The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 38

www.pantagraph.com E2 The Pantagraph Sunday, February 16, 2003 Craze continues at Mardi Gras birthplace parade route as the Knights of QUEASY KROM El Once again, he called a winner. The museum, impressively installed in a renovated brewery, was so intense that what was meant to be a one-hour visit grew to three hours, and we could have stayed longer. None of us was a veteran or a military buff, but we all were overwhelmed at the personal stories, told through taped interviews, of the people who won World War II. Push a button and a photo of Prudence Burrell, who served with an all-black nursing unit in the Philippines, comes to life: "You could not nurse any white soldiers. This white soldier was injured and hemorrhaging.

I told him, 'We cannot give you this blood; it's marked A for He said, 'I don't give a damn. Don't let me The artifacts include handwritten notes from Harry Truman giving final approval to dropping The Bomb and from Dwight D. Eisenhower in the hours before the invasion of Normandy. "If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone," wrote Ike. That evening, from the revolving Carousel Bar on the first floor of the Monteleone, where Liberace once tickled the ivories, we spied our first dinner destination.

Mr. B's Bistro, a clubby restaurant owned by the Brennan family and favored by locals, was across the street from the hotel. Mr. B's specializes in seafood, and I went for the oyster risotto, which featured fried bayou oysters and Louisiana caviar on top of a creamy rice. Dessert was hot pecan pie a la mode.

My dining partner didn't finish her turtle pie, a caramel-chocolate confection, so I felt obliged. A fairyland of floats The next morning, we headed across town, passing Pinky Tiny's Wing Shack and The Chicken Box "More Cluck for Your Buck" en route to breakfast at Elizabeth's, which had been recommended by a New Orleans writer on the cruise ship. The small, homey restaurant is 20 blocks from the French Quarter at 601 Gallier Street in the recovering Bywa-ter District. We sampled calles, which are like beignets but made with rice, and boudin, which is Ca-jun sausage. From the daily specials on the chalkboard, I ordered praline bacon and Banana Foster's French toast.

Oh painters, musicians and a caravan of mule-powered buggies awaiting riders. St. Louis Cathedral, which overlooks the square, was swathed in scaffolding in the midst of a The Cabildo, the three-story building flanking the left side the cathedral, was the site of Louisiana Purchase transfer cer- emonies and now houses a museum tracing Louisiana's h'i-VJ tory On the second-floor way, a glass case displayed a death mask of Napoleon, one of four bronze masks taken by a doctor at his death bed on May 5, 1821. "Sure had a honker," said my companion. On the other side of the Cathedral was the Presbytere, which originally was built as a residence for the clergy but now houses a new Mardi Gras museum.

Through costumes and videos, the museum explains the origins of the annual celebration. Fittingly, the bathrooms in the museum have port-a-potty doors. My two favorite exhibits were a climb-aboard float facing a wide video screen that showed the crowds lining a parade route as if you were Rex for a day, and a music-listening station featuring 17 Mardi Gras oldies. I chose "Iko Iko" by the Dixie Cups and "Meet the Boys on the Battle-front" by the Wild Tchoupi-toulas. We paid our respects at Marie Laveau's tomb in St.

Louis Cemetery No. 1, where previous visitors had scrawled messages to the voodoo queen. A tall young man stood to one side of the tomb, ignoring the tour groups prowiing the grounds, and performed his own voodoo ceremony He blew marijuana smoke at the tomb, whirled a charm on a chain in his hand, and sprinkled the contents of a 16-ounce Bud-weiser can on the ground. Across Rampart Street from the cemetery is a storefront that houses the Voodoo Spiritual Temple, where Priestess Miriam Chamani holds court. She showed us her jars of potions but said she had little to cure my biggest complaint.

"I could give you something to relax," she said. "Once you relax, your hair will grow back. And don't wear hats." Candles, beads, flowers, masks and an empty bottle of Cabernet filled her dimly lit temple room in back. We were told the priestess did not speak in "linear" thoughts and were puzzled when she told us: "Turn over the flaps; the gaps are always sealed. Something must always fold the other way so we have enough grace to see another.

How we grow, and whatever level we reach, is to give up. The gift of life is far beyond whatever we imagine. The flowers that bloom can never be without a little bloodshed." The cheerful priestess, by the way, presided at the wedding in Hawaii of Nicholas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley Despite her blessings, the marriage lasted four months. Music is usually a major part of any visit to New Orleans, but eating got in our way. The only music we heard was over dinner at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe, where we listened to traditional jazz.

ASSOCIATED PRESS MOBILE, Ala. An economic crunch and threats of war with Iraq haven't altered preparations for Mardi Gras in Mobile, which some historians say is where the masked cavorting began in the United States in the 1700s. If anything, carnival veterans say the whoops and hollers may be louder this year as people shout away apprehensions or try to drown their sorrows in the festive happenings. Chuck Cuff, outgoing president of the Mobile Area Hotel and Motel Association, says reservations for the area's 5,000 rooms are comparable to last year's. "We thought last year, after 9-11, they would be down, but there were very good numbers up over.

the previous year," Cuff says. "I think people want to use. Mardi Gras as their relief valve." For veteran reveler Mon-teen Lucky, 52, who lost her job when International Paper closed its mill, carnival is a time to "do a little celebrating," even on a tighter budget. "I just love Mardi Gras," says Lucky, whose birthday Feb. 28, the Friday before Fat Tuesday, is another reason to get together with family and friends.

She'll decorate her home in purple, green and gold, the official colors of Mardi Gras. Lucky commented while pushing a shopping cart through Accent Annex, a retailer with nearly everything Mardi Gras. Store manager Carol Hen-son says shoppers have cut back on purchases because of the dip in the economy, but they're still spending about per person on beads, doubloons, costumes and throws items thrown from floats to the hordes of parade-goers. A few years ago, that spending level was higher. "If they're throwing 20 percent less off the floats, who's going to notice?" asked downtown restaurant owner Mead Miller, bracing for the boisterous crowds.

A lot of the beads and other stuff tossed to the crowds are recycled from previous parades anyway, he says. While New Orleans hosts the biggest and best-known Mardi Gras bash, thousands Mardi Gras, founded Kern Studios in 1947 to make theater props and floats for the city's annual parades. When the parades were moved off the skinny streets of the French Quarter in 1972 as a safety precaution, the Kern family was given room to create more grandiose displays. Their works are featured by Disney and Universal Studios and show up in parades around the world. Visitors to Mardi Gras World pay $13.50 to wander through four warehouses, where old floats are stored for future use and new ones are being made.

Everywhere a visitor looks are gigantic fantasy figures, among them a penguin in a cape, Neptune armed with spears, Spider-man, Freddie Kruger, Winston Churchill, a voluptuous Cleopatra and a lighted riverboat that cost $1 million to build. "We rent it out for private parties at night; we had 4,000 in here about two weeks ago," employee Linda Bowen said, referring to the warehouses. "We light up all the floats. It's like a fairyland." Parade area eco bayou tour New 7 Davs 898. Thousands packed the Mobile, Gras.

"Fun and Finery: Costumes of Mobile's Mardi Gras" is an exhibition of custumes from carnival royalty as well as those of float riders. of visitors converge from all parts of the country to attend Mardi Gras balls in this 300-year-old port city, too. The attractions aren't only on the streets and backyard parties. In keeping with the season, the Museum of Mobile is exhibiting costumes from carnival royalty as well as those of float riders. There's also a display of crowns, tiaras, masks, scepters, jewel Back in the French Quarter, my walking companion refused for political reasons to enter Gennifer Flower's new bar for a look-see, so we warmed up for dinner with a dozen on the half shell at Desire Oyster Bar in the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street.

The waitress cautioned about the horseradish, and, indeed, it seared our sinuses. Dinner was across Bourboi at Arnaud's, which has been serving classic Creole cuisine since 1918. Oysters Bienville was created there, so we tried that along with alligator sausage for an appetizer. The entree was veal tournedos in a wild mushroom sauce, followed by bread pudding brulee. Unfortunately, it was a short ry and float designs.

"The balls are not really a major expense," Miller said. "Most people into them own their own suit. It might be a $100 night of dress up, free food and free drinks. I don't think that's going to suffer." It's the best two weeks of the year just before Mardi Gras in profits for hotels, restaurants and bars, Miller says, adding that only an attack on Iraq two days before Fat Tuesday could chill carnival turnout. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, falls on March 4, but the schedule called for the first parades in this area to roll Saturday, Feb.

1, on Dauphin Island south of Mobile, then spread like kudzu into the suburbs, with the first parades in Mobile this past Friday. The frivolity is a fixture at a number of Gulf Coast cities, from Galveston, Texas, to the Florida coast, with New Orleans by far the largest carnival magnet for tourists. Some local historians say carnival was born in Mobile among the French colonists in the 1700s, though it didn't really catch on until 1830. Mobile's legend of King Felix in the 1800s became so popular it was adopted by New Orleans, which called their monarch King Rex, according to these accounts. walk back to the hotel.

Flaming fruit The next day started at 8 a.m. with another short stroll from the hotel down Royal to Bren-nan's, where the courtyard was empty except for a half-dozen turtles swimming in the pool of a sun-dappled fountain. Inside the elegant restaurant, the waiter recommended a brandy milk punch for an eye-opener, and another house specialty for the first course, turtle soup. My thoughts drifted back to the residents of the pool, but I went for the soup anyway. The main course was oysters Benedict fat oysters fried and served on Canadian bacon with Hollandaise sauce.

Brennan's gave the world Ba fwCfudeozi Associated Press Revelry passed by on Mardi Now there are krewes carnival organizations of every description. Jana Fuller of Grand Bay plans to ride a float in three separate parades, including a new one in Bayou La Batre on Feb. 15. "It's a good year to forget," she says, refering to the threat of war with Iraq. "The kids need a reason to celebrate." Carnival veterans Brenda Blocker of Mobile and her friend, Debbie Quimby of Laurei, agree.

"My kids are all grown up, so now I can really enjoy it," says Blocker, who says she never misses the parades and balls. Edna Armstrong of Montgomery, who said she's never been to a Mardi Gras parade, visited Mobile to buy carnivai items for her 9-year-old son. His fourth-grade class planned a project on carnival and she needed Mardi Gras items from Mobile where it all began. "We don't have Mardi Gras in Montgomery. We should.

It's a happening thing," she said. On the Net: www.mobilemardl-gras.com nanas Foster, and we watched with anticipation as a waiter sauteed the bananas in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and banana liqueur tableside, then flamed the concoction in rum. As a bonus, he presented a serving of another house specialty, crepes Fitzgerald crepes filled with cream cheese and sour cream and topped with strawberries flamed in Maraschino. We waddled down to Jackson Square, which was surrounded by mimes, magicians, fortune tellers, Tarot card readers, mm SPECIAL SNEAK CKC THEATRES 1010 S. Main BEI.I3D my! One of the owners, it turned out, was Heidi Trull, who had lived in St.

Louis and was a part-owner of Seki, a restaurant on rielmar Boulevard in the University City Loop. As a parting present, Trull handed over an Elizabeth's T-shirt that bore a $nk pig on the front and the motto "Real food, done real gbod." On'ce again we were faced with an excess of calories to work off. We made a stop to see tjie house under the sprawling live oaks shading Esplanade Av-ejiue where artist Edgar Degas lived briefly, and then strolled through the above-ground graves at St. Louis Cemetery No. 3.

Our driving route meandered through the incredible mansions in the Uptown Carrollton area and past the Audubon Zoo, Where the equally incredible white-skinned, blue-eyed alligators live. We ended at the Mississippi River, taking the free passenger ferry across to Algiers to visit Blaine Kern's Mar-d Gras World. Kern, better known as Mr. Hutu EscapeWinter! i Warm up to these cool prices. Deluxe guest room accommodations start at $59! i Feb 22 NEW ORLEANS 14 nts Garden Dist) 7 Days $989.

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