BOCAGE COUNTRY CLUB HIGHLAND JEFFERSON TERRACE KENILWORTH PERKINS SOUTHDOWNS UNIVERSITY CLUB
ADVOCATE THE SOUTHSIDE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
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W e d n e s d ay, O c t o b e r 1, 2025
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Danny Heitman AT RANDOM
I took a small break from the news, and Pope Leo might approve When my son graduated from a master’s program in Pittsburgh last May, I wanted to be fully present during the long weekend our family had scheduled to celebrate. I was afraid I’d miss important moments because I was glued to a screen filled with the latest headlines. As our plane lifted from the runway in Louisiana, I put away my phone, resolved to go on a media fast for the next few days. We’d barely reached cruising altitude when a flight attendant began strolling the aisles, her arms filled with headphones for the onboard TV programming. “In case you’re interested,” she announced, “they’ve just named the new pope.” Phones lit up throughout the cabin, and most of the screens attached to each seat popped on, too. I quickly abandoned my resolution to avoid the news. But my viewing station didn’t work, and my smartphone service was spotty, too. I craned my head over the seat ahead of me and glimpsed an image of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV entering the balcony over St. Peter’s Square. My neck quickly tired, so I leaned back into my seat and pondered whether the little news desert in which I’d found myself might have been exactly what I’d asked for. As a longtime journalist, I avidly follow current events as an occupational necessity. But I’m not a papal correspondent, and neither my career nor the world would suffer if I waited a while to catch up on developments at the Vatican. As most of my fellow passengers watched the announcement of the new pontiff, I gazed at a brilliant field of clouds beyond the window and remembered other times when big news broke during my vacations. I was in a Paris cafe in 1991 after President George H.W. Bush developed an irregular heartbeat at Camp David, prompting nearby customers to proclaim “désastre” at the thought that the leader of the free world might be in peril. Later that year, I was on a rural Alaskan road outside Anchorage when plotters staged an ultimately unsuccessful coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. It felt strange to be at such a remove from things as superpowers trembled all those decades ago. Slowly, I came to understand the futility of waiting for the news cycle to calm down so that I could step away from it without fear of missing out. The very nature of the news is its relentlessness, which is precisely why we all need respites from current events. It’s something I’m trying to keep in mind this autumn as the churn of urgent news bulletins continues at high pitch. I’m glad to live in a world where the hard work of news gatherers makes it possible to stay abreast of what’s happening. I’m also glad that I put the news away long enough to enjoy my son’s graduation. Pope Leo would probably say that I made the right call. Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.
STAFF PHOTO BY ROBIN MILLER
Bradley Bates, right, is the third generation to own and operate Bates & Thigpen menswear store on Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge. His son Brad, left, is the fourth generation of the family to enter the business. They stand in front of the store’s collection of hats, which are still popular among customers.
CENTURY NOTES Jam sessions among coats and ties are part of the 100-year tradition at Bates & Thigpen
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BY ROBIN MILLER Staff writer
ome afternoons, when things are at their quietest, someone will drift through the front doors and pick up a guitar. Bradley Bates has plenty of guitars behind the counter in Bates & Thigpen, the men’s store his grandfather opened 100 years ago. Musically inclined customers usually ask permission to use the instruments, then pick a tune or two. “There was a guy who came in who was in his 20s,” Bates said. “And he said, ‘I just need a pair of socks.’ I went behind the counter and wrote them up, and he looked over and said, ‘Is that your guitar?’ I said, ‘Yeah, would you like to play it?’ ” “Yes sir,” the young man answered, already reaching for the instrument, strumming the strings. He gazed at the guitar in the same awe he would a love interest. And he played the music, as Bates would later learn, that was his birth rite. The man ripped through one tune, then another. Some notes were anchored in the bluegrass tradition as if channeling Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt or one of the Dillards — the bluegrass family that portrayed
PROVIDED PHOTO BY BRADLEY BATES
Bates & Thigpen as it appeared shortly after opening at 335 Third St. in downtown Baton Rouge in 1965. the nonverbal, music-playing Darling family on “The Andy Griffith Show.” The family was legendary in the bluegrass world, known for their progressive style. Bates would soon learn that this young man had a connection to the family. This wasn’t his first rodeo. In fact, he was set to play at Baton Rouge’s Shaw Center for the Arts that night. Bates doesn’t remember the man’s name, just that he was
probably two generations removed from Andy Griffith’s Darlings. “He was such a nice kid, and I get a lot of people like him, who just go over there and pick up the guitars and sit down for just 30 minutes to pick,” Bates said.
Opened in 1924 Musical interludes probably
ä See BATES, page 2G
Did Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward live in La.? Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman share about their lives and careers in an interview that aired on the ABC News television magazine ‘20/20.’ PROVIDED PHOTO BY ABC TELEVISION NETWORK
BY JOY HOLDEN
Through the years, the HollywoodBaton Rouge real A reader asked if estate connection it was true that Paul Newman has continued to linger. and Joanne Woodward ever The property in question has owned a house on the lakes in consistently been the beautiBaton Rouge. ful home at 3465 E. Lakeshore A rumor circulated around Ba- Drive reached all the way back to Hyacinth Avenue. ton Rouge in the 1980s and ’90s Though false, the real estate that Paul Newman and Joanne whispers continued. Woodward were updating a particular home on the Univerä See CURIOUS, page 3G sity Lakes off Stanford Avenue. Staff writer