psychic laser beams

haven't got time for the pain

WHEN MY NECK got kind of crampy on the long flight home today, I reached into my backpack for the naproxen I bought yesterday — scratch that — for the FEMINAX I bought yesterday, and I have to say, my first impulse was to be embarrassed, what with FEMINAX FEMINAX FEMINAX written like a hundred times across the back of the blister pack. I reached in for naproxen. That’s what I take when my joints ache. So when I pulled out FEMINAX it caught me by surprise, even though FEMINAX is just another name for naproxen.

about the archive

PICTURE CATAHOULA is an on-line archive of photographs taken in Catahoula during its golden age — 1928-1978. Thirty-six Catahoula families have contributed to the archive so far, and as of September 2015 I’ve scanned almost 4000 photographs.

nun with apple breath

NUN WITH APPLE breath, fast asleep beside me, collapsed on a folded-out tray in dreamland on an airplane bound for Denver, how appalled you would be to learn that in the sweet amnesia of your slumber, you nudged my laptop sideways with your elbow as you sprawled onto my workspace, your brown habit spilling around you.

where on earth is catahoula?

CATAHOULA LAKE, some say Lake Catahoula, is a small mysterious lake in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, at the western edge of the Atchafalaya Basin. Not to be confused with the much larger lake by the same name in the northern half of the state, the narrow and picturesque lake has long been regarded as sacred, and a legend of its violent birth has attached to it.

catahoula lake

THE INDIAN SUMMER of flowers of which you have ofttimes dreamed is just any day along Catahoula Lake. Boughs are always leafy there, and blossoms are ever fragrant.

first chapel

THIS IS THE ONLY surviving photograph of the exterior of Catahoulas first chapel, as far as I know. Originally located on the western shore of the lake near where Harold Granger later had his store, the chapel was moved in the 1920’s to a triangular piece of property at the heart of Catahoula. In 1951 the worn-out chapel was replaced with the building that would become St. Rita Catholic Church.