Any unicyclists in the Macy's parade this year?

dudewithasock · November 27, 2008, 6:31am

I recall last year seeing a big troupe of one-wheelers in the parade. Any chance of that this year?

BillyTheMountain · November 28, 2008, 8:38am

I guess not.

But with the upcoming helium shortage, maybe we’ll e seeing more unis and fewer balloons!

Snoopy and Charlie Brown getting a quick poke. Linde is going to suck the hel out of

When I run short on helium-3 or helium-4 I just make a batch with the left over deuterium we have laying around. I can make about 10,000 atoms per second. It takes 6 trillion years to make a gram but I’ve got nothing but time.

We had a grad student about ten years ago that I found in the shower washing an unrestrained A size gas cylinder. Those are the ones that are about shoulder high and would turn into a little rocket if they fell over and broke their valve off. They would easily zip through the cinder block walls of the bathroom. This made me a little nervous. I asked him what the hell he was doing that for. He said that his adviser had told him to wash all of the tritium off the surface. This made me a little more nervous. I asked him what made him think that tritium was on the surface of the bottle. He said it was a cylinder of helium-3 from a bomb lab at Los Alamos. Oh, I thought, that’s OK then. I told him he was probably holding a million dollars worth of helium-3 and he seemed startled. Later, when I spoke (harshly) with his adviser about the incident, I found out that it was only half a million dollars worth of helium-3 so there was nothing to worry about. It has probably appreciated substantially by now.

Kenny_Cason · November 30, 2008, 11:28am

I’m assuming you mean the Macy’s parade in New York. Too bad 'cause Panther Pride was in the Macy’s parade in Seattle!

peleschramm · November 30, 2008, 11:50am

I was in the Macy’s parade…

In Seattle!

KathySusanka · November 30, 2008, 12:26pm

RTUC got a huge amount of news coverage from America’s Thanksgiving Parade in Detroit.
Channel 4 video, RTUC is featured in part 2 at about 13 minutes
Thankful for parade traditions - Detroit News, November 28, 2008
Thanksgiving parade offers a fun distraction - Detroit Free Press, November 28, 2008
We also made it into 8 of the 62 photos in the Detroit Free Press Parade Photo Gallery

Anybody see us on TV?

Anybody else parade on Thanksgiving?

johnfoss · December 1, 2008, 9:09am

Wow, great coverage for RTUC! I was amazed that all the Free Press pictures containing the unicyclists were better than the single one on the Detroit News site. Some were really, really nice ones. The riding looks like it hasn’t change in the 25 Thanksgivings since I’ve moved away though. Don’t you guys wave, or entertain the crowd much?

It’s cool to see all those balloons in the Detroit parade. I always thought they didn’t work in most parades due to overhead wires. I wonder if some wires have been move underground or other changes to infrastructure had to happen before the balloons could go down Woodward Ave. Then, in one of the Freep pictures it shows the Elmo balloon approaching an overpass. What happens there? Maybe that was the end of the parade?

I’ll always kick myself for not making more of an effort to get into the Macy’s Parade when I lived in the NY area. We would have had to make a video of our group doing a different parade, which was difficult due to the very few parades we actually got a group together to ride in. Hey Pele, do the folks in Seattle also call it the “Macy’s Day Parade?” That’s a common name people use (though not Macy’s) in NY…

KathySusanka · December 3, 2008, 6:09pm

There are no wires along the parade route. They must have moved them at some time. The huge balloons are pulled down toward the ground by their handlers to go under the People Mover. It looks like it’s not going to work but it does.

The Parade Committee initially wanted us to audition or send a tape but we just invited them to come to another parade. Poof - we were invited to “accept the privilege” after being excluded for 7 or 8 years. The weather was beautiful and the parade was long.

idiorythmic · December 3, 2008, 6:39pm

It also looked rather slow, did the pace make it tougher for the giraffe riders to stay in the saddle?

johnfoss · December 3, 2008, 9:44pm

Not to answer for Kathy, but parades are always slow. The intended pace is walking speed, because there are lots of walkers/marchers in any parade. But in reality there are stops and starts, and if you aren’t careful you’ll find a big gap in front of your group.

At least that’s what happens with unicyclists, as we often turn around and ride the opposite way, or go in circles within our space to keep rolling. Some parades may have, for various reasons, long stops. During those times is when you find out if your group is really entertaining or not, as you’re in front of the same people for a while…

Kenny_Cason · December 4, 2008, 7:49pm

How do you mount you giraffes if you fall during a parade? I was on a 5-footer in Seattle and had to climb a “No Parking” sign to get back on after hitting a grate. I can’t imagine doing that on the higher ones!

mornish · December 4, 2008, 9:39pm

catapult mount?

KathySusanka · December 5, 2008, 5:15am

Ben, you could have joined us… It was one of the longer parades that we do and we did circle A LOT because of the commercials but otherwise it moved pretty good. When a parade stops, it gives the riders juggling and jumping rope a chance to show off a bit more.

Amazingly enough, the tall giraffes seldom come down. IF they do, they use the same method to remount. Someone from our unit will help hold the uni against a pole or sign and the rider will climb back up. I did once ask a large guy watching the parade to help me help my daughter back up on a six footer because there were no poles around but that was a rare occurance.

BillyTheMountain · December 5, 2008, 3:29pm

They’ve actually changed the name of the holiday here to Macy’s Day, when everyone has turkey for their Macy’s Day dinner.