We pause in this column's normal serious coverage of Major World Issues to present something unapologetically silly:

Robert Perlis, of Baton Rouge, says,Ėũ“Ėũ‘Novel coronavirus' is too long a name, and COVID-19 is too formal. We give hurricanes people's names. (And the Weather Channel has started giving blizzards names.) Why not do the same for plagues? I call the current virus ‘Cyrus.’Ėũ”

Language barriers

Katie Nachod, of New Orleans, continues our discussion of Southerners in the Frozen Nawth:

"My mama, Sallie, was a Mississippi country girl with a strong drawl. When she married my Yankee father, they began their married life in Greenwich Village.

"Many of the New Yorkers were charmed by my mama's accent. But one new friend told her he was unfamiliar with the word 'wyncha.'

"She had just asked him, 'Wyncha come over for lunch next week?'

"The acorn does not fall far from the tree. When I was 12, I went with my best friend's family to the 1964 New York World's Fair.

"While sightseeing in the Big Apple, we got lost, and I asked for directions in a drugstore. The man behind the counter was taken aback by the word 'iddn't.'

"I had asked him, 'Iddn't there a subway stop near here?’Ėũ”

Public service

Wayne LeCompte, of Metairie, looks at the bright side of our current quarantine:

"My mother always told me I wouldn't accomplish anything by lying in the bed all day, but look at me now! I'm saving the world."

Cup of nostalgia

Our stories of old New Orleans bars reminded De LaSalle grad Keith Horcasitas of the coffee houses back when they were more than places to stare at your laptop while you nurse a latte:Ėũ

"We hung out a lot at the Penny Post (now the Neutral Ground) on Danneel Street off St. Charles, to play non-amplified guitar music on open mike nights. It was a real rustic setting, with board games available like chess, checkers and backgammon."Ėũ

Which reminds me

Back in the ’60s, coffee houses were viewed with suspicion by the power structure as bastions of the counterculture.
Ėũ
I learned this when I worked for The Shreveport Times and they hired a guy I knew from LSU as a reporter.
Ėũ
He played guitar and sang folk songs, and landed a gig at a coffee house on his nights off. All was well until the coffee house ran a small ad announcing his appearance there.
Ėũ
He got a message from the newspaper's management to drop the gig or be fired. Since he was playing for tips, it was an easy choice, but he was baffled by the animosity to such a harmless placeĖũ— the average redneck bar was a thousand times more dangerous.
Ėũ
It occurred to us that if those in power felt threatened by kids singing old songs and reciting bad poetry, there was indeed something blowin' in the wind.ĖũĖũ Ėũ

Special People Dept.

  • Butch and Mitzi Grantham, of Denham Springs, celebrated 70 years of marriage Sunday, May 17.Ėũ
  • Ronald and Yolande St. Pierre, of Magnolia Brook Senior Living in Baton Rouge, celebrate 69 years of marriage Tuesday, May 19. They are formerly of Norco.

For mental health

David Pfeltz says, "Growing up in Algiers in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a bar located in the Aurora Shopping Center named 'Group Therapy.' Many people I know spent time there to get some 'therapy.' I think we could all use some today."

Ewww, gross!Ėũ

Loren Scott, of Baton Rouge, comments on the Cajun word "gradou," to mean yucky stuff.

"We used the word gardou often in Wink, Texas. We also used the word 'cinemuck.'

"When you get up to leave the movie theater after the show, that's the stuff that causes your shoes to stick to the floor."

Right, Loren: when the dropped buttered popcorn gets ground up with the dropped Milk Duds and Jujyfruits and then it's coated with spilled cherry Coke and â€Ļ got to stop here; feeling a bit queasy.

Write Smiley at Smiley@theadvocate.com. He can also be reached by mail at P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821. Follow Smiley Anders on Twitter, @SmileyAndersAdv.

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