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For Amber Waves of Grain

Arizona - America, in a nutshell

Every year on this date I try to find a photo that captures the essence of America in one click of the shutter (here are the ones from 2010, 2009, and 2008). As I think you’ll agree, this year’s installment — taken by Flickr user davelawrence8 — is a fine addition to the collection. My compliments to the chef.

I’ll be spending the day in my back yard, where I’ll be hosting a feast. On the grill: marinated London broil, marinated chicken thighs, lamb ribs, sausages, clams, corn. In the smoker: dry-rubbed beef ribs, jerk chicken thighs, marrowbones. Huzzah!

Usually I keep the site closed to comments on Independence Day, but it has come to my attention that a few unlucky souls are stuck at their computers today, plus we have some overseas readers, so I’ll leave the comments open this time around. For those of you fortunate enough to be celebrating the holiday with friends and family, break out your patriotic regalia and enjoy the day. And everyone please join me in my annual rallying cry (this year with musical accompaniment): In your face, Redcoats! ”” Paul

 
  
 
Comments (57)

    Happy July 4 everyone.

    …and for those who don’t share Paul’s taste in music, a couple other relatively patriotic songs:

    link
    link
    link

    /it’s funny, I actually have today off, but my wonderful city did their fireworks on Friday. :(

    Are you seriously gonna tell me you don’t like “We Don’t Need the English”? It’s super-catchy and it’s a minute long. Jeez….

    Well it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t something I’d listen to on my own either.

    /Besides, how often are music links actually sorta on topic here?

    I get it, that was just The being The.

    And I think we can all agree that if the Yankees insist on their special version of the seventh inning stretch, they should switch the song from “God Bless America” to “America, Fuck Yeah”.

    how often are music links actually sorta on topic here?

    Um, since you went out of your way to provide links because you didn’t like mine..?

    One of my favorite pre-game moments…

    A few years ago, the Gophers and Vols played one another in a bowl game. Lee Greenwood performed before kickoff, and could gesture from one side of the stadium to the other as he sang…

    “From the lakes of Minnesota,
    to the hills of Tennessee…”

    The crowd (both sides) went nuts.

    i say we let jeff secede.

    a’ight lukas, i didn’t spend quite what you did on your friends, but….short end/long end babby backs, fat ass beef short ribs, beef brisket, jerk chicken wings and thighs, bockwurst, knackwurst, kentucky spoon bread, watermelon, my ameriaa fuck yeah salad, and of course, bacon ice cream. and don’t forget the beer, copious amounts of booze in the form of a boulevard pilsner keg, zubrowka(i am allowing myself to indulge), and slivovitz.

    happy independence day, blow shit up so i can watch.

    There’s a reason Americans are known as Yanks by the rest of the world. Because with all our faults, we are the best.

    In your face Redcoats AND your similarly colored socks too. . ..

    Found this pic on the St. Pete Times with the Rays all-star jerseys with stars around the MLB neck collar logo. Since it’s the road grays it leads me to believe these are for Arizona, but will players wear these as well leading up to the game?

    link

    Happy 4th!

    happy indie day peeps

    wait…this aint twitter

    happy independence day fellow uni watchers

    I love those kind of signs–especially the ones with the arrow on the top, with the flashing lights. Are they known by any kind of specific name or term? Does anybody know of a collection of pictures of them on the web anywhere?

    No collection here, but I love ’em too! I was traveling through Louisiana about 10 years ago, and saw a sign that said “Ray’s lawnmower repair & Tax returns”. I wish I would have had a camera.

    My personal favorite growing up-

    Harper’s II Gentlemen’s Club and Exotic Car Wash

    Greensboro, NC

    My favorite multi-use building growing up was the operational Funeral Parlor that had the SnowBall Stand built into the front on the ground floor – on Elysian Fields Ave. in New Orleans. Until recently, the same building was the ACORN National HQ – until the outfit was exposed and dissolved ….

    Big thanks to Jefferson, Washington and all the boys in Philly. Also huge thanks to all the farmers,blacksmiths, carpenters and everyone else that picked up a musket and put literally everything they had on the line to secure our independance and the way of life we all enjoy. Thank you to all the men, women and even children who have fought and/or helped those that fought in the 235 years since to protect the freedoms we hold dear. Here’s to another 235 and more. (BTW America….you dont look a day over 215)

    …and thanks to the redneck crop duster who sacrificed himself to destroy that alien ship…. er, wait…wrong independence day…

    “Is that glass bulletproof?”

    Great, great line. Because you know what’s coming.

    we can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore…we will be united in our common interests

    perhaps it’s fate that today is the fourth of july, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom…not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution…but from annihilation

    we are fighting for our right to live…to exist…and should we win the day, the fourth of july will no longer be known as an american holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice “we will not go quietly into the night!”

    we will not vanish without a fight!…we’re going to live on…we’re going to survive…today we celebrate our independence day!

    I’d actually pay money for a Cubs ticket if they were giving those away at the game.

    HAHA, you dumb brits. you let us win? we even had a rat in the house and you still couldnt win. ireland forever.

    The Trenton Thunder get into the spirit with these link.

    The loud flag motif is almost enough to distract your yes from the massively oversized gap between the collar and the jersey number.

    Almost.

    Those are really horrible for any normal team to use, but I’d love to see it as a summer olympics uniform.

    Those are really horrible for any normal team to use, but I’d love to see it including a summer special olympics uniform.

    (fixed)

    Have a great 4th, everyone.

    Can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I’d sure like to be at rpm’s (aka moose) BBQ today.

    This isn’t really germain to this website, but I don’t know where else to mention it. I’m stuck at work today. It’s quiet, and I’m watching garbage on Hulu to keep me company. So I’ve noticed that the logo for The Marriage Ref — light blue background, “Marriage” in gold, “Ref” in silver, “The” in a swirly cursive script — bears an uncanny resemblance to the cover of “Gold and Plantimun”, the Lynyrd Skynyrd greatest hits album.

    Happy Birthday America!

    I think I’m going to start a grassroots effort to have MLB switch from the S&S caps on the weekend of the 4th, to the patriotic stirrups Paul linked to…which I can only assume belong to Phil.

    The sound we would hear would be 700+ MLBers saying,
    “Wait a minute, stirrups are part of the uniform? Since when? Doesn’t say anything about them on the chart in the clubhouse.”

    There’s a question for Paul to investigate:
    Why is it called “the clubhouse” in baseball, when just about everywhere else it’s a “locker room”? Even in golf, there’s a locker room IN the clubhouse.

    I’m guessing it springs from the long-ago concept of a “baseball club”.

    “the patriotic stirrups Paul linked to…which I can only assume belong to Phil.”

    ~~~

    while i do have a pair, those are paul’s…at least i’m pretty sure they are

    eeeeveryone had a chance to get them. amerks from 1 or 2 years ago? and white this year’s did not come in on time, they will be nice in the rotation too.

    Yep. Everyone had the chance.

    link. And here’s a link of me wearing them.

    And I’m shocked that this year’s batch didn’t get to us in time.

    “I’m shocked that this year’s batch didn’t get to us in time”

    ~~~

    yeah…tck never fucks shit up

    Happy Birthday, USA!

    And much to my wife’s eye-rolling, I even have on the correct stirrups: link

    I’d just like to ask a question to my neighbours to the south. When I was at the Blue Jays game on Canada Day, the Jays wore their Canada caps, but the Phillies wore their regular game caps. Today, in Boston, the Red Sox are wearing their stars and stripes hats (of course), but the Jays are wearing their Canada caps again. Not that it’s a big deal, but shouldn’t we be given the same love on our national holiday?

    Just noticed that my post was one long paragraph. Forgive me, I’m off work for the summer.

    Agreed. Let Toronto celebrate Canada Day and let the other teams celebrate July 4th — I did a doubletake when I saw the stars & stripes hats on the Blue Jays today.

    That red and white cap with the black jersey is one of the worst uniform combos I’ve ever seen.

    It appears that the All Star game jerseys will also have the snakeskin pattern on the numbers as well. [url=National League Jersey]http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11679191&cp=1452620.1736004[/url]
    Can’t find a good up close picture though…

    live in the devil’s jocks strap, er, kansas city? well, everyone here is family, even jeff, so if you don’t have anything to do, and live near gillham park, feel free to stop by, 4141 holmes, i will have plenty of food, but you better bring booze or beer. /end run on, signing off.

    Tribe wearing their alt tops tonight. They just showed a clip of Lonnie Chisenhall dressed in the wrong jersey before the game, it was a white version of the alts. I did not know they had two versions, white and cream, of the alts. Anyone know anything about the different alts here?

    Thanks for the music link, Paul, never heard that one before.

    Vinyl mixed down to 240p makes for an interesting sound quality, reminds me almost of how my punk cassettes sounded after I’d listened to them for the 300th time.

    Pirates a game and a half out!!!

    And McCutcheon ain’t gonna be in Phoenix?

    Said it before. I have no special soft spot for them, but it will be good for MLB if the Pirates become relevant again. Long-time franchises shouldn’t stay in the stinkhole for too long. Just not good for the game.

    (Totally unrelated: Damn, I hate this Holiday Hat shit. They all suck, but this year’s version especially; from the front they all look almost alike.)

    What a way to honor America on July 4th – the new LA Galaxy navy and gold alternate kits not only have a navy and gold MLS logo to match, but the US flag on the left shoulder is also rendered in only navy and gold…

    Unbelievable!

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