Tuesday, March 07, 2000
Covington's Mardi Gras fat with fun
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Where were we? Oh yeah, catching up with Mardi Gras festivities at Covington's Main Strasse, where 50,000 people descended Friday and Saturday. Festivities like what? Like this ...
THE KICKOFF: The official kickoff was 6 a.m.-10 a.m. Friday and that set the tone for the weekend: Rowdy, lots of beer and hurricanes (at 6 a.m. no less), and lots of female shirts being lifted in exchange for beads.
The party, designed to find Miss Mardi Gras 2000, was hosted by WEBN's Dawn Patrol (that explains the beer and flying tops) led by Bob Berry and Eddie Fingers, he in some kind of knee-length purple pouf suit and tights.
“Wouldn't you think he could have gotten his panty hose seams straight?” wondered wife and Channel 9 reporter Deb Haas. “Must be the hurricanes,” she concluded.
Rick Feller, a retail clerk from Fairfield, concluded something different: “I've never done this before. If the rest is like this morning, I'm getting a room and staying.”
Which is what he did. (See below.)
MYSTERY SOLVED: There was no mystery to people who do the bar scene, but to newcomers, there was one: Vicki D'Salle, making music in the Bakewell tent. People asking around were told, “A really hot act from New Orleans.”
Turns out Vicki is really Ricky Nye, longtime leader and keyboardist with the Red Hots and the Swingin' Mudbugs. Every now and then, as people who do the bar scene know, he does alter ego Vicki for laughs.
This time, he went all out: Purple, gold-and-green beaded mini-gown by local designer Patrick Howell, custom makeup by Saks' Daryl Churchman, and all the mystery he could muster.
The mystery didn't last long. Once he started playing, realization dawned and word spread.
Or, as the abovesaid Feller said, “Oh yeah, Ricky Nye. Isn't he the guy who used to play at Howl at the Moon Saloon? I'm glad I stayed, but I'm probably going to get fired for skipping work.”
HEARD AROUND TOWN: Or more specifically, heard hanging around the benefit circuit, such as last week's Kids Voting roast of Judge Nadine Allen, Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen, Cincinnati Councilman Jim Tarbell and P&G exec Bob Wehling . . .
• “I haven't smoked since January. Back when I was at Channel 5, I thought it was OK to smoke, because I wanted to die anyway.” That would be Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken, commenting on his non-smoking status and stint as a local news anchor.
• “He took one look at the architecture and said, "Wow, this is beautiful. And it couldn't cost as much as Paul Brown Stadium.'” That would be lobbyist Dick Glover, who was with County Commissioner Tom Neyer on a tour of Israel, relating Neyer's take on Israeli buildings. (The trip was a production of the Jewish National Fund, designed to build better relations between elected officials and the Jewish Community).
• “Uh, no, I don't know what went on, because I was in bed with the flu, but on the last night of that trip, when we laid over in Paris, my roommate and a lot of other people came in at 5 a.m.” That would be Glover again, 'fessing up about that same trip but not 'fessing up to who his roommate was.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
