Mardi Gras colors. The top of the Empire State Building was bathed in them this evening. Now we around here expect the Hibernia tower to be purple, green, and gold at this time of year, but it's nice to see NYC following our lead.

And today was perfect weather for standing in crowds for hours watching giant floats go by and screaming etc. trying to catch cheap beads and similar stuff.

The general feeling was one of taking a break from reality and just having fun like you did before your house had a full swimming pool on the first level. (I talked with a friend yesterday who had three feet in her very lovely house. They're living in the upstairs while the downstairs gets repaired.) Or before your house moved from its foundations to the middle of the street.

I hope you watched the network coverage, but they will just have clips, and probably the majority will be of the French Quarter. It's outside the Quarter that the families gather and celebrate. They bring food, sometimes barbecue grills (especially in the Metairie celebration just west of N.O.) The local morning show had a live bit from around Canal Street where the show's food guy was helping a sidewalk vendor prepare Grits and Grillades.

The costumes reflected Katrina: A bunch of people with t-shirts reading "Levee Inspector"--and wearing dark glasses and carrying fake blind canes. One person covered in MRE packets. Lots of people with blue roof hats. It was definitely psychologically healthy.

There were also all sorts of variations on Mayor Nagin's comment about a Chocolate City, both in costumes and T-shirts for sale.

And thanks to all the out-of-towners who came. We need their presence (to tell about the city) and their money. Tourism is (was?) afterall, a major source of income for New Orleans.

Probably the top high school band in the city pre-K was the St. Augustine Marching 100. Their guys get band scholarships to colleges. But, the school enrollment is way down, and the school itself was damaged. So, the archdiocese juggled students around and I think the St. Aug boys ended up sharing facilities with the Xavier Prep girls. And--those two schools, plus St. Mary's Dominican all joined together in a band called the MAX band. Uniforms were very simple, but the music and marching were superb. One of the commentators remarked that half the drum line was female.

My day? Well, I did laundry, watched the TV coverage for a while, cleaned a cat box, read, had an early lupper (where I finished the g-book I was reading) and am now trying to decide which books come next. I finished both the g-book and the mind candy book.

Mardi Gras's climax comes about midnight when the courts of Rex and Comus meet at their balls. I do not plan to stay up to watch that.