happy fourth of july from the fifth of july

hope everybody had a lovely holiday!!!

this independence day was a big one because my sister got engaged!!  i'm sure this will not be the last you hear about sarah's upcoming wedding since it will be in ann arbor.  i'm insanely excited to start taste testing curry for the menu... mahkni now please?? steve and i are so excited for sarah and dave, and we are all too stoked to get this big crazy intercultural showdown on the road.  woohoo!  (and how gorgeous is that ring / cliff he proposed at?  well done dave!)

my wardrobe is lacking in the extreme patriotism / clean laundry department so steve dressed festively enough for the both of us and we went for another float down the river to celebrate our raging freedom.  you might recall that i am distantly related to alexander hamilton and one of the original pilgrims so i'm about as american as they come, but since we owe the brits a great deal, i shall honor yesterday with a list of things i have learned about americans from watching british television.

1.  americans are extremely comfortable with guns.

it is almost humorous to watch how gingerly, carefully, and fearfully characters in british television handle firearms (unless of course they are villains).  i say almost humorous, but then i remember that there are more than forty times the number of gun related deaths in america than there are in britain and it feels like the joke might be on us.

2.  americans find cigarette smoking rather taboo.

which is great for cancer avoidance... not so great for that whole freedom thing we're always talking about.

3.  americans don't like normal looking people.

it is essential to be generically hot to be on american television.  your next best bet is to be a unique looking older man (we still really like steve buscemi).