Fat Tuesday 2025

Today is Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in French.  The first Mardi Gras celebrated in the U.S. was on March 3, 1699 after French explorers landed in New Orleans.  Mobile, Alabama, would argue this, as they say the first celebration was in their city in 1703!

The reason it's called Fat Tuesday is it's the last day before the Christian observation of Lent, a 40 day period in preparation for Easter, when adherents forego rich fatty foods, or indulgences they resume on Easter Sunday.  So, the last day to pig out! 

I have one Fat Tuesday postcard, mailed in 1917, of Rex and his Pageant.  Rex is "King of the Carnival."  The first Rex Parade occurred in 1872.  It was actually organized in honor of Russia's Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich visit, and to promote tourism.  

Speaking of postcards... I am quite upset by the ones I received yesterday in the mail.  Somewhere between Wyoming and Oregon a postal employee bent the envelope!  

Of course, my antique postcards were bent.  As my son said, "They lasted all this time..."  Past tense.  These were picked special, not just random postcards I sometimes purchase. 

This first doesn't look so bad, but you can easily see the damage in all the others.  

c.1910

Two "Early Days of Sports," Football and Foxhunting.  Oddly, the football one was mailed as a New Year's greeting 1908.  These show the worst of the damage.

The Trusty Servant, Hircocervus.  "Aristotle utilized the idea of a fabulous goat-stag to express the philosophical concept of something that is describable even though it does not really exist." Wikipedia

Is that saying the Trusty Servant doesn't exist?

"Greetings out of Hamelin"