Me and Bobby Twilley
Bill Dennison ·We had a great visit with Dr. Robert Twilley, Louisiana Sea Grant Director and a faculty member at Louisiana State University. Robert gave a wonderful seminar at Horn Point Laboratory, covering the history of coastal Louisiana wetland loss, Mississippi River diversions and provided the context for the 2012 Master Plan. The IAN group collaborated with Robert and various Louisiana scientists to produce three science newsletters on coastal Louisiana issues shortly after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated Louisiana. And more recently, Robert assembled a group of scientists and engineers for the Science and Engineering Board to advise the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which brought me to Louisiana several times over the past few years. Robert also got roped in to talk with our Science for Environmental Management class about science-policy interactions, and regaled us with some fascinating stories.
Robert Twilley talking with students in the Science and Environmental
As part of Robert's seminar introduction, I reprised the song that I had adapted from "Me and Bobby McGee", written by Kris Kristopherson and Fred Foster. My song was as follows:
Me and Bobby Twilley
Busted flat in Baton Rouge
And Headin' for the Plan
Feeling pretty talked out in a few days
Bobby put our panel together
To help his Delivery Team
Took us all away to New Orleans
We made our panel comments
To the Delivery Team
And talked it through
While Bobby sang the blues
With those many deadlines keeping time
And Bobby clappin' hands
We finally covered all the points that we all knew
Planning's just another word for nothing else to do
Planning ain't worth nothing but it's free
Feeling good was easy Lord
When Bobby sang the blues
Feeling good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and Bobby Twilley
From the delta of the Mississippi
To the coastlines of the Chenier
Bobby shared the secrets of the Plan
His team standing beside him, Lord
With everything he done
Every night he kept us from sleeping
Then somewhere near the end, Lord
We let him know what we thought
Looking for the wisdom we hope to find
And we'll trade all our tomorrows
For a single yesterday
Holding Bobby's team next to ours
Planning's just another word for nothin' else to do
Planning ain't worth nothing but it's free
Feeling good was easy Lord
When Bobby sang the blues
Feeling good was good enough for me
Good enough for me and Bobby Twilley
About the author
Bill Dennison
Dr. Bill Dennison is a Professor of Marine Science and Interim President at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).