8A
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2009
FAT TUESDAY
Partying in St. Louis for Mardis Gras
BY MICHELLE SPREHE
msprehe@kansan.com
Binge drinking, bead-flinging and body flashring will set the scene this weekend, but not just in New Orleans.
St. Louis has the second-largest Mardi Gras celebration in the nation after New Orleans, according to Stouis.com. On Feb. 21, the city will have its annual parade, as well as a Bud Light party tent and performances by a DJ and other musical guests.
Blair Tudas, Leawood senior, leaves Friday to celebrate in St. Louis for the fourth year in a row.
"It's pretty much the same as any bar you'd go to, except this occasion everyone is drunker and people are showing body parts for beads," Tudas said.
About three inches of snow covered the ground last year, but that didn't discourage Tudas and his friends from celebrating.
Clayton Holden, Overland Park junior, accompanied Tudas last year and said he remembered some wild moments.
"I saw a guy in a full Cat in the Hat costume walking down the street drinking with Thing One and Thing Two." Holden said.
Holden and Tudas said their friends were also a source of amusement. One friend dropped his phone in a portable toilet and reached in to retrieve it. Another friend was so intoxicated that he briefly passed out in the snow.
"It was like babysitting, but really fun at the same time," Tudas said.
Ashley McMinn, St. Louis senior, has participated in St. Louis Mardi Gras activities in the past, but last year, she experienced the holiday while studying abroad.
Mardi Gras, called Carnival in Europe, highlights the color, variety and pleasure available throughout the year, said Crystal Hall, assistant professor of Italian.
"Whether or not people know the history of the celebration, Carnival is a period of release," Hall said. "It's a time to do many of the things we don't make time for during the year, or shouldn't do during Lent."
Mardi Gras and Carnival are fun ways to explore a culture and see what it has to offer. Hall said.
When McMinn stepped off the train in Venice to celebrate Mardi Gras last year, she was greeted by a face-painter who
HISTORY OF MARDI GRAS
■ Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is a Roman Catholic celebration that occurs the tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent.
It was first celebrated in the United States near New Orleans on March 3, 1699.
gave her a mask of green, black and white paint, accented with gold glitter.
"They try to play up around your eyes like how a mask would be," McMinn said. "It's about celebrating like they do."
Among the differences between the celebrations in the U.S. and Italy, McMinn noticed the use of masks and elaborate costumes in Venice.
"It's more of a production." McMinn said. "They have a huge performance and a lot of traditions and street performers."
This year, McMinn plans to celebrate in St. Louis again. She is staying in a
The official colors of Mardi Gras are:
Purple, which represents justice
Gold, which represents power
Green, which represents faith
Future Mardi Gras dates are:
Feb. 16, 2010
March 8, 2011
Feb. 21, 2012
Feb. 12, 2013
March 4, 2014
Source: Historv Channel
hotel, even though her home is about 30 minutes from downtown.
"Because of parking problems and being there all day, it's just easier to find your way back to a hotel room than to make it back all the way home," McMinn said.
Tudas and Holden said they also planned to stay in a hotel and expected to spend about $400 during the weekend.
"Nothing's free at Mardi Gras." Holden said.
Edited by Heather Melanson
Planning a last minute trip to St. Louis to celebrate?
Here's what you need to know:
Here's what you need to know:
Weather:
Ways to get there:
Megabus
12 degrees Saturday — Cloudy, high of 31 degrees, low of 20 degrees Sunday — Sunny, high of 37 degrees, low of 22 degrees
Friday — Partly cloudy, high of 42 degrees low of 25 degrees
Outbound Trip from Kansas City
■ Departat: Friday, 11:30 a.m.
Arrive: 4:20 p.m. in St. Louis
$27 per person
■ Departat: Friday, 8:45 p.m.
Arrive: Saturday, 1 a.m. in St. Louis
$27 per person
Arrive: 7:50 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo.
$30 per person
Return Trip from St. Louis
Depart: Sunday, 5:30 a.m.
Arrive: 10 a.m. in Kansas City, Mo.
$15 per person
Depart: Sunday, 5:30 a.m.
Depart: Sunday, 3 p.m.
Outbound Trip from Kansas City
■ Depart: Friday, 7:30 a.m.
Arrive: 1:10 p.m. in St. Louis
$26 per person
■ Depart: Friday, 4 p.m. by bus
Arrive: 6:55 p.m. in Jefferson City, Mo.
■ Depart: 7:03 p.m. from Jefferson City, Mo.
Arrive: 9:40 p.m. in St. Louis
$26 per person
Return Trip from St. Louis
■ Depart: Sunday, 4 p.m.
Arrive: 9:40 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo.
Driving Milage and Time from Lawrence to St. Louis
291 miles
4 hours, 30 minutes
4 hours, 30 minutes
Check out St. Louis' Mardi Gras Web Site.
www.mardigrasinc.com for information on:
Hotels, parking, events, bars, restaurants
Sources: weather.com, megabus.com, amtrak com, googlemaps.com
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dorothy Delegard gets instruction from Best Buy salesman Todd Tibesar on how to set up her digital TV converter box Tuesday in Richfield, Minn. Even though Congress delayed the switch from analog TV to digital until June, many stations are switching over to digital on Tuesday. Tibesar said he thought most people were ready for the switch.
STRETCH
your dollar across town.
Every Wednesday & Friday
NATIONAL
Some not prepared for transition from analog to digital
BY PETER SVENSSON
Associated Press
Though most viewers were ready and people with cable or satellite
NEW YORK — About a quarter of the nation's TV stations cut off their analog signals Tuesday, causing sets to go dark in households that were not prepared for digital television despite two years of warnings about the transition.
service were unaffected — some stations and call centers reported a steady stream of questions from frustrated callers. Many wondered how to get coupons for converter boxes that translate digital signals for older TVs — or how to get the devices working.
Phones were ringing off the hook at a walk-in information center set up by stations in Providence, R.J.
A volunteer at the center, Jeremy
Taylor, said he tried to calm agitated callers and explain the reasons for the disappearance of analog signals, which have remained largely unchanged since the 1950s.
The federal government mandated the end of analog broadcasts to make room on those frequencies for wireless Internet service, emergency radio traffic and other uses. Digital TV broadcasts take up much less of the wireless spectrum.
Originally, all U.S. stations were to cut their analog signals on Tuesday, but at the urging of the Obama administration, Congress voted this month to give broadcasters more time.
Most stations, particularly those in big cities, accepted the offer to wait until June 12. Others wanted to stick to Feb. 17, a date they had spent much airtime advertising. Many of them had also booked engineering work on
their antennas for that day.
The Federal Communications Commission, which wanted to ensure that no one would be entirely deprived of analog signals, cleared 421 stations to go all-digital this week. Another 220 stations have already made the switch, including all stations in Hawaii.
The back-and-forth over the cutoff date threw both TV stations and viewers for a loop.
Congress delayed the cutoff in large part because the fund that pays for $40 converter-box coupons had reached its spending limit. Coupons are now being issued only as fast as old ones expire unused.
The stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday contains $650 million in additional funding. Once that money becomes available, it can clear the backlog of 4 million coupons in a few weeks. Without a coupon, a converter box costs $45 to $80.
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