“Happy Fest” is a springtime greeting in New Orleans, our own kind of “Aloha.” People say it to start a conversation and again to depart. I heard this greeting a hundred times this festival season around town. I heard dog-walking neighbors say it during the week in the streets. Outside the Fair Grounds, street performers and Mid-City residents with packed porches and open doors shared it with the streams of people converging near the entrance. I heard it in che...