Veterans Day weekend, Clinton and his crew of elves turned the El Dorado Casino into a Yuletime destination for the third year. Clint is an equal opportunity decorator, working his seasonal magic on a simple doorway or a huge business display.

It's also the subject of a new book by Anne Butler and Darrell Chitty. The two have collaborated on a second coffee table book highlighting the famous and not-so-famous attractions of the Feliciana area. It’s making its debut, appropriately, in St. Francisville at a coming-out party scheduled for the week before Thanksgiving this year.

There are four commercial stations in the incubator that are fully equipped with ovens, refrigerators and everything you would expect in a commercial kitchen. The entrepreneurs who use the facility pay a nominal fee each month and book slots to reserve the facility’s use.

In its announcement, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office said, “The new order will be in place for 28 days, expiring on Oct. 9. In it, restaurants, churches, salons, spas, gyms and other businesses will be able to open at a maximum of 75 percent of their occupancy, with social distancing in place.

“J. Pat Beaird was a gentleman who was very involved in the Chamber back in the ’40s and 50s. He left us a legacy that we use every year to recognize a business that we call the Industry of the Year, a business that is impactful in the community.

The personnel are easy to spot as well, hard hats and optic yellow vests, shod with boots that have seen many miles and all kinds of terrain and weather. They are seen marching through neighborhoods all over the state. Grim, serious combatants with a massive battle plan to execute: to get Louisiana back on the grid.

Sid Menard is president and owner of the companies, and he explained that they had been spread across Shreveport and Bossier for a while now. Recently, the Home Design Center, which housed United Tile, was sold. Needing a place to move and needing to be moved by Oct.

Three generations of the Sparke family have overseen operations here. The latest is Anna Maria Sparke, no kin to the island. “My grandfather [H. A. Sparke] had it from 1956 until he died in 1984. And my father [R. W. Sparke] took over in 1984, and he ran it until his death in 2020.