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More than 38 diverse activities oriented around a huge hot air-ballooning event, with about that many envelopes to go up? This distinctive uprising is found in Hudson all this weekend — even Sunday — and you can eat and drink, and shop and play, as well, the whole time.

What’s hot stays hot. Including the Super Bowl. So then there was that one nun, you know, the one I’ve talked about who got the name of the Philly team wrong and thought it was a small dog, not a Big Dawg that was let out. Or was it Cincy? I’m guessing the first since her (B)Eagles are still Stayin’ Alive and Flyin’ High Again and High as Heaven. (Like Mary Jane these days.) And now to complete the joke, the Bengals now are has-beens — like the Chiefs? And as things go in cycles, possibly soon Taylor Swift too (and beau? Or will he renew?) But their end is still tight …

This one, not so much so. (Old) news from one of my other Holy Friends. There was a balloon, actually a blimp, over The Big Game that dragged a banner backing inclusion and diversity. But apparently it’s not big enough for that, as with the presence of Trump, it was ordered taken down. So she boycotted the game. As in have none.

Back back to more hot air, as in the Hudson Affair. Which will be back again early next February.

Staying Alive takes a lot of effort, like putting colored checkers on a hot air balloon canvas — and you can paint those too — to resemble disco-ball-type sparkles. Or kinda like shoveling snow but much better. Of course there is much more than music, (which was profiled in the post below), to Staying Alive in 2025! There are a full 38 separate semi-events listed for the Hudson Hot Air Affair, spelled out and slated out in not skated out in this winter event, in pink capital letters.

— Overnight into Monday morning, crews will be showcasing not their football analysis, but in a backwards way their teardown skills as they remove Super Bowl merchandising. As this is a commercial-driven event. At Walmart, for example, the late advertising forming a second entryway by the front door featured another gateway of sorts, a goalpost shaped rendition of boxes of potato chips and Pepsi. But don’t they know that the crossbar is the lowest, not highest-horizontal-running bar, in forming this big-box-shape of stacked boxes, metaphorically and otherwise? Dunk height, to mix sports.

I had taken a cab to get to this last place of buying madness, arrving just before gametime, as the two AAA batteries in my TV remote had run out. Small but powerpacking. Also got some chips and trail mix and beef jerky, turkey-based this time, and — yuck for this day? — cranberry juice too. I was going to duck into Green Mill and check out the first quarter, but I figured things would not be just ducky there, and the place was probably packed. The cabbie concurred, saying that I was and is his last running fare of the day. —

There are of course the three signature balloon launches, weather permitting of course and we’re expecting at least some ice baby — but there are plenty of other activities to provide melting — where more than three dozen will be perched on the ground and waiting to go, burners on. They occur around dawn on Saturday and Sunday morning, (set for 7:35 a.m. if you’re counting), and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

This is important: The launches are this year at a different location, as in a different school, this one just south of town. And the only parking there is for disabled — people not their cars — others must take a shuttle, so don’t wait until the last minute if you’re lingering at something (such as the traditional smoosh boarding set for 1 p.m. on the other end of the playground) for such comedy/competition/chaos as hey, four boards are not too many for eight feet, and oh that’s a weekend band! The actual site for the balloons to crest is the River Crest School.

Don’t forget the torchlight parade at 7 p.m. at this time, the same downtown site and route, with dozens of glowing and glaring gonzo floats to entice you.

And all weekend long, the event is driven by the Eat-Shop-Play promotion at Hudson and its area businesses, shops, run destinations and restaurants and nightspots, across more than one commerce district. A few dozen of these. There are coupons on the event flyer. And there is also the accompanying Sippin’ With The Hotties beverage crawl, with liberal loads of locally-created libations to sample, loaded or NA, and you can vote for your favorite and get a chance at a gift certificate — to come back for more, close to a dozen’s worth.

For example, Pedro’s Pizza Lounge invites you to try their Hot Buttered Rum, and if you order a big enough pizza, (see more about pizza and the Super Bowl below), as the Hot Air Affair like Texas goes big, you get a free glass of wine or beer. (Pedro’s is going out of its way, as it normally specializes in small plates.)

For more info, especially on the shuttle service, see HudsonHotAirAffair.com.

To spread out, and along the lines of diverse activities, musically, check out the genre-bending (about three or four kinds) band The Wilderness (much more than kill deer) at the Gaslite in Ellsworth on Saturday evening, profiled earlier on these pages.

— But with The Big Game coming, said thus for copyright reasons, you can go pizza, but maybe even more with produce, as they go together, with taco too. At County Market, there are four big bins right when you walk in the door, and they are telling. There are of course limes and avacados, (as when mixed with tequila, get your margaritas before tariff time), and also purple onions, (not lighter colors), and tomatos, (the red more than green bell pepper shaped kind.) Note the presence of Purple and Green in such bins, but those Minnesconin teams will not be playing Sunday. And as for the Gold shared by both squads, there are no lemon bins up front either, or yellow peppers.)

But on The Tube at the sports bar, there were more pizza ads, like at The Hut where you’ve never seen so many mounds of cheese (we are in Wisconsin) and pepperoni and the like and I’m guessing we’re talking at least three pies for a special price — but they were already being crowded out by admonishments for that materialistic holiday of holidays, Valentine’s Day. And online being floated by Fleet Farm, you could see specials on all related things such as garbage bags, pizza ovens and frozen pizza too, and even easy chairs if your spouse is the one sticking it in.

Meanwhile, across town we have just in time for all of the above celebrations, winter sales and such, winter frosty hair creations being hawked, and yes the winter market (made up in part by my Winter family?) at The Phipps Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, as not to compete with the Hot Air Affair events. There are also two more on Saturdays in March, third and fifth. —

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