• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

He really is that stupid.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

We still have time to mess this up!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Forward Planning ‘Our’ 250th Anniversary

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Forward Planning ‘Our’ 250th Anniversary

by Anne Laurie|  July 4, 20236:30 pm| 155 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture

FacebookTweetEmail

Forward Planning for the Marketing Dreamers - STOCKPILE
Not that hot around here (we just got a short-lived deluge, but Boston’s big fireworks show is still on, not that we had any intention of attending the Esplanade show). But sympathy for those who are in the hellzones… and if you’ll be outside this evening, don’t forget the bug spray!

Your annual reminder that the people who blame liberals for “cancel culture” once tried to cancel NPR for tweeting excerpts from the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) July 4, 2023

Festivities are already starting for America's 250th anniversary even though it's three years away.

The anniversary push will formally launch this July 4 with an event during a Major League Baseball game. https://t.co/eEq52dN1oj

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 3, 2023

… Before the U.S. reaches its semiquincentennial — try saying that out loud — it will have to survive the 2024 presidential election, which is shaping up to be as divisive as its prior two contests.

Times also were fraught in the run-up to the country’s 1976 bicentennial celebration, which came two years after Richard Nixon resigned his presidency over the Watergate scandal and convulsions over the end of the Vietnam War. It followed a decade that saw the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

But Rosie Rios, the former U.S. treasurer who heads America250, has fond memories of that celebration as an 11-year-old in Northern California. She watched old-fashioned sailing ships gather in Boston and New York harbors on her family’s black-and-white television, and she visited the national Freedom Train exhibit when it stopped in Oakland. And, of course, she remembers the fireworks…

The July 4 event will be the formal kickoff for planning for the celebrations. America250, a nonpartisan organization created by Congress in 2016 to mark the anniversary, will oversee that process. It has already enlisted the neighborhood app Nextdoor and the YWCA as partners.

“We certainly have ideas,” Rios said, “but we’d like to hear ideas from students. We’d love to hear ideas from all parts of the country.”

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Freedom to Vote (Open Thread)
Next Post: War for Ukraine Day 496: Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant Under Threat spy v. spy flyouts»

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    I do hope that Rios knows that if trump wins, she’ll be fired cuz only he can throw the best parties.

  2. 2.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 4, 2023 at 6:39 pm

    Everyone who was an adult for the Bicentennial seems to remember it as an absurd, disappointing washout of a celebration. I remember it as a big deal and tremendously exciting. Maybe I was the real target audience.

  3. 3.

    Jay

    July 4, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

    Sorry about the ad

    James Earl Jones,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZDcB1NhMfo&t=3s

  4. 4.

    Suzanne

    July 4, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I have super-vague memories of the Constitution bicentennial in 1989. I remember some little girl singing “This Is My Country”, which I had never heard before or since, and the camera panning over to that fucken douchebag Reagan standing there with a bullshit proud grin on his face. Fuck that guy.

  5. 5.

    Jay

    July 4, 2023 at 6:44 pm

    @Suzanne:

    seconded.

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    July 4, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @Jay: Thinking about Reagan makes me say fuck a lot. I’m sorry.

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    July 4, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    @Suzanne: I remember that. Here in Boston, there were lots of historical reenactors and the like. Many powdered wigs.

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 4, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    @JPL: Isn’t she the one who took the subway as a marathon shortcut?

  9. 9.

    sab

    July 4, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    I personally like NPR, especially my local stations.  Many of the jackals sneer at it, so the NPR defending the Declaration of Independence won’t have much resonance.

    Rush Hour NPR ( Morning Edition and All Things Considered ) often sucks, but throughout the day and especially late at night it is often excellent. Also kind of sucks often on the weekend.

    They rely on local support to local stations, often in suburban and rural areas. I think they are pretty good at balancing the requirements of very diverse local audiences. They are pretty good at actually giving news to Godforsaken  god-bothering areas where the only other news is Sinclair.

    Irks me when I hear their rush hour broadcasts, but they are a whole lot better than the alternatives available. Bless them for trying.

  10. 10.

    mvr

    July 4, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    Geeze. I remember the Bicentennial.  A lot of hoopla and also organizing around getting the country to live up to some of its ideals.  So I guess that means I’m old.

    It was also the first election I voted in.  For Carter for prez. IIRC I voted Communist for Illinois governor as a protest vote since the D was corrupt (or so I thought at the time and as he was a Cook County Democrat during the Daily era, it was a reasonable view to have) and the R was a Republican.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    We don’t look a day over 150.

  12. 12.

    Jay

    July 4, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    @Suzanne:

    use as many fucks as you want aboot that guy.

    String a bunch of them and other epethets together

    tell us how you really feel.

  13. 13.

    dexwood

    July 4, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    @Suzanne: Better than puking.

  14. 14.

    raven

    July 4, 2023 at 6:56 pm

    Lemonade Stands Legalized

    Kids in Georgia will be able to legally sell pre-packaged goods, lemonade, and other thirst-quenching beverages just in time for the Fourth of July. Senate Bill 55, better known as the Lemonade Stand Act, eliminates health permit and licensing requirements for anyone 18 or under who sells refreshments on private property. Children also don’t have to worry about taxes unless they earn $5,000 in a calendar year.

    The bipartisan measure’s sponsor Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat, has called it a way to remove the hassle of bureaucracy while encouraging entrepreneurial spirit in young people.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    July 4, 2023 at 6:56 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Oh my God! I thought I was the only one who went there.

  16. 16.

    raven

    July 4, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    In 1971 a group of Americans angry over the state of the nation and the perceived betrayal of the values of the American Revolution formed the People’s Bicentennial Commission. Over the next few years they engaged in rowdy protests, including burning the president in effigy and disrupting official commemorations of the Boston Tea Party and Battle of Concord. They claimed the legacy of the patriots of 1776, and used TEA as an acronym for their feelings about tax policy.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    July 4, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    @Baud: It’s the Botox.

  18. 18.

    laura

    July 4, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    Sweet Disco Cardinal Woolsey!- between the eclipse and the election I hadn’t given half a thought to the 2fiddy. I suppose there might be a meal, some beverages, and a small fraction of the doobies that were rolled and smoked for the bicentennial back when I was young and the optimism had yet to be bludgeoned out of me.

  19. 19.

    Dan B

    July 4, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:  I don’t remember much of the Bicentennial.   moved from the Midwest to Seattle.  Shelley’s Leg the first gay disco had opened and it was a huge hit in danger of being overwhelmed with straight people.  LGBTQ people were getting organized and getting heard so those changes were very exciting.  I was too distracted to notice a stuffy, old fashioned celebration.

  20. 20.

    A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

    July 4, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    @JPL: With Eppstein dead, where will get the party favors? //s

  21. 21.

    sab

    July 4, 2023 at 6:59 pm

    @Spanky: @Gin & Tonic:  Seriously, same person?!

  22. 22.

    raven

    July 4, 2023 at 6:59 pm

    Look to the summer of ’75
    All the world is gonna come alive
    Do you wanna ride, ride the tiger?

     

    Ride the Tiger

    Starship.

  23. 23.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 4, 2023 at 7:00 pm

    @Spanky: B-J, where you’re never alone with *those* thoughts.

  24. 24.

    A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

    July 4, 2023 at 7:00 pm

    Am I in moderation?

    I corrected the spelling of my nym

  25. 25.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 7:01 pm

    @A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno):

    I see you.

  26. 26.

    A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

    July 4, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    @JPL: With Epstein dead, he won’t be able to get party “favors”

  27. 27.

    zhena gogolia

    July 4, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    I got depressed today by the story in the NYT about how the U. of Chicago refused to defend a professor against a right-wing troll who’s one of their undergraduates. Disgusting.

  28. 28.

    kindness

    July 4, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    I was 19 during the bicentennial.  Lived in the suburbs just north of NYC on the Hudson river.  Even at the very jaded age of 19 in the very jaded era of 1976, everyone around me, adults and kids was loving the bicentennial.  I especially liked the old sailing ships in NY harbor.  Good times.

  29. 29.

    A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

    July 4, 2023 at 7:04 pm

    Odd. I’ve put up a reply to the first comment (twice) and both times I got sent to the top of the post, and the comment didn’t post. Oh well.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 4, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    @Spanky:

    @sab:

    Not the same person. The Boston Marathon cheater was Rosie Ruiz, not Rosie Rios.

  31. 31.

    Scout211

    July 4, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    @A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno):

    WaterGirl said that if your comment is in moderation jail, any corrections you make to that comment won’t get it out of jail.  It will need to be rescued by a front pager.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 7:06 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    They probably didn’t want to upset their donors.

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 4, 2023 at 7:06 pm

    @Dan B: I lived in metro DC and there were all sorts of improvements to the city intended to coincide roughly with the Bicentennial– the new subway system, the National Air and Space Museum. All that made a big impression on me.

  34. 34.

    randy khan

    July 4, 2023 at 7:07 pm

    I was working on the 4th of July in 1976, but it actually was kind of cool.  New York City had events scattered all around town, and through a series of strange events, I ended up as the teenager doing the sound for one of them (a job that essentially consisted of turning a single mic on and off as required, as actual professionals did the setup), which was readings of the Declaration of Independence in front of City Hall in Manhattan by various celebrities.  They mostly were people I had heard of – a mix of various kinds of famous people, but the only one I remember was Dick Gregory, who was doing some kind of run across the country, and ended it there.  (The internets tell me it was to raise awareness of world hunger.)  We finished in early evening and all of us were driven home to New Jersey.  I think I may have caught a glimpse of the fireworks, but honestly don’t know if that’s a real memory or a memory of another year.

  35. 35.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:08 pm

    @sab:

    NPR stations vary widely in quality. KCRW and WNYC are awesome, but there’s a lot of dreck in between.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 4, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    … also, as a young space geek I was following the Viking missions to Mars closely, and Viking 1 was originally intended to land on Mars on July 4. Some difficulties with the planned landing site caused that to be delayed to July 20, the Apollo 11 anniversary. But it was all tied up with Bicentennial stuff to me.

  37. 37.

    Chief Oshkosh

    July 4, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    Hey, they found Shrub’s stash!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-powder-found-white-house-identified-cocaine-washington-post-2023-07-04/

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    July 4, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    I’m excited for the 250th (and Colorado’s 150th), I like being patriotic and stuff, can recognize our faults along with the good stuff and work on doing better. I like living here even if it puts me in the minority of the very-online left…

  39. 39.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    👍

    ETA

    🗽

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    Your annual reminder that the people who blame liberals for “cancel culture” once tried to cancel NPR for tweeting excerpts from the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day.

    Yup.  The dumbass slapdicks.

  41. 41.

    Spanky

    July 4, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @sab: Rosie Ruiz.

  42. 42.

    Another Scott

    July 4, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Suzanne: Warren Burger resigned as Chief Justice in 1986 to head the Constitutional Bicentennial committee.  Everyone who reported or heard about the story went “WTF??!”.

    He was replaced with William Rehnquist by Reagan.

    Roberts should be reminded of what a great patriotic thing Burger did and how it cemented history’s opinion of what a great Chief Justice he was… //

    Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Chief Oshkosh

    July 4, 2023 at 7:13 pm

    @dmsilev: And the blue pills.

  44. 44.

    dexwood

    July 4, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh: Nah, probably Kelly Ann Cokeway’s stash.

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    July 4, 2023 at 7:15 pm

    @mvr: I think it was 2 PM ET (might have been 1 PM ET) on July 4, 1976, there was some proclamation by Carter that we should all make some noise then.  We were driving through Ohio (on US-68 I think) at the time, so we honked our horn.  I think we were the only ones doing it.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    dmsilev

    July 4, 2023 at 7:16 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh: That mostly just explains Florida.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    @Another Scott: If Roberts had any shame, he would have resigned at the end of the term.   Instead he decided to scold the liberal justices for doing harm to the court.  If our democracy survives, history will not be kind.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    she visited the national Freedom Train exhibit

    I remember when the Freedom Train visited Fort Worth.  The Star-Telegram ran an essay contest and I entered and won.  I was 11, and completely bought all that shit.  Now?  Well, sure, we aspire to high ideals, and in some parts of the country we’re even trying.  Not enough, but we’re trying.  In Texas, where I grew up?  Goin’ backward as fast as they can, the bastards.\

    I’m proud of being a Californian.  I’m sad that we’re not making more progress in California, but proud that we’ve made a lot, and looking forward to more.  America?  I don’t know anymore.

  49. 49.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 7:20 pm

    @JPL:

    I do hope that Rios knows that if trump wins, she’ll be fired cuz only he can throw the best parties. 

    Putin’s bitch would give Alaska back to Russia for the 250’s anniversary.

  50. 50.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:20 pm

    In Denver, the Bicentennial played second fiddle to the centennial of Colorado’s admission to the union. I spent the big day at a concert at the old Mile High Stadium, Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.

  51. 51.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    well, there is a little irony in a bunch of slave-owning white guys saying “all men are created equal.”

  52. 52.

    dmsilev

    July 4, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    The July 4 event will be the formal kickoff for planning for the celebrations. America250, a nonpartisan organization created by Congress in 2016 to mark the anniversary, will oversee that process. It has already enlisted the neighborhood app Nextdoor and the YWCA as partners.

    Oh boy. That won’t end well.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    Deleted – misread.

    FUCK REAGAN!

  54. 54.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    @dmsilev: The YWCA will organize the suppression of abortion rights protestors; Nextdoor will organize “temporarily relocating” the homeless to a nearby ice floe.

  55. 55.

    scav

    July 4, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    @Another Scott: Maybe that explains why we rang our schoolyard bell for some set time on the 4th — an actual tug on the rope bell that we actually used to end recess.  It’s about all we did.  Middle of a national forest during fire season, there were never fireworks.  Apart from that, the only thing I remember is that some ice cream place (was one actually called Betsy Ross anyway?) used it as an excuse to use a bright blue topping on it’s ice cream sundae under a maraschino cherry.  Terrifying.

  56. 56.

    laura

    July 4, 2023 at 7:25 pm

    What bludgeoned the optimism out of young me- Elliott Abrams and the unspeakable and wanton death that has followed in his wake all my adult life. WTF?

  57. 57.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:  Two fewer republcan Senators, so I fine with that.

  58. 58.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:28 pm

    Speaking of saying the quiet part out loud …

    The Republican Party’s 4th of July tweet featured the flag of Liberia. Think about that for a sec.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    @dmsilev: I can’t wait to hear all the suggestions that are on Nextdoor.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 4, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    @Another Scott: Would have been Gerald Ford– he was still President then.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 7:29 pm

    @dmsilev: Haha, Nextdoor.  Rename yourselves Bitching and Moaning Busybody Little Shits Door.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    July 4, 2023 at 7:30 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Ah, you’re technically correct.  The best kind of correct.

    D’Oh!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Ours is busy identifying snakes, except for the occasional did you see the bear comment.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    July 4, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    Festivities are already starting for America’s 250th anniversary even though it’s three years away.

    It’s so weird how a date that’s a multiple of 50 is more special than any other Fourth of July date. Hopefully, we will still have a democracy in 2026. And maybe a new version of Microsoft Windows. //snark

    What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.
    — Frederick Douglas, 1852

    A powerful speech by Douglass. History has caught up with many of his denunciations. That we celebrated Juneteenth as a national holiday, a second celebration of independence, partially redeems the promise of July 4.

    Also, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, among many other struggles completed, and yet to come, to secure and to guarantee rights for everyone.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    @Another Scott:

    You listened to Gerald Ford?

  66. 66.

    MagdaInBlack

    July 4, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    1975-76 was my senior year in HS, so lots of Bicentennial themed projects. Prom theme was “A Night at The White House” and the decor was everything you might imagine in a small farm town high school. 😉😊

  67. 67.

    CaseyL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:33 pm

    I was 20 for the Bicentennial.  It was the summer I decided to move to Seattle, but in July I was still on the East Coast.  My Aunt, Uncle and I went into Philly on the 4th, and I remember having a fabulous time.  (One of the memories is of a vendor selling gigantic chocolate covered strawberries: we had never had them before, and the berries were as big as your fist.)

    Parades, tall ships, lot of people feeling festive.  What’s not to like

    Also: If you’re looking for a word that’s hard to pronounce,  50 years before that was the Sesquecentennial, celebrating the USA’s 150th Birthday.  I wasn’t around yet, but my grandmother was very active in that celebration.

  68. 68.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:35 pm

    @Brachiator: Did you know that he’s being recognized more and more.

  69. 69.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:37 pm

    Yesterday was the 160th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge, the action that turned the tide of the rebellion against the traitors.

  70. 70.

    Scout211

    July 4, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    @Burnspbesq: The Republican Party’s 4th of July tweet featured the flag of Liberia. Think about that for a sec.

     

    OMG!  Too funny!  Here’s a few Twitter reactions.  (Posted at Raw Story)

     

    The GOP’s tweet was swiftly deleted — but not before being buried in an avalanche of mockery and criticism from commenters on social media.

     

    “You’d think they’d recognize the flag they beat cops with,” wrote the account @iputadollarin.

     

    “BREAKING: GOP officially pledges loyalty to Liberia by posting their flag on the 4th of F**king July,” tweeted @middleageriot.

     

    “You know, I try hard to warn organizations that their crack comms teams will inevitably mess something *~fundamental~* up, and nevertheless, they persist,” tweeted communications strategist Zack Brown. “From your dear friends at the Republican National Committee, Happy Independence Day, Liberia!”

  71. 71.

    jame

    July 4, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    I was at LSU then, and what I most clearly remember was the patriotic theme painted on all the fire hydrants — that and big sales on bell-bottoms at The Warehouse. And fireworks downtown by the river.

  72. 72.

    Suzanne

    July 4, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    @JPL: That piece of utter human garbage actually said that. And, like, meant it.

    UGHHHHHHH.

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    July 4, 2023 at 7:39 pm

    @Baud: One had to, to know what the Chevy Chase jokes on Saturday Night Live were about.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Eyeroller

    July 4, 2023 at 7:40 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I mainly remember the fire hydrants being painted all over the country.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    July 4, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    @Suzanne: Yup and 30 percent still support him.

  76. 76.

    Spanky

    July 4, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    ’76 was the summer I gradjiated college and prepped for grad school,  mostly with beer. I vaguely recall the bicentennial.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    @Baud

    WIN buttons!

    (What a pathetic idea that was,)

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    Summer has finally arrived here in NoVA. After a month of quite mild temperatures and low humidity, this last week we hit the zone of highs in the upper 80s, lows in the mid-60s and high humidity. Dew point right now is 68° (“uncomfortable” humidity). It’s still 85° outside, and it’s only going down to 74° overnight. On the (minor) plus side, it looks like we won’t quite hit 90° in the next week.

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 7:43 pm

    “Before the U.S. reaches its semiquincentennial [. . .].”

    Can’t we work quinceañera in there somewhere and just have a piñata?

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    FYI.

    Whoever comes up with a palatable extra-spicy pink lemonade gonna make a killing. (Wall Street Journal link, however for right now doesn’t seem to be paywalled.)

    As Generation Z comes of age, food and beverage companies are scrambling to attract them to their brands. Some are finding marketing is only getting them so far.

    The generation born between 1997 and 2012 are accustomed to greater choice and are less willing to consume what they don’t immediately enjoy than previous generations, marketing executives and trend forecasters say. Rather than spending millions on advertising legacy products to this new cohort, some companies are instead developing new ones designed to cater to their specific tastes.

    Beers are lighter. Drinks are more colorful. Coffees are colder. And at Taco Bell, home of items like the Beefy Melt Burrito and Beefy 5-Layer Burrito, poultry is coming for red meat. Source

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    July 4, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    @A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): Your comments went into spam.  I marked them NOT SPAM so hopefully that won’t happen again.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    July 4, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    @NotMax:

    {{Hides my Whip The Fascists buttons}}

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 7:45 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I was 24 and thought it was pretty cool—mostly the tall ships. That was unexpected (at least by me).

  84. 84.

    sab

    July 4, 2023 at 7:45 pm

    @Dan B: I was in Scotland after my junior year abroad in NE England, and was very very sorry to miss Tall Ships in Cleveland. Apparently it was very dangerous because idiots in the harbor in canoes and other small boats. I would have been there in my canoe. So better for me that I was in Scotland. My ancestors were grateful to get out of there to here. They missed Scotland. My Irish ancestors did not miss Ireland ( starvation and oppression, in that order.)

  85. 85.

    Burnspbesq

    July 4, 2023 at 7:46 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    A Clarence Thomas piñata? Gimme the bat.

  86. 86.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 4, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    I gave birth in 1976 and was also working on my dissertation, so I didn’t have much spare attention. I don’t remember anything about the bicentennial celebrations.

  87. 87.

    HumboldtBlue

    July 4, 2023 at 7:48 pm

    The Bicentennial was absolutely amazing for 10-year-old me. I remember that summer fondly, from the Tall Ships in Philly to a concert and fireworks on The Green in Dover.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 7:48 pm

    @Baud

    Needs moar alliteration: Flagellate the Fascists.
    ;)

  89. 89.

    dexwood

    July 4, 2023 at 7:49 pm

    @Burnspbesq: Here in ABQ, there is a small piñata business that will do custom orders.

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    July 4, 2023 at 7:50 pm

    @Brachiator:

    History has caught up with many of [Douglass’] denunciations. That we celebrated Juneteenth as a national holiday, a second celebration of independence, partially redeems the promise of July 4.

    Also, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, among many other struggles completed, and yet to come, to secure and to guarantee rights for everyone.

    It still floors me from time to time that many of our fellow Americans see these struggles and subsequent progress as an injury, rather than an achievement and a source of immense pride.  I know why that is, but it still floors me.

    Ah well, what’s that saying, again?  Fuckem.

    Happy bday America and here’s to many more years as the world’s oldest and best democracy!

  91. 91.

    Another Scott

    July 4, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I very vaguely remember the Freedom Train visiting Dayton.  It had a Moon rock on display behind about 2 feet of glass, if my memory isn’t failing me.

    The train was a good thing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  92. 92.

    Scout211

    July 4, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  I don’t remember anything about the bicentennial celebrations.

    I don’t either.  That summer I was starting my first professional job after grad school and I also met the guy I eventually married.  I was young and busy and not all that patriotic.

  93. 93.

    The Lodger

    July 4, 2023 at 7:52 pm

    @Another Scott: Don’t we need an ambassador to Paraguay or something?

  94. 94.

    Dan B

    July 4, 2023 at 7:53 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:  Sounds great.  I don’t recall anything like that in Seattle.  There may have been.

  95. 95.

    Gvg

    July 4, 2023 at 7:53 pm

    @JPL: yeah, ours does snake ID too. Also lost pets and some lady is an amateur nature photographer who photographs interesting critters she sees on her walks around my area every morning. Very cheerful personality too. There are grumps and trumps but they don’t seem to have much traction.

    However it is repetitive and after a few years I turned off notifications and just check once in awhile.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    July 4, 2023 at 7:55 pm

    Observations from a small northern California town July 4 parade. This is our 3rd such parade visit. The town is Trumpy for the area but not too bad.

    1. The opening act is the local and state fire authorities and are the clear crowd favorite. Nobody is worried about crime – the cops get tepid support. But fires – fires are the rings on the community around which time is measured.
    2. The scouts are next up and, well, more girls than boys in the cub/Boy Scouts. Having been involved in both boy and girl scouts before, I have no question this is what saves scouting outside of Utah. My guess is there will be an organizational merger of Boy/Girl Scouts with some diversification to preserve what Girl Scouts offers and make it more appealing to boys.
    3. There was open advocacy for the Democratic Party and democratic issues, but none for the GOP and conservative issues. This is still a place where the GOP can get *some* traction, but no effort made.
    4. Continued big shift toward people arriving by bike. This is a decently strong biking area, but e-bike are now half of what showed up, cargo bikes, moms and dads with multiple kids on the back, etc. This year the police had a hard time getting the cyclists to give the approaching streets back to the cars.
  97. 97.

    mvr

    July 4, 2023 at 7:57 pm

    @raven: Yep that’s what I meant when I said I remembered organizing.  Nixon & then Ford were the presidents.

  98. 98.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 7:58 pm

    @Martin:

    This year the police had a hard time getting the cyclists to give the approaching streets back to the cars.

    Martin, can you say how big the town was?  I mean, population-wise?  This is good news in any case.

  99. 99.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    July 4, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    @Steeplejack: you’re really trying to wind up the  ‘brown people aren’t gonna replace us’ folks aren’t you?

  100. 100.

    mvr

    July 4, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    @Another Scott: Carter wasn’t President in 1976. He was elected in that year. So it was probably Ford.

  101. 101.

    The Lodger

    July 4, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    @Scout211: Liberia! (Motto: Hey Americans, we and Myanmar don’t use the *#$%^&ing metric system either!)

  102. 102.

    gwangung

    July 4, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    @Martin: That’s pretty interesting. I don’t think we can take anything definitive from it, but it tantalizes with something that’s probably not expected by most people.

  103. 103.

    Martin

    July 4, 2023 at 8:01 pm

    @NotMax: Also worth noting, younger generations are more averse to capitalism and are more likely in my experience to reject big brands for local companies, etc. So I don’t think it’s tastes so much as ‘do I want my money to go to this big corporation or to the hipster coffee place instead?’

    I don’t think it’s possible for them to market their way out of this.

  104. 104.

    Hoodie

    July 4, 2023 at 8:02 pm

    I was at Cornell during the bicentennial summer for a high school summer program. Afterwards, went to NYC for a week with some classmates who were from the city. Saw the tall ships and fireworks from a friend’s apartment in Brooklyn. Got a free elevator ride to the top of the WTC because one friend’s father was a lawyer for the port authority police union. I was the sole representative from Georgia, so my classmates bought me a Jimmy Carter t shirt in Chinatown as a joke.  That was when NYC was still kind of gritty, e.g., there were guys handing out flyers for live sex shows in Times Square.  Sensory overload for a hick from N. Georgia.

  105. 105.

    Martin

    July 4, 2023 at 8:05 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: 15K people. For California that’s pretty tiny, but it’s big town for much of the rest of the country.

    Not as much uptake where I live (300K people) but a similar trend of more pedestrians every year. The city is responding, albeit in a clumsy way. I’m doing my best to steer them in the right direction.

  106. 106.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 8:06 pm

    @Martin: 15K?  And they’re biking instead of driving?  What *is* this country coming to?  [*grin*]

  107. 107.

    Gvg

    July 4, 2023 at 8:07 pm

    The bicentennial was a big deal to my age and school. I was in middle school and we had bicentennial themed teaching all year. People wore red white and blue a lot. I was in band, it was Orlando and Disney mad a big big deal about it especially in their 4 times a day parades. Marching bands from all over the country came to March in those parades. I assume they paid their own way, but we were local and any time they were short I guess they invited a local school so ALL the local middle and high school bands marched multiple times that year. We were in the parade 4 times including July 2nd and July 4th. We also got 4 or 6 free tickets after each March day, so I had free tickets to give my family so they could see me in the bicentennial 4th of July parade at Disney World. I also had a lot more tickets from that year so we had a lot of trips. By that time my parents were tired of Disney and I was usually sent to guide out of state relatives when they came down. I also was allowed to go just with friends as a result of my free tickets.

    I always like revolutionary history a lot more than Civil war anyway.

  108. 108.

    Suzanne

    July 4, 2023 at 8:09 pm

    @NotMax: One thing that stood out to me in that piece is that Gen Z apparently doesn’t like bitter beers. The writer notes how older people have apparently trained themselves into liking bitter beer and the younger cohort won’t do that. Good. Why “train” yourself to like something you don’t like?

    I have mostly given up drinking. Other than the meetup in Philly, I haven’t had a drink in months. Not because I had a drinking problem or anything, I’m just increasingly meh on it and would rather save the calories for something I like more.

  109. 109.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    July 4, 2023 at 8:12 pm

    @laura: apparently it’s really difficult to find a GOPr with foreign policy bonafides who hasn’t been pardoned by a GOP POTUS.

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 8:14 pm

    @Burnspbesq:

    I’ll hold your coat.

  111. 111.

    Dan B

    July 4, 2023 at 8:16 pm

    @sab:  Tall ships on Ckeveland doesn’t sound as enchanting as Scotland but.. that’s just me.

    I liked Ireland a lot but we had a great contact there who got us to some great gardens where we had fresh greens to compensate for the fatty meats and other greasy items.

  112. 112.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    @Suzanne: Ha!  Gen Z doesn’t like bitter beer?  Does that mean we’ll have fewer than a dozen IPAs at the local brewpubs?  I’m not holdin’ my breath!  But seriously, that’s a great thing, if it happens.  [Gen X moi]

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    @Mai Naem mobileI:

    Who doesn’t like piñatas?! And candy? But point taken. 😾

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    July 4, 2023 at 8:21 pm

    @Scout211:

    They might have used the Malaysian flag🇲🇾 , which also looks a lot like the Star-spangled Banner.

  115. 115.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 4, 2023 at 8:21 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I read once that the reason IPAs catch on is that when brewers enter one in a contest, the judges that drink it saturate their palates (b/c “so bitter, hoppy”) and that makes it difficult to taste other beers.  So the IPAs tend to overpower the competition.  And the next year, there are more of ’em.  Sigh.

    God, I hate hoppy beer.

  116. 116.

    Dan B

    July 4, 2023 at 8:25 pm

    @Amir Khalid:  Would that happen to the Muslim bashing GOP!

  117. 117.

    Dan B

    July 4, 2023 at 8:28 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:  Some bitters, like chocolate, are great but hops – NO!  The Yakima Valley in Washington state is one of the biggest hops growing areas in the country but I’ll let other people enjoy them.  Give me Pilsner Urquel and Guiness.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    July 4, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    Biden Faces Renewed Pressure to Embrace Supreme Court Overhaul

    (when was the first ‘pressure’, again?)

    Anyway, more of this please snooze media.  We’ll never get there if it’s not front and center.

    Democrats first erupted in outrage about the court when McConnell, then the majority leader, refused to let the Senate consider President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia after he died in early 2016. That allowed President Donald Trump to fill the seat with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch after it had been vacant more than a year.

    Then, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020, McConnell pushed through Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett a month later, days before Biden was elected.

    The result has been a 6-3 conservative majority that Democrats say should have a very different composition. And their frustration has only grown as the court has overturned long-standing liberal principles.

    In Congress, most of the support for court expansion rests with liberal lawmakers. But a growing number of more centrist Democrats have started to ratchet up their rhetoric as well, in some cases portraying the court as an extension of the GOP’s extremist faction.

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    July 4, 2023 at 8:31 pm

    What does the B-movie mob boss mean by “put out to rest”, I wonder?

    Take him into custody, DOJ, and charge him with obstruction and intimidation!

    Donald f’n trumpov, just a bit ago, on America’s birthday:

    As my Poll numbers go higher & higher, the Communists, Marxists, & Fascists get more & more CRAZY with their ridiculous Indictments & Election Interference plans & plots, all controlled by an out of control, & very corrupt, DOJ/FBI. They have WEAPONIZED Law Enforcement in America at a level not seen before. Deranged Jack Smith, who is a sick puppet for A.G. Garland & Crooked Joe Biden, should be DEFUNDED & put out to rest. Republicans must get
    tough or the Dems will steal another Election. MAGA!

  120. 120.

    rekoob

    July 4, 2023 at 8:32 pm

    4 July 1976 was a Sunday, and so our Baptist church just outside Richmond, Virginia had a picnic and recitation of the Declaration of Independence. Of course, Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” was proclaimed about 7 miles east of there about 15 months earlier, back in the day.

    I was 14. I liked the man who cosplayed Benjamin Franklin, who had a decent career as a politician (Democrat) and lawyer.

    Saturday, 4 July 2026, will also be the bicentennial of the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    July 4, 2023 at 8:36 pm

    @NotMax: The generation born between 1997 and 2012 are […] less willing to consume what they don’t immediately enjoy

    My god. This could mean the end of the tobacco and alcohol industries.

  122. 122.

    Ken

    July 4, 2023 at 8:41 pm

    @Martin: My guess is there will be an organizational merger of Boy/Girl Scouts

    I thought that had already happened, but google tells me they’re still separate. The change was that the Boy Scouts now admit girls, and as you observed, it’s largely to keep the organization viable. Whatever happens is fine with me, as long as I can still get my Thin Mints.

  123. 123.

    tcblue

    July 4, 2023 at 8:41 pm

    @Burnspbesq: those are NPR member stations. they carry NPR programming (and other syndicators) and also pitch stories to NPR in hopes of gaining a national audience for them but are not NPR

    local stations pay licensing fees to carry programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    July 4, 2023 at 8:41 pm

    @Steeplejack: And the Swedish Prime Minister will visit D.C. tomorrow. I bet he’ll be glad to get back to Sweden.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    July 4, 2023 at 8:44 pm

    @Geminid:

    He knew what he was getting into!

    Eh, he’ll probably be in air-conditioned meetings the whole time.

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    July 4, 2023 at 8:53 pm

    @Steeplejack: “Thanks, but I think I’ll visit the Lincoln Memorial next time. That’ll give me something to look forward to.”

  127. 127.

    Citizen Alan

    July 4, 2023 at 8:56 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I was 7 years old in 1976. And while I remember that the bicentennial happened, the only thing I remember with any specificity is that there seemed to be a lot of boats on tv. I assumed in retrospect that was boston tea party related stuff. But being a little kid from north mississippi, I had never seen an actual harbor, let alone one with that many boats in it.

  128. 128.

    suzanne

    July 4, 2023 at 8:57 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I am also anti-hoppy beer. I also support The Yoot in not accepting crap they don’t like. One thing I have noticed in myself — and it is a difficult habit to break — is that I will eat things I don’t really care for or at times I’m not hungry, because it’s less troublesome to someone else.

  129. 129.

    Sure Lurkalot

    July 4, 2023 at 9:02 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Hear hear to the hops aversion. Unfortunately, Mr. Lurkalot’s family, beer drinking Democrats, love IPA’s and all sorts of high octane weird beers with whiskey or coffee or who knows what. We always bring our own for get togethers. I mostly like witte and wheat. But lately I’ve been buying Pacifico and Modelo (dark is yum), they’re light and easy and remind me of the beach.

  130. 130.

    Citizen Alan

    July 4, 2023 at 9:03 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Obligatory.

  131. 131.

    dnfree

    July 4, 2023 at 9:23 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: We had our second child in 1976, so she and her husband will both be turning 50 that year.  Hard to believe.

  132. 132.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 9:27 pm

    @Ken:

    NotMax:

    The generation born between 1997 and 2012 are […] less willing to consume what they don’t immediately enjoy

    Ken:

    My god. This could mean the end of the tobacco and alcohol industries.

    Hahaha!

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 4, 2023 at 9:40 pm

    @Sure Lurkalot: The super-hoppy stuff isn’t my favorite but it’s interesting as a change of pace. My brother-in-law loves IPAs so I drink them when he’s around. I’m just bothered when the beer list is 95% IPAs because there should be other stuff.

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 9:47 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: IPBs!

  135. 135.

    Jackie

    July 4, 2023 at 9:50 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Nope it was this flag: 🇱🇷

    I can see why Ronna was confused.// 🇱🇷🇺🇸

  136. 136.

    citizen dave

    July 4, 2023 at 10:03 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I consider you a celebrity for winning the Freedom Train contest.  I was 13-14 during those couple of years (big buildup) and we for sure toured the train when it rolled into Fort Wayne.  Don’t recall any artifacts on it though.

    Other things I do recall were the blue/red/blue adidas (or were they red/blue/red?), and red, white and blue basketball nets just because.

  137. 137.

    kindness

    July 4, 2023 at 10:12 pm

    @sab: NE College in Henneker?  My brother went there.  74-78.  He did a year in England in 76 too.

  138. 138.

    BeautifulPlumage

    July 4, 2023 at 10:22 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: nooooooo! This hurts me. That is not the reason. The reason is that they sell.

    The hops balance the malts, but you won’t taste the malt if you drink your IPA ice-cold, or drink it from the container rather than a glass.

  139. 139.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 10:43 pm

    @Chetan Murthy

    How ya feel about rabbits?

    Even gets a Wikipedia page.
    :)

  140. 140.

    sxjames

    July 4, 2023 at 10:43 pm

    I turned 18 in 1976, graduating high school.  I was in the HS marching band, and I remember practicing for the parade downtown (one of the last activities as a high schooler).  However, my most vivid memory (feeling) at that time was my pride in that ‘the system works’.  Remember:  ’76 was only three years after Nixon resigned. Watching Bush and Cheney lie us into the Iraq war (with the acquiescence of the media) , and then living thru TFG has sorely tested that belief, but watching Jack Smith and the DOJ slooowly bring TFG and his associates to justice has given me some hope.  Not a huge amount, but enough to actually celebrate a bit this year :).

    And yes, IPAs are an acquired taste.  My millennial son, however, is quite the  beer connoisseur and really enjoys them.

  141. 141.

    RaflW

    July 4, 2023 at 10:50 pm

    “semiquincentennial”

    Can we just say the US is celebrating its semi-quinceañera? We can put on really awesome pretty dresses and do party things, like this rather perfect list:

    1. Play a game or two
    2. Get everyone to dance your ‘surprise dance’
    3. Have a semi-quince slideshow that includes goofy family photos
    4. Throw in an Hour of Karaoke
    5. Have a Fog machine & light show
    6. Make (and use!) a DJT Piñata
    7. Have a girl-asks-boy dance (and a boy-asks-boy dance) (and a genderfluid person-asks-a-friend dance) (etc)
    8. Cake pops!
    9. Start—or end—the party with a dance-off
    10. Hold a Traditional Recalentado (the “re-warming,” ie: a leftovers brunch, in this case, on July 5th)

  142. 142.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 4, 2023 at 10:53 pm

    @RaflW: Did someone say 🎶 Everybody dance now!🎶?

  143. 143.

    RaflW

    July 4, 2023 at 10:57 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: I just had to look this up. CNC machining was apparently invented in 1952. So, C+C Music Factory was not, in fact, ahead of its time. Though it did make a banger of a song.

  144. 144.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 11:03 pm

    @RaflW

    Appeared in a production of The Threepenny Opera which made extensive use of a theatrical grade fog machine during some scenes. Whatever the solution is it’s filled with, the resultant clouds stink to high heaven for those of us on stage.

    Fog rolls off the apron and then flows down to the floor, so the audience never really notices any stench.

  145. 145.

    RaflW

    July 4, 2023 at 11:14 pm

    @NotMax: At least some fog machines I thought used mineral oil? Which seems gross. A dry ice fog machine would be odorless, so, much preferred.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 11:22 pm

    @RaflW

    Ah, but dry ice fog rises unpredictably, whereas the stage fog slowly sinks and never goes much above the height of the machine’s outlets (gotta be able to see the actors’ faces, don’tcha know).

  147. 147.

    RaflW

    July 4, 2023 at 11:26 pm

    @NotMax: Aha. But for a semi-quince dance party, swirling unpredictable fog would be perfect.

  148. 148.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 11:31 pm

    @RaflW

    A good use of dry ice fog on a TV stage set from the early years of the 1950s. (That’s not a CGI dagger, also too, but the real deal.)
    ;)

  149. 149.

    NotMax

    July 4, 2023 at 11:34 pm

    Neglected to put in the linky. Fix.

    @RaflW

    A good use of dry ice fog on a TV stage set from the early years of the 1950s. (That’s not a CGI dagger, also too, but the real deal.)
    ;)

  150. 150.

    Soprano2

    July 5, 2023 at 12:49 am

    I was 15 in 1976. I had a boyfriend who was in the 4H “Salute to America Singers” group. He got to go to quite a few places, including Romania. Somewhere I still have the belt like thing he got me from there. I remember mostly seeing stuff on TV, like the tall ships thing.

  151. 151.

    Subsole

    July 5, 2023 at 1:33 am

    @Burnspbesq:

    Yeah. I can absolutely see them being members of the True Whig party.

    That 100,000% tracks.

  152. 152.

    Jeffg166

    July 5, 2023 at 4:57 am

    I have lived in Philadelphia all my adult life. In 1976 I was 28. There was a lot of things going on for the bicentennial that I never bothered to go to.

    The highlight of the bicentennial for me was walking out of I. Goldberg’s Army Navy store at 9th and Chestnut Street as Queen Elisabeth II rolled past in her limo. No one had any idea this was happening. I walked out of the store as she passed. I was about 15 feet from her. She was waving to either side of the empty street. She had the most amazing skin I had ever seen. Peaches and cream flawless.

    The other memory was the out break of Legionnaires Disease at the end of July that year.

  153. 153.

    Ned F

    July 5, 2023 at 7:07 am

    @Jeffg166:

    I was 23 in ’76, and a Philly suburban native, but that year I was living in Oregon and missed the whole bicentennial. It wasn’t much of an event out west.  I think there was a big Freedom Fest with Elton John and others in Philadelphia, he debuted the song “Philadelphia Freedom” then.  Other than that, I have no memories.

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 5, 2023 at 7:36 am

    @Jay: Ta-Nehisi Coates once said that Douglass should be considered a Founding Father. Sometimes the things he said or wrote read like the thoughts of a time traveler from the future.

  155. 155.

    AM in NC

    July 5, 2023 at 8:15 am

    @sab: I agree. Public Radio is far from perfect, but radio as a medium is almost completely abandoned to rightwing perspectives (at last as far as white listeners are concerned).  And Public Radio is at least a countervailing dose of reality-based news and information for people in rural areas.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - PaulB - Olympic National Park: Lake Quinault 1
Image by PaulB (5/17/25)

Recent Comments

  • Elizabelle on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 2:58am)
  • Jay on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 2:44am)
  • Ohio farmer on Ohio Meetup Peeps, Where Are You? (May 18, 2025 @ 2:36am)
  • Elizabelle on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 2:32am)
  • Jay on Repubs in Disarray Open Thread (May 18, 2025 @ 2:31am)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!