Tag: Port Sulphur
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The Second Mrs. de Winter, to be or not to be?
If you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why? As an avid reader my whole life, I have many “favorite books” and the list of the top ten continues to change and evolve over the decades and years of my reading life. The same 2 or 3 titles…
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Book Review: The Croatian Island Library (Bookish Escapes #3) by Eva Glyn
As famously quoted in the movie Jerry Maguire, “You had me at …” In this case, “You had me at Croatian Island Library.” I haven’t been to Croatia but it is at the top of my travel bucket list! Add to that my love of being on the water and my love of libraries, and,…
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Not An Anniversary To Look Forward To
How are you feeling right now? Sad. Nostalgic. Brokenhearted. That’s how I feel right now. Today is the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall near my hometown of Port Sulphur, Louisiana. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina lifted my parents’ home off of its foundation and deposited it, broken in half, across the back…
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My Two Special Saints
On an unseasonably warm March day this year, I attended the 5:00 Vigil Mass at my parish, which was also Confirmation with Bishop Evelio Menjivar of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. The large church was packed, with folding chairs lining the entire interior perimeter of the church and chairs outside the doors of the…
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Book Review: Southern by Design by Grace Helena Walz
The title of this ARC, graciously provided to me by NetGalley and HarperCollins, called to me on many levels, and I immediately requested this debut novel by Grace Helena Walz. As a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying Southerner (born and raised in southeast Louisiana), I just knew instinctively that I would enjoy this book, and I did. I…
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You Say Tomato, I Say Creole
When my mother deemed me old enough to cross Highway 23 South alone, she would give me a $5 bill and tell me to walk to Mrs. Benandi’s house and buy a box of Creole tomatoes. I would walk there, buy the box of tomatoes, and start my walk back home. The tomatoes on the…
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Soup: Easy Peasy (Really)
Let’s cut right to the chase. It’s cold. Really cold. Like single digit cold (as of this morning), and this is not Fargo, North Dakota. It’s Rockville, Maryland, suburb of Washington, DC. Even though the temperature climbed significantly during the day, it was blistering cold walking to my car at 5:15 today. #bombcyclone #teacherslovesnowdaystoo I’m…
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To sleep, perchance to dream . . .
On the morning of September 11, 2001, before all Hell broke loose, I was at my desk working on a lease agreement for a tenant moving into one of the shopping centers managed by the company where I worked. As I worked, writing and editing legal language to insert into the document, I could hear…
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Read ‘Em or Weep: A Cautionary Tale
All over the country grade school, middle school, and high school students are scrambling to finish their summer reading assignments and projects. Some have put off reading a 300-page book to the very last minute and now finishing it in time to complete the assignment seems a daunting task. In the coming week, which is…
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 