All downheel from here

The shoe was ready, Sushi was ready, CNN was ready and it was actually pretty sane a few hours before midnight.

Then the cops closed Duval and Petronia to cars and things started getting tight.

Frankie, our neighbor, was clucking: "People are drivin' crazy. Where do they think they're going to park?"

Cars went up our little street and came right back down. Between one-ways and the closures, there was nowhere to go but out.

So they moved in on foot, a few thousand of them, anyway. It's a great place to be if you like getting your toes trod on, or being half pushed over when a drunken teenage girl lurches past, or deafened by hyperactive sound systems.

So after hearing the umpteenth "Say hello, Key West!" for Anderson Cooper's benefit, I left the street to braver souls -- including Andy Newman, who got this crowd shot for the Tourism Development Council.

Someday I'll learn: It may be a block and a half from home, but I don't need to go there.