The Daily Wipe

That's what Daddy always called the local newspaper, the Daily Wipe.

The headline yesterday was a telling indicator about what passes for news around here: Beaver Dams Hinder Drainage. I'm not kidding.

By damming drainageways, beavers are exacerbating a problem that flooded homes at least twice last year, after Hurricane Gustav in September and during heavy rains in early December.

Rapides Parish Engineer Pete Bruce called it a parishwide problem.

Given the beavers' preference for slow-moving streams and rivers with muddy bottoms and plenty of trees, Rapides and most of Cenla are like paradise for them.

My lady was born and raised in the woods near Jena Louisiana. I was born in Alexandria, but I spent my childhood traipsing the woods and fields around central Louisiana, and raised my family on a small farm in Natchitoches Parish.

When I brought in the newspaper, we both looked at it and I commented on the front page headline. Beaver Dams Hinder Drainage.

She looked at me over coffee. "No shit? Wonder what clued them in?"

"Probably all that water backing up." I pulled on my boots and headed out the door.