Columns

On March 17, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the wearin’ o’ the green, and on March 19 special altars and devotions mark St. Joseph’s Day. These are special occasions and just about everyone at least takes note of them. That’s why I have for a long time felt sorry for St. Frigidian.
His feast day is March 18, but, wedged like he is between big guys like Patrick and Joseph, nobody gives him even a nod, let alone a celebration. He probably doesn’t mind; he lived a good part of his life as a hermit even though he had regal blood and was made a bishop. But it still bothers me.

It’s not unusual to get a night, or even two, when hard freezes visit Acadiana, but it is uncharacteristic for us to see a weeklong surge of frigid nights like the one that ushered in the new year.
Still, Old Man Winter will have to work some to beat the bleak, blizzardy January of 1940. The overnight temperature fell below freezing — most nights far below freezing — on 22 of the 31 days of that month, and into really icy weather for 18 consecutive nights. The temperature dropped to 25 degrees or below on 12 of those nights, and into the teens on five.

Judge Kaliste Saloom Jr., who died Dec. 2 after a long and fruitful life, was elected and re-elected to the Lafayette city court for 40 years, even though friends said his first election would be his last because he refused to “fix” traffic tickets.