Alas, it’s hard to imagine an event more ill-suited for these times than Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras, French for “fat Tuesday,” actually is the culmination of a season of carnival, from Epiphany to Lent. In communities along the northern Gulf Coast, that means days and days of street parties where surging crowds mash together for hours to laugh and shout and generally blow off steam. And tired of being left out of the fun, more and more inland communities have been introducing their own version of Mardi Gras. Whether you’re inclined to enjoy such a scene or not, it’s still sad that the revelry must be severely curtailed this year. I know I will miss it, if vicariously. However, every cloud has a silver lining: it’s 25 degrees in New Orleans as I write this.
