Today is Pioneer Day, a Utah state holiday commemorating the arrival of the first Mormon settlers here in the Salt Lake Valley. If you’re from around here, you know what it’s all about, but for my out-of-state readers I should explain that this day is basically an end-of-the-month do-over of the Fourth of July: we have a big parade in the morning, then picnics in the park, carnivals, day-long activities for the kids, and finally, fireworks at night. (There are some who grumble, in fact, that Utahns make a bigger deal of our local founder’s day than our nation’s Independence Day and that this indicates there’s some lingering whiff of treason in Mormon culture. Personally, I think folks just like fireworks and parades.) Anyway, most of the state’s population seems to have the day off… but not me. Nope, I work for The Man. Which means I’m sitting at my workstation, same as always, trying not to listen to the drums of the marching band a mere half-block away…<\/p>\n
You know, on these hot summer days when responsibilities keep me inside drudging away at my desk instead of out playing as I’d like to be, my mind tends to wander back to my carefree adolescent years, when all I really had to think about was the anticipation of getting my driver’s license and the beguiling, inscrutable mystery of girls<\/i>. Oh, and of nonsense like this:<\/p>\n