Book Signing and Chat - Tuesday, May 21st



Join me for New Orleans talk, and I'll be signing the book!

Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library

4747 W. Napoleon Avenue
Metairie, LA 70001


7pm - 9pm

Well be in the Jefferson & Napoleon Rooms, the two big meeting rooms on the first floor, just to the right of the main entrance.

We've had a lot of fun every time I've done a talk at the Library. Come join us!

Will Clark



Happy belated birthday (March 13th) to one of Jesuit's finest, Will Clark!

Happy birthday, Dr. Cassimere!



Dr. Raphael Cassimere, Jr., is Seraphia D. Leyda University Teaching Professor, Emeritus, University of New Orleans.

When I was at UNO in the late 70s, Dr. Cassimere taught Louisiana and American History. You'd always hear the groans of students when told they would have to read Twelve Years a Slave, but once they started reading the story of Solomon Northrup. Dr. Cassimere was one of the first UNO graduates to return to his alma mater (he got his bachelor's and master's degrees from then-LSUNO) to teach.

Dr. Cassimere was also one of the teachers who did not hesitate to tell the author when he was full of crap as a Student Government Association official, but it's Cassimere's teaching skills and many contributions to the community that make him a Legendary Local.

Happy birthday, Mel Ott!



Mel Ott, born March 2, 1909, in Gretna, LA. Ott played his entire career with the New York Giants, 1926-1948. He was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951.

(thanks to Jay Gauthreaux of the Facebook ADNM group for the pointer to the pic)

"Mardi" Hardy



Arthur Hardy was Band Director at Brother Martin High School when he published the first edition of his now-famous Mardi Gras Guide, in 1977. It's still going strong, and so is Arthur! In addition to his long-time support of the BMHS Band (and his good friend, the late Marty Hurley), Arthur is on the board of Warren Easton High, now that it's a charter school.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Photo courtesy WDSU-TV, my go-to-folks for local news/sports/weather.

Jonathan Pretus, Musician and Artist



photo courtesy Julia Pretus

Not all "Legendary Locals" are old or dead! Guitarist Jonathan Pretus
toured for several weeks in 2007 with Cowboy Mouth, joining the band
full-time that August. He left Cowboy Mouth after working on the
band's most recent album. His latest band is The Breton Sound, in
which Pretus partners with Stephen Turner. A skilled visual artist as
well as musician, Pretus paints as well as does sketches.

You'll be able to catch The Breton Sound at this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in April!

Mississippi Valley RR of Louisiana, 1880 (via @accessarchives)

x-posted to CanalStreetCar (dot com)

mvrr_map

The 1880s...Louisiana was still working through Reconstruction, but the worst of the post-war violence was over. Immigrants from Italy came to New Orleans by the thousands, leaving a mark on the city that's lasted to this day. African-Americans began to experiment with variations on brass band/marching band music that would become the first Jazz tunes. Many of our Legendary Locals were also leaving their mark on history in the 1880s.

The 1880s also were an incredible period of growth for the railroads. Their surveys were quite accurate, leaving wonderful maps for us to peruse.

Click the map to jump to a zoom.it version, where you can look at the original in detail.

(h/t to Accessible Archives)

Today is Release Day!!!

ll_cover

Today's the day! Get thee to Maple Street Book Shops, Octavia Books, Garden District Book Shop, Barnes & Noble, or your neighborhood Walgreens and buy my book! :-)



You can also order it online (B&N, Powells, Amazon, Direct from Me), but there's no ebook version yet.



OR, if you like book events, hold out until January 31st, and join me for a discussion and signing at Octavia.



Even if you're not coming to a book signing, you can purchase signed copies from this website, or I'll gladly sign your copy when I'm in town. I'll post my "coffee shop office hours" for folks when I'm home.

Images and tourists and churches, oh my!



Be sure to check out my latest for GoNOLA.com, on the history of St. Louis Cathedral. There are several NOLA Legends mentioned in the article. GoNOLA.com is the website for the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation, which promotes tourism in the city.

You also might want to check out a new feature on CanalStreetCar (dot com)--we're sharing desktop wallpapers and images sized properly to be "cover pictures" for social media profiles. This week kicks the series off with the Cathedral.


Book Signing - Thursday, January 31st at @OctaviaBooks!




Come join us at Octavia Books, 513 Octavia Street (corner of Laurel), on Thursday, January 31st at 6PM, for the first book signing!



Ed will do a short talk on some of the Legendary Locals in the book, we'll have some discussion, and books will be signed. All in the intimate (and independent) setting of Octavia!

Links to event reminders/invites:

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