Shanghai'd

Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Martes Grasa.
This week while New Orleans was partying (we saw it on TV), sixth street was packed, beads were flying for boobies and all my Detroit and Chicago friends were chowing down on some 46g of fat Paczkis from Polish town, I was trying to explain the traditions behind this last day before the beginning of lent to some Chinese. Pang Xingqi'er, I explained to the baker while I was buying 12 red bean filled doughnuts (a Chinese paczki!), is a special day in America where we eat lots of food and have a big party. Tomorrow, we will not eat much (how to say 'fast' in Chinese, I do not know - I think it is a foreign concept...). Something seemed lost in translation there. I attempted the explanation again as I was handing out the greasy sugar-covered gut bombs to Tim's friends after lunch. Again, blank stares. Maybe it was the double translation from Mardi Gras to Fat Tuesday to Pang Xingqi'er. Oh well. Two thumbs up for the red bean paczkis, the strangest flavor yet since old SJB was selling the prune filled ones in grade school.