Happy July 4th!

[LincolnMan]

Yes, the big ones are illegal here too- but that doesn't seem to stop them. Sunday night was quiet- so maybe it's over now here.

[BettyO]

Quiet here as well during the night - but then the humidity is returning and we shut the windows and turned the AC on again last night - Back at the "Cartoon Network" and swamped again this am......

[LadyAnn]

I'm late, but happy 4th of July everyone! (:

It wasn't completely quiet here, I heard a few booms last night. Now that the weekend is over, it'll probably stop.

[David Lockmiller]

Here are stunning photos of some of the most beautiful places in the USA.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/07/t...?hpt=hp_c2

Linda,

Thank you for this!

David

[RJNorton]

Happy Fourth of July weekend to everybody!

[Eva Elisabeth]

From this side of the pond, too!

[LincolnMan]

Happy Birthday USA! You take a lickin' and keep on tickin.'- apologies to Timex.

[BettyO]

Happy 4th Everyone - and Happy Birthday USA!

[HerbS]

Happy 4th of July! Please be safe!

[Jim Page]

Happy Fourth, everyone. As always, Patty and I will celebrate by trying to keep our Boston terrier, Murphy, from being too nervous from the fireworks. Murphy hates fireworks, thunder, and very high winds.

But otherwise he is quite a patriotic dog.

--Jim

[RJNorton]

Jim, our cat, Addison, is exactly the same as Murphy. Addison is very patriotic but scared of everything.

Many thanks to our Brazilian member, Sebastiao Albano, for sending this:

[Thomas Kearney]

Happy 4th of July! Please be safe!

I'm just going to be grilling and watching the Hot Dog Eating Contest behind my parents backs. I won't be doing much this weekend because I leave for my Senior Trip Tuesday. My dad and I are driving to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.

[L Verge]

Have a wonderful, safe trip, Thomas, and wish our forefathers well. Tell them to send some help to the USA...

---

Shortly after I posted the above, my grandson announced that one of his summer reading assignments is Fahrenheit 451. That book was written back in the 1950s, and I vaguely remember it being very controversial when I was finishing elementary school. I went online to refresh my memory (because I know that Grandma will be asked to help interpret it), and one of the opening comments on a site like cliffnotes was this:

"Set in the twenty-fourth century, Fahrenheit 451 introduces a new world in which control of the masses by the media, overpopulation, and censorship has taken over the general population. The individual is not accepted and the intellectual is considered an outlaw. Television has replaced the common perception of family. The fireman is now seen as a flamethrower, a destroyer of books rather than an insurance against fire. Books are considered evil because they make people question and think. The people live in a world with no reminders of history or appreciation of the past; the population receives the present from television."

I couldn't help thinking that what was science fiction 60+ years ago is fast becoming our way of life...

[Eva Elisabeth]

Like "Brave New World" and "1984"...

[Gene C]

That is a good book. Sounds like he may have a good teacher.