Do young people even now what a grifter is? It is a confidence man, a con man. Have young people never seen The Sting? Da-da-da-da-da-da… You can finish it. Local grifters in New Orleans are having a tough time of it this Carnival season. It seems there are fewer chumps out-and-about this year, fewer people to swindle.
I gathered this already from my perch in Mid-City, but, today, I got some firsthand testimony. Once again, citizen journalism at its most amateur.
I read Walt Whitman’s New Orleans last week. Actually, I reread it. I intentionally forget who wrote it because I do not care. The introduction to the collected works of Walt Whitman, the Good Grey Poet as a young man, is full of academic jargon and irrelevant nonsense and speculation that I have no use for it. I should rip those pages out.
The meat of the book, Walt Whitman’s newspaper editorials and snippets of news while he worked in New Orleans, is much like the collection of Lafcadio Hearn’s newspaper editorials and snippets of news when he worked in New Orleans. Both books are full of impressions that make no sense out of context. It is hard for the reader to understand why the author chose to share this snippet of news.
All entertainment and all communication was analog then. People had a lot of free time. They would spend hours reading the newspaper.
Hmmm.
The most common con game nowadays happens in the French Quarter. “I know where you got your shoes.” Do not spend time entertaining these guys. They are making a living but this is the laziest con in the business. “You got them on your feet.” It is a con based on bad grammar combined with a New Orleans accent. It is a classic, and plenty of people make their living this way.
Everyone has to make a living. This is a recurring theme. I do not mean in life, or in general, though it often takes people a while to figure that out, I mean in these essays. I always find it interesting in how people move through the cracks to make a living.
Exhibit A: Nick Lobo took a sabbatical from playing accordion on the Steamboat Natchez a few weeks ago. He joined a bunch of buddies to reform their polka band from high school and toured New England. They spent a week in Boston at the bars around Andrew Square, in the Polish Triangle.
There is not enough riverboat cruise business to support the whole band, so, as usual, the accordion player is the first be cut from the line-up. The banjo player was cut, too, as well as the tuba player and xylophonist.
How do I know this? Alice told me. I always like to see Alice. She is the spitting image of Imogene Coca.
Now, I am going to talk about the grift shortage that is unfolding like a California drought. I think this has to do with the tourist industry. More to follow in a moment.