Rick Bragg examines the significance of Mardi Gras beads.

Best quotes:

"James S. Eiseman, vice president for student affairs at Loyola University here, and a former professor who specialized in popular culture, said: "I do it. I do. I go to 15 parades. I have been called parade trash, a parade slut. I don't want the beads. I give them all away. I just love to catch them."

and

"What's more exciting than shiny round objects when you're trashed?"