site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   796 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 3, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What is the most fun you've had with fireworks?

My fondest memory of a fireworks show was in Maryland, it was just local people along a river inlet. They went a bit crazy trying to out do each other. We were basically right under the fireworks along the river bank, while they were launched from a barge about 50 feet out in the water. The explosions were close enough to smell and feel.

Nothing compares to the fun and joy of being a kid let loose with small explosives. We'd blow up various toys, make battlefields in our sandbox where we blew up the sand (the smoking craters were a cool effect). Smokebombs were always super fun, especially when the smoke was partially unleashed into hollow dark areas (like rotten logs, or snake holes). We unleashed so many bottle rocks.

Best fireworks show was when I was down in florida for 4th of july. We had been at disney world to see the fireworks, but the rain kept delaying the start. We eventually gave up and were driving home. But the rain cleared while we were on the highways, and we pulled over as there was a clear view for miles around us as the various parks in the area all unleashed their fireworks at the same time.

Favorite fireworks video was a flyover of LA on july 4th 2020. Felt like the whole city had pent up energy from covid and just decided to unleash it all. Maybe it looks like that normally, I wouldn't know. But it felt great seeing that at the time.

Definitely making bootleg fireworks as a teen, it was an experience just on the border of delinquency in that way that perfectly suits a certain stage of growing up, and one that isn't really replicable once the, figurative or not, frontal lobe is fully developed.

There were these whistling fireworks with a few different names, and the truly delinquent kid across the street who later became a cop clued me into a practice wherein you hammered the whistling side down and this would create enough back pressure that the whole thing would detonate. Pretty soon this turned into hammering out the powder from dozens of these and sealing them in various containers. Later there were garnishments of other firework components to create after effects, or staged fireworks where they'd smoke up and then explode.

But one year in high school my friends and I laid in a field across from the area of the football stadium where the annual display was staged. I hadn't realized until then that aerial fireworks were spheres, and laying directly underneath them was like being in an altered state of consciousness.

Nice! I remember deconstructing black cat fireworks and pouring them all into a Playmobil TNT container. We were hoping for a big explosion, but instead it just burned steadily.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats