Article: Tea Leaves

MY LATE MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER WERE LOUISIANA CREOLE WOMEN WHO BELIEVED IN READING TEA LEAVES. They were Christian women. My mother, Lillian Gadison-Provost Brown, attended Holy Mass every day of the week.

But their religious faith never supplanted their faith in tea leaves, which they studied zealously trying to divine signs large and small that things were changing and that preparations should be made in response.

I've often considered myself to be more rational than those two beloved women. But my self-perception is more myth than truth. I believe in tea leaves, too.

Consider, for example, the recent jump in crude oil prices, which briefly rose to a record $90.07 before falling back to ...

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