This was the scene on the Terrace last night, watching the big fireworks show across the lake...
What a throng! It was like fireworks Woodstock. Replete with nudity: When the show was over, and much of the crowd, including (we will assume) all the children, had cleared out, a few young guys shed their clothes, dove into the lake, swam around, hopped out, ran to the end of the pier, and dove in again. One display and then another.
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the big fireworks show across the lack
I guess it's not a mistake, if you mean "lack of land."
Peter
Happy 4th to my favorite Madisonians.
May the Flag never flag.
When the show was over, and much of the crowd, including (we will assume) all the children, had cleared out, a few young guys shed their clothes, dove into the lake, swam around, hopped out, ran to the end of the pier, and dove in again.
Where are those photos? Part of the private Althouse collection now?
love that Terrace! Am watching de Tour, right now, then we're off to watch our niece's middle school band march in Whitewater. Happy 4th!
Typo corrected.
@Jason I tried to get a picture of them swimming, which was mostly heads moving around in the dark water. Looked like muskrats, Meade said. But the pictures are too dark to see anything. When the guys jumped out and ran around, I didn't want to photograph that. Didn't even consider it. If they were posing and deliberately displaying themselves, I'd have considered taking pictures.
@Jason - The lake is cold. So you have to combine telescopic lenses with macro photography. Tough.
One question: you guys have 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd of July?
-XC
Expat(ish):One question: you guys have 4th of July fireworks on the 3rd of July?
Sometimes they'll have them a week ahead of time. The thing is, every town wants to have fireworks, but they also want a big audience, so in any one geographic area there can be several displays on different nights.
In 1972, when we moved from Omaha (popn ~200K) to Winona (popn 26K), I knew we were in for a slooow summer when the local radio station did a July 4th fireworks show *live* .
They described every single one.
Fireworks. On. The. Radio.
Yipes.
Holiday celebrations are only valid if they occur during the 24 hours of the officially recognized holiday. Any prior or subsequent celebration is either premature or tardy.
a few young guys shed their clothes, dove into the lake, swam around, hopped out, ran to the end of the pier, and dove in again.
They honored the Althouse "no shorts" rule.
We took the pontoon all the way from the south end of Waubesa, through Monona, to the north end of Mendota parking right underneath the fireworks. Great show as always, this year we smartened up and had a pickup van at the locks, and I drove all the way home solo, worrisome low on fuel. Was home by 1:00am. Only mishap to report was having to yank a panfish jig out of my shoulder blad from a wayward cast from on the kids. Myself that is, couldn't get any of the women to do it.
"either premature or tardy"
Close enough for gummint work.
"Myself that is, couldn't get any of the women to do it."
Did they also have unusually large feet?
Somebody down the road (Stow, Kent) did a fireworks show that sounded like the third day at Gettysburg. A little too much; the pups ran for cover. Got a look at the tail end driving The Blonde to work (for what may or may not have been the last time).
Ann Althouse said...
When the show was over, and much of the crowd, including (we will assume) all the children, had cleared out, a few young guys shed their clothes...
Ever since 9/11, somebody has always been trying to revive the (late) 60s. Thank God, it's never taken hold.
Ok so I'm stumped, Pogo. Unusually large feet?
Did Althouse miss "covering" the World Naked Bike Ride, "which rode boisterously through the downtown Madison on Saturday, June 19"?
Perhaps because she was a rider?
Does the Madison Police Department understand the meaning of the word 'genitalia'?
..."I asked [the ticketing officer] what genitalia was, because I know the meaning of genitalia does not mean breasts or nipples," says Zeise. The officer informed her that all the riders had been warned plenty of times to cover up and she could dispute her disorderly conduct citation in court.
According to Zeise, early on in the event, the entire group of naked riders had been stopped by Madison Police officers and specifically instructed over a megaphone to cover their "genitalia." Zeise begrudgingly, but dutifully, cooperated by covering her bottom-half with shorts, and then continued the ride only to be ticketed later.
"I was fully ready to comply, but we never received a direct 'you need to have fully-covered breasts,'" says Zeise, who was one of multiple women issued citations for being topless during the ride. Zeise also has concerns about the forceful manner in which she saw police officers force two naked female riders off of their bikes.
She's not alone in her complaint about the way police officers handled the event. Many of those who received $429 disorderly conduct citations say they intend to contest them in court.
"What is wrong with a few boobs?" wonders Sarah, a co-organizer of the ride who asked that her last name not be used. Sarah also received a disorderly conduct citation for riding topless.
Another ticketed rider, Andy Colton, frames his lingering question like this: "What better way to say 'fuck oil!' than riding bikes naked?"
...Madison has no public nudity ordinance, according to MPD spokesman Joel DeSpain. The police instead use disorderly conduct citations based on citizen complaints, to deter public nudity.
@garage:
Which face is more attractive to you? The 8 women were grouped based on foot size:
My tweet:
"Happy 4th of July! Today we celebrate Gen. Churchill's defeat of the Greeks in 1922! (According to http://tinyurl.com/2w7qac3.)"
If you watch until the end, you'll see the perfect illustration of education in decline.
Did Althouse miss "covering" the World Naked Bike Ride, "which rode boisterously through the downtown Madison on Saturday, June 19"?
Can you imagine what the bicycle seats must have smelled like afterwards? Ugh.
Peter
Old Glory and young glory, celebrated in exuberant energy.
How many young men over the course of years have shed whatever they were wearing on a warm summer night to jump naked into a lake?
Some traditions of independence were in existence long before 1776.
Wow, here in "the real America" we have 4th of July on .... 4th of July.
Luckily it isn't "Presidents day" yet.
-XC
Click the Ripley Toll Barrier, I-90, in western-most New York State: http://www.thruway.ny.gov/webcams/index.html
If the camera is facing east, you'll see a parking area for trucks adjacent to the eastbound lane. If the camera is facing west, you'll see the traffic heading into Pennsylvania.
Because when I was a kid I wanted to be a cowboy, a "real" cowboy, riding a massive, diesel-powered 18-wheeler 'cross country all by myself, the dual stacks blowing fire and smoke into the endless cowboy sky. Shifting 13 gears until I reached California, then back again - always pushing, hardly sleeping, eating standing up.
Now when I want to remember being a cowboy, I turn on the camera... at Ripley, and Richmond, and points in between. Because even on the 4th of July, the real cowboys are out there, riding the highways, climbing the mountains, crossing the painted deserts.
"Did Althouse miss "covering" the World Naked Bike Ride, "which rode boisterously through the downtown Madison on Saturday, June 19"?"
Sorry, but this doesn't interest me. Most people look pretty boring naked and I don't like this kind of showing off.
Fourth of July bunny.
Palladian: Holiday celebrations are only valid if they occur during the 24 hours of the officially recognized holiday.
Considering we actually declared independence on the second of July, but we celebrate it two days later, I see no reason to be a stickler about when the fireworks go off.
My city does its fireworks on the 3rd, partly so city employees don't have to work on the 4th. They did have to hang around the park 'til late last night to be sure it didn't go up in flames.
We also have fireworks for Halloween, and no kids go door-to-door.
Out in my neck of the woods, the local suburbs were split around 50-50 between doing their fireworks last night vs. tonight. I think the ones who did theirs yesterday probably wanted to have the big to-do on Saturday night for the benefit of those who don't have tomorrow off.
But a lot of people do have tomorrow off, so it would seem, and a few places took Friday as a holiday as well.
Happy barely belated Fourth to all (except on the West Coast, where this greeting may be seen on its usual day).
Best fireworks event I've ever been to was a kind of DIY affair - as many as a couple of thousand beachgoers out on Chesapeake Beach, in Va Beach, Virginia, many loaded with as many fireworks brought from a variety of states with "lax" fireworks laws. A couple of miles of beach, with literally millions of dollars worth of fireworks going off, all around. July 4th, 2008. And there were no reports of serious fireworks related incidents the next day.
Of course, the nannies were on full alert in 09', putting up flashing road construction signs on just about every approach to the beach reminding everyone that fireworks are prohibited.
tw: nanese - the language of the nanny state.
The second one gives me an urge to duck and cover!
@Pogo:
On the radio - I love it! I can imagine Les Nessman covering it.
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