I don't know what we've done to offend peacocks, but Jean-Marc Duplantier, of New Orleans, says we must have done something:
"Our Carrollton neighborhood's feral peacock, Mr. P, has a combative relationship with the morning paper.
"Since I resubscribed to The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, Mr. P has visited my front lawn early each morning for a showy stand-off with the paper.
"He pecks and scratches at it, and trumpets his objections as if to say that he is the big news, not the paper’s headlines."
Jean-Marc enclosed a photo of Mr. P in all his glory, with his huge tail a truly beautiful sight. And, sure enough, at his feet is a copy of this newspaper.
The great escape
Gary W. Cross, of Prairieville, says his mother, Hattie Cedotal Cross, and Mary Calandro Inzenga, the mother of friend Maria Inzenga Cloessner, were in the same Baton Rouge nursing home before their deaths:
"Long ago, Maria received call from a police officer telling her, 'Your mother and another little old lady were apprehended walking down the street.'
"They were gingerly walking along, hand in hand, while carrying on a robust conversation. Hattie was speaking French and Mary was speaking Italian.
"They were identified by their nursing home wrist bands, and since neither was 'packing' and they gave up without a tussle, they were returned to the nursing home in a squad car. They did not speak to each other again.
"Maria, to this day, believes 'The Great Nursing Home Break Out' was instigated by my mother, 'Baby Face Hattie,' and certainly not her mother, 'Sweet Mary.' Ha!"
Sounds like seniors
Alice Couvillon asks, "Did you hear about the cow statue that went missing from its home at Saia’s Supermarket in Mandeville last week?
"The pranksters even had to blow up the flat tires on the trailer to move it to the lakefront.
"I don’t know if this was a 'senior prank,' but as a high school teacher at Mandeville High for 24 years, it seems familiar to other senior pranks I witnessed.
"Two of the most memorable were when the doorknobs to all of the classrooms were covered in baby oil — and when an alligator was put in the school pond.
"I think one of the dumbest senior pranks was in 1967, when my husband and his friends painted the water tower in Marksville.
"What did they paint? Their names!
"Their punishment was walking behind the garbage truck all summer picking up litter. The bright side, he said, was that Marksville won the cleanest city contest that year!"
Yat geology
After our recent mention of a new mineral discovered in St. Bernard Parish, "Yehyourite," Gerald Humphreys, of New Roads, reports, "After Hurricane Katrina, we found a small vein of Yehyourite as far north as Pointe Coupee Parish."
Special People Dept.
- Whitney Thibodeaux, of Baton Rouge, celebrates his 101st birthday Tuesday, May 30. He is a World War II veteran.
- Mac and Thelma Phillips, of St. Amant, celebrate their 70th anniversary Tuesday, May 30.
- Herb and Becky Stein, of Algiers, celebrated their 53rd anniversary Monday, May 29.
Rice makes the meal
"My late father, Ernest Brunet, liked rice; my mother prepared it for him every dinner meal," says Jeanette LeBlanc, of Harahan:
"One day she decided we would have meatballs and spaghetti. My father sat down at the table, looked at the meatballs and spaghetti and said, 'Where is the rice?'
"From that day on we always had rice with our meatballs and spaghetti."
Take the cake!
Jim Nichols, of Lafayette, says, "After Michael Puyau’s comment about old filé losing its flavor, it dawned on me — maybe that’s why people keep re-gifting Christmas fruit cakes year after year, hoping it will eventually lose its flavor."