I don’t usually post at this time of day, but I’ve been busy doing normal Carnival stuff. I felt compelled to write about some of the weird shit that’s happened on the New Orleans parade route in the last few days. I wrote this on the fly while mildly intoxicated, so cut me some slack will ya.

There was a fatal shooting during the Bacchus parade on Sunday night. I suspect it’s part of a gang war raging in a neighborhood not far from that part of the route. It’s just a hunch but what’s a little conjecture among friends? I’m depressingly knowledgeable about crime in my adopted hometown.

Shootings on the parade route are rare but have happened before, alas. There are too many guns in our country and my city. It makes me nostalgic for the days when disputes were settled with fisticuffs, not gunfire. I prefer scathing sarcasm at ten paces myself.

I’m tired of people with guns flipping out. Nobody should attend a parade packing heat but the powers that be in this and other red states don’t see things that way.

Earlier on Lundi Gras, one of the largest floats in Carnival, the Leviathan, caught fire during the Orpheus parade. Bad dragon.

The fire was promptly extinguished, nobody was hurt, and the parade resumed after a thirty minute delay. We have our priorities in New Orleans.

Let’s move from flipping out to flipping off.

Mayor Teedy DBA Latoya Cantrell is facing a recall drive. The deadline is on Ash Wednesday. The pressure is getting to her. There was some sort of altercation involving a rider and the Mayor during the Tucks parade on Saturday. I’ve heard at least a dozen different versions. Suffice it to say that the Mayor reacted strongly with an extended middle finger.

For those who think Mayor Teedy is the first politician to flip somebody off, I give you Vice President Nelson Rockefeller in 1976 side-by-side with LaToya Cantrell:

There’s been much pearl clutching about the Mayor’s gesticulation in certain sectors of our population. I believe that rudeness begets rudeness. I happen to think the great Teedy flip off is funny. It’s likely to help her in the Black community. Those folks love a fighter.

I’m opposed to the recall. I think Cantrell is a bad mayor but she’s being scapegoated for long-term problems that the city hasn’t had the money to deal with. For example, our roads have always been bad but they’re worse now because our water system is ancient and grotty. That won’t change if Cantrell is recalled.

The last thing this city needs is a racially charged recall election. In Louisiana politics, it always comes down to race. It’s happening again.

Now that we’ve flipped out and off, the last word goes to Billy Brown: