[Editor's Note: Visit theind.com throughout the day for Dan's updates.]
N.O. Bowl Update – Saturday, 12/17, 3:45 p.m.
NEW ORLEANS – All the way through Friday, it was easy to find UL football fans in the Crescent City. They were the ones in red, traveling in groups and taking part in the organized activities of the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl.
Saturday was a different story.
They’re everywhere.
Before, it was at the New Orleans Marriott on Canal Street, or at Walk-On’s on Poydras, or maybe a couple of other designated locations. Now, there’s not a restaurant or bar that doesn’t have some type of UL influence, and the red blob appears to be growing. It’s like a constantly spreading amoeba, devouring whatever’s in its path.
You can’t walk 10 steps anywhere downtown without bumping into someone wearing “Ragin’ Cajun” or New Orleans Bowl apparel.
There’s still a big crowd at Walk-On’s, where the Sports Radio KPEL group gave way to the Hot 107.9 crew beginning at 2 p.m. For the first time this week, the beer taps there – they’ve got them built into each one of the sitting booths on a serve-yourself basis – were getting a severe workout.
And the lobby of the Marriott was still jammed and loud. Former Cajun running back Thomas Jackson, whose 35-carry, 175-yard rush outing in the mud of the 1983 Homecoming win over La. Tech still ranks among the Cajuns’ best-ever individual efforts, was looking for tickets a friend had
left.
Bobby Champagne, Acadiana native, former UL assistant basketball coach and now head coach at North Alabama, stood out in the crowd at the Marriott in his purple UNA warmup. His team plays UNO Monday night, but he came in early in support of UL coach Mark Hudspeth, who had huge success as head coach at UNA earlier in his career.
But now it’s not just at those locations. The Cajun Nation has taken over a lot of other places.
Acme Oyster House, just off Royal, had a line outside, and almost everyone in line wore UL jackets or sweatshirts (it’s cooler than most expected Saturday afternoon). A big group of Cajun supporters were on a balcony over Café Maspero on Decatur Street, throwing beads.
Even the Riverside Hilton – the headquarters hotel for the San Diego State Aztecs – was filled with Cajun fans. Luke Mandola, owner of the semi-world-famous Ragin’ Cajun restaurant in Houston, was holding court there. Long-time Cajun fan Gene Lognion was in the Hilton lobby, his laugh echoing off the walls. St. Thomas More athletic director Kim Broussard was sporting a “USL Ragin’ Cajuns” warmup top (“I’m old school,” he was laughing) while having lunch and hopefully some charbroiled oysters at Drago’s Restaurant inside the Hilton.
UL director of athletics Scott Farmer left the Marriott around 3 p.m. and headed for the Ragin’ Cajun Athletic Foundation (RCAF) tailgate party at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. He also had a list of a dozen different suites in the Superdome that are being used by the Cajun faithful tonight, and he planned to visit every one – and there are probably more that he doesn’t have on his list.
All the other tailgating and pre-game activities for the rest of the afternoon are in or near the ‘Dome, so it’s almost time to head that way. After all, it’s only four hours until kickoff.
MAY 21 Gambit columnist Clancy DuBos writes about the Mother's Day shooting, and how the stages of shock and blame and healing mirror those traveled by the same city following Hurricane Katrina. The city will recover, just as it did following the storm, by reaching out to help the people injured most seriously by the event, DuBos writes. It's how we heal, he says.
MAY 21 Here's a post on the Advocate (but buried on a subpage, not on the front) that reports something Louisiana Voice reported some time ago: a top DOE official lives in Los Angeles and "commutes" to Baton Rouge. The positioning of the story caused a stir on Facebook Monday, with several posters asking if the Advocate was covering someone's hiney. Sentell's stories on DOE are notoriously soft, and this one is no different: don't expect any hard questions in here.
MAY 21 Here's another post from blogger Tom Aswell about the "course choice" program. He's already reported on kids being signed up without their consent or knowledge, and has more here: For example, he tells of a six-year-old who was signed up for high school Latin. He also digs a little deeper into the sister companies of the main one operating in Louisiana; all of them seem to have complaints against them. Stinky.
MAY 21 Given the 80 percent cut in higher ed funding since he's been in office, it's clear Gov. Jindal would rather give tax cuts to out of state companies than have a functioning system, blogger Dayne Sherman argues in this post. The cuts have been such a disaster, Sherman says, that it will take 30 years to fix what's been broken. He says he believes the aim is to shut down most of the schools before Jindal leaves in 2016.
MAY 21 Blogger CB Forgotston says there are too many elections in Louisiana, and they're costing us too much money. The proof is in the pudding: turnout for most of these nonsensical pollings gets worse and worse, CB opines, even as millions of dollars that could be spent on health care or higher ed go down the tubes. The legislature must take action to stem the tide of pointless elections, he says.
MAY 21 Here's an interesting investigative piece by WVUE on the retirement benefits of some Jefferson Parish public employees. According to the story, the taxpayers are paying 100 percent of the retirement contributions of employees who started work prior to a certain date in April 1986 -- and have done for more than 30 years. It costs the parish millions annually, and might not be legal, the story reports.
MAY 21 This post on Bayou Buzz provides insight from Louisiana's intrepid pollster, Bernie Pinsonat, on the winners and losers from this year's legislative session. But to hear Bernie tell it, there's almost nuttin but losers: Jindal, the Republican party, the Fiscal Hawks all get big goose eggs in his win column.
MAY 20 This post on The Lens takes a look at a huge (either $500K or $250K) bill that one NOLA charter now has for school lunches. The RSD says the charter group didn't fill out the proper paperwork for federal reimbursement, but the story details how the RSD didn't ensure the people running the charter had the proper training, despite requests from hapless charter employees trying to fill out forms. Either way, somebody's asleep at the wheel.
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