I’m not sure if I’ve adequately explained that Krewe du Vieux is a walking parade. We use the word march but by the end of the nearly 3-mile long route the right word is trudge. My friend Old School Bob calls it the stumble.

That’s why as publisher I decreed that Jamie O go first this morning. Besides, his Balloon-ey Looney post is excellent and we’re elastic enough at First Draft to shuffle the normal schedule. I did, however, keep my original title for reasons to be explained later.

In case you’re wondering what I’m on about, this tweet from last night sums things up nicely:

Old movie reference: Today, I walked like Walter Brennan in To Have and Have Not but I wasn’t stung by a dead bee.

— Shecky (@Adrastosno) February 6, 2023

I spent way too much time on the Tweeter Tube talking about KdV yesterday. I planned to get out the house but neither Dr. A nor I had the energy. She’s usually one of those people who is in constant motion but not the day after KdV. Oh well, what the hell.

I’ll have more about this year’s stumble and slog sometime tomorrow. I’m waiting to find the perfect picture of Spank’s float lit up and rolling. One should materialize today.

This was my theme song for yesterday:

Since I was in the Carnival bubble, I didn’t pay that much attention to the Chinese Balloon flap. There was a lot of hot air and dick waving from Republicans. They wanted to try and reestablish their tough on national security image, which has been tarnished by their fealty to Tsar Vlad the wannabe conqueror.

Operation Tough on Balloons didn’t work as Team Biden explained why they didn’t shoot down the balloon earlier: to prevent American civilian casualties.

In their haste to be Balloonatics, the MAGA Republicans forgot about the forgotten Americans. Everything about this flap was forgettable. What was it about, again? Beats the hell outta me.

The featured image and title come from Buster Keaton’s 1923 silent comedy classic:

The only research I did yesterday was on balloon songs. Here are a few of them with some snappy commentary; at least I hope it’s snappy. There’s still not a lot of pep in my step.’

We begin with Small Faces with a Tim Hardin song:

If only I could walk like Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians today:

Fiona Apple gets heavy and balloon-ey:

XTC. Say no more:

The last word goes to the 5th Dimension who weren’t cool in the Sixties but are now.