Friday Carnival

It's late in the afternoon on a rainy Friday and I've just put a pot of sliced and seasoned shoulder steak into the oven. It's going to braise for an hour or so in a broth with onions and garlic until it, hopefully, comes out as filler for little roast beef sandwiches like these.



I made those mini po boys about a year and a half ago and they seemed like good parade food to me. We're about to find out.

We're also waiting to find out what Endymion is going to do.

The Krewe of Endymion will decide at 9 p.m. tonight whether it will attempt to roll along it's traditional Mid-City route Saturday or will reschedule to Sunday because of threatening weather, according to a local television report.

Thousands of parade-goers battle traffic and crowds each year to see the superkrewe -- known for it's massive floats, celebrity monarchs, and generous riders.

If weather conditions appear too unsafe, the krewe will roll Uptown behind Bacchus on Sunday night.

For all the bellyaching we've done about the obnoxious Endymion crowds... and they are obnoxious... the hatches around here at Yellow Blogging world headquarters are sufficiently battened down so as to survive the assault. I'm not sure all these folks are going to feel the same way, though.

Either way, things are about to get crazy busy around here. But, since I've got few seconds now, allow me to share a few photos from the last few nights.

Druids is usually known for being kind of a rinky-dink production. Their theme is lame. Their floats are recycled from other parades. One egregious example of this being the appearance of one of the Krewe of Pontchartrain's signature floats in the procession.



Those of us who were out last Saturday will have recognized Captain Sam.



But, for what it is, Druids put on one of its more enjoyable parades this year. I especially liked these fire twirlers.



The most unusual thing that happened Thursday night was the appearance of not one but two fire engines parked on the neutral ground right behind us.



It's worth noting that although the fire department brought what had to be the biggest ladders in all of Carnival with them to the parade, they managed to keep them well behind the crowd and so didn't subtract from anyone's enjoyment.



Chaos didn't present my favorite edition of their typically satirical parade. While most of the floats were topical and creative, they also tended to come from a more elitist and conservative point of view. One float lampooning the health care reform story might as well have been a Tea Party demonstration, while the immigration-themed float struck me as downright racist. I did enjoy this float titled "Unlucky Dogs" which featured the score of every Saints loss this past season.



Muses, meanwhile, was beautiful as always.







One quibble would be that I seem to remember them throwing a bit more heavily in years past. But never mind that since we did snag this year's most coveted and infamous throw.



Alright that's enough for now. Time to pull the steak out of the oven and get back outside.