It looks as if the cold weather is coming to an end. It’s been a long winter by New Orleans standards. The good news is that we haven’t had a power outage or boil water advisory for a few days. If it happens again, I may have to revive my TFC rubric: This Fucking City. Stay tuned.

My oak pollen allergy has been exceptionally bad this year. It’s one reason I skipped the St. Patrick’s Day parades last weekend. Who wants to grub for beads with a runny nose? The oak pollen is almost ankle deep in some spots on the Irish Channel parade route. Achoo.

I used to be okay with crowds, but since the lockdown they make me uncomfortable, especially when it’s people getting shit faced drunk to honor Ireland or some such shit. Eat some taters, corned beef, or soda bread instead but skip the Jameson’s and Guinness. Y’all have had enough already.

This week’s theme song is NOT about President Pennywise. He is, however, on a losing streak as he rants and raves like General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove:

I love me some Sterling Hayden. FYI, he was something of a beatnik turned hippie offscreen, not a swaggering tough guy. That’s why it’s called acting.

This week’s theme song was written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter for Jerry’s 1972 solo album Garcia.

We have 4 versions of Loser for your listening pleasure: The solo OG, The Dead live, Dave Alvin, and Cracker. Let’s get cracking.

How about some more musical losers?

If I believed in an afterlife, I’d be worried that Frank’s ghost is vexed with me for implying he’s a loser. I doubt the Little River Band gives a shit what I think.

We begin our second act with the piece that inspired the theme song. It’s the cover story in April’s Atlantic magazine:

Sucker is the title used on the magazine’s home page. McKay Coppins is legendary for his ability to get people to say things they wouldn’t say to another reporter. His method, being Mormon nice.

Coppins spent a year placing sports bets via the phone apps that are so ubiquitous now. He found himself hooked. Fortunately, he was losing the magazine’s money, not his own. The experiment even caused some tension in his marriage as his addiction grew.

McKay Coppins  seems like an unlikely person to become a degenerate gambler. That’s what Coppins himself thought but he learned otherwise. The betting apps make it easy to get hooked. Beware, take care.

For the details, get thee to The Atlantic.

BB King plays us out of this segment.

Things You Don’t Know About Me: I’m convinced that my fear of heights is hereditary. My mother had the same phobia. I recall my father teasing her about it during a car trip through the Sierra Nevada mountains. Eight-year-old me didn’t think it was funny and told him so. Lou wasn’t usually the best listener but he stopped doing it. Score one for the kid in the back seat.

The last word of our second act goes to The Kinks:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Casting Edition: I raved about Richard Basehart’s acting in my Moby Dick post. He believed that playing Hitler was a bad career move, but he was the best thing about this biopic.

Your Basic Basie: A poker adjacent tune composed by the Count who was an avid poker player.

Have I told you lately how much I love Count Basie?

The Best Of Penn & Teller: Remember when my homey Harry Connick Jr had a chat show? Me neither. Here’s Harry with the modern masters of magic.

Classic Movie Trailer: Topsy-Turvy week continues with the trailer for Mike Leigh’s film about Gilbert & Sullivan:

Grading Time: I give Topsy-Turvy 4 stars and an Adrastos grade of A. It’s a stone cold classic.

Saturday GIF Horse: Let’s play poker with the gang from the OG film version of The Odd Couple. Felix misses out as his buddies smoke, drink, and gamble.

I smell like an ashtray just from posting that image.

Toon Time: The MAGA patrimonialism, it burns.

— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2026-03-18T20:02:42.618Z

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Closer: We opened with a Garcia-Hunter tune, let’s close with one.

That’s Dr A’s homey Bruce Hornsby in the video freeze frame. He’s also a former LSU basketball dad. That’s just the way it is.

That’s all for this week. The last word goes to the good old Grateful Dead: