It’s the week of Mardi Gras! Many of you probably have heard by now that the first Mardi Gras celebration in the United States was held in 1703, in Mobile, Alabama, then the capital of French Louisiana. No, the Bacchanalia in New Orleans is not the oldest Mardi Gras party, and it hardly is the only one in the U.S. today, not even counting all those Chamber-of-Commerce Mardi Gras springing up all over North America. Wherever the French got to the New World first, you’re liable to find a lenten-related carnival of some sort, which on the Gulf coast means from the Florida Panhandle to Texas. Here is an article from The New Haven Register, surely an impartial observer on this subject, that lists 10 well-established Mardi Gras cities in the United States and elsewhere. Maybe you can visit one before someone says, “Did you hear about (insert your name here.)”