When I met Dr. Brobson Lutz, doctor, A.D. character, and man-about-New-Orleans, he told me he knew everyone in town. I had a chance to test that assertion last night, when a NOLA-raised friend invited me to a cocktail party with her parents. Her father was full of wonderful stories, and as soon as I mentioned Dr. Lutz, he laughed out loud.

Then he recounted a story I hadn’t heard before, about Dr. Lutz at Galatoire’s. It seems he’d decided it would be hilarious to smuggle his pet turtles into the turtle soup, giving a little live soup-swimming surprise to anyone who ordered it. But after much drinking and lively conversation, no one was hungry enough for soup. The prank went forgotten, and the turtles went missing. Apparently Dr. Lutz went so far as to put an ad in the paper requesting the safe return of his lost pets. We also got to hear about Dr. Lutz’s uncanny ability to diagnose infectious diseases that stump other doctors and his pride in hosting the Playboy Girls of New Orleans.

All hearsay, of course, but there are few better ways to pass an evening than swapping stories of common acquaintances over wine and cheese in a ninety-degree fifth-floor walk up on the Lower East Side.