Everybody Who's Anybody

All the swells showed up for the new bridge opening. Well, at least of the political class. Lots of ordinary people came, too, like the chap in the second picture. And me, too, more or less ordinary except for the bag and two cameras hanging off me, one of which had a telephoto lens as big as Crocodile Dundee's knife.

It took a long time for the official opening ceremonies to get going. Only a fraction of the dignitaries who were present made it onto the small stage. In the third picture, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon braved the cold with a woman I cannot identify. The governor's actual first name is Jeremiah but that's too many syllables for a modern American politician. There was another governor, Pat (instead of Patrick); U.S. Senators who go by Claire, her actual name, and Dick (instead of Richard); and U.S. Representatives who introduce themselves as Bill (instead of William, but that's okay because he's an old friend of mine), Lacey (two syllables, his middle name, to distinguish himself from his father who previously held the seat, both of them William) and Ann, whose district I live in but who emphatically does not represent me.

I almost hit the Governor of Illinois in the head with said large telephoto lens in the crowd afterward but fortunately (for me, mostly) no harm done.

Lots more to come. BTW there is all sorts of interesting stuff about about the design and construction of the bridge here.