going to a parade, invited to a bbq, gonna be fun day.

Happy 4th America

Just got done spending the day at the beach. Now prepping for fireworks party

I burned an American flag.

Happy Monday, rest of the world!

Happy 235th America
Hope everyone has a good day!

The blog DaringFireball.net has an illuminating quote from none other than good old John Adams today:

"It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever."

100 Great Things About America
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2 ... ca-part-4/

1. The Internet
Oh yes, invented in the USA -- maybe Al Gore helped.

2. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

3. Baseball
America's pastime…steroids or not

4. Mount Rushmore
Home of the original "your face here" gimmick

5. Food in New Orleans
If you can remember it the next morning

6. Rock and roll
Find a Beatles or Stones song uninfluenced by American music. Just try.

7. Hawaii
Mauna Kea, Kaua'i…you gotta see it to believe it.

8. iPod, iPad, and everything Apple

9. Barbecue
Carolina, Mississippi, K.C., Memphis…it's all good.

10. Ford Mustang
Who needs a German car? We'll take the classic.

11. Wikipedia
This article that mentions a popular fact site is a stub. You can help us by expanding it.

12. Buffalo
Because this is a real sentence: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Don't believe us? Check on #11.


13. Slam dunks
Thanks to Doctor J

14. Broadway
If the Lion King ever closes, Cats will come back.

15. Bluebirds
Listen to mine sing

16. Google
Because no one stands up to China better

17. Mark Twain
The original American bad-ass

18. The national anthem

19. Iced drinks
When will the rest of the world figure this out?

20. Beaches
Cape Cod, Kiawah, Zuma -- ours are better.

21. Madison Square Garden
A little threadbare but still the biggest stage in America's biggest city

22. Delivery pizza

23. The Grateful Dead
Long may the followers of Uncle John's Band live on.

24. YouTube
We keep clicking on home videos even after Charlie bit our finger -- again!

25. The Super Bowl
The parties, the ads -- oh and a sports game, too

26. Fishing
China rules the commercial catch, but more people fish for fun here than anywhere else.

27. Monopoly
A game we sometimes play in real life, too.

28. The Big Apple Circus
Where joy and, occasionally, fear comes in clown twelve-packs by tiny car

29. M&M's
Imitators don't stand a chance

30. Facebook
Friend us? Just kidding… but seriously. Please friend us.

31. Thanksgiving
Loosen your belt and watch the parade

32. Pickup trucks
Our nation's first outlet for unfunny bumper stickers

33. The Simpsons
May Bart and Lisa never make it to high school.

34. Oprah Winfrey
But after 2011, no more free cars for the audience

35. Frisbees
Not just for dogs

36. Mad Men
Jon Hamm + Christina Hendricks = cooler than the actual '60s

37. New York/Boston sports rivalry
For our safety, we decline to comment.

38. MRI machine
Perfect for after that Yanks-Sox game

39. Patagonia
The first to make polyester clothes out of old plastic bottles

40. Archie Comics
Betty or Veronica: 68 years and the debate rages on

41. The Golden Gate Bridge
Dirty Harry meets Full House. Uh oh.

42. Jazz
Even before Ken Burns discovered it

43. Fantasy football

44. S'mores

45. Trader Joe's
If cheap wine were apples, we present the modern Johnny Appleseed. Amen.

46. The 4th of July

47. Harley Davidson
The motorcycle company that has survived both the Great Depression and the Hybrid Obsession

48. March Madness
So crazy it spills into April

49. Scrabble
As Facebook proved, it's Scrabulous

50. Kegs
Even useful when empty, as moorings

51. Slip 'N Slide
Simple. Genius.

52. Ice cream
Ben and Jerry's, Breyers, soft serve… ours freezes the competition

53. Yellowstone National Park

54. Oreos
This choice bribed by the secret dairy farmers' cartel

55. Edward R. Murrow
A journalist who was cool? Sigh.

56. Restaurant week
The one week a year when snooty waiters have to play nice

57. Washington D.C. monuments at night
Lincoln looks good

58. Bugs Bunny
Every parent's dream: he's nice to doctors and he eats his veggies

59. Etch A Sketch
Don't shake away our faith in this one

60. Coca-cola
Hmmm… what does the "coca" stand for again?

61. Flip flops
Not the John Kerry kind, though both can be found on Nantucket

62. Vegas weddings

63. Napa wine
If anyone orders Merlot, we're leaving

64. Willie Nelson
Trigger

65. eBay
The only place where you can buy a single cornflake

66. Blueberries
Our favorite fruit that can't check email

67. The Rockettes
E-leg-trifying!

68. Charles Barkley
Hosting Saturday Night Live and pitching for T-Mobile, Sir Charles is now larger than life

69. Blue jeans
Levi Strauss invented the modern version only to see them become boringly ubiquitous

70. County fairs
We recommend you eat your corndog after swinging that sledgehammer at the High Striker game

71. The Oscars
A celebration of everything good and awful about Hollywood

72. Veterans
Thank you

73. Steakhouses
Thankfully, not rare

74. The Tiffany box
The only package more powerful than its contents

75. Sports mascots
The San Diego Chicken vs. the Phillie Phanatic

76. The Great Lakes

77. Salt water taffy
Delicious even though they contain neither salt nor water

78. Roller coasters
Possibly the only 30-second activity worth a three-hour wait

79. HBO
Even if we're unsold on the vampire craze

80. The Everglades
Where else would you go to get drunk and wrestle an alligator?

81. Bonnie and Clyde
Do you and your honey bunny rob banks? No? Then sit down.

82. Chewing gum
But please, remember that it's a silent activity

83. The light bulb
And we just keep inventing better ones!

84. Religious freedom
From Pilgrims to scientologists

85. Bagels
If you've never tried one, come to New York and make your first one an H&H

86. Judd Apatow films

87. The Billboard 100
Measuring our music since 1958

88. Chipotle
And the guacamole really is worth the extra $2.25

89. Dalmatians on fire trucks
Black and white and red all over

90. Disney movies
Not yours, Nicholas Cage. The old school, animated ones

91. New Year's Eve
Every country has one, but they all watch Times Square

92. Elvis Presley
A hound-dog and the King

93. Cowboys

94. Turducken
A true American delicacy: a chicken in a duck in a turkey

95. Netflix
The only movie rental survivor

96. Spring Break
We plead the Fifth

97. Escalators
First used commercially in Yonkers, NY in 1899—who knew?

98. Stand-up comedy
Unless you are singled out

99. Redwood trees
The oldest is 2,200 years old

100. Bendy straws
Invented by a Cleveland entrepreneur—and perhaps Ohio's most significant contribution, though we tip our hats to the Wright Brothers and its 8 U.S. Presidents

101. Charlie Brown
Sorry, Charlie, maybe next time you'll crack the top 100