Fireworks, postponements, and that time last year when he got it right.

Photo credit: Portland (Maine) Press Herald

Owing to heavy rain, New Albany's corporate fireworks were postponed from July 3 to August 6. For excuses to view fireworks on August 6, consult this list. Perhaps the mayor and I can agree that Cara Lott's birthday is the most solid reason of all to blow things up on this later date.

At least two local news outlets reported that today's fireworks were cancelled and postponed. Plainly, this is bad usage. What is it about the meaning of the word "postpone" that throws them?

To cause or arrange for (something) to take place at a time later than that first scheduled.

As I write, the neighborhood amateurs are busy making noise, and there is some consolation in the fact that being waterlogged reduces the likelihood of something catching fire.

In turn, it reminds me that last year about this time, Chris Morris finally encountered a topic he could wrestle successfully to the ground -- and he did.

Amateur fireworks shook his house, scared his dog, and roused his elder bile. Turns out that Tip O'Neill was right, and all politics is local, after all. Morris got it right.

But the irony still resonates.

Let me make precisely the same arguments with regard to the heavy trucks on Spring Street shaking my house, and one-way arterial traffic depressing revitalization in my neighborhood, and the interests of small business being maligned by City Hall's streets timidity, and Morris immediately and instinctively sides with the oppressors.

"What's Padgett supposed to do, Rog -- move?"

That's certainly one option, as is undertaking to fight the fireworks lobby and impose a few basic rules out of considerations of public safety, these being the very same considerations of public safety arguing quite persuasively for a two-way, calmed street grid.

As I said, he got this one right. Now he merely needs to work on his consistency, and we may yet gain a street reform advocate.

MORRIS: It’s time to ban the big boom, by Chris Morris (Clark County Thymes)

... I think some fireworks should remain on the market. I think the big stuff that explodes in the air, over my house, or rattles windows and threatens mankind should be left to the professionals.

The fireworks law in this state needs clarification. Basically, some items need to be banned. I am as patriotic as the next guy, but I don’t have to light explosives near my neighbor’s front door in order to prove that. I know fireworks are big business and generate needed tax revenue for the state, but there has to be a law that is fair to everyone.