For 16 years, the Hobo Hotel has been taking in cat rescues; raising them; and uniting them with grateful owners. Now, Hobo Hotel is undertaking its first membership drive.
Staff at Hobo Hotel say they “need to build a membership base” whose donations will help the Hotel meet its “considerable annual budget.”
You can become an individual member for $25. The family rate is $50 and the patron membership is $100. There are additional levels of membership support going right on up to the Corporate Member for those who donate $1,500 or more.
In addition to joining, you may want to get the quarterly newsletter, which can be sent by email or snail mail. If you become a donor in the membership drive, your name will appear in the Spring, 2016, newsletter (unless you’d prefer it didn’t).
If you have any doubts about whether this is a worthy cause, stop by Hobo Hotel and have a look around. See whether you think the dozens of cats roaming about or playing on the many climbing structures are thriving.
Hobo Hotel is a 501c non-profit group. It never kills cats.
Visit www.hobohotelforcats.com to find out more. The banner for the membership drive is right at the top of the home page. At the site, you can view four photo galleries of cats who live at the Hotel. While you’re on the site, check out the photo gallery for the Fat Cat Contest.
Indonesian Art At The Library
For the rest of 2015, you’ll be able to see an exhibit of hand-carved wooden rod puppets from Indonesia at the Central Library, which is located on the corner of Ernest and W. Claude Streets in Lake Charles.
These wooden doll puppets are operated from below by rods connected to the puppet’s hands. There’s also a central control rod that runs through the puppet’s body to the head.
The puppets are commonly associated with the Sundanese culture of West Java. In Java, they’re called “wayang golek.”
Original silkscreen fabric from Indonesia will also be on display. All the works are from a collection on loan from Nancy Noland.
Need to know more? Call 721-7116.
Here’s Your Award
Just a month ago, the Up Fronter lambasted the Lake Charles transit system once again. For the billionth time in 15 years, I listed the glaring problems of the system, which are exactly the same as they were the day I started writing about it; to wit:
1. It only has five routes.
2. They only run Monday through Friday.
3. They all stop running by 5:30 pm.
4. They don’t run at all on the weekends.
Why do I bore you with all this one more time? The reason is that this transit system, which by all rights should be a source of shame for all of Louisiana, was just given an award by the state: the Excellence in Grant Management—Urban Area Program Award.
Great Odin’s Beard! If this is the sort of transit system the state gives awards to, just imagine the sort of Louisiana transit systems that don’t get state awards. I imagine The Wrong Turn Transit System of Slaughter. (Yes, there is a town in Louisiana named Slaughter.) How about the Power Wheels Barbie Jammin’ Jeep Wrangler Super Express Transit System of Turkey Creek? Doesn’t it deserve an award too? So what if it only runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:15 to 11:30 am?
I’m going to petition the state to give an award to the kid in my neighborhood who hauls his little brother and sister up and down the street in his Radio Flyer Red Wagon. As far as I’m concerned, that operation is at least a match for the award-winning L.C. city operation. And the kid who pulls the wagon is beating the stuffing out of city planners when it comes to the category of effort.
I Forget What Transpired When I Wrote This
When the gubernatorial election was over, Louisiana politics didn’t miss a beat — not one beat — getting back into its usual lurid, sensational, outrageous form.
First to lead us back into the fray was a Democrat from District 2 — state Sen. Troy Brown. One week after Bel Edwards gave his victory speech, the NOPD hauled in Brown on a domestic violence charge.
The story goes that Brown was in the N.O. Hyatt when he hit a woman in her eye with his closed fist. As a rule, the Up Fronter wouldn’t write about this sort of behavior. But Brown’s explanation of what happened is not to be missed. It gets the Up Fronter’s award for the most convoluted political explanation of 2015 and one of the year’s Top 5 rants.
Here’s Brown’s un-explanation explanation in all its glorious confusion:
“I am not able to recall all the details of what transpired, but I do know there was an altercation involving myself and two or three other individuals … Back in 1991, I suffered a life-threatening automobile accident which resulted in brain damage which caused some short-term memory loss which I have always considered to be minor. However, as a result of this incident and other recent memory concerns, I am consulting with a neurosurgeon to see if social alcohol consumption is now affecting my cognitive functions in ways it has not previously.”
That explanation is now affecting my cognitive functions in ways that make me think somebody is blowing me smoke. Now, I, like you, am perfectly aware that most men of the age of 44 (Brown’s age) sometimes drink so much that their perception or judgment is significantly impaired. But how many men drink so much that they can’t remember whether they hit a woman?
And if a man has a drinking or brain damage condition that causes him to forget such things, should he be holding public office — even as a state senator in Louisiana?
The woman allegedly punched by Brown spiced up the media stir when she told police she’d been Brown’s “side friend” — mistress, I guess — for a decade. Aside from introducing me to the slang term “side friend,” the woman’s comments raised the interesting question of what voters will make of the fact that Brown had a “side friend” for just about exactly as long as he’s been married.
What’s that? The name “Troy Brown” seems to ring a bell for you? Well, it might. He made some headlines a while back when he introduced anti-domestic violence legislation in the session.
Good News, Good News
The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence began December by announcing that in 2014, Louisiana ranked lowest among the 50 states in the country in gun control. In other good news, the Up Fronter announced that Louisiana continues to be No. 1 among the states in the number of paranoid blog posts about the imminent attempts by people from the gubment to seize our guns.
Those who are expecting an FDA agent to knock at any minute with an order for the confiscation of all hunting rifles on the premises may want to check out what New Orleans’ Fox 8 reported on Dec. 2:
“Black Friday set a record for the number of firearm background checks. The FBI said it processed 185,345 gun background checks that day. That’s more than two per second.”
Promises, Promises!
“MICHAEL FLATLEY MAKES SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE IN HIS FINAL U.S. PERFORMANCE” (from Dec. 3 Caesars Palace Las Vegas email).
The News
— “Season Six Game of Thrones Poster Promises Snow is Coming” (headline from Scene Magazine, Nov. 23).
— “TRUE STORY: A Daughter’s Obsession with Canned Cranberry Sauce” (from OZY The DAILY DOSE: “Your 8 must reads to get you ahead of the curve,” Nov. 26).
— “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Through The Years” (Google News’ No. 1 story on Nov. 26; stories Google wisely placed lower than this No. 1 item included the Magnificent Mile protests, Russia’s saber-rattling against Turkey and the lead-up to the Paris climate talks).
— “Donkey Picked up by Police Is Reunited With Oklahoma Owner” (Associated Press headline, Dec. 4).
And The News From The Stratosphere
“It’s also been reported that [the Planned Parenthood shooter] was registered as an independent and a woman and a transgendered leftist activist” (presidential candidate Ted Cruz, quoted in the Washington Post on Nov. 30).
And There’s Even Some Real News
Melinda Deslatte, the Associated Press’ correspondent for Louisiana politics, has reported that Louisiana’s governor-elect John Bel Edwards will probably present his proposed budget on Feb. 12 of next year. To paraphrase Will Farrell — let the game begin!
The game in question here is the epic Louisiana folk dance called The One Step — a dance that goes on for weeks.
Here’s how it works. Legislators dance around the floor, looking for the $1.5 billion hidden in the chamber. Even though all the legislators know there is no money whatsoever hidden in the chamber, they keep dancing around anyway, just as if they were trying to find something that was really there.
As you can imagine, there’s quite a bit of interpretive dance involved.
If you’ve never watched this annual game, try taking a gander at it this year. It’s as much fun to watch as any cage fight or tractor pull. Believe it.
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