The Johnny Gumbo Mother's CURSE...

I guess we're paying for it now! If you recall, last year at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Gumbo was offended by a less-than-tasty po-boy, painfully inattentive service and dismissal of his complaints at landmark Mother's Restaurant. In a subsequent rant, he vowed to boycott the venerable establishment to teach them a lesson.
FLASHBACK:

The Incident: We're beat, so we opt for dinner at Mother's, a legendary spot across Poydras from our hotel. The lines are usually long, but we get through in reasonably short order. The Pool Hall Studs, Gumbo and I order our po-boys & Abitas, pay and wait....and wait. Now it gets ugly. We wait some more. Finally, the Studs get their orders, but what about us? No sympathy from them as they stuff their faces full. Gumbo is fuming. It's getting personal. A waitress comes over and tells us, "I asked about your order but they said they didn't know." Then she takes off. "God dammit," cries out Gumbo in his best Patrick Swayze/Dirty Dancing impersonation, bewildering at least three nearby tables, "They're going to pay for this. Nobody does this to the Gumbo (at least he didn't say 'Nobody puts Gumbo in the corner')." The Response: It's official! Johnny Gumbo, in response to a perceived disrespect given him (and his shrimp po boy order) at Mother's Restaurant on Saturday evening, announced today, through his press secretary, that he is leading a boycott of the famous New Orleans landmark. He hopes to use his considerable influence as one of the country's leading event planners to teach Mother's that there are some people you just don't want to mess with. Johnny Gumbo is them people. "Saturday dinner (at Mother's), some low-rent sandwich place with very poor service, the meal was disgusting, would never eat there again, others need to know how bad it is." When asked to comment on the boycott, a Mother's representative replied, "Who the fuck is Johnny Gumbo?" Stay tuned folks, this could get ugly.

So, now as we attempt to make our annual reservations at the Staybridge Suites (across Poydras from Mother's) for the 2010 Jazz Fest, we find ALL ROOMS BOOKED! No problem, we'll try the Marriott where we stayed five years ago. ALL ROOMS BOOKED! WTF??? Word on the street confirms our fears - Mother put out a contract on us. NO ROOMS FOR JOHNNY GUMBO & FRIENDS! But we're NOT friends, we don't even like the guy. He snores! Honest! Oh well, we could give the responsibility to Mark, but you know what happened when he was to get tickets for the Big East Tournament 6-overtime UConn-Syracuse game in NYC - he showed up with tickets for THE AFTERNOON SESSION! So, Barry, we're counting on you to get us out of this mess!



This clip has no relevance to the story, it's just a really cool clip of Lennon, Clapton, Richards live playing the Beatles' Yer Blues with intro by Mick Jagger: