In New Orleans, all that glitters is not gold. In most cases, it’s glitter.

Henry Ruschmann, a New Jersey rancher and dabbling machinist, is credited with accidentally inventing modern glitter in 1934 by using a machine to precisely cut plastic films in thousands of itty-bitty pieces. The cowpuncher turned inventor started a company called Meadowbrook Inventions to mass-produce the shiny tidbits. It is still spitting out the festive sparkle and is said to be the largest producer of glitter.

Ruschmann should have also invented a way to clean it up, but no. Instead, he bequeaths to us both the joy of the moment and anguish of the aftermath, which sparkles our celebrations in the Crescent City.

In this town, you don’t need an excuse to get glittered but it is certainly more prevalent during Carnival season when guests show up at your party like a rainbow with psoriasis shedding colorful flakes upon your hardwood, tile or, God forbid, carpet floors where they will homestead long after you’ve turned to dust.

It will be in your dirty laundry, clean laundry, the dryer and the bottom of your feet, on that erster po-boy you just laid on your kitchen counter. As Dante once wrote, all who enter here abandon all hope.

You can sweep, mop, vacuum, recite the rosary, the kaddish or a voodoo chant over the stuff but it will linger like … last year’s glitter.