America took it in the teeth this past couple of weeks. The women of this country lost fundamental human and constitutional rights in large swaths of the country. We learned the former president really did try to lead a coup d'état (see self-coup for this particular varietal). Plus, the new normal of inflation, mass shootings and Monkey Pox make for an Independence Day weekend that could be better.

Just think, it’s five O’clock and there you are on a square-rigged Eighteenth-Century ship somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean trying to avoid the doldrums and not get scurvy when your shipmate who has been drinking gin all day starts yelling about how he thinks he is getting ripped off by the pusser. He says the Royal Navy is watering down his booze and to prove it he is going to pour some of his gin onto a pile of gunpowder and light it on fire right there on the quarterdeck. He says if the gunpowder doesn’t light, that’s proof they are watering it down. You are thinking, if he does light it, you, Mister Drunkensmyth and the whole ship are going down to Davy Jones locker. Some workplaces are just not safe.