Of Course, It Took a Journalist to Figure This Out About Libraries

Chicago Tribune writer Julia Keller has an excellent article in the May issue of American Libraries (though the article itself isn't available online), about how the gooey warm feelings of yesteryear that tends to surround most library testimonials has nothing to do with the institution of the library as it exists today.

"Such nostalgia is touching but ultimately perilous. This sentimental approach contributes to the image of libraries as antiquated placed, places sealed off like time capsules circa 1943."

And, as Keller writes, "Nostalgia won't pay the electric bill."

She should know, because newspapers are in the same boat, the victims of sepia-toned tableaus involving the whole family circled around the breakfast table listening to Father rant about the day's headlines.

And believe me, I know all about it. As a librarian, I've heard my share of tales from people involving misunderstood youth who found their solace lurking in the stacks, and of beautifully transcendent library reading rooms that filled a person's heart with silent awe. And sure, I love these stories, but they have very little to do with what I actually do on the job, and who I help on a daily basis.

Around this time last year, I participated in Blogathon to raise money for the ALA Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund, and as part of this, I asked people from the libraries affected in those areas to write about what their libraries meant to them.

Their stories had nothing to do with finely waxed fixtures or childhood nostalgia. They were real and immediate and vital.

From Jefferson Parish, one library patron wrote, "The Jefferson Parish Library opened soon after Katrina....it was a welcome home to many. No carpets, few staff, but the books were ok, and the computers were in full use. This was great, when so many people couldn't get into their homes."

From New Orleans, one patron wrote about the librarians at her local library who traveled into the midst of the destruction after Katrina to check on the local history resources. She wrote, "I remember the first day the library opened after Katrina. There was a rush to enter and people were lined at the door. There were no need to speak words of thanks, we could tell in each other's eyes, the smile on each other faces, the firm hugs we received, that we were all where we needed to be."

The Hancock County Public Libraries said: "Immediately after Katrina, many residents needed to contact family and friends by using the satellite telephones or the computers with wireless Internet access. Others needed copier and fax services or a table to spread out documents and fill out forms, or just a quiet, air conditioned building with clean restrooms. Some just needed a respite from the devastation outside and came in to read a newspaper, find out about friends, enjoy the air conditioning and the clean restrooms."

That's what the public library is all about, Charlie Brown.

14th Way of Looking At a Possum, Redux

As some of you might remember, there was a heated possum poetry competition here this summer in honor of the blog's eternal poet laureate, Everette Maddox.

And today, perhaps a late entry?

There was nothing to be done for it. Someone
Or other probably called LAPD, who then
Called Animal Control, who woke a driver, who
Then dressed in mailed gloves, the kind of thing
Small knights once wore into battle, who gathered
Together his pole with a noose on the end,
A light steel net to snare it with, someone who hoped
The thing would have vanished by the time he got there.

- from "The Oldest Living Thing in Los Angeles" by Larry Levis (via The Millennial Pedestrian)

Blogathon Post Index

I suspect we'll be taking a few days off here, but in case you missed the Blogathon, here are some of the things we wrote about yesterday. Enjoy!

Books Reviewed:

Restoration by John Ed Bradley
Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z. Brite
The Worthy: A Ghost's Story by Will Clarke
This Wheel's On Fire by Levon Helm
1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina by Chris Rose
Dead Above Ground by Jervey Tervalon
The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole
Stormwitch by Susan Vaught
Eden by Olympia Vernon
The Untidy Pilgrim by Eugene Walter
The End of California by Steve Yarbrough

Contests:

Eugene Walter Doggerel Poetry Contest
Everette Maddox 14th Way of Being Looked at By a Possum Contest
Patterson Hood Southern Song Lyric Contest
Rickey and G-Man Soul Food Cook-Off

Gulf Coast Culture and History:

Excelsior Band
George Ohr
Galveston Flood
Mobile Mardi Gras
NOLA Links
Walter Anderson

Gulf Coast Libraries:

Cameron Parish Library System
Hancock County Library System
Harrison County Library System
Jefferson Parish Library System
New Orleans Public Library

Other Book-Related Lists and Posts:

Fiction About Libraries
Fictional Books in Fiction
Mississippi Writers
Pulp Covers

Fin

Thanks everyone for reading along with us today. We got to chat with some great people, our monitor, Jaynee, was terrific, and we enjoyed seeing the lengths to which these other fools were willing to go for a good cause.

Sponsors can be added for the next two days, but geez... right now, our total is at a kind of jaw-dropping $2,032.00. Thanks everyone for your support.

And, in case you missed something you'd like to have seen, I made up a handy index of our posts. It's the irrepressible librarian in me.

Books Reviewed:

Restoration by John Ed Bradley
Soul Kitchen by Poppy Z. Brite
The Worthy: A Ghost's Story by Will Clarke
This Wheel's On Fire by Levon Helm
1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina by Chris Rose
Dead Above Ground by Jervey Tervalon
The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole
Stormwitch by Susan Vaught
Eden by Olympia Vernon
The Untidy Pilgrim by Eugene Walter
The End of California by Steve Yarbrough

Gulf Coast Libraries:

Cameron Parish Library System
Hancock County Library System
Harrison County Library System
Jefferson Parish Library System
New Orleans Public Library

I want to add a Gulf Coast Culture and History section, but I also want to give Brady a chance to say his goodbyes before we retire for the morning, so I'll add it later. Here he is:

BP:Just wanted to add my thanks to Mary's. First off, to those who read/commented/submitted verse about possums: thanks for keeping us entertained, awake, and feeling like we weren't just sending 1s and 0s into the cold, uncaring ether.

Second-wise, to our sponsors: Wow. That's really all I have to say about that. And, of course, thanks.

Finally, thanks to Mary for suggesting we do this. She pretty much rocks.

You Are All Winners!

I loved this picture of George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi, so much that I thought it needed to make a second appearance. This seemed as good a time as any.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our contests! Over the 24 hours of straight posting, blog comments were like an oasis in the desert. But contest entry comments were like an oasis that served martinis and snack mix. Everyone's entries were terrific, and reading them was really a highlight of our day.

The winners of the This Book Is For You Blogathon Contests are....:

The Eugene Walter Doggerel Prize: Jeremy!
The Rickey & G-Man Soul Food Cook-Off: Kim!
The Patterson Hood Southern Song Lyric Contest: John! Or as I know him, Dad!*
The Everette Maddox 14th Way of Looking at a Possum Contest: Pat and Bob Woolf!

Jeremy wins the highly entertaining first edition of Party Fare (1960); Kim wins the Glamour Magazine After Five Cookbook (1952), along with fancy pants recipe cards of selected entries; Dad wins the pulp magazines; and Pat and Bob get the first edition of Tennessee Williams's Memoirs.

Also, if the person who wrote the Plaquemine possum post wants to speak up, we'd like to send you a little something, too.

Thanks everybody! One more post - I think I can do that.
_____________________
* I know, I know... giving the prize to my own dad. But there were only three entries, and we knew all three people. Plus, the man did *research* with dates and stuff!

Okay, So It Was More Than I Could Chew

Earlier yesterday, in the full flush of "having just woken up," I may have made some rash claims about finishing writing, arranging, and recording a tune.

It is with great regret that I admit defeat. The song whooped me.

How, you may ask, does a song whoop you? It steadfastly resists all attempts to construct a decent vocal melody. It refuses to accommodate any of the words you can think of to use for lyrics.

Most importantly, it is deuced hard to sing (key-wise) and - somewhat surprisingly seeing as how I wrote it - difficult to play correctly.

Now, on a day when I was not dropping what I was doing every half hour to raise money for library relief or to assist milady while doing same, I probably could have figured out what needed to be done. As it was, taking our downstairs neighbor into account, it was time to put away the noisy things before I got done.

But though I am bloody, I am unbowed. When I finish it, I'll post it here. And it will be...adequate. Maybe even (dare I dream?) catchy.

Until then, here are some pictures of cute animals to distract you from - as Patton Oswalt might put it - my "failure pile in a sadness bowl."

Last Call for Contests/Favorite Fictional Books

First:

As per the headline of this post, last call for contest submissions is in 30 minutes at 5 a.m., Pacific Time. Still time to get last minute submissions in!

Second: My Top 5 Favorite Fictional/non-existent Books, and why they are awesome.

(Yeah, I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel for posts at this point.)

5. The Necronomicon, from The Evil Dead/Army of Darkness. It bites. It turns people into Deadites. And it's wicked sarcastic. Most recently seen being used for, er, "bathroom reading" by a zombified Incredible Hulk. (Long story.)

4. Since we're talking about books that bite, I'll throw in The Monster Book of Monsters from the Harry Potter series. What the hey.

3. Destiny of the Endless's tome, The Sandman. It has everything that has ever or will ever happen in it, which explains why it's chained to Destiny like a suitcase nuke. But not even he knows what's on the last page. If it was me? I'd peek.

2. Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey, Calvin and Hobbes. Judging by the title, I'd like to read this book. On the other hand, if it can get Calvin to go to sleep, it'd probably put normal humans in a coma. As opposed to now, where I lay awake nights wondering what a gooey kablooey is.

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. No contest, really, even though I suppose it's really more of a book-on-tape.

Edited to make my sleep-deprived prose less obtuse.

What I've Been Reading During the Blogathon

I'm one of those people who always carries a book around, just in case I have a dull moment that needs filling over the course of my day. So yeah, even today, of all days, I've been paging through a couple of titles.

First is Olympia Vernon's Eden, a story about Maddy, a teenage girl sent to care for her estranged, dying aunt. It's written in a lyrical style, almost stream of consciousness at times, but never inaccessible. There's also a dark, malevolent current running underneath the whole thing. I'm about 70 pages in.

I actually did finish The Worthy: A Ghost's Story by Will Clarke, but just don't have the energy to write a longer review.

It's a nasty little piece of dark comedy narrated by a 19-year-old LSU boy who happens to be dead, murdered by his own fraternity brother, Ryan Hutchins. As one Ms. V. Mars said, "Every school has its obligatory psychotic jackass. He's ours." Ryan Hutchins beats up hookers and his girlfriend, snorts coke, abuses pledges, and commits multiple homicide, all the while being thought a great guy. And Conrad, our young ghost pledge, wants revenge in the worst possible way. I'm sure LSU really dug the publicity.

And there's a goat on the book jacket. Like the old adage that you can't show a gun in the first act unless it's fired by the third, you can't put a goat on the cover of a fraternity book unless something unnatural is going to happen to that goat by the end of the book.

That's just how it crumbles, cookie-wise.

Putting My Grad Skool Sleep Deprivation Training to Good Use

When Mary ran the L.A. Marathon, I made these little jokes about how full of vim and so forth she was at mile 8, running backwards as she passed us to wave, compared to mile 23.

Payback's a booger.

See, Mary can nap. Me? Not so much. I go down, I stay down. Her? Ten minutes of shut-eye and she's rarin' to go.

Adding insult to injury, my cat - faithless little traitor that she is - has positioned herself directly in my line of sight and is sleeping as hard as she can.

The only thing that's keeping me going at this point is that, as a grad student, sometimes I get to grade papers until around this time. That, and the Diet Coke. And the cocktail I am so going to pour myself at 5:30 a.m.

Peering blearily around the Blogathon, I've found for your perusal the following sites that have been entertaining me to no end.

1. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I've been digging the heck out of (Parenthetically Speaking). Comic books! And, most recently, people dressed as Zatanna. Wait...crud...ComicCon was this weekend, wasn't it?

2. Food & Music. Who doesn't like those? Martians, that's who. Martians. Also, bonus points for all the stills of old ephemeral films.

3. The Smarmy Carny. While most of the carnies I've met have been less smarmy and more twitchy, this is grade-A smarm. And I know from smarm.

Finally, I'd like to say a big thanks to Abby over at Abby's Blogathon, who's been commenting up a storm despite being deathly ill. Rock on. And consider a Neti pot; I think those things are actually magical.

You Can Absolutely Judge a Book by Its Cover

Oh, pulp. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love the covers. So tawdry. So wrong. So very right.

I love the smell of the cheap paper and cheaper glue.

I love the hamfisted writing, the ludicrous plots; they're like little Roger Corman films in book form.

I love that you can buy them for about a dollar or two at most used book stores.

I love that although there is absolutely nothing of any redeeming quality in 90% of them, reading them doesn't feel like wasting precious hours of my life, as does dumb-TV-watching. Because, hey, I'm reading.

And I love the promotional copy, which almost never fails to mention the hair-color of the dame in question. While the front covers get most of the attention, someday someone will hopefully put together a book about the fearless editors whose job it was to come up with gems like the following:

Carla was a beautiful redhead in a skin-tight yellow sheath. Rick thought they could play a swinging scene together. Then she did a disappearing act. . .
Marty was a beautiful blonde. And Rick was more than willing to put in a good word for her. Until he found out she did her talking with a pearly Colt. . .

DIRTY PICTURES. "These photos were found in the wallet of your ex-husband," he said. . ."They are the most shocking I have ever seen in my twenty-two years as coroner. . ."
[I'm gonna pause so you can let that one sink in. - bp]
There were lots of salacious photographs being circulated around Porthtown. Pictures of some of the town's most respectable citizens, snapped when they were least expecting an audience. And almost every time the camera clicked, a maddened murderer would strike!"

And last, but not least, from The Flight of the Stiff: "Corpses fly as well as bullets when Pete McGrath battles an underworld gang to save the life of a hot-blooded redhead."

FYI, in that one there is as promised a corpse that flies. Although I'm not sure if "being flung by a catapult through the window of a distant mansion as a message" counts as flying.

Edited to Add, in Response to a Question from Mary: No, I did not make any of those up.

Academic Librarians Need Love Too

KHD sends a very sweet story about a librarian at Rhodes College in Memphis. We've been pretty heavy on the public library stories during the Blogathon due to author bias. But college librarians make a big impact on people, too, whether it's showing them how to do research or just giving them enough confidence to navigate those big, scary academic libraries which are, I swear, all designed by prison architects and Foucault afficianados.

And I actually know the librarian she's saying such glowing things about because I worked in the library at Rhodes. He is a really good librarian, and a very kind man, too.

KHD says,

"Paul Williford pretty much got me through Rhodes. I don't know if you remember but pretty much all of the references I needed for my International Studies papers had to come from the University of Memphis library. But their library scared me b/c it was so big and I never could operate their computer system correctly. So absolutely every research paper I had to write started with Paul Williford's help.

I'd walk into the good ol' Burrow Library, go straight to his desk and then tell him my topic. He would pretty much do all of the research for me and then give me a list of magazine articles, etc. to find (and where they were located) when I went to U of M. I blame him for my complete lack of being able to find good articles for research, but God am I grateful for him. I almost called him to help me with one of my Vandy papers, but I called you instead.

I also don't know if you remember this, but you know how I got paid to be the Sou'wester [newspaper] business manager? I felt guilty getting the commission I got when I didn't even work that hard and you guys busted tail and got nada. So I gave all but $75.00 away. $500 went to my high school's drama department, but the rest I used for $100.00 gift certificates to Folk's Folly for those at Rhodes that had influenced me. Those people were Brenda Somes (IS dept secretary), Michta, John Kaltner (religion prof), Kathleen Laakso (for letting me come back to Rhodes a month late that last semester and pretty much keeping tabs on me that entire, god-awful time) and Paul Williford.

I knew he would recognize my face if he saw me, but felt pretty sure he had no idea what my name was. And I was right, but he looked me up in Faces [our campus directory] and sent me the absolute nicest thank you note I have ever received. He even referenced some of the papers I had written."

Remember Rita: Dispatch from the Cameron Parish Library

Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Rita swept west and made landfall at Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm. Areas of the Gulf Coast that had been spared the brunt of Katrina were devastated, including many Louisiana libraries.

One of the hardest hit was the Cameron Parish Library System. Three of four library branches were destroyed, with their entire collections -- the Main Library, the Grand Chenier Library, and the Johnson Bayou Library. The fourth was flooded, and 33-40% of collection was destroyed.

Charlotte Trosclair, Director of the Cameron Parish Library System told me that often, libraries hit by Rita are excluded from some funding efforts that go to help Katrina libraries only. However, despite its name, the ALA Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund does provide funding to libraries hit by Rita.

The pictures above are, from top to bottom, the Main Library, the Grand Chenier Library, and the Johnson Bayou Library. As you can see, all three were reduced to rubble.

Notes From My Dissertation

I'm not going to go into too much detail here with the wheres and wherefores, but my dissertation research (surprise) involves a lot of digging through old documents, specifically those pertaining to certain historical hurricane-type things. Lately I've been collecting and analyzing* old documents relating to the Galveston Storm of 1900. It was a doozy. But don't take my word for it. . .

"A summary of conditions prevailing at Galveston is more than a human intellect can master. Briefly stated, the damage to property is anywhere between fifteen and twenty millions. The loss of life can not be computed. No lists could be kept, and all is simple guess work. Those thrown out to sea and buried on the ground wherever found will reach the horrible total of at least three thousand souls. My estimate of the loss on the island of Galveston and intermediate surrounding district is between four and five thousand deaths. I do not make this statement in fright or excitement. The whole story will never be told, because it can not be told.
"The necessities of those living are total. Not a single individual escaped property loss. The propery on the island is wrecked, fully one-half totally swept out of existence altogether. . .The help must be immediate."

R. G. Lowe - Manager, Galveston news

And then there's this, Clara "Red Cross" Barton's response to claims that the needs of Galvestonians had been met:

“. . .there is nothing that can exceed the spontaneous rush with which we spring to the relief of the first cry of distress that goes out, unless it should be the readiness with which it is forgotten after the first effort, and the proneness to feel that nothing more in that line can be needed, and the impulsive spirit waits for something new.”

Ouch.

---------------------------------------

* For those of you who find qualitative methodology interesting, I am using the constant comparative method to try and pin down those pesky meanings. Hermeneutariffic!

Sins of the Mothers

Dead Above Ground by Jervey Tervalon

Set in 1946, Tervalon's Dead Above Ground follows the story of the Du Champ's, a black family living in New Orleans. Adele, the eldest daughter, has always had a weakness for men. And despite the fact that she's married to a devoted, decent man who can "pass," her mother has always turned a blind eye to her running around on him.

That is, until Adele takes up with Lucien Faure, a dangerous playboy and sometimes pimp. Then, Helen Du Champ comes down on her daughter and her lover with all the fury she can muster. But it's not enough. Adele won't.. or can't give Lucien up.

Younger daughter, Lita, has never understood why her mother is so lenient with Adele and so strict with her. She also can't understand what makes Lucien any worse than Adele's other paramours.

The story then falls into flashback, as Helen tells her daughter about her startling past and reveals the real reason Lucien is so dangerous to Adele. There's an old score to be settled, and most likely, it will end bloodily.

The book has an interesting structure, and packs a lot of family history, New Orleans atmosphere, and dark secrets into a scant 200 pages. Not a word is wasted, though, and Tervalon's novel is shocking, powerful, and engaging.

Two Completely Unrelated Things

A) It is lunatic night on our street, apparently. Also, it seems that "directly outside our window" is a really good place to have extended, loud, group arguments. At least, it must be, because there's been about four in the last hour and a half. If it keeps up, next week I'm putting up a velvet rope and charging a ten dollar cover.

B) It's not important why I was looking up Civil War-era slang a few weeks ago. It only matters that I was.

Because now I'm going to share it with you.

Words/Phrases I'd never heard before:
-grab a root (have dinner)
-desecrated vegetables (dehydrated veggies)
-paper collar man (rich guy)

Words/Phrases I had no idea were from that era:
-sawbones (doctor, as in Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy)
-snug as a bug (I'm guessing "in a rug" came later.)
-tuckered out (ditto for "plum-")

Words/Phrases that amuse me:
-"mustered out" (done got killed, used ironically, hence the ironyquotes (tm), natch)
-scarce as hens' teeth (pretty much what it sounds like, which is "rare")
-see the elephant (combat or, er, some of the other things soldiers tend to get up to, nudge nudge, wink wink)

Get Those Brain Juices Flowing

It's getting into the tough, lonesome hours of the Blogathon, so I say, what better way to push the cobwebs from your eyes than by doing one of our Gulf Coast-themed contests!

For those inclined towards cookery, submit your best recipe for soul food, comfort food, food that tastes like home to The Rickey and G-Man Soul Food Cook-Off

If poetry is your thing, we've got two. Submit a comical, nonsensical, dipsical, doksical, hortatory, plumatory, amatory, or otherwise wacky verse to the Eugene Walter Memorial Doggerel Contest.

Or! There's also our Everette Maddox 14th Way of Being Looked at By a Possum Contest, where you write a stanza about a... um... 14th way of being looked at by a possum.

And if you're a music person, there's the Patterson Hood Southern Song Lyrics Contest. Potts says that nowadays all the good southern poets just become musicians. Submit your favorite lyric by a southern artist or band - blues, jazz, southern rock, gospel, country, you name it.

You have until 5am PST, winners will be announced at 5:30 PST.

But be warned. My dad discovered Blogger today, and he is a competitive fella.

I Sure Am Using the Word Bildungsroman a Lot Today, But If the Genre Fits. . .

Eugene Walter won the Lippincott Award for The Untidy Pilgrim, his first novel. Its opening lines are often quoted, at least around certain parts:

"Down in Mobile they're all crazy, because the Gulf Coast is the kingdom of monkeys, the land of clowns, ghosts and musicians, and Mobile is sweet lunacy's county seat."

The novel follows our protagonist - who isn't named, so I'll just call him "Fosdick," which I stole from Horatio Alger, who really has a way with names - from his family home in central Alabama down to the coast, where folks are "Frenchified," and thus (he has been told) not to be trusted. It's good, if ultimately useless, advice, because it doesn't take long before our hero is drinking in unsavory dens, carousing with all manner of eccentrics, and falling in love with his uncle's (much younger) wife.

A surprising amount of the book is taken up with sittin' and visitin', eating and drinking, and the telling of outlandish stories/really good gossip about relatives who never actually appear in the book. This is more charming than you might think. The repartee is witty, the eccentrics truly eccentric, and the prose bops along breezily (although a face-saving side trip to New York after a speakeasy punchout does slow things down a bit).

In short, The Untidy Pilgrim is ribald, witty, and altogether refreshing, especially when you set it alongside the Falknerian school of Southern Gothic gloom'n'doom. It's like the sherbert course of Southern Lit...

...if sherbert were surprisingly healthsome to the brain and soul, moreso even than broccolli. . .

...which, I suspect, the author would suggest is often the case.

Library Testimonials: Potpourri

A couple of brief testimonials to keep the Library Lurve going strong as we enter the "late-night-oh-what-have-I-done" phase of der Blogathon.

First off, Sally sent us this little gem, regarding the good folks at the Jefferson Parish Library:

The Jefferson Parish Library opened soon after Katrina....it was a welcome home to many. No carpets, few staff, but the books were ok, and the computers were in full use. This was great, when so many people couldn't get into their homes.

And, our good buddy Larry Harnisch, who knows pretty much everything there is to know about L.A., had this to say in the comment thread of an earlier post, but it's so good, we're printin' it twice:

The first library I truly learned to use was turned into a church after Naperville, Ill., built a bigger building and I guess that's kind of appropriate.

I don't precisely worship libraries--but close. I may not get to museums all that often, or concert halls or the theater, but it's a poor week when I don't get to a library.

I started young. I was a precocious reader and at an early age entertained myself in the stacks reading all the back issues of Boys Life (where I picked up no end of unused knowledge about knots, woodlore, campfires, blazing trails, etc.)

My next big discovery, and it was a major one, was the academic library, which I began using in high school. An even bigger card catalogue! Way more books! Way more periodicals! Way more old newspapers on microfilm!

[...clipped for length, as I've gone mad, mad I tell you with editorial power, and also, you can see the missing bits here. - bp]

I see libraries as vast, well-organized repositories of knowledge. The delight is coming across some long-neglected volume and giving it another chance, however brief, to be read again. A city without libraries is like a city without churches.

That's why I'm glad to be taking part in your little fundraiser!

We Wuz First...Mostly.

Okay. So here's the deal.

Yes, New Orleans Mardi Gras is a great deal of fun. Yes, it is the nation's premier celebration of most of the seven deadly sins. Yes, if you show them, odds are they will throw them.

HOWEVER.

For the record, and I'm sorry Nawlineans but y'all know we Mobile folks do get going on this topic...

...we wuz first. Mostly. French settlers had likely been celebrating here and there, hither and yon, and probably at "Pointe du Mardi Gras" (est. 1699), but it would not have been the parading/trinket throwing/revelry in the streets sort of affair we now know. So: same name, different party.

In 1704, Mobile was made the capital of French Louisiana. Shortly thereafter, organized Mardi Gras celebrations begin. In, ahem, Mobile.

Skip ahead to 1831, where the Cowbellion de Rakin society forms...in Mobile...founded, no less, by a Pennsylvanian. (He died of yellow fever shortly thereafter, of course.) They paraded on New Years, and in 1852 began organizing Mardi Gras balls. So: parades, just a little early. And Mardi Gras balls.

1856: Parading Cowbellions move to New Orleans, and begin parading on New Years. A year later, another group of Mobile Cowbellions (and some of the Strikers Independent Society) move to New Orleans and help start the Krewe of Comus, who then started themed parades, the whole "Krewe" thing, and various modern Mardi Gras traditions.

So, to be fair, fully modern organized Mardi Gras coalesced in New Orleans, sure. But the parading society and the Mardi Gras ball started a few miles to the east, is all I'm saying.

*cough*andyourfirstcreweswereallrunbymobileexpats*cough*

I'm not sure who started the whole "You Show 'Em," thing, though I'm thinking it was probably y'all. But...uh...we have moonpies! And, um, far less vomit.

In closing, I guess we can share.

With much love,

your cousin Mobile

Blogathon Round-Up

Okay, so I was off posting comments, and I dropped by hello! yoshi to get in on the movie quote action. And I totally did not read and follow directions, submitted my answer to the wrong place, and messed it all up. So, I can't show my face over there again, but YOU can, and should!

And speaking of trivia, there's all kinds of fun, Simpsons-related contests and quizzes going on over at Welcome to the Monkey House.

At Life is RANTastic!, the Rocker Chick is getting down with her bad self, posting music rants, possible late-night trivia, and Q&A

And speaking of Q&A... Have you ever wanted to ask a question of a real, live oracle? Well, at Betty Baker's Blog, you can do just that.

Finally, at KMRL Mojo Radio Live, a variety of blogger DJs are making your Blogathon mix tape so you don't have to. They're also featuring Blogathon bloggers, including yours truly at around 5am PST.

Update: yoshi has forgiven me my gaffe.