We are having a heat wave in this part of the world just now. Yesterday our high temperature was 95°F (35°C) but it felt worse than that. Our heat index (which has something to do with humidity, and we are nothing if not very humid) was between 100° and 105°F (37° to 40°C). These conditions are expected to last at least another week. We may all be fried before it is over.
As a Christian evangelist might say, "And it's going to get a lot hotter if you don't start living right."
In case you don't get the connection, the Christian evangelist would be referring to the fires of Hell.
When I was a kid growing up in Texas, we had such a long hot dry spell that the Baptists were sprinkling and the Methodists were using a damp cloth. One time I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking.
I'm kidding. Yuk it up, folks, these are the jokes.
Yesterday was Flag Day in the United States and I had intended to publish all four verses of our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, instead of the more traditional story of General George Washington asking Betsy Ross in 1777 to make the first American flag in Philadelphia. Operating under the theory that it is better late than never, I will do it now.
Here is the complete version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" showing spelling and punctuation from Francis Scott Key's 1814 manuscript in the Maryland Historical Society collection.
O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
There. I did it and I'm glad. Another unbelievably esoteric post straight from my brain to you. And I never once mentioned (until now) the War Of 1812.
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