LEAP DAY, SORT OF

This is the closest picture I could find in recent inventory of someone leaping. It's February 29, the rare slice of time in which we adjust the measure of our orbit around the sun. I have a sister in law who was born on this date so she's only 16 today.                    

SHRINERS

The Shriners are a subset of the Masons. Their lodges have Arabic-ish names but they wear a fez, which is Turkish. A local group appears at every parade with these little yellow stunt cars. One of them always rolls over onto two wheels. a big crowd pleaser.

The men in the second picture may be members of a different lodge. Note the neckware of the one on the left. Our international readers may not recognize the top one but it's a symbol of the Republican party. If the resolution on your end is good enough you can see it kinda goes downhill from there.          

GET TESTED

A van preparing to roll in the Mardi Gras parade. The organization is a joint project of the St. Louis City and County health departments. It provides free testing and treatment for STDs and other sexual wellness resources. Good for them.       

SPECIAL EFFECTS

One of my habits when shooting parades is to go to the staging area about an hour early. Everyone is getting ready and not yet on the march. They all look strange in their own way and are happy to pose.The woman in the first picture was doing stunts with the hoop that a still picture can't capture. The second one boggles me. After I took the picture she was walking around as free as you please, and rock steady. How do you learn how to do that without cracking your head open?         

EH?

I need help from my Canadian friends on this one. I don't get it. As mentioned, the theme of the parade was blue but there isn't a bottle of Labatt's in sight. Otherwise, the meaning completely escapes me. The people who marched beside the float were dressed in white with necklaces made of small plastic Canadian flags. Maybe there is a cultural reference that we down here can't understand.           

BLUE HAIR

The theme of this year's Mardi Gras parade was blue. This town is still in a reverie over the Blues hockey team winning the championship last spring. And who better to characterize the theme than Marge Simpson? How did they hold all those balloons together? I think the fake hair of the people on the float was made of blue bubble wrap. If this didn't win the prize for best float it should have.           

SILLY SEASON

As has often been observed in these pages, St. Louis loves an excuse to drink in public. The season kicks off with the Mardi Gras parade, which is a pretty big deal here. Not that we can compare to New Orleans, but we might take second place in the US. The parade is the Saturday before the official Tuesday. The weather was beautiful, cloudless and warm for this time of year, bringing out a huge crowd. Lots more where these came from.