Mardi Gras! One month late

In true SYSK fashion, Josh and Chuck are late to the game. But never fear, they will still detail Mardi Gras in all its colorful glory. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, people in Vancouver and Portland. We're coming to see you,
uh in March. Okay, did I step on you? No? No,
I stepped on you, I think. Man. All right, well
this is as clunky as we usually are. Uh, we
are going to be coming to those two fair cities
that I learned don't have direct flights yesterday and I

(00:20):
can't wait regardless. So we're gonna be in Vancouver on Sunday,
March twenty nine at the Chance Center. That's right. We're
kicking it up a notch there, so we need your support, yeah,
for real. And then the next day we're really kicking
it up a notch maybe two. In Portland. We're gonna
be at the Schnitzer Concert Hall on Monday March that's right,
and we need your support there to Portland because uh again,

(00:42):
these are bigger venues. We're giving it a whorld. Don't
don't put egg on our faces for God's sake. Yeah. Yeah,
So you can get all sorts of information, you can
buy tickets, everything you need to go to s Y
s K live dot com and we'll see you in March.
Welcome to stuff. You should know a product enough. I
heart radios. How stuff works, Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

(01:09):
I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles w Chuck Bryan over there,
there's Jerry over there. And this is Stuff you Should Know,
the super Topical Timely Edition because Chuck, this episode is
about Marty Graw and we're recording it on Marty Graw, right,
which in true stuff you should know fashion it will
come out a month after. So what we need to

(01:30):
do is do this a month before so it comes
out on that Tuesday. Well that would that be like
the Daily or something, not stuff you should know, you
know what I mean? Yeah, And I've been going around
the office showing everyone in my boobs all day. I
was wondering you had all those beads. No, I understand. Yeah.
I think we should apologize in advance to to the
people of New Orleans, because when it comes to something

(01:53):
this specific, we always just get killed. Right, it's so
personal to so many people. We're gonna mess up so much.
They're gonna be like, you didn't mention my crew, right, Um? Yeah,
I mean I've been to New Orleans twice for the
shows that we've done there. It was not around Marty
Graw read a bunch about it. So now I understand
New Orleans Marty Graw better than ever. But I also

(02:16):
learned that it's one of those things where it's kind
of like like researching humor, where you can understand the
mechanism behind humor and you can explain humor, but it
doesn't quite capture it fully. That's what we're gonna do here.
This one will stink right now, it won't. It'll be fine.
I've never been to Marty grow either, and I mean
I just have no interest at all, mainly because of

(02:38):
seeing a lot of cops Marty Gral New Orleans episodes.
Oh yeah, yeah, it's just it's a young It's not
for me, you know. But I love New Orleans. And
you can find your the most hospitable people on the
planet there at any time of year, and they won't
get mad at us. That's what's so great about them.

(02:58):
We're gonna mess up a lot and they'll be like, yeah,
it's all right, Yeah, don't worry about a guy. They'll
kill us, but they won't get mad at us, you
know what I mean. Maybe also I want to shout
out our friend Doug Shashary sassy. I even I practiced it,
Chuck it's a tough name. Who is at our New
Orleans show and brought us up what were they called

(03:18):
Budden Balls. Yeah, it was so good. But Doug's a
great guy with them without the gift of bud. Yeah, boy,
that guy is like a friend to the world. He
invited us again. So Shash Sassary if that name sounds familiar,
the Tony Sassary seasoning. He is the is an heir
to the throat. He's one of the Sasshary kids. Uh

(03:41):
grandkids maybe, and um. He has invited us to their
company Boil again this April. He has for like the
last few years. We're going to get to that one
of these these days we will. Uh. Just a great,
larger than life guy, like doesn't know a stranger, right.
We met him once and I felt like he was
the best friend. Yeah, he was hanging out with his backstage.
He's like great. Hey, this kind of reminds me of

(04:01):
the time I was hanging out backstage with Metallica every
time at the time I met the Three Stages. Yeah,
they were great. Yeah, it's just like that's awesome man. Yeah,
what a good dude. Anyway, Hey, Doug, Uh, Well, so
let's get it started, Charles, Yes, Uh, Marty Gras a
k A. And is it pronounced carnival or does that
have to have an e on the end? I think

(04:22):
it's Carnival. And I think it's Carnival because it actually
comes from the Latin words carna or carn a vale,
which means farewell to the flesh, meat, volleyball. That's that's
a better interpretation. It's wrong, but I like that farewell
to the flesh. Is that what it means. Yes, not
to be confused with candy man to farewell to the flesh.

(04:43):
It just means farewell to the flesh. Uh. Carny Ball
and Marty Gras begin in January, and like we said,
today's Fat Tuesday. So everything has been going on in
New Orleans and other places. But we're talking about the
New Orleans Mardy Gras, not Mobile Alabama. I'm sorry. I
know that you were the o g s but apparently right. Yeah,
they I was gonna say that they had the first

(05:05):
one by a mile from from this, like I think,
fifteen years before New Orleans was even founded. This, yeah,
and our very own. I mean, there are various neighborhoods
around the world that do stuff like this. Kirkwood in Atlanta,
for some reason has a little New Orleans thing and
every year they do a little Marty Gras parade and
paint the signs purple and gold and green. And I

(05:26):
don't know why. Maybe there's just some people from New
Orleans who showed up. Guess yeah, that that happened to
post Katrina. We got a lot of people that moved here.
But yeah, there was a lot. Yeah, that's right. I
wonder if that does have to do with that, and maybe,
but there it does. It does seem like the history
of Marty Gras and the different influences from Marty Graw
kind of have converged in New Orleans. It's like, yes,

(05:49):
give us this, We'll take this tradition. Yes, give us that.
And now everybody thinks when you think Marty Gras, you
think New Orleans. But one thing that I don't think
this article um really pointed out very well is Marty
Grass is a day that's one part of carnival. Yeah,
it's the culmination of a couple of weeks of partying

(06:11):
and parading and masquerade bawling. Yes, uh, and well we'll
just see a lot of fun stuff, right, But It's
so like if you go down to Rio for Carnival,
it's the exact same festival, celebrated differently in Brazil, but
the same thing they're celebrating the same thing as they're
celebrating throughout the Marty Gross season in New Orleans or

(06:33):
in kirk Way. I bet Brazil would be pretty fun.
I can't imagine with all the all those ugly men
and women that live there right just in drab like
baggy clothing. Man, that's my favorite part of the World
Cup is just seeing people in the crowd from Brazil,
all the models. The average person is a supermodel, so

(06:55):
that's what it says on the tourist webs that's right. Uh.
And Fat Tuesday, of course, is the day before ash Wednesday,
which is tomorrow and the beginning of Lent. I grew
up Baptist, as everyone knows, and so I'd never had
to You never got the charcoal on your forehead. No,
And in fact, in the in the South in the
seventies and eighties, there were so few Catholics that they

(07:16):
throw stones at you if you had the charcol Well,
I didn't even know what it was, really, I mean,
I was I think I remember being in college and
being like, you've got something on your head. I don't
remember what the ashes for. I'm sure one point three
billion Catholics will write in to tell us, but it's
it's the start of Land, like you said, which is
a period of fasting before Easter. Right, it's a very

(07:38):
it's a very holy period for the Roman Catholic Church. Yeah,
And I think the original idea was for the partying
is hey, let's let's indulge before we have to not
indulge right on, like foods and stuff. I don't think
it was like let's all get super hammered. Well, I
don't know, I don't know. Maybe so um fire to that.

(08:00):
Even it has roots and paganism even before the Roman
Catholic like every holiday we celebrate is based on paganism
and then syncretized by the Roman Catholic Church. But um,
the pagan roots of it were more um pragmatic or practical,
where you had stuff that was like the last of

(08:21):
the harvest um from the summer before the fall before
and it was starting to get kind of starting to
turn and spoil, and you needed to eat it before
that time. So it was this this period of like
using up everything in the house that was about to
turn bad eggs, and like you would do that. It
was called um uh graw boof I believe, or boof

(08:44):
graw no grab boof, which means fat fat cow or
fat fat beef. And it was it was this idea
that that, like the right, that the beef had been
fattened just to perfection and they weren't gonna get any fatter,
and maybe they wouldn't even make it any any further,
and you just slaughter them and eat them, or you
just eat all this stuff in your house. Maybe it

(09:06):
wouldn't make any further. Like that call is about to die.
It's like it's so fat, let's eat it. Uh. So
they think are that there's evidence at least that there
was Marty Grass celebrating going on, maybe as early as
the eighteenth century, definitely from what I saw. There was
a French explorer named Pierre Lemoie Sieur de Belleville. I

(09:29):
think you you really got it, Yeah, especially if you
crunch it together and speed it up. I can't. I
think he really nailed it. And he was exploring around
and camping out about fifty miles south of what is
now New Orleans and he's like, Hey, I know that
they're celebrating in France right now, so I am going
to christen the site. Point do Marty Gras? Uh? And

(09:52):
like we said, though, the real Marty Grass celebration kind
of started in Earnest and Mobile, Alabama though. Right, Yeah,
so he named the I don't know if he actually
celebrated Marty Gras, but he named that little area, right,
he named that area Ponto Marty Gras. But the so
that was six apparently four years later. Um in Mobile,

(10:13):
before it was even a town, they celebrated. They had
their first like Mardi Gras party or whatever, a ball
or something like that at the Fort. And then New
Orleans was it was UM Incorporator founded in seventeen eighteen,
and they started having UM Mardi Gras parties like shortly
after that. So he's all very close to the beginning
of the eighteenth century, everybody started having Marty Grass and

(10:35):
it was like directly from the French influence in the area.
And if you look into the early eight hundreds, like
the eighteen twenties and into the eighteen thirties, this is
when you start seeing a lit little bit more of
what we're talking about as far as uh, carriages that
are decorated, people parading in masks, walking on foot probably
at this point or in carriages. It was largely spontaneous though.

(10:58):
There'll just be people partying on the street wearing masks,
um that way. Yeah, and they did, and then other
people will walked that way too, and all of a
sudden you had a parade. But the thing is is
these this revelry on the streets because everybody was indulging.
And the point was like that just indulge, but we're like,
really over indulge. Like this wasn't just your average like

(11:20):
village party. This is everybody was getting trashed even back then,
and so people were getting in fights, and people were
beating up each other, and horses were kicking people right
off their feet. All sorts of crazy stuff was happening.
It was yeah, cops, New Orleans, um. And so the city,
the city leaders were like, we're not going to do
this anymore. This is out of hand. And an eighteen

(11:43):
fifties seven, I believe a group of actually from what
I saw, transplants from Mobile who were members of a
group called the Cowbellian de Rakian Society Okay, they um,
they said, hey, how about this, We'll actually organize a
legit parade and it will be much more orderly, there

(12:06):
won't be this chaos. And they formed the Mystic Crew
of Commas. Yeah, so there's a lot of k's in
place of c's mystic as a K. But it doesn't
look scary like we talked about, right and and oh
does it to you? Well, not mystic crew, but it
depends on what follows mystic because it could look creepy

(12:28):
to me. But crew was spelled with a K R
E W E. And we should go ahead and talk
a little bit about what a crew is. It's uh,
it's a group of people who get together and um,
technically they are like legit nonprofits and they get larger
at least charity organizations that they're supposed to be. Yeah,

(12:51):
and they are sort of the group of people who
would get together and say, all right, this is our gang,
and we're gonna gang in a good way, and we're
gonna make a float and do this theme this year
and all get together and get super drunk. Probably not
all of them, I bet you. There's a a non
drinking crew like one gotta be there. Has to be

(13:12):
at right, But they they they they were anonymous originally,
like they were secret groups that were like out and
proud in public, but like they wore masks and like
their identity really was anonymous, Like you were an anonymous
member of this group. That's right, and um. Over time

(13:34):
now people like the anonymity is not quite as important,
and it's to some though. I think I think sometimes
they take it seriously. Yeah, I mean not in that like,
I don't know, maybe you can't get kicked out. It might,
it might be more of a lighthearted thing, but I
think generally they try and still respect the the masks
on approach. Sure, okay, all right, but I mean, like

(13:54):
if you told somebody like I'm a member of the
Crew of Rex or something like that, not going to
kick you out, it's taking your mask off during the
parade specifically, I think. So, yeah, so they here about it.
We got that right, we definitely want But they grew
from these little tiny societies into very large groups, well
funded almost across the board because they're supported by dues,

(14:18):
and they put on parades and balls, masquerade balls on
the night of Mardy craw and um. Some of them
are just really enormous, have like big name celebrities and
like huge bands that play, and they'll still nominate a
person to be like the leader or the king or
queen each year. Like you could they could say, Josh Clark,

(14:39):
we want you to come down. They could and be
the King of our crew this year. And that's how
it started back in not eighteen fifty seven. I think
it's eighteen seventy two that the first king of a
crew was nominated, right, But eighteen fifty seven was when
the Mystic Crew of Comus had what's now looked at
the first as the first kind of modern Marty Gras parade,

(15:03):
and uh aside from a few years where like World
Wars interrupted things, they've kind of been doing this every
year since then. Yeah, there's another. So eighteen fifty seven
was a big year. Eighteen seventy two that I mentioned
was another big year because that year the the traditional

(15:23):
Marty Gras colors were added, I believe by the Crew
of Rex. And there's a lot of um, a lot
of misunderstanding supposedly, so that year the Crew of Rex
named as their king or the leader, I can't remember
which one he was. The Russian Grand Duke Alexei, who
was from the House of Romanoff, And they said, well,

(15:43):
these colors came from the House of Romanoff, the gold,
the green, and the purple that we all associate with
with Marty Gras. That's just absolutely not true. The House
of Romanoff has like red, yellow, and blue, I believe
are their colors. But that's just the legend that came about.
But some other stuff happened that year, like the idea
of electing a king to your Mardi Gras parade, um,

(16:06):
throwing beads for the first time happened that year. The song, Yeah,
the song what what is it? If I ever ceased
to love? That's not how I was gonna say. I've
never heard it actually, so you I bet you if
we played it, you might recognize it. So the colors,
though purple stands for justice, screen for faith, and gold
for power, supposedly all just made up out a whole cloth. Yeah,

(16:29):
And the idea with the beads was supposedly originally that
you would toss these two people who you thought exemplified
these traits. I'm not sure how accurate that is either. Um.
Now it is, of course morphed into another tradition, which
I don't even know if that's still going on. What hey, Mr,
throw me something? Yeah, throw me something, Mr, Mr throwing

(16:50):
some some combination of those words. Well, I'll show you
something and you throw me something. Oh, that's different. So
I think it went from you look like you're involved
in justice. Here's some b to there's this traditional call.
I think, um, Mr, throw me something, okay, and then
I think it morphed into the boops thing that you
just said. That literally quieter. But I don't even know.

(17:15):
You know, with all the advancements we've made in the
past few years, if people are doing that anymore, I
would like to know about that, because I'm not gonna
go down to Marty Grawl. I'll come to New Orleans,
not jazz Fest and not Marty Graw, and I'll have
a blast, but I'm not going to go to those
things there. We were there last October, I think, so yeah,
and there's candy in the streets, and I'm like, there's

(17:37):
no way this is left over from Marty Graw. Dude,
there's parades all the time. That's what I was wondering. Yes,
did they just do it all the time? I mean
every time I've been, there have been parties and parades.
It just it just seems like one of those towns
where they're always getting down throwing candy. Uh should we well,
I guess we should just say quickly if you're before

(17:57):
we break, if you're gonna go, we're not discouraging you go,
but plan in advance, because it's not the kind of
thing where on a the week before you can be like, hey, dude,
let's go. Man, I think you can go under those
for sure you'll be sleeping in the van kind of experience.
Then if you like book a hotel, you're in advance. Yeah,
you won't get a hotel, you won't be able to

(18:18):
eat an Emeralds or anything like that unless you plan
like far far in advance. You could storm Emeralds, which
people who sleeping vans and talk like you just did
mind to you? All right, So let's take a break
and we'll talk more about Marty Gras. All right. So

(18:54):
if you are the city of New Orleans, you love
Marty Gras because it brings in a ton of money
every year. Yeah, I think I'm like a half a
billion dollars. I couldn't believe that, man, half a billion
dollars so much a year, not since it started a
couple hundred years ago, but every year about half a

(19:15):
billion dollars in revenue. Yeah, and this is something I
thought was super cool. They're not. There's no corporate sponsorship there.
There can be. Oh really, but it's not like I
don't want to interrupt you go ahead. Well it's it's
not like there's one Mardi Gras committee and that is
sponsored by X car brand and there's a president of

(19:36):
Mardy Graw. Like it's all patchworks of cruise and neighborhoods
and people. Yeah, and all of them operate autonomously. Yes. Basically,
what the city does is say, we can have X
number of parades this year. These are the routes. Get
a permit if you want to do it. Everything else
is up to you. But like a local crew could
be sponsored by Chico's bail bondsman. Basically, yeah, okay man,

(19:58):
that was a great deep cause right there. But um,
it's customary not to. If you do that, you're you know, again,
you're operating autonomously, so nobody can tell you not to.
But it's just kind of looked down upon. But some do.
I saw somebody sponsored by bud Lte and I could
not find it. Um, so it gets that big. Yeah, dude,

(20:20):
the I mean just the the crew of Endemon e
N d y m O N. Who knows how to
pronounce half of these? I'm sorry, I'm sure we're butchering it.
I need to have my word butcher april on but
um the crew of Endemon, I'm pretty sure I got it.
There's usually ends their parade usually ends in the Superdome

(20:42):
with bud Man basically duf man Um in the Superdome
and they'll have like a huge concert like this year.
I think the Superdome is under construction, so they're ending
it somewhere else. But like Sticks is playing, Train is playing.
There's like five bands Sticks. Dude. Sure I would walk
however long to go see Sticks Sticks without Dennis too young,

(21:06):
But that's really as he did. No, he just doesn't.
They broke up and Sticks went on without their lead singer.
I don't know, man, I think the crew of Endemont's
got enough like cash to bring him back. You to
be cool as if Endemon had Sticks and like, uh
the Mystic crew had Dennis de Young on the other
side of town. You got to choose, you know, your allegiance. Yeah,

(21:27):
I don't want to hear Mr Roboto or too much
time on my hands. I think Tommy Shall sing that. Okay,
so when did that start? Tommy? Well, now he's always
been around, but he was there was the lead singer.
Then Tommy Shall played guitar and sang a few of
their songs, okay, and then he took over when Dennis
the Young left. Sure, okay, what do you do when
the Dennis to Young vacuum opens up? I don't know,

(21:50):
I mean step in there could also fill it with
Sammy Hagar. Oh man, I was listening to some Van
Hagar this weekend because that's what Emily loves. It was great,
big shout up to Aaron Hagar. Yeah, this is a
shout out at huh. I guess so um. I don't
remember how we got on that, but oh yeah, so
so yes, some of these should be so big. The
super Cruise specifically, we'll talk a little more about that,

(22:12):
but the super Cruise are like these big giant ones
that are just tradition that have hundreds of members on,
you know, in their parade. One of them, I think
end DeMont Um has one float that's like three sixty
ft long. There's like thirty two hundred floaters in their parade,
just a ton of people they throw out, like I think, yeah,

(22:34):
fifteen million throws things that they throw out, everything from
beasas to balloons and all that. Fifteen million in a parade.
So yeah, these things can get like bud Light corporate
sponsorship level amazing. So uh, it is an integrated parade
now in series of parades now obviously pre integration, Uh,

(22:56):
there were communities, African American communities in New Orleans that
got together their own jam, which I bet was quite
a party. Um. The crew, the Zulu Social Aid and
Pleasure Club Incorporated is one said cruise. Although I did
see that there are some white people in that crew. Now,
oh didn't integrate. That's cool, I think so because there

(23:17):
was some controversy. They dress up in I think traditional
African garb and they well they were grass skirts. Well
they were black face, to which I saw a couple
of years ago there was a call to stop the
black face even though the African American and they said,
but there were some white members doing it too, And
they said, you know, because of the minstrel roots and

(23:38):
which I totally want to do one on minstrel shows.
Uh to not do it anymore? Other people say no,
it's it's more rooted in like the mask tradition for us.
So I'm not sure if they're still doing that or not.
As of I was reading on their website about their
history that this is not the first time they were
kind of protested by UM African Americ Ricans. In the sixties,

(24:03):
there was a big like push against him in their
membership dwindled down to I think sixteen people because it
was just so unpopular what they were doing. I think
Louis Armstrong were black face one year as they're really king,
but they so the Social Aid and Pleasure Club. The
Social Aid part is that that group started out back
in the day where UM, and it wasn't just African Americans,

(24:23):
but I could definitely see during the Jim Crow era
where African Americans needed to do this. They would all
chip in like membership dues, and then when they fell
ill that you know, that larger pot of money would
take care of them, basically like insurance is supposed to work, right.
But that's where the Social AIG came from. But they
still are a charity organization. Interesting, and Dougie Fresh is

(24:44):
playing at their ball today. Oh really, if you had
a chance to see sticks or Dougie Fresh, which would
or too young doug you Fresh? It would be pretty cool.
I know of Dougie Fresh, but I'm not. I'm not
hip to those j ms. You don't have to be
hip to to know Dougie Fresh. Well, I mean it's
been around. I mean I don't know them. I guess

(25:05):
what I mean. I know I'm not hip already. A
second ago, I think you said balloons instead of doubloons. No,
I didn't, I think. So let's read why balloons? Uh,
we need to pass forward. So doubloons are we've reached

(25:28):
a new low here and here twelve Uh. They are aluminum.
They are a little coin like objects and they have
um the Cruise in Sydney on one side and then
whatever their theme is on the other. They toss these
out of people. There's a lot of tossing. Yeah, and
actually those things to balloons, um fall under the larger
umbrella of throws of balloons. Did I said to balloons this? Okay? Man,

(25:52):
you got my head chuck. Yeah, those are throws throws
or anything that is thrown from afloat and usually it's
a very inexpensive souvenir deeds, very very customary. Those DA
balloons are a little more UM saw it after a challenge,
like I think, if it's like um, if it has
like the groups insignia and then on the other side

(26:12):
of the theme that year, it's definitely considered a collectible
and not just generic ones. I guess I think so.
And then um, like others, other people's throws are like
other cruise throws are like really sought after, Like the
zulus throws are coconuts um and like real coconuts. I
think they were at one point. I'm not sure if
they had everybody, but I read this Chowhound article about

(26:36):
throws and they were saying, like, the Zulus don't throw
coconuts anymore because of legal reasons. Well, it's funny. There's
a lot of stuff in here. Um, you might as
well talk about the kincakes and the chokable that they
would put inside of the kincake. Uh. If you've never
had a kincake, it is a big uh sugared cake.

(26:58):
It's oval with a hole in the middle. It's like
a Danish yeah, but it's a Danish just like slathered
in sugar of of purple green and gold and very
rich and sugary. And the tradition, of course to put
the little plastic baby Jesus or represented baby Jesus. Initially,

(27:18):
I guess it's a naked baby, sure, swaddling clothes. Uh.
That started what was the guy's name, It's a Donald
Intrager who started that in the forties. Yeah, the nineteen forties.
So it's not like a hundreds year old tradition. Yeah,
and it actually didn't survive terribly long because at some
point in time in the not too distant past, Baker's

(27:42):
started to say, we don't want to get sued either.
Those zulus are onto something. We're We're going to stop
baking the little plastic baby dolls into this cake. Yeah,
that just seems insane because people could choke on them.
So now it comes in like a little pack, like
a little cellophane package that says stick in at your
own risks, and then you just I guess you stick

(28:04):
it in and then lick your hand and smooth icing
back over to to cover up that part. So I'm
trying to figure out the first time we went to
New Orleans. I think it was around Marty Gras, unless
they have another big kincake celebration, which they might. They
don't is that they do. Not. Kingcake season actually runs

(28:26):
from um King's Day, which is January six, which is
the day that officially kicks off Marty Grass season in
New Orleans, until ash Wednesday. You're not supposed to be
able to get a kincake outside of that. So you know,
it may not have been for a tour, because I
did take another trip down there with our friends Gus

(28:46):
and Matt and their son. I can't remember if that
was the same trip or not, so I'm getting a
mom mixed up. But whenever we were down there, our
friends Makes and Jackie who lived there, uh took us
on like a neighborhood kincake. That traveling party. I think
that was for our show, because those people I think
you're talking about came backstage that first show, Maxing Jackie
definitely did okay. And then I specifically remember walking under

(29:10):
a scaffolding bleacher painted green, maybe even purple, and it
was along a street around It must have been either
before or after something, but it was during the season,
so I guess Ultimately, what I'm saying is the first
time must have been around then. Yeah, And it's also
both of our recollections together it forms a cohesive. And

(29:33):
I'm not the first person to uh have various New
Orleans trips kind of blurred together, blur together in my head.
But all I know is that kincake thing was I
felt like strangers, literal strangers were just like, come on
in and giving you kincake, yes, and every other kind
of great food and sweet. Yeah, they do have a

(29:53):
pretty good food down there. Man. So um man, we're
just knocking the traditions out, aren't we. Else? What else
should we talk about? The parades? Yeah, I mean there's
a lot of parades. Uh, you know, fifty sixty, seventy
eighty parades. I think this year accounted seventy nine nine.
Like that's the level of commitment you're getting out of

(30:13):
Josh Clark is hand counting the number of parades from
the parade schedule. Uh, the twelve days leading up to
Marty Grass, those final twelve days are when now that's Carnival.
I don't know why this article was so averse to
saying it. Yeah, that is weird because they kept saying
anything but just calling it carnival. Well, no, no, no,

(30:34):
but it leads up to the day of Marty Gras, right, yeah,
Marty Graz one day of Carnival, Yeah, which is what
carnival is, the twelve days leading up to Marty CROs,
including Marty CROs. That's right. But those are concentrated in
the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, um St. Bernard and Sant Tammany.

(30:56):
M Is that how it's pronounced. Probably, But there are
pre season parades like it has eked out longer and
longer over the years, is the impression I get. Yeah,
and just the same that King Cakes become available January six,
that same day King's Day, there's a couple of parades
that typically um, a couple of parades or at least
events that typically um kick off this whole season, even

(31:20):
though Carnival doesn't start until the second Friday before Fat Tuesday.
Just chew on it. It's all there. Um. The actual
Mardy Grass season kicks off on January six, that's right.
Chew on that naked baby made of plastic. Right, And
because we should also, we haven't said this one more
thing about dates and calendars. It's a lot of fun.
Um because the the Lenten season can change because Easter

(31:46):
is not on one fixed day. Has to do with
the moon or like rabbit reproduction or something like that.
That Um, Marty Gras can actually fall anywhere between February
three and March nine. That's a big long stretch that
it could fall on, right, But it has to do
with when Easter comes, because Marty Grass forty days plus

(32:08):
six before Easter, that's right, those six Sundays. Right, we
should have a sideshow called Calendar Talking. We should. It
would be great. We just launched a spinoff just like
too Close for Comfort. That's right, Too close for comfort? Right.
We heard back from a few people on that. So
it's not a spinoff of anything, right, No, I don't
think so. Uh So, these crews have themes every year,

(32:32):
and they they can range. Sometimes it's about a legend
or a famous story. Sometimes it's a kid's story, sometimes
something from literature, mythology. I think about half of these
crews have names that are Greek or Roman in origin. Right, Yeah,
that's well. I think it's kind of a nod to
the pagan roots. Um, and it also includes Egyptian stuff too,

(32:56):
and I saw that the whole idea of wearing masks
and like masquerade balls and all that actually traces its
roots back to ancient Egypt. So it's really interesting like
this this stuff kind of traveled from ancient Egypt to
ancient I guess Greece and then Rome and the medieval
Europe and then over to the New World and then

(33:16):
interesting that it's not like it's just been one unbroken chain,
but it's it's connected enough that the current cruise name
themselves after like Osiris or Isis or you know who
isis the deity? Um, they're not down with the terrorists organization,
right right? Um, that that that there's at least that

(33:39):
awareness that this is rude to This whole tradition is
rooted in in in in history that far back. I
think it's really cool and all brought to you by
bud Light and show me your boobs. Uh should we
take a break? Uh sure, all right, let's take a
break and we'll talk a little bit more about super
cruise right after this. What's a super crew, Josh, Well,

(34:22):
a super crew the best crew there there. Well, so
typically there's a couple of qualifiers. One, they're usually um,
very well funded, large membership. Um, and they'll have their
parades will occur within the last few days before and
including Marty Grawl. Yeah. And these are the ones, like

(34:43):
you were saying, that have some of them three hundred
foot long floats or you know, like a hundred floats
in their crew. These are the ones that get the
celebrities in that convertible at the front. Yeah. And just
like having corporate sponsorship, it was customer. You did not
have outsiders as like the king of your parade. I

(35:04):
would think so. Um. And then it was the crew
of Bacchus that was the first to kind of break
from that tradition. Back in nine nine Danny Kay, the
famous whig designer. What does that mean? I don't even know. Okay,
I thought there was some like serious in joke that
I was no, no, no, okay, just random Yeah, I gotcha,

(35:26):
but no. He was a famous musical actor, right yeah,
and wig design Uh. And the the parade format is
basically where the captain I think we were calling them leaders. Yeah,
they can't be called leaders to a crew leader. Uh.
They are at the head of procession. They're usually on
a float that is, or they could be on horseback

(35:47):
or in that convertible like we're talking about, and then
it is followed in succession by officers, kings, queens. Sometimes
you got maids and dukes and everyone's just having a
good old time, right, And so you said something to
about the themes, right, So each parade and press processions theme.
There's like you said, there's no overall theme to Mardi Gras,

(36:09):
but there's a theme for each and every parade, and
the crew selects it every year, and like their floats
are going to reflect that. But what's funny is they're
very frequently like children's literature, mythology, um like like historical
stuff for stuff that everybody knows, like almost bland. And

(36:29):
the reason that I kind of drew from the subtext
of this article is there's a finite number of floats
that you can rent in New Orleans for your parade,
and a lot of them have things like little bo
Peep on them, because some of these are rented and
a lot of them are typically it's just the super
crew that has the money and the man power um

(36:50):
to to build a float from scratch every year, and
so the super Creuse will have like way varying themes
but like a smaller crew will have a theme where
you know, they can cobble together some floats, some rented
floats to make a cohesive um um theme. Yeah, like
what do you got left too close for comfort? Right,
the Jim J. Bullock float. But for that year the

(37:12):
Zulus did the Seinfeld theme. That was right, But the
but I think that the floats available have to do
with the theme because um interesting, you know, there are
just a there's a finite pool and there's a lot
of them though, so much so that I think St.
Charles Parish, believe or St. Orleans Parish, one of the two,
has an ordinance that the same float can't go through

(37:36):
the business district in more than two parades during one
Mardi Grass season. Right, so let's say you have a
pre parade with Little bo Peep. Uh, you can't go
back out as Little bo Peep. You can you can
one more time? Oh you can only do it? Can't
two more? So they give you two? Yeah, the same
float can't be used more than twice in more than

(37:56):
season through the central business district. But there's four different
parishes putting on Marty Gras Parade, So technically that same
float could see a pretty decent amount. So that's just
in each parish, just in either or Leans or St.
Charles Paris, I can't remember, so a little bo peep
could be seeing lots of action potentially conceivably sure, Yeah, alright,
but I think that's pretty interesting. It really kind of

(38:17):
reveals like how seriously they take their Marty Gras parades
in New Orleans, their local laws saying how many times
a float can be used because they want to keep
it fresh and interesting. That's right. Yeah. So the other
thing too, when they're selecting these leaders or the royalty,
it says sometimes it's just random draws for the king

(38:39):
and queen. I would think it would a lot of
more thought would go into it than that, but I
don't know. Maybe some of them do pick randomly, not
if it's coming from your membership, and you know, I think, I, oh, well,
that makes it fair, I guess, right, because and you
can't jockey for position, But um, you can also invite
celebrities other times. Um, you actually will pay for the

(39:00):
privilege to to be the king or the queen or
duke or a maid in the court. Um. I didn't
see how much you would pay, but yeah, it was
very curious about that. That's pretty rich. Yeah, you know,
like like we pick you, congratulations, give us some where's
my where's my two dollars? So the costumes and the

(39:20):
masks are obviously a big, big part of this um
that's where a lot of money is generated custom rental
and making original costumes. Um. It is tradition, like we
said to to leave on your mask, but they're way
more flexible about it now than they used to be,
I think. But yes, but Bacchus and Rex I believe,

(39:42):
are like you can lose your membership if you take
your mask off during their Marty Gras parade. I'll have
you killed you well right there in the street, which
is ruined more than one Marty Gras. Yeah, but apparently
it's so um like the mask part of it is
so um ingreened. It's such an ancient part of this
that goes way back in time that it's still just

(40:07):
totally widespread today, not just among people in the prey,
but among people watching the parade too. And this article says,
you might feel weird actually not having a mask on,
but street vendors have you covered. You can just buy
one from one of them. Of course you can. There's
plastic garbage everywhere to buy and throw. Right. You used
to sell it, didn't you. Oh? I sold the glow noodles.

(40:28):
I love those, man. Uh can we talk about moon pies? Sure? Sure,
So this makes a lot of sense as a throw
to take the place of something that could really hurt somebody,
because a traditional throw in New Orleans a sweet treet
used to be cracker Jack's boxes, which are very you know,
it's like any tiny box. If you throw that from

(40:50):
ten or twelve feet away down onto someone, one of
those corners can hit you in the face and that's
no fun. So the tradition of throwing the moon pie,
which if you don't know what a moonpie is, you're
missing out. It is a Southern It's gonna call it delicacy,
but that might get him at gas station, so it
really isn't. But they are two Graham cracker cookies, soft

(41:12):
ones between with marshmallow filling in between, dipped in chocolate.
It's kind of like a portable s'more that's room temperature
cold and soft. Yeah. Like it's not a hard gram
right right, it's like soft and crumbly. Yeah, And they're
you know, I haven't had one in years and years,
but I'm from the South, so I've had a moonpie

(41:33):
or two in my day. Yeah. You. We went on
this little kick a few back, yeah, where she was
like what is this and tribe when she's like, let's
there's a gas station, let's stop and get a moonpie.
And it lasted for about a week and a half
and she's like, so you got gas twice shade to
basically I think. I mean, they have other flavors now too,
but the chocolate is the the original. Uh. And they

(41:54):
started in nineteen seventeen when a salesman traveling salesman from Chattanooga, uh,
the Chattanooga Bakery ran into as the story goes, a
coal miner from Kentucky who said, you know what we
could use down there in the coal mines is a
a portable snack right afordable? And they came up with

(42:17):
the moonpie, I guess. And that coal miner was Lauretta
Loon's father, wouldn't that who That movie was about coal
miner's daughter. Yea great movie. Uh. And this became a
big Southern thing, but it didn't become a Marty Graw
thing until Mobile, Alabama and they're cracker Jack's cracker Jack
Ordinance two, I said, I think so where they said

(42:39):
the city actually outlawed cracker Jack's being thrown from Marty
Graw floats because people were getting injured by him or hurt.
So people said, well, moonpies totally makes sense. You get
hit in the eye with the moonpie, not a big deal.
And now if you go to Marty grow in New Orleans,
apparently you can get moonpies thrown at you all over
the place. Great, and you don't even have to don't
even have to duck, nope, or take your shirt off.

(43:02):
You got anything else? No? I don't either. Happy Marty
Grob everybody, Happy ash Wednesday? I guess depending on when
you hear this, Happy Easter? Sure? Okay? Uh And since
I said happy Easter, of course that means it's time
for listening mail. I'm gonna call this the long awaited

(43:24):
fire safety email. Thank you. I can finally clear this
out of my inn box. I know you've been asking
me off and on since last August. Hasn't really been
that long? Yeah, oh man, but not like every week.
It's not like I'm not a sadist. Uh. Here we go,
I'm a research engineer that studies fired dynamics and material flammability.

(43:48):
My group has developed campaign to educate the public about
general fire dynamics, fire safety, and what to do in
case of a dwelling fire. The cornerstone of this is
this as good as he thought it was hoped it
would be. The cornerstone of this campaign is called close
before you doze, and that is c l O s E.
Not clothing. Oh, I'm glad you said that. Yeah. Uh,

(44:09):
it's focused on residents closing their bedroom doors were going
to sleep because the strategy has been extensively tested in
large scale and experiments and provide I'm sorry, proven to
slow down the advance of the fire to provide adequate
time for firefighters to conduct search and rescue. That makes
sense to close your doors when you go to bed, Yeah,
because if a fire does break out in your house,

(44:30):
it will keep the smoke out a lot longer than
it would if your doors open, giving firefighters a time
to come get you. Did you previously sleep with your
doors open? Have you always been a door closed guy? Uh?
Guiltily must admit that I still sleep with the door open.
I'm toast. Is there a reason or just like or

(44:52):
you do you not even care? I don't like is
it a conscious thing? I know, it's more it just
feels weird to me to have the door closed sleeping.
But yeah, all right, I listened to Stuff you Should
Know during my morning and evening commutes to really enjoy
all the research topics and the fine and I find
that the way Josh and Chuck that's us present the
information has always been very easy for me to relate

(45:13):
to and understand. I think that it is a great
medium to help educate the population about the potentially life
saving difference a closed door can make the event of
a fire. It's truly stuff everyone should know. And hope
you think so as well, and help us to get
this information to the public. A year later almost let
me see here that is from Mark. Nice work Mark

(45:34):
who again as a research engineer doing work in fire
dynamics and safety. Nice work Mark, Thanks Chuck for doing
that one. Um, I hope you guys listen to Mark.
Don't follow my example. Close your door when you sleep, yeah,
well you leave ours open to Yeah, we've got animals
and the kids, like people need to get in and out.
So uh, if you want to be like Mark and

(45:55):
let us know a p s A to tell everybody
we love doing those. We'll get to it eventually. Up promise. Um,
you can go ahead and send us an email, wrap
it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it
off to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff
you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How
Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio because

(46:16):
at the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. H