The Fourth of July

Every year we dutifully celebrate the Fourth of July on, of all days, the fourth of July.  But what, exactly, are we celebrating?  Truth be told, not much.  By July Fourth, 1776, our independence had already been declared.  That was two days earlier, on the 2^nd.  And the Revolution had been underway for well over a year, starting back in April of 1775.  The first draft of the Declaration of Independence had been written in June of 1776, it was signed on August 2, 1776, and it was officially delivered to England in November of 1776.  It was on July 4^th, 1776, that the Continental Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration of Independence.  That’s it.  In essence, we are celebrating proofreading.  But like all good editors, they dated it.  And that’s the date we remember. 

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Third Time’s a Charm

This is a cliché of uncertain origin, and there is truly nothing to support that a third time should be any better than the first or the second, or that a fourth attempt may not be necessary.  More...

Father’s Day

Ask any father.  He’ll tell you.  Father’s Day is a crock.  Oh, sure, you get a tie, but to a dad, a tie is like giving your mother a vacuum.  You see, the thing is, Father’s Day is in the summer, and Mother’s Day is during the school year.  So moms get all the fun stuff that the kids make, like homemade cards or baby food jars filled with water and glitter.  Fathers get doodley.  What we need is a holiday that we can appreciate, one where we get to sit around and drink beer and watch sports... well... other than the Super Bowl, or the World Series, or Nascar, or any given weekend from, say, August through February, or March through July.  More...