Hello my dears!

A happy Independence Day to my fellow Yanks. Stay safe, enjoy your various grilled substances and colorful explosives, and contemplate the hilariously radical enterprise our forebears undertook in the ancient year of 1776 (just eight years after this story is set)!

If you haven’t seen the film version of the musical 1776, allow me to recommend it (probably for…oh, the 8th time). It is simultaneously (a) unironically wonderful and (b) 1970’s fabulous, and has had a perhaps inadvisable level of influence on this story; both on some narrative points, and on its handy depiction of tricorner hats viewed at a generous variety of angles.

And, even if you aren’t American…well, it’s worth it for Virginia Vestoff and Howard Da Silva’s performances alone. Trust me!