New Year's Morning, 2009

After a couple hours of looking around the Internet and sending greetings to Croatia, I settled in front of the TV to watch the Tournament of Roses Parade. The first thing I saw was the Wells Fargo logo, and things have gone downhill ever since.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I'd be content to die this year. The way things are going isn't to my liking and I'm convinced it's unstoppable. Even the Rose Bowl game, which held out against commercialization, is now "presented by Citi," which is the same thing as renaming it.

Anyway, back to the parade. I'll see if I can update this as things appear...


Hydrogen car -- I wonder how the total energy to build, fuel, and run this car over its life compares to others.

Marine marching band -- Leaving aside the military aspect, I'm impressed. The other bands in the parade always look sloppy compared to these guys, who know how to march in step!

Weather -- The hosts on TV always mention our weather, and I always picture people in Michigan packing up and moving here.

"See the floats after the parade!" -- I couldn't help noticing that there's a $7 charge to see the floats when they're parked. Making money is the defining characteristic of life.

Honda Asimo -- Hooray for corporations!! (commercial sponsors are everywhere) Crowds cheer!

"Hats off to entertainment!" -- The theme for this year's parade is as controversial as ever. I predict a massive backlash from the anti-entertainment crowd, always huge fans of parades.

There's a veterinarian riding along with the skateboard-riding dogs, just to ease PETA's expected outrage and calm everyone's concerns.

National Assn of Realtors float -- "Celebrating home ownership." In today's economic climate, using the broadest possible definition, I suppose you could say owning a home is entertaining.

Kaiser-Permanente Float -- Proving that repairing members of your species is economically rewarding!

...I should probably check to see what percent of the floats win some sort of award...

...I wonder about Lou Dobbs' reaction to the Mexican marching band...

...I hope it wasn't too hard for the Broken Horn Ropers to find a black guy to twirl a rope and dress up like a cowboy...

Big cheers for firemen and police. No comment.

Thanks to this year's parade, I've been able to see the world's tallest horse. After it walked by, it sounds like the American's Horses Network drops the parade coverage.

...and the parade's over. Seeing the dancing girls sleeveless is much more rewarding than last year, when it was rainy. Still, I prefer flowers over big balloons (sorry, Macys).