Tradition!

More fun than huffing paint!

Thanks to a timely gift (big ups, Grandma!), I was able to revive a New Year's tradition for 2005. Back when I was young (19) and had no friends, I used to stay in on December 31st and watch the Marx Brothers marathon every year on PBS. Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, Monkey Business and The Cocoanuts, one after the other, warping my still-forming mind. Before I was old enough to appreciate the surreal brilliance of Monty Python or the silent mania of Buster Keaton, the Marxs made sure my world was just a little more strange. Thus at 2 a.m. on this New Year's Day, after finishing off the better part of two bottles of champagne, I settled in for a bit of wacky intrigue in the fictional European republic of Fredonia. Why a duck? Why, indeed.