Even bars on the Frenchmen Street strip, a quasi-Bourbon Street where jazz and rock clubs sprouted in the 1980s, often feature bands that have to pass the hat for tips.
Doesn't this rather resemble the pay-for-play scandals of municipal finance, wherein elected treasurers pass the campaign hat around bond-underwriting firms?
Captain Steven Gerrard was once more revelling in central midfield, and he almost set up Jermain Defoe with a precise lofted pass that the hat-trick hero of Friday's 4-0 win against Bulgaria fired well off target.