Obviously, this isn’t a long hallowed tradition; but, as the Baltimore Ravens progress further into the playoffs, the city is progressively illuminated with more and more purple light.

In 2001, this purple light bath evolved spontaneously, and by the time the SuperBowl came around, the city cast a deep purple hue. I suspect Baltimore looked purple from space. The visual effect was as exciting as Christmas.

This year City Hall seems to have jumped the gun a bit and has dusted off the purple filters before a single post season victory, which at first seemed to cheapen the whole 2001 experience.

After some thought, I decided that winning the division championship perhaps did justify a little purple. Hopefully, over the next month (knock on virtual wood) the city will become evermore purple. On February 1, I’m preying the astronauts will once again see a purple speck in the center of the mid-Atlantic coast.