My family moved to New Orleans in the mid-1960s and I lived there for 25 years. Dixie was the ubiquitous local beer that was imbibed at all functions and occasions - crawfish boils, block parties, parades, jazz festivals, etc. It wasn't a very good beer but, if you had enough of it, you didn't care. The point is, Dixie beer was part of New Orleans - no racial connotations, no tortuous social statements, no 'good-ol-boy' implications - it just was ... any seemingly, everybody drank it.

So, what are the owner's going to do? Pull a "Washington Redskins" to "Washington Football Team" name change? i.e., instead of "Dixie" on the label, are they just going to print "BEER" on the label?

It is remarkable how this city seems determined to dismember and erase its heritage; it has always been their big draw for tourists. The last time I was in New Orleans, we were just passing through with our travel trailer. After setting up at an RV park, I drove down to Decatur street in the French quarter to get a muffuletta sandwich. While waiting in line at the Central grocery, they had a TV set on with the local news showing the preparations under way to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee from its pedestal at Lee Circle. I wasn't aware that this was going on and was pretty well stunned to watch this unfolding on the TV screen.

It's astonishing.