For all you(we) Yanks & other You-Ess-ians

[goat starer]

and those who have been stockpiling rope (and copies of theTimes rich list) since 1974 

[beagle]

Careful Goat. You're getting dangerously close to qualifying under Labour's new "Shop a Weirdo" proposals.

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

Is this the 4th July thread?

It drifted.

To Labour Day, apparently.   

[goat starer]

Labour? pinkoes the lot of em! not one real red amongst em.

[Griffin NoName]

Cheer up Goat. According to the SWP Postal Workers Are Fighting for us All .

[goat starer]

thats why the post office have red vans

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

thats why the post office have red vans

Around here, the post office vans are all sorts of colours, since local postal delivery services have been contracted out to private firms.

But our waterworks are still publicly owned.

[Griffin NoName]

Here we still have the dignity of each being in charge of our own "waterworks"

[goat starer]

here too. I am delighted to say that, despite my belief in nationalisation, nobody has tried to put my 'waterworks' into public ownership. Frankly I am not sure what benefit such a measure would have in a marxist society which may be why Marx omitted to include any mention of 'ownership of the means of urination' in Das Kapital.

[beagle]

Volume 1 of Marx covered the means of production. Volume 2 covered the means of elimination. I happen to have a copy on my shelf, next to "Love's Labours Won" and Dicken's "Tale of two suburbs".  The last I had adapted for TV as "Desperate Housewives", but I'm saving the others for the Christmas market, so hands off the waterworks.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Well, I had to use the SEARCH function, but I found this thread what I started in 2007.

Once again, the annual try-to-blow-the-fingers-and-eardrums-off holiday has come around for all you Yew-Ess-Ians.

It's the 4th of July, in which North Americans living north of the Rio Grande and south of Lake of the Woods, Canada (mostly) will attempt to "celebrate" by blowing sh!t up.

Including, but not limited to:  their barbeque, their backyards, their neighbor's backyards, their own selves, their neighbors, their cars, their back porches, their front porches, their pickup trucks, their swimming pools.  Yes, I've seen or read about accidents involving each of these and more.  The only common thing was the date, and the use of explosives.

Other traditional activities include becoming roaring drunk, insulting your friends, neighbors, relatives and anyone who gets within earshot.  Often unintentionally. 

Some of the more thoughtful folk have learned that amateur anything is not nearly as impressive as professional of the same thing, and have a tradition of going to a local park to watch millions of dollars going up in smoke....literally.     Many will make a huge honkin' pick'a'nick of it, starting out early in the afternoon, and staying well past 10'oclock until the last firework has been lit.  Pulling, dragging and otherwise ferrying a motley assortment of coolers, folding chairs, blankets/quilts, umbrellas, hats, sunscreen, anti-bug spray, toys-for-the-kids, diaper-bags and other assorted baggage.  Kids are almost always in tow or running circles around the adults on the way in, but carried like one more piece of excess baggage on the way out.  The car is traditionally one or two miles from the site, of course.   One wonders where all the cars come from that are between your own watching-spot and where you parked your car.... maybe the gates of hell open up, just for the occasion, and all those cars are not driven by people...

Happy 4th of July everyone!

And, hopefully you Brits will not think too much less of your younger siblings, for celebrating the Nest-Leaving in such an odd fashion. 

Just remember:  where there's smoke?  There's fire.  If there's gunpowder nearby or involved?  There's gonna be a *boom*.  Just wait....

...oh, and stick your fingers in your ears first.  That way you know where they are (in relationship to the explosives) and they help protect your hearing.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Last night I left my birds inside (they usually remain on the balcony which they have for themselves) because of the noise and my fears over the sulphur stench of pyrotechnics. Tonight they'll go in earlier. 

Happy 4th of July to those who think that the whole independence deal was such a good idea (heck, perhaps the Canadians were the smart[er] ones ).

[beagle]

It's really annoying we don't get an independence holiday. All because some idiot forgot to write down when the last Roman left (and the Normans have never stopped bossing us about).

Anyway, Happy Birthday.

[Bluenose]

We Aussies celebrate not the gaining of our independence from the Poms, but rather Australia Day is celebrated on 26 January, the anniverary of the day two of my ancestors and several hundred of their fellows, not to mention sundry naval officers, marines and ships' crews first set foot on this fair land at Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour).  They then indulged in a considerable bout of drunken debauchery, apparently.  Seems a fitting way to celebrate if you ask me.

[Swatopluk]

Well, the US even have a fireworks display* in their anthem 

*OK, a failed missile attack and flag burning