Happy Fourth of July--A few Days Early!

"Susan Says..." will taking a few days off in observance of the upcoming holiday.

The Fourth of July has always been a big deal in my family. First, as the daughter in a family where my peeps appreciated exactly what the United States stood for and were very grateful to be safe in its sheltering arms.

Though the immigrant experience may have faded a wee bit with the decades, I live with a man who reads the Declaration of Independence aloud every year to whomever happens to be within earshot.

He then posts, with a flourish, a true-to-size copy of it --purchased at the Smithsonian and made to look all crinkly and yellowed like the original -- on the wall. 

Seth takes it pretty darn seriously.

The original. Or is it?

When the boys were young, he would try to appear stately, bellowing and gesticulating his way through the famous document.

Things haven't changed much and we are pretty sure our neighbors have come to wonder who the escapee from the loony bin is at our house and why is he reading the Declaration of Independence just like Foghorn Leghorn....

However you celebrate, we wish you a wonderful weekend.

Let's remind ourselves that no matter what Anthony Weiner has done or that Michele Bachmann --the latest candidate to throw her eyebrow pencil into the ring -- attributes the fight to abolish slavery to the founding fathers as well as confusing serial killer John Wayne Gacy with the actor, or that the pants Seth is wearing were made in Bangladesh, we are still lucky to live in this great nation.

So, be careful when handling those firecrackers, keep in my mind that mayonnaise spoils quickly on a hot day and read the Declaration of Independence (in a crazy voice) to your family this Monday--Happy Fourth of July to all my readers. 

See you back here ( random miscellany may appear in the interim) on Tuesday!

I apologize to my constituents, but mostly to my wife, Houma, for leaving the potato salad out in the sun.