Fireworks tents have been set up all around the city for weeks, thoroughly arming every yokel with enough low-rent special effects to guarantee no one will sleep the next few nights. I realize that I grew up in a state where only sparklers were legal (it's since succumbed as well), and everyone had to bring in their bottle rockets and M80s from South Carolina, but there was only a little bit of pyrotechnics right on the 4th. Now the whistling and popping just goes on unabated for DAYS like the world's overrun with magnesium addicts huffing flare. I know, they're all celebrating our sweet, sweet, precious freedom. Freedoms. Support the troops, keep your neighbors awake. No one anywhere has to work tomorrow, right?