Letters for George: Krewe du Vieux 2011 [a letter from J]

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Krewe du Vieux 2011 [a letter from J]

Dear Mom & Dad, Family, & Friends,

Just got home from a wild night parading in Krewe du Vieux which, for those of you who don't know, is a smallish parade (900 or so people) that goes through the French Quarter and has a focus on sex and politics. It's really the kickoff parade for the whole Carnival season. My Krewe's float portrayed Sarah Palin as a racer in the "Idiot-a-rod" - she was whipping a sleigh dog with the face of Bobby Jindal with an American flag, and every so often he would lift his leg to pee on a figure of the state of Louisiana. Very subtle stuff. Anyway, some of the pics do capture the moment.

Newsweek declared earlier this week that New Orleans is America's #1 dying city whatever that means. But as I see it, the city has died at least a dozen times before and we're already deep into the afterlife. And what a great afterlife it is, at least on nights like tonight. If this is being dead, I say bring it on baby!!  For those of you not in nola right now, the Mardi Gras season is now officially on. That's why everyone's screaming and in various levels of undress.

Happy Mardi Gras everybody!

J

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-Gayle CL 92-21): David......Cooooool;))))))

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BLOG POSTING SCHEDULE, CONTENT, SOURCES, FOCUS, ETC.

-POSTING SCHEDULE

-Larger main posts at left: usually a new addition every one to two weeks.

-Short posts in right-hand column: changed every three weeks, usually on a Monday or Tuesday.

-SOURCES: Personal photos (e.g., family) are by myself or sometimes by another family member. Nonpersonal photos are usually obtained through Google Images. Nonpersonal factual info most frequently comes from Wikipedia and external links available there or from Google searches. Typically I cite sources at the end of the post. If you want to know a source and haven't located it through info I provide, Wikipedia, Google, or Google Images, please let me know at lundgrdc@gmail.com, and I should be able to help.

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-NAMES: At my family members' request, I use "L" rather than our full last name and sometimes initials for first names. Where there's content deemed personal in a story, I may use pseudonyms.

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MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

MARCH 2024 HOLIDAYS

Sun., Mar. 10. Daylight Saving Time starts. Clocks move forward one hour at 2 a.m. // Sun., Mar. 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrating one of Ireland’s patron saints and Irish-American culture in the U.S. // Wed., Mar. 20. Spring Equinox. One of two annual equinoxes in which the length of night and day are nearly equal. // Thurs., Mar. 21. World Poetry Day. Promoting linguistic expression through poetry. // Sat., Mar. 23. Purim starts. A Jewish holiday which commemorates Jews being saved from extermination in Persia. // (Source: wincalendar.com)

CINCINNATI NEWS

CINCINNATI NEWS

According to ratings by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, Cincinnati ranks 4th best in parks among the nation’s 100 largest cities. 88% of Cincinnati residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Neighborhoods where most people identify as a person of color have access to 4% less park space than those in predominantly white neighborhoods. Park amenities ranked high for Cincinnati in categories of basketball hoops, playgrounds, bathrooms, recreation, senior centers, and splash pads. Dog parks were much lower, only 1.6 dog parks per 100K people. Cities ranked higher than Cincinnati were Arlington, VA, St. Paul, MN, and Washington, D.C. (wcpo.com, 5-5-22)

EVERYDAY FOIBLES

EVERYDAY FOIBLES

I have one pair of prescription glasses for reading, one for distance (driving, movies). I also have a dozen $1.00 reading glasses from the Dollar Store so I can keep my prescription pair permanently on our dining room table. Of course I lost my distance glasses two years ago. I’ve been sure they was somewhere around the house, but I’ve scoured everywhere. Last week I got ready to go to my writers group and picked out a pair of reading glasses from my bedside table. One had orange and purple rims, one green and yellow, and one dark brown. I chose the conservative dark brown pair. At my group I tried reading with them, but everything was blurry. I was sure they weren’t Katja’s glasses, but they certainly weren’t my reading glasses. Back home Katja suggested that maybe they were my distance glasses. I looked out the window, and the house down the block was in clearer focus. So my lost distance glasses have been sitting next to my bed for the past two years.

FAMOUS POETS

FAMOUS POETS

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1888. His father, a prosperous businessman, sent him to Milton Academy and Harvard where he excelled. At Harvard Eliot studied philosophy, earning a master’s degree under George Santayana. He then studied linguistics, poetry, and philosophy at the Sorbonne and at Oxford University, settling in England after his studies, working as a banker, and writing poetry. Eliot published his first masterpiece, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in 1917, and he followed it with “The Waste Land” in 1922, a long poem that had tremendous impact on Western literature. Andrew Lloyd Webber adapted Eliot’s 1939 children’s book, “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” into the stage musical “Cats”, one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948, Eliot died in 1965. (Tessitore, Extraordinary American Writers, 2004)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/15 - Sun., 4/21/24)

MY WEEK (Mon., 4/15 - Sun., 4/21/24)

Katja had appointments with her primary care physician and pain doctor. She had a fall at T.J. Maxx, banged her head, and was taken to emergency by ambulance but turned out o.k. We toured the new Clifton Cultural Arts Center, complained that they didn’t have our name in the wall of donors. I put most of my academic library out for graduate students in preparation for moving offices at the university. We had dinner out at Longhorn Steakhouse, chop steak for me, lamb chops for Katja. I shed a tear at Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office on PBS.