The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – brought to you by the NRA?

Ever since I can remember I have watched at least some of the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving morning – or I have forgotten to and then regretted it. Since the arrival of TiVo – the best invention of the last hundred years if you ask me – I have often recorded the parade and then skimmed through it, pausing to watch the people I recognized.

Those people have grown fewer and fewer. This year I think there were two: Renee Fleming and Idina Menzel. Macy’s lists the following personalities:

The Big Apple Circus, Before You Exit, William Blake, Sabrina Carpenter, Cirque du Soleil, Hilary Duff, Renee Fleming, Becky G., Lucy Hale, Nick Jonas, KISS, Sandra Lee, The Madden Brothers, Idina Menzel, Miss USA 2014 Nia Sanchez, MKTO, the cast and Muppets of Sesame Street, NEEDTOBREATH, NHL players John LeClair and Pat LaFontaine, Pentatonix, Romeo Santos, Cole Swindell, Meghan Trainor, The Vamps, Quvenzhané Wallis, and more.

OK, I’ve seen the Big Apple Circus and Cirque du Soleil; I know who Nick Jonas is; I know Kiss, but not their music – and that’s it. The rest of those people? No clue. I checked in on a few of them but fast forwarded almost immediately. (I do know this guy on the left though).

Missing from that list are the real stars of the show: the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. I watched and loved them, as my Dad did before me. You can see their routine here. I do have to say though: what’s with one -- 1 -- black Rockette? One? That’s the best they could do? A sea of white bodies and one set of dark legs? Just because turkeys come that way, does our entertainment, in 2014, have to?

But, moving on: I did also stop fast forwarding as many of the marching bands came into view. Don’t ask me why – maybe because I went to Notre Dame – but I’ve always liked marching bands. The athleticism of those toned young bodies, the precision of their steps, the intricacies of the patterns they form, the height the twirlers throw their batons . . .

Ok, wait a minute; so what if the kids are not all svelte and fit like they used to be – I’m not either. And so what if their routines sometimes come undone on the cold concrete of Manhattan? But I put my foot down when it comes to rifles replacing batons. OK, fake rifles if you will, but what’s up with that? Nearly every band I saw had young women (I don’t think I saw any young men) twirling fake rifles. Band after band. Had I inadvertently tuned into the National Rifle Association parade?

Sure as hell seemed so. Not something I’ll be doing next year I’ll wager.