New Orleans Mardi Gras Offers Mad Stimulus (Plus: a Killer Cocktail Recipe)

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You really want to stimulate the economy? Quit whining and start
partying. Need inspiration in these dark and gloomy economic times?
Join the Krewe du Vieux,
New Orleans satirical marching organization, as they jump start the
Mardi Gras season with floats themes such as the “Salute to Trickle
Down Economics” and “Investments in Stocks & Bondage.” The rest are
just are just too titillating to mention. The group is known for
raunchy floats: think giant sperms and lady parts. Mardi Gras season
officially starts with the Krewe du Vieux parade today and climaxes
(yes, I said it) February 24.

And keep this in mind: Louisiana is one of three states in the country that recorded job gains, not losses, in December, so they must be doing something right.

If you can’t make it all the way down to New Orleans, stop by your
local watering hole and order a sazerac. The official cocktail of the
city of New Orleans pre-dates the Civil War. Here’s the recipe from the
Sazerac Company of New Orleans:

1. Pack an old-fashioned glass with ice.
2. Add three dashes of bitters (Peychaud’s preferred) and one sugar cube in a second old-fashioned glass.
3. Add one and a half ounces of rye whiskey to the bitters and sugar glass.
4. Dump the ice from the first glass and coat it with Herbsaint, an anise-flavored liquor.
5. Pour the rye, bitters, sugar mixture into the chilled class and garnish with lemon peel.

The concoction will stimulate your mouth, if nothing else, and with national unemployment at 7.6% please tip your wait staff.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

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