weekend « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

weekend

adventures / history / photo / weekend — Comments Off
12
Apr 14

Washington Artillery Park

This is a gun guarding over the Mississippi River, just off Jackson Square, standing in honor of the Washington Artillery, the 141st:

It is a still-active unit, which first drew colors in 1838 (though the unit has an unrecognized pre-history) in the Louisiana Army National Guard. It is the Louisiana Guard’s oldest unit, in fact. It is also the oldest artillery outfit in the nation outside the original 13 colonies. There’s something special about that gun, one of the unit’s original four-pounders.

The Washington Artillery received its regimental flag in 1846 after serving under Zachary Taylor in the Mexican–American War. Four companies of the regiment served in the Army of Northern Virginia and a fifth for the Army of Tennessee. Domestically they worked floods, yellow fever outbreaks and labor riots. World War I ended with the 141st still training in France, but their sons earned a Presidential Unit Citation for the Washington Artillery in World War II. In Europe they saw 463 days of combat and fired 150,871 rounds during 7,004 missions and occupied 108 positions. The modern guardsmen saw action in 2004 through 2005 and in 2010, in Baghdad.

Many of the members were still in Iraq when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. They rotated back and a detachment immediately went to work in rescue efforts here at home and ultimately worked with state and local police to combat looting and other crimes in the New Orleans area. They patrolled at home for an astounding three-and-a-half years. Many of their own homes and their barracks, were flooded in the storm.

Battles? You name it, they’ve been there. In the Civil War they were at both battles at Bull Run, Shiloh, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Appomattox and many more. In World War II they fought in Algeria, Tunisia, Anzio, Po Valley, Rome, Sicily, Normandy, the Ardennes and Germany. Sgt. Lee Godbolt, the last member of the unit to have died in the line of duty, was killed in Iraq in 2005.

Their coat of arms has both the growling tiger and a pelican tending the nest of chicks.

Their unit motto, perhaps the best ever: “Try us.”

photo / weekend — Comments Off
6
Apr 14

Catching up

Just a bunch of pictures I haven’t found a good place for this week. Of course these are all from New Orleans, from which we returned this evening.

Leading off, here’s a great old ghost sign on Decatur Street. It was a product that was the brainchild of Isaac Emerson (1859-1931). He was a chemist, invented a headache powder, was a captain of the Maryland Naval Reserves and served as a lieutenant in the Spanish-American War. He ran a drug company, a chemical company and built a hotel. Bromo-Seltzer, his headache powder, is still available today. It is marketed as an antacid. This seems to be the sum of the surviving common knowledge of the drink in the ghost sign. Here’s someone trying to recreate the drink.

Gaston, the gator, outside of Huck Finn’s Cafe:

Our hotel, the Sheraton on Canal Street, is home to a Steinway ‘Blue Dog Piano,’ honoring the late George Rodrigue. The hotel also has a gallery of some of his other Blue Dog prints and there’s one original on loan there as well. The 1913 Steinway Model A grand piano, is on display at the Sheraton for the next two years. So it was weird when we came down one morning and the piano was gone. It goes on tour with some of the LSU musical performers.

This statue of Louis Armstrong is also in that hotel. I wonder what notes he is about to play:

adventures / music / video / weekend — Comments Off
5
Apr 14

New Orleans videos

Another busy day of conferencing. I chaired a panel that included papers on President Johnson’s 1965 Howard University commencement address, President Obama’s commitment to women, Rep. George Henry White’s farewell address to Congress.

I listened to other panels, including a brilliant paper The Yankee did. Later I listened as she critiqued a paper by the man who was our master’s advisor. As I said at the time, it would have been awkward if he weren’t so cool.

At the evening’s reception there was a buffet of beignets. They weren’t the best you’ve ever had, but they were beignets in a buffet. I had some.

I did a nice 10K, with three eight-minute miles, which hasn’t happened since college or high school. That has never happened at that distance. So, truly, I do not know what is happening. None of this bothered me until my evening walk taking pictures.

Here are a few clips I’ve shot this weekend.

This first one is of a Bananas Foster, made fresh at your table by the nice people at Palace Cafe. I recorded juuuuust in case something happened …

Only fire happened. And an entire table full of tourists recording the thing. Oh, sure, we all said we were doing this to show the kids later, or for social media, or for our websites. That’s what we said. I’m sure a few people were hoping they’d get to yell “Worldstar!”

I asked the escorting officers about the purpose of the festivities. Mardi Gras was long over. Was this a wedding? “Just a parade,” he said tiredly, the voice of a motorcycle cop who has probably done hundreds of these. This group, which was swelling with the addition of passersby as it marched, was just crossing Decatur Avenue.

“Iko Iko” tells the story of a parade collision between two “tribes” of Mardi Gras Indians. The song, under the original title “Jock-A-Mo,” was written in 1953 by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford in New Orleans. The spy boy, a lookout, confronts the flag boy of the other tribe and threatens to set the flag on fire.

Tomorrow we head back home. But there will be pictures to see. I took a lot of pictures and the site may just live on them for the next several days.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
30
Mar 14

Catching up

The weekly post with a week’s worth of homeless pictures. We’re making space for them as a place-holding post. Brilliant!

Our dogwood is just about ready to unfurl:

And the maple’s bloom is in progress, too. The maple seeds, or samaras, always make me smile. One year, as a well meaning and adoring child, I collected them all up and brought them to my grandmother. I was being helpful. She said she’d make them into beans that night, and she did.

It was years before I figured it out.

Our first spring-time sunset. It was about a week late, but it got here:

A closeup:

How Dewayne the balloon guy does rally caps:

They’ve shifted the paradigm for tea dispersal at Price’s Barbecue House. The containers now face the customer. And there are labels. This is a change of almost 20 years of habit for me. Maybe this is the first time they’ve done this since they opened in the 1970s. This will take some getting used to:

Auburn / baseball / photo / weekend — Comments Off
29
Mar 14

Baseball shots

Auburn won 7-3 today and avoided a sweep at the hands of Missouri, a club that took their first series over a ranked team in five years.

Jordan Ebert put Auburn on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning. He also drove in a run in the sixth and then scored there as well, the last run of the game:

Ryan Tell had three hits. He stole second base in the eighth inning, his first of the weekend. He was thrown out at third twice in the series.

Jay Wade picked up the save, allowing only one hit and one run in four innings of work: