All About You: Brad Goins

Brad Goins is the current editor of Lagniappe Magazine in Lake Charles. He writes a bi-monthly column, Up Front, which covers Louisiana business, politics, music and more. Brad also write human interest features and many book reviews, often of the works of Southwest Louisiana authors.

Brad originally moved to Louisiana to get out of the ice and snow and has now lived here for more than ten years. He believes the best features of Louisiana are live oaks at evening, fog at all times, crawfish pie and the bookstores and coffee shops of New Orleans.

Here’s how Brad responded to our All About You questions:

What is the most exciting thing you are working on right now?

The roundup stories for business and industry and for politics in Southwest Louisiana in 2011. They will appear in Lagniappe Magazine on March 31.

If you wrote a regular column for Silicon Bayou News what would it be about and what would you name it?

It would be a column with a very light touch about how technological changes affect the culture of La. coastal areas. I’d call it File 13. (Working title.)

What are you most excited about happening on the Silicon Bayou that you aren’t directly involved in?

Sasol’s proposed GTL operation in Lake Charles.

Tell us about your biggest failure.

I’m guessing this doesn’t mean failure in my personal life. I once wrote a story about a fertilizer. But in the story, for some reason, I referred to the product as a pesticide. I still have no explanation for it other than, I guess, inattention to detail. Fortunately, the fellow who made the fertilizer wasn’t mad. He actually liked the story.

IYO, which institution is most due for disruption?

Education.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a Sunday afternoon?

Read about a historical event (coup against Gorbachev; Teapot Dome scandal) or a spectacular economic collapse (Enron, 1929 crash). (Second choice: walking the dog.)

If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Pizza.

If you could live in any other time period, which would you choose?

I’d like to live in this one. But if I had to live in another one, I’d pick 1920s USA.

If you could win any award in the world, which would you be most proud to possess?

Pulitzer for journalism.

The standard superpower dichotomy:

Don’t think I could beat the power to read minds.

If you were stuck on an elevator for two hours, what one person (dead or alive) would you choose to be stuck with?

Talleyrand.

If you had to pick a drink to describe yourself (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) what would it be?

A shot of Oban straight up

Follow Brad on Twitter @BradGoins. His blog, Frontier Hippy, is also worth a read and can be found here.