688. Johnette Downing & Scott Billington

688. Joining us today are Johnette Downing and Scott Billington. Combining Johnette’s celebrated career as a children’s author and musician with Scott’s background producing over 100 roots, blues, and Louisiana heritage albums, this powerhouse couple celebrates regional music through their children's duo program, Swamp Romp, and their broader archival and biographical projects.

1. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today!
2. This week in the Louisiana Anthology. "Life on the Mississippi." Mark Twain.
   The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world—four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. It discharges three times as much water as the St. Lawrence, twenty-five times as much as the Rhine, and three hundred and thirty-eight times as much as the Thames. No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its water supply from twenty-eight States and Territories; from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope—a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude. The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels. The area of its drainage-basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey; and almost all this wide region is fertile; the Mississippi valley, proper, is exceptionally so.
3. This week in Louisiana history. July 24, 1769. Alejandro "Bloody" O'Reilly reclaimed New Orleans for Spain.
4. This week in New Orleans history. July 24, 1947: The first streetcar on the St. Charles line was fitted with air conditioning, a welcome relief during the peak of the New Orleans summer.
5. This week in Louisiana.
   COOLinary New Orleans ' Month‑Long Restaurant Specials
   August 1'31
   Citywide
   New Orleans, LA
   Website: neworleans.com/coolinary
   New Orleans restaurants launch their annual COOLinary promotion on August 1, offering a full month of discounted prix‑fixe menus designed to bring locals out during the summer slowdown. More than a hundred restaurants across the city participate, from fine‑dining institutions to neighborhood favorites:
   
• Two‑course lunches: $28 or less.
• Three‑course dinners and brunches: $58 or less.
• Citywide participation: Restaurants in the French Quarter, Uptown, Mid‑City, the Marigny, and beyond.
  COOLinary has become one of New Orleans' most beloved summer traditions, giving locals a chance to try new spots ' or revisit classics ' at special seasonal prices.
6. Postcards from Louisiana. Molly Ringwalds play at the Italian Heritage Festival.

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