08/29/2025

I don’t expect to be back in New Orleans for several weeks yet, but I can scarcely restrain myself, Gentle Reader(s), from weighing in on the latest developments in the long-running saga of Her Honoress, Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans of Louisiana. Over the past few years I have occasionally documented in these pages the travails of LaToya as she squandered her once considerable political capital in a succession of unseemly controversies and scandals. The mayor’s dealings with sketchy local business persons have been extensively documented, as has her fast and loose manner with the civic coin and civic property, and, most notably, her barely-concealed extramarital dalliance with a police officer (Jeffrey Vappie) assigned to her security detail. Cantrell’s attempts to bully, intimidate and obfuscate her way out of these assorted trespasses have also not gone unnoticed. The prosecutorial birds of prey began circling in earnest a couple of years ago and they have finally made their long-anticipated move.
08/14/2025

How time flies. It flies when one is having fun, when one is not having fun, and it flies in the interim portions as well. The older one gets the faster it flies and one must flap pretty hard to try and keep up. I just flew in from Austin, and boy my arms are tired. From Austin to Milwaukee, to be precise, and I am residing in America’s Dairyland for a bit to tend to familial matters. This week’s riposte will be brief, but I wanted to share with you this lovely vintage promotional device extolling the virtues of fresh, ice cold Goblin Orangeade. America has drunk deeply of the Orange Goblin elixir as of late and for some it is refreshing and invigorating. For others it is horrifying and nauseous. As quoth Romeo, ‘There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls.’ Cogitate on that for a bit and we shall compare notes at a future date.
08/05/2025

It's Matador Playlist time once again, Gentle Reader(s), and I'm afraid I'm coming in a day late and a dollar short. It doesn't happen often but every once in a while it does indeed happen—we get a dud evening. Well, this past Thursday was one of those rare occasions. Perhaps it had to do with the mojo being off kilter because the lovely Katia had taken the evening off. The lovely Carla was there to fill in, which she does most capably, but there's something about the DJ Inky/Katia vibe that just has that special magic. The other factor was that a massive, slow moving storm parked itself over Santa Fe and everyone's cell phone went apeshit with emergency flooding alerts. It was indeed quite the biblical deluge and more than sufficient to discourage most folks from venturing out into the dark, rainy streets of a Thursday evening. Can't say as that I blame them. When it got around to midnight and the crowd was still decidedly sparse I decided to let discretion be the better part of valor and pack it in early. My abbreviated playlist appears below.