Now that Mardi Gras is upon us once again, it’s time to ponder what indeed it is like to miss New Orleans:

• Nelson Algren to Poppy Z. Brite and Michael Ondaatje: Great novels about New Orleans
• Vintage photos of the parades
• The tasty little cake with a plastic baby Jesus inside
• William Faulkner gets a proper commemoration: A bookstore
• That time they did an outdoor production of Waiting for Godot in the Lower Ninth Ward as a post-Katrina statement
• When the Indians come out for a good battle

We end, as many things should, with the timeless poetry of Professor Longhair: