This column taught me the word SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL (understandably misspelled in the first paragraph - it is a big word).

I grew up in the DC area and was age 12 on 7/4/76. I recall the fireworks on the mall that year as the worst ever. It deigned to teach U.S. history. There was narration. Portraits in the sky of, I don't know, Paul Revere on a horse, the Niña-Pinta-Santa María. Light and noise were sacrificed.

I had a letter to the editor about the Eagleton matter published in Mad Magazine.

Thank you for bringing back memories.