Happy (almost) Friday! If you're new to Now I Know, you'll notice that today's format differs from the rest of the week. On Fridays (and I guess, almost-holiday Thursdays?), I pause to write the "Weekender," my "week in review" type of thing, or to share something else I think you may find interesting. Thanks for reading! — Dan
Happy (Almost) Fourth of July!
Hi!
I’m taking tomorrow off for the 4th of July, so today’s Weekender is hitting your inbox a day early. And I don’t have anything specific to share about the week that was, so instead, here are some neat things I discovered about America’s greatest Fourth of July tradition: fireworks.
The Science of Fireworks, courtesy of the Ontario Science Centre. (I realize the irony of choosing a non-US source for this story.) Wonder how fireworks work? This’ll help.
The Co-Opting Of Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture', via NPR’s “All Things Considered.” As Axios explains, the 1812 Overture is commonly paired with American fireworks shows — which is weird, because the song is Russian, not American. In 2012, NPR talked about this in the 4-minute segment linked above. For more of that history, here’s a 1998 article in the New York Times — the tradition, it seems, only dates back to the 1970s.
The Evolution of Fireworks, dating back to the year 200, via Smithsonian. They ask a great set of questions, including “although we've been lighting fireworks for the last 2000 years or so, modern fireworks were only invented in the 1830s -- so, what were they like before then?”
The economics of fireworks, via Freakonomics’ podcast. I haven’t listened to this yet but I’m told it’s interesting.
Also via NPR, why it’s really hard to make vibrant blue fireworks. This is from 2013, but if memory serves, it’s still pretty difficult.
Whatever you do this weekend — fireworks or otherwise — I hope it’s fun!
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The Now I Know Week In Review
Last Friday: In my Weekender about the New York Times’ Top 100 Movies of the Century (So Far), I had the wrong link to the Times’ list. (Oops. 😳) Here’s the right list.
Monday: This Airport SUX: An airport with an unfortunate three-letter designation.
Tuesday: The Bovine Unity of Milk and Glue?: I didn’t realize, when writing this, that Elmer’s Glue was originally made from casein, a milk byproduct. Now this marriage (literally) makes a lot more sense! Thank you to all the readers who wrote in to share this fact.
Wednesday: Born on the Second of July... or August: Why yesterday may have been America’s Independence Day.
From the Archives: Celebrating Independence with Flying Cars: Don’t like fireworks? This Alaska town can’t use them anyway — sunset isn’t until around midnight — so they came up with a different way of celebrating.
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And thanks! — Dan
Long Reads and Other Things
Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:
1) “‘By Chance, Did You Win a Cottage in Ireland?’” (New York Times/gift link, 8 minutes, June 2025). A lot of you shared this with me, and I’m thrilled. A few weeks ago, I shared this story about a woman in Ireland who was, effectively, raffling off her home at the price of roughly $7 per ticket. This is the story of the winner — who actually paid less than that, at least on a per-ticket basis. Per the Times, “Tickets cost five British pounds apiece, and the site was promoting a buy-two-get-one-free offer. On a whim, Ms. Spangler entered, paying $12.67 for three tickets.” And for that, she got a house on 1.75 acres — that’s about 6,000 square feet of land per penny. Pretty good!
2) “Conversations with a Hit Man” (The Atavist, 52 minutes, June 2025). The subhead: “A former FBI agent traveled to Louisiana to ask a hired killer about a murder that haunted him. Then they started talking about a different case altogether.” The Atavist does great work, and this is no exception.
3) “AI is ruining houseplant communities online” (The Verge, 5 minutes, June 2025). The headline was so surprising to me, I couldn’t help but read the article, and it’s a good reminder that just because an AI chatbot dreams it up doesn’t mean it’s real — hardly. Trust, to a degree, but always verify!
Have a great weekend!
Dan