Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

You are here: Home / Music / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Mardi Gras

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Happy Mardi Gras

by | 90 Comments

This post is in: ,


(h/t LAMH36)

Since commentor LAMH36 is a NOLA native and a smart lady, I will take her advice:

Please check out the Zulu Social and Pleasure Club website here.

IMHO, Zulu is the BEST of the parades to see on Mardi Gras! The Zulu club is easy going and seem to be having the most fun of all two big Mardi Gras parade. Rex is the “King of Carnival”, but are still a bunch of stuffy ole money types…blah.

Zulu is King of Parades!

Carnival, “farewell to the flesh”, our European ancestors’ religious repurposing of the grim chunk of late winter when supplies ran thinner than the starving domestic animals. Better to stomp the romp than to get stomped by yet another snowstorm…

Apart from one last blast before settling in for the repentance of late winter, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Extra tune for our Bloghost, the Deadhead:

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  1. 1.

    anderj

    Of to Mardi Gras in Mobile today. Who knies whether me (man) and my girlfriend get back all gaymarried ?

  6. 6.

    Tommy

    Laissez les bon temps rouler. When I was in Baton Rouge in the early 90s of course around Maris Gras you had many, many bands. But always came back to the Meters or Dr. John in my crowd. As they say in the song you posted “Uptown Rulers.”

    There are few things I am 100% sure of. I know one is if you post a link to a Meters song somebody from New Orleans or with strong ties there (that would be me) will just be jumping happy as they dance around. This dude at before 5 AM and been dancing for more than a few minutes on my end.

    Oh I sent out four King Cakes to four people that have no idea what a King Cake is this year. A tradition for me ……

  9. 9.

    Tommy

    What I love is this. I bet the people on Fox Noise will love today. Wonder if they understand this:

    Mardi Gras (/ˈmɑrdiɡrɑː/), also Fat Tuesday in English, refers to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after the Epiphany or King’s Day and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for “Fat Tuesday”, reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

    My family has like a four-generation connection to Louisiana. But until I lived there I didn’t know the above. That this was basically a religious holiday if you want to strip it to the core. I mean not to the core, just straight out what it is. Get all those sins out and then repent.

    Wonder if they know this …..

  12. 12.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: I’d heard about that last night and was gona hear the Morning Hoe take. However, Hoe and Nicole were screaming that Obama didn’t say the magical words to describe ISIS; so rather than endanger my new monitor(if I’d watched much more there’d be flying objects) I turned it off.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    It’s 29 and because the roads are wet from overnight rain, the schools are canceled. There was a small accumulation of ice on my trees yesterday and when the sun comes up, I’ll be able to see if I lost any limbs.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Yep. And wingnuts hate Executive power and discretion now and will continue to do so until at least January 2017 (and maybe longer, depending on the election results).

  20. 20.

    askew

    @Baud:

    That sucks so the immigration order is on hold until the 5th Circuit hears it right?

    I think one of the biggest mistakes Dems made was to not get immigration reform done in 2010. It’s something we’ll be regretting for decades IMO.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @askew:

    Yep. The government will seek a stay of the injunction.

    I’m skeptical of alternate reality arguments. If we want Dems to get more done, we have to keep them in office.

  23. 23.

    Tommy

    @BillinGlendaleCA: So if we call them that they will stop?

    I have said many times here my father worked at high levels in the DoD, including teaching at the Army War College. He’d often time be at my house when I had cable and I had MSNBC on and some “expert” would come on.

    He’d mock the guy. More times than I care to admit say he taught him and he couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper bag.

    It is as at this point I note my father is a Republican. Never confused with being a liberal. He will say going into Iraq was a total error. Trying to rebuild Afganistan even worse of an error.

    I feel very comfortable saying what he says. Our military is focused on breaking shit. That is their goal. How they are staff and funded. Building anything other than a bridge to go break more shit, they got no clue.

    You can think from there ………………

  26. 26.

    JPL

    Normally Ozark and Raven chime in so hope they are okay. There are about 90,000 without power in ‘GA alone.

  28. 28.

    Tommy

    @BillinGlendaleCA: My father’s expertise is in air power. He might have almost wrote the textbook on the use of air power in war. I’d love to get him on TV. But if you think you and I have a short fuse for MTP or this or that talking head. Dad wouldn’t talk to them to start just out of principal. Finds them stupid and not worth his time.

  29. 29.

    danielx

    Just catching up on the latest efforts of Governor Mike Pence* and the Rs in the state legislature to overturn the 2012 election of Glenda Ritz (a Democrat, natch) as Superintendent of Public Education. Usual Republican horseshit: stomp the teachers union, mo’ charter schools, etc etc. Ritz is Superintendent of Public Instruction, the whole concept of which Republicans have issues with anyway, and opposes most of these plans. Therefore Ritz (who in point of fact polled more votes than Pence) must be destroyed or at least stripped of all authority. Also too, she’s a Democrat who had the audacity to actually win a statewide office in 2012, which really pisses off Pence and the Republican yahoos in the legislature. The fucking voters didn’t give them a clean sweep – what could those voters have been thinking? Need to correct that no doubt well-intentioned error right away…

    *Proud owner and operator of the Best Political Hair East Of The Mississippi. Said hair is rumored in some circles to be brighter than Pence himself.

  30. 30.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: You see, this is why I turned the TV app off. Hoe was ranting about the pope condemning the murder of the Copts, and Obama saying nothing. I guess he just didn’t use the magic words.

  31. 31.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @danielx: I was going to ask if Pence was the governor where the ability to breath was an amazing feat considering his limited intelligence. I guess he is the one.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    It was a Press Secretary statement, but last I checked, he worked for Obama. In any event, it took a few seconds to find. The first results that popped up on the Google were right-wing rags that condemned Obama for playing golf yesterday (it was his day!) and not using the word “Christian” in the statement. I literally had to go directly to the White House website to find the statement, because apparently the White House’s official statement wasn’t newsworthy.

    ETA: And as tragic as it was, the Egyptian Copts that were murdered weren’t American. So why the American President should have put on some show to appease the Village escapes me.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    The rest of the snow arrived in NoVA overnight. Looks to be within the 6-10" spec that was issued, though I won’t be going outside to check that anytime soon. Much better to have a cup of coffee and maybe a turnover and think deep thoughts for a bit.

    Still only 14° out there.

  34. 34.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Hoe and Nicole couldn’t seem to figure out why the Pope would condemn the killing of Christians and O-man would just condemn the murder. It’s not like the Pope is a leader of a Christian church or something.

  38. 38.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Baud: Does the court order mean we’ll get a court decision on the constitutionality of executive orders? Because that’s potentially a BFD given how many are in place.

  39. 39.

    raven

    We lost power around 11pm and we were asleep. I kept waking up because my noise machine didn’t work! I got up at 6:30 to go see what was what. The bakery was closed but they had made a pot and snuck me a couple of cups. Outages were interesting, didn’t seem to be a pattern. I found another place open, got a couple of frittata’s and, when I got home, our power was on!

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    From what I read, the decision went off on a procedural issue. Basically, the judge said that this executive order was more than an executive order and therefore had to undergo the process for adopting a formal rule.

  42. 42.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Iowa Old Lady: The GOP might cheer now about such a ruling, I don’t think they’d care much for it if there was a President with a (R) after his name.

  43. 43.

    danielx

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    True. But Walker is a lot brighter than Pence, in my unhumble opinion. It is of course true that exceeding that particular standard doesn’t require Walker to walk around bent over double from weight of intellect. As he recently proved in trying to rewrite the mission statement of the University of Wisconsin, which went over about as well in Wisconsin as would a proposal to outlaw cheese. (Write this on a blackboard one hundred times, Scottie – don’t fuck with the Badgers.)

  44. 44.

    raven

    A shih tzu called Rocket co-owned by famed and infamous heiress Patty Hearst won the toy group Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Swagger the old English sheepdog, who finished second at Westminster in 2013, took the herding group.

    damn

  46. 46.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: I have a soft spot for shih tzu’s. Our previous doggie pairing was a cocker and a shih tzu. Now it’s a cocker and a YorkiPom.

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    Well I’m finally getting ready to head home. Looks like it’s gonna be a cold Mardi Gras. I’m heading home to get in my bed and go to sleep to get ready for my last night shift tonight.

    while i was counting down the hours, I watched Divergent and I gotta say, I liked it way better than Hunger Games.

    I also watched John Wick the 3rd night. And I gotta say, IMHO, it was a damn fine movie. Too bad it didn’t do better at the box office cause I could certainly see “sequel” possibility. I’m not at all a shoot em up kinda of movie goer. I don’t mind guns and blood, but I’m more of a hand to hand Mortal Kombat, martial arts type of action movie goer. But I gotta hand it to Keanu Reeves and the cast and crew of John Wick. I really did enjoy it and too bad I missed it on the big screen. John Wick get’s a thumbs up from me!

    I’m tired as fuck, but it’s so cold here in NOLA right now that I’m glad I’m gonna be sleep in my bed instead of out trying to stay warm for the parades.

    So off to sleep I go, Happy Mardi Gras!

  49. 49.

    gene108

    Today is also Shivaratri for Hindus.

    It is interesting how different religions have festivals / sacred days that coincide, especially when the start of those holidays is based on lunar calendars.

    I think several Jewish and Hindu holy days coincide because they both use lunar calendars to determine dates.

  52. 52.

    raven

    @JPL: We normally have the doggies in our cards. This year I forgot to put a return address on our so we haven’t a clue if any didn’t make it.

  54. 54.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Maybe it’s just my midwinter mood, but with the Netanyahu invitation, the DHS shutdown, the Supremes taking the King case, and the hysterical whining about the president failing to fan a religious war, I feel like we’ve entered another zone. It scares me.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Friend here had no power for 2½ days during and after the big, big windstorm here late last week. Also lost his landline service.

  59. 59.

    Gene108

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    One thing I miss about living in the South is having everything shutdown because of snow.

    In the greater Philadelphia area things may close early or open late, but getting a full day (or two) off because of snow rarely happens. I think five or six years ago we had a few 20+ inch snow storms that shut things down for the day.

  62. 62.

    Gene108

    @raven:

    Ouch. I remember ice storms in NC and we’d usually lose power for a day or two.

    Glad your power came back on.

    Edit: but the trees coated in ice was very breathtaking. Looked like they were, made from crystals.

  63. 63.

    Southern Beale

    Interesting story in today’s NY Times:

    Inequality Has Actually Not Risen Since the Financial Crisis

    The notion that income inequality has continued to rise over the past decade is part of the conventional wisdom. You’ve no doubt heard versions: The rich just keep getting richer. Inequality is higher than ever. Nearly all of the gains from the economic recovery have gone to the top 1 percent.

    No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective – worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began.

    How could that be? Because the crisis, which ran roughly from 2007 to 2010, reduced the pretax incomes of the wealthiest Americans more than the incomes of any group. The wealthy have indeed received the bulk of the gains since the recovery began, but they still haven’t recovered their losses. Meanwhile, the steps that the federal government took in response to the crisis, including tax cuts and benefit increases, have mostly helped the nonwealthy.

    This is interesting, would like to see how all the number crunchers respond …

  64. 64.

    PaulW

    Having lived in Florida most of my life, I can only relate to snow days by counting the number of hurricane days I’ve had. Hmm… 2004 was packed… think there were a couple of tropical storm shutdowns when I was in Broward back in the 1990s…

  65. 65.

    Tommy

    @Iowa Old Lady: Just went to the store for milk. News says it is the “end of the world.” Six inches of snow. Did not shovel my drive. My ten-year-old Passat seemed to get me there and back OK :).

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    The only thing on that list that’s meaningful is the possibility that the Supreme Court will end subsidies in some states. If that happens, we just need to rally and make political hay about it.

  68. 68.

    Elmo

    6″ of light, fluffy powder here in SoMD. So I will be exercising one of my favorite perks of my job and working from home.
    Not something you can do every day working for BigCorp, but when there’s a good excuse…

  69. 69.

    ThresherK

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hey, no prob & thanks for your “sympathies” the other day on my changing the oil with that melting snow and dirt on me.

    But I might have left you the wrong impression. It was actually an enjoyable experience, because it was 5 degrees F outside my garage door, and 50 degrees F inside. I am in New England and have previously had to change oil outside in January and February.

    I know enough to know when I’m better off.

  70. 70.

    ThresherK

    @Tommy: We’ve reached the point of winter where “how old your car is” takes a back seat to “how new your battery and tires are” (said the guy who had to replace a 6-y.o. battery lately).

  72. 72.

    Baud

    @Southern Beale:

    My guess is that it depends on the baseline. This study starts at 2007, it seems, whereas the market didn’t crash until late 2008. Remember when John McCain was forced to suspend his campaign.

  73. 73.

    Steeplejack

    @Gene108:

    D.C. doesn’t shut down as much as, say, Atlanta. And more drivers up here know how to drive in the snow. People are still doing stuff—my brother and brother-in-law are both going to work today—but I don’t have to, so why go out?

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @ThresherK: I haven’t changed my oil in winter in… I forget the last time I did any vehicular maintenance in the winter. Nowadays, I pay somebody else to do it for me. I have gone total pu$$y in my 50s.

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    We got about 4 inches of snow in NoVA. Powdery and fine. Pretty world of white out there. Not the snowball or -man building type, but no doubt sleddable.

    Saw a pickup with a snowplow blade cleaning our street at 2:30 overnight. Hear a neighbor scraping/shoveling his walk.

    Inside with coffee and happy to be going absolutely nowhere today. Picked up a copy of Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and going to read that at some point.

    Got some Meyer lemons at Trader Joe’s yesterday. Because they are beautiful: rich golden lemon color and smooth texture. Haven’t tried one yet, but like the idea of them.

    Best uses for Meyer lemons, y’all?

  76. 76.

    ThresherK

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah. Isn’t this article practically #SlateBait?

    When I think of “poor little rich people” I think of 1929 and a substantial number of well-off losing it all and committing suicide. That’s what losses look like, not the Great Recession.

    So when the NYT says “the rich haven’t recovered their losses”, my synaptic response is a bit “tell me what changes they to make”. I already know what the people at the proverbial economic waterline have been doing for the last seven years.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    The neighbor is about to shovel my walk. That’s so sweet! Making a batch of oatmeal choc chip cookies later this morning for him.

    And I’ve raked the leaves from his front yard (anonymously) at least twice, maybe three times this year. Sometimes the weather is so fine and sunny and/or crisp and you just have to find something to do outdoors. I love raking leaves.

  79. 79.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elizabelle: Ditto. Metro DC got a dozen snowflakes so of course everything is shut down. (Not really: we got 4″-12″ overnight, but that’s enough to stop this city in its tracks). My neighborhood is all snow-covered cars, and my entire office is working from home today. I could really use some of Murphy’s Irish stew today (hint hint)…

    @BethanyAnne: That’s brilliant.

  80. 80.

    Elizabelle

    @boatboy_srq: We do have that $25 Murphy’s gift certificate, with no expiration date.

    Thinking we will do a meetup in March or thereafter, as DC denizens demand. I know a lot of folks in the DC and Southern MD areas would love to meet somewhere other than Old Town Alexandria. So we will make that happen.

    Even so, the gift certificate! Will be used. Sometime this spring. By us.

  82. 82.

    Gene108

    @Southern Beale:

    Misses the elephant in the room for the bottom 99% and that is wage stagnation or wage decline in the face of rising cost of living over the last forty years.

    Saying the rich are not as rich as before does not mean everyone else has gotten wealthier, ie taken the rich people’s money.

    For most folks staying flat is like being on a sinking ship, as the water level (cost of living) rises.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @glaukopis:

    Wow, that looks delicious. And easy. Will get some cream and make it this weekend for some friends coming over. Thank you!

    Thinking it will be lovely with a few fresh raspberries or other berries on top, but wonderful on its own too.

    Thank you! Had never heard of a “posset.”

  85. 85.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elizabelle: I completely forgot about that….

    March sounds like a plan. And as long as where we end up is Metro-accessible, most of the Dominion contingent should be OK getting there.

  88. 88.

    Origuy

    In the Russian Orthodox calendar, Lent begins on Monday; this week is Maslenitsa. It’s sometimes called “Cheesefare Week” for the same reason as “Fat Tuesday”. Blinis are eaten and there are a lot of parties. I was in Moscow two years ago during Maslenitsa. The Soviets suppressed it for decades, but it’s coming back now.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @gene108:

    IIRC, Christian churches also use a lunar calendar, which is why sometimes Passover and Easter coincide, or Hanukkah and Christmas.

    I picked up the King Cakes for our office this morning — we started doing that when we had a movie set in New Orleans come out and one of or contacts sent us one. Then it turned out that the local Cuban bakery makes them, and we were off to the races.

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    @Elmo: We could. Def want to include you, when you are not jetting around for elegant dinners out on business trips. Got to be nice to our Maryland contingent.

    Using the Murphy’s gift cert AND getting more DC BJ folks out are two separate things. We’re not married to doing Old Town all the time!

    Good places to meet up? Metro accessible is good.

Comments are closed.