With apologies to Charles Dickens

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Here’s a photo of a guy dressed as some kind of cylindrical statue of Liberty from the St. Patrick’s day parade:

I really don’t know why I choose this passage from Charles Dickens to illustrate my blog entry. Maybe because it was the tale of two parades. But these were both of the best of times, but some of those times were weird. Really: