First post in a series leading up to Ash Wednesday.
Friday duly sacrificed to the goddesses of the pantheon, i.e. Divas and Muses, I woke up late on Saturday and got out to St. Charles Ave. just to see the last Tucks float roll by. Never fear, D was on hand to capture pictures and, more importantly, throws jettisoned by friends in the parade. I seem to have quite the impressive Tucks toilet paper collection now. Anyone know why their plungers smell like kerosene/naphtha/mothballs?
Saturday afternoon was gorgeous, so Steve, D and I wandered down the parade route to the Quarter. On our way to a great meal of fried pickles, fried crawfish tails and fried chicken at Fiorella’s, we crossed Jackson Square and ran into them. The Jesus fanatics. A pity that it was such narrow-minded folks that Jesus is said to have railed against himself. As we took pictures, I passive-aggressively mumbled to myself that they don’t make Jews like Jesus any more and that I was born right the first time thankyouverymuch. Hey, if you think that’s bad, you should hear one of my colleagues with her booming chants of “So many right-wing Christians, so few lions.”
While it is against my personal policy to converse with proselytizers all the way from Hare Krishnas to the aforementioned, I have a proposition for those that preach the word of their version of Christian God in the French Quarter: If one of them can prove that he does not relish, for even one second, the “abominations” of New Orleans, I can guarantee him a spot in heaven. ‘Cuz you just don’t want to get to the Pearly Gates and find out that you missed the fine print about hypocrisy.
They may have the Homo’s, Pagan’s, Thieve’s and High Fullutent on notice, but at least the Fundy Christians left us Hindoooos out of the mix. Just watch, next year’s list will include Pollie-theeist’s as well as Speeling & Grammar Nazi’s.
Although I wanted to watch Kevin Costner pass through this erstwhile Waterworld, there was no Endymion for us this year. Stomachs full, eyes blurry, D and I crawled back Uptown and into our bed. Good night.
Maitri, you know we’re not all like that. Those people frustrate me (and most of my friends) just as much as they do anybody else.
But I’m glad you had an otherwise alright day.
Joe, thanks for your comment. I have nothing against those with ardent fervor for their faith and even those who choose to talk to others about it. When the topic of Hinduism comes up, I like to educate people about it, too. I just don’t have room in my life for those who think their opinion on something so personal and subjective as God is the only right one and have no room for others. Live and let live.
Hope you had a great Mardi Gras!
Well, I was looking at their “Sin” list, and fifteen of their labels applies to me and mine.
Good thing I didn’t run into them.
They left out retirees and Packer fans. I feel slighted!
I think the folks with free food and clothes on Jackson Square (tied into the Xian break dancers on Decatur to guess from their t-shirts) were better representing what many people would recognize as Christanity.
I really like the folks camping on the steps of the cathedral with a sign with the old Cult of the Pope view of Catholicism. Nice. I think they should all have a firehouse turned on them. Would the city think it would be OK to have a We Hate Jews Neo-Nazi rally in that spot during Mardi Gras? Not a bit of difference really between that flavor of “Christian” and the other kind of high-steppers.
Perhaps the adherents FSM should offer free Bolognese to the hungry masses as a counterpoint to that sort of religious spew.
Back in ’86 these creeps were demonstrating against the Pride Parade in S.F.
When I passed them… there were the cries of “kill the witch”. I turned my megaphone on them and just said, “Bring back the lions”.
The remaining three hours of the parade had that chant going as they passed the Fundies. That day I felt like St. Joan.
Last year, the Jesus clowns made their way down St Charles on one of the big parading days, putting smiley-face stickers on everyone they could that said “Jesus Loves Me”. I noticed too late that when they were approaching the little guy, they had crosses…uhh…lower-case “t”s on their cheeks. We took the stickers off shortly after they moved on.
This year, one of ’em, via a small kid, passed a small box to somebody on a float that stopped by us for a bit. The drunken float riders opened the box, looked at each other, shrugged, and tossed out small light-up cross pins to the crowd. Dan caught two of ’em and grimaced. At least they’re nice enough that he can pass ’em on to a co-worker. The fundies are sneakier uptown, for sure.
If each entry on the list is worth one point. I have a score of 12!
Beat that, suckas!
I’ll leave y’all to guess which ones…
wow…i’m being stabbed to death by apostrophes!
Truly awesome image. Next year I will be there celebrating too :D