On the Avenue … Fifth Avenue …
Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Today I continue my experimental work week by venturing into the copy division of a food magazine—one that houses actual water-bubbler-encased water, gratis coffee and tea, and a variety of kinda-sorta fancy lotions in the bathroom.
Ah, the signs of profit! Indeed, there’s even a coconut cake here, free for the nibbling, which i hear is worth the calories (though I’m still mortified enough by Nacho Cheesegate 09 to abstain).
Today is not just a day in which I work, it is Veteran’s Day, as evidenced by the parade en prep when I got out of the subway to venture to this coconutty locale. Which reminds me of something I once thought quite astute, which was: Parades are totally for the jobless. Or at the very least, the extremely underemployed.
Because, really, what reasonable working person likes a parade? Traffic turns into a shitshow. Those who must go to the office as opposed to wear green and vomit in gutters (in the case of that one road hootenanny in March) become angry and resentful at the intrusion in their daily career life, especially in New York City, where a parade means barricades in annoying places, crowded or closed lunch spots, and having to deal with riffraff/tourists.
Even when a parade is, say, on a Saturday, or another day when work is not necessary, I presume that the generally employed would prefer to stay home and watch Charmed, say, or do some shopping uninterrupted by partial nudists on floats dancing to the Village People (in the case of another famous street event), because they have so little time in their work weeks for that sort of thing.
The unemployed, however, in need of colorful displays to stave off the soul-sucking boredom, and able to watch TV and shop on all the other days, might actually attend and even enjoy a parade. Or so I thought.
But interestingly, I found that even when I was completely unemployed, free to wile away my days on Fifth Avenue watching the trombonists of the TK High School Marching Band shimmy their navy-coated way down the street, I chose not to. I haven’t gone to a dang parade since Fourth of July 2006, and I sure don’t miss ‘em.
So, really, it’s not that parades are for the jobless. Parades are for a more dangerous breed altogether. The earnest.
Cake, on the other hand, is for everyone.
Update: Now there’s chocolate, too. My calorie-conscious resolve is wavering…
