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PVP Village Writers

Gold in New Orleans
By PVP Village Writers
Posted: 2021-04-01T21:35:00Z
Author: Village Member Carlos Lemmi, PhD.


Kal was invited to make a presentation of his work in collaboration with the Cardiology Department. His work on mitochondria response to anoxia was of relevance to certain heart diseases. He worked with Jerry, an electron microscopiest. Both, together with Craig, an MD/PhD student in Physiology at UCLA were to make separate presentations in a New Orleans Scientific meeting. They decided to travel together from Los Angeles. 

They arrived at a nice hotel next to the New Orleans Convention Center with a great view of the Mississippi River.  After attending presentations all day at the Center, they got together to have dinner at the hotel. 

After dinner, they went to a large lower floor area with tables. There was a dim soft light and a large foot-deep nicely decorated indoor pond. They agreed to have brandy (poor man’s cognac) in the hotel’s large snifter glasses. 

Jerry suddenly stood up and said, “Look at those golden coins in the water!”   
                    
Craig responded, “Those are wish coins. People throw the coins in the water and make a wish.”

“Yes, I know. But look at that coin way back there. That is a ‘real gold’ coin,” said Jerry.

“I don’t know, probably is a fake one, no one will throw a real gold coin in the pond.”

“I’ve been collecting coins since I was a child. I know a gold coin when I see one. Look, see how it is shining much brighter than the others and with a yellowish tint?” insisted Jerry.

Kal said, “I don’t know, seems a bit brighter, but it can’t be a real gold coin.” 

“At any rate, how are we going to steal a coin from the hotel without getting in trouble?” said Craig.

They sat down and continued discussing ways to proceed, either to prove it was real or to go about picking it up. Finally, they got tired and took the snifter glasses to the room. 

Next morning, they left for the meetings leaving the brandy glasses on a shelf in the room. After the meetings, they returned to the hotel and found that the empty snifters were still on the shelf where they placed them the night before. Again, after dinner they met by the indoor pond and continued discussing the issue of the coin. Jerry continued to insist that it was a real gold coin. 

“I’ve never seen a gold coin before. I saw gold jewelry, and my mother had a gold ring,” said Craig.

“Same here,” Kal added. “But Jerry, how much do you think it’s worth if its real gold?”

“I would think that it may be worth a few hundred dollars at least.”

"What are you going to do with it, sell it and split the value of it?"

Jerry really wanted the coin for his collection and the others really didn’t think it was real gold.

Jerry thought about it, and finally he said, “Tell you what, I’ll buy you both a great New Orleans dinner, and I keep the coin. You get the dinner either way whether it’s real or not, but you have to help me to get it.”

The following day, the three met after the meeting in front of the hotel. Jerry said, “A friend of mine gave me directions for this really great restaurant with typical New Orleans food. We have to take the tramway and go for about a half hour”.

They got into a tramway and Jerry kept looking for the cross streets. Finally, they got down and walked into a corner restaurant. There they were seated at a small table in a corner and were brought bibs for all three of them. The main dish was a huge red casserole with steaming tomato sauce. The kind of sauce you only find in New Orleans. Oh, yes. The casserole was full of crayfish.

They enjoyed the crayfish and fresh French bread for over an hour and a half. Of course, Jerry took care of the bill. He now owned the coin if it ever got into his hand.

They took the tramway all the way back, met by the lake and ordered a new round of brandy glasses. 

Jerry said, “I noticed that behind those palms, the lake has a small peninsula of sorts and the coin is closer to the edge.” 

Craig said, “Yes, but did you notice that there’s a security lady at a desk nearby?”

Kal replied, “We’re tired today after that dinner. Let’s meet tomorrow and see how we can get around the security guard.”

They picked up the glasses to finish their drinks in the room. Again, the empty glasses were left on the shelf next to the ones from the previous day. 

The following day they had their presentations at the Convention Center. When they returned to the room, they now found two empty glasses one next to each other. With their third round of brandy in new snifters, they observed the security guard. She was a lady sitting by a desk reading a book. She had a direct view of the area where Jerry planned to pick up the gold coin. It was about 11:30 PM, and the three of them decided they were going to stay until she left for a break or something. It was past 1:00 AM when she finally left. There was no security guard in that area overnight.

They were tired and after a couple of brandies, they returned to the room again taking their snifters. They finished their drinks and placed the glasses in line with the previous ones on the shelf.

The final night, they waited again until the guard left. Jerry took his camera and pretended that his lens cover had fallen in the water. He quickly stepped in the pond, retrieved the lens cover and swiped the coin at the same time. He stood up, made a visible gesture of drying and replaced the cover on his camera. They reconvened at another table away from the indoor pond and examined the treasured coin. Jerry was very excited. He took the coin from his pocket, dried it and placed it on the table. The coin had a bright yellowish gold color and showed some kind of an undefined image. Jerry examined it and turned it over. They read on the coin:

King of Carnival
1967
New Orleans Mardi Gras


They came back to Los Angeles with the experience of the best crayfish there is, and a collection of five brandy snifter glasses each. 

Long live science!

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