Christmas crackers - OT (was "traditions elsewhere")

[Ebony]

No: HPFGUIDX 7127

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, wren lanier <wren at t...> wrote:
> 
> > not to continue the american-bashing here (since i am one, after
> > all), but can any of you other Americans imagine having party-
> > favors with GUNPOWDER in them?!?!?
> 
> Aren't there still cap-pistols, with a long strip of green paper 
with 
> dots that go bang? In my childhood, the dots that go bang were made 
> of gunpowder.
> 


Oh, we Americans have *plenty* of items with gunpowder in them.  We 
just engage in exploding things at the opposite time of the year!  :)

Everyone I know indulges in fantastic (not to mention illegal in 
Michigan) fireworks and firecrackers during the Fourth of July 
(Independence Day), not to mention plenty of shooting into the air.  
(Chicagoans and Detroiters also shoot up on New Year's Eve, but 
that's another story.)  

Ah, late June to early July.  Now, *that's* a holiday here in 
Southeastern Michigan... we celebrate both Canada Day and the Fourth 
with something called the International Freedom Festival, which is 
nearly two weeks of fairs and fun on both sides of the border.  
Largest display of fireworks on the North American continent.  Loads 
and loads of fun.

Wren, as long as we have groups like the NRA (my father was a card-
carrying member, unfortunately), there will be plenty of gunpowder 
around.  My radical leftist friend like to say that America was 
founded on a Bible and a gun.  I tend to think there's something more 
to be said about us that *that*.

OK, *enough* with the OT posts!  Just had to respond to this one...

--Ebony