Pre-weekend hype to roil the markets.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=ajynjbyUgDss&refer=energy

http://www.EricWilder.com

My friend Dave Beatty lives in Livingston, Louisiana.  He’s forgotten more about south Louisiana than I will ever know and like many south Louisianans, he can tell a good story.  Here is Satsuma Twenty, a Lake Pontchartrain story from Dave, my first guest contributor.

SATSUMA TWENTY

By Dave Beatty

My older brother, Billy, and I were spending some time on his son's thirty-six foot trawler.  The boat is berthed at a marina on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, Madisonville to be exact.  This area has become known as the Northside and is a bedroom community for New Orleans, maybe not so much after Katrina.  It is, if not the fastest growing area of Louisiana, then for sure the second. 

Billy's son told us of a very good place to get po-boys and hamburgers and it was just down the street from the marina.  So, off we went.  It is a typical po-boy shop.  You order at the counter from the menu hanging on a sign behind the counter, wait for you name/number to be call when ready.  Well, our number was called and up we jumped to get a taste of the great po-boys and fried onions, with ice tea.

I was feeling very generous so I jumped in and said I would buy.  Here's where the fun starts.  You see while ordering I did a little addition, as it turned very little, and thought I had it.  We get to the counter and I whip out twenty dollars to cover the bill.  Remember, I don't get out much.  I flashed my twenty dollar bill, submitted it for payment expecting a little change, not much just a few coins.

The girl out look down at the money and then did it.  She extended the old open hand, palm up and started curling her fingers towards herself.  You know the signal, it says either to come on, you want some more of me: or, and in this case, signal that there is not even enough.  So, I pulled out another five, and you can guess, more fingers.  It seems that a "Satsuma Twenty" doesn't go very far on the Northside. 

After this, the big joke around is that "There is no way a Satsuma Twenty will cover that." 

The laugh was on me, but it was worth it because to this day me and my brother still get a big laugh out of the story of the Satsuma Twenty. 

By the way, Satsuma is the little country road where I live.

http://www.EricWilder.com