Thursday Night For Seven

But as mentioned the crime rate there is enough to keep me away.-Alex in California, reader

I guess it is a case of NOLA pride rearing it's head that makes me want to defend The Crescent City against disparaging comments pertaining to the "crime" rate here.

One of the things that can skew crime statistics and make a place seem more dangerous can be a police force that has a low tolerance for crime and that arrests a lot of people for small things.

A query made by Tim, my caseworker, for example when he was looking for an apartment and was interested in what the crime rate was in the prospective neighborhood led him to notice that The French Quarter was lit up like a Christmas tree with the little orange pinpoints of light which sort of denote "a crime was committed here," but more accurately denote "an arrest was made here."

The Quarter is one of the safest places on the planet, outside of "gated" communities, and places like Brentwood, California, where O.J. Simpson lived, which is probably pretty safe now that "the juice" is living in Florida.

The story I like to tell on that head was of a lady who had her purse snatched and who found the nearest cop and reported it.

The guy who sits at "central" in front of a wall of monitors was able to back up the time at that location and witness the snatching and then forward from camera view to camera view until the "real time" one showed him outside a pool hall, kind of ducked down behind some trash cans and going through the purse, the lady had her purse back something like twenty minutes after it was snatched, fingered the guy in the back of the cop car, and that was that.

Left: It is sixty two degrees and is forecast to be two degrees warmer by morning. There is a gusty breeze which will mean I'll have to put something in my tip basket to weigh it down; but, here is praying that I'll have a decent Friday night...

The criminals kind of know that they are under surveillance all the time in The Quarter.

But, yeah, cars are broken in to all the time, you cannot leave a bike unlocked and turn your back on it, or lock it with less than a Kryptonite bar lock if you are going to turn your back on it for more than a minute...and this probably reflects a nationwide trend, that started gaining momentum during the Obama recession of 2007, and was probably exacerbated by the "sin tax" put on cigarettes by whatever administration, which put the cost of a pack way out of alignment with the common man's ability to afford them.

Had milk, for example, underwent the same price hikes as cigarettes have, over the past twenty years, a gallon of it would cost over twenty dollars now -then we might be having legitimate protests in the streets rather than just cigarette skeezers in the streets.

"Don't be a bum; you'd better chew gum." -Bob Dylan, from "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

When the cops go through and arrest fifteen or twenty-five skeezers on a given night, that inflates the statistics and makes it seem like there is rampant lawlessness raging in The Quarter, when the reality is that, if you are a tourist and someone looks at you cross-eyed, then that person will probably be thrown in jail behind some charge like "disturbing the peace." And, the streets will thus ironically become safer, as the "crime rate" goes through the roof.

About the murders, hey, let's not split hairs here...

NOLA doesn't even crack the top 25

They are mostly committed by gang members who are keeping the violence in the family.

Jacksonville, Florida suffered from the same tarnished image and notoriety as being a city with a "terrible" crime rate. But, you could sit outside the jail and watch paddy wagon after paddy wagon unloading that night's seventy-five to a hundred arest-ees who were nabbed for open containers or trespassing.

Seven Dollar Thursday

So, after having woken at the apogee of the sun around 1:30 PM, I was out the door shortly after the 9:12 PM street car clanged its way past Sacred Heart.

Setting up around 10 PM, I playing until I felt like quitting. A glance at the time revealed it to be around 11:44 PM. The temperature was dropping a couple degrees per hour and it was getting a bit chilly for me in the tee shirt I was wearing. I had brought several layers of clothing, sweatshirts, jackets etc. but had stripped down to the tee shirt after 2 songs...

I had seven dollars and fifty cents, having started out broke. A can of cat food from The Quartermaster, and I was on my way home, thinking about how I pay 87 cents a can for it, out of that place, and how I could get it for 55 cents at the Family Dollar.

The varmint

.87 X 365 days = $317.55 per year.
.55 X 365 days = $200.75 per year.

I could be saving $116.80 per year feeding the varmint.

But, now my dream is to be able to snatch up bags of food at The Salvage Store for pennies on the dollar, of the stuff that is normally almost thirty dollars a bag. This would have me doubling what I normally spend on him, but I would be willing to do this because I would be quadrupling the quality of his diet.


A Parting Shot

Nathaniel, at the Uxi Duxi gave me, as a gift and in recognition of the fact that I am the "biggest" consumer of yellow Borneo, a strain that is to be discontinued there, the last shot of Yellow Borneo to ever be seen at the Uxi Duxi.

Yellow, Goodbye...

This was a pleasant surprise, as I had about five dollars on me and was going to be going out broke again after buying a shot of kratom and a can of cat food.

Now, I will be able to start my basket out with a couple of real dollars, when I get out there. Speaking of which, it is now 7:02 PM, with an opportunity for me to start playing at around 9:30 PM, just like in the old days, when I consistently averaged $18/hr. at the Lilly Pad.

How did they know?!?

I'm going to hit the Family Dollar for that can of cat food for fifty-five cents out the door, and then proceed to the Lilly Pad.