MARDI GRAS
It's Mardi Gras and that makes this mom-a mental case. I lost the love of parades long ago...after hours of standing around in crowds doing live shots for the television news. Those crazy, hazy days of wandering through the streets of New Orleans looking for a new twist to a an old, predictable story-are gone. Now, I'm on my knees, praying hard for the safe return of my two eldest sons as they wander through the biggest free party on earth, in what has become one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Kids of course are invincible. Nothing can touch them. Even I knew that as a kid. In fact, Mardi Gras, enticed me to come study in New Orleans. My Louisiana girlfriend, Anita Byrd, who attended the Missisisippi University for Women with me, drove us into the city that care forgot and I forgot all about the "W"...We both transferred to Loyola University...and the rest is history. Like my sons, I was insanely fearless...getting a part time job in the wee hours of the...