Emancipation Proclamation

Probably because everyone was too busy dancing. And I mean everyone. The first couple cut rug as Rodney and the Blazers -- decked out in suits and smiles -- blazed through Junior Walker's "Shotgun," Little Richard's "Lucille" and an impromptu "Georgia on My Mind" tribute to Ray Charles. The guvnuh was pretty good on her feet, too, not entirely fluid but also not thrashing around like a sorority girl on Bourbon Street.

"The [Fabulous] Flippers played at my inauguration," Sebelius told me after I ambushed her outside the bathroom. "A lot of people who didn't care about me were like, 'If the Flippers are going to be there, I'm coming.'"

The Flippers were at Liberty Hall, all right. The group closed out the event, alongside several fellow inductees, with a tribute to Big Joe Turner. But even as the musicians and the raucous crowd saluted midnight with a rousing rendition of Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll," it was something Flipper guitarist and vocalist Dennis Loewen said earlier in the evening that encapsulated the night in a way Nigel could not.

"Every time, we say this is the last time," Loewen proclaimed. "But if this is the last time we play ... it's perfect."