2015

WWII Museum A National Treasure

NEW ORLEANS — A gray-haired man is standing just inside the entrance to the U.S. Freedom Pavilion of the National World War II Museum, located on the corner of Magazine Street and Andrews Higgins Boulevard, in the Warehouse District. Within eyesight is the towering statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee erected in 1884 at Lee Circle. Standing 12 feet tall on a 60-foot column, Lee, arms crossed, forever stares north, as if daring the Yankee troops to attack. The man at the museum is clearly a veteran, judging from the ballcap he wears identifying his military outfit. He is a volunteer here, and I thank...

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Cajun Music at The Columns

NEW ORLEANS — It is two days before New Year’s Eve, the weather here finally cooling down to what passes for winter in the Big Easy, after a couple sultry days. My Beautiful Mystery Companion, daughter Abbie and I have taken a quick vacation here, thanks to a generous friend who loaned us her condo in the Warehouse District. On our last night before making the 400-mile trek back to East Texas, we have settled down in chairs of a parlor in the historic The Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue in the upper Garden District. We await the arrival of two of the city’s best known Cajun musicians,...

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