Posted on 07/05/2026 2:59:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
They wore ball gowns and bedazzled baseball hats. They wore suits and ripped jeans. They wore American flag shirts, American flag ties, American flag dresses, American flag purses, American flag handkerchiefs, American flag cowboy hats.
Nobody looked like they were dressed for the same event, but here they all were, on the roof of the Watergate Hotel in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July.
About one mile away, after baking in the blistering heat, people were temporarily evacuated Saturday evening from the National Mall due to inclement weather. Some sheltered in Metro stations, others in government buildings. On the hotel roof, lightning was visible in the distance, but the party wasn’t stopping. Music was still blaring, and champagne flutes were still being filled and refilled with Taittinger. “Champagne down!” one lady chirped when a glass broke.
Like many hotels in Washington, the Watergate typically hosts an Independence Day party, but the 250th anniversary of the United States meant bigger opportunities. Next door, the Kennedy Center hosted its own fireworks party, with packages going for up to $25,000. At the Watergate, tables for four people went for as much as $30,000.
Some guests said they thought it was worth the expense to celebrate the semiquincentennial in style.
“You only get to do this one time,” Hubert Kyle Fletcher said while sitting at a table, his plate piled high with crab legs.
“We are very lucky to be here,” Fletcher’s friend James Covey said in between bites of sushi. “It’s once in a lifetime.”
They were visiting from Florida with their wives.
Around the party, women in black stilettos and leather aprons offered guests caviar and oysters. “My napkins are flying,” one said as the wind blew.
A 56-year-old actor named Phil Silverman was dressed as...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I don’t want to go to the link…is this just a “hate the rich” article?
I expected that, but I read most of it and I didn't take it that way. It seems to be an honest human interest story about people who were excited enough about 250 to spend big money celebrating it in comfort.
I’m not paying tto read hat rag but someone here must be able to read and forward paragraphs to us.
any takers?
Thanks for that answer-sometimes people get a bit edgy thinking you are attacking them…I was genuinely interested.
If I had the cash to spare, I might well have taken part in something like that on the 250th Anniversary.
I certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone who wanted to.
Thanks. Hope you had a good 4th…:)
E. Pluribus Unum did us that service! All good…:)
Wahhhh shignton Compost.
It’s actually an honest human interest story about people who were so excited about DC’s 250th celebration that they spent money to observe it in comfort.
The wordsmiths at the Washington Post could have used a word that meant ……dealt spectacularly with the changing and sometimes dangerous weather conditions….. instead of “chaotic” which implies messed up on the part of Trump.
You’re right, the title is deliberately “chaotic,” but the article appears to be a genuine human interest piece about people who were excited enough about the DC 250 celebration to spend their hard earned money on observing it in comfort.
Nice!
I can’t blame them!!
A ‘’hate the rich’’ article most likely written by lib who live on The Upper West Side of Manhattan.
That was my initial prediction, but when I asked the author of the thread, he said it seemed to be about people who spent a lot of money to enjoy the once in a lifetime celebration...:)
Oh well then... spend away!
I certainly didn’t discuss anything about expenditures.
That is, beyond saying I sure didn’t have that kind of money…:)
I see you’ve had a talk with yourself.
I need to have one with myself but I never listen!
If I talk to myself, it’s because I want to talk to the most intelligent person in the room (as the saying goes)
I see that you are subject to the same dynamic… :-)
Honestly, though… I just retired almost exactly a year ago, and I don’t think at all about what I can afford. It’s not that I’m rich or anything, I’m just… Happy
I got just about everything I want in this life (except of course, for a flying, self powered self driving car and a surplus S3 Viking I could ref it to my personal use and fly all over the country in the world) I’m got my health, I’ve got family, and I can pay my bills, including my property tax bills, which are huge in this blue state and fully leftist town I live in.
Granted, I want to see everybody in this country be able to work at a job as I did and be able to retire and live in happiness as I do, so I want to see all kinds of good things for this country at the government level.
None of those things involve Democrats, needless to say… And a good number of the Republicans too who hold Office)
I’m on my way to finding Christ, and that has really changed my perspective in this life.
When did people start freaking out over lightning strikes miles and miles away?
I was in marching bands in high school and college. We marched in thunderstorms.
Remember always Proverbs 3:6 “In all thy ways acknowledge HIM and HE shall direct thy paths.''
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