It’s a snap, B.R.

225 is now accepting submissions for our annual photo contest. Acclaimed Baton Rouge portrait photographer Amy James and long-time 225 contributor and AP photographer Tim Mueller are this year’s judges. These experts will help us choose the most striking images taken by Baton Rougeans in the following eight categories: Community, Dedication, Food, Joy, Journey, Power, Refuge and Struggle. Winners will receive prizes and their images published in our December issue. Visit 225batonrouge.com/section/photocontest for rules and how to enter. The deadline is Monday, Oct. 1.

Keep it Civil

Is the end of summer missing a little something after all those action-packed blockbusters? August never needs to be anticlimactic in the Capital City, as this month marks the anniversary of the area’s biggest conflict: the Battle of Baton Rouge.
On Aug. 4, the Historic Magnolia Cemetery off Florida Boulevard in Mid City hosts its annual ceremony commemorating the 1862 naval and ground battle in which a reported 849 soldiers were killed—including Union commander Gen. Thomas Williams.
Carolyn Bennett, executive director of the Foundation for Historical Louisiana, calls the free event a “a patriotic and historical remembrance.”
The cemetery includes a Confederate soldier burial site used as background for costumed re-enactments, cannon fire, a salute to both Confederate and Union forces and live music. Time to brush up on your battle hymns.—Jessi Stafford

Magpie spreads wings, coffee

This summer husband and wife James and Lina Jacobs opened the doors to Magpie Café. a coffee shop on Perkins Road that focuses on organic, fair-trade coffee and locally grown, seasonal food. The menu includes authentic Italian-style espresso, and specialty coffees purchased from an artisanal “micro-roaster” supplier in Portland, Ore. Customers can also pick up organic, often vegetarian and vegan lunches made fresh daily with locally-sourced ingredients, from black bean salad to club sandwiches, as well as the shop’s signature pastry, the “biscone.”
More than a month before doors opened, Magpie Café already had hundreds of “likes” on Facebook. And now that the doors are finally open? “It’s exactly what we wanted,” says James Jacobs. “We wanted to do this business in this building, in our neighborhood.”—Rachael Upton

Move over, Rover

Baton Rouge native and LSU engineering graduate Keith Comeaux is serving as NASA’s flight director for this month’s much-anticipated Mars Rover landing, the most thorough examination ever of the red planet. Expected to land August 5, the new Rover, dubbed Curiosity, is about the size of a Mini Cooper and is quipped with a “Curiosity Cam,” offering up-to-the-minute data streams, real-time visualization and interactive images for terrestrial viewers to see at nasa.gov.
“Curiosity carries the most advanced payload of scientific gear ever used on Mars’ surface,” Comeaux says. “Its mission includes investigating whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life and for preserving clues in the rocks about possible past life.”—Jeff Roedel

In for the cold

Cold comfort seekers in Baton Rouge usually have to pick: yogurt shop or snoball stand?
If you’ve got a toddler, chances are you’ll go for frozen yogurt—even if it means you have to give up your Tiger’s Blood.
Jeff Gresse, owner of SnoMan Snoballs on Burbank, asked: Why make the people choose?
He has partnered with Mike DiVincenti, owner of Splendido! Frozen Yogurt, to bring snoballs into the shop at Highland Road and Lee Drive. Result: The Sno-Yo. Choose from 18 flavors of yogurt and 12 snoball flavors. Mix and match. Add toppings. Keep cool.
Summer might never be the same.—Amy Alexander

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