Well, the streamers are up downtown. Fat Tuesday is Friday in downtown Mt. Pleasant.

Businesses, of course, are already preparing. T-shirts are on sale for $6 apiece (Where? Same place you can get a Bird Burger. Maybe a couple of others.). One local business is already planning a big tent in the street for tomorrow evening, and in addition to their usual fare they plan to offer extra sandwiches and gumbo to go along with their usual menu. Anytime you can bring people downtown, the business owner was telling me as I left with lunch, it's a big boon for them.

I don't know if I can endorse the use of the name Mardi Gras, since there's always an outside chance that a kid could grow up thinking that Mardi Gras is supposed to be a family festival with beads handed out to kids, and parades and face painting, and as an adult wander down New Orleans way for the real thing and a rude, rude shock. But, I do endorse supporting our downtown merchants; but more to the point, I do endorse gumbo.

I also won't spill the beans on which business is cooking it, but I can tell you that on a completely unrelated note that The Daily Grind -- as of about an hour ago -- was out of roast beef.