NOVEMBER 2024 Archives - SB Magazine https://sbmag.net/tag/november-2024/ SB Magazine Wed, 04 Dec 2024 01:14:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://sbmag.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/sb-logo-150-100x100.jpg NOVEMBER 2024 Archives - SB Magazine https://sbmag.net/tag/november-2024/ 32 32 HOLIDAY FOOD FOR https://sbmag.net/holiday-food-for/ https://sbmag.net/holiday-food-for/#respond Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:51:24 +0000 https://sbmag.net/?p=64502 The post HOLIDAY FOOD FOR appeared first on SB Magazine.

]]>

“These are the times that try men’s colons.”

HOLIDAY FOOD FOR

What red-blooded American with a digestive system doesn’t recall those wise words of holiday warning from Founding Father and turkey-leg-eater Thomas Paine?

He wrote that phrase, gravy on his quill, in the famous and appropriately named pamphlet Common Sense. My guess is he wrote it with his mouth full. And one eye on dessert.

It is as true now as it was then. Even the most casual eater, wandering aimlessly through The Land of the Leftover, has got to be heads up as we wade into the holiday season, especially Thanksgiving. Cheese dip here. Sausage ball there. Week-old giblets, ripe for the taking. Food jitters.

For some reason, we are robotically drawn to seasonal foods, even though there are plenty of holiday experiences available that should cause us to lose our appetites. If you can’t relate, then you’ve never been hugged right before a holiday meal by a great aunt. With a goatee. Who’s dipping snuff? Welcome to my world.

(I have a friend who once lost 15 pounds during December. She didn’t mean to. But right before one Thanksgiving dinner, her uncle said to her, table-side, “Honey, I wonder why God took all the hair off my head and put it on my back?” She was able to eat solid food again, but not until somewhere around Valentine’s Day.)

Another dietary issue this time of year: stadium food. Homestretch of Football Bowl season. Pressure’s on.

So, we eat either to relieve the stress of a stretch run or because we’re bored stiff because our team IS a stiff. I have yet another friend who shared with me his digestive system misgivings after a Saturday’s joyous time in a football stadium occupied by a team that’s more up and down than a prairie dog. “My most painful lesson from the weekend,” he said, “was that pre-prandial and post-prandial reflections on a stadium corn dog are two very different realities.”

Prandial means “of or relating to a meal.” It’s from the Latin “prandium,” meaning, “I should not have ate that.” As you have surmised, to use those kinds of high-dollar words, my friend is pretty smart – but not smart enough to call time out in the corn dog line. You do not toy with a mass-produced corn dog in a competitive atmosphere far, far from your home locker room. You just don’t do it.

Let this be a lesson to us all: your digestive system doesn’t know you have a high IQ. Faulty plumbing due to pilot error puts us all — the prince and the pauper, the duke (excuse my French), and the serf — right there on the same page.

In the vein of Paine, a poem:

FOURTH AND LONG

The corn dog on a stick I ate was more than just inviting. Too bad I didn’t think that later it would do the biting.

Food jits.

If our own lack of self-control and the overpowering temptations of the season weren’t enough, the food world and Mother Nature herself might be conspiring against us. My own personal mother, of all people, alerted me to this tragedy.

The Nature Conservation Research Council, which sounds like an important thing, forecasts a chocolate shortage.

Because African farmers are ditching their cocoa farms for other easier-to-grow crops, chocolate might either disappear or increase drastically in price. 

This means that in 20 years, a Baby Ruth could well be out of my price range. My mother’s grandchildren call her “Sweeter,” so you can imagine how this is affecting my family. Let’s hold hands and …

CHOCOLATE LAMENTATIONS No Twix? No Bliss? No Hershey’s Kiss, No chocolate dip fondue? The question we should pray is “What would Willie Wonka do?”

A member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2022, Teddy Allen is a writer and broadcaster; he can be reached at teddy@latech.edu

The post HOLIDAY FOOD FOR appeared first on SB Magazine.

]]> https://sbmag.net/holiday-food-for/feed/ 0 NOVEMBER 2024 : CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY https://sbmag.net/november-2024-christmas-in-the-sky/ https://sbmag.net/november-2024-christmas-in-the-sky/#respond Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:37:54 +0000 https://sbmag.net/?p=64413 The post NOVEMBER 2024 : CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY appeared first on SB Magazine.

]]>

NOVEMBER 2024 : CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY

 

Don’t you just love the brisk cool weather? I love this time of year and all the exciting events coming our way this month. It’s Louisiana State Fair time, Les Boutique des Noel is about to begin, people are already preparing their lists for the holiday gift-giving season, and it’s Thanksgiving month.

In this issue, we are featuring a section on restaurants so while you’re out and about doing the shopping thing, you’ll know where to go and take a breather while you enjoy some of this area’s best cuisine. Check out our Holiday Gift Preview before you even start making that list. Shreveport Bossier shopping has never been better with so many unique treasures.

Plus – drum-roll please – Adam Bailey has put together an incredible story on what goes on behind the scenes of Christmas in the Sky. You won’t believe all the creativity and work (glitter and lights) that goes into putting this awardwinning SRAC fundraiser together for us to enjoy every two years. This year, Christmas in the Sky is December 14th at Louisiana Downs.

Last month, I wrote about the Nutcracker Ballet. I need to clarify that the ballet company I wrote about is not our own Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet. The Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet is celebrating that favorite holiday classic, The Nutcracker, at Riverview Theater, on December 14 and 15th. Featuring more than 100 talented local dancers, guest artists Marlena Brinkmann, who is a Resident Choreographer for Illinois Youth Dance Theatre and Illinois Dance Conservatory, and Justin Valentine, who is currently freelancing and coaching, and the music of the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. I’m so sorry for the confusion. We’ll have more on SMB in the December issue!

Enjoy this issue with a nice cup of coffee or hot chocolate before you lace up your shopping shoes and get this holiday season started.

COVER STORY

34 CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY
– BEHIND THE SCENES

COLUMNS & FEATURES

6 & 31 EYE ON SB

20 PERSON OF INTEREST – MAE & CO.

22 ART & CULTURE
– CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY COSTUMES

58 HOME FEATURE
-THE COURVILLE’S

68 GOOD TO KNOW

72 CALENDAR OF EVENTS

76 AND ANOTHER THING

FEATURES STORIES

9 FAIRGROUNDS FIELD
– TEAR IT DOWN OR RESTORE IT TO GLORY?

12 IN THE LOOP

SPECIAL SECTIONS

25 EAT, STAY, PLAY

43 HOLIDAY GIFT PREVIEW

The post NOVEMBER 2024 : CHRISTMAS IN THE SKY appeared first on SB Magazine.

]]> https://sbmag.net/november-2024-christmas-in-the-sky/feed/ 0