COURSEY • HARRELLS F E R R Y • PA R K V I E W • MILLERVILLE •
OLD JEFFERSON • SHENANDOAH • TIGER BEND • WHITE OAK
THE SOUTHEAST
ADVOCATE T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
W e d n e s d ay, S e p t e m b e r 10, 2025
1GN
Danny Heitman
What Hollywood icon got her start at N.O. newspaper?
AT RANDOM
In the coming century, world might need New Orleans more than ever After Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana 20 years ago, my wife joined many others in working full-time to help the state recover. She recently gathered in New Orleans with former colleagues from that sad, twisted time to remember what was lost, what was reclaimed, and what still needs to be done two decades after that epic tragedy. On the morning of the reunion, I spotted a photo in The New York Times of a young man reading “A Confederacy of Dunces,” John Kennedy Toole’s comic novel about oddball Ignatius J. Reilly’s misadventures in the Crescent City. When I first read “Dunces” many years ago, I wondered if people beyond New Orleans would grasp its strange local vibe. But as I came to understand, readers everywhere loved the story because of — not in spite of — its peculiar New Orleans sensibility. Toole knew how the city’s pageant of cultures tends to refract reality a bit, revealing colors not normally visible in other places. This aspect of New Orleans, quickly felt, though not easily explained, was lost on the cynics who wondered in 2005 whether the city should be rebuilt. There were many practical reasons to bring back New Orleans, but the true value of the city, its vibrant civic identity, defies the dry logic of ledger sheets. I was still thinking about all of this when we visited The Bell on Esplanade Avenue for lunch. It’s a charming homage to a British pub, reimagined with a New Orleans spin. I tackled the fisherman’s pie, a classic British dish that’s been newly interpreted with Louisiana shrimp. The culinary mashup reminded me of what New Orleans does best: mixing myriad cultural traditions into something truly new. We followed lunch with coffee down the street at Le Ponce, a French café and bakery where we sipped away another hour within walls that doubled as an impromptu art gallery. The city outside was its own painted landscape. Oaks yawned across the avenue, and flowers spilled from old iron gates, beauty breaking through ruin with an insistence that seemed like resolve. The city’s resolve continues to be tested. Housing affordability and public education frustrate economic growth, and political intrigues at City Hall are a drag on progress,
ä See AT RANDOM, page 2G
DOWNLOAD
STAMPS &
strangers
BY DOUG MacCASH
Staff writer STAFF PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS
The 2025 Postcard Project wraps up, a reminder of some amazing people Jan Risher Four years in, the Postcard Project still feels fresh. These tiny missives hold so much joy, hope and community — strangers becoming part of the same story. Each card of the 267 cards received is a tangible reminder of the beauty of the physical in a digital age, and every time I read Denny Wheeler, from River Ridge, hand-painted this one I’m reminded that a stranger, a friend or a far-off reader thought enough to pause watercolor postcard. their life, pick up a card and share a little A piece of themselves. postcard This year, as of last week, we had received from postcards from all 50 states — the last being Australia West Virginia — and 29 countries including Australia, Borneo, Costa Rica and more. Pam Baldwin wrote last week to say that she had mailed postcards from three other countries, Greece, Albania and Montenegro, but who knows how long it will take those postcards to arrive. The Postcard Project has only deepened the mysteries of the mail. One postcard mailed from France reached us in a matter of days. Another from Italy took 10 weeks to arrive — why one arrives in days and another in months is a mystery we’ll never solve. More this summer than in previous years, people wrote that postcards are increasingly difficult to find. And yet, they persevered. In Morgantown, West Virginia, Amber BrugnoliOhara had to visit eight different places before she found a postcard to send. “No wonder no one has sent one yet! I These days, a regular sized postcard need to tell the state tourism board to print costs 61 cents to mail. I’ve kept Wheeler’s some or something, because that’s crazy,” beautiful painting at my desk by my comshe wrote. “Even hotel gift shops didn’t have any!” puter throughout this year’s Postcard Project Still, she persisted — the kind of effort that — a reminder of how amazing people can be. is a little metaphor for the whole project. Patricia Mann, of Baton Rouge, visited her In place of traditional store-bought postdaughter who lives in Paris. She wrote, “Most places are not air-conditioned and it has been cards, some people sent hand painted, homein the 90s. Feels like home temps. I have been printed and other atypical postcards. Martha Williams, of Hattiesburg, Mississip- accomplishing my goal of eating a new kind pi, sent a postcard that is a sample of brightly of pastry daily. Oooh la la. Bread, cheese, wine and pastry! Bon appétit!” colored fabrics quilted together and sewn Her card made me smile and remember onto a postcard, mailed with a regular stamp. the apricot pastries my daughters and I love Danny Wheeler, of River Ridge, painted a bucolic watercolor landscape and sent it off ä See POSTCARDS, page 2G with a Forever stamp (now 78 cents).
DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD
If you would no longer like to receive this free product, please email brtmc@ theadvocate.com.
Considering her glamorous position at the start of Hollywood classic films, you might assume that Columbia Pictures’ lady with a torch had pure Hollywood heritage. But the Columbia logo comes from right here in New Orleans. The fact is, the goddess-like symbol of the century-old movie studio was modeled on a pregnant Times-Picayune page designer, who wore a makeshift toga and held aloft a light bulb as her picture was taken time and again by a newspaper photographer. Those shots would be used to guide a genius French Quarter artist as he painted the design. Columbia’s lady with a torch has been around since about 1928. She’s always been a graceful icon, a Statue of Liberty minus the book and crown, bidding welcome to the huddled masses yearning to munch popcorn in front of a flickering silver screen.
FILE PHOTO BY KATHY ANDERSON
Jenny Johnson poses for a reference photo to be used by illustrator Michael Deas as he painted the Columbia Pictures logo in 1992.
Enter Michael Deas At the start of the 1990s, the venerable Columbia Studios underwent corporate reshuffling and an updated lady with the torch was needed to lead the way into the future. Michaee Deas, a gifted classical painter on the cusp of becoming one of the country’s most sought-after illustrators, got the job. Deas was born in 1956 and grew up, in part, in New Orleans. He studied art at the renowned Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and taught for a few years at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan before heading south and settling in the French Quarter. As a young artist, he made a living as an advertising
ä See LOGO, page 2G
ONE great state FOUR great apps