Fun Junkies

Happy Super Tuesday to all you political junkies and happy Fat Tuesday to all of you fun junkies. Politics affects all of our lives and I watch what's happening with the same interest as any other concerned citizen. Still, when it comes to being a junkie I fall into the latter category more than the former.

Many other cities celebrate the pre-Lenten season with both festivities and frivolities. Most prominent, other than the Big Easy is Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Much of the year's income for many of Rio’s inhabitants is the direct result of Carnival Season. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Because this date, like Easter, is governed by the moon's cycles, it occurs on a different date every year. This year, it is on February 5th, the earliest it has been in twenty years.

An official in Rio wants the date for Carnival to be on the same day every year. This is because the earlier the event occurs, the less revenue it generates. My close friend and fellow author r. r. Bryan, himself a devout Catholic, assures me that this will never happen. r. r. wrote All the Angels and Saints, a novel about a Catholic missionary in Guatemala.

While a devout Catholic, r. r. is also a fun junkie who lived in and around New Orleans for many years. His son Matt (whose birthday is today, incidentally - he as waited for this day all his life!) didn't believe it when we told him that crowds were often packed so tightly on Bourbon Street during times past that you could literally raise your feet off the pavement and remain suspended in the air.

I find it hard to believe that today is the third Fat Tuesday celebration in New Orleans since the devastation brought by the monster hurricane season of 2005. While far from full recovery, NO is moving in the right direction. It was 84 degrees in the French Quarter today and I sit in front of the TV watching the early voting returns, I am wishing I was there instead of here.

http://www.ericwilder.com