Smorgasborg

Scotland took over Boston.

Japan is experiencing rodeos.

Brazil is flooding the New York subway system.

Ranch is being devoured.

Religious experiences are being had in Chili’s.

Costco is blowing peoples minds.

The absolute magnitude of our country is being realized.

Air conditioners are godsends.

The real magic though? People are experiencing people and sharing their love for their community. Yes, our country has many problems, but I’ve always believed in the overall goodness in people, and I’m seeing it! In real time! People are sharing good food, directing them to beautiful places, and just over all being welcoming and kind!

Badass Ladies of the American Revolution

Susan Boudinot - 9 years old, was served tea at the mansion of the royal governor of New Jersey. She tossed the foul beverage out the window. [X]

Elizabeth Burgin - helped 200 POWs escape from their prison ships in the dead of winter [X]

Sybil Ludington - 16 years old, eldest daughter of Colonel Henry Luddington. When a messenger brought her father the news that Danbury Ct was burning and the British were advancing, Sybil rode over 40 miles through bad stormy weather and treacherous roads to wake the men in her father’s 7th Regement of Duchess County NY Militia. She started her ride sometime after 9pm and continued to dawn. She rode from Carmel to Mahopac to Kent Cliffs and on to Farmers Mills. Upon returning home she was welcomed by 400 of her fathers company. The men joined in the fight and eventually pushed the British back to the Long Island Sound. [X]

Deborah Champion, Sara Decker, Harriet Prudence Patterson Hall, and Lydia Darraugh - all managed to sneak important information past the British [X]

“Mad” Anne Bailey - Dressing as a man and using the name “Samuel Gay”, joined the Continental Army. Anne wore buckskins while carrying rifles and similar equipment for engaging in scout services, hunting, courier work and story telling. She was later found out, discharged, fined, and put in jail for two weeks. [X] [X]

F R E E D O M

I don't mean you can't get good at things through repeated practice. You can do that, I have done that, but I don't trust it.

I was driving this morning and thinking about how I have never developed the blasé contempt for it most people seem to despite never having caused an accident in 20 years because my sense of time is such that I might as well have been driving for a week. I'm a good, safe driver, but I do not have a heap of confidence in my driving despite having regularly done it for two decades because my sense of time is such that those two decades may as well not have happened.

I finished editing a novel today. When I publish it, it will be the 64th novel I have published in the last 10 years, not counting ghostwritten work. You'd think after a decade and 63 novels I'd be confident that I was capable of writing, editing, and publishing a novel—even be confident about the timeline for this—but no. No, I feel like I'm doing it for the first time, every time, and I was surprised to have finished the editing at all, let alone on time. Because those other 63 novels were published in a past I have a vague at best concept of. I have a record that says it happened but I do not feel it.

I cannot trust my future behaviour because for me there is functionally no past. I know it occurred, I have records, but I don't feel it the way people without this kind of memory issue do. I feel inexperienced at everything I've ever done and I cannot accurately estimate my skill level at anything, particularly not on the fly.

However the drunk guys are also drinking, and eventually she can't afford to buy another pitcher for the table so she can't keep up the ever-full beer glass trick. At this point she has to resort to setting up the pool trick shot that she's never seen anyone but her boyfriend pull off, and says she'll leave with whoever manages the shot first.

The Owners, Managers, and Honorable Employees of Bleak Hill Grocery would like to wish you and your family a Happy 4th of July!

July 4th, 1776 was the day we declared our intention to be free, whatever the cost.

This day is not about the freedom we possess, it’s about our resolution to obtain and defend our freedom even against insurmountable odds.

That’s the spirit of America: the little guy who won’t back down.