Today’s quote comes from one of the usual suspects, Charlie Pierce. It’s the opening to a piece he filed from the Palmetto Buggy state:

Long ago, I read an interview with the late New Orleans piano titan Professor Longhair. He casually mentioned that he’d served in World War II. The interviewer was surprised. This tidbit never had been mentioned in any piece ever written about ‘Fess. So, the interviewer asked, where did you serve?

I served behind enemy lines, ‘Fess told him.

But where, the interviewer insisted.

 Shreveport, ‘Fess replied.

So, anyway, I’m in South Carolina.

I knew Fess had a sense of humor but it’s good to experience his inner Shecky. I still feel that way about Northwest Louisiana or Texas East as we call it here in New Orleans.

This post is a mere pretext to post some Professor Longhair. Here’s the great man with the Meters doing the song after which a club not far from Adrastos World HQ is named:

Mardi Gras may be over but this Fess Carnival classic lives on forever: