Dave Barry plunges into the inaugural spirit

Miami Herald ^ | January 21, 2009 | Dave Barry

[EveningStar]

It is a great honor to march in an inauguration parade. So when a group I belong to called the World Famous Lawn Rangers of Amazing Arcola was selected to march at Barack Obama's inauguration, our reaction, as Americans, was: "The organizers of this parade must be smoking crack."

I say this because we are not a traditional marching unit. We are an extremely random group of middle-age guys who carry brooms and push specially decorated show lawn mowers, which we use to perform synchronized broom-and-lawn mower maneuvers that always get a big crowd reaction (usually: "Huh?"). As you can imagine these performances require intense mental preparation, by which I mean beer.

[Grizzled Bear]

"The organizers of this parade must be smoking crack."

I thought Dave Barry wrote satire.

[FateAmenableToChange]

I don’t get it.

[ponygirl]

I wuz gonna say... he’s not too far off there...

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Dave Barry, Embedded Reporter. (Chortle).

I’d like to see the photo of the Messiah with a plunger in his hand...especially since he had that run-in w/Joe.

[EveningStar]

He writes humor but not necessarily satire.

[Grizzled Bear]

It sounds to me like he’s reporting the facts...

[Zack Nguyen]

Hilarious. I remember those lawn mowers on the tv. I thought, “Who the heck is that? How did they get into an Inaugural Parade?” Now I know. Dave Barry was at the bottom of it somehow.

[OCC]

One mower sports a large stuffed beaver. (''When you take that to a bar after the parade,'' a Ranger informs me, ''it's a real conversation starter.'')

I bet! Gots to get me one of those.

[AFreeBird]

"The organizers of this parade must be smoking crack."

LOL.... It's the drug of choice for our new messiah and his disciples.

Amazing, everyone else who holds a security clearance has to undergo a wiz quizz, but "The One", that's going to give them orders gets a free pass.

[Doe Eyes]

Amazing, everyone else who holds a security clearance has to undergo a wiz quizz

No they don't.

[AFreeBird]

Really? Wow, the lowly grunts get tested don't they? I know someone who was on the Nimitz back in the 80's, they all got quizzed.

So some guy or gal handling highly classified material is free to smoke, inject or ingest whatever with no worries.

Party on Dude!

[Doe Eyes]

I work in private industry. Clearances for over 20 years. Not once a drug test.

[D-fendr]

"As the bus creeps along, we listen to the inauguration ceremony on the radio. We celebrate the swearing-in with a special Lawn Rangers cheer: ``Mow-bam-A! Mow-bam-A!''"

[MissCalico]

Hilarious. I remember those lawn mowers on the tv. I thought, “Who the heck is that? How did they get into an Inaugural Parade?” Now I know. Dave Barry was at the bottom of it somehow.

I remember the displeased look on Michelle's face as they went by and wished I could've screen-capped it. Had no idea it was Dave Barry :-)