ELLETTSVILLE — It’s been decades since members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows converged for meetings in the downtown Ellettsville building that was home to Lodge 298 dating back to the 1880s.

Just a couple of months ago, Grover Beach business owner Shalee Robinson wasn’t sure if her dream of running a store packed with antiques and oddities was going to last. Around 18 months after opening ...

Of all the clubs, fraternities, coffee klatches and confederacies formed in New Orleans over the years — of dunces and otherwise — one stands out as particularly, well, odd. It was the Independent ...