‘tis of thee . . .

Saturday, July 4, 2026. It's the Satyr's day . . . Another hot, humid Summer day is in the Green Country forecasts. Moderate Southerlies, mid 90's. A heat warning in effect for an index of 107º this afternoon. Rinse and repeat: there is rain in the overnight forecasts. 50/50 chance says the weatherfeather, so, either it will or it won't.

On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress announcing to the world the separation of the 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. The Brits didn't take the news all that well, leading to the War of Independence and finally the establishment of The United States of America.

Two major figures of the American Revolution who became U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on this day in 1826—50 years to the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

Waving the flag and shooting fireworks is not what July 4th means. – Robert Reich, The Real Meaning of July 4th. 7.4.26

Words to live by in 2026. – Heather Cox Richardson, in Letters From An American. 7.4.26

It's our country. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse, 7.4.26

Today in 2012, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) announced that they had detected an interesting signal that was likely from a Higgs boson.

On this day in 1855 Walt Whitman first published Leaves of Grass, a landmark in the history of American literature.

The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804, Salem, Massachusetts.

And today in 1845 essayist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau moved to his retreat at Walden Pond.

So, what do you think?

Friday, July 3, 2026. It's Freya's day . . . Moderate Southerlies bring another hot, humid day to Green Country today. Real temperatures are forecasted to be a bit lower than yesterday, while the afternoon index is to be again in the low 100's. A break is forecast for Sunday with a 50/50 chance for rain.

The fear of age loosens its hold the moment you stop trying to outrun it and embrace the work you were put here to do.

The Civil War battle of Gettysburg ended on this day in 1863. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, but marked the turning point for the Union.

America at 250. – Nathan Gardels and Nicolas Berggruen, Noēma, 7.2.26

There’s no invisible hand guiding our democracy into the future. There are only fallible people. When an order is unlawful, do you keep faith with the Constitution, or with the man? In our 250-year history, most Americans were never confronted with this question. Until now. The week of its 250th, what's the real state of American democracy? – Miles Taylor, A Warning in Marble, Defiance, 7.2.26

Former CIA Director John Brennan is taking on Trump's DOJ. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.

Today is the birthdate of playwright Tom Stoppard, born in 1937 Zlín, Czechoslovakia. He is the Academy Award laureate for Shakespeare in Love. My fave: Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Another Czechoslovakian writer, Franz Kafka was born on this day in 1883 Prague.

Tom Cruise is 64 today. One of cinema’s most consistently bankable and artistically versatile stars, he was born in 1962 Syracuse, New York.

And, the originator of general semantics, scientist/philosopher Alfred Korzybski was born in 1879, Warsaw, Poland. He was a pioneer in the study and refinement of ways of using and reacting to language.

It’s impossible to not care what people think. If you truly didn’t care what anyone thought or felt… you’d be a psychopath. Caring is the engine behind empathy, compassion, friendship—every meaningful relationship we have. Don’t waste your energy trying to win over petty, selfish people. Instead, find better people. And if you really want to stop giving a—, find something more important than approval. Ask yourself: What’s worth being ridiculed for in your life? Because your answer to that question matters more than anyone’s opinion ever will. – Mark Manson, Breakthrough, 7.2.26

The without within . . .

Thursday, July 2, 2026. It's Thor's day . . . forecasts for Green Country appear to have been Xeroxed from yesterday: another hot and humid day for TulseyTown. Moderate Southerlies, sun and clouds, and a heat index in the 100's mid afternoon.

Every day you play with the light of the universe. – Pablo Neruda.

What should have been a simple unanimous, open and shut decision was dangerously close. Supremes: Summary. – Joyce Vance, in Civil Discourse.

Thurgood Marshall civil rights activist, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court was born in 1908, Baltimore, Maryland.

Today in 1937 the airplane piloted by American aviator Amelia Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean during her attempt to fly around the world.

Nobel Prize laureate in literature, poet Wisława Szymborska was born on this day in 1923 Prowent, Poland 1966.

And, today is the birthdate of Herman Hesse. The Nobel Laureate author of Siddhartha – the life of Buddha – was born in 1877 Cawl, Germany.

“The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.” – Herman Hesse, Siddhartha. First published in 1922. As of its hundredth anniversary in 2022, it had sold more than four million copies in the United States alone.

The great paradox of personhood is that the sum is simpler than its parts. We move through the world as a totality, fragmentary but indivisible, clothed in a costume of personality beneath which roil parts perpetually … yearning for harmony. – Maria Popova, “Living in Unison,” The Marginalian,

There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters. – D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse, this edition: Penguin Books. 1996,