Macy's, Macy's, Macy's

Tomorrow is the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, which I used to watch on TV all the time when I was growing up in the Midwest, and which I never watch on TV since I've lived in New York. But I'm glad it's there. It's commercial and garish and a lot of it is in bad taste, but it's a tradition, one that still smacks a bit of small-town America. And it's sponsored by a quintessentially New York store which, however corporate and faceless its become, still has a claim on Gotham cultural history.

Here's an interesting little video featuring Macy's place in the general culture over the past 150 years. Sure, it's a commercial, but it's still kind of cool. So many people say Macy's—including Orson Welles—that the word begins to loose all meaning after a while.