Never On One Day

Good morning/afternoon/evening...and Happy New Year! 

How ya' doing? Did you have a wild night? Or did you behave yourself? Does the picture above remind you of January 1st mornings of years past? Right now? Oh, those headaches, nausea - the inevitable morning-after regrets and forgets. Bleck!

There can be a bright side. The States have two traditions and a quiet third to make the fog go away as the day unfolds: One of the first actions on the morning-after is to turn on the TV to watch the Rose Parade. If hungover, one has to turn off the volume to avoid the piercingly annoying racket of the endless marching bands stomping down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, blowing on their brassy instruments coupled with the pound-pound-bam of the drums. 

But the vision of flower-covered floats of varying sizes and designs is eye-candy for the soul as they glide through the street providing creative, pretty images with which to begin the new year. Sound on or off, it's a few hours of pure escapism, leading-up to the second tradition: football, of course. The Rose Bowl game. 

Whether or not you like football, it's a challenge to avoid seeing at least a part of the game if you are going to a New Year's Day party. Or if you're living with a sports fan/fanatic. 

The third, and least discussed tradition on this day, is food. And more food. Friends gather not only to share the grunts and cheers of the deliriously anticipated televised college football game, but also to spend part of the afternoon noshing on the worst junk food one can imagine, all the way to lavish buffet spreads donned with china, linen napkins and the host's best silver. It's true that the latter gatherings rarely have the game as a focus. More like who's wearing who and how recent was someone's plastic surgery.

However, today in the States all is quiet. No one and no-thing is marching or floating down Colorado Boulevard. Neither will the Rose Bowl game take place. Why? Because today is a Sunday, and the Tournament of Roses Parade, along with the Rose Bowl game, "... never happen on a Sunday."

The moment I heard the above, my mind immediately flashed-back to the B/W 1960 once-risqué Melina Mercouri film, "Never On Sunday." Melina's character played a prostitute who just won't change her ways, the little tart!

Anyhow, as America settles into 2012 without the usual Pasadena-based past-time, we have an opportunity to stretch-out the holiday weekend through tomorrow when all of the festivities will begin. It's probably just as well that we have a day to catch our breath, particularly those who live in Los Angeles where an arsonist (or arsonists) are wreaking havoc; setting fire to at least 39 parked-in-garages cars in less than 3 days. Not all of the fires may be the work of the same person/people: nevertheless, rather than send the police out to Pasadena for crowd control, it's best to have them on duty to curb this mess.

And yes, I did digress......