...and the home of the belligerent

By Todd Stadler · Thursday, July 5, 2001 5:59pm

You know, I find the Fourth of July endlessly amusing. We celebrate the day we declared independence from Great Britain by reenacting the horror of being bombarded. Except this time, it's fun for the whole family.

One suspects that in several hundred years, Iraq will celebrate its triumph over the "Great Satan" by flying mock Stealth bombers overhead while on the ground, they blow up mock ammunition/baby food factories. Whee!

Never mind that all the fireworks I've ever seen are made in China, America's would-be mortal enemy right now. Unless you're a businessman.

Julia and I hoofed it over to Russian Hill tonight to watch the fireworks over the San Francisco Bay. And I mean "hoofed"! We kept expecting to catch a bus somewhere between the BART station and the top of the hill. But there was no such luck, and we got our day's exercise in. Whee. We met Josh at the top of the hill, and thanked our lucky stars we didn't drive. Never mind the wacky right-of-way-flaunting pedestrians, I would hate to have to park on that hill! It's the reason Lombard Street is so crooked.

Afterwards, as we walked back to the BART station, we tried to avoid being hit by fireworks launched in our general direction by drunk people. Correction: independent drunk people!