Must Be Mardi Gras Time

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Photo: Bunkycooks

King Cakes, as pictured above, are currently trending facilitated by write ups in the LA Times and given that it is a treat consumed during Mardi Gras. Apparently, this cake is an indulgence that is enjoyed before Lent, the time whn many Catholics deny themselves indulgences in preparation for Easter. A recipe in the LA times has the cake filled with apples and cream cheese, and of course a plastic baby doll to represent Jesus, to be found by the person who is served the lucky piece. So, bite carefully into your piece of cake. The searches for this cake is limited to Lousiana, Texas, California, and New York. I imagine that the New York and California hits are primarily from news agencies. Searches on Mardi Gras in general are concentrated in the South, in and around Lousiana, which is probably why many of you have never heard of King Cakes, nor would I have had it not been trending.

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Photo: planet-iran.com

While New Orleans party prep goes on, despite the drums of war, Iranian Google searches focused on festivals of their own. One of the top searches this week was about the 30th annual Fajr Film Festival ( جشنواره فیلم فجر), which ended on February 12th.Even in Israel, reality show Big Brother seems to be more top of mind than any threat of war, solely based on internet searches. As far as war is concerned, over the past 30 days most searches on the subject are coming out of the Hamadan province of Iran, where the Shahrokhi Tactical Air Base is located. Apparently this based contains F4 Phantom fighters and perhaps some SU-24s.

Is my political science background showing itself?