Louisiana
A Louisiana reader confronts tsundoku: Danny Heitman
Thanks to the internet, which is always teaching me new things, I’ve learned a new word this month. It’s tsundoku, a Japanese term for the habit of piling up reading material without getting around to reading it.
What a lovely word, and so meaningful for me since it points a sharp finger at my own pile of unread books. I can see the stack right now as I write this, hoping the tall column of volumes does not, like a literary Tower of Babel, collapse across the keyboard before I finish this sentence. I won’t take you, title by title, through that yard-high backlog of books awaiting my attention. I will only say that it’s various, ranging from the 18th century Englishman Horace Walpole’s “Selected Letters” to Tish Harrison Warren’s “Liturgy of the Ordinary” to John McPhee’s “Tabula Rasa.”
Is tsundoku especially bad in Louisiana, where a lot of us tend to live in the same place a long time? Moves can nudge you to thin out libraries, and I’m inclined to think that living at the same address for three decades, as I have, is a temptation to keep too much.
One of the great dodges of a packrat, of course, is to point to someone else who hoards even more than you do. In that spirit, I’ll mention Jill Lepore, the Harvard history professor and staff writer at The New Yorker whose personal library runneth over. When I googled her the other day, my new item of vocabulary, tsundoku, quickly came to mind. A picture of Lepore in The Harvard Crimson reveals a workplace where books have spilled from their shelves and colonized every surface, the whole room a republic of words.
All of which has made me wonder if a truly full life is inevitably like this, as insistent in its plenitude as a river spilling its banks. Lepore is on my mind these days because I’ve been reading “The Deadline,” her new collection of essays. The essays are as varied as her intellect, which ranges over everything from Rachel Carson to presidential politics to the trials and ecstasies of motherhood. Her title, “The Deadline,” points to the basic reality of a writer’s life — namely, that however grand your ideas, they’ll seldom reach an audience if you can’t deliver them on time.
This is probably the best thing about these essays — how they meet the reader at street level, always grounding themselves in the tangible, the essential, the real. There’s a lovely essay about Lepore’s mother, who carried an easel and brushes in her car just in case she spotted something worth painting on her errands. “I never knew anyone better prepared to meet with beauty,” Lepore writes.
Lepore’s essays are equally open to possibility, even when they deal with difficult subjects. Although it’s time for me to purge my pile of books, I suspect that “The Deadline” will be a keeper.
Email Danny Heitman at danny@dannyheitman.com.
Louisiana ranks among the top 10 most affordable states to retire, according to a new study from Retirement Living, a national journal of retirement research.
Researchers analyzed each state’s housing costs, living expenses and tax friendliness to compile the ranking. Louisiana, they say, is the eighth most affordable state for retirees.
In Louisiana, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $932, the median home sale price is $255,000, monthly grocery spend per capita is $272, the average price per gallon of regular gas is $4, the average Medicare Advantage monthly premium is $13.35 and the average effective property tax rate is 0.55%.
West Virginia is the most affordable state to retire, followed by Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Kansas. Researchers describe the South as “the sweet spot for an affordable retirement.”
The most expensive state to retire, meanwhile, is California, followed by Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Utah, New York and Minnesota.
Read Retirement Living’s full report here.
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is bringing the community together to prepare before a storm forms.
“We can’t stop disasters from happening. We can’t stop hurricanes from happening. But what we can do is equip our communities with the resources that they need to prepare for these storms ahead of time,” said Jayda Morris, CPRA outreach manager.
The agency hosted an event featuring interactive storm simulations and a full model of the Mississippi River.
“If you do it now, like on a sunny day like today, you’re ready to go for the rest of the season,” Jay Grymes said.
El Niño may reduce storms, but Louisiana still at risk
State Climatologist Jay Grymes said an El Niño pattern may reduce the number of storms in the Atlantic but warned against a false sense of security.
“In those 25 years, Louisiana, some part of the state has been impacted by 29 storms. That’s one a year, regardless of El Niño. So that should tell you something,” Grymes said.
He said the bigger concern is storms that can form in the Gulf with little warning.
“If we’re going to get a storm, it very possibly could be one that bubbles up in the Gulf and doesn’t give us five or seven days to track it coming our way. It gives us 40 hours to get ready for a landfall. So it’s imperative that you go ahead and do it now,” Grymes said.
Preparation goes beyond stocking water
Preparing now includes walking through yards, checking trees, and knowing whether everyone in the family can survive two weeks without power.
PhD students with the LSU College of the Coast and Environment gave the community a virtual reality experience that puts users inside a storm.
“If they wear the goggles or play with the Apple Vision Pro, they can understand how high will the flood be, and they can know how dangerous is the hurricane scenario,” said Yixuan Wang.
The VR simulation uses real historical data to show users what compound flooding looks like in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The goal is to make the science real for people who can’t picture what a flood map means.
“It’s just to let you understand the environment. We will add the audios, the different sound of the wind and the storm. And you can see how tense of the rainfall around you,” Wang said.
Organizers said the event is about making sure that when a storm threatens the area, families already know their plan.
Information from the event is available on CPRA’s website. Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Louisiana homeowners can get financial help to upgrade their roofs and ensure they can better stand up to strong storms.
According to the Louisiana Department of Insurance, registration for next Louisiana Fortify Homes Program lottery opens at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 1. The registration period will stay open through 5 p.m. on Friday, June 19.
Under the latest round of the program, 3,000 grants of up to $10,000 will go out. After applying, homeowners will get placed into a lottery and will be randomly selected.
There are many specific benefits of having a roof upgraded through the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program. Officials said the roofs have stronger shingles that can protect against hail up to two inches wide, sealed roof decks to help prevent water damage, and stronger edges to keep wind from getting underneath.
Homeowners with a fortified roof can also get a certificate to receive a discount on insurance premiums.
“At the end of the day, this program is about more than just roofs,” said Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple. “It is about protecting families, it is about strengthening communities, and it is about putting Louisiana in a stronger position—both physically and economically—to face the challenges ahead.”
Only people living in Ascension Parish, Livingston Parish, Assumption Parish, Tangipahoa Parish, Acadia Parish, Calcasieu Parish, Cameron Parish, Iberia Parish, Jefferson Parish, Jefferson Davis Parish, Lafayette Parish, Lafourche Parish, Orleans Parish, Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard Parish, St. Charles Parish, St. James Parish, St. John the Baptist Parish, St. Martin Parish, St. Mary Parish, St. Tammany Parish, Terrebonne Parish, and Vermilion Parish are eligible to apply for the latest round of the program.
People living in a newly built home, mobile home, or condominium are not qualified.
For a detailed list of eligibility requirements, click here.
If a person registered for the program previously, he or she must do so again. The person will also need to provide the following information:
- A homestead exemption on the primary residence.
- A policy of insurance that provides wind coverage for the primary residence.
- A flood insurance policy on the primary residence if it is in a special flood hazard area.
For more information about applying, click here.
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