On Saturday morning, 47-year-old Eliot Brown was shot and killed, ending the life of a master prankster, who brightened Bayou St. John with his wit during the dreary COVID era.
Winter 2020 was a drab, fearful time, as the coronavirus laid a shroud over the world. But for the joggers and dog-walkers along the banks of southern Bayou St. John, there was reason to smile.
Yellow, diamond-shaped caution signs had appeared along the banks of the urban waterway, warning the unwary of the presence of alligators. The signs were professionally made and could have been mistaken for actual caution signs, except the messages they bore were absurdities. Most required some decoding to be understood, and one or two were absolutely inscrutable.
Near Lafitte Street, one sign was written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics featuring an eye, a gator and an egret standing in rippling waves. In another, pastel alligators chased a Pac-Man figure paddling a canoe, as if the bayou were a video game. In another, an alligator seemed to play the piano as musical notes drifter overhead. In yet another, alligators were depicted on playing cards…