Omens and portents and the like

The old folks might remember the 1987 football season fondly.  It was the first season (out of 21 tries) that the Saints managed a winning season and a playoff berth.  Leaving aside the manner in which they were booted out of those playoffs (and by which team) it's among the most celebrated moments in the history of the francise.  If you were around at the time, I really don't need to explain it to you.

Anyway, among the many bits of superstitious nostalgia that persist from that time is the belief that the miracle breakthrough of '87 had something to do with Pope John Paul II's visit the preceding summer.  The Pope held a youth rally in the Superdome that year which, some believe, may have served to exorcise the dreaded "graveyard curse" associated with the building.

This is all nonsense, of course.  Probably.  But we did notice this recent addition to Jackson Square commemorating the famous Papal visit.

More than 30 years later, on Sunday, that visit was officially memorialized during the blessing and unveiling of a white marble statue depicting the former pope, crafted in Italy by sculptor Franco Alessandrini.

The 6-foot-tall, roughly 5,000-pound statue, which was blessed by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on Nov. 15, is a gift from the Archdiocese of New Orleans to the residents for the city's tricentennial.

Maybe you aren't especially favorable to this brand of pre-Vatican II Catholic mysticism, though. That's fine. Neither am I. In which case consider this item from a more secular realm. This morning I went out and got myself a new brake tag. This year's tag happens to be black and gold.



The last time black and gold tags were issued was 2009. Iknow this because it also happens to be the time I got a new one.



The Saints went on to do... something important that year, right? But probably this all nonsense. Probably.