For four golden days and gaudy nights, she was the still point of a turning, kaleidoscopic world. Immovable, she gazed upon the revelry with her forthright, rather stern expression. While not exactly a wallflower at her own birthday party, she appeared slightly aloof, distant. What's the big fuss? she might have been thinking. The question is understandable: after 100 years there is little the old girl has not seen before. But as an immigrant herself, she is perhaps even more sensitive to the curious ways of her adopted country, silently indulgent of good old American exuberance, excess and, yes, glitz. Though...
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