Days Off

It seems no one wants to go to the Flea Market on Independence Day. Maybe the holiday makes us crave something NEW, as our forefathers yearned for a sparkling, untested form of government in which they could drive around and pick up those hot colonial chicks. We don't want someone else's old picked-over system of self-rule! We want our democracy with an an extended guarantee, lit with brief sodium explosions and sternum-bashing fusillades of canon fire, not dusty, chipped in the corners, and half-price with no returns.

So at the Flea Market today, the tables are empty, the castoff free marketeers away enjoying some well-earned air conditioning. Pickings are slim.

And then we see it.