Lowly mudbugs fuel annual Fat Tuesday celebration at Duck Inn

It’s not the Guinness Book of Records holder for world’s most popular party like Brazil’s Carnival celebration, nor does it have the elaborate floats and costumes found in the street parades on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.

But what Evansville’s Duck Inn does have is its own unique recipe for one of Mardi Gras’ favorite spicy delicacies. It’s one that’s known by many names: mud bugs, crawdads, yabbies, nippers and spoondogs to name a few.

Crawfish is what they’re more commonly called, and it’s what has brought Rick and Kerri Delano to the Duck Inn every Fat Tuesday for the past three years. Between them, their daughter Brittany Delano and Kerri Delano’s sister and brother-in-law Kris and Mike Lanham from Ohio, the party sucked the heads out of more than five pounds of the Cajun crustacean, piling up a tab of more than $100.

“If you go down to New Orleans, you get drunk, sick, maybe get pick pocketed,” said Rick Delano, who likes crawfish but prefers shrimp pasta. “We just hang in Evansville and have our party here. Continue…

Google Celebrates Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Birthday

Today’s google doodle features a never-ending loop of colorful waves.

Unlike other doodles, this one does not form the letters of the search engine’s famous logo.

The doodle is in honor of the 155th birthday of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, German physicist who clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by Maxwell.

Hertz who was born on February 22, 1857 in in Hamburg, Germany was the first to satisfactorily demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves by building an apparatus to produce and detect radio waves. Continue…

Elizabeth Smart Marries at Hawaii Temple

Elizabeth Smart married her fiance Saturday at a Mormon temple in Hawaii.

A family spokesman said the Utah woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months married Matthew Gilmour on Oahu’s North Shore.

The 24-year-old Smart is a senior at Brigham Young University. She met Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris.

The couple wed at the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of family members, spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement. The group then celebrated at a private reception and luau. Continue…

Elizabeth Smart Marries At Hawaii Temple

Elizabeth Smart married her fiance Saturday at a Mormon temple in Hawaii.

A family spokesman said the Utah woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months married Matthew Gilmour on Oahu’s North Shore.

The 24-year-old Smart is a senior at Brigham Young University. She met Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris.

The couple wed at the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of family members, spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement. The group then celebrated at a private reception and luau.

“The bride and groom were beaming as they left the LDS Temple,” Thomas said. Continue Reading…

Bobby Brown Leaves Funeral Leaves Whitney Houston’s

Bobby Brown made an appearance at Whitney Houston’s funeraltoday after being invited–contrary to earlier reports–but his appearance turned out to be more brief than he had hoped.

According to reports, Brown showed up at Houston’s funeral with a group of people, and tried to take a seat in the front row. As the front row was reserved for family only, Bobby was told that he had to move. After being shuffled around, Brown was finally told that there wasn’t enough room for him and his guests, and so Brown left Houston’s funeral. Continue Reading…

The Help Wins Big At Image Awards Houston Remembered

“The Help,” which chronicled the experiences of black maids in the 1960s, and the comedy “Jumping the Broom” were honored at the NAACP Image Awards on Friday, and the life and career of Whitney Houston was celebrated with rousing gospel songs a week after the singer’s untimely death.

The box-office hit about black maids speaking out against their white employers in Mississippi in the early 1960s won best movie and acting awards for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. The film, Davis and Spencer have been nominated for Academy Awards.

Davis said “The Help” was an important movie because “the maid hadn’t been humanized before. I felt she remained a cardboard cut-out” before the movie was made.

“Jumping the Broom” also took home three award, for best actor Laz Alonso, Salim Akil and supporting actor Mike Epps.

The two-hour ceremony recognizing the accomplishments of people of color was tinged with grief over the death on Saturday of Houston, best known for her hit song “I Will Always Love You.”

Yolanda Adams, singing with a gospel choir, led the tribute on Friday, belting out a version of “I Love the Lord” from Houston’s film “The Preacher’s Wife” after video clips of a smiling Houston were shown receiving NAACP awards in the 1990s. Continue Reading…