Every year New York city celebrates Columbus' discovery of America by throwing a huge parade that focuses on... Italy. I had to see it. So my sister and I arrived at 5th avenue this morning and staked out a prime spot to watch the spectacle. Four hours later, I'd seen quite a few Italians including Miss Italian America, Miss Teen Italian America, Miss Italian USA, and Miss Everything (somehow I rather doubt the "Miss" part on that last one). The parade also included several very good high-school marching bands, Shriners on Vespas, soldiers, clowns, marching men in kilts playing bagpipes, lots of cool old cars (I liked the vintage police cars), people dressed as medieval royalty, people dressed as Roman gladiators, as well as quite a few unidentified mayor/congressman/city council-types walking the parade rather than riding in cars (so as to appeal to the people, I take it) with their wives and children tagging along.
We also had a front row view of eight police officers trying to arrest a suspicious looking video-camera operator.
It was quite a spectacle. My favorite was the old man dressed vaguely as a pirate but with flourescent flowers stuck all over him. He had a live parrot on his head, and they both seemed to be having a great time. We also had fun speculating on the reason why humans find inflated bits of colored rubber so fascinating (I'm talking about balloons)!
But it was a hot day to be out in the sun, so afterwards we went home, rehydrated ourselves, and ate a lot of ice cream. Since it's a holiday, it's okay to be lazy, and I spent the rest of the evening listening to NPR up on the roof, watching the clouds form first into a brilliant pink sunset, then a distant but dazzling thunder and lightning show.
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