mystic Two-Cheek Mooners.

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STYLE BOOZIE

All Mardi Gras, all the time

were spotted on an Alabama-themed float. What does an NFL quarterback throw in a Mardi Gras parade? Footballs, of course!

BY BOOZIE BEER NUES/SOCIAL BUTTERFLY

instead of freezing the crowd with her cold touch, she worked them even more with her sizzling interpretation of “Let it GO” and “Ice Ice Baby.”

As the tableau ended Prince Charming woke Snow White with “true love’s kiss” after she had been enchanted by the evil queen and her alter ego. When the tableau was finished Queen Angela and Queen Tracy made their final walk for the members and the guests.

The excitement built as the Ball Captain and the Ball Lieutenant circled the dance floor before crowning Osiris’s new monarchs, King Greg the 37th and King Marty the 37th. Congratulations, Osiris on another amazing, magical night and to King Greg and King Marty. We wish you a thrilling reign!

Some of my spies were up to no good this weekend but weren’t going to be wronged. Let me explain. At one bar the bathroom line was long and of course it was long because it’s Mardi Gras and everyone is drinking, which means everyone has to go pee.

So my spy and a friend were standing in line and were a few people back when the door opened and someone not in the bathroom line ran in and shut the door. Everyone was not happy so they decided to block the door and question this line skipper. Once she comes out, she explains that she is pregnant and had to throw up. Everyone was like oh, OK, but next time just ask.

Then, my spy is enjoying the parade when she spots the line skipper and notices that she not only is drinking up but also appears drunk! Not cool, but not her baby, so she goes up to the girl’s boyfriend and congratulates him on his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He didn’t know. Now that he is freaking out, the line skipper turns around and confesses that she isn’t pregnant but didn’t want to wait in line. Umm girl, you think anyone wants to wait in line? NO!!

Boozie’s spy made sure to make the bouncers aware of what she did and she was asked to leave. Hopefully she learned her lesson not to fake pregnancy and not to skip in front of people in the bathroom line.

Carnival shenanigans

As the world turns

A

ll right, y’all, the week we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! Just be sure to remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Repeat: marathon, not a sprint. We had almost a year to recover and prepare so we should be ready, but after this past weekend’s shenanigans I’m not sure we were prepared enough. Some of us acted like this past weekend was Mardi Gras weekend. I feel like it might have prepared me better and reminded me of what’s to come!

Oh-siris delights!

This past Friday the Order of Osiris once again stunned Mobile with their sold out performance. Over 1,900 people watched, as members took us on a tour of “Magical Kingdoms.” The ball was opened with regalia as Queen Angela and Queen Tracy made their first walks around the dance floor for the cheering crowd.

Following the royals were the three emblems of the order, Osiris, Isis and Horus, who all amazed the crowd in dazzling costumes, getting them ready for the show that was to follow…and what a show it was.

The tableau started with the man himself, Walt Disney, with Mickey and Minnie at his side, welcoming everyone to the “happiest place on Earth.” Following him, the crowd was treated to Aladdin floating on his magic carpet with Princess Jasmine, Rapunzel letting down her hair from her castle, Belle waltzing with Beast and the Mad Hatter giving us a glimpse of the temptations of his dynamic tea party. Even Elsa showed up but

Mardi Gras brings out Boozie’s favorite types of people: the entertaining ones, the drunks and the ones that will go to any measure. Friday night a group was spotted walking through a Taco Bell drive-thru. Hey, walking beats drinking and driving but it’s pretty strange way to get your Nacho Bell Grnade. Saturday, a girl jumped out of a moving car, grabbed some beads on the side of the road and ran back to the car and hopped in. I really hope those were some special beads! Then some girls were spotted with a sign saying “Hit me like I’m family.” Umm, hello genius sign!

Also on Saturday, Bengals and former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron and his wife, Katherine Webb,

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Excuse me

Mardi Gras overload, and it will be the next few weeks, but I gotta also keep y’all up on other gossip! The New York Daily News named Callaghan’s Irish Social Club as one of the Top 150 Best Bars in America! We Mobilians already knew that but I’m glad others are recognizing our friend!

Also, Mobile (kinda) native DJ Fluker, a guard for the New York Giants, was spotted in a Super Bowl commercial! He was a backup dancer in the commercial featuring Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. recreating a famous scene from the film “Dirty Dancing.” DJ was then spotted the next day touring McGill-Toolen. Boozie just loves when NFL players come home!

Well, kids, that’s all I’ve got this week. Just remember, whether rain or shine, dramatic or scandalous or just plain ol’ Mardi Gras lovin’, I will be there. Ciao!

LAGNIAPPE LEGALS | 251.450-4466 | legals@lagniappemobile.com FORECLOSURES MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE Default having been made in the payment of the indebtedness secured by that certain mortgage executed by Perry D Chapman, and Carrie L Chapman, husband and wife, originally in favor of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as nominee for Countrywide Bank, a Division of Treasury Bank, N.A., on the 22nd day of April, 2005, said mortgage recorded in the Office of the Judge of Probate of Mobile County, Alabama, in Book 5767, Page 1228; the undersigned Bank of America, N.A., as Mortgagee/Transferee, under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in said mortgage, will sell at public outcry to the highest bidder for cash, in front of the main entrance of the Courthouse at Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama, on March 15, 2018, during the legal hours of sale, all of its right, title, and interest in and to the following described real estate, situated in Mobile County, Alabama, to-wit: Lot 3, Camelot, According to Plat thereof Recorded in Map Book 20, Page 65 of the Records in the Office of the Judge of Probate of Mobile County, Alabama.

Property street address for informational purposes: 4976 Camelot Dr, Mobile, AL 36619 THIS PROPERTY WILL BE SOLD ON AN “AS IS, WHERE IS” BASIS, SUBJECT TO ANY EASEMENTS, ENCUMBRANCES, AND EXCEPTIONS REFLECTED IN THE MORTGAGE AND THOSE CONTAINED IN THE RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE OF PROBATE OF THE COUNTY WHERE THE ABOVE-DESCRIBED PROPERTY IS SITUATED. THIS PROPERTY WILL BE SOLD WITHOUT WARRANTY OR RECOURSE, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED AS TO TITLE, USE AND/OR ENJOYMENT AND WILL BE SOLD SUBJECT TO THE RIGHT OF REDEMPTION OF ALL PARTIES ENTITLED THERETO. Alabama law gives some persons who have an interest in property the right to redeem the property under certain circumstances. Programs may also exist that help persons avoid or delay the foreclosure process. An attorney should be consulted to help you understand these rights and programs as a part of the foreclosure process.

This sale is made for the purpose of paying the indebtedness secured by said mortgage, as well as the expenses of foreclosure. The successful bidder must tender a nonrefundable deposit of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) in certified funds made payable to Sirote & Permutt, P.C. at the time and place of the sale. The balance of the purchase price must be paid in certified funds by noon the next business day at the Law Office of Sirote & Permutt, P.C. at the address indicated below. Sirote & Permutt, P.C. reserves the right to award the bid to the next highest bidder should the highest bidder fail to timely tender the total amount due. The Mortgagee/Transferee reserves the right to bid for and purchase the real estate and to credit its purchase price against the expenses of sale and the indebtedness secured by the real estate. This sale is subject to postponement or cancellation. Bank of America, N.A., Mortgagee/Transferee Pam King SIROTE & PERMUTT, P.C. P. O. Box 55727 Birmingham, AL 35255-5727 Attorney for Mortgagee/Transferee www.sirote.com/foreclosures 426544 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 21, 2018

FORECLOSURE NOTICE Default having been made by the herein referenced Grantee in the terms of that certain Vendor’s Lien Deed executed on September 8, 2010, by Shawntell L. Wheeler, as Grantee to Iras Development Company, Inc., Inc., an Alabama corporation, as Grantor which said Vendor’s Lien Deed was recorded in the Office of the Judge of Probate, Mobile County, Alabama, in Real Property Book 6697, Page 918, and said vendor’s lien having been last assigned to EMON, LLC, which assignment was recorded in the office of the Judge of Probate Mobile County Alabama in Real Property Book LR7123, Page 1597, and default continuing under said Vendor’s Lien Deed, by virtue of and pursuant to the power of sale contained in said Vendor’s Lien, the following described real property will be sold at public outcry, for cash, to the highest bidder, in front of the North entrance of the Courthouse of said County, located at 205 Government Street, Mobile, Alabama 36644, during the legal hours of sale, on March 14, 2018. Lot 115, & 116 as per plat of TIMBERLAND, UNIT VI as recorded in Map Book 124, Page 55, Probate Court of Mobile County, Alabama. Said sale is made for the purpose of paying said Vendor’s Lien debt and costs of foreclosure. EMON, LLC Holder of said Vendor’s Lien WILLIAM B. JACKSON, II STOKES & CLINTON, P.C. Attorneys for Lienholder Post Office Box 991801 Mobile, Alabama 36691 (251) 460-2400 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 21, 2018

FORECLOSURE NOTICE Default having been made in the payment of the indebtedness described in and secured by the vendor’s lien retained in that certain Vendor’s Lien Deed dated June 22, 2012 from Thomas E. Nelson and Carolyn H. Nelson, as Trustees of the Nelson Living Trust dated December 11, 2006, as grantors, to Shimaa Abdul, as grantee, recorded in Real Property Book 6907, Page 785 in the Office of the Judge of Probate, Mobile County, Alabama, notice is hereby given that the undersigned, as holders of said vendor’s lien, will under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in said Vendor’s Lien Deed, sell at public outcry for cash to the highest bidder during the legal hours of sale on March 6, 2018 at the Government Street entrance of the Mo-

bile Government Plaza, 205 Government Street, Mobile, Alabama the following described real property situated in the County of Mobile, State of Alabama, described in said Vendor’s Lien Deed hereinabove referred to, viz: Lot 59, Oakwood Estates, Unit Two, according to plat thereof as recorded in Map Book 16, Page 24, in the records in the Office of Judge of Probate, Mobile County, Alabama. Said sale will be made for the purpose of paying said indebtedness and the expenses incident to this sale, including a reasonable attorney›s fee. THOMAS E. NELSON AND CAROLYN H. NELSON AS TRUSTEES OF THE NELSON LIVING TRUST DATED DECEMBER 11, 2006 Holders of Said Vendor’s Lien David A. Boyett, III ANDERS, BOYETT & BRADY, P.C. 3800 Airport Boulevard, Suite 203 Mobile, Alabama 36608 (251) 344-0880 ABB File No. 82797 Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 14, 2018

MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE Default having been made in the payment of the indebtedness secured by that certain mortgage executed by Lillian Dean and Luke Rivers, husband and wife, originally in favor of Ameriquest Mortgage Company, on the 16th day of November, 2000, said mortgage recorded in the Office of the Judge of Probate of Mobile County, Alabama, in Book 5169 Page 1001; the undersigned Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee for ABFC Mortgage Loan Asset Backed Certificates Series 2001-AQ1, as Mortgagee/Transferee, under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in said mortgage, will sell at public outcry to the highest bidder for cash, in front of the main entrance of the Courthouse at Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama, on March 8, 2018, during the legal hours of sale, all of its right, title, and interest in and to the following described real estate, situated in Mobile County, Alabama, to-wit: Lot 1 and 2 in Square 136 of the West Gordon Division of the Favre Tract. Said lots being situated at the Southwest Corner of Charles and Selma Streets, fronting on Charles Street 85 feet and running back along the South side Selma Street of uniform width, 100 feet according to plat thereof recorded in Deed Book 34 N.S. Page 150, in the Office of the Judge of probate, Mobile County, Alabama.

Property street address for informational purposes: 400 Charles Street, Mobile, AL 36604 THIS PROPERTY WILL BE SOLD ON AN “AS IS, WHERE IS” BASIS, SUBJECT TO ANY EASEMENTS, ENCUMBRANCES, AND EXCEPTIONS REFLECTED IN THE MORTGAGE AND THOSE CONTAINED IN THE RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE OF PROBATE OF THE COUNTY WHERE THE ABOVEDESCRIBED PROPERTY IS SITUATED. THIS PROPERTY WILL BE SOLD WITHOUT WARRANTY OR RECOURSE, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED AS TO TITLE, USE AND/OR ENJOYMENT AND WILL BE SOLD SUBJECT TO THE RIGHT OF REDEMPTION OF ALL PARTIES ENTITLED THERETO. Alabama law gives some persons who have an interest in property the right to redeem the property under certain circumstances. Programs may also exist that help persons avoid or delay the foreclosure process. An attorney should be consulted to help you understand these rights and programs as a part of the foreclosure process. This sale is made for the purpose of paying the indebtedness secured by said mortgage, as well as the expenses of foreclosure. The successful bidder must tender a non-refundable deposit of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) in certified funds made payable to Sirote & Permutt, P.C. at the time and place of the sale.

The balance of the purchase price must be paid in certified funds by noon the next business day at the Law Office of Sirote & Permutt, P.C. at the address indicated below.

Sirote & Permutt, P.C. reserves the right to award the bid to the next highest bidder should the highest bidder fail to timely tender the total amount due. The Mortgagee/ Transferee reserves the right to bid for and purchase the real estate and to credit its purchase price against the expenses of sale and the indebtedness secured by the real estate. This sale is subject to postponement or cancellation. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, as Trustee for ABFC Mortgage Loan Asset Backed Certificates Series 2001-AQ1, Mortgagee/Transferee. Pam King SIROTE & PERMUTT, P.C. P. O. Box 55727 Birmingham, AL 35255-5727 Attorney for Mortgagee/Transferee www.sirote.com/foreclosures 422323 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 21, 2018

FORECLOSURE NOTICE Default having been made in the payment of the indebtedness described in and secured by that certain Mortgage from Carmen B. Staten to Richard S. Dennis, dated the 16th day of May, 2011, and recorded in Real Property Book 6779 page 18, of the records in the Office of the Judge of Probate Court, Mobile County, Alabama, said default continuing, notice is hereby given that the undersigned will, under and by virtue of the power of sale contained in said Mortgage, sell at public outcry for cash to the highest bidder during the legal hours of sale on the 22nd day of February, 2018, the following described property located in the County of Mobile, State of Alabama, to-wit: Lot 5, OAKS OF FOWL RIVER, PHASE TWO, as recorded in Map Book 113, Pages 24, in the Office of the Judge of Probate Mobile County, Alabama. Said sale will be made for the purpose of paying said indebtedness and the expenses incident to this sale, including a reasonable Attorney’s fee, and the other purpose set out in said Mortgage. RICHARD S. DENNIS Mortgagee WILLIAM E. CASE Attorney for Mortgagee Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 14, 2018

PUBLIC NOTICE The Bayou La Batre, AL Fire District Board will hold meetings each second Monday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at the BLB Firehouse.

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR 2018 STATE COMBINED CAMPAIGN March 2, 2018 is the application deadline for local voluntary charitable health and human care agencies or federations to apply for participation in the fall 2018 State Combined Campaign. The State Combined Campaign will begin in August and is designed to allow state employees to give to recognized local and/or statewide charities. Alabama law emphasizes local control to help ensure the campaign meets needs where state employees work and live. Charitable agencies desiring to participate in the 2018 State Combined Campaign should contact Leslie C. Schraeder at 251.431.0101 or lschraeder@uwswa.org for application instructions or visit www.statecombinedcampaign.org.

Questions concerning federation/agency eligibility should also be referred to the above point of contact.

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

JOINT MOBILE METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION (MPO)/ TECHNICAL COORDINATING AND CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING The Mobile MPO Policy Board will meet on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM at the GM&O Building in the Board Room at 110 Beauregard Street. The purpose of the meeting is to approve Safety Performance Measures and the following modification to the FY 2016-2019 Transportation Improvement Program: New Cost Estimate 100060153 ( CN ) SR-158 Extension from 0.5 Mile East of Glenwood Road to West of Lott Road (SR-217). Grade Drain, Base, Pave has a new cost estimate from $17,721,177 to $30,005,229. DELETE the following project from the Interstate Maintenance Program 100067527 (PE) I-10 Mobile River Bridge Load Test Program. Physically challenged persons who need special accommodations should contact SARPC in advance so arrangements can be made to meet their needs. Transportation Planning Coordinator South Alabama Regional Planning Commission P. O. Box 1665 Mobile, AL 366331665 PHONE: (251)433-6541 FAX: (251)433-6009 EMAIL: transportation@sarpc.org Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

STATE OF ALABAMA COUNTY OF MOBILE Notice is hereby given that a bill as described in the synopsis below will be introduced in the 2018 Regular Session of the Legislature of Alabama and application for its passage and enactment will be made: A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT. SYNOPSIS: Relating to Class 2 municipalities; to require a landlord to register any rental property with a Class 2 municipality and to maintain the condition of any rental property up to code, and to require the registration of any vacant property with a Class 2 municipality; to establish a fine for a landlord who does not adhere to the registration and maintenance requirements, and to require a bank to register any foreclosed property.

Lagniappe HD Jan. 24, 31, Feb. 7, 14, 2018

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosts Mobile Harbor improvement town hall meeting, Feb. 22 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, will host a town hall meeting to update all interested parties on the ongoing study to evaluate impacts of widening and/or deepening the Mobile Harbor Federal Navigation Channel. The meeting is open to the interested public and will be held at the Mobile Convention Center, 1 South Water Street, Mobile, Ala., on Feb. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. Free parking is available in the parking lot just south of the Mobile Convention Center on Water Street, between Church and Government Streets, adjacent to Cooper Riverside Park. Free parking is available for persons/vehicles with a handicapped permit in the underground parking lot of the Convention Center. The Mobile District commander will provide an overview of the District and the ongoing studies for the proposed harbor improvements project. After the Corps presentation, members of the public will have the opportunity to ask the commander and team questions, make comments and share concerns related to possible impacts associated with the potential project. The town hall meeting is one opportunity to share comments that will become part of the preparation of a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project. In addition to the meeting, members of the public may submit comments by email to MobileHarborGRR@usace.army.mil or by mail to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, 109 Saint Joseph Street, Mobile, AL 36602. For more information, on the proposed Mobile Harbor Federal Navigation Channel project, visit http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/.

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 21, 2018

PROBATE NOTICE OF ESTATE ADMINISTRATION

PROBATE COURT OF MOBILE COUNTY, ALABAMA Estate of: JANET O. HUDSON LOCKLIER, Deceased Case No. 2018-0099 Take notice that Letters Testamentary have been granted to the below named parties on the 23rd day of January, 2018 by the Honorable Don Davis, Judge of Probate of Mobile County Probate Court, Alabama and that all parties having claims against said estate should file the same with the Probate Court of said county within the time allowed by law, or they will be barred. JOHN M. LOCKLIER III and AMY LYNN LOCKLIER MILAR as Co-Executors under the last will and testament of JANET O. HUDSON LOCKLIER, Deceased.

Attorney of Record: JOHN GROW II Lagniappe HD January 31, Feb. 7, 14, 2018.

NOTICE OF ESTATE ADMINISTRATION PROBATE COURT OF MOBILE COUNTY, ALABAMA Estate of: ESTHER M. SHEPPARD Case No. 2017-1075 Take notice that Letters of Administration on the Annexed Will have been granted to the below named party on the 1st day of February 2018 by the Honorable Don Davis, Judge of Probate of Mobile County Probate Court, Alabama and that all parties having claims against said estate should file the same with the Probate Court of said county within the time allowed by law, or they will be barred. SANDRA E. POTTS, as Administratrix CTA under the last will and testament of ESTHER M. SHEPPARD, Deceased.

Attorney of Record: WILLIAM A. DONALDSON Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 21, 2018

NOTICE OF SALE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to Alabama Statutes, that the goods stored in units rented by occupants listed below will be sold to the highest bidder at a public auction online at www.storagetreasures.com on February 23, 2018 at 10:00 am to satisfy liens claimed by STORAGEMAX MIDTOWN, together with all costs of sale.

Raquel Robinson Any of the above goods may be withdrawn from sale by STORAGEMAX MIDTOWN at any time without prior notice.

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 1419 E I-65 Service Rd S., Mobile, AL 36606.

2008 Cadillac SRX 1GYEE637280115577

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 7960 Two Mile Rd., Irvington, AL 36544.

2000 Ford Expedition 1FMRU1564YLB48169 1996 Buick Century 1G4AG55M2T6465918 2008 Toyota Yaris JTDBT923984035006 Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 813 Marine St., Mobile,AL 36604.

2012 Ford Taurus 1FAHP2FW8CG112973 2007 Dodge Charger 2B3LA43R17H797667 1999 VW Beetle 3VWCA21C1XM442126 1987 Mercedes 420 WDBCA35D1HA336767 Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 52394 Lot B McKinley Rd., Perdido, AL 36562.

2009 Saturn VUE 3GSCL53789S541088 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 557 Azalea Rd Apt 139, Mobile, AL 36609.

2009 GMC Yukon 1GKFC33009R102488 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 2113 Wagner St., Mobile, AL 36617.

2012 Ford Fiesta 3FADP4AJ9CM106305 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 2115 Clements, Mobile, AL 36617.

2013 Dodge Dart 1C3CDFBA4DD321682 2010 Toyota Camry 4T1BF3EKXAU062644

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 250 N Craft Hwy., Chickasaw, AL 36611.

2006 Chevrolet Impala 2G1WT55K169412153

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 11426 County Rd 65 Unit 2, Foley, AL 36535.

2007 Toyota Tundra 5TBBT54147S451710 2003 Chevrolet Trailblazer 1GNES16S936243037

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 2101 Robinson Dr., Mobile, AL 36605.

1995 Chevrolet Camaro 2G1FP22S8S2218021 2001 GMC Yukon 1GKEC13T11J280598

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 8390 Zeigler Blvd., Mobile, AL 36608.

2009 Chevrolet C1500 1GNFC26J79R235976

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 1037 St Stephens Rd., Prichard, AL 36610.

2012 Dodge Avenger 1C3CDZCB4CN253529

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 1452 California St., Mobile, AL 36604.

2008 Chevrolet Impala 2G1WT58K081203841

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 7820 Murray Heights Dr W., Irvington, AL 36544.

2006 Ford F150 1FTPW12586KB25563 Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 9591 Hodge Nursery Rd Lot 12, Irvington, AL 36544.

2001 Nissan Sentra 3N1CB51D41L456063 Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 18342 Couch Plant Rd., Summerdale, AL 36580.

2007 Chevrolet HHR 3GNDA13D07S632588 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 255 Schillinger Rd. N., Mobile, AL 36608.

2005 Nissan Murano JN8AZ08W25W412092 Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 2658 Burgess St., Mobile, AL 36606.

2000 GMC Yukon 3GKGC26U9YG201998

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 453 Mobile St., Mobile,AL 36607.

2012 Toyota Camry 4T1BF1FK3CU136718

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 09 , 2018 - Time - 12pm, if not claimed - at 5775 Plantation Rd., Theodore, AL 36582.

1990 Ford Mustang 1FACP41E4LF213843

The following unclaimed vehicle(s) will be sold on March 16 , 2018 - Time -12pm, if not claimed - at 7960 Two Mile Rd., Irvington, AL 36544.

1998 Mercury Marquis 2MEFM75W6WX679639

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Jan. 31, Feb. 7, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

Lagniappe HD Feb. 7, 14, 2018

Fe b r u a r y 7 , 2 0 1 8 - Fe b r u a r y 1 3 , 2 0 1 8 | L AG N I A P P E | 51