Monday, February 24, 2014

catahoula cove


When film was a precious commodity, and photographs were costly to print, most people just took pictures of other people.

physical fitness award winners



An old photograph is like a rabbit pulled from a magician's hat. Out of nowhere – shazam – eighteen specific people are forty-six years younger.


Monday, February 17, 2014

i dreamed . . .

. . . I paddled a rolling white ottoman, lying on my belly on top of it, up a gravel hill using only my hands. The two gentlemen who lived at the top of the hill smiled when they saw me coming, but their smiles seemed to say, “Don’t even think about trying to paddle through here.”


Sunday, February 16, 2014

liberace's tangelos


In February, when the weather map is awash with icy blues and purples, a small red dot of sunshine is centered over the Mojave Desert. Palm Springs in winter is littered with bougainvillea. And ripe citrus. I found a tangelo tree in Liberace's old neighborhood a few weeks ago, its branches heavy with tangelos. No wonder he loved it here.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

brain this, neuroscience that

Brain brain brain brain brain. Neuroscience. People say the word "brain" or "neuroscience" like doing so somehow reveals or explains the universe's greatest mysteries, when in fact, it's just a lot of brain-babbling they're doing. 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

i dreamed . . .

. . . Johnny served me a to-go latté without a lid. He just put a straw in it and handed it over the counter. I thought I saw some lids behind him, but I pretended not to notice. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Then I was sitting on muddy weeds near a see-saw in a playground when a tan-and-black mutt came growling at me.


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

catahoula archaeology



A STRETCH OF LEVEE between Catahoula and Butte La Rose was slated to be enlarged in the mid-1980s, and the power line paralleling the levee needed to be moved.
    The Army Corps of Engineers wanted to re-route the power line through my family’s property, but since federal funds were being used, and since the proposed re-route would cross 16SM39 — a previously identified yet unexplored archaeological site also known as The Theriot Site — certain criteria had to be met before the project could proceed.
     So in 1986 SLEMCO hired an archaeologist to investigate the site and determine what impact, if any, the power lines might pose. On June 5th and June 13th of that year Dr. Jon Gibson visited Catahoula. This is what he reported:

i dreamed . . .

. . . Annaleeza bullfrog-leaped from a horizontal jungle branch to a rope ladder dangling from the sky, grabbing a bone rung, surprisingly, backward and underhanded, facing away from the ladder.

Monday, February 3, 2014

mysterious lake catahoula


Rural Power magazine, September 1954
by Alton Broussard

     Many hundreds of years ago the earth cracked open with a mighty rumble in the St. Martin Parish, leaving a yawning cavern about 500 feet wide, about two miles long, and a hundred or more feet deep. Subterranean water filled the mighty crevasse and formed what is perhaps the strangest body of water in Louisiana, Lake Catahoula.