Thanksgiving is a unique holiday in the U.S. It's the only American holiday where the event itself appears to have more significance than the plastic novelties you put in your front yard. In fact, other than a few inflatable turkeys there is little in the way of humourous trash with which to adorn the day. The purpose - spending time with people close to you and eating your own weight in one sitting - is sufficiently consuming to make any ancillery gimcrackery seem pointless - detrimental even - to the day's significance.
There is however, one Thanksgiving tradition that has absorbed all this missing gimmickry and razamatazz and it is discharged in one long New York parade. I'm told it makes other parades look like a
queue line at the post office. Initially it was my plan for the whole Potarto family to go and see the parade. I mean, we're a few miles away, staying at home and watching it on TV seemed a waste somehow. But Il Capo convinced me that the trauma of enduring four hours standing in the street in November with the Squeakers was something we should save for next year. So, how amazing is the parade? We shall see with the second Mr Potarto live-blog session.
Strictly speaking, this is less a live-blog, more a TiVo-blog as the parade started 40 minutes ago and the TV's still off. Anyone with a DVR will understand - once you become accustomed to jumping over adverts, live television holds a certain repulsion.
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