For years, the Up Fronter’s been promoting Hobo Hotel — a local center for cat care and adoption. I’ve tended to get out the good word about Hobo Hotel because of the organization’s clever marketing campaigns, which often make playful, funny uses of cat names or puns on said names.
The other day, I had occasion to visit Hobo Hotel for the first time. I needed to adopt a cat.
Hobo Hotel is a warm place. The walls are all in monochromatic pastels. A peaceful sky blue is a dominant hue.
All over each wall there spreads an array of small shelves installed at a variety of heights. Cats pick out their favorite perch, or move from shelf to shelf. If they’re not in a vertical mood, they can settle into one of the many cat beds and nooks on the floors or climb around the wide variety of cat furniture.
The whole thing is set up so that cats can socialize with ease and in comfort.
In short, it all looks like a kind of dream house for cats.
The facility is divided into different rooms for cats of different ages or conditions. I suppose I saw more than two dozen cats of all sorts when I was there. There’s no fear of a cat becoming alienated and neurotic in this friendly setting.
For 80 bucks, I got a sleek white Siamese cat that had been fixed; given a chip; inoculated against rabies; and issued a rabies tag.
Hobo Hotel never euthanizes cats. It also never declaws cats and strongly advises owners against declawing them. Owners may think their cat will never escape. But cats do escape. And a cat who escapes, and has been de-clawed, is almost entirely defenseless outdoors.
Looking for the cat of your dreams? There are lots of photos at hobohotelforcats.com. You can also volunteer or make a donation at the site.
Creole Nature Trail All-American Road Free Smartphone App
There’s a new, free smartphone app for the Creole Nature Trail All-American Road. The free app can be downloaded at the iTunes App Store or Android Market.
It’s been updated to include Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. “With new direct flights from China and Japan into nearby airports, and with inquiries the bureau receives from the international travel trade, we decided it would be beneficial to add Mandarin Chinese and Japanese to the Creole Nature Trail personal tour app,” said Shelley Johnson, executive director of the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau.
You can also use the app in French, German, Spanish and, of course, English.
The app’s self-paced tour guide system delivers content based on where users are on the trail. Whenever visitors enter the satellite radius of a point of interest, the device automatically provides a play button for a video.
One of only 43 All-American Roads in the U.S., the Creole Nature Trail garners attention from tourists in your neighborhood and around the world. The Trail is a 180-mile driving tour through the bayous, marshlands, wildlife refuges, beaches and coasts of our area.
For more info, call the Lake Charles/Southwest Louisiana Convention & Visitors Bureau at 436-9588 or log onto visitlakecharles.org/apps.
Welcome The Hip ATV Set
Lake Charles just made a big step toward getting the sophistication it’ll need to be ready for the big boom. The jump forward to a stellar standard of quality of life, culture and entertainment took place at the inauguration of a Mardi Gras run in which adults — and children, for all I know — sat on ATVs as they chased chickens.
The daring new enterprise, which many in the audience admitted they found too “cerebral” and “rarified,” began at the city’s heart at the Lake Charles Civic Center.
Now, it’s well known that it’s the God-given right of every male and female born in Lake Charles to be given a fully functioning ATV on his or her first birthday. And I know some traditions are too old and sacred to alter. But I just wondered whether it might be just a wee bit, well, cruel, and maybe even oafish, to chase chickens with the gigantic noisemakers.
Naw … I’m messin’ with ya.
Our objective is to do away with all signs of provincialism and acquire all attributes of sophistication by the time the boom gets here. Now I never believed that sophisticates chased chickens on foot. It’s just that I didn’t know till now that they chase them on ATVs.
Dread Harbinger
I may be reminding you from time to time that I am the one and only journalist in Southwest Louisiana who has warned you from the beginning that the big boom may not turn out to be everything that everyone has always told you it will.
The first big example of the sort of failure to launch I’ve been writing about occurred in late January, when Sasol delayed work on its $14 billion gas-to-liquid project in Westlake.
The New York Times called the move “the most extreme example of how oil companies are delaying, or canceling outright, some of their more ambitious projects as the price of oil plunges” (“Oil Company Sasol Delays Huge Louisiana Project …” Clifford Kraus, Jan. 28).
As with all such delays, we’ll have to wait and see whether the delay is just a delay or whether it turns into an eventual cancellation.
This is all important because this project promised more than 1,000 permanent jobs in the Lake Area. The Up Fronter always evaluates all booms in terms of the number of permanent jobs that are promised compared to the number of permanent jobs that are delivered. There have been times when the numbers didn’t match up. When jobs are promised, then aren’t delivered, it’s simply inhumane to stand idly by and say nothing.
Obama’s Turn
The Up Fronter wrote years ago that if Louisiana elects only candidates who criticize, ridicule and insult President Obama, then Obama will have no incentive whatsoever to do good things for the state.
O my prophetic soul (as they say). The Obama administration, and in particular Interior secretary Sally Jewel, has just called for a “re-examination” of a 2006 law that stipulates that Louisiana be given 37.5 percent of the government revenue from new oil leases in the outer continental shelf.
That law, by the way, was brought about largely by Sen. Mary Landrieu, whom Louisianans just voted out because she wasn’t anti-Obama enough. Landrieu actually spoke out against Obama’s new stance. But since she’s no longer in office, what difference does that make?
Newly elected Sen. Bill Cassidy also weighed in: “I will do everything in my power to … block the president’s raid on oil and gas revenues.” But since Cassidy’s entire election platform was that Obama is a monster, what will be in his power on this matter is precisely squat. (One of Cassidy’s campaign points was that he gave Obama a “zero” rating as a president).
Of course, both Gov. Jindal and Sen. Vitter never miss a chance to express their loathing for Obama in front of live microphones. Jindal adds insult to injury by wondering out loud why Obama won’t meet with him about education. As Dr. Phil says, “How’s that workin’ for ya?”
A thorough analysis of the whole situation was offered by Louisiana columnist Jarvis DeBerry in an opinion piece he just wrote for the Times-Picayune titled “President Obama sticks it to Louisiana; who has the standing to fight for us?”
Here’s a short version of DeBerry’s argument:
“We’ve got nobody left in our state’s delegation with legislative clout and a history of working with the president … We’ve got nobody with seniority whom the president needs to keep happy. Thus, he is politically free to stick it to Louisiana …”
“Louisiana voters have made it clear that they reject Obama, and to drive home the point, they rejected the one senator who could work with him.”
DeBerry quotes Vitter’s reaction to Obama’s new stand: “The president’s budget plan to funnel the Gulf states’ offshore energy revenue out of those states is incredibly insulting to Louisianans.”
“Incredibly insulting.” So notch up one more slam against the president by a Louisiana politician.
DeBerry agrees that Obama’s move is insulting to Louisiana. “But,” he writes, “what political price could Obama possibly pay for that insult? What — and whom — has he got to lose?”
What indeed?
Obama’s action is going to seem especially harsh since this money is, after all, set aside to help fix Louisiana’s disastrous coastal land and marshland loss. But you might as well get used to it. This is politics, not an ethics seminar.
And if you think this is bad, wait till you see what happens if Louisiana politicians spend the next two years dumping on Hillary Clinton and she gets elected president. Talk about hardball. Damn!
In times such as these, it’s good to remember Pawpaw Dideaux’s two laws of politics: 1. Fairness ain’t got nothin’ to do with it. 2. Actions have consequences.
Art-Baiting
One reader suggested I write something about the recent controversy about portraits of Gov. Bobby Jindal because readers “need a good laugh now and then.” I think he’s right. So let’s take an Up Front look into this silly story.
It all started when Louisiana political blogger Lamar White, Jr., Tweeted a photo of a painting of Jindal by New Orleans artist Robin Yow. White, whom Advocate writer Elizabeth Crisp referred to as “left-leaning” wrote, in error, “This is Bobby Jindal’s official portrait.”
A number of Twitter-philes commented that they felt the skin color in the portrait was quite a bit lighter than Jindal’s actual skin color.
Soon enough, Jindal’s Chief of Staff Kyle Plotkin was on Twitter, running a photo of the actual official painting of the governor. Oh … and Plotkin also wrote this: “Thx 4 ur race-baiting tweet.”
Wah, wah, wah! What concerns me here isn’t the race-baiting; it’s the hideous quality of Yow’s art. Just go to Google Images and look at the thing. The eyes are the size of nickels but the lip and jaw area are the size of a pumpkin. Jindal may have larger-than-normal lips. But they aren’t the size of a pterodactyl.
And what is that on top of Jindal’s head? Is that supposed to be hair? It could pass, I guess, as a rendition of a low-quality toupee that was dyed by means of Magic Marker. But to me it looks more like a dark alien life form that’s attached itself to the governor’s head … or perhaps an infestation of mold that’s been allowed to grow a little too long.
Notice that the eyes are on the left side of the head while the mouth is on the right. What the hell? Do Jindal’s eyes move around and change their position on his face from time to time during the day? If the SyFy network finds out, they’ll make a movie about it.
In all fairness to Yow, let it be stated that the official portrait of Jindal bears every bit as little resemblance to the governor as Yow’s does. (And just for the record, that has nothing to do with skin color. When Jindal’s face is illuminated from the front with a bright light, he doesn’t appear to have dark skin.)
I know there are good realistic painters in Louisiana. I guess Jindal’s people didn’t exactly beat the bushes looking for them. Maybe this is a good chance for the governor to set up an opportunity for Iowa school children to paint portraits of him. I assure you they could not do worse.
Joke
Why didn’t the zombie cross the road? He didn’t have the guts.
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