Grooveless Plorn

Instead of a cutesie reference to film censorship it was an explicit statement of defiance of Maryland's criminalization gay sex, which was not repealed until 2002. This wasn't a guy saying "Oh they can't put what I do in the movies according to a completely voluntary industry code" he was saying "The State of Maryland wants to put me in jail for being gay and having gay sex."

The RIGHT way to do this would have been to have a month-long event that went to twelve different cities, with Philadelphia hosting during July because that was our capital (insofar as we had one) in 1776; the other eleven stops could have their own significant-in-the-Revolution days (for example: Washington crossing the Delaware on 25 December, the start of the First Continental Congress on 5 September), and you could get commemorative items from your stop's specific event.

All fifty states AND FIVE TERRITORIES should have been invited to attend, not charged for it. And we should have done it Colombian Expo style: respected thinkers and educators speaking, concerts, "come look at our wild new inventions," and cultural events. If I was in the Oval Office my first thought for this would be to contact ethnic leaders to see who wanted to tell their story. Tribal leaders. Civil rights leaders. Local arts groups. Let us celebrate your food, your art, your dance, your place among our people; and let us also recognize that the flip side of the coin of amazing inventors and economic prosperity on a global scale has been devastation and exploitation. You can't tell the story without both. It's not fair to leave out things we've done for good (Mark Twain! Jonas Salk! Airplanes! Comic books! Musicals!), but it's equally unfair to leave out the lives we've taken and futures we've destroyed. We can't do better if we don't look at these things and say "no. Not again. Not on our watch."

The state fair format is extremely American; I think that was a good choice, I'll give credit for that where it's due. But "that was a good idea" is as far as it goes. Because this doesn't look like a state fair. It looks like a church revival on the third day when all the tents are out of food and everyone is hot and tired and wants less Jesus and more air conditioning.

In 1976, the Bicentennial was everywhere. There was merch. You could decorate your home with it. In the city where I lived, the Girl Scouts were asked by the city to go around painting all the fire hydrants red, white, and blue. American history was the hot topic in publishing and people were buying history books and even talking about them. One of the TV stations used commercial breaks to air "Bicentennial Minutes," 60-second spots in which actors from current shows (I specifically remember Loretta Swit from MASH and Nancy Walker from Rhoda) told us little snippets of social history, like the state of garbage collection in the Colonies, with appropriate visuals like political cartoons and paintings from the time period. High school proms had Bicentennial themes. You never saw so many people put flags out. Every town worked hard on their firework displays and some had more than one.

Yeah, we all knew it was overblown and a bit tacky but also people were into it. The energy rose for months to the climax and lingered into the next school year -- I remember all my pocket folders for that year were glossy prints of classic patriotic paintings, The Spirit of '76 and The Declaration of Independence and so on.

For the 250th, nobody cares. Because it doesn't feel like we're living in the United States of America, where freedom was for everyone and our freedoms were expanding every day and history was a vital living force.

You can't celebrate history without teaching it.

People were protesting stuff during the bicentennial too! DC had a Potomac Tea Party to protest only having a non-voting representative on Congress. The American Indian movement held multiple large protests! People mocked the commercialization by calling it the "Buy-cenetennial"! But the main planned events still occurred so that's what people mostly remember!

My guess is this year people are mostly going to remember the states' various celebrations because the federal one has been SO screwed by grifting and mismanagement. They have somehow made it so there is almost NO ONE on the national mall during PEAK TOURIST SEASON. You have to use specified entry points, there's armed national guards everywhere, and the electricity powering things like the ferris wheel and food booths has broken down multiple times already.

One person says that Steinbeck is one of their favourite authors for prose, and then they share an example of what they would consider purple prose. It is so violetly awful that I think the poster must have written it themselves as a kind of parody of purple prose. Other people assumed the same.

But as it turns out, they are quoting from a book written by a YouTuber whose channel ia dedicated to talking about writing (namely, their own writing, which is genius, but often not comprehensible to the drooling plebs).

Naturally, I read the free sample of their book in awe and horror, and I'd like to share some screenshots with you. If you also have trouble defining or understanding what purple prose is, it's this.

'Noctilucent orbs'. Even fanfic written by a 14-year-old wouldn't dare.