Screaming Piccolo Petes, juicy cold watermelons, friends and family gathering for barbecues, and patriotic displays of red, white and blue are all things we look forward to as our country celebrates its Independence Day. Having the freedoms we have in America should never be taken for granted. So as we celebrate this weekend, let us not forget just what we’re celebrating and why we need to celebrate.
#1 – A Free Love Story
Telling a love story using coordinating split screen images is a creative idea, but what I found even more creative about JW Griffiths’s short movie was that it was shot entirely with a mobile phone. To view Split Screen: A Love Story click here.
#2 – Be Free of Stinky Fingers
If you’re entertaining this holiday weekend and plan on dicing onions and mincing garlic, try these tips to remove their odors from your fingers:
-Immediately after handling onions or garlic wash your hands with regular soap and water and then rub your fingers on something made of stainless steel.
-Wash your fingers with a mixture of salt and vinegar (or lemon juice), but first make sure you don’t have any cuts or hangnails, because it will sting!
-Wash your hands with a paste of baking powder.
#3 – Be Free of 100 Calories
“Losing weight can be as simple as cutting out a meatball here and an egg roll there.” ~Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.
Ms. Somer provides a list of 100 Painless Ways to Cut 100 or More Calories, which involves practical substitutions. According to Ms. Somer, if 100 calories were eliminated each day for a month from our diets, each of us would lose a pound of fat in a month!
#4 – The Price of Freedom
Americans have gone to war to win their independence, expand their national boundaries, define their freedoms, and defend their interests around the globe. This exhibition examines how wars have shaped the nation’s history and transformed American society.
Those words preface the Smithsonian Museum’s exhibit The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. I can think of no better way to appreciate and to celebrate our country’s Independence Day, other than to fully understand the history of the domestic and international conflicts which engaged our country. Enter the exhibit, select a conflict from the timeline, watch and listen to the brief video, look at the photos of objects in the exhibit, and then say thank you to all the brave people who fought for freedom.
#5 – To Be Free
“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can be free only if I am free.”
Clarence Darrow
Have a safe and happy Independence Day!
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