The fire danger has gotten so acute all over California that one might as well go to the local indoor shooting range -- Shooters' Paradise, in Oxnard's case -- and make bang bang there. With blackpowder arms if you have any. They rent you guns there if you want, but they're all cartridge, I think.
Bit late, but happy 4th to all you Merkins :)
Merkin: (2) A mop for cleaning a cannon. Probably named by horny young artillerists...
Intelligent or well-read Americans must keep in mind that America simply could not have become what she is without Mother England -- and a parturition that was admittedly not without its pain: two wars, bracketing the turn of the nineteenth century. For that reason, I can sing "Land of hope and glory,
mother of the free..." and mean every syllable. Only later do we get into such republican sentiments, as contrasted with the monarchical, as our rewording of "God Save the King" [as it was then] into "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."