T
theloneranger100@aol.com
Guest
Yup........Not quite so "Chocolate"........Probably just as Loud and
Fat.........LOTS of Nakedness and Boozing.........YEE
HAW!!......Heehee..........
"Feb 5, 3:37 PM EST
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Clarinetist Pete Fountain, dressed in a tunic as
one of King Arthur's knights, looked frail but happy Tuesday morning
as he led 100 members of his Half-Fast Walking Club onto Uptown
streets in what has become New Orleans' unofficial opening of Mardi
Gras.
"Oh, I'm feeling fine. You always feel fine on Mardi Gras," said
Fountain, 77. He's had health problems since Hurricane Katrina, but
still plays two days a week at a Gulf Coast casino.
Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten
Carnival season. The celebration characterized by family friendly
parades uptown and in the suburbs - and by heavy drinking and lots of
near-nudity in the French Quarter - is highlighted by 12 days of
parades and parties.
Temperatures were expected to rise to about the record of 81 degrees
in New Orleans, an indicator that flesh-flashing in the bawdy French
Quarter was likely to be greater than usual.
In suburban Jefferson Parish and elsewhere in south Louisiana,
revelers lined up on parade routes or set up family picnics.
In Cajun country, costumed riders on horseback set out on their annual
Courir du Mardi Gras, a town-to-town celebration. Hundreds of people
registered for the Courir de Mardi Gras in Eunice, a bayou community
150 miles west of New Orleans. Hundreds were on horseback and scores
of others rode along in pickup trucks or on flatbed trailers.
"It's just heritage. It's Louisiana. We're crazy," said Courir
participant Cody Granger, 24, wearing what looked like surgical scrubs
decorated with the New Orleans Saints' logo.
In a sign that New Orleans has yet to recover fully from the
hurricanes of 2005, this year's King Zulu, businessman Frank Boutte,
is still living in Houston because Katrina's flooding damaged his
Lakefront home. Still, the Zulu parade was up to pre-storm standards,
with 1,200 riders on 27 floats.
Zulu was being led by Mayor Ray Nagin, riding on horseback and clad as
an Indian in buckskins and a white headdress.
Cathy and James Pavageau (PAH-vuh-go) of Metairie, setting up a tent
in the median of St. Charles Avenue - the city's main parade route -
said they thought the crowd was a bit bigger than it has been
recently. Arriving at 6 a.m. let them get spots closer to Lee Circle
in the past two years, but not this year, they said.
They expected about a dozen people to join them for the climax of a
celebration marred this year by shootings that have injured nine
people.
"We worry. But what can you do?" Pavageau said. "You can't just stay
in your house. We just pray everything is OK."
Only sporadic violence has marred the celebration. At least eight
people had been wounded by gunshots, five of them on Saturday.
Police said 1,100 officers, state troopers and National Guardsmen have
been positioned along parade routes since the season began."
Fat.........LOTS of Nakedness and Boozing.........YEE
HAW!!......Heehee..........
"Feb 5, 3:37 PM EST
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Clarinetist Pete Fountain, dressed in a tunic as
one of King Arthur's knights, looked frail but happy Tuesday morning
as he led 100 members of his Half-Fast Walking Club onto Uptown
streets in what has become New Orleans' unofficial opening of Mardi
Gras.
"Oh, I'm feeling fine. You always feel fine on Mardi Gras," said
Fountain, 77. He's had health problems since Hurricane Katrina, but
still plays two days a week at a Gulf Coast casino.
Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday - is the often raucous end to the pre-Lenten
Carnival season. The celebration characterized by family friendly
parades uptown and in the suburbs - and by heavy drinking and lots of
near-nudity in the French Quarter - is highlighted by 12 days of
parades and parties.
Temperatures were expected to rise to about the record of 81 degrees
in New Orleans, an indicator that flesh-flashing in the bawdy French
Quarter was likely to be greater than usual.
In suburban Jefferson Parish and elsewhere in south Louisiana,
revelers lined up on parade routes or set up family picnics.
In Cajun country, costumed riders on horseback set out on their annual
Courir du Mardi Gras, a town-to-town celebration. Hundreds of people
registered for the Courir de Mardi Gras in Eunice, a bayou community
150 miles west of New Orleans. Hundreds were on horseback and scores
of others rode along in pickup trucks or on flatbed trailers.
"It's just heritage. It's Louisiana. We're crazy," said Courir
participant Cody Granger, 24, wearing what looked like surgical scrubs
decorated with the New Orleans Saints' logo.
In a sign that New Orleans has yet to recover fully from the
hurricanes of 2005, this year's King Zulu, businessman Frank Boutte,
is still living in Houston because Katrina's flooding damaged his
Lakefront home. Still, the Zulu parade was up to pre-storm standards,
with 1,200 riders on 27 floats.
Zulu was being led by Mayor Ray Nagin, riding on horseback and clad as
an Indian in buckskins and a white headdress.
Cathy and James Pavageau (PAH-vuh-go) of Metairie, setting up a tent
in the median of St. Charles Avenue - the city's main parade route -
said they thought the crowd was a bit bigger than it has been
recently. Arriving at 6 a.m. let them get spots closer to Lee Circle
in the past two years, but not this year, they said.
They expected about a dozen people to join them for the climax of a
celebration marred this year by shootings that have injured nine
people.
"We worry. But what can you do?" Pavageau said. "You can't just stay
in your house. We just pray everything is OK."
Only sporadic violence has marred the celebration. At least eight
people had been wounded by gunshots, five of them on Saturday.
Police said 1,100 officers, state troopers and National Guardsmen have
been positioned along parade routes since the season began."