Val Kilmer, “King” of Mardi Gras?

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It’s Mardi Gras this week, and New Orleans has been living it up in honor of one the city’s most famous holidays. It’s not just Louisiana residents that are getting in on the action however. As Videogum reports, none other than Val “Iceman” Kilmer was on hand to help celebrate, decked out in a white skin-tight leotard and full Mardi Gras “king” regalia.

Mr. Kilmer apparently claimed the ceremonial honor of Bacchus in the city’s annual Bacchus Parade. C’mon guys, let’s not give Val a hard time. He was doing it for a good cause – Mr. Kilmer did stop by a local hospital to visit with sick children. An all-around good guy and quite a Mardi Gras king, don’t you think??

[Via Buzzfeed]

Click the images to learn about the most unusual museums in the world — from funeral customs, to penises, to velvet paintings, to stripping.

As Mardi Gras picks up, so do arrests in New Orleans

by Jeffrey White on

Here’s a fun fact: Nearly 400 people were arrested in New Orleans this past weekend, forced to chill out at central lockup after being charged with public drunkenness, lewd contact, resisting arrest, disturbing the peace and a variety of other misdemeanors that are probably par for the course during Mardi Gras time.

New Orleans Times-Picayune spent the weekend looking at mug shots. Sadly, the paper does not publish them. However it does report that 300 people were arrested just in the period from 12:01 a.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday (so, like half the weekend).

A husband-wife team were thrown in the clink for having sex in public; various women were hauled in for prostituting themselves; a 48-year-old man was charged with “refusing to go to sleep or leave for home,” at 4 a.m. Saturday. One motorist was charged with “driving on curbs.” Lewd contact, of course, can refer to a lot of flashing for beads, but it usually refers to the act of relieving oneself on a city wall.

So, it’s a busy time at the city jail, and we’re still a day away from the festival’s climax.

Five Places To See Before Climate Change Ruins Them Forever

by Kraig Becker on

CNN.com has an interesting article naming the five places that everyone should see before they are forever altered by climate change, which is already having an indelible effect on our planet.

This list was compiled by Bob Henson, the author of The Rough Guide To Climate Change, who wants to give travelers a heads up on the best places to visit in the near future, as they are also the most likely to see the most drastic changes in the near future.

The list includes The Great Barrier Reef, whose coral reefs are now threatened by warming waters, causing them to die at an alarming rate. The GBR is a popular tourist destination and is considered one of the best places to SCUBA dive and snorkel in the world, which has hastened some of the damage. With so many people visiting, and the environment already fragile, the likelihood of causing harm is increased.

New Orleans, Louisiana also finds its way onto Bob’s list for obvious reasons. Hurricane Katrina made us all painfully aware that the city sits below sea level and is precariously protected by a series of walls and levies. As the planet warms up however, and the polar icecaps melt, the sea levels are going to rise, endangering New Orleans further. It’s possible that the city may not even exist at all in the future.

Of course, the ongoing debate is, should we rush off to visit these places, as well as the other three on the list, thereby increasing the chances of those places being altered forever. Or should we stay home, and limit our footprint? That is a question that all travelers will be wrestling with for years to come.

Lives saved from missed connection on flight to Buffalo

by Jamie Rhein on

Imagine this scenario. You’re feeling aggravated because your flight has been delayed. Because of this delay, you’ve missed your connection on another flight. The hours have ticked by while you’re wondering when you might get to your destination.

Then you find out that the plane you would have been on if your flight had not been delayed had crashed into a house and everyone on board had died.

That’s the case of three people who would have been on Flight 3407 that crashed near Buffalo, New York if their flight out of New Orleans had not been delayed for five hours. The three–Dave Beckeny, Paul Dwaragowski and a business associate, were heading to Buffalo but missed the Newark connection. As one of them said, knowing what could have happened if they had been on time is “weird.”

Yesterday when Tom, and then I wrote about the crash, we didn’t know about these three until Heather sent this Nutty News post my way. Again, here is a reminder that so much about arriving or not arriving at destinations seems random. Still most of us get where we’re heading — never knowing what might have happened if we had walked out of the house ten minutes earlier or headed home sooner than expected. Regardless of whether a flight is delayed or leaves on time, enjoy where you are. That moment is yours.

New Orleans could cut efforts to keep the French Quarter clean

by Jeffrey White on

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans’ City Hall poured a lot of money into spiffing up the French Quarter, the thinking being that the best way to get the Big Easy back on its feet was to attract even more tourists to the likes of Bourbon Street.

The results have not been lost on anyone who has visited the city in recent years. Once a collection point for puke, trash and a host of unpleasant odors, the French Quarter now shines. But for how long?

The global financial crisis isn’t sparing the French Quarter. The city is talking about dramatically cutting back on the extra $4 million in cleaning and sanitation services — including having workers on the streets 20 hours a day — it has been spending in the district in recent years.

Starting January 31, there will still be trash collection, but services like street washing and mechanical street sweeping are likely to be eliminated, and 75 sanitation workers could be removed from the streets.

So, as Mardi Gras fast approaches, is the French Quarter destined to return to its past grimy state? Some neighborhood denizens fear so.

The Associated Press has this good report on the Quarter and the current budget battle that is putting its cleanliness and overall transformation in jeopardy.