LJWorld Reader blogs

When I was growing up, every Sunday we watched Walt Disney and there was a show about Johnny Tremain and the Liberty Tree, the great oak. So, to me the oak and the landscape is America. I have been blessed by being able to camp out in every national park except for Alaska. Born and bred a tomboy, I was and still am.

These are just little tidbits about the 4th. So many things have said so many times, I just don't feel up to repeating it one more time. Just out of curiosity how much of your identity is wrapped up in being an American? It is not true that poor is poor anywhere. The down and out is Lawrence have opportunities that those in third world countries do not even dream about.

Quotes:

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. ~Thomas Macaulay

The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation. ~Woodrow Wilson

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. ~Thomas Paine

Dip
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
2 cans prepared chili without beans
1 large jar corn and bean salsa
2 8-oz. packages shredded Pepper Jack Cheese

Spread the softened cream cheese evenly over the bottom of a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan. Pour chili over the top of the cream cheese and spread evenly. Pour the salsa over the chili and spread evenly again.
Sprinkle shredded cheese on top
Microwave for about 15 minutes.

Yankee Doodle

Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony
Stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

Father and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Gooding
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to his men
I guess there was a million.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

The feather was called macoroni because of a style of dress that England copied from Italy. Part of it was a man's hat with plunes. To the Americans it was a kind of joke about people making much of themselves because of the fancy clothes they wear. So, stick a feather in your hat and call it marcorni.

If you saw the movie, Happy Feet, then you remember Lovelace. The Macaroni penguin was named by English explorers because of its gorgeous yellow crest feathers which looked like those worn by the in crowd in the 18th century; they were called 'macaronis'.