With Your Coffee

Mother Nature’s version of fireworks after days without sunshine. Just in time for a beautiful weekend.

Happy 4th of July, America! Do you have a long weekend of summertime fun planned? Fireworks? Parades? Camping? Barbecues? Wearing red, white, and blue? I’ll be enjoying the beautiful weather (knock on wood) of Vermont, racing a 5K, watching a parade, and spending as much time outside as  possible. There will most definitely be lots of ice cream consumed. And you?

For the long weekend, here’s a long list with some history, pop-culture, opinions, and urban design. Have a great weekend. Be safe, and have fun!

• It’s a perfect weekend to appreciate the amazing work of the Rails to Trails program.

• This makes me want to take a road trip.

• The same old story about the expense of bringing things up to code. Poor little “Up” house. 

• I hear there’s a new HGTV show. Have you watched it? Given the popularity of previous HGTV rants, I guess I’ll have to watch this new one.

• Adding natural light to underground city parks.

• The sad story of child labor in photographs. Thank goodness we’ve come a long way in this country. Now it’s time to take on the rest of the world.

• Thankfully, Billy Joel was wrong. Sometimes, the good live a long time. 

• A block of Broadway buildings were denied NYC Landmarks Protection. Yikes. 

• Did you go to summer camp? I never did, so I’m not the best audience here. But I would tend to agree with the author that iphones ruined summer camps. You? 

Side note: if I were president, I’d come up with a way to give us all long summer vacations, or winter. Take your pick. Ah well, until, then at least we’re lucky to live in the United States and be Americans. Cheers!