Mardi Gras and Kitchens, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

It's Mardi Gras!  What does that mean?  Well, it depends on where you live.

If you live in most of the world, it doesn't mean a lot.

If you live where there's a lot of Roman Catholic tradition, today is when you feast and enjoy yourself, because tomorrow starts the Lenten fast.

Even though most people don't observe the fasting the way they used to, the party never went away, and it only got bigger as time went on.  It can now be quite outlandish.  A hint if you are a family person and want to enjoy a Mardi Gras parade, which can be a fun spectacle:  go to one of the small towns where nudity won't be tolerated and public drunkenness will be dealt with.

If you live where there are parades today, you are either in the parade, at the parade, staying home if you can to avoid the traffic, or you left town already.

Lots of people get tired of the madness and use the time off work and school to leave town.  The beach is a favorite destination, as is Orlando, Florida.

As noted, fasting is no longer as observed as it used to be.  Here in south Louisiana, though, that habit hangs on in the form of fish on Friday.  Yes, you are still supposed to abstain from meat on Fridays, so you have grilled cheese for lunch and then either fried fish, or fried shrimp, or a seafood gumbo for dinner.

If you attend a Catholic school that has a cafeteria, you get fish or grilled cheese on Fridays all year, not just during Lent.

Most restaurants that have a featured dish continue to do red beans on Monday (because you cook your beans on the same fire  you use to heat up the water for laundry, since Monday is laundry day) and some kind of fish or seafood is served every Friday.  It's just expected.

Yes, we do tradition.  Thus, parades, and in some areas, pink flamingos.  Tomorrow, go to the church and get ashes on your forehead and remember there's more to life than the party.  The cycle starts again.

Speaking of a cycle, Dr. D is on one.  She has been reorganizing the kitchen again.  After this, she'll move on to clothes, then papers, then back to the kitchen again.  This time, i convinced her to get rid of most of the out-of-date food.  Some of it, i am guessing, hasn't aged enough and will have to wait for the next go-round.

Finally a few more of those pictures Grandma forwards, of some kitchen failures that make you wonder how these people manage to feed themselves at all:

Have a fabulous Tuesday, everyone, Happy Mardi Gras!

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Today is:

Birthday of Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature -- China

Dairokuten-no-Hadaka Matsuri -- Chiba, Japan (around this date; one of Japan's "naked" festivals, as participants wear only a loincloth as they wrestle in the cold, wet mud, bringing luck to the community as they run through the crowds smearing the lucky mud on the onlookers)

Dance of the Secret Places -- Fairy Calendar

Dag van de Revolutie -- Suriname (Day of Liberation and Innovation)

Februaristaking -- Netherlands (commemoration of a strike against the Nazis)

Festival of Ptah -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

International Pancake Day

Kitano Baika-sai (Plum Blossom Festival) -- Kitano Tenman-gu Shrine, Kyoto, Japan

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Let's All Eat Right Day -- in honor of the birth of Adelle Davis in 1904, an early pioneer in good nutrition

Mardi Gras -- Fat Tuesday, Carnival, the last day to feast before the Lenten fast begins tomorrow, greeted with revelry in many parts of the world; related observances and names:

    Scotland, Fasten's E'en or Bannocky Day

    Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda

    Italian, Martedì Grasso

    Swedish, Fettisdagen

    Danish, Fastelavn

    Norwegian, Fastelavens

    Estonian, Vastlapäev

    Spanish, Martes de Carnaval

    German, Faschingsdienstag

    Hawaiian, Malasada Day

    Lithuanian, Uzgavenes

    Icelandic, Sprengidagur (literally, Bursting Day)

    also Pancake Day or Bursting Day, the day to eat the last of the eggs and butter in the form of some kind of fried cakes, and to eat until bursting

Mother's Day -- Israel (Shevat 30)

National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day -- some sites say any nuts will do, some specify peanuts; take your pick

National Clam Chowder Day -- not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder Day, back in January

National Day -- Kuwait

People's Revolution Day/People Power Day -- Philippines

Pistol Patent Day -- Samuel Colt received US Patent #138 for the first pistol on this day in 1836

Quiet Day -- can't find the history behind this one, but mommy wants one!

Shrove Tuesday -- Christian

Single-Tasking Day -- encouraging you to do one thing at a time, and not feel guilty; begun by Theresa Gabriel, who claims multitasking is inefficient and hurts your brain! she suggests it be on the 4th Tuesday of the month, although other sites list other dates

Spay Day USA -- sponsored by the HSUS; Sit! Stay! Spay! Good Owner! 

St. Walburga's Day (Patron of boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, harvests; Antwerp, Belgium; Eichstätt, Germany; Gronigen, Netherlands; Oudenarde, Belgium; Plymouth, England; Zutphen, Netherlands; against coughs, dog bites, famine, hydrophobia/rabies, mad dogs, plague, storms)

Soviet Occupation Day -- Georgia

World Spay Day -- don't let your pets litter!   

Birthdays Today:

Josh Wolff, 1977

Chelsea Handler,1975

Sean Astin, 1971

Tea Leoni, 1966

Carrot Top, 1965

Lee Evans, 1964

Neil Jrdan, 1950

Ric Flair, 1949

Karen Grassle, 1944

George Harrison, 1943

Diane Baker, 1938

Tom Courtenay, 1937

Bob Schieffer, 1937

Sally Jessy Raphael, 1935

"Texas Rose" Bascom, 1922

Bobby Riggs, 1918

Anthony Burgess, 1917

Jim Backus, 1913

Millicent Hammond Fenwick, 1910

Adelle Davis, 1904

Zeppo Marx, 1901

Meher Baba, 1894

Enrico Caruso, 1873

Charles Lang Freer, 1856

Pierre Auguste Renoir, 1841

Xuande, Emperor of China, 1398

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"A Little Night Music"(Musical), 1973

"Toys in the Attic"(Play), 1960

"Wonderful Town"(Musical), 1953

"Your Show of Shows"(TV), 1950

"Natoma"(Herbert Opera), 1911

"Riders to the Sea"(Play), 1904

"Hernani"(Victor Hugo Play), 1830

Today in History:

The First Bank of the United States is chartered, 1791

The German Midiatisation is enacted, taking over 1,000 German sovereign states into about 40 larger entities, 1803

Samuel Colt patents the first revolving barrel multishot firearm, 1836

The first US electric printing press is patented by Thomas Davenport, 1837

Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress, 1870

The US Steel Corp. is organized under J P Morgan, 1901

The Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Toronto Marlboroughs in 2 games, 1904

Marie-Adélaïde, the eldest of six daughters of Guillaume IV, becomes the first reigning Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, 1912

Oregon places a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax, 1919

Diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union are established, 1925

Glacier Bay National Monument (now Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve) is established in Alaska, 1925

Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain, 1926

Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C. becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission, 1928

The USS Ranger is launched. It is the first US Navy ship to be built solely as an aircraft carrier, 1933

In occupied Amsterdam, a general strike is declared in response to increasing anti-Jewish measures instituted by the Nazis, 1941

The first Pan American Games are held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1951

Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston, 1964

The first unit of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, the first commercial nuclear power station in Canada, goes online, 1971

President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines flees the nation after 20 years of rule; Corazon Aquino becomes the first Filipino woman president, 1986

In the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, Baruch Goldstein opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing 29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more, 1994

In the Irish general election, the Fianna Fáil-led government suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government since the formation of the Irish state, 2011

The World Health Organization removes India from the list of polio endemic countries, 2012

Hundreds of pro-Russian protesters block the Crimean parliament and demand a referendum on Crimea's independence, 2014

The XXIII Winter Olympic Games close in Pyeongchang, Korea; Norway wins a record 39 medals, 14 gold, 2018

The influential film review site Rotten Tomatoes implements changes to the site after internet trolls target the new Captain Marvel film, 2019