The typical things are going to happen today. Joey Chestnut is going to be introduced to the gathering of some 5,000 near Nathan's in Brooklyn's Coney Island by George Shea, a straw hat wearing huckster introducing him in chautauqua tent fashion and devour 70+ hot dogs in Nathan's Hot dog eating contest. He'll win, because no one ever comes close.
If Einstein did indeed leave his brain to science, then Joey should leave his esophagus and intestines, large and small, to science as well. He's a human being who's been crafted with a difference.
Will Nathan's morph into a frog leg eating contest? I saw something to the effect that they are now going to offer fried frog legs. Outside of France, will someone be eating those?
A local real estate agency has deposited flags on everyone's lawn here with a small placard attached. They've been doing this for years, but I think last year was an exception. Covid created a lot of exceptions.
And the NYT has once again printed a facsimile of the Declaration on the back page of one of its sections today. Takes up the whole page. They've lately been easing the ability to read it by also transcribing the text. That 18th-century quill pen cursive can be challenging.
And once again I'll think of the family that I read that takes time out on July 4th to pass the document around and have family members read portions of it out loud. My guess is they're still doing it.
And through the magic of Twitter I'm reminded that I wrote a posting about this family tradition when I read about it in the obituary of Whitey North Seymour Jr. a formed U.S. Attorney for New York's Southern District in the '70s who passed away at 95 in 2019.
It seems someone (@jakeanbinder) Tweeted something about a Whitney North Seymour Jr. CV on 7/26/2020 that was Retweeted by @fremebarima on July 2, 2021 with a link to my posting of July 2, 2019. That first Tweet referred to the CV boasting his heritage, including that of his father who served as Herbert Hoover's assistant solicitor general, and his wife, who is a descendent of Roger Williams, a founder of a state, albeit a small one, Rhode Island. Come over on the Mayflower, sign the Declaration or be responsible for putting another star in the flag, and you're American royalty.
With 1,568 postings since 2009, I pretty much forgot about the Whitney North Seymour Jr. posting and obituary that finally put a family name on my long-ago reading of their July 4th tradition.
In the obit The Times recalled the family tradition:
"In a profile of Mr. Seymour during the Deaver case,[alleged lobbying violations] The Times noted that for years he had gathered his extended family on Cape Cod every Independence Day to take turns reading passages of the Declaration of Independence aloud and discussing the document's meaning and significance.
"'If this seems an unusual and poignant way for an American family to mark July 4, it is nonetheless thoroughly in keeping with the character of Whitney North Seymour Jr. If Mr. Seymour—mike to his friends— comes across as pious and stuffy to some, he strikes many others as a man rightly living life, utterly honest, committed to the public good, interested, engaged.'"
Since Mr. North and his wife had two daughters, and I suspect they had husbands, and likely children, that the family tradition is continuing somewhere today.
Sounds like a good one.
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