Wow!

Let me start this post by saying that I love my family and am proud of my Cajun heritage. That being said, I think so many of the old Cajun beliefs and practices are just plain retarded. I will never forget telling my mom that Brittanie's umbilical cord had finally fallen off (It stayed on for 7 weeks!). She asked me what I did with it. I thought it was an odd question but I told her I flushed it. She was horrified. She told me I was supposed to bury it under the window on the north side of the house. Ummm I lived in an apartment. She told me I could have buried it at her house. I thought that was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of. Oh and for all of you breastfeeding moms out there....when you get ready to stop breastfeeding, you can dry up your breasts real quick by expressing your milk on a hot brick. (have mercy!)

Well the latest story of retardation cost taxpayers money! It happened in the town that my parents grew up in and I still have lots of family there....Leonville, LA. I'm going to copy and paste the story here but you can go to DailyWorld.com and read it for yourself if you don't believe me.

Missing man found alive Deputies dredge Teche, but Leonville man was in Florida By Alexandria Burris
aburris@dailyworld.com


LEONVILLE - A dredging tool and an old wives' tale were used to find a missing man feared to have drowned in Bayou Teche. As it turned out, the only tool needed was a telephone to call and determine the man was alive and in Florida.

"Thank the good Lord that he's alive and well," said Jimmy Darbonne, a spokesman for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office.

Donald Knott, 43, was last seen Thursday on his way to check on fishing lines he set up along the bayou's banks, said Joseph Noel, Leonville's assistant police chief.

Knott's twin brother awoke around 3 a.m. Friday and found his brother's bed empty, he said.

The Leonville Police Department spent the rest of the day calling the missing man's friends to locate him.

Fearing Donald Knott had fallen into the bayou, the department asked the sheriff's office to dredge Bayou Teche for his body Saturday.

Leonville Police Chief Dalton Brown said Knott's disappearance was unusual.

"Normally, he never leaves his house at night," Brown said. "He would always come back to his house and sleep."

More than one hour into dredging the bayou, a suggestion was made to place a bowl with a lit candle into the water, with the hope the candle would float to the area where Knott had submerged.

"That's just an old wives' tale, but in a situation like this, we'll try anything," Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said. "I've heard of it working before. I've never seen it work, but I've heard it worked before."

A Leonville woman handed three bowls and two candles to Guidroz, who decided to use a plastic peppermint container in which to place the light. He placed the scented candle in the container and handed it to his administrative officer, David Meche.

"Go where y'all think he fell in," Guidroz said. "And back off."

Meche placed the container with the candle in the water near one of Knott's fishing lines. The bowl tipped but stayed afloat. It floated one way then back the other, before getting caught on a large wooden board.

The bowl got caught on a tree stump after it was freed from a board.

Guidroz then used a thin stick to poke it free. It floated down the bayou past Leonville Elementary and was gone.

The deputies continued to dredge the bayou for most of the afternoon.

Darbonne said Meche eventually received a phone call later Saturday notifying him Knott may have left for Florida with some friends who recently visited Leonville.

The office contacted Knott's unidentified friend in Florida, Darbonne said. The friend put Knott on the telephone, and Knott confirmed that he was OK.

"He was going to Florida to get a little job," Darbonne said.

The search for Knott wrapped up around 5 p.m. Saturday.