One of the strangest things about growing up in New Orleans is not the widespread frenzy of hedonism, crazed dancing in the streets and masking on the Tuesday before Lent—no, that all seems perfectly normal. The truly odd thing is the gradually dawning realization that the rest of the country does not do these things. It comes as a rude shock to discover (usually at about age 30) that our culture doesn't exist north of Baton Rouge, and our cultural assumptions—while applicable to Brazil—have ...