Today is...
Mardi Gras

Today is Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras (also known as Fat Tuesday) is the last day of the Carnival season—a period of raucous merry-making in the weeks leading up to Lent. In countries all across the world, people will celebrate with extravagant festivals, parades, and feasts. They will don costumes, dance in the streets, and binge on decadent desserts.
The two most famous Mardi Gras celebrations take place in Venice, Italy and New Orleans, Louisiana. At the Carnevale di Venezia the most important event is the contest for the best mask, which is judged by a panel of international fashion designers. In New Orleans, the festivities revolve around the Mardi Gras parades, which are organized by secret societies known as “krewes.” The members of these societies design the elaborate floats and ride them during the event, tossing beads to the crowd below.
To celebrate Mardi Gras, enjoy some delicious king cake, send a free Mardi Gras eCard, or don an exotic Venetian Mardi Gras mask! Joie de vivre!

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Today is also National Plum Pudding Day & Lincoln's Birthday

February is Black History Month & Potato Lover's Month & National Weddings Month

images and text courtesy of MyPunchbowl.com" -- http://www.mypunchbowl.com/

History for February 12 1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe. 1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote. 1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday. 1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded. 1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC. 1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional. ________________________________________________________ "What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort, or esteem but games worth playing. He who cannot find a game worth playing is apt to fall prey to accidie -- paralysis of the will, a failure of appetite, a condition of generalized boredom, total disenchantment -- 'God, of God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!'” --Robert S. De Ropp