MARDI GRAS

[The Duchess]

In my area we Mardi Gras every year which is a giant party and many parades. Mardi Gras is also a day to wear a costume and have fun.

Has anyone on this forum been to Mardi Gras?

Just wondering.

Here is me as Little Lord Fauntleroy at Mardi Gras in 2003.



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[Murfreesboro]

No, I haven't, which is too bad, because I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, only 150 miles north. Now I am hundreds of miles farther away.

We do have a niece who graduated college at Loyola down there, and she is very experienced with Mardi Gras. I think she has even traveled back for it at least once since she graduated in '09. She has raved about the King Cakes so much that I actually made one in '10, but I didn't like mine so well. I had used an on-line recipe that's supposed to be authentic, but I have to believe that what she has tasted is better than what I made.

[iHaunt]

One time in New Orleans.

[Pumpkin_Man]

Ash Wednesday is on Feb 22nd this year, so that means that Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) will be on the 21st.

Mike

[NeverMore]

I've been to Nawleans once, and we have a pretty good Mardi Gras celebration here, but these days I don't care much for big crowds so I avoid.

[witchy]

We go to Mardi Gras here, at Vista Grande. We always have a wonderful time!!

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I never go to New Orleans and after seeing the city after hurricane Katrina destroy it in 2005 I think I would rather go somewhere other city than New Orleans.

[Murfreesboro]

Our niece went to college in New Orleans. She was just starting her freshman year when Katrina hit, so she had to spend a semester elsewhere, but then she came back to her original school. She loves it down there and has visited a time or so since she graduated in '09. I think the tourist areas were actually spared most of the damage, or at least the worst of it. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city, so it was built on the highest ground.

New Orleans is one of the world's great cities. Nobody should avoid it just because it had a bad hurricane several years ago.

[Pumpkin_Man]

I was in New Orleans in the Winter of 74, prior to the Mardi Gras, and I loved it. We visited the French Quarter, and we at at one of the best restaurants I ever ate at. I don't remember the name of that restaurant, and I doubt it will still be there, but I'll never forget it. My younger sister was at the age where she was not fond of what most people would consider "eloquent quisine." Back then, she would murh prefer a hamburger. When ever we went out to eat, that's what she would allways order. My father told her she was going to turn into a hamburger. Well to get back to my story, my sister did not see hamburgers on the menu, and she didn't know what to order, so they asked the waiter for a reccomendation. When my mom told the waiter that she usualy orders a hamburger, the waiter said, and I quote "If the young lady wants a hamburger, then by all means she shll have a hamburger." So they ground up a CHOICE Flet Mignon into a hamburger and put it on a freshly baked roll. This "hamburger" resembled a Volkswagen Beatle, and was huge. It took her two days to eat it. They had to put it in a "doggy" bag.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

That's a funny story! I wonder which restaurant you went to. Some of them down in New Orleans have been there for generations.

When I was 10 yrs old, my mother took me to NYC. She and her friend, whom we were visiting, went to some very nice restaurants there. I recall one in particular that was Indian, very exotic to a child from Mississippi. Of course, I wouldn't eat any of that stuff except for some whipped cream flavored with rose water that came on the dessert custard. I didn't even like the custard!

Now, of course, you can visit Indian restaurants in Murfreesboro, TN. I doubt any of them is as elegant as that one where I refused to eat in the mid-60s in NYC, though.

[Li H'Sen Chang]

Our niece went to college in New Orleans. She was just starting her freshman year when Katrina hit, so she had to spend a semester elsewhere, but then she came back to her original school. She loves it down there and has visited a time or so since she graduated in '09. I think the tourist areas were actually spared most of the damage, or at least the worst of it. The French Quarter is the oldest part of the city, so it was built on the highest ground.

New Orleans is one of the world's great cities. Nobody should avoid it just because it had a bad hurricane several years ago.

It is not hurricane that fears me it is the citizens of the city that were exposed after hurricane passed through. They acted like animals.

[Spookymufu]

It is not hurricane that fears me it is the citizens of the city that were exposed after hurricane passed through. They acted like animals.

nothing helps someone get out of a hurricane situation more then looting stores and stealing TVs!

[Pumpkin_Man]

Murf, I love to explore different quisiens, but I was n ever fond of Indian food. I'm not particularly fond of Japanese, Vietnamese or Thia food, either. I love Chinese food, though. However, I do like a good Teriaki steak or chicken breast, but that's about all I really like. Don't get me wrong. I would LOVE to visit Japan and India, but for my sake, I hope they have a McDonalds. (narf narf)

Chang, I hate to say it, but some of the stories comming from New Orleans after Katrina hit made my flesh creep. The Astrodome, for instance, was an official hurican shelter. There were stories about rapes, robberies, looting, and every kind of crime committed you can think of. If the Astrodome was supposed to be an official shelter, where were the cops? Why was there no protection of any kind against the criminal element? Of course, there was no end of luting?

I have said many times that I am a Christian, and I don't condone violence, but if I were to catch some one looting my house after a disaster, I just might shoot him in the face. I hope by the grace of God that's never put to the test, but there are some things that really strike me as truely dispicable.

Mike

[Murfreesboro]

You know, Nashville suffered a terrible flood in May of 2010, but the rest of the country heard very little about it after that first weekend (even though there are substantial commercial and public places that still aren't opened yet because of it ). It wasn't just one area of the city, but all of middle TN that was affected. Months afterward, major highways were forming sinkholes because of the flooding that had happened in May. The Opry didn't re-open until October 2010, and the gorgeous (and relatively new) symphony hall, the Schermerhorn, didn't re-open until January of 2011. It was many months before all the bodies were recovered. The reason no one much heard about the flood was that Nashvillians behaved and helped each other. I was so very proud of this area.

I'm not sure what was happening down in New Orleans, but my sense of it is that there were a whole lot of people down there who seemed to think it was someone else's responsibility to help them out of their mess. Nashville took the attitude that this is our problem, and we are going to solve it. The country music stars, many of whom lost homes and in-home studios, etc., worked shoulder to shoulder with everyone else.

[Li H'Sen Chang]

You know, Nashville suffered a terrible flood in May of 2010, but the rest of the country heard very little about it after that first weekend (even though there are substantial commercial and public places that still aren't opened yet because of it ). It wasn't just one area of the city, but all of middle TN that was affected. Months afterward, major highways were forming sinkholes because of the flooding that had happened in May. The Opry didn't re-open until October 2010, and the gorgeous (and relatively new) symphony hall, the Schermerhorn, didn't re-open until January of 2011. It was many months before all the bodies were recovered. The reason no one much heard about the flood was that Nashvillians behaved and helped each other. I was so very proud of this area.

I'm not sure what was happening down in New Orleans, but my sense of it is that there were a whole lot of people down there who seemed to think it was someone else's responsibility to help them out of their mess. Nashville took the attitude that this is our problem, and we are going to solve it. The country music stars, many of whom lost homes and in-home studios, etc., worked shoulder to shoulder with everyone else.

You are right it is all about the people who are in it and the New Orleans people who were flooded did nothing to help themselves. You need to help yourself and your own family as first priority but these guys were shooting at helicopters trying to deliver food and water.