Life comes at you fast. Most of it is just smoke and mirrors. We're here to clear the air. Whether
it's the can't make this up moments or the hard truths hitting our streets in our state,
we're finding the signal in all that noise. No spin, no nonsense, just the facts, the fallout,
and the truth, and a little bit of humor and a little bit of humor.
Grab your coffee. It's time for The Morning Drip on WRTO.fm, Radio Free Georgia.
Hey, good morning, everybody. Welcome to another edition of The Morning Drip.
It is Thursday, July 2nd, 2026. It's me, Grady D. We're going to take a different
approach today. We're going to try to stay away from so much freaking politics because we are coming
up on the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. And of course,
it's hot. It is very, very, very hot. We are up under, from what I understand, we had two heat
domes that decided to converge and bend us all over without any lube. Today, we're actually getting
a little bit of a reprieve. I mean, the heat indexes have been around 104, 105, and 106. Sounds like,
you know, radio stations, right? But today, we're looking at highs of 94 with real feel of 97.
Tomorrow being the third, looking at a real feel of 99. Saturday, a real feel of 101. But then Sunday
says, hold my beer, we're bringing in rain, but it's still going to be a real feel of 103. So, a lot of folks
are going to be out celebrating the 4th of July. A lot of folks are going to be traveling, and it's
just going to be freaking hot. And before we really get into our show today, I want to talk about the
fact that we're looking at, I mean, this is a tremendous travel season. I think maybe, maybe the
only time we see more travel is during the holiday season, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. But more than
4 million passengers are expected to travel through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
That's the one in, you know, Atlanta. It's, I think it's the biggest international airport in the
United States, if not the world. Could be wrong about that. If I am, sue me. But between now and
July 7th, as the Independence Day travel rush reaches one of its busiest periods of the year,
you've got airport officials that expect tomorrow, Friday, the 3rd, to be the busiest travel day,
looking at more than 370,000 passengers moving through the terminals. And security lines were
relatively short. You know, earlier this week, officials say wait times are going to increase
during peak travel hours. I speak pretty today. Travel hours. Travelers are encouraged, of course. I mean,
you're always, especially since the TSA was formed, get to the airport two to three hours early. That's
the common thing. But, you know, two hours before domestic flights, three hours before international
departures. Of course, this year, we've got the added influx visitors traveling for FIFA World Cup
events, which yours truly couldn't give two shits about soccer. Okay. It's just me. I'm not a sports guy.
Anybody that knows me knows I'm not a sports guy. Side note, my wife and my daughter
actually had a discussion earlier this week as to what constitutes a sport. Is billiards a sport?
Is bowling a sport? I don't know. Some would probably argue it is. Some probably would argue
that they're not. I don't know. Anyway, officials are also recommending checking your flight status
before leaving home. You must also allow extra time to get parked, your baggage checks, security
screening. And this holiday travel surge is expected to continue through next
week. Sunday and Monday will be the busiest return travel days. And of course, we're getting
a small little break on the travel costs because right here in Georgia, the average gas price
is currently about $3.61 per gallon, which is slightly lower than it was a week ago and definitely
lower than it's been over the last several months. Of course, we had the benefit of the governor
of the state of Georgia suspended the gas tax for a couple of months, I think. So we didn't get hit as
hard as some other states. I saw reports that California's gas was like five, six, seven dollars a
gallon. When I saw that, I'm like, am I looking at England prices? Because their petrol is always
higher. But anyway, if you're traveling, I just simply want to say, be safe. Just be safe. And be safe
during any of your 4th of July celebrations, especially when it comes to fireworks.
I'm a little concerned about, and this neighborhood goes nuts, it seems where I live.
But I am concerned that we did have some rain. We are pretty much sort of out of the drought now,
but fireworks can cause fires. So be careful and be smart. All right. So let's get on to the rest of
the show. We're going to start off the first segment of our show talking about some stories
that you might find interesting.
And this one's got an interesting headline, Founding Fathers of Content Creators.
Something I did not know.
Now, as everybody is getting their grills ready, you're buying fireworks, you're thinking about,
of course, we all, we're just thinking about the Founding Fathers as these
majestic, polite guys in powdered wigs who just stood around and politely signed papers, right?
I mean, we look at, we look at our politics today and we're like, man,
it is never, ever, ever been this toxic, right?
Right?
You're 100% wrong.
The election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson makes modern political attack
ads look like a playground dispute.
These two literally helped build the country back in 1776.
They did it together.
And 24 years after that, they were running the dirtiest smear campaign in American history.
So get a load of what they actually said about each other.
Now, keep in mind, they didn't have Twitter.
They didn't have a television.
None of that was even in the remotest regions of anybody's
brain of thinking that these things could ever, could ever be invented.
They, television, Twitter, internet, of course not, not even radio.
So they hired local journalists to write anonymous hit pieces in local newspapers.
From Jefferson's camp on Adams, they published articles warning the public that President
John Adams was a, quote, hideous, hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness
of a man nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.
They literally called the sitting president a hermaphrodite in the local paper.
Now, if you don't know what that is, look it up, but make sure you do it on a safe search,
please, because you might get a face full of some stuff that you don't, you're not expecting,
right?
So they also called him a repulsive pendant and a gross hypocrite who secretly wanted to
start a war with France just to play dress up in a military uniform.
So Adams' camp, they strike back.
Adams' team did not take this lying down.
They hit the panic button.
They told voters that if Thomas Jefferson became president, quote, murder, robbery, rape,
adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced.
Wow, that sounds, that sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Well, they also called Jefferson a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian
squall sired by a Virginia mulatto father, pure, unfiltered, 1800s basement-tier trash talk,
man.
That's wild.
Now, Jefferson goes on to win this election.
And how does Adams handle it?
Well, in the ultimate act of being a petty, sore loser, he sneaks out of the White House
at 4.30 a.m. on Inauguration Day.
He catches the early morning public stagecoach out of town just so he doesn't have to watch
Jefferson take the oath.
And then here's the crazy part.
They didn't speak for years, but in their 70s and 80s, they started writing letters again.
They forgave each other and they realized they were the last two guys left who remembered
1776.
They ended up dying on the exact same day, July 4th, 1826, exactly 50 years to the day after
the declaration.
And Adams' last words were literally, quote, Thomas Jefferson survives.
The irony there, Jefferson had already died five hours earlier.
They went from best friends to bitter rivals who threw the dirtiest shade in history and then
back to being friends.
Now, when the news hit the public days later, people absolutely lost their freaking minds.
And as we already said, there was no Internet or TV.
But the coincidence was so staggering, the newspapers called it a visible finger of God
sealing the nation's destiny.
And then to make it even weirder, five years later, to the exact day, July 4th, 1831, James Monroe,
the fifth president, also died.
Look, if the guys who build America can throw that kind of petty shit and still end up best
friends at the end of their lives.
I mean, I don't know, maybe there's hope for us.
And it got me to thinking about the absolute petty links that people go to when they're mad
at someone.
Now, I want to open up the phone lines.
The number is 229-520-5957.
Or you can text the same number, 229-520-5957.
What is the most hilarious, petty thing you have ever done to get back at a friend or an ex or a co-worker?
I mean, did you sneak out of the room at 430 in the morning like John Adams?
And did you sign them up for a million spam emails?
Give us a call.
Let me know.
I'm curious to hear from you.
Keep it anonymous if you have to.
But let's talk petty behavior right here on The Morning Drip.
After we take a short break.
We'll be back.
Your coffee is weak.
Your commute is long.
Your boss is, well, you know.
It's time to wake up.
Join the revolution of the caffeine addicted.
The Morning Drip.
Every morning on WRTO.FL.
It's not just a show.
It's your daily jolt of reality.
Warning.
Make all sudden outbursts of free thought.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to The Morning Drip.
It is Thursday, the 2nd of July, 2026.
We're heading into a phenomenal 4th of July weekend.
I would love to hear from you about what plans do you have?
You stay at home.
You're going to go out and see fireworks.
What are you going to do?
2-2-9-5-2-0-5-9-5-7.
The phone lines are open.
But don't you fret.
24-7, you can send a text to that same number.
Or you can email us.
Morningdrip at WRTO.FM.
All right.
Let's keep on with our cool little stories about what happens around the 4th of July and some weird things.
I have a question for you.
Are you as stubborn as a founding father?
John Adams literally boycotted his own country's birthday party because they got the date wrong.
So, as we've already talked about, you know, most people know that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were bitter rivals who famously died on the same day.
The exact same day.
July 4th, 1826.
Exactly.
50 years after the declaration was adopted.
But the real gold in this story is the stubbornness of John Adams.
You see, Adams was convinced that July 2nd, the day Congress actually voted for independence, should be the holiday.
He was so irritated that everyone picked July 4th, the day the document was formally printed slash adopted, that for the rest of his life, he would routinely turn down invitations to July 4th parties and celebrations out of pure, unadulterated principle.
Talk about being freaking stubborn.
Man, that's awesome.
That is awesome.
Being so pissed off because, you know what, and it's sad, I can kind of relate.
I am someone, I am prone to holding grudges sometimes.
So, that, I get it.
I actually get it.
I mean, if you're so dead set, your conviction is, this is the day that we should be celebrating.
It's the day that we sign the damn thing.
Not the day that it was formally printed slash adopted.
Man, that's some stamina.
That is some stamina.
If you're answering emails from your couch today, you're just doing what Thomas Jefferson did when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Let me explain.
When Thomas Jefferson sat down to draft the Declaration of Independence, he didn't do it at a massive mahogany desk.
He wanted to be mobile.
So, he commissioned a local Philadelphia cabinetmaker by the name of Benjamin Randolph to build him a small wooden writing desk that rested entirely on his lap.
It had a locking drawer for paper and pens and an adjustable tilted writing surface.
Jefferson literally called it his necessaries or a traveling desk.
But structurally, it was America's first functional laptop.
We got another good story for you.
a great underdog story for this morning.
Next time your boss gives you a B- on a project, just mail it to the president.
In 1958, a 16-year-old kid from Ohio named Robert Heft was given a history class assignment to design a new national flag as Alaska and Hawaii were nearing statehood.
He took a standard 48-star flag, he stayed up all night, and he used $2.87 worth of blue cloth and iron-on material to stitch together a 50-star flag.
Now, I don't know what the $2.87 is worth today in today's money, but back then it was $2.87.
His teacher gave him a B-, telling him, he liked creativity.
So, he challenged the grade, and he said, quote,
If Congress accepts my flag, will you change it to an A?
The teacher agreed.
Of course, the teacher was thinking, well, this is impossible.
There's no way that this flag is going to be accepted by Congress.
So, Heft mailed the flag to his congressman.
Don't know who his congressman was at the time, but he mailed it to his congressman.
And the long story short, out of thousands and thousands of submissions,
President Dwight D. Eisenhower picked Heft's design.
It became the official U.S. flag in 1960.
And yes, before you ask, the teacher did change the grade to an A.
Can you imagine you put your heart and soul into something?
I don't know.
It's some kind of academic exercise or whatever.
And a lot of times we do this, even with our loved ones or what have you.
It's like, look, I did this thing for you.
And then it's like, yeah, okay.
But you do this.
And then probably someone you sort of look up to because, you know, a lot of students do look up to teachers, or at least they did.
And then that person that you look up to essentially shits all over your project and says, eh, it's not very creative.
It's kind of meh.
It's kind of mid, to use the kids' terms today.
Give you a B.
And then you send the damn thing to the federal government or your congressman.
And then the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the country, the most powerful man in the world, goes, I like that.
Talk about vindication and validation right there, my friends.
That would be just freaking awesome.
You know what else is awesome?
If you're firing up the grill or having a drink on the 4th of July, you're just following official orders issued by George Washington in 1778.
So here's the story.
Celebrating the 4th during the actual Revolutionary War was a massive morale booster.
So on July 4th, 1778, General George Washington was entrenched with his troops.
And so to mark the day and keep the men motivated while fighting the mightiest military on earth.
Remember, the Brits were, I would say they're brutal, but the literal fact of the way they marched and were easily picked off and we resorted to guerrilla tactics, guerrilla warfare at the time.
But OK, for all practical purposes, they were still considered the mightiest military on earth.
So Washington issued an official, this was an official military order, a double ration of rum for every single soldier along with a standard artillery salute.
So if you're out having a drink on the 4th, hopefully you're doing it responsibly.
I haven't had a drink of alcohol in over three years, so I will not be partaking of that.
We won't be grilling, but I think we will be having hamburgers and french fries.
You know, the traditional, might even have a hot dog or two.
Got some of those, got some of those, but I won't be partaking.
If my wife does, that's fine.
My daughter doesn't drink either.
And my boys are on the other coast, so I don't know what the hell they'll be doing.
Oh, goodness gracious.
One last thing before we cut out of here for another break.
Two little quick things.
There is no hidden treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Apparently, this is a controversy or a conspiracy theory or something to that effect.
But there is no hidden treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
But there is text written upside down at the bottom.
It reads, quote, original Declaration of Independence dated 4th of July, 1776.
It was used as a file label because the parchment was rolled up tightly for transport during the war.
And a final little tidbit before we take our break.
The gluttony metric.
Americans will consume.
We already talked about hamburgers and hot dogs, right?
Americans will consume roughly 150 million hot dogs on the 4th.
Laid end to end.
That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles and back twice.
Let me say that again.
Laid end to end.
That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles and back twice.
That is a lot of hot dogs.
All right.
We're going to take another short break.
Again, phone lines are open.
229-520-5957 or text.
If you're shy, just send me a text.
That text line, you can text me 24-7.
Doesn't matter.
I won't get up at 4 in the morning and look at it.
But you can still text it.
229-520-5957 or shoot us an email.
MorningDrip at WRTO.FM.
Going to take another short break and we'll be back.
Broadcasting from the heart of South Georgia, WRTO.FM is your home for independent voices,
liberated perspectives, uncensored conversation, and great music streaming 24-7.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to the Morning Drip.
It is Thursday, July 2nd, 2026.
We're heading into the 250th anniversary, 4th of July, this Saturday, of the great country
that we know as the United States of America.
Calling lines are open 229-520-5957 or, as I've said, ad nauseum, you can text that number 24-7.
24-7.
Or drop us an email.
MorningDrip at WRTO.FM.
What if the Declaration of Independence was actually a massive gamble that almost ended in a bloody
civil war before the country even started?
So, here's the story.
In June of 1776, the Continental Congress was completely divided.
New York was abstaining.
Pennsylvania was split down the middle.
And South Carolina was a firm.
No.
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, basically had to execute a high-stakes corporate takeover behind closed doors.
They spent weeks drinking in taverns and pressuring delegates and cutting backroom deals.
Man, that sounds like modern politics, doesn't it?
On July 1st, they held a trial vote.
And honestly, it looked like it was going to fail.
That night, a delegate from Delaware named Cesar Rodney.
See, Cesar Rodney was at home sick.
He had skin cancer.
Of course, I don't know if we knew what skin cancer was back then, but let's just go with it, okay?
And he got word that his state was deadlocked.
He rode 80 miles through a massive summer thunderstorm all night, arriving in Philadelphia,
mud-splattered, half-dead on July 2nd, just in time to cast the tie-breaking vote.
When they finally signed it, they were not celebrating.
They were actually terrified.
Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, quote,
We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
Because they signed their real names on the document.
They were legally committing treason against the crown.
So if the war had gone badly, if this revolution had got nipped in the bud and they lost the war,
that singular document right there was literally a death warrant.
So we're talking about the ultimate no-turning-back moment here.
What's the biggest, most terrifying leap of faith that you've ever taken where failure wasn't an option?
Did you quit a job?
Did you propose on a whim?
Phone lines are open.
2-2-9-5-2-0-5-9-5-7.
I can tell you this.
I have to say that, for me, it was probably quitting a job without having another one lined up, ready to go.
And I don't know what I was thinking in the moment.
I'd been working for this company.
I'm not going to name the company.
But I'd been working for this company for roughly seven-ish years.
And I actually helped this company grow.
I mean, I learned a lot while I was there.
I learned a lot about business.
It was a small mom-and-pop shop.
But I brought in my technical curiosity, my skill set.
I was much younger then.
This was from like 1992-ish, 91, 92 to 97, somewhere in there.
And I'd actually been helping this company part-time, even before I started working with them full-time.
But we built that business, you know, telephone systems and computer networks and security systems and surveillance.
I mean, we really, really did grow that business.
And I always felt, I mean, as the old saying goes, it's a mighty poor frog that can't brag on his own croak.
And I actually got that from the guy I was working for, who became a really, really good friend of mine.
There was 20 years difference between the two of us.
But he was sort of this pseudo father figure slash best friend.
We got in some trouble together, for sure.
Drank too much, but it was a good time.
And I progressively saw this company get better and better every year.
And I like to say that I had a hand in that.
But our daughter had been born and I took a week off.
And when I came back, I don't know what had changed.
I don't know if maybe he decided that he could do without me.
He could save that money.
I'm not entirely sure.
He didn't fire me, but he basically told me that I no longer had the drive and the passion that I once had.
And I don't know, I guess maybe that just caught me wrong.
I wasn't angry.
I wasn't belligerent or anything like that.
But before I could even stop the words from coming out of my damn mouth, I said, well, maybe it's time for me to move on.
And the shocker for me was that I didn't get any pushback.
No, no pushback.
It was essentially, well, if you think that's best.
And I had just painted myself into a corner because I did not have a fallback position.
I was now a father of three kids with a new mobile home that I had just purchased like a year and a half to two years ago.
So I had that debt.
And here I am making a boneheaded statement.
Talk about your no turning back moment.
I mean, granted, I could have gone back to him with my tail between my legs and said, look, after some further thought and consideration, talking with a wife and all of that, maybe I was a little too hasty.
Maybe I didn't feel like I was being appreciated or whatever.
But there's no guarantee.
Even the relationship that he and I had developed over those years, that friendship, that kindred spirit type thing, there's no guarantee that he would have accepted that.
So, yeah, that was my, that's the first one that comes to mind for me.
The no turning back moment is I basically quit my job and didn't have another one lined up.
Fortunately for me, I was talking to another friend one day and I said, yeah, I'm leaving.
And he's like, oh, really?
I said, yeah.
And about, you know, by that point, it was probably a week and a half.
And he was like, well, I need you to come talk to us then.
And so I was lucky that I wound up having another job that just cropped up.
But that was, that was my no turning back moment.
I'd love to hear what yours might have been.
2-2-9-5-2-0-5-9-5-7.
That's our call in number.
Phone lines are open for the remainder of the show.
As I've said before, once the, once the broadcast is over, the phone lines go dark, but the text line stays open 24-7-2-2-9-5-2-0-5-9-5-7.
Or you can email us morningdrip at wrto.fm.
And then we're going to take one more break and then we'll get into our final segment where we've got a couple of weird fourth of what I call strange fourth of July stories.
I think you'll find, I think you'll find interesting.
So hang with us.
We'll be back.
Your coffee is weak.
Your commute is long.
Your boss is, well, you know.
It's time to wake up.
Join the revolution of the caffeine addicted.
The Morning Drip.
Every morning on wrto.fl.
It's not just a show.
It's your daily jolt of reality.
Warning.
Make all sudden outbursts of free thought.
Hey everybody, welcome back to The Morning Drip.
This is your special 4th of July edition right here on July 2nd, 2026.
It's a Thursday.
I want to thank you for joining me.
It's me, Grady D.
We're getting into our final segment.
These are some strange 4th of July stories that I honestly had never heard of, but I thought you might find them interesting as we try to get you on your way.
Maybe you're not working this week, or maybe today's going to be a short day for you and you get to take tomorrow off.
I don't know.
Just have a good time and celebrate with friends and family and be safe.
That's all I can say.
229-520-5957 is the call-in number.
You can also text that number 24-7.
Email address is morningdrip at wrto.fm.
All right.
So we've heard of Nathan's famous hot dog eating contest, and apparently it happens every July 4th.
But the actual mechanics and behind-the-scenes drama of competitive eating are somewhat bizarre.
Bizarre enough that I thought that I would bring it to your attention and we could talk about it.
Okay.
Number one, I'm going to get this out of the way.
I think that competitive eating contests are stupid.
I honestly think it's a waste of food.
I mean, think about all of the people in the United States that are starving, and here we are turning a game, a competition, to see how much an individual can stuff in their mouth when it comes to hot dogs.
Okay, now I'll get off my high horse.
So some things that we want to talk about in this story is the origin story of this competition is fake.
Because for decades, the media reported that the contest started in 1916 when four immigrants held a competition to prove who was the most patriotic.
It was completely made up.
In 2010, a promoter admitted that he fabricated the entire 1916 backstory as a pure publicity stunt.
All right, eaters, here's the science behind it.
Eaters don't just chew fast.
They use a technique invented by former champ, Takaru Kobayashi.
Kobayashi.
I probably just bastardized that name.
Anyway, he called it the Solomon Method.
So what you do is they snap the dog in half.
They shove both halves down.
Then they dunk the bun into warm water, squeezing it into a ball so that it, quote, slides down.
They're basically drinking soggy bread Play-Doh.
Reminds me of too much raw oysters.
And when it comes to the rules, there are actual referees.
Eaters can get a yellow card for messy eating if they drop too much food.
And a red card means immediate disqualification for a, and I thought this was so funny, quote,
reversal of fortune.
It is exactly what you think it is.
It's the polite official term Major League Eating uses for throwing up on live television.
So we watch these guys eat 70 hot dogs.
But what about real life food limits?
What is the most amount of a single food that you've ever eaten in one sitting?
Was it a buffet challenge?
Was it a bet?
Was it just a bad late night decision?
Let me know.
229-520-5957.
Or email morningdrip at wrto.fm.
Our second interesting story.
Independence Day versus Hollywood.
In the late 1990s, Hollywood studios realized that the 4th of July weekend was the most lucrative
movie-going weekend of the year.
And there was one man completely owning it.
One man.
And I should have known this.
I should have known this.
I've seen every, I've seen all three of these movies.
But I should have known it.
In 1996, Independence Day was released over the holiday weekend and shattered records.
In 1997, Men in Black came out to the exact same weekend and did it again.
And in 1999, Wild Wild West took that same slot.
Now, granted, it did not do as well as the first two.
So there was a five-year stretch where other Hollywood studios would literally move their
massive, $100 million movies entirely out of July because they were too terrified to compete
with Will Smith.
He single-handedly defined the July 4th blockbuster genre.
Now, fast forward to 2026.
This weekend, you've got movies like Minions and Monsters and Toy Story 5, which Toy Story
5 has already come out and it's been owning the competition.
They're going to rule the holiday box office.
The 4th of July movie crowd shifted entirely from action movie teenagers to desperate parents
looking for air conditioning to escape the heat of July.
Now, I can tell you the last time I actually was in a physical theater was sometime in the
early aughts.
A friend of mine ditched out of work early one Friday and went to the theater here in
Tifton, Georgia.
We no longer have a theater and we watched the last Star Wars prequel movie, which literally
broke in the middle of us watching it.
So we had to sit there for about 10 or 15 minutes while they tried to splice the damn thing together.
So, yeah, the 4th of July movie, it's completely changed.
It used to be about aliens blowing up the White House.
Now it's about Minions and talking toys because parents just want two hours of AC.
What is your all time favorite July 4th blockbuster movie?
And does anything beat the original Independence Day?
I can tell you what doesn't beat the original Independence Day.
The sequel that they put out.
It is complete shit.
All right.
This one actually is closer to home because it it deals with Georgia, which is where yours truly hails from.
So right here in Georgia, state law has a massive list of where you cannot shoot fireworks.
The usual spots near a gas station kind of makes sense.
Prisons.
OK.
And hospitals.
Yeah, I get it.
But there is a very specific lesser known property line rule.
You cannot ignite fireworks within 200 yards of any property that houses horses.
If you spook the neighbor's mayor, you are technically breaking state code, which I find interesting because here in my neighborhood, across the way, one of my neighbors has horses.
One or two.
I don't know how many.
Yet during the 4th of July and even New Year's, they are popping off fireworks throughout this neighborhood.
I guess they don't realize they're breaking law.
In major cities across the state, like Atlanta, people think they're safe on public property, but city ordinances explicitly ban lighting fireworks on public sidewalks or streets without a permit.
So if you're on the concrete curb, you're open to a citation.
And the last one, the firework DUI.
Most people, as we've already talked about, enjoy a cold beer while grilling or maybe a shot, maybe a mixed drink.
I'm not judging, but Georgia code treats explosives like vehicles.
Lighting consumer fireworks while legally under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a criminal offense in the state of Georgia.
It's literally DUI for explosives.
DUI for explosives.
We've all got that one neighbor who turns the neighborhood into a war zone on the 4th.
I've already said, I think we have more than one neighbor out here that does it.
But if you look at these laws, half of us are just doing it wrong.
What is the craziest or most annoying thing your neighbors do with fireworks every single year?
Since we're ending the show, let's vent on the text line 229-520-5957.
Or you can shoot me an email, morningdrip at wrto.fm.
All right, everybody.
That's it for this broadcast for Thursday, July 2nd, 2026.
Going into the holiday weekend, 4th of July, 250th anniversary of the great nation of the United States of America.
I want you all to be safe.
I want you to enjoy yourselves.
Try to stay cool.
Try not to start any fires with fireworks.
And keep in mind, where you cannot legally in the state of Georgia, shoot off fireworks.
No drinking with fireworks.
Don't be on public property.
And don't be within 200 yards of Mr. Ed.
All right, everybody.
Hug your loved ones.
Hope you get to take off work early today.
Have a great time this weekend.
And we'll be back next Tuesday morning for another broadcast of The Morning Drip.
Good morning, everybody.