MARDI GRAS: Beads, Belles, and Balls, transports the reader via verse and "prose snapshots" through seven days of Carnival distilled from Jack Beach's three decades in the "toujours gai" Lower French Quarter in New Orleans. Savor the anticipation when parades, balls, and strip bars are in full swing. Funky and glamorous; crazy and hilarious. At long last, Mardi Gras Day! Fantastic costumes flood the streets. Join the crowds. Kiss a pregnant nun! Fall in love! Then, the gray specter of Ash Wednesday and price tag of Lent: the long good-byes and heading home. Memories and mementoes to last a lifetime. After Hurricane Katrina's devastating assault this fall, you will cherish this superb record of how it was and, pray God, will be one day again.