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Big pimpin’

Like party-loving superheroes, a growing group of unassuming, white-collar professionals morph into the Tiger Pimps, replete with wide-brimmed hats, blinged-out chalices, canes and fur capes for one LSU road game each fall. Names like Chris, David and John are ditched in favor of pimp handles like Cholly MacDaddy, D-Lishus and King Krunk. On Nov. 4, 45 Tiger Pimps will sideline their pimpmobile party bus for the first time to floss and fly to Knoxville for LSU vs. Tennessee.

“I am a little concerned on how I am going to get my grill through security,” says Poppa P, a founding member of the Tiger Pimps. “I just hope they serve Red Bizzle and Vizzle on the plane.”

The growing crew carouses opposing team campuses, handing out T-shirts, blaring Snoop and 50 Cent from boom boxes and spreading LSU love. Last season they were featured on SportsCenter at the LSU-Alabama game, and won a Best Tailgating Crew contest through ESPN.

“For some reason, sorority girls and co-eds love to have their picture taken with guys in pimp suits,” Poppa P says. “It’s all in good fun, and it’s all positive.”

Word.

You might think at least one rowdy Ole Miss fan or local cop would take issue with the group’s antics, but Poppa P says no pimp in his posse has been arrested or cited by The Man.

“Because we have so many attorneys, including some prosecutors, we do a good job of not getting on the law’s bad side.”

—J.R.

From Russia, with bees

Know how many bee colonies it takes to pollinate California’s almond crop?

Two million, each buzzing with 10,000 bees.

Ponder how many other commercial food crops there are, and you soon realize just how crucial honey bees are to the $20 billion commercial pollination industry.

But their livelihood—and that of their keepers—is being threatened by a blood-sucking parasite called the varroa mite.

The microscopic varroa mites can destroy an entire hive in six months. Beekeepers try controlling these parasites with an arsenal of chemicals, but the mites are showing resistance.

This predicament led researcher Thomas Rinderer and his team to Russia’s Primorsky Territory, where bees have developed a resistance to the varroa mite.

Rinderer, who heads up the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s honey bee research facility in Baton Rouge, brought back some Russian queen bees and has bred a successful stock of Russian-American honey bees. But Rinderer is still looking for a higher level of resistance before he declares his research complete, and he takes the mission seriously.

“I get paid a salary regardless of whether I am right or I end up killing every bee in the test hive,” Rinderer says. “Beekeepers can’t take that risk. They’ll lose everything.”

—SARAH YOUNG

No Wonder

Chamber CEO Stephen Moret and Mayor Kip Holden lovingly turned the Paul McCartney-Stevie Wonder hit “Ebony and Ivory” into a miss at a talent show during a recent Baton Rouge Chamber delegation trip to Raleigh, N.C. Real Estate attorney Charles Landry served as one of three judges who voted Entergy spokesman Bill Benedetto as the first winner of Canvas Idol. Benedetto loosened his bow tie for a Sinatra-soaked rendition of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

—J.R.