I’m not a sports fan. I rarely watch the games on television. I openly admit to attending baseball games for the sport of “people watching.” When the Super Bowl comes around, I watch with a notebook for the commercials. Those advertisements are useful for teaching appeals to persuasion. And yet, every four years, you’ll find me returning home to sit in front of the screen and watch certain sports. The Olympic Games.

Whenever she visits her family back home in India, one of the first things Karen Fernandes asks for is a succulent vegetarian stew brimming with mushrooms plucked from the hillsides of the coastal town where she grew up. “We make it with lots of spices, so say you want to make chicken curry – you would just substitute mushrooms for the chicken,” explained Fernandes, listing other ingredients that she craves from her homeland, such as fresh coconut, bamboo shoots and the purple blossoms of the banana plant, the latter of which adds texture and flavor to lentil dishes.

Since the use of ultrasound, expectant couples routinely discover the gender of their child in the womb. Many have made “The Big Reveal” a huge celebration: A blue cake at a party means it’s a boy; a pink cake, a girl.

Robin Hood, the legendary hero of English folklore who took from the rich to give to the poor – whose very name conjures up thoughts of fairness, justice and love for the oppressed – stands in stark contrast to President Trump who wants to take from poor and give to the rich. The recent congressional Republican sponsored tax legislation signed into law by Trump gives huge tax cuts to wealthy individuals and profit-rich corporations. And as a result the federal deficit will astronomically increase.

The 2017-18 high school basketball season may not be logged in the annals as a banner one for local Catholic schools’ boys’ teams, but for the talented seniors and underclassmen who earned spots on the Clarion Herald’s Elite Boys’ Team, the campaign wrote their personal success stories. In an era that separates public and non-public schools into class and division tournaments, just about every non-public school is given a playoff berth just for fielding a team.

A new statue graces the grounds of Mary Queen of Peace Church in Mandeville, and it’s no ordinary statue. Carved from Carrara marble in the town of the same name in Italy, “Ave Regina Pacis” (Hail Queen of Peace) is a work of art, straight from the heart of sculptor Cody Swanson. “This is the choicest of choice marbles,” said Swanson, who was in town from Florence, Italy, for the blessing and dedication on Feb. 11, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. “One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make,” Swanson said, was when he decided to redo the statue after noticing several imperfections when the first block of marble was cut.

The history of Catholic faith in St. Bernard Parish can be traced to the king of Spain, who sent Canary Islanders, in several waves, to Louisiana beginning in 1778. These “Isleños” established St. Bernard Catholic Church at the first settlement, said Tony Fernandez Jr., a parishioner whose heritage stems from early settler Felix Marrero. “There were several settlements along south Louisiana, but this was the most successful,” Fernandez said of Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs, which he described as “a colony within the colony of Louisiana” with its own government, subservient to the colony’s governor.