Smiley Anders for August 1, 2008

• By SMILEY ANDERS
• Advocate columnist
• Published: Aug 1, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Linda H. Whitman, of Denham Springs, says that after her husband’s surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., she was so impressed by the skill of the young surgeon that she sent him a special “Louisiana care package” when they got home:

“I sent a box of jambalaya mix, a container of Tony Chachere’s, a bottle of Louisiana Red Hot, some pralines and a sack of fresh cracklings.

“I never received any acknowledgement, so I called up there to see if he had gotten it.

“We talked first about my husband’s condition, and then I asked if he had received my package.

“He had, and said that about two days after he got it, he went in to visit another Louisiana patient.

“This man had been up there a month and wasn’t interested in the food they served (not a surprise!).

“When asked what he was hungry for, the man said, ‘Cracklings.’

“The next day our doctor brought some in and said the man really enjoyed them, saying, ‘This is the best food I’ve had since I got here.’

“Did me good to know someone from Louisiana was taken care of by a fellow Louisianian.”

Gold standard
The suggestion by an LSU fan that the Tigers return to gold on their uniforms got support from several readers.

“I maintain that gold is gold, and NOT canary yellow! Please help begin a campaign to bring back the ‘old gold’ colors, especially to helmets,” says Ralph P. Campbell Jr., one of the readers who responded.

But Alex D. Chapman Jr. had this take on it:

“I too used to fret about our canary yellow uniforms. But then we started winning, and not too many of our opponents made comments about the color yellow.