Columns

In a recent column about early baseball rivalries, I noted that the Orange Hoo-Hoos were one of the teams in the short-lived Gulf Coast League in the early 1900s. That prompted a reader to ask, “Why would a team have such a silly name?”
It turns out that it isn’t quite a silly as it appears. The team was supported by the Orange chapter of the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, a society for people in the lumber industry.

April 14, 1935, is still referred to as Black Sunday in the American Midwest because that was the worst day of one of the worst dust storms in U.S. history. More than 300,000 tons of topsoil were blown away during that storm, some of it landing in south Louisiana.
It didn’t turn mid-day into midnight like it did in some places, but it did darken and dirty us up.
The National Weather Service account said that other storms had preceded this one, but none were as bad.

To lead an orchestra, a conductor has to turn his back to the crowd. To lead your life, you have to turn your back to the crowd. This means you have to immunize yourself to what others say, think, or do relative to your quest to achieve your goals.
Just as a conductor must focus on the performance of the orchestra, you need to focus on the performance of your life. If a conductor faces the crowd, he can’t direct the musicians.