August 2, 2026 – Keith Robertson

“Happy Hours and White Linen”

The week started with the typical Monday morning and afternoon pickleball sessions for Diana. I forgot to tell you about a silly, funny movie, “The Dink”, that we watched the other night. It’s about the way tennis players view pickleball, the “dink” being a shot where you tap the ball over the net where the opposing players can’t reach it quickly enough.

The movie had several all-star cameo appearances. Here’s how AI describes a dink in pickleball:

“How a Dink Works

Location: Hit from near the kitchen line so the ball bounces inside the opposite kitchen.

Technique: Uses a short, gentle tap instead of a big swing.

Result: Forces the other player to hit the ball upward from below the net level.

Strategy and Purpose

Neutralize: Keeps you safe when your opponent is waiting to smash a hard hit.

Control: Stops the other team from attacking.

Patience: Builds a soft rally until someone hits a high ball you can attack.”

I made a solo trip to Trader Joe’s while the pickling was in progress. I amaze myself when I actually enjoy a quick trip to TJs. Never would have believed it.

Later in the afternoon we made a trip to the bank to do some maintenance on our safety deposit box. The manual, paper based process involved is a great thing to behold. They guy who helped us was quite proud of the collection of massive binders that he accessed to get our box history. “I organized all of this myself.” The paper card was retrieved for us all to sign and then we did the dueling keys thing to open the box. I love the old schoolness of it all.

The air conditioner at Merry Lee and Jeff’s condo broke and they came over to borrow a couple of fans. That gave us a chance to enjoy their dogs, Jazz and Cali. They were not shy about letting Jeff know when they were ready to go for a second walk.

Tuesday brough some morning pickling, and then I drove Diana over for pool time with Merry Lee. They ended up hanging out all day, with Jeff joining the guys for trivia.

Jeff was the only person in the building that knew the answer to one of the questions. He had gone off to get a beer and none of us knew which coach won basketball championships at both the college and NBA level. I said that I thought Jeff might know. Returning to the table, he said “I know this one – Larry Brown.” Oh yeah – we should have remembered that.

The final question involved putting four “Barry” things in order from largest to smallest:

Number of senate terms served by Barry Goldwater

Number of seasons Barry Bonds played MLB

Number of Barry Manilow studio albums

Number of top 10 hits by Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees

We were in 7th place and so bet the maximum 20 points and stayed in 7th place – nobody got it correct. The right answer is:

Barry Manilow

Barry Bonds

Barry Gibb

Barry Goldwater

Diana had a typical Wednesday morning – a run/walk with Kara followed by yoga in the park. My excitement was going over to Aidan Gill for a haircut.

Diana’s haircut turn was on Thursday. She followed that with an extended happy hour with her new pickling friend, Sandi. They went to the Bower on Magazine for snacks and drinks. I watched a new movie called “A Private Life”, starring Jodie Foster speaking mostly in French – apparently she is fully fluent.

The Talking Heads “Psycho Killer” was playing at the start of the movie and I heard these amazing bass lines from Tina Weymouth for the first time. I paused to play the original and make sure they hadn’t enhanced the bass for the movie – they had not, I just hadn’t listened closely enough on the right system to hear.

We met Kenny and Richard at Hungry Eyes for dinner on Thursday. This is an 80s themed restaurant, named after the Eric Carmen song, that I always enjoy. Here’s the menu:

What do you think we had? You could probably guess that McD couldn’t resist the steak tartare – yes, it was served with interesting crackers. Then we shared the calamari curry with roti – that was a highlight – absolutely delicious. One of those dishes that would make you go back to the same restaurant for the same dish the next day. No – we resisted. Kenny had the pork chop and Richard an Iberico ham skewer special.

Hungry Eyes also does a great job with their martinis. Kenny and I both had the Vesper.

This was a very pleasant meal – we don’t get to visit with Richard like that very often.

We had our fourth Gentlemen Out at Lunch (GOAL) on Friday. These were supposed to be once a quarter or so and we have only managed four in the last couple of years. We need to work on that. I had suggested Here Today Rotisserie. This is from the chef who just closed Coquette to focus on chicken. The menu is pretty simple:

We opted for the “Feed Me” approach. This resulted in a lot of delicious food. Iceberg wedge salad, pimento cheese with crackers and hot peppers, a mound of chicken wings, red beans and rice, stewed cabbage, rotisserie potatoes, half a rotisserie chicken, and half a fried chicken. So much food.

The guys seemed please with my choice. It me the GOAL criteria – somewhere most of the guys hadn’t been, not fancy, casual, and not too expensive.

Kenny brough a note from his Mom with a couple of books she recommended for me if I hadn’t read them. One is one of my all time favourites (All The Light You Cannot See) and the other I’m putting on my list.

We retired to the Avenue Pub, where Kenny was talking about how to wrap a phone in tin foil and prevent it from receiving calls or being tracked. We were skeptical and decided an experiment at Kenny’s house was in order.

Thom got us organized with a hypothesis, control group and step by step experimentation – very scientific. Kenny was correct and he apparently constructed an effective Faraday cage. Diana was not overly enthused about her role in the experiment.

Anne arrived at Kenny’s to give Denny and me a ride home. We decided to stop at Verret’s (voted New Orleans number one dive bar and two blocks from our home.) A guy was setting up for karaoke in there and had an interesting name for his business.

I sent the picture to Kara and she replied “That’s Me.”

Elspeth retired on Friday. We’re hoping David might follow next year some time.

I delivered Diana to Merry Lee and Jeff for White Linen night. What’s that you ask? Well…it’s an art walk along a few blocks of Julia street, known as the art district. It started in 1994 and is a way to generate revenue for the art galleries during the slowest part of the summer season. White linen clothes to best deal with the swampy climate. It has become very popular in recent years, drawing tens of thousands of people, and appealing to youngsters – a good thing in my opinion. The youngsters, not the large crowd.

The trio had an interesting photo experience. Here’s the original picture:

And here’s the AI driven caricature:

I think it’s very well done.

River was playing on the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) stage – he’s everywhere these days.

Here’s Diana in front of a steam punk looking vehicle. I think it’s the “Bed Zeppelin.”

Our Sunday morning walk in the park was stymied by a house shaking thunder storm. Maybe it will cool off a little after the storm and we can venture outside.

I finished up “Truth & Beauty: A Friendship” by Ann Patchett this week. A bit depressing, but a very good read.

A second Talking Heads reference in this post:

“At home Lucy and I stretched out on a couch that had been unfolded into a bed and watched the video of the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Those had been our favorite songs to dance

to in Iowa when Lucy had been so in love with David Byrne. “You know, I met him once,” she said as he slid across the little television screen wearing a big white suit. “You met David Byrne and you didn’t tell me?” “It was a couple of years ago, I think. There were writers and musicians reading together at Central Park and I ran into him backstage. I told him that when I was a teenager, hearing his music had saved my life. I guess it was a stupid thing to say but he was very nice about it. He was kind of shy.”

The beginning of the end:

“I WOULD SAY that was when things fell apart, but it would imply the disassembling of a time when things were all together and I couldn’t remember when that time was anymore. Lucy had started making little cuts on her hips with a razor blade. She was doing more drugs. We talked constantly about the possibility of her committing herself to a mental hospital but she kept holding it off, wanting to wait until such a time that committal sounded less painful than the life she was presently living.”

And then some more from the disaster file:

“I really, really should go,” she said. She kissed us both good-bye and was out the door. Two minutes later she was back. “Come look at this,” she said. “A plane’s hit the World Trade Center.”

History is strangely incomprehensible when you’re standing in the middle of it. Lucy, Adrian, and I all made the wrong decisions that morning but none of us could have seen it at the time. Lucy rushed on to Penn Station and made her train, which turned out to be the last train to leave New York, and Adrian and I decided to go down to the World Trade Center to see what had happened.

The dreaded phone call:

“One day in the middle of the summer, Lucy’s doctor, Stuart, called me. As soon as I heard his voice, my heart froze in my chest. I leaned my head back against the wall where I stood and closed my eyes. “Lucy’s dead,” I said. “What!” Stuart said. “There’s only one reason you’d call me.” It turned out there were two reasons: Stuart and his girlfriend were coming to Tennessee on vacation and he wanted some advice about places to see. We laughed about it because everything was fine, but for the rest of the day I felt cold.”

Really this time:

“We came back from New York on December 18, 2002, a Wednesday afternoon. When Stuart called me at ten-thirty that night, I was already asleep. This time he was calling to say that Lucy was dead. His voice was surprised and afraid. He wasn’t sure of the sentence himself. “Ann,” he said. “Lucy’s dead.” When I hung up the phone I gave myself a few minutes in the dark to lie in bed and pretend I had been dreaming. He still had my number programmed into his cellphone from his trip.

At three o’clock in the morning, I drove to Karl’s house and when I woke him up and told him what I knew I started to cry, because I had just begun the second half of my life, the half that would be lived without Lucy.”