Covers the story of how Mr. Bingle came to be created as a New Orleans Christmas character for a local department store and evetually as a familiar New Orleans advertising character.

The words "Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche" conjure up a wealth of fond memories for local shoppers. At this landmark Louisiana department store, clerks greeted you by name; children received a nickel to buy a Coke and for every report-card A; families anticipated the holiday arrival of the beloved puppet Mr. Bingle almost as much as Santa; teenagers applied for their first job; and customers enjoyed interest-free charge accounts and personal assistance selecting attire and gifts for the most significant occasions in life -- baptisms, funerals, and everything in between. While most former patrons have a favorite story to tell about Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche, not many know the personal tale behind this beloved institution. In We Were Merchants, Hans Sternberg provides a captivating account of how his parents, Erich and Lea, fled from Nazi Germany to the United States, embraced their new home, and together with their children built Goudchaux's into a Baton Rouge legend that eventually became Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche -- an independent retail force during the golden era of the department store and, by 1989, the largest family-owned department store in America. With a mercantile line extending back five generations to a small shop in eighteenth-century Germany, the Sternbergs were born to be shopkeepers. In 1936, as Nazi harassment of Jews intensified, Erich smuggled $24,000 out of Germany and settled in Baton Rouge. His wife and three children joined him a year later, and in 1939, Erich bought Goudchaux's and set about transforming it from a nondescript apparel shop into a true department store. He made buying trips to New York for quality fashions and furs, introduced imaginative sales promotions, and coached his staff in impeccable customer service, while also training his children to follow in his footsteps. Hans details the manifold challenges of operating the store -- from planning financial strategies and creating marketing campaigns to implementing desegregation and accommodating the repeal of blue laws. Through many transforming events -- Erich's death in 1965, expansion into suburban shopping malls, the purchase in the 1980s of New Orleans retail icon Maison Blanche -- the Sternbergs successfully maintained the company's core values: quality merchandise, employee loyalty, and superior customer service. At its height, Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche operated twenty-four stores in Louisiana and Florida and employed more than 8,000 people. With the economic downturn of the early 1990s, Hans made the difficult decision to sell the business, thus bringing to an end the Sternbergs' centuries-long mercantile tradition. Supplementing the fascinating narrative are the recollections of former customers and employees, a wealth of pertinent photos, and even Hans's tried-and-true guidelines for negotiating a business transaction. At once a family, business, and community story, We Were Merchants richly recalls a bygone era when department stores were near-magical wonderlands and family businesses commanded the retail landscape.

Mr Bingle Bongle is a book for children of all ages, with illustrations in black and white. The eponymous Mr Bongle is a strange cove, who in this adventure celebrates Spring with a picnic. He falls into a contented sleep and doesn't wake up till it's dark. Can he make it through the scary woods back home to his tree house? Why not join him and see.

"From the festivities of yesteryear, revolving around religion and faith, to today's events, such as City Park's Celebration in the Oaks, New Orleanians observe Christmas with inimitable style. Late-night feasts, or réveillions, and rare occurrences of a winter-white Christmas are jsut a couple of nostalgic moments readers may stumble upon while perusing the pictures and warm recollections of notable locals, including Irma Thomas, Anne Rice, and Decon John Moore. In a celebration that has become as unique as the city itself, the images of a Christmas in New Orleans are classic and unforgettable. Descriptions of merriment, dating from the 1800s to post-Katrina, delicious recipes from Chef John Besh, bonfires along the levees, and the seasonal melodies of a city world renowned for its music are presented in this brilliant volume" -- inside cover.

Describes the origins of thirty-one famous Christmas songs, including "Jingle Bells," "O Holy Night," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and provides the lyrics to each.

Ext: general view.

Mr. Bingle's friends give him a great deal of advice about getting an enormous apple off his tree.

Though thirty years in the making, Phillip Collier's Missing New Orleans was almost another treasure lost to Hurricane Katrina. Final proof was due at the New Orleans printer August 31, 2005, just days after floodwaters breached the levees. To the principals of the book, "missing New Orleans" took on personal, devastating meanings. This pictorial history of New Orleans from the early 1700s to the present offers over 250 images as well as stories of places, entities, and events that were at one time a vital part of the city. Each lost gem tells a unique narrative: the Claiborne Avenue Oaks, the French Opera House, Pontchartrain and Lincoln Beaches, the Gypsy Tea Room, Tulane and Pelican Stadiums, Mr. Bingle, and D. H. Holmes. Images celebrate grand historic structures that once stood along New Orleans thoroughfares, including the St. Louis and St. Charles Hotels from the mid-nineteenth century and the five downtown railroad stations and the Rivergate from the twentieth century. Through the photographs, postcards, posters, maps, and line drawings gathered by New Orleans graphic designer Phillip Collier, those enamored of the Crescent City can explore a time when West End Park and Spanish Fort were lakefront resort destinations, when boxing and horse racing ruled the city's sporting world, when street vendors plied their wares, and steamboats packed the wharves.

They can have heaven, but some don't want to go. Mankind has largely retreated to the realms of virtual reality, where resources are unlimited and the problems of the world can all be avoided. Unfortunately, those who stay behind in the real world pose the only risk to the immortality of those who have converted to virtual existence. Derek, a soldier in the Conversion Forces (ConFoes), seeks to enforce the Mandatory Conversion Act on the remaining mals (malcontent Luddites, gangbangers, and religious fanatics). He is forced to deal with the increasingly brutal tactics of the ConFoes, and a mal ambush. Escaping the attack on his squad, Derek tries to return to ConFoe HQ. In his travels, he encounters a clueless old hermit who doesn't want to choose between conversion and death, a female Lieutenant from a mal religious faction who questions the theological implications of conversion, and a group of scientists still trying desperately to finish up their research in the real world. In addition, the ConFoes unknowingly trigger a holy march on the secure site housing the computers in which the rest of humanity blithely exists in virtual reality. When Moore's Law meets God's Law, the result is Forced Conversion.Donald J. Bingle lives in St. Charles, Illinois. This is his first published novel.