Honestly, it’s a miracle there aren’t more black eyes around this place, when you look at what the live oak roots do to sidewalks.
Cemeteries are closed for Mardi Gras weekend. Not sure why, but I bet influencers and other idiots are a big reason. Still, they’re beautiful even through the gates:
Little design details tell you where you are:
Now this is a church fundraiser:
Yesterday was kind of a mess. Strong thunderstorms were forecast, and the parades were first shortened, stripped of bands and double-decker floats. Then the bands and the floats were restored, but the routes kept short. There was no way we’d get a decent spot to watch Zulu, so we watched it on the hotel TV. Afterward, through a series of miscalculations, we ended up outside the Zulu HQ post-parade, where lots of participants were still wearing their blackface and looked like they hadn’t slept, or had a non-alcoholic drink, in 12-14 hours. We ended up wandering down Broad Street to a place called Crescent City Steaks. A conversation in the waiting area with a local indicated we found a non-touristy spot, although everyone was wearing sequins, silly hats, tulle or some other costume-y outfit. The food was 1960s-era steakhouse right down to the creamed spinach.
And now it’s Ash Wednesday, and we leave later today. We’ll be making a third try to visit NOMA and deal with whatever else the universe throws our way.
The shiner is very vivid. It looks mostly magenta today — Mardi Gras colors! It’s been a good trip.
Jeff Gill said on March 5, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Thank you for the pics along the way; sorry about your fall, but it’s been a good trip to take with you.
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Jakash said on March 5, 2025 at 3:48 pm
With regard to Lent, I always thought the Gospel for the Ash Wednesday service was an odd choice. On the one day that Catholics are to go to church and have ashes placed on their forehead to remain there for all to see the rest of the day, the reading says “when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” “when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting.”
Even though he’s not a Papist, I imagine that the formerly mild-mannered Jeff has a fine explanation for this! 😉
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Icarus said on March 5, 2025 at 5:48 pm
Jakash, @ 2: I was taught that you are allowed to wipe off the ashes whenever you want. Some of my Catholic friends were taught that you leave them on until they flake off on their own or the day ends.
If Catholics cannot agree on something as mundane as Ashes, think about how many other things we (and religion) get wrong.
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Deborah said on March 5, 2025 at 6:18 pm
I didn’t watch but read about the speech in the NYT. So sad and heartbreaking. I read today that the messages on paddles done by the Democrats was used by the opposition to Hitler, I thought that was cool that the Dems did that but not until I read about where they got the idea from.
It’s all so no longer normal, it’s crazy.
Glad to be back from my 120 mile round trip visit to Costco in Albuquerque for my hearing aids fitting and programming onto my iPhone downloaded app. It’s taking some getting used to but it’s already feeling better. The things are tiny and honestly a bit hard to maneuver because of that. The main thing is hearing my voice differently, because my hearing loss was mostly in the higher frequencies so I got used to perceiving my voice as lower in pitch. I had a similar experience when I had cataract surgery, leaving the hospital and seeing fresh fallen snow and being so dazzled how white it was after having dimmed lenses for a few years, I had no idea how my color perception had deteriorated.
Also saw lots of ashed foreheads in Costco, I’m always taken aback when I see the first one, then I remember what day it is.
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Julie Robinson said on March 5, 2025 at 7:49 pm
Ashes always make me break out, so if possible I wash them off right after the service.
Deborah, glad you got your hearing aids. Those are probably in my future, since I notice how many people are mumbling, lol.
Also in my future: another visit to a retina specialist, since the new eye doc is concerned my macular hole may have increased. I remember when Nancy had that surgery and had to lay face down for a couple of days. Hoping it’s not time yet.
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tajalli said on March 5, 2025 at 8:09 pm
Lent means reading the Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation every morning (editor W.Y. Evans Wentz). It’s about knowing the mind and seeing reality.
On the topic of what to do with this up-tick in chaos and it’s agitating effects on so many, saw this zoom video today.
https://thework.com/view-video/1226-at-home-live-with-bk-wednesday-march-5-2025/
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Sherri said on March 5, 2025 at 10:32 pm
Elon God-Emporer of America thinks the problem with western civilization is too much empathy, that DEI pushed out old white guys at the FAA, that AI will be able to do all the functions of government within a decade*, and he wants to set up a hotline so that members of Congress can call and beg** for cuts to be overturned.
*Musk has been egregiously wrong about every single prediction he’s made about technology.
*my word, not his.
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Sherri said on March 5, 2025 at 11:21 pm
Wait, did anyone tell JD about transubstantiation when he converted to Catholicism?
I’ve also been reading that the theobro Christian Nationalists think empathy is a sin.
Sometimes, I try to imagine going back in time and telling the conservative white evangelical Southern Baptists in that small country church I grew up in what people like them would be saying in 50 years.
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