Nov 25 2010

Big Balloon Parade!

Last Sunday at noon, 18 Helium Balloons in the shape of familiar and popular cartoon characters stepped off at the intersection of Hoyt and Summers for their 17th annual appearance.

The tallest balloon, Popeye, stands a whopping 65 feet and this year 2 new balloons were added, Fred Flintstone and Scooby Doo.

Over 100 volunteers assist at the event as balloon handlers and Parade Marshals and it’s organized by a permanent steering committee of 3 and sponsored by UBS.  This year’s Grand Marshal was John Starks, formerly of the Knicks and the Master of Ceremonies Alan Kalter of Late Night with David Letterman.

It was quite a spectacular sight and I bet you’re sorry you missed it because there’s just no better way to feel that Master of the Universe consumerist buying spirit of the 4th Quarter than standing in the Hedge Funded Concrete Canyons of downtown Stamford Connecticut and…

You say there’s another Balloon Parade?  In New York City?  And it’s on TV?

Then why was I freezing my ass off… oh, never mind.

Coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade starts at 9 am on CBS (which is a little up route so you see things first) and NBC (which covers the lame lip syncing at Herald Square).

Liveblogging below.

rustymancuso581

177 comments

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  1. Just as long a Kermit.

    Kanye West on Big Apple float.

    • on 11/25/2010 at 16:21
    • #

    No time to read because I’m getting ready for a drive to Oldbridge, NJ.

    Happy Thanksgiving.  

    1. licensed?

  7. 42 feet tall, 47 feet long.

  8. University of Southern Mississippi Marching Band.

      • on 11/25/2010 at 15:28
      • #

      you never know what’s not there.  cbs is local news here, and that’s not even a news event.  sears is open from 7:00 until noon today.  last night we set a record for coldest november since records.

  9. Sailor Micky Balloon.

    1. It’s really hard to find good sources for this stuff.

    1. Who’d a thunk?  I thought he was constructed out of pure evil.

    2. Cowboy Up.

  12. The Bunny is a Balloonicle.

  13. Something seems out of sync here.

    1. for billy elliot I think.

  17. Celebrity interviews won’t wait.

  18. The Poke Ball is a separate piece.

    Pikachu is 53 feet high.

  19. I bet it will be without all the double entendres

  20. Not much irony in that.

  21. at Gov.Patterson over the casino deal with a tribe from another state. It may not e legal anyway. Feds are reviewing it

  22. With a different pait job that turtle could have been a snail.

  23. Macy’s Thanksgiving Commercial Parade!

    Feels like the ratio of commercials to parade is way up.

    But hey, the Superbowl must-see-tv commercials are just a few weeks away!

    1. clowns now?

  26. the black eyed peas was pretty good.

    1. But I’m surfing pretty fast.

  27. Huh, they’re retiring Shrek.

  28. has a lot to thank Kanye West for this Thanksgiving. Someone needs to teach her to stand up straight, though. Her posture is terrible

    1. Snoopy come home?

  29. with mixed berry fruit, nuts and a little brown sugar

  30. City Billy

    1. That never happens to me.

      • on 11/25/2010 at 16:12
      • #

      1. I have channel 4 (NBC) with Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera st 34 St. and All Roker at the start.

  34. Sailor Mickey which also already cruised through Herald Square.

    Time is out of joint.

    1. a dozen people at your house asking questions like “what ya’ doin’?”

  35. It be another Ballonicle.

    Arrgh.

      1. and a tummy tuck. 😉

  36. That last band had a nice move back into marching formation.

      • on 11/25/2010 at 16:18
      • #

  37. Because what is America without Boy Bands?

  39. Pikachu also has lighted cheeks.

    10th appearance.

  40. for Taylor’s special tonight? 😉

    1. with the carcass and my recipe for wild mushroom risotto

  41. I feel confident that America could beat the Taliban in a a pizza cookoff.

  42. and gorgeous still

  43. no pom poms

  44. mishima should love this, they played the theme from ‘Space Battleship Yamamoto’.

    1. missed them. Lowering the heat on our libby’s pumpkin pie.

  45. Big Apple float with Kanye West.

  46. 2nd year for this balloon.

    1. I just type whatever comes into my head.

    2. Heh, you’ll be pretty close to me. Drive careful

      1. The banter was about the pooper scooper law.

        • on 11/25/2010 at 15:39
        • #

        hope those cartoons got a scan or a patdown before they could fly.

  47. Ugh.

  48. I could say a lot about Kool Aid but it’s Thanksgiving.

      • on 11/25/2010 at 16:51
      • #

  50. Noche Buena?

    This is ‘murrika.

      1. NBC tape delays for the West Coast.  CBS runs live nationwide.

        CBS is actually kind of a pirate operation, they don’t pay Macy’s for broadcast rights, but it’s a news event.

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