Friday, February 8, 2008

Support Our Troops


I don't know about Carnival celebrations in other countries, but at what we call Mardi Gras (French for Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar), the people riding the floats throw strings of cheap, shiny plastic beads at the crowd. People line the parade route screaming, pleading beeeaaddsss!, as if the nobility were dispensing gold coins to the peasants. What exactly happens to all these baubles over the next few days is a bit of a mystery.

In this photo, a spectator is using a ploy that is either fraudulent or just weird, a sign begging "BEADS FOR THE TROOPS." "Support our troops" signs and stickers are common in the U.S. these days. Even those of us who are horrified by Bush's military adventures have respect for the men and women in the field. Does the man holding the sign intend to send box loads of trinkets to soldiers in Iraq? Is there a more selfish reason? Either way, it's pretty strange.

2 comments:

Ming the Merciless said...

Good question!

Also, it amazes me what people would do for those plastic beads. In New Orleans, we get to see a lot of naked body parts all in the bid for getting colorful beads.

But I think alcohol has a part in the craze too.

Petrea Burchard said...

Just tooling around the City Daily Photo Blogs tonight. Your photos are fun, very colorful. But what makes your blog shine is the commentary.