Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Up with U.S. Geography: Louisiana

State Name:
Louisiana

Capital:
Baton Rouge

Date of Entry:
April 30, 1812

Maps:
Map of USA. Louisiana outlined in dark ink, shaded &
with name written on it.

A close-up of Louisiana & its neighbors.

Neighbors:
Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas

Water Borders:
Sabine River/Lake, Mississippi River, Gulf of Mexico

Total Area:
50,000 square miles

Five Largest Cities:
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Metairie, Lafayette

Famous Geographical Point:
Lake Pontchartrain

State Nickname:
The Pelican State. The brown pelican is the state bird. Presumably they have a lot of them.

Famous Person:
Louis Armstrong, influential jazz musician, composer & singer

Book Set In/About:
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

During the late 19th century, a young woman with increasingly feminist views struggles against the constraints of her time/place.

Movie Set In/About:
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), directed by Elia Kazan

Down on her luck and mentally unbalanced, Blanche Dubois (Vivien Leigh) goes to live with her sister Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter) and her brother-in-law Stanley (Marlon Brando). Tension ensues and Brando lights up the screen.

Headline of the Day:
"Poll: Louisiana Residents Largely Support Criminal Justice Reform Proposals" in The Advocate.

2 comments:

Patricia said...

It's interesting to me that I am aware of the first, second, third and fifth largest cities, but haven't heard of the fourth largest.

It's also interesting to me that I know about The Awakening because Kate Chopin is a Maine writer, yet that story is not actually set in Maine. I guess it's hard to have an awakening in such a cold location.

balyien said...

I'd heard of Metairie before, and was even pretty sure that it was a suburb of New Orleans, but I think that's only because I like to watch true crime shows (one of which is in New Orleans).

[SPOILER] Wandering off into the cold, gray waters of the North Atlantic Ocean doesn't sound nearly as poetic an ending as wandering off into the warm blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. :) [SPOILER]

I'd never heard of The Awakening until I went to grad school, where it was assigned reading in one of my classes. I remember liking it, but I gather that I'm in the minority on that. I feel like I hear it referenced fairly frequently since I read it.