Louisiana politics at its most jaw-dropping best

Among the many things I miss about living in New Orleans, one that tops the list is election season. That's because politics in the Big Easy is side-show entertainment.

There's no doubt that my nostalgia for the bizarre characters and outrageous mud-slinging battles that surface in races for even the most benign offices in NOLA has some connection to the pedestrian nature of politics in San Diego.

If New Orleans is the Jerry Springer of local elections then surely San Diego is the political reincarnation of Martha Stewart.

Some people thought Hurricane Katrina and its boot-strapping aftermath would infuse more civility into the Crescent City's political culture. But this year's race for coroner is proving the naivete of such predictions.

The race pits 80-year-old incumbent Dr. Frank Minyard against Dwight McKenna, a surgeon who served on the Orleans Parish School Board for five years until a federal court convicted him of tax evasion.

Minyard, who famously flaunts his jazz trumpet playing skills in campaign posters, was first elected to the post in 1974.

He became more widely known in the aftermath of Katrina as his office struggled to identify the hurricane's victims while dealing with its own devastation. The effort was chronicled in this NYT piece.

More recently, Minyard has become the target of what can only be called one of the craziest political commercials ever made. The B-horror-movie-themed spot hits on a mild scandal from years ago when, according to The Times-Picayune, families of several dead people sued Minyard for removing small pieces of bone and cornea during autopsies without their permission.

Those fine points are lost in the ad, which features "Dr. Minyard" and his hunch-back sidekick Igor discussing the night's organ harvest and sale over a corpse.

It won't win an Oscar, and it probably won't win McKenna the election. But it might just get a few voters in New Orleans to think, at least for a minute or two, about something other than the Saints playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Mount Laguna snow

Tim and I made the 45-minute drive east from San Diego to Mount Laguna a few weekends back after a series of big Pacific storms dumped inches of rain on the city and several feet of snow on the mountains.
When the local mountains get snow like this on the weekends, thousands of people converge on them. Luckily, we arrived early (around 8:30 a.m.) and police were requiring chains for the drive to the summit (which I have, of course).

The scenery was postcard beautiful.

I call this Tim, No, Cow.
No, my tongue didn't get stuck.
Click on any pic to view it full size.

Not giving up my day job

Want to know what I did this summer? I starred in my first TV ad.
Well, I didn't really "star" in it. And I didn't get paid anything because it was a spot for my employer, The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Still, three and a half years after moving to Southern California, I got my first commercial gig. And I don't even have an agent.

You can see the spot here. It started running on regional cable systems on Labor Day.
About midway through, watch for the beach scenes, and keep your eyes on the box in the center on the right side of the screen. See the cool guy wearing the straw hat and glancing over his shoulder? That's me.Here's a close-up to prove it.

The hat actually got me this shot. I was among 25 newspaper volunteers who showed up for the beach shoot. At first, I was just in the background of a crowd. But then the director said to his assistant, "Go get the guy with the beard and the hipster hat and sunglasses."

Me . . . a hipster? Imagine that.

Next I was told that I would be taped alone in a series of "special" shots. They did several with and without the glasses. Obviously, the hat ended up winning me the cameo.

I just hope people in grocery stores don't start asking me for an autograph.

What I do on Sunday morning

Tim and I often spend Sunday mornings roaming the farmers' market in San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood.
We usually pick up a week's supply of fruit and veggies from the vendors who offer superb products.

Click on any pic to view it larger.
There's always entertainment from a local acoustic band.
There's no better breakfast than a crepe stuffed with chicken, guacamole, onions, eggs, cheese and other yummy things.
I see this woman every weekend at the market, carrying the same paper umbrella and swinging the same hoola hoop. It is California, after all.

LSU crawfish boil

We had a great time at the annual San Diego LSU Alumni Association crawfish boil yesterday.

The weather was perfect - as usual. The crawfish were better (and bigger) than last year. And the group included a nice mix of old and new faces.If you've never done this event with me, you really should consider it next year. Let me know if you want to be on my crawfish email list.Some of the guys from Lafayette who trucked in the 15,000 pounds of live mudbugs and cooked them onsite. I took this pic with my iPhone panorama app (Pano). It's a combination of three different photos stitched together. Can you find the mistake in the shot?

Santa Rosa Plateau

Tim and I joined the San Diego Trail Tramps on Sunday for a 7-mile loop hike at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, an area in southern Riverside County featuring wide grassy meadows and hills, clumps of old oak trees and vernal pools.

Most of the pics in this post were taken by my friend Stephan. You can pick out my photos because they were taken with my iPhone using a new landscaping app called Pano.
The Nature Conservancy owns the reserve, which is located a few miles outside Temecula ("A" on the map).

The plateau is the remnant of a lava flow that flooded a valley 8 million years ago. Over time, the surrounding hills wore away, leaving the harder basalt rock standing 2,000 feet above the surrounding landscape.
We stopped for lunch outside an old adobe house that was built in the mid-1800s, making it the oldest structure in Riverside County. Click on any pic for a larger view.Me taking a group pic in front of the house.This is one of the larger vernal pools that fill with rain water in the winter but quickly dry out in the spring.The pools provide a rich habitat for a variety of aquatic animals, including fairy shrimp that go into hibernation during dry periods.
A 360-degree of the vernal pool taken with Pano from the circular boardwalk.The reserve offers a rare glimpse of what much of SoCal's inland area looked like 100 years ago before subdivisions, freeways and Walmarts.

Gator by the Bay

I went to San Diego's version of Jazz Fest last weekend with Tim and Penni. Gator by the Bay happens this time each year in a waterfront downtown park. The two-day event features several SoCal zydeco and Cajun bands, Louisiana food, plenty of beer and over-priced Mardi Gras beads.
This was my first time at the festival, and the crowd was much larger than I had anticipated - maybe as many as 5,000 people on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the food wasn't that great. The best dishes were fried alligator on a stick and fried seafood poboys that we bought from a booth run by a woman who grew up in Vacherie
, La. - home to Oak Alley Plantation.
The main music tent.

As we passed one of the smaller stages, we heard a local Cajun band being introduced, and one of the members - the triangle player - was a native of my home town in Southwest Louisiana. I even recognized his last name (Raspberry), but when I talked to him I found out that he had moved with his family to San Diego when he was about three-years-old.
Later, we headed to the top of a high-rise hotel to watch some of the Red Bull world championship air race happening over the bay.
We couldn't see much of the competition, but we had a great view of the Padres' stadium and the bridge to Coronado.

Thar she blows!

Tim and I headed to downtown San Diego yesterday afternoon to see if we could glimpse Diego, the 30-foot-long yearling gray whale that has been hanging out in the harbor for the last few weeks.
We thought we'd been staring at the water for hours without seeing Diego, but within five minutes of arriving we spotted a plume of spray as the whale broke the surface and curved into a dive. Diego did this repeatedly over the next hour.

If we could see Diego out of the water, he (or she) would look something like this.

I took the pics above with my little Sony digital camera on high zoom. Click any pic to view it larger.
Our location was along Harbor Drive at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, a cluster of historic vessels docked along the water's edge. The spot is marked by the red dot above. Diego was appearing a couple of hundred yards off shore in the area marked by the yellow ellipse.
At least half a dozen boats carrying onlookers circled the area, with some coming precariously close to the whale at times.
Diego has become quite an attraction. The crowd at our spot peaked at around 30 people. There were gasps and shouts - especially from the kids - every time a plume of mist shot into the air. Tim, on the left above, was particularly good at spotting the activity.

The whale was dubbed Diego after The San Diego Union-Tribune polled readers for a name.

Here is some cool aerial video of Diego swimming in the harbor.

No one knows how Diego got separated from his (or her) pod, why he (or she) won't leave the harbor or how long he (or she) will stay.

My paper gets a new owner

This was the scene late this morning inside The San Diego Union-Tribune newsroom (as documented in this screen shot taken from the paper's Web site) when managers announced that the paper is being purchased by Platinum Equity. You can read my article about the new owner here.

The announcement ended anxiety that had been building since last summer when the U.T. was put up for sale. We'll have to wait a few weeks for the deal to close before learning what kind of changes the sale will bring to the newsroom.

Who's that bald guy taking notes in the middle of the pic?

A SoCal Lundi Gras

My buddy Tom (purple hat and feathers) hosted a Carnival party tonight at his house in San Diego's North Park neighborhood.
His neighbor Robbin did most of the cooking.
She fried green tomatoes and frog legs, a special treat for me since my peeps are all from the Frog Capital of the World.

For those of you unfamiliar with Rayne, La., here are the reigning Frog Festival queens and their amphibious consorts. Click on any pic to view it larger.

Each October for the festival, the town's prettiest girls pair off with bull frogs plucked from local canals for the biggest jumping contest this side of Calaveras County.

Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Tom's house and saw frog legs cooking in the Fry Daddy.

We also had seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage jambalaya, Abita Turbo Dog beer, Hurricanes and a live Web feed from WWOZ.
We finished the night off with this perfect king cake made from scratch by Robbin. Tim found the baby, so he'll be hosting the party next year.

Happy Mardi Gras y'all!

Laissez les bon temp roulez!

Holiday Bowl

I went to the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl nearly a week ago at Qualcomm Stadium here in San Diego where I got to see The Big Flag for the first time. This 45,000-square-foot version of Old Glory is unfurled by 250 people at the beginning of the game each year.
Joining me were Tim, Mitch and Tom, an Oklahoma State grad who was cheering on his alma mater.

I was decked out in LSU purple and gold, of course, and prepared to get heckled by OSU fans who still resent the Tigers for stealing head coach Les Miles from them in 2005. But no one said a word. I suppose the Cowboys' successful record under current head coach Mike Gundy has helped them move own.
The OSU Cowboys marching band easily out performed the smaller ensemble from Oregon.
Too bad the football team from Stillwater didn't have the same luck with the Ducks.
The halftime show featured some cool fireworks set to rock music.
Click on any pic to view it larger.
The exploding smiley face did little to sooth the pain of a post-season loss for the Pokes.