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Jimbalaya in New Orleans

28th January 202328th January 2023 funtime65

Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on the Bayou as we go Platinum Jimbalaya in New Orleans.

Or if you’re being particular Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and a fillet gumbo but I took to Cajun cuisine the first time I sampled it.

On the forecourt of the American Travel Fair in Washington DC where the New Orleans delegation held their liquid breakfast.

Food for thought

That liquid being the famous local delicacy Sazerac.

And the jambalaya being a spicy rice pot of chicken andouille sausage, shrimps and veg.

Crawfish pie, well being crawfish which tastes a bit like lobster under a crust.

While gumbo is the Louisiana state dish, a soup of meat or shellfish, or maybe both.

With the Creole Holy Trinity of celery, bell peppers and onions.

New Orleans Saints

All of which was consumed with relish and all before 10am.

Before the Saints came marching in and led us into the conference room.

Those Saints being the famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Well we’re being seduced again by the tastes and sounds of New Orleans.

As the Big Easy delegation are the first out of the traps with details of their American Travel Fair party.

Which this May is being held in San Antonio in Texas.

And where helpfully their gig will be at the Westin Riverwalk where we’ll be staying…

Well, we are always where the party is at.

Rhythm in the heart

Of course New Orleans is just eight hours by road across the Deep South and served by road, rail, bus and air.

Or you could go Platinum with a 14-night fly-drive Southern Rhythms trip from €1519pp.

And what’s best is that this offer takes in and ticks off five states, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

But let’s get the Irish Travel providers and American experts to give us the highlights…

Their pitch is that we will get to tap your feet to the beat in Nashville, Memphis, Lafayette and New Orleans, the region that gave rise to every form of contemporary American music.

And visit Natchez, perhaps the best preserved antebellum town in the South.

As well as historic buildings in Atlanta, where the spirit of Scarlett O’Hara is still in the air.

Although for all her fineries we’d be more Downstairs and all that jazz.

And Jimbalaya in New Orleans.

America, Countries, Music, UK

Hank Williams in Alabama

9th January 20239th January 2023 funtime65

As with so much in life where my great hero Billy Connolly goes I will follow which means to Hank Williams in Alabama.

Billy oft tells the story of how he first got into the banjo, his great musical love.

And the start point of his legendary entertainment career.

The Barras street market in Glasgow might seem an unlikely place to discover a Country legend.

But then many of the best people (Billy and Bandanaman) grew up in these streets.

And it was on one such stall that Billy’s dad bought Hank’s I’m So Lonely I Could Cry which prompted Billy to buy a banjo.

Hank’s for the memories

Billy, whose television travelogues are among the best anywhere, takes us to Hank’s gravestone in his Tracks Across America.

And texts his children and gets a photograph to tell him he’s there.

This year is a very special year for Hankophiles.

Hiram ‘Hank’ Williams was born on September 17 in Mount Olive, Alabama.

And Alabama naturally makes a big deal of their favourite son with a Hank Williams Trail.

It kicks off with a visit to his childhood home preserved as a museum in Georgiana, where he learned to play guitar from Black street musician Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne. T

Then drive an hour north to Montgomery, where Hank moved in his teens, and pick up lunch as he did at Chris’s Hot Dogs.

Alabamaversary

Visit Montgomery’s Hank Williams Museum to see his stage costumes, guitars, and the 1952 blue Cadillac in which he died, aged just 29.

You can pay your respects at his grave, like Billy did in homage to Hank Williams in Alabama.

In nearby Oakwood Cemetery, marked by a marble cowboy hat.

Of course, in a state where music is in the very air, there is always an anniversary.

Muscle memory

And April 23, 2023 marks the 60^th anniversary of Rick Hall’s FAME studios in Muscle Shoals.

The studios have attracted artists from Alabamian Wilson Pickett, who recorded “Mustang Sally”, Aretha Franklin and Etta James to Alicia Keys.

A new behind-the-scenes tour takes visitors into Hall’s personal office and showcases his collection of instruments.

Of course this being the Deep South then music is all around you so why not make an odyssey of it in neighbouring states.

And take in Tennessee and the best that Nashville, Memphis and Dollywood have to offer.

And Mississippi and its Blues trail and its Grammy Museum.

America, Europe, Ireland, Sport, UK

Babe Ruth and his curse

2nd June 20212nd June 2021 funtime65

Even those who have never played baseball or watched a game will likely have heard of Babe Ruth and his curse.

George, for that was his Sunday name, is mostly associated with two teams.

The Boston Red Sox, where he made his name, and the New York Yankees to where he was traded and became a superstar.

But he actually hailed for Baltimore and started out with the Baltimore Oriioles.

And it is the Maryland city where you will find the Babe Ruth birthplace and museum.

On this day back in 1935 the Babe retired at the age of 40 with all manner of records to his name.

His records were to last long after his death alas too early at the age of 53.

And his reputation would grow with the years.

Not least because the Red Sox did not win a World Series after he left only breaking that 86-year run in 2004.

As is the way with these sporting sensations, and readers will know about the curse around the Philadelphia teams, there is a Bostonian superstition too.

A ‘reverse curve’ road sign on Longfellow Bridge over the busy Storrow Drive was graffittied.

And it came to read the ‘Reverse the Curse’ and it was left in place until the hoodoo was broken.

After which the sign was edited to read ‘Reversed Curse.’

You want to hear about some other curses from across sport? Thought you did.

Ghoulish Gaels

Mayo: But avoid the funeral cortege on the way home

Mayo Gaelic Football team: And in superstitious Ireland it comes as little surprise that there is a curse hanging over Mayo.

The story goes that following their last All-Ireland victory in 1951 the returning heroes failed to wait quietly for a funeral cortege to pass.

And that the presiding priest pledged that they would never win another Sam Maguire Cup until all that team had died.

Mayo have played in the final ten times since without success.

And while Pat Prendergast and Mick Loftus defy the Grim Reaper we doubt they will.

Romani revenge

Birmingham City FC: And you can take your pick of gipsy curses on football teams but it might be because we’re fans of Peaky Blinders that we’re going for this one.

Birmingham lived to regret building their new ground back in 1906 on gipsy land .

When they were cursed not to win a major trophy for 100 years.

High-profile managers Ron Saunders and Barry Fry tried to break the curse.

Saunders putting crucifixes on the floodlights and painting the soles of the players’ boots red.

While Fry urinated in the four corners of the pitch, supposedly because a clairvoyant told him so.

In 2011 Alex McLeish who had no need to empty his bladder there led the Blues to the 2011 League Cup.

Talladega tremors

Talladega Superspeedway: And, of course, it’s never good to build on an Indian Reservation.

Drivers have been known to hear voices as they steered their cars around the Alabama track.

Although petrolhead fans just say it adds to the appeal of the races.

Duck, it’s Drake

You selfie so and so: Drake with sports stars

Drake and sport: And this is more a sports-mad rapper being a Jonah rather than a curse but the Torontonian is in because he’s showbiz.

The musician brings bad luck on whoever he supports.

Whether it’s Paris Saint-Germain, UFC champ Conor McGregor, boxing king Anthony Joshua, Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero or basketball great Kevin Durant.

These strange turns of luck might just all be in God’s Plan.

But Drake wasn’t taking any chances when he used the curse against him.

And he wore a pair of Philadelphia 76ers shorts when watching the Pennsylvanians against his home Toronto Raptors.

The oft-times cursed Philly sports fans really needed that and lost!

So we’ve given you Babe Ruth and his curse and a few others.

But what’s your fave and let’s hope your sports team has lifted it?