“Leave it to the trained professionals” is one of the cancerous mantras of our age, and there’s a big difference between setting off your own fireworks and sitting passively while others do it for you — the difference, if I may say so, between having sex and watching porn.
Great quote.
ReplyDelete"Trained Proffessional." Talk about a joke. How on earth do those two words somehow mean than someone knows what they are doing? Being a trained professional does not mean you can do something and that you get paid for it. It hardly means you can do it well, or with any skill. A WalMart shopping cart gatherer is a trained professional, afterall.
I don't mind lighting the stuff, though I prefer being able to be far enough away to be able to see it. What galls me is PAYING for it. Just to set it on fire. If I'm gonna do that, I'll buy bullets.
ReplyDeleteAll my life, I've wanted to be an untrained professional.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
George
We always gather in our driveway at dark with watermelon and our whimpy Kalifornia legal fireworks (and a few not quite so legal things from other states). Then we try to burn down the cul-de-sac. This year was by far the most fun we have ever had. My daughter had 3 teenage friends over and none of these girls had ever been allowed to light off their own fireworks. Watching them as they learned to light and throw and trying not to spray each other with showers of sparks was more fun that watching the fireworks.
ReplyDeleteAs their parents picked them up this morning all they could talk about was how much fun the fireworks were.
Next I'm working on their Dad's to let me take them out to the range and teach them how to shoot.
I confess to beiong torn on this particlular issue. I enjoy fireworks as much as anyone, I'm all about persnoal responsibility, and I hate the paternalistic nanny state (I know, but somehow "maternalistic nanny state" just doesn't sound right!)
ReplyDeleteBut I'm tired of spending Independnece Day wondering if this is going to be the year those brain dead yahoos up the street burn down the neighborhood...
(Not to mention sweeping and raking up bottle rocket, roman candle, and Ghu knows what else from my yard the next morning.)
(Oh, and last night I enjoyed the following
1: 21st Amendment Brewing Come Hell Or High Watermelon Wheat, and 2: Wyder Peach Cider.
The 21st Amendment was th efirst time I have had a microbrew in a can, and also the first time I have had a beer that said "Agitate before opening."
Heh, was commenting to friend last night that lighting fireworks was the next best thing to sex and even though I'm an untrained professional I do try harder, she agreed and we both had a great time.
ReplyDeleteGmac
Spent the day running a range for my 3 grandkids, 13, 11, and 4 and a cousin's kid of 14. Ya mean by being tired and crotchety, I stopped my Daughter from taking the kids to watch porn and let them continue to have sex when it was too dark to run the range?
ReplyDeleteDamn!
That Hussy! I knew there was a reason I didn't want her to move down to Stewart County TN!
WV: melin What we ate too much of yesterday
Trained professionals sometimes get it wrong, too.
ReplyDeleteWV: dettente -- our forteign polticy with the Sotviet Untion in the Setventies.
In fairness, though, the professionals do generally make it look much better.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I spent my Fourth yelling at the idiots in the next building to quit shooting Roman candles over the pond, it's 1:30 in the morning, go to bed!
ReplyDeleteYou do not want to be the person who wakes me up when I was almost asleep ...
I keep hoping the neighbors out back will accidentally set off everything at once, thereby obliterating themselves.
ReplyDeleteI hate neighbors.
I usually like to wait for the local kids to pop off their bottle rockets and then I respond with the arial bombs. Or the 12ga bird-scare bombs.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to decide if I would be considered "a professional". It's not as if my activities are a significant source of income but I do have somewhat of a reputation, in certain circles, for my work.
ReplyDeleteIs it considered the work of a "professional" if you only make videos and pictures occasionally and for the consumption of yourselves and a few close friends?
Then there is Boomershoot.