Shortly after each year's parade is over, and the next year's parade theme is announced, the parade sponsors and participating communities start to plan their floats for the following year.

To the astonished consternation of parade sponsors and movie producers, Christopher Columbus changed from hero to villain smack amid the 500th anniversary of his "encounter," the currently correct word for discovery.

The parade sponsors, the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, canceled the event last year, after a lower state court had reached the same conclusion.

"It's dedicated to our brothers in New York - that's what it's all about," said Frank Bellini, a firefighter from Engine Company 12 and a member of the Newark Fire Department Historical Association, the parade sponsor.

But on this shore, in Boston, the imminent possibility of just such a mixing has caused the parade sponsors to abruptly cancel this year's St. Patrick's celebration.

But then you judge that the parade sponsors made "a wrong decision."