To: Bcc: From: Will Ford Sent Thur 2/28/2013 11:43:28 AM Subject: Feb 28th tidbits & quotes "Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable." - Voltaire "Hold the fort!" - William Tecumseh Sherman Mardi Gras was first celebrated in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1827 when a group of young men returned from a trip to Paris and introduced the French carnival idea. Mardi Gras is always on the Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) before Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of the Lenten season. Mardi Gras means 'Fat Tuesday' from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent. The term was first used in America in 1699 by the French explorer Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who gave the name Pointe du Mari Gras to a spot on the Mississippi River, to commemorate the traditional pre-Lenten observance in France. Famous Mardi Gras carnivals outside France and New Orleans are held in Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. EFTA_R1_00805512 EFTA02146897