Zanelotti used to be a member of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s personal protection detail. He is a U. S. Army veteran who saw combat action in Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a sergeant on the Shreveport Police Department’s airport detail.

Two entrepreneurs are attempting to bring national and international attention to Shreveport-Bossier City with glass. They call their venture Sanctuary Glass Studio, and Eric Hess and Michelle Pennington have been plying their trade as glass artists at the Red River Brewing Co.

The structure was built in 1902 and was known as the Vordenbauman- Eastham Company building, according to Shreveport Common Executive Director Wendy Benscoter. In its later days, it housed Marcus Furniture Store for several years.

The plot reportedly originated in an 1835 English play. “A Day Well Spent” was adapted to a farce translated as “He Will Go on a Spree,” or “He’ll Have Himself a Good Time,” and then was adapted into another farce by Thornton Wilder, this one called “The Merchant of Yonkers.

Frank Leone started the business in 1952 and operated it for 26 years before selling to a friend of Whittington’s family, who operated it until 1980. When he took over, Whittington said, there were 17 shoe repair shops in Shreveport and Bossier City. Today, there are seven left.

After delays that had some merchants and customers unhappy, Barksdale Boulevard has been transformed, according to Bossier City CAO Pam Glorioso, to make the area more attractive to the people the city was hoping to attract. “It’s kind of hard to have a pedestrian-friendly downtown with a five-lane highway going through it,” she said.

The impressive structure sits in a footprint of 133 by 110 feet. It stands as a sort of gateway to the Common Street Viaduct and the on-ramps to I-20 and the suburbs beyond. In 1917 dollars, the final cost of construction was $186,477.28. Many of the building’s original furnishings are still in use, as well as many original fixtures.

In case you wondered, there are probably as many definitions of geeks as there are geeks. A geek can be someone excessively enamored of a specialized subject or activity. (Think about French food aficionados.) They can be digital technology enthusiasts. Some people called eccentric or nonmainstream may end up with a geek handle.