Stumbling In. Chapter 632.
Spencer just told me that if the Gambit had an annual award for the nosiest man in New Orleans, I would win every year. That is not true. Spencer does not know Shugee. I am not nosey. I am merely curious about people and things that catch my attention.
This is New Orleans.
Here we go…
Have you ever seen a monkey fight a dog? I can only imagine the excitement in the ring. It must be better than even midget wrestling.
Leather and I went up the third floor of the New Orleans Public Library, where the City of New Orleans houses its public archives. It is a treasure trove of moldy books up there. It smells like old newspapers.
The librarians up on the third floor all look like prunes. They are old professionals.
In New Orleans, new librarians start at the branches, then they graduate to the ground floor of the main library, if they have what it takes. If they stick with it, through grit and determination, they will eventually rise through the ranks and get a cushy job on the third floor.
Very few mental patients or homeless people visit the third floor of the main library. It is peaceful and it only smells of old books rather than B.O. and stained undergarments.
Such is the state of our civic institutions. I feel like I am living in a Kojak episode. This is not New York City in the 1970s. This is New Orleans in 2024.
Everything is all just a little bit of history repeating.
I know somebody who owns a gibbon.
Have you ever heard a gibbon howl? It will put a chill down your spine.
A gibbon is only about two feet tall, but, when you hear it howl, It will give you the shivers. Imagine how a dog feels when it hears that sound, when a gibbon howls with bloodlust in its heart.
Of such things, nightmares are made. This is why Le Grand Palais has been torn down and replaced by a coffee bean roastery and a lumber yard. That plot of land is soaked with dogs’ blood.