[This entry is cross posted at ordinary-times.com]
It’s Independence Day on a Thursday, so I’ll assume there’s no need to encourage anyone to start the weekend early.
I read The Declaration of Independence to my children every July 4th and every time I start to choke up at “firm reliance.” It was the ruin of so many of them and the most consequential insistence of agency since Magna Carta. Children should hear it outside of class, hear that resolute voice of Jefferson, press that it’s not a special day because we get to see a fireworks show but that we get to see a fireworks show because it’s a special day.
I don’t know what other celebratory stuff we’ll get up to. I’m thinking about spatchcocking a chicken and cooking it on the grill, weighed down with a foil wrapped brick or two: salt, pepper, a bit of spicy paprika and served with grilled rounds of pineapple over a bed of mixed lettuces and herbs tossed with a red wine or champagne vinaigrette. Maybe some white beans. Hot dogs are the easy celebration ‘Merica food of choice. If you want to overly complicate things, my hot dog sauce recipe is here and only considerably more expensive though way more labor intensive than buying a pre-made store brand.
This week’s poem is a long one, so I’ll be short. Longfellow made myth out of truth, and I’ve not read anything better on his “Paul Revere’s Ride” than Dana Gioia’s essay “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: On ‘Paul Revere’s Ride.’” Years ago, I accidentally plagiarized Gioia. It was a cut and paste accident that was corrected as quickly as possible once realized, but for a horrid five minutes or so I credited myself with one of his quotes instead of crediting myself for a paragraph from an older post I wrote that included one of his quotes with proper attribution. Despite hyper-attentiveness to error regarding the man, I’m not going to quote from his essay here. Gun shy. Follow the link and read the whole thing. It’s short and, as would be expected, edifying.
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The Columbo Game 