I am currently way down in New Orleans where the Mardi Gras celebration is underway. And for right now, today, there is no recession. Thousands are gathering here for this, the last day before the Lenten season. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday: you eat and enjoy and party till you drop.

There will be parades, with many hundreds in costumes. One convention organizer said: " We've delivered more beer in the last couple of weeks than ever before" and "the bigger bars here, they're getting 100, 200 cases at a time."

Fat Tuesday is upon us; according to an email from my NOLA-based uncle, the temperatures are pleasant, clouds are few, and my extended family is gathering on St. Charles Avenue for a day of revelry. It's a day of celebration for the struggling city as well, which has seen a rebounding tourism industry this Mardi-Gras season, the second since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

A local businessman, who owns three clubs in the French Quarter, noted that "The weekend [leading up to Mardi Gras] was surprisingly busy ... the crowd is bigger and they're spending a lot of money." According to the Associated Press, the city offered 30,000 hotel rooms this year, up from 13,000 in 2006; more than 95 percent of these rooms were booked.

Other areas of tourism have vastly improved since last year. The number of flights into the region totaled 110 this year, from 68 flights in early 2006. There were 50 major parades this Mardi-Gras season, compared to 42 that rolled the streets of the Big Easy in 2006. And nearly 1,650 restaurants are doing business this year, up from 600 in Mardi Gras 2006.