Big Sole Blog (BSB)

Yes, I'm tired of this story, too, about Beyonce lip-syncing the "Star-Spangled Banner" at President Obama's second inauguration ceremony, but since the superstar's in my city, New Orleans, for Super Bowl XLVII, and since she handled the controversy so well, I think it's fitting to post this video. In the video above from her press conference today at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center,

My cousin. L.C. of Texas (pre-Katrina of New Orleans), shared this funny story on Facebook about a true experience she had in Target. I think her story comments on a technological divide between generations: The strangest thing happened to me this evening. . . . I went to Target to purchase a stationery set and had trouble finding any. So, I asked this twenty-something year-old for assistance.

I do not to mean to imply that there's any great competition between Carole King's version of her hit "So Far Away" and soul singer Jerry "Iceman" Butler's version. After all, Carole wrote the song, but back in the 1970s I owned both versions and often played them back to back, probably giving the edge to Carole because Jerry's version sounds overly dramatic later in the song (not Jerry's singing

I attended a women's group meeting today where I learned that human trafficking of young girls plagues New Orleans because the city is a major port and tourism destination. I may have heard this before, but this is the first time the news really hit me as "of course this horrible fact must be true," and that realization rattled me. So, I came home and researched the

Richard Blanco, inaugural poet, delivered a beautiful poem for President Barack Obama's inauguration on January 21, 2013. The poem is entitled "One Day. " On Twitter I described the poem as "beautiful, lyrical, expansive, inclusive." I saw others tweet about its strong imagery. The poet discussed earlier with the BBC capturing the U.S.A. in verse. He told the interviewer that writing a poem

On Friday, January 18, Judy Smith talked to CNN about two media crises troubling the lives of two very different sports celebrities: Lance Armstrong's doping scandal and Manti Te'o's bizarre case of the fantasy girlfriend. As I've written before, Smith is the real-life crisis manager on whom Shonda Rhimes based ABC's hit show Scandal, which stars Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope (the character

I am still contemplating the capacity to love unconditionally. Here is my poem, not meant for literary magazines, but for all people in struggle for peaceful human co-existence: "The Real Thing About It." It is a meditation.

Giraffes' mating ritual commences at Disney World's Animal Kingdom Lodge, but doesn't get far.

BAD WRITING from Morris Hill Pictures on Vimeo. This movie, directed by Vernon Lott, is streaming for free on Vimeo the entire month of January, and it has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/badwritingmovie. H/T to Paul Constant. The documentary features interviews with well-known nonfiction and fiction writers and poets, including David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, Nick Flynn, Steve Almond, and