In the 1960s John Kennedy Toole wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which details the uproarious misadventures of Ignatius J. Reilly, an overweight genius misfit. Though he has visions of grandeur, Ignatius winds up selling wienies for Paradise Vendors, Inc. (the fictional equivalent of Lucky Dogs), in New Orleans' famed French Quarter. Lest you think that the outlandish world of Ignatius was only a figment of Toole's vivid...