Fahrenheit 451 is supposed to be the ignition temperature of paper. It is also the name of a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury, in which all books are banned and "firemen" incinerate any that are found. It struck me as a strange theme for a boozy, silly festival. Maybe it had something to do with the troubling tendency in this country to remove books from libraries and schools that some people find objectionable. Okay, but at Mardi Gras?
