2013 Thanksgiving Parade

My, what a difference a year can make.  Last year's Thanksgiving Day Parade was quite balmy.  All in all, it was the perfect weather for a parade.

This year?  Bone chilling cold.  Snow.  Fortunately, there was no wind.  In any case, with a camera condom in place, photos were to be had...

Yeah, this is not quite what I would call a clown mask, but it is still pretty damned cool.  I have to think that there is a strong influence from the old bird masks from the Black Death times.

Licking snow.  This is required behavior during the early snowfalls of the season.  (This is not to be confused with licking a frozen flagpole. That is very different and very dangerous.)

A little Photoshop fun can make an crisp image of an old car on a new street (Woodward) look old again.   This is probably my favorite image of the day. 

A clown. In this case, my soon-to-be mother-in-law, Sue.

Apparently, the outfits worn by the clowns are color-coded by years of service.  As one progresses through the years, they are allowed to modify their outfit.  Note the blue cape on the fellow in picture below.  He  has been in the parade for at least 25 years.  His cape says so. Sue, on the other hand, has an outfit that is literally half white.  That denotes less than 5 year of service. 

 It is also worth noting that clowns normally give $1,000 each year to do this, but the money cant buy you the colors.  We were told a story of fellow who wanted to wear the blue cape but did not have the time accrued. He was prepared to cut a $25,000 check so he could do it in his first year. The Parade Company rejected the offer....

Physics caused a bit of trouble with the balloons.  Some seemed a bit wrinkly and saggy.  Gay-Lussac's law, or the pressure law, was found by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1809. It states that the pressure exerted on the sides of a container by an ideal gas of fixed volume is proportional to its temperature.  In other words, the balloons deflated because it was cold.  Ahhhhh, real-life applications of science. Dontcha love it?

Many were just a few feet of the ground.  The result?  Uncle Sam looked like he was literally walking down Woodward.

 

More pictures were certainly taken.  236 to be exact. But, here you have 'em - the best of the bunch.....