fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Crawfish With Walker Percy

Well, if you weren’t here tonight, you missed a great time. Above, Chef Cody Carroll, one of the best young chefs in Louisiana, serves a plate of hot crawfish and cold Abita beer to Ashley Fox-Smith, one of the organizers of Walker Percy Weekend. More than a few people said these were the best crawfish they’d […]

get-attachment-9

Well, if you weren’t here tonight, you missed a great time. Above, Chef Cody Carroll, one of the best young chefs in Louisiana, serves a plate of hot crawfish and cold Abita beer to Ashley Fox-Smith, one of the organizers of Walker Percy Weekend. More than a few people said these were the best crawfish they’d ever eaten. “Tomorrow night, we’re going to cook four hogs,” Chef Cody told me.

Here’s the philosopher Leslie Marsh, in from Vancouver, Canada, receiving his first ever plate of crawfish. Note his Ignatius Reilly t-shirt:

get-attachment-8

Here’s a meet-up for this blog. Franklin Evans you know. Leslie Fain is in the foreground. I was chagrined to notice when I got home just now that I moved my smart phone at the last second, and cut out Bernie, who is just to the left of Leslie. I’ll make a point of photographing her tomorrow:

get-attachment-6

Here’s the legendary New Orleans bon vivant Ken Bickford and my TAC colleague Jon Coppage:

get-attachment-7

Win Riley introduced his brilliant Walker Percy documentary, and all the people with bellies full of crawfish sat under the stars and live oaks and watched the movie:

get-attachment-10

Earlier in the afternoon, my front porch was full of folks drinking bourbon. You can spot pomocon Peter Augustine Lawler in the picture, on the far left of the frame. For at least one afternoon, Peter Lawler was a bona fide Front Porch Republican. Ha!

get-attachment-3

 

A special shout-out to Prof. Patrick Connelly of Montreat College, who stopped into the Maple Street Book Shop in New Orleans and, get this, couriered their entire stock of Walker Percy titles, including some rare signed items, to St. Francisville. Maple Street had to back out of their pop-up bookstore plan at the last minute, but shop owner Gladin Scott dispatched his books with Patrick to St. Francisville. They’ll be available on Saturday at Grandmother’s Buttons on Royal Street, right between the two lecture venues.

Tomorrow is going to be a very full day. There will be hogs at the end of it. If you’re here, we are so glad you are. Really and truly, y’all make it all worthwhile. If you aren’t, well, we’ll be happy to see you next year.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now