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Happy Fourth, ever’body!

Burgers, beer, fireworks…we did the lot!

We bought the fireworks at a news agent in town who is the famous local source for fireworks. Oh, it’s legal (Uncle B was always amazed that I could legally buy a .357 magnum handgun in Rhode Island, but not a roman candle). At least, the stuff he’s selling over the counter is legal.

We bought the £10 garden collection and the vendor threw in what was probably a £5 rocket “in honor of Ronald Reagan.” Our grand finale. And very nice it was, too (though at gone 11 I’m not sure the neighbors would agree).

They’re not as far gone here as the Daily Mail tells you, you know.

Happy Independence Day, ya’ll (or, as Uncle B calls it, We Finally Got Rid of You Religious Nutters Day).

Edit to add: I misunderstood what the shopkeep said to me. He gave us the rocket in honor of the statue of Ronald Reagan they unveiled in London yesterday.

Comments


Comment from Sockless Joe
Time: July 4, 2011, 11:04 pm

You may be rid of us religious nutters, but you’re getting a whole new batch coming in from elsewhere. I dare say you’d have been better off with us.


Comment from JeffS
Time: July 4, 2011, 11:50 pm

And a grand Independence Day to all!


Comment from Pupster
Time: July 4, 2011, 11:50 pm

Happy Independence Day, Stoaty and Badger!

Here in O HI O you can buy fireworks, but you have to sign an affidavit pinky-swearing that you’ll light them off out of state somewheres. Because they are illegal in Ohio. Just another little dance with the bureaucracy. Speaking of which, did you get your papers in order, Stoaty? Or are you in the attic being very quiet?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 4, 2011, 11:58 pm

Oh, it’ll be weeks and weeks before I get an answer, Pups. Civil service: the same the world over.


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: July 5, 2011, 12:03 am

The bastards keep muttering about making fireworks illegal here but they’ve not quite grown the balls to do it.

The newsagent who gave us the RR rocket was a particularly nice touch as it came completely out of the blue on hearing Stoaty’s accent.

There’s still a lot binding us together, despite what the Lefties believe.

Happy Independence Day, rebel colonials. Just give us a call when you’ve decided you’ve had enough of it.

Then we can all suffer together under Prince Hippy Jug Ears IV. Oh, joy!


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: July 5, 2011, 12:27 am

I think England is like most countries; the urban areas are hard left (and have the numbers, hence votes) and the rural areas aren’t.


Comment from Allen
Time: July 5, 2011, 12:46 am

Oh please, it’s not so much that England rid itself of it’s religious nutters, it’s they needed a place for criminals.

Steal a crust of bread, 7 years in the Carolinas! Besides which, why did the Brits need to import those Hanoverians? Was not the incest sufficient within?

Happy Transportees Day!


Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: July 5, 2011, 1:21 am

Allen – simple. If we hadn’t imported the krauts we’d have been ruled by Catholics.

History suggests there might be better alternatives, horrible though the Hanoverians were (are).


Comment from Anonymous
Time: July 5, 2011, 2:21 am

Stoaty has an accent? Already?

No fireworks here—the whole state of Texas is one giant tinderbox. We got firewater though, and that will have to do.

Husband and I ate pan-fried Hebrew National hotdogs on Mrs. Baird’s buns, with Wolf brand chili, grated cheddar cheese, Vlasic sweet pickle relish, grilled onions (caramelized—the smell was divine), and two kinds of mustard: French’s Yellow and Gulden’s Brown. We washed those dogs down with a fine Mexican beer: Dos Equis. It was the perfect All-American meal.

Happy 4th, y’all.


Comment from Kurt P
Time: July 5, 2011, 3:18 am

Anon from TX- the British wife and I had fajitas and beans in Hondo- before I headed south to the job on Portland. Happy indi-day!


Comment from Kurt P
Time: July 5, 2011, 3:19 am

….Ummmm actually she keeps reminding me she’s Welsh,,,which is kinda like a state- or something,,,


Comment from catnip
Time: July 5, 2011, 4:15 am

It’s not dark yet where I live, but we’ve had 3 nights’ previews of the lighting up of the skies, and this night should be spectacular. Poor house critters are already wild-eyed and pacing from the noise of firecrackers.

I love this adorable flag-wrapped weasel! Do you have a colored version to share, and might she be allowed to grace a t-shirt?


Comment from The War Planner
Time: July 5, 2011, 4:29 am

Madame,

Happy Fourth to you as well. Your celebration in the country who we essentially told to piss off 235 years ago is incredibly quaint. It puts one in mind of that one scene in The Great Escape where James Garner and Steve McQueen (and another whose name I forget) brewed up that potato liquor and proceeded to host the rest of the stalag — mostly RAF — to a celebration of our independence from England.

The climax was when the C.O. of the prisoners — the British Colonel, half in the bag — addresses Garner with the question, “So, how you getting on over there in the colonies? Managing well enough without us?”

Precious, simply precious.

Maybe we should do a Guy Fawkes Day here in November?

“..Penny for the Guy?”


Comment from JC
Time: July 5, 2011, 4:57 am

A link I just found for you mustelids: http://hardboiledshaman.com/2011/05/04/mktk28/

Didn’t watch fireworks my own self, tracked the International Space Station through the sky

Less blinding, but still awesome.


Comment from Oceania
Time: July 5, 2011, 5:06 am

Yes, Independent, but forever lost.

In fact, reminescent, and making all the mistakes of Empire that the British never did.

Hardly a day to celebrate, but in fact one to morn.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: July 5, 2011, 6:30 am

This from a guy who comes from a country who’s sole claims to fame are XENA, Lord of the Rings, Long Fin Eels and Sheep Shagging……


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: July 5, 2011, 12:57 pm

Excellent, JC. Greedy, devious and opportunistic – that’s us!

Christopher Taylor is right — there’s a very powerful rural/urban divide here. Also an acrimonious North/South divide.

Out here in the rural South, I’ve not encountered a whisper of anti-Americanism (or, incidentally, Islam). I’ve seen Old Glory flying at more than one pub (and the occasional Stars and Bars).


Comment from Argentium G. Tiger
Time: July 5, 2011, 1:18 pm

JC: Thanks for the comic link, looks like a good one!


Comment from Sven in Colorado
Time: July 5, 2011, 3:15 pm

As a fine, upstanding religious nutter by lineage, (my great-great-great, and so on, grandfather, John Ripley, married one of Governor Bradford’s daughter, Hannah in 1662).

We celebrate quietly…The illegal aliens and the youthful bone heads make more than enough noise for the rest of us.


Comment from Deborah
Time: July 5, 2011, 4:29 pm

That Anonymous was me—Deborah. That’s what happens when I read/post late at night. I forget who I am. Could have been the Dos Equis, maybe.


Comment from Christopher Taylor
Time: July 5, 2011, 5:09 pm

I figure Badger is joshing but really… the religious guys left the nutters behind in England to be free here in America.


Comment from David Gillies
Time: July 5, 2011, 5:45 pm

I had chicken tortilla soup and many, many pints of a micro-brewed ale – quite the closest thing I’ve found to good old British bitter here in Central America. Independence day here is September 15th, also Battle of Britain Day, so beer will be drunk then too.


Comment from Hiyu
Time: July 5, 2011, 6:32 pm

Happy Independence day! Though I’m a Brittah.
Awesome art, by the way! ^^


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: July 5, 2011, 7:10 pm

The War Planner: … another whose name I forget…

“Goff” (no first name or rank, unlike nearly all the other PoWs), played by Jud Taylor, a minor TV actor who switched to directing a few years later (six Star Trek episodes).

The transition looks interesting – he had about dozen acting credits, mostly guest shots on TV shows, including “Dr. Kildare”. (“Goff” was only his second credited film role.) Then he got to direct a “Dr. Kildare” episode, and two more later, and quit acting entirely.

He made a lot of TV movies; the first, however, was credited to “Alan Smithee”, if you know what that means.


Comment from Nina from GCP
Time: July 5, 2011, 8:37 pm

I like the flag-draped weasel, Stoaty. Excellent!


Comment from The War Planner
Time: July 6, 2011, 3:13 am

“Goff” (no first name or rank, unlike nearly all the other PoWs), played by Jud Taylor, a minor TV actor who switched to directing a few years later (six Star Trek episodes).

..Rich, to quote Goff (and McQueen and Garner, for that matter) in that famous tasting-scene, “Wo-o-o-o-w!”

(Thank you for the research.)


Comment from some vegetable
Time: July 6, 2011, 12:39 pm

Love the weasel in the flag… although isn’t there a quote somewhere about weasels wrapping themselves in the flag… last refuge of a scoundrel or something?

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