I have no idea. These same people, a few minutes earlier, were complaining that everyone thinks they're depressed because they cry every day, but they're not depressed, really! And the brother of one of them was announcing, after each firework, a technical-sounding and obviously made-up name for what kind of firework it was.

The Capitol Fourth is always on the D-list side. You'd think they could do better.

Mr Peabody does not like the fireworks. His response is to cling to me like a 23-pound limpet. He also had a bath and I washed all his stuff in the fight against the fleas, so his world has been all askew today.

Does anyone else remember when fireworks made pictures? Does anyone do that anymore? The fireworks at Oshkosh when I was a kid always ended with a flag.

The problem with all the marches played on the Fourth is that I end up earwormed with "Be kind to your web-footed friends/For a duck could be somebody's mother" and "The monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole."

I love web footed friends!

I'm very glad, years ago, I spent the 4th on the Mall. I ran into friends from college down in NC and helped complete strangers carry their exhausted kids to the Metro in an hours long shuffle. I've done the inner harbor and been trapped in a parking garage, using a sheet I have in my car give privacy to an embarrassed 11 year old who REALLY HAD TO PEE (in a cup.) But I'm happy to be gone nowhere tonight.

I've neve seen the fireworks make pictures, but I have been fascinated by it every since Uncle somebody in Eight Cousins had the fireworks make 8 thistles and a Rose for Rose and her cousins.

The fireworks are going through their finale right now, I think, and Amarna's just chilling in the dining room. She was jolting more yesterday when some of my neighbors were setting off loud 'works and 'crackers.

Uncle somebody

It was either Uncle Alec (her guardian) or Uncle Mac (the merchant and Mac and Steve's father, married to Aunt Jane)--I think it was Alec's idea. I'll have to pull out my copy of that book!

I love watching Devi and Loki bolt down the stairs. They are hilarious. Slower, they are ungainly demented bunnies. Loki at full tilt is something else. No grace, all speed. It is coordinated, sure but somehow goofy.

I don't laugh at MK, because he is slow and deliberate.

For Sophia: Behind the scenes at the Bauer barbecue! (I didn't actually watch it.)

I spent the 4th on the Mall. I ran into friends from college down in NC

I've been to see the fireworks at Taste of Chicago on the 3rd (timed to not compete with the suburbs on the 4th) a few times, and am glad not to do that again. I'm too old for the crowds and heat. The last time was pretty fun though--it was back in 1991 or so, and the 3rd was midweek, so most people were working. We left Mom's house after rush hour and parked at the Grant Park garage around 10:30 or so in the morning, just as Taste was opening for the day. We picked up some early lunch, then headed to State Street to shop at Fields. By 3:00, we dropped off our purchases, grabbed our blanket and our books, then staked out our spot in the park, which was already filling up. The people next to us offered us beer and wine coolers, we read until 5:00 when I headed out and picked up our dinner.

As we finished eating an hour later (took me some time to get back), surrounded by people, someone slipped her arm around my back and said, "Fancy meeting you here!" It was our old neighbors from the block I grew up on, who were sitting two blankets behind us! We moved back to join them, and were able to take our bathroom breaks at the Palmer House, where they were spending a few days (their anniversary present from their kids).

So I'm at a bar, which isostly deserted, because NYC is empty on July 4, and the DJ is playing nothing but Jackson 5 songs. It's kind of awesome.