\u2014 Local charitable Christmas efforts are picking up steam. Among them is the annual Kiwanis Coats for Kids drive.<\/p>\n
The Kiwanis ask that you contribute your used coats. They\u2019ll be given to children living in families that are at or near the poverty level. There\u2019s a need for as many coats as are contributed.<\/p>\n
Donate your coats at AAA Cleaners, 622 E. Prien Lake Road or 2713 Country Club Road or at these schools:<\/p>\n
Barbe, LaGrange, Iowa, Hamilton Christian Academy High Schools;<\/p>\n
S.J. Welsh, Oak Park Middle Schools;<\/p>\n
Moss Bluff, Prien Lake, Oak Park and Dolby Elementary Schools; and<\/p>\n
St. John, Episcopal Day School, Immaculate Conception, Our Lady Queen of Heaven and St. Margaret Catholic Schools.<\/p>\n
You can donate your coats through Nov. 20.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The 1911 Historic City Hall continues its series of important contemporary art exhibits. This one features one of the real giants of modern and contemporary art: David Hockney.<\/p>\n
In 1969, Hockney created 39 copper plate etchings to illustrate Grimms\u2019 fairy tales. These simple, childlike, surreal images look quite a bit different from the colorful pop paintings of swimming pools and still lifes for which Hockney is famous.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing these etchings are art that children will grasp and appreciate. The art may give children new perspectives on these traditional fairy tales.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Hockney: Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm\u201d will run Nov. 7-Jan. 10 at the 1911 Historic City Hall.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Could You Use 750,000 Customers?<\/strong><\/p>\n In its Oct. 9 edition, The Jambalaya News reported that \u201cThe JambalayaNews.com has recently partnered with LakeCharles.com. The combination of our print and web exposure allows your advertisement to potentially reach over 180,000 people per month.\u201d<\/p>\n Over 180,000 people per month? In a parish with a total population of 200,000 (including babies, and such like)?<\/p>\n Well, hell, yes. Just let me share with you the numbers I\u2019m getting from my new combination of print and web exposure.<\/p>\n Since I\u2019ve partnered with WagonRut.com, your advertisement with Up Front Prestige International (UFPI) has the potential to reach over 750,000 people per day.<\/p>\n And since I\u2019ve partnered with Snake\u2019sBelly.com, your advertisement with UFPI has the potential to reach over 4,200,000 million people in an hour and a half.<\/p>\n And finally, now that I\u2019ve completed my partnerships with treytreysmudliciousmudbogging.com and muddyhoneys.com, your advertisement with UFPI has the potential to reach over 5 billion people in three seconds. Even if you don\u2019t reach 5 billion people, I personally guarantee you that you will reach 4 billion. You have my word.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Beware The Gypsy Razor Kings!<\/strong><\/p>\n When the power figures in an area that\u2019s rife with racism pretend there is no racism, there are bound to be awkward moments when a bumbling government bureaucrat gives utterance one of the racist thoughts that course through his head all day.<\/p>\n One of these occurred in October, when The Independent magazine in Lafayette sponsored a luncheon titled \u201cWomen Who Mean Business.\u201d At that event, reported Lafayette TV station KATC, the superintendent of Lafayette Parish Schools Pat Cooper \u201csuggested\u201d that a \u201cblack mafia\u201d in Lafayette influences the way African-Americans vote in parish school board elections.<\/p>\n A black mafia? In Lafayette? That sounds about as insidious as the Aleut Bandit Counts who wreaked such havoc in the latest election cycle in Wagon Rut.<\/p>\n A number of people who were a little muffed about Cooper\u2019s remarks held a press conference on Oct. 17. One of them was former Lafayette Councilman Chris Williams, who said, \u201cWe ask that [Cooper] … issue an apology … to the children that he serves and represents … I don\u2019t know who he\u2019s referring to, nor do I care who he was referring to. The comment … was derogatory. It\u2019s unacceptable for Lafayette Parish and for Southwest Louisiana and we ought to be having a superintendent that\u2019s worried about the children.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, it seems pretty likely to me that Cooper wasn\u2019t thinking about any children when he crammed his foot into his mouth. He was thinking about politics. That\u2019s one of the problems of having bureaucrats \u2014 and not teachers \u2014 run education. Some superintendents are all about education, but others know as much about teaching and learning as I know about gyrating electrons and plasma arcs.<\/p>\n Just for the record, Williams explained what some black people in Lafayette do come election time: \u201cthey do whatever it takes to get people to go out and vote. But for anyone to infer that vote-buying or anything like that is going on is just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to sounding racist, Cooper\u2019s remarks also sounded like sour grapes. It\u2019s as if he was saying, \u201cBlack folks don\u2019t support me.\u201d Dude, let me give you a free tip. If you want to get some black support, refrain from saying racist stuff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our Very Candy Is At Stake!<\/strong><\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to be a media analyst or sociology professor to know that the U.S. has been going through an Ebola panic. But at least one media venue was able to put things in perspective and focus on the top priorities.<\/p>\n That was The Times-Picayune, which recently ran a lead paragraph that read \u201cFears over Ebola in West Africa \u2014 where most of the world\u2019s cocoa crops are grown \u2014 is creating uncertainty in the global chocolate market.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times-Picayune was actually reporting on a National Public Radio story. NPR reported that the price for cocoa had just spiked, and that \u201cfears are centered on whether Ebola\u201d could move from such chocolate-rich countries as Liberia and Guinea to such chocolate-rich countries as Ivory Coast and Ghana.<\/p>\n The World Cocoa Foundation, which gets money from Nestle, Hershey and Mars, donated $600,000 to anti-Ebola efforts. Yeah, $600,000 ought to do it. I sure hope it does. The last thing we need is a $1.50 candy bar. That would be really, really bad. And scary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s Take The Humor To The Next Level<\/strong><\/p>\n Most of you probably think that when the Heaven\u2019s Gate people put on their fancy athletic shoes and committed mass suicide in the 1990s, that was the end of Heaven\u2019s Gate.<\/p>\n Not so! Turns out there are still at least a few Heaven\u2019s Gate people around, and they\u2019ve been maintaining the Heaven\u2019s Gate website as long as there\u2019s been a Heaven\u2019s Gate website.<\/p>\n Let me get you up to speed on what\u2019s happened in the years since the mass suicide. First of all, Hale-Bopp has arrived. Thank goodness for that. \u201cWhether Hale-Bopp has a \u2018companion\u2019 … is irrelevant …\u201d states the site. I agree. But the reason for putting \u201ccompanion\u201d in quotation marks is relevant.<\/p>\n Now, because Hale-Bopp has arrived, the spacecraft from the \u201cLevel Above Human\u201d is about to arrive. I assume that much, at least, is clear.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s more. Providing the keys to Heaven\u2019s Gate in 2014 are \u201cTi and Do (The UFO Two).\u201d<\/p>\n One item \u2014 an article titled \u201cOur Position Against Suicide\u201d \u2014 may be a new entry to the site. If I read the section \u201cOverview of Present Mission\u201d correctly, the earlier suicide of the Heaven\u2019s Gate crew was a \u201cclassroom experience.\u201d Also. you\u2019ll want to know that the \u201cNext Level\u201d is, apparently, protecting those Heaven\u2019s Gaters who are still around.<\/p>\n After reading two pages of this stuff, I came to this jaw-dropping sentence: \u201cThis is a bit of what we would call Next Level Humor.\u201d Humor? I could have sworn I missed it. These people aren\u2019t really trying to be funny, are they? If they are, they might want to lead off with something like, \u201cHey, did you hear the one about the UFO Two who were late for their Level Above Human classroom experience?\u201d I\u2019m already laughing.<\/p>\n One thing nobody can deny \u2014 the really interesting people in this world are just nuts about capital letters.<\/p>\n Based on the materials on the site, it sounds like the remaining Heaven\u2019s Gaters have again sold all their possessions and are now awaiting the \u201csecond rapture,\u201d which will be followed by \u201cthe end of the seventh involvement,\u201d \u201cphase one\u201d and the \u201caccelerated version of the metamorphic classroom.\u201d OK, now that I understand.<\/p>\n All over the site, the theme of the \u201crecycling of the world\u201d runs as an undercurrent. A statement by \u201cJwnody \u2014 a student\u201d reads: \u201cIt is time for civilization to be recycled \u2014 \u2018spaded under.\u2019\u201d Well, finally there\u2019s something we can agree on.<\/p>\n These people must be sincere. They\u2019ll send you all the videos you want free of charge. But the Heaven\u2019s Gate Book \u2014 that\u2019ll set you back $45. Must be a good read.<\/p>\n You very well may not want to know more about this. But if you do, the place to go is wave.net\/upg\/gate\/.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best Conspiracy Theory EVER!<\/strong><\/p>\n The following passages are taken from Jack Olsen\u2019s book Salt of the Earth (St. Martin\u2019s Paperback edition, 1997, pages 329 and 367):<\/p>\n \u201cHe orated for hours about \u2018the network,\u2019 an evil organization drawn from the Lutheran Church, the \u2018Aryan Church,\u2019 the Gere Family, the Boy Scouts of American, lawyers and public officials. His letters showed [the] relationships [between] the death of an Everett [Wash.] woman in a SWAT raid, a recent string of arson fires, the Vietnam War, the Patty Hearst case, certain cabalistic happenings in the woods of Idaho and Rhode Island, the CIA and the FBI, the publication of a Dear Santa letter by a destitute child in western Washington, the latest University of Washington football scandals, the Food and Drug Administration and other items …\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[He wasted] reams of paper with diatribes against \u2018The Family,\u2019 which now included the Lutheran Network, the Aryan Church, Puget Power [the electric company], the state Department of Wildlife, the Supreme Court, Mikey and Joey Gere, Mother Teresa, the author of this book and other forces of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n Hey, what gives? The guy never mentioned me once. But I was plotting against him the whole time. Just goes to show that just because you\u2019re paranoid, that doesn\u2019t mean you know who\u2019s really against you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apparently Not<\/strong><\/p>\n E! Network Twitter from Oct. 20: \u201cKris Jenner on reports Bruce is dating her friend: \u2018I don\u2019t know who he\u2019s dating.\u2019 Thoughts?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joke<\/strong><\/p>\n Somebody told me you sound like an owl.<\/p>\n Who?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2014 Local charitable Christmas efforts are picking up steam. Among them is the annual Kiwanis Coats for Kids drive. The Kiwanis ask that you contribute your used coats. They\u2019ll be given to children living in families that are at or near the poverty level. There\u2019s a need for as many coats as are contributed. Donate [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[529,38,37],"yoast_head":"\n