BY: JEFF GAUGER

We call ’em as we see ’em at 30-Second Read. We’re calling this one a sacrilege.

Last week, our Twitter stream – normally a Category 5 hurricane of sarcastic, rude, tawdry, nasty, mean, tasteless and time-wasting unreasonableness – took a turn for the worst.

Into Twitter’s cesspool came a screen grab of a text message exchange showing a photo of a sidewalk sign flacking a restaurant. At the top, beside the restaurant’s name, were a Mardi Gras hat and the words “New Orleans Specialties, Chicken & Seafood.”

Below that appeared the words “Philly Cheesesteak Combo” and an image of a sandwich. The sandwich – a mess of beef, onions, peppers, hoagie bun and grease – dominated the sign.

The juxtaposition of “New Orleans Specialties” and sandwich was dodgy marketing at best. What came next, from a tweeter named Marylee, was worse: “Famous Nola Philly cheesesteaks.”

The sign besmirched a sidewalk in San Francisco, according to 30-Second Read’s intrepid Googling.

Marylee, sadly, has roots in Louisiana. She ought to know better.

And Louisiana deserves better. It should expect more from the shrimp poboy diaspora.

Jeff Gauger is a former executive editor of The Shreveport Times who now teaches journalism at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Send comments, anecdotes, suggestions and brickbats to jeff.gauger08@gmail.com.

THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN THE March 13 ISSUE OF FOCUS SB - THE INQUISITOR.