Port Arthur ready for Mardi Gras

Look for me at Courir du Mardi Gras this year. Mardi Gras of Southeast Texas is a big deal and the area is gearing up. While Robert Earl Keen’s Texas folk music is a big draw, people are also talking about Cast in Bronze, a gargantuan array of bells played by a masked man. Look it up, this instrument has a following.

Check out this main stage schedule:

Thursday, Feb. 27

• 6 p.m. – J.A.G.
• 8 p.m. – The Stark Experiment

Friday, Feb. 28

• 7 p.m. American Sons
• 10 p.m. Robert Earl Keen

Saturday, March 1

• 3 p.m. – The Port Arthur Playboys
• 5:30 p.m. – Li’l Wayne & Same Ole’ 2 Step
• 8:30 p.m. – Harrison Swift
• 10 p.m. – Casey Donahew Band

Sunday, March 2

• 3 p.m. – Champagne Room
• 6:30 p.m. – Travis Matte and the Kingpins

Call the Mardi Gras store at  (409) 721-8717 to get outfitted for the festival.

Ma and Pa Ferguson

“In the Governor’s Shadow: The True Story of Ma and Pa Ferguson” has all kinds of political background that Carol O’Keefe Wilson weaved into a very readable University of North Texas Press release.

Still, I’m drawn toward the social matters of the book, like how the couple chose to spend their allowance on the Governor’s Mansion on things other than heating. A greenhouse was so important to Ma that she seemed pretty perturbed that a stone connecting her to the structure was removed. Just once.

Too hot to wait

SAAS Hot Sauce in original and onion & garlic are mention’s too hot to wait until Culinary Thrill Seeking column. These 11.6-ounce bottles will spice up your Sunday. I like it hot and these full-bodied vinegar/cayenne/habanero concoctions deliver. I cooked up some sliced onions in each version and my mamma said they got hotter as time went by. You read correctly. We’re talking onion-on-onion flavor and it’s powerful. Proceeds from the sauce go to The Earth Center of Maanu Inc. ti preserve indigenous cultures worldwide. Who doesn’t love hot sauce for a cause? It’s dubbed “The flavor that brings you home.”

ddoiron@panews.com