The Epiphany and the Victory

Only in New Orleans do we celebrate joint mythical and physical experiences simultaneously.  After reading the New Orleans Advocate and it's front page title," Philly Staked," one has the sense that all is celebrated here with some sort of food.  The pun here is read as a steak.  We convert everything into food references.  That is one reason so many travel to our dear city.  The food is always savory, sweet, and memorable!

The Epiphany is celebrated with the King Cake, which I mentioned last week.  Now we have a Philly Steak, which we scorn as a poor choice of sandwich. We have perfected the po-boy sandwich, which my neighbor, at Barcia's serve up with aplomb across the street.  

Here are two event thousands of years apart, but never-the-less paired together like a good wine and cheese.  WE draw upon food to nourish our spirits, and feed our collective souls.  We bury our dead above ground so that we may keep a better watch over them.  We challenge others to cook-offs and costume contests.  We believe that the dead will rise up and assist us in our day to day needs.  Hence, Hap Glaudy's name is evoked each and every time our Saints march towards a play-off game.

Hap "was lead sportscaster for New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV. He was part of a trio of colorful sportscasters that graced the airwaves in New Orleans for the decades beginning in the 1960s extending up until almost 2000." *

Hap swore that if the Saints made it to the Super Bowl that he would dawn a dress and march down Canal Street.  He died before such an event, but that did not stop hundreds of men from fulfilling Hap's promise.

Really, where else have you seen such irreverence and insanity mixed together. You have got to love the irreverence!  Here on the eve of the Epiphany, we are celebrating like Hap and  Wise Fools!

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hap_Glaudi