At least that was the rumor being shopped by a fellow passenger as our high tech bus sliced its way home through the higgely-piggely of Magazine Street yesterday. The smart shiny bus talks to the driver and to the passengers, and reports our swift progress back to headquarters. But, ironically, young passengers must remain low-tech. "Disconnect that cellphone while you're on my bus, son," the stern driver warned paternalistically as we all boarded on Canal Street.
Riding the bus was pleasant, faster and a lot less stressful than driving in this quirky old town full of one-way routes that jog this way and that, and it gave us some time to follow up on this intriguing street rumor, which we did.
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| Kathleen thought Al looked like our friend Sheldon Anderson. |
Alan made sure we knew the difference between an oil field welder and an oil field worker. He's highly-skilled, licensed, and paid much better than those other guys.
"I am the last one on the job and the first one to be sent home," he boasted. Oil field workers set up the project, he comes in and makes the welds, and they clean up after him, we supposed.
He's between jobs right now, has worked the Coastal fields, is thinking about the Keystone Pipeline but absolutely refuses to consider the miseries of North Dakota's Bakken Shale. We tried to convince him that it wasn't so bad up north, but this good ol' boy was having none of it.
It's quite possible that they're making movies where Alan indicated. The Garden District is full of beautiful mansions that would lend themselves to scenes of political intrigue, and what's more, that's where the "odd couple" political operatives Mary Matalin and James Carville reside with their teenage daughters. They took roles playing themselves in the HBO production "K Street" in 2003. So it could be, if not, it should be.
Alan was walking downtown yesterday when he personally witnessed the hubbub. He saw the production crews and asked a few questions. So it could be.
He didn't know the exact address, just sorta gestured in a general direction when asked. Then he jumped off the bus at Napoleon and disappeared around the corner.
We stream "House of Cards" on Netflix and we eagerly await the next season, which starts Feb. 14. Now we'll be watching for Alan's mystery New Orleans set.
