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Pooyie 11.24.10

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

C’EST BON
Tomorrow Lafayette restaurateur Ema Haq will once again underscore the giving in Thanksgiving, serving turkey and all the fixings to the underprivileged and disabled in the Lafayette area.
A native of Bangladesh who came to Lafayette about three decades ago to study mechanical engineering at UL, Haq has been showing his appreciation for the success he has achieved in his adopted homeland with the annual feast at his flagship restaurant, Bailey’s on Johnston Street. Not only does he dip into his own pockets for the expense of the meal, Haq provides transportation to the families as well. As we gather with our own families to count our blessings, let’s also be thankful that Lafayette is home to generous people like Ema Haq, for whom personal success provides opportunities to be of service to others.

PAS BON
We have to wonder how an unfortunate case of collateral damage related to UL’s master plan — the destruction of six stately, decades-old live oak trees on campus, facing the woodsman’s ax to make room for new construction and renovations — would have unfolded had UL student and Independent Weekly intern Hope Rurik not sniffed it out. We suspect the trees would have simply quietly disappeared during a university holiday — the upcoming Thanksgiving break, for example. But Rurik’s reporting, published last week in The Ind, has the community talking. A campus environmental group and the Garden Club are mounting opposition. It likely won’t be enough to spare the oaks (the university says two are diseased), but the conversation the story has generated is galvanizing some very important community self-examination. It’s unfortunate that the UL administration appears to have preferred that this story not come out at all.

COUILLON
It must have seemed like a gift from God when the Hilliard University Art Museum at UL got a call recently from a man claiming to be a Jesuit priest, who said his wealthy mother had just died and wished to donate a painting, “Tree Women,” by American impressionist Charles Courtney Curran. When the man calling himself “Father Arthur Scott” delivered the painting on Sept. 30, he even blessed museum director Mark Tullos in the parking lot. Soon afterward, florescent testing showed the painting to be a forgery. And when Tullos identified the man from a photo, it was discovered that the forger had a pretty unholy track record of similar acts dating back to the 1980s. “We were his latest stop,” Tullos told The Advocate. “Hopefully, it will be his last.” Ironically, the UL museum will still get some use out of the forged Curran; it had apparently already been planning a “Say it isn’t Faux” exhibit on how museums authenticate works of art.

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written by c. coussan , November 24, 2010 - 09:02 am

UL's claim that two of the trees are diseased are simply untrue. Experts, some affiliated with the university say that there is nothing wrong with the trees that would prompt
removal under normal circumstances. The university is doing what institutions usually do when they have something to hide...try to hide it!

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written by nolamotion , November 24, 2010 - 11:36 am

Wow, I haven't lived there since 1986 and the stories about live oaks seem to never change. I thought we made a difference when we saved the live oak on Congress by the Cajundome. Evidently not.

One of the most respected live oak arborists in the world is nearby. Bob Thibodeaux of Bob's Tree Service in Church Point should be consulted. He's a saint. Check out http://acornsofhope.org to learn about the amazing work he does.

I live in NOLA now and blog about how we abuse the landscape here at http://dyingoaks.posterous.com and at http://nolamotion.com We all have a long way to go. And as Bob T would say "it's about the soil!" The living soil is what we must understand if we are to have a healthy landscape and resilient communities. Happy Thanksgiving!

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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 24, 2010 - 09:05 pm

Gee , I thought T-Joe was cast in a different mold than our previous UL President who tried to give away the Horse Farm in the most enfamous under the table deal of the history of the UL University, the truth surfaces A LA shades of Lastrap.

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written by NORTHSIDIAN SHOTGUN , November 24, 2010 - 09:09 pm

To tell the truth, the Live Oaks will be fell, milled and planed to be use for the interior of a very influential prominent business family's palatial mansion.

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written by dubayoushell , December 01, 2010 - 04:59 am

With the trees, so goes the culture and so goes civility. Lafayette however seems to destined to paved over parking-lot culture anyway. So it goes...huh northsidian?

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