Fourth of July

Well, I went off this blog to go see if The Battle Hymn of the Republic has anything under the sun to do with patriotism, and I was certain I'd saved what I had written. Alas (or not), it was lost. Here's what you don't get to hear about:

• the noise level of my neighborhood at ten at night on the Fourth
• a profoundly hideous vocal concert in a southern city (I'm omitting the name of the "musical" body and its host city to protect the guilty)
• an excerpt from a bit of writing about my mother and her favorite holiday: the Fourth of July

What you do get on this national holiday, then, is this:

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