TODAY'S NEWS: Happy Independence Day! Today is the US holiday most frequently associated with barbecues and fireworks. And drinking.

It's great to celebrate in it here in Oregon, as we're just coming off eight months of rain and everything's still damp. Back in Arizona, they don't have moving indicators on those "Today's Fire Danger" signs; they just paint an arrow pointing at "Extreme." So the legal "fireworks" there were less interesting than matches. Seriously. For example, the pyrotechnic devices about the size of a ping-pong ball with a fuse sticking out (which looked like it should be great); but it merely emitted a dribble of colored smoke. Whee. So accidental fires never happened, because nobody ever went to Mexico and brought illegal fireworks back across the border, except for the 8.7 million people who did. So, actually, things burned up all the time.

Seriously, people, have fun but be careful! Especially in Arizona.