Today is the fourth of July, Independence Day here in the US and a holiday.

I happen to think that it's also a summer celebration in general, sort of an unofficial summer solstice party.

For those who may not know what we do on this holiday, here's a breakdown:

the weather is usually hot so people get together and cook outdoors in parks or at home, [link]
go swimming in pools and lakes, [link]
get bitten by mosquitoes, [link]
get sunburned, [link]
take naps, [link]
have parades [link]
and games. [link]
The kids run and scream and fight and laugh. [link]
We eat hot dogs and hamburgers, [link]
fried chicken [link]
and bratwurst, [link]
barbecue, [link]
jello [link]
and other desserts in red, white and blue, the colors of the US flag. [link]
We end the day with fireworks displays. [link]

In addition to all that, there's some flag-waving, though that normally takes a back seat to the eating and partying.

It's been raining all day here in Minneapolis but the sun just came out so maybe there will still be cookouts as it dries out and fireworks later.




Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
- Benjamin Franklin


You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man's freedom. You can be free only if I am free.
- Clarence Darrow


MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.
- Ambrose Bierce


I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.
- Woodrow Wilson


I do this real moron thing, it's called thinking, and I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.
- George Carlin


You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.
- Erma Bombeck