Everyone’s a Beggar on Carnival Day
It’s Mardi Gras time in New Orleans, in Cajun country to the west, in Mobile to the east and across the Gulf Coast, and even as far north as St. Louis. As tractors tow papier-maché and crepe-covered floats down oak-lined St. Charles Avenue to Canal Street in the Crescent City, parade-goers of all ages shout their traditional plea to the trinket-laden riders: “Throw me something, Mister!” — F.R. Duplantier, “Welfare and the Mardi Gras Mentality”
It’s Carnival time! By midnight tonight, it will all be over, and the blessed six weeks of abstinence begun. In the nation’s capital, however, the carnival continues year-round, and sobriety and self-denial never interrupt the excess.
