The Morning After

Yesterday I posted a picture of myself in bootcamp.

Today I'm posting an "avatar" of myself which I created on the Simpson's Movie website. It's not too bad a representation, actually. I got the silver hair, but I'm missing glasses.

Oh, and I wouldn't be caught dead in a "Duff Beer" t-shirt, either.

The weather was pretty crappy here in the east yesterday, so I didn't partake of any outdoor activities. Mostly I spent the day packing (and re-packing) the Element for our upcoming vacation on Cape Cod.

After dusk, as various east coast cities started ramping up for their 4th of July celebrations I started channel surfing to see which city would win my heart and mind this year. I have to admit I've always been partial to Boston's annual celebration, with the Pops playing on the Esplanade next to the Charles River. I really like it because it traditionally concludes with a rafter-rattling rendition of the "1812 Overture" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, complete with live cannon fire and kick-ass fireworks over the river.

Macy's always puts on a big, expensive show in New York, but the whole thing is too friggin' "stagey" for my taste. The 4th of July should ALWAYS smack of small-town amateurism, and not be as corporately slick as the New York show always is.

Philly gave it a shot, but it went to the opposite extreme and their parade looked like it was thrown together by a bunch of drunken Mummers (are there any other kind?) on Tuesday night.

But the show that really made me want to barf was Washington's. As some other blogger/wag said, ever so much more pithily than I, does anything say "Happy July 4th more than Tony Danza in tap shoes?"

Well, it looked amateurish alright. And he was probably sober. Lord knows he probably needed the work (last time I heard about him he was playing Billy Flynn in Chicago on B'way).

But he was a trouper and didn't seem to be overly embarrassed to be hosting the festivities from the Mall behind the Capitol building.

Then I flipped back to the station carrying the concert from Boston, just in time for the big "Quaker Puffed Wheat" finale.

Ahhhh. This is the way the 4th should be celebrated. In bed with a tub of Ben & Jerry's Chunky-Monkey ice cream while watching a bunch of slightly inebriated Bostonians huzzah our Nation's Birth on tv to the tune of some 19th Century Russkie composer's musical tribute to the monumental failure of Napoleon Bonaparte to capture Moscow.

Now THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT!