As the year progresses, events celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lake Charles continue. And it is well and good that they should do so.<\/p>\n
But anyone who is speaking to an audience about the history of Lake Charles should be well aware that the area that eventually became Lake Charles was not part of the Louisiana Purchase. It really and truly was not. Honest.<\/p>\n
The reasons for what seems like such a glaring omission to us today were crystal clear to Napoleon (right) when he drew his map of the Louisiana Territory in the early 19th century \u2014 and completely left out what is now called \u201cSouthwest Louisiana.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Napoleon saw it, there was no major waterway connecting SWLA with the populous areas to its east. That meant that any journey from the eastern part of Louisiana to the southwest would be an arduous one. And it would be a journey that Napoleon saw no reason to make. Even if one did go to the southwest, reasoned the Little Emperor, there was nothing there but swamps and mosquitos. Napoleon apparently felt there were no worthwhile resources (other than, perhaps, fish) in the southwest corner.<\/p>\n
So, you may say that Napoleon was short-sighted. But you cannot say SWLA was part of the Louisiana Purchase. Not if you want to be accurate.<\/p>\n
Nungesser Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n Why did Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, along with some of his staff and 17 tourism industry reps, just travel to, and spend a week in, England and Germany? A much more interesting question is: Who picked up the tab for all this \u2014 Nungesser or Louisiana taxpayers? And if the answer is Louisiana taxpayers, the very most interesting question of all is: Why are we paying for it when Nungesser is super-rich?<\/p>\n If The Joke Doesn\u2019t Work, Try Being Funny<\/strong><\/p>\n Lagniappe columnist Jeremy Alford\u2019s \u201cBad Joke of the Week\u201d came from Louisiana congressional aide Michael Willis, who had the nerve to reel this one off:<\/p>\n Why did the clock go back four seconds? It\u2019s was hungry.<\/p>\n Cute Nation<\/strong><\/p>\n Here in Lake Charles, we have the Angel Investors who give periodic grants to the local entrepreneurs who come up with the best business plans and brightest ideas. The SEED Center has a similar sort of grant system set up.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise, then, that Baton Rouge has the PitchBR program, which awards especially savvy new entrepreneurs with $1,000 prizes.<\/p>\n One recent winner caught my eye: CuteNation, whose marketing line is \u201cCitizens of Adorable.\u201d CuteNation is marketing Japanese-influenced toys of the sort I first noticed when I got Hello Kitty on my radar in the late \u201890s. Today, consumers can easily get similar toys in the fine Littlest Pet Shop and Shopkins lines, or, for an even cheaper price, in the vending machines in their grocery stores.<\/p>\n This sort of thing has always been part of U.S. culture \u2014 at least in my lifetime. When I was a boy, I liked the U.S. reruns of the Japanese TV show Astroboy, as well as the rubber Astroboy figures with their big, flaming feet.<\/p>\n I assume all these toys developed out of some sort of Japanese manga (a thing I know next to nothing about).<\/p>\n To see the new Baton Rouge toys, visit Facebook and search for \u201cCuteNation, Citizens of Adorable.\u201d CuteNation offers an app that enables consumers to custom design their own toy.<\/p>\n Cheap Shivers<\/strong><\/p>\n As many of you know, Arcadia Publishing has recently released many fine picture books covering various aspects of Southwest Louisiana history. Now Arcadia is helping us get our Halloween on by giving consumers a 30-percent discount on all books about hauntings, the paranormal and graveyards.<\/p>\n For Louisiana, that includes the titles Haunted Lafayette and New Orleans Vampires. Another book is the brand new A Haunted History of Louisiana Plantations by Cheryl H. White and W. Ryan Smith, which is available at the sale price of $13.99.<\/p>\n This book is so new that I only got my review copy on Oct. 5. But I can tell you a little about it just by looking at the contents page.<\/p>\n The book begins with a short \u201cPrimer of the Louisiana Big House.\u201d There follow case studies of nine Louisiana plantations: Houmas House; the Destrehan, Oak Alley, Nottoway, Cherokee, Magnolia, San Francisco and Melrose Plantations; and, of course, The Myrtles.<\/p>\n Like all Arcadia Publishing books, this one is loaded with black and white photos and illustrations. It\u2019s no surprise that one of these is the famous shot of the ghost of Chloe at The Myrtles.<\/p>\n Sales prices are good through the month of October. Take advantage at arcadiapublishing.com. The \u201cSearch Books\u201d prompt is at the upper left of the page. See page 34 for my in-depth review.<\/p>\n New: You Must Be Negative<\/strong><\/p>\n A syndicate is a company that distributes stories and cartoons to a large number of newspapers and magazines. We sometimes do business with a Chicago-based syndicate called Creators.<\/p>\n During my recent visit to Creators\u2019 content download section, I noticed that Creators publishes books. In its New Books section, Creators listed 11 titles.<\/p>\n Out of 11 books, five are markedly negative. This is obviously in stark contrast to the decades-long American insistence on nation-wide optimism.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at dem books. The 21st Century Needs A Rewrite by Jamie Stiehm is one of those books that pretty much demonstrates by its title that it\u2019s bound to be negative.<\/p>\n Evil In America by Ben Shapiro, says its promotional material, \u201csheds light on the distortions of reality plaguing America. Leftists and their head-in-the-sand allies search for taboos to break. The modern media transforms our presidents into celebrities. Democrats make shoddy risk assessments. All of this leads to a collapse in constitutional order and government accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Double Standards: The Selective Outrage of the Left by Dennis Prager. The title doesn\u2019t make it sound as if the book absolutely must be negative. But wait till you read this promo copy:<\/p>\n \u201c[Prager\u2019s] incisive wit cuts right to the heart of hypocrisy in public discourse, particularly that of the left \u2014 which taps into its \u2018moral\u2019 outrage when it\u2019s politically expedient and becomes curiously docile when it\u2019s not. \u2018The truth will not set you free if delivered without hope,\u2019 he writes …\u201d<\/p>\n Hose me, Agnes! \u201cThe left\u201d really is evil if it does all this stuff. I swarn, if I ever encounter \u201cthe left,\u201d I\u2019m going to turn tail and run away as fast as my little feets will carry me. It\u2019s weird; I encounter the right 100 times \u2014 hell, 200 times \u2014 a day. And it almost never does anything evil to me.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a second book by Prager in the list: America\u2019s Accelerating Decay. That one also has a title that assures negative content.<\/p>\n To be fair, there is one book in the list that is anti-the right. Or at least, I think it might be. The blurb for Land Of Trumpin\u2019 by Marc Monroe Dion contains this sentence: \u201cRecognizing that people needed someone [that is, Trump] to blame for their joblessness, their anger, their depression, and their slip down the ladder of society, Dion explains the causal hate and outright discrimination brought about by the 2016 election.\u201d That gives you the feeling that the book is going to be at least fair-to-middlin\u2019 negative, and maybe really negative.<\/p>\n But gettin\u2019 really down and dirty with negativity is a book whose title makes it sound as if it might be positive. Don\u2019t be fooled. Here\u2019s the promo copy for the novel Drunk in the Warm Glow by D.W. Anderson: \u201cWhile dealing with his father\u2019s apparent abandonment and his mother\u2019s grisly suicide, Tyler Linley uses pills and Hollywood escapism to numb his raging pessimism.<\/p>\n \u201c[Tyler\u2019s] friends make him realize he must face the fluctuating state of reality or he will self-destruct, destroying everyone around him.\u201d<\/p>\n Back in the day, when we wanted that sort of thing, we just watched an Ingmar Bergman movie.<\/p>\n Now \u2014 again, to be fair \u2014 I\u2019ll note that there are two positive titles in the list. Of course, that\u2019s just 2 out of 11. It is what it is, as they say.<\/p>\n Among the two is All Is Well: The Art And Science of Personal Well-Being by Marilynn Preston, who\u2019s been writing a physical fitness column since the 1970s. Preston seems to be mellowing out the self-help business, offering such fanciful advice as \u201cTweet mindfully\u201d (as if anyone does that). In spite of her physical fitness past, she says there is a place for \u201ccrispy fries\u201d in well-being.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Sunny With A Side Of Understanding by Doug Mayberry, whose very title gives one the warm and fuzzies. Mayberry, one is told, writes his weekly column with the assistance of his granddaughter Emma. He offers \u201cwitty, optimistic advice on family, aging, health, wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n Even when we give the positive titles due attention, we can\u2019t deny that they\u2019re outnumbered at least 2 to 1 in this short list. Does this mean America is shedding its mandatory optimism in the Age of Trump? Well, I think it\u2019s quite a bit too early to make a sweeping conclusion like that. But if we were to judge merely from this one book list, well, there\u2019s been a sea change.<\/p>\n The News<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cPeter Krause returning to \u2018Bachelor\u2019 franchise\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 CNN headline, Oct. 5<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Star Wars: The Last Jedi\u2019 trailer debuts\u201d \u2014 CNN headline, Oct. 10. Just to reinforce the message, it\u2019s the trailer, not the movie, that\u2019s debuting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the year progresses, events celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lake Charles continue. And it is well and good that they should do so. But anyone who is speaking to an audience about the history of Lake Charles should be well aware that the area that eventually became Lake Charles was not part of the [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[38,37],"yoast_head":"\n