When I was visiting England over the Fourth of July many, many years ago, a British radio announcer interviewed visiting Americans to ask what the Fourth of July celebrated. I missed the interview, but the host at the bed and breakfast I was staying in at Drumnadrochit by Loch Ness asked me the next morning. I’m embarrassed to say it took me about thirty seconds to say … “the signing of the Declaration of Independence“. As it turns out, I did far better than the average tourist.
Well, uh, umpteen years later, things aren’t any better … even in our homeland. From Jay Leno’s 4th of July episode of Jaywalking:
As a friend said, scary stuff.
I was sitting on my porch while my wife was rooting succulents and when she heard the video play she said “uh uh!” and ran over to watch. I think we got all of the questions except the Minutemen, and our “guess” (that they were an elite group of colonial soldiers who were our first line of defense against the British, essentially Revolutionary War special forces) was apparently spot on.
Afterwards, all we had to say was: “Go Grandpa!”
-the Centaur
