Comments on: America’s annual pretend war

By: Mel

Mel — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:40:52 +0000

Down here in Bloomington, there’s always been a fireworks store that pops up in an empty space in the strip with Borders, PetCo, Hallmark, and an assortment of restaurants and salons.

It always unnerved me that that amount of explosives were just yards away from my book-browsing self, and I always plotted escape routes, just in case it ever blew.

This year, there was an actual business in that spot, so the fireworks extravaganza was in a giant tent in the parking lot.

Everything’s on sale, now, so I have been treated to explosions (followed by drunken, “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”s) outside my apartment on a nightly basis.

Yee-haw.

By: Steven Andrew Miller

Steven Andrew Miller — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:55:31 +0000

Fireworks scare you? Ummm okay. I guess the Chinese have been having “pretend wars” for a long time, eh?

“Oh, look at me… too hip and cool for these rubes in Indiana!”

By: Indiana Dave

Indiana Dave — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:05:26 +0000

They have the concert EVERY year. I remember when it used to be called Sky Concert and you would hear the same songs every year. Its kind of a big deal in Naptown. Rock on.

By: ian

ian — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 19:52:40 +0000

hmm, i think the army and government are the last people who should be allowed to have explosives. i can’t say i support either or them blowing anything up.

By: John Dough

John Dough — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 02:45:41 +0000

So does that mean we celebrate New Years with a pretend war as well?

By: Jim from Indy

Jim from Indy — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 02:18:40 +0000

At least the Chinese fireworks that are sold in Indy are safer than the Chinese toys, toothpaste, and pet food that they try to export to us. I feel safer with drunk Hoosiers with bombs than the other American holiday tradition, Drunk Americans with cars. Atleast with the bomb, they usually maim or kill only themselves.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 02:27:37 +0000

Well Indiana has become one of my new favorite places. Rock on Hoosiers.

By: John Green

John Green — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 19:33:14 +0000

That’s the kind of thoughtful and clear-headed analysis that makes me proud to be an American, goinglikesixty.

-John Green
p.s. I know you are but what am I?

By: GoingLikeSixty

GoingLikeSixty — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:51:51 +0000

I was going to comment, but then I read the policy.

Speaking of moderators: We know the people who visit our site are generally a classy lot. That said, we do have moderators in place to keep the comments section free of SPAM, as well as offensive, derogatory or mean-spirited material. While we won’t edit your words, we’re trying not to approve anything that rubs us the wrong way. And if you feel like something is upsetting you on the blog, feel free to let us know. We want the land of mental_floss (.com) to be a happy one, where birds chirp, the trivia is plentiful, and bad jokes flow like water.

So never mind.

Well, worth a try…

John, you are a pussy.

By: Aemi

Aemi — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:39:10 +0000

Hm. Once a friend and I almost got hit by a firework. We were both backing away from where it was being lit, and it went off sooner than expected, and flew straight at us. Luckily, as we were both walking backwards, we simultaneously tripped and fell over a line of monkey grass and the ‘work went over us.