Dead and Loving It: Joyous Dia De Los Muertos Was the Anti-Castro
(Please visit our Dia De Los Slideshow)
Costumes, respect, discreet drinking, and hands-off cops make for a blissful evening
By Joe Eskenazi
In an exercise somewhat akin to the 18th-century intellectual version of bar-room drunks snarling over who would start on a football team blessed with both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham decided to quantify how much an activity contributed to society’s happiness.
Bentham’s concept of ranking pleasure numerically is difficult to grasp (and his decision to have his corpse taxidermically stuffed like a stag or bear and put on display doesn’t inspire confidence with his decision-making process) -– but after attending Friday’s Dia de los Muertos procession in the city, I think I understand what Bentham was thinking (about the utils, not getting stuffed like a hunting lodge moose).
The utils of joy were soaring to the heavens out of the Mission that evening. Costumes, fun, laughter, decent behavior, people drinking beer out of bags, and the few cops present taking ...
