So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

No, I see you more as a Dervish. Do you whirl?

Yes, but rarely on purpose.

 

[Hercule]

I always enjoyed seeing the Shrine "Arab Patrol" in local parades as a kid, with the Punjab pants and the brocade vests and the swords, but I can certainly understand why you don't tend to see that much anymore. They were doing what used to be called in vaudeville a "Zouave Act," but by the 21st Century it didn't exactly read that way.

Our local parades also used to prominently feature the members of the local Improved Order of Red Men lodge -- a group of girthful Caucasians dressed in Native American regalia of a sort entirely alien to members of our actual local tribes, doing a Hollywood notion of an "Indian war dance" while waving tomahawks and doing that thing where one whoops while clapping their hand rapidly over their mouth. "Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime."

Now THAT'S hilarious - "girthful Caucasians" as "Improved" red men.

I'm not sure what to make of the Mummers. While it's very strange that about 10 years ago Mummers "parades" (or are they performances?) from Philadelphia were shown on our local TV (Cleveland), that was the first I had ever heard of them. To be honest, I was and still am not sure what to make of them. It's just such a bizarre thing.

 

[MisterCairo]

Loreena McKennit hit 17 on the Billboard Top 100 with The Mummers' Dance.

She lives near me and is Honourary Colonel of the Royal Canadian Air Force:

She is a local activist, saved a community centre from closing by buying and running it herself, and is currently engaged in an effort to prevent a floating glass plant from being forced on Stratford, Ontario:

https://www.stratfordbeaconherald.c...-factory-proposal-to-continue-at-monday-rally

 

[tonyb]

I always enjoyed seeing the Shrine "Arab Patrol" in local parades as a kid, with the Punjab pants and the brocade vests and the swords, but I can certainly understand why you don't tend to see that much anymore. They were doing what used to be called in vaudeville a "Zouave Act," but by the 21st Century it didn't exactly read that way.

Our local parades also used to prominently feature the members of the local Improved Order of Red Men lodge -- a group of girthful Caucasians dressed in Native American regalia of a sort entirely alien to members of our actual local tribes, doing a Hollywood notion of an "Indian war dance" while waving tomahawks and doing that thing where one whoops while clapping their hand rapidly over their mouth. "Vintage Things That Have Disappeared In Your Lifetime."

Having been in drum and bugle corps in my early years, when there were thousands of drum and bugle corps and parades were more common and much better attended (these days there are typically more performers parading down the street than observers on the sidewalk), I saw many a drill team, motorized and otherwise. The girl drill teams, of which there were many back then, were on average much better rehearsed, and performed much more demanding routines, than anything the adults had to offer. (Still, those white Honda Dream motorcycles the Shriners plopped their ample rumps upon were kinda cool.)

Most drum and bugle corps back then had at least the token sponsorship of an American Legion and VFW post. (The sponsorship often was little more than the use of the Legion hall as a rehearsal space, but still ... ) Those veterans’ organizations also sponsored and officiated the field competitions between the various d&b corps.

Remember all that talk of a “generation gap” back in the late 1960s? It wasn’t entirely a media creation. On too many occasions we heard the announcer at some Legion-sponsored parade or field competition utter some close variation on “This is the sort of youth demonstration we like to see!”

We just rolled our eyes. If you only knew half the s**t we were up to, you clueless old f**k.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Judging from this Movietone footage from 1930, the Philadelphia Mummers' Parade was the event of the year for cross-dressing.

 

[Hercule]

This is what I'm referring to:

 

[Harp]

Arlington Park Thoroughbred Racetrack will be sold for real property development by Churchill Downs.
As with Boston's venerable Suffolk Downs, its locus proved more valuable to its corporate entity.

 

[Zombie_61]

Judging from this Movietone footage from 1930, the Philadelphia Mummers' Parade was the event of the year for cross-dressing.

And here I thought it was odd to see a bunch of girthful middle-aged men wearing fezzes stuffed into a bunch of identical go-carts.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

This is for informational purposes only, not to open up a debate, so here goes:

In Canada, some products like milk, chicken, and turkey are managed in terms of supply by regulating how much is produced and by extension, who can produce.

A provincially mandated private board issues "quota", the total number of product units that can be produced (milk, eggs) or raised (birds). That total is sold in the market to farmers having the means to buy it and produce.

Initial quota allocations were reasonably priced. However, ironically if you will, the supply of quota is far less than the demand for it, so now we have paper millionaires who are free to sell on, or pass down to the next generation.

The quid pro quo for limiting supply is to guarantee price at the market stall. So by some (not all) standards Canadians pay more for milk, eggs, etc. I say some standards, because this system avoids the massive government subsidies of these products, a hidden cost found in other jurisdictions.

This is an issue in internal Canadian politics and before international trade panels. I have no personal dog in the fight, though my inlaws raise broiler chickens and my wife's aunt and uncle are dairy farmers, I think the prices are reasonable given the farmers are not competing each other into bankruptcy, but I do wish the butter was more easily spread!

This brought to mind something I remember as a boy in Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth (note, not State) of Pennsylvania had established a Milk Marketing Board which set minimum retail prices for fresh milk. I remember thinking (however briefly) how odd that such a thing should exist.

Later I learned of the variety of New Deal measures, like the Agricultural Adjustment Act. It provided cash income for farmers not to grow crops or raise livestock so as to raise the prices of these. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Act unconstitutional in 1936, one of the motivations for President Roosevelt to raise the issue of "court packing" (plus ca change). Nonetheless, Congress rejiggered the legislation to tailor it to the Court's objections, and parts of it are still in force today.

It's easy to see how the subsidies helped the farmers, but there were millions of hungry people who didn't necessarily see the benefit of less food at higher prices.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The AAA was the result of a simple truth: the American farmer by and large had not shared in 1920s prosperity at all and the Depression sent their situation from very bad to much, much worse. There were many instances of farmers shooting entire herds of livestock because they weren't worth the cost it took to raise them, or burning crops to heat their houses because the price they brought at market wouldn't have been enough to buy fuel, or of setting up milk blockades in which trucks belonging to city-based dairy companies were stopped, their drivers beaten, and the milk poured out because the wholesale prices weren't bringing a living wage. Other farmers refused to sell anything to anyone at "market prices," leading to a serious threat of a national food-supply crisis. For the farmers, it was less a matter of wanting "more money" than of basic survival -- and by extension, the survival of the entire American agricultural industry.

All this culminated in the formation of a radical group called the Farmer's Holiday Association, which resorted to terrorism in pursuit of its goals. The Association was very powerful in the Midwest, and on one occasion actually stormed a courtroom while a foreclosure proceeding was taking place, kidnapped the judge off the bench, threw a rope around his neck, dragged him into the street, and very nearly lynched him.

"Let's call a Farmers' Holiday!
A Holiday we'll hold!
We'll eat OUR wheat and ham and eggs!
And let THEM eat their gold!"

This is the America FDR was living in. The AAA had many failings, but it was either that or deal with the threat of incipient revolution, and unlike Mr. Hoover, FDR had little taste for sending the Army out against suffering, impoverished citizens. (And as far as the Court goes, it was widely believed at the time that its ruling on the AAA was less about a rigorous interpretation of the Constitution than it was a desire to personally slap down that "traitor to his class," the man the distinguished Justice McReynolds enjoyed calling "that crippled son of a bitch in the White House.")

 

[Trenchfriend]

I read again about FDR and of course, he's an interesting person.
From all, what I read, an open-minded, social man with strategic intelligence and sharp diplomatic skills.

A man, who could bridge the gulf between humanity and the Borg. Wait, that's the wrong movie...

 

[MisterCairo]

And here I thought it was odd to see a bunch of girthful middle-aged men wearing fezzes stuffed into a bunch of identical go-carts.

I love that this is in Canada...

 

[MisterCairo]

The definition of segue: Mention "buttergate", end with farmers lynching judges!

 

[LizzieMaine]

And isn't that the essence of the Lounge.

As for go-karting Shriners, we had an incident in a local parade a few years back where one of the carts went out of control and hit a kid. I was driving my Plodge in the parade to advertise the theatre, with both our incoming and outgoing Executive Directors in the back seat, and the delay while they were dealing with the accident caused my engine to overheat. We had no idea what had happened until after the parade was over, but there were two lasting consequences -- no more Shriner go-karts, and I'll never drive my car in a parade again.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I liked our (smalltown) parades until the end of the 90s!
In the 2000s, they started to use the big truck trailers and of course it's modern shaped (and coloured!) tractor units. Bah! That had no more anything to do with aesthetics!

That's, what I call TRASH. And it's seemingly happening everywhere.
Show my any parade, that's not looking stupid, goofy and prolly!

 

[Turnip]

And here I thought it was odd to see a bunch of girthful middle-aged men wearing fezzes stuffed into a bunch of identical go-carts.

Reminded me immediately on this...sorry for thr short circuit...

 

[Trenchfriend]

And isn't that the essence of the Lounge.

As for go-karting Shriners, we had an incident in a local parade a few years back where one of the carts went out of control and hit a kid. I was driving my Plodge in the parade to advertise the theatre, with both our incoming and outgoing Executive Directors in the back seat, and the delay while they were dealing with the accident caused my engine to overheat. We had no idea what had happened until after the parade was over, but there were two lasting consequences -- no more Shriner go-karts, and I'll never drive my car in a parade again.

0:08 - Ok, Lizzie, I'm coming to Maine!!

 

[MisterCairo]

WHERE can I GET ONE???

Reminded me immediately on this...sorry for thr short circuit...

 

[Harp]

The AAA was the result of a simple truth: the American farmer by and large had not shared in 1920s prosperity at all and the Depression sent their situation from very bad to much, much worse...

This is the America FDR was living in. The AAA had many failings, but it was either that or deal with the threat of incipient revolution, and unlike Mr. Hoover, FDR had little taste for sending the Army out against suffering, impoverished citizens. (And as far as the Court goes, it was widely believed at the time that its ruling on the AAA was less about a rigorous interpretation of the Constitution than it was a desire to personally slap down that "traitor to his class," the man the distinguished Justice McReynolds enjoyed calling "that crippled son of a bitch in the White House.")

My father was a cattle buyer and once took me along for a bid trip to Bristol, Wisconsin where he looked
over farm livestock offered direct consignment to his employer, Hygrade Meat Company. I recall one farmer
remarking that he offered .25 per pound "on the hoof." My dad bought his entire herd and I was shown
the farm and even pulled out some nest eggs inside the hen house. The whole farm was a productive
family pursuit and the farmer's son would eventually inherit the land.

Lunch was at a local tavern that advertised a "free lunch." I spotted the sign and asked about it.
We were amidst a farmer crowd and they all took delight in explaining "that there ain't no free lunch, son."
A beer or beers are bought first.

As for a lack of Constitutional judicial rigor exercised, some things are constant SCOTUS conundrum.

 

[Turnip]

WHERE can I GET ONE???

As both, NVA as well as Thälmann Pioniere, are long history maybe in a museum or a forgotten storehouse.