Fish Fry
The days between the end of the Mardi Gras festival and the holiday of Easter is known to all Christians as Lent or the Lenten period. It represents the period of Jesus' persecution, suffering and death before he arose and ascended to join God on Easter Day. Many Christians choose to abstain from certain comforts or pleasures during Lent in honor of Jesus' self sacrifice. Some desist from drinking alcoholic beverages, from eating chocolate or from participating in festivities during Lent. In older days, the Catholic Church forbade its members from eating any meats except for fish on Fridays, and especially on Fridays during Lent.
Most Catholics over the age of forty or fifty still remember the old prohibition when their parents cooked spaghetti, macaroni or fish every Friday. They even used to refer to Friday as "fish day" because of this church rule. That rule was rescinded many years ago, but old customs persist for a long time. Today, many of the older Catholics, and even some Protestant Christians still eat no meat except fish on all Fridays during lent.
Many of the local Catholic Churches in the USA have supprted this custom by instituting the "Friday Fish Fry" throughout Lent. Volunteers from the local church usually gather to prepare vast quatities of fried fish, baked macaroni, cole slaw salad and home baked cakes and pies. They convert their church social hall into a restaurant and offer succulent "fish dinners" and "fish sandwiches" to the public. Everyone from the local community, whether they are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Atheist, come to purchase a succulent Friday Fish Dinner. The proceeds of the sale help to fund the church's social activities.
This custom has become so popular in parts of the USA that it has spread from the Catholic Churches to many Protestant Churches and to local volunteer fire halls. They all offer "Lenten Fish Dinners" or "Friday Fish Fries". If you are visiting the USA during the Lenten period in early spring, and you see a sign in front of a church or a local firehall that says "Fish Fry", stop and try it! You will get a wonderful fish dinner for a very reasonable price.
After Easter when the Lenten period ends, the fish fries will all disappear. Then, the local churches and firehalls will resort to their other fund raising activity, and you will see signs for "Bingo" in front of those places. Bingo is a game of chance. It is a type of gambling favored especially by older ladies. They gather at the local church social hall or fire hall and pay a few dollars to play bingo. If they are lucky, they can win free groceries, small appliances, gift items or even some cash. Many church repairs and even some new community fire trucks have been purchased with the proceeds from these bingo games.
Now, gambling is illegal in most states, and bingo is definitely a form of gambling. Fortunately, the local police never seem to notice that gambling is occurring at these bingo games at the local church or the local fire hall.
Mardi Gras in the USA
Mardi Gras, Fasching, Carnivale, or whatever you call it is not a big festival in the USA. In most cities, a few local bars or nightclubs may feature a Mardi Gras party but wide-spread celebration is not common.
That is not true of New Orleans, Louisiana or in the neighboring Gulf Coast city of Mobile Alabama. In those places, Mardi Gras is the big event of the year. They begin celebrating several weeks before "fat Tuesday" by holding nightly parades and culminate the festival with a weekend of revelry. Social clubs from various neighborhoods throughout the cities have prepared months in advance. Their volunteer members constructed elaborate floats and fantastic costumes, they practiced musical numbers and dance routines, and they purchase hordes of plastic necklaces, candy and party favors.
On individually designated nights, each social group hosts its parade and competes for the right to say that theirs was the best in the city. Elaborately decorated floats parade down the streets followed by marching bands and spectacularly costumed performers. From the tops of each float, costumed helpers toss handfuls of plastic necklaces, candies, confections, and party favors into the crowds. Along the sidewalks, thousands of spectators clutch for the free gifts and vie to see how many plastic Mardi Gras necklaces they can wear around their necks.
Why is Mardi Gras such a madness in and around New Orleans and no where else in the USA?
Perhaps, it is due to the fact that New Orleans is one of the most European influenced cities in the USA. This Gulf Coast port was once a colony of Spain and also a possession of France before it joined the United States. It bears the imprint of its Creole background and its Cajun immigrants.
About three hundred years ago, New Orleans was a wild seaport of the New World, a refuge for pirates, a Mississippi River gateway into the inerior of a largely unexplored new continent. It became a magnet for the unlanded gentry of old Europe who came to seek their fortune in the new lands. Many of these disposessed gentry settled in New Orleans and formed its Creole community with their European culture, European architecture and European cuisine.
About 250 years ago, England drove many of the French colonists out of Canada through persecution and intimidation. Many thousands of French Canadians from the Arcadian Peninsula migrated south and sought refuge in New Orleans. These Arcadians, who eventually became known as Cajuns, brought their own dialect of the French language along with their French Canadian culture and their unique cuisine.
Today, the Creole influence and the Cajun influence are still very apparant in New Orleans. They are visible in its architecture, in its language and especially in its cuisine. Combined, they produce a wondeful European, New World culture that is unique in the USA and perhaps in the entire world. Maybe, that is the reason that Mardi Gras is so popular in this American city.
The Mood in the USA
Times are tough. We are facing an economic crisis that is the worst in over 7 years. Our stock market is in shambles. Our banks are near collapse, and our housing industry is burnt out.
Yet, the mood in the USA is optimistic! It is not a wild, carefree optimism. It is more a guarded, wait-and-see optimism.
Having Barak Obama as our new president is a big part of that optimism. At the end of eight years, nearly everyone became disenchanted with George Bush and his failed policies. It was time for a change, so we elected an agent for change. Obama is an idealist, who campaigned on a message of hope. After eight years of divisive politics that pitted friend against neighbor, Obama has pledged to bring us back together as one unified nation. This is the type of leadership that we have been craving in the USA for many years. Now we have it.
Despite the rough economic times, the majority of the people in the USA now have hope. They know that we must endure a period of tough life, but they look forward to better days. Even the conservatives that voted against Obama are looking to him for improvement to our way of life. Everyone realizes that our president is taking over at a very difficult time, and they know that his job will be very difficult, but they are all wishing him success.
If you come to the USA for a visit, you can find some excellent bargains. Many of the hotels and tourist attractions are only half full. The price of gasoline is low. Transportation costs are down. Tourist attractions are offering special deals in order to attract more visitors.
You might be pleasantly suprised to find a very positive attitude from the people in the USA. Even though unemployment rates are high, and the business activity is depressed, most people are still very optimistic. They will welcome you into their communities. They will appreciate your business support, and will share their optimistic views with you.
New York City Hotels
I recently returned from a short business trip to New York City. I usually travel to the Big Apple at least two or three times a year, and I love it. It is a huge vibrant metropolis with an immense selection of entertainment and cultural diversions. I like to attend one of the Broadway, or off-Broadway shows, to visit the museums or the other tourist attractions, to eat in one or more of the huge variety of restaurants and to just absorb the vibrant atmosphere of the city. Like most US natives that do not live in New York City, I frequently say, "New York City is a great place to visit, but I would not wish to live there."
The reason that I and many other non-New York residents, do not wish to live in the city is mainly due to the cost. It is a very expensive place to live. Houses, condominiums and apartments typically cost two or three times the price of similar accommodations in most other cities. The hotel rooms are typically double the price of similar accommodations in other cities.
It has always been a challenge to find decent accommodations at affordable prices in New York City. After numerous visits to the Big Apple, I was finally able to find a few secret bargains at lesser known but nice hotels. Every time I went there on a business trip, I stayed in those affordable hotels near the heart of the city in Manhattan. Recently, it has become much more difficult to find such bargain accommodations. Most of the inexpensive-but-nice hotels have either disappeared or have raised their prices to the point where they are no longer bargains.
The average price of decent hotel accommodations in New York is now about $300 per night. There are still some Manhattan hotels in the $200 range but they are typically the less-desirable ones. The under-$300 hotels are usually older, a bit more dilapidated and often in the inaccessible or insecure neighborhoods.
For the past year or two, New York has been blessed with a healthy number of visitors vying for a limited supply of hotel rooms. Most hotels filled up. As their occupancy rates approached full capacity, the hotels began charging premium rates. For the past few years there have been almost no "last minute" bargains. The best prices were to be found only by booking well in advance. Once any hotel neared full capacity, it usually began charging "last minute gouge the customer" prices. That may now begin to change due to the current economic meltdown.
On recent trips to New York City, I have been forced to look in other areas for bargain hotel accommodations. Here is what I found:
If you stay outside of Manhattan, it is a bit less convenient, but you can still find bargain accommocations. When I drive to New York City, I usually stay at hotels in the Secaucus New Jersey area. This unremarkable little community amidst the commercial and industrial suburbs in New Jersey offers a nice selection of hotels with spacious rooms, free parking, modest prices, and easy access into Manhattan. Secaucus may not be beautiful, but the accommodations are affordable and the neighborhood is relatively secure.
Another bargain area for accommodations is the neighbohood surrounding Newark NJ Liberty Airport. This area is likewise not beautiful but is affordable with easy access into Manhattan. The commute from Newark to Manhattan is a bit longer than it is from Secaucus.
I have also stayed on the other side of the city in Brooklyn and Queens. Most of the affordable hotels in Brooklyn are located in the vicinity of JFK Airport. These hotel rooms are typically more spacious than those in Manhattan, they are significantly cheaper and parking is much less expensive, but the neighborhoods do not appear to be very secure after dark.
I prefer the accommodations in Queens which are mostly located near La Guardia Airport. The hotels in this area are typically more spacious than in Manhattan, the parking is cheaper and the neighborhoods are a bit more secure. A few weeks ago, I stayed at the Wingate Hotel in Flushing New York less than two miles from LaGuardia terminal. The neighborhood is oriental with Chinese Restaurants, Korean Barbeques, Japanese Sushi Bars and Noodle Houses on every block. It is a relatively safe neighborhood even after dark. My room was spacious, clean and in excellent repair. It cost only $139 and parking was a mere $14 per day. A similar room would cost $300 in Manhattan with parking adding an additional $35 per day.
I ate dinner at Joe's Shanghai Restaurant just two blocks from the hotel. It was rated as the best restaurant in that area by Trip Advisor. This modest establishment was crowded with local residents confirming it as one of the most popular restaurants in that area. Wow! It served some of the best Chinese food that I have ever tasted.
Historic US Election
After nearly a year of incessant political campaining culminating with a frenetic last few weeks of countless television harangues from the two presidential candidates, the people of the USA have finally chosen a new president. They elected Barak Obama as the first Afro-American president in the 200+ years history of the USA.
His impressive win included majorites of the voters in many states across the USA. It included a broad base of support from white, black, asian and hispanic voters. It included support from urbanites in the major cities and from citizens in small towns and rural communities across the land. It incuded rich and poor, highly educated and less educated voters. Such a decisive win indicates the widespread dissatisfaction with the policies of the current political administration and with the thirst for a change in the direction we are headed.
I hope and pray that he can deliver it.
I have been traveling to Europe at least once a year for the past decade. I know that most of the Europeans that I met were never hostile to the USA nor resentful of it. They idolized our principals of democracy and freedom. The USA was long viewed as a beacon of freedom for the rest of the world, as the champion of the poor and the opressed, as a protector of human rights and as the shining example of a working democracy.
Over the past eight years, that image was badly tarnished. My European friends grew increasingly disappointed. They saw "preemptive invasions", secret detention centers, condoned torture, imprisonment without trial, and government spying on its own citizens. "What happened to our beacon of hope?" "Where is our shining example of freedom and democracy?" they cried. I understood their disappointment. Many of us in the USA shared their disappointment. We yearned for a return to the principals of freedom and democracy that our fathers had long enjoyed. Our country was primed for a change.
Yesterday, Barak Obama was chosed as our instrument to bring about that change.
Today the world looks at the USA in admiration and says "If a black man can rise up and become the leader of this great land, then perhaps it is a real democracy after all!" Most of us in the US share this sentiment. Today, we are proud to be part of this great country.