Happy Mardi Gras!

[Distracted]

This is the only Enterprise Mardi Gras story that I know of. Anybody know of any others?

A Letter Home

[Alelou]

That's the only one I know of but it's always worth reading again.

So what does canaille mean in this context? What I looked up online didn't seem to fit the way you used it... but I was amused to find a website for T'Canaille Cajun Band. (Do we have Vulcan Cajuns???)

Happy Fat Tuesday, however lean it may be this year.

[Distracted]

Cajuns use the word canaille to mean tricky and clever, often in a cute way, like a mischievous little boy. In the context of the story, the POV character thinks TnT are being clever and tricky about hiding their relationship.

Vulcan Cajuns? Hmmm. Dunno if that would be possible. "Laisser les bons temps rouler" would seem to be the antithesis of the Vulcan philosphy.

[JadziaKathryn]

Cute story. The line about 'what'd he expect, I'd be sober' was funny.

I am a New Englander, Protestant, don't drink so am not looking for excuses, and altogether forgot it was Mardi Gras. Lucky for me, Distracted informed us, and I've still got 51 minutes left, so - time to break out some chocolate!

[Elessar]

Everyone have a good time and be careful!

[Alelou]

And I just went to bed.

Cajun "canaille" and Scots "canny" sound pretty much the same. Since the Scots had French rule for awhile, maybe they are.

[opal]

Hi, just had to delurk, being a proud Scot,

Cajun "canaille" and Scots "canny" sound pretty much the same. Since the Scots had French rule for awhile, maybe they are.

Sorry to be pernickety, but the French have never ruled the Scottish nation! They have had an influence on our culture though because our countries have what is referred to as the "Auld Alliance" and Mary, Queen of Scots was married for a time to a French Prince and lived at the French Court before she returned to the Scotland to be our queen.

[Distracted]

Scots and Cajuns have a lot in common. Our traditional music is very similar...and we've spent the past 200 years (or more!) trying to salvage our culture from the English speaking environment around us. Thanks for de-lurking, Opal.

[Alelou]

Aye, I know the French never officially ruled the Scots. But influence is perhaps putting it just a wee bit mildly, at least during the time of Mary, Queen of Scots. Glad to have you delurking, though.

The French ruled the English outright much earlier than that, so maybe it's from that period that we get the word. It's definitely a word I associate more with Scots than with English, though. Perhaps incorrectly.

(Enterprikayak, I hope you have a dot on Scotland for Opal!!!)

[Linda]

Being a second generation Scottish-American I had to jump in here! No, the French never "ruled" in Scotland, though their influence was strong. You can see it in Scottish Highland Dance - the basic dance positions are similar (but not identical) to ballet. I was a competitive highland dancer for a couple of years (years ago, LOL). Very athletic, hard on the knees. So now I do my dancing at pow wows where I can go slowly around the drum with the other old ladies while the grandkids lap me about three times per dance with their more energetic style.

[Alelou]

And I was told as a student that ballet took its positions from fencing. Funny the connections.

I took ballet because I was teaching and figured I should experience trying to learn something I would find as hard as some of my students found English. And man oh man did ballet fit the bill. I couldn't do a pirouette to save my life. The teacher was very irritated. I think she'd had some hopes for me, but I was a terrible underachiever.

P.S. My dad's from Dundee, Opal!

[Linda]

LOL, Alelou, I guess you could then sympathize with your English-challenged students!

I am surprised that ballet came from fencing. I only learned one fencing step when I was on a fencing team in school. So fencing and dancing are connected! No wonder I gravitated to those forms of exercise. The fencing step was this forward and back step where when moving forward you put your front foot down heal first, then the toe. It was done flexed knee and it is kind of an ugly step. Going backward, the foot in front went toe then heal. But you could go fast as it was kind of a crab scuttle forward and back (no side stepping), at least for competition foil fencing. They do the same for epee and saber competition. Also this was years and years ago for me, but the step was so drilled into us that I just got up from my chair now to do it so I could describe it here. I will have to read up on the history of the development of ballet and of fencing. All I know of fencing history is that the lunge was a secret move at one time. To lunge seems so obvious now, if you want to reach someone quickly.

Opal and Alelou, my grandparents came from the town of Beith in Ayrshire. They immigrated in 1913 to New York City, lived in Connecticut, then moved to Schenectudy where they are now buried.

[Aquarius]

I just had a funny mental picture of a bunch of Vulcans grooving on some zydeco music...

At any rate, I thought Fat Tuesday was mostly a Michigan thing. I've talked about it to people in other states and they had no idea what I was talking about and didn't know of the Polish paczki tradition, which is pretty much I think a Detroit thing.

[Bether6074]

Hope everyone had a great day!

[Elessar]

Hope everyone had a great day!

It was rather uneventful, but I didn't get hit by a bus, so sure!