"If we don't have Mardi Gras, the terrorists win."
In a great column, N.O. Times-Picayune reporter Chris Rose explains the meaning of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. For one thing, it's a family holiday (honestly); for another, we don't care if tourists come or not. And if the Puritans prevail he'll pull a homemade float himself ... with his kids masqu'd on the back and a soundtrack of NOLA pianist James Booker blasting to all and sundry. To wit:
"Mardi Gras is not a parade. Mardi Gras is not girls flashing on French Quarter balconies. Mardi Gras is not an alcoholic binge.
"Mardi Gras is bars and restaurants changing out all the CDs in their jukeboxes to Professor Longhair and the Neville Brothers, and it is annualfront-porch crawfish boils hours before the parades so your stomach and attitude reach a state of grace, and it is returning to the same street corner, year after year, and standing next to the same people."