{"id":47,"date":"2024-06-09T01:05:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T01:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=47"},"modified":"2024-06-09T01:05:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T01:05:05","slug":"an-explosive-marketing-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/?p=47","title":{"rendered":"An explosive marketing idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Fireworks company advertises in Massachusetts, where they’re illegal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Vincent
On Further Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fourth of July is coming up on Monday, and you know what that means \u2014 everyone everywhere will be celebrating the good old USA, freedom, democracy and the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what better way is there to do that than with fireworks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone loves a good fireworks show, except for the occasional dog who thinks it\u2019s thunder, with the bright splashes of color that light up the night and make your eyes sparkle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the day, when I was a boy, Gardner never had any fireworks. They still don\u2019t. Gardner always used to shut down for two weeks, usually the first two weeks of July, I think, and half the city skedaddled to Canada to visit with their relatives, which was not very patriotic, unless you come from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two-week shutdown was done mostly by the furniture factories, which are all gone. But I remember working at Simplex one summer in the early \u201990s, and they were still shutting down for two weeks. Thus, me and two other guys scored the dirty job of cleaning where no one had cleaned for at least a year, as people were always working there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hubbardston, where I grew up, sadly also never had any fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closest thing we ever had was a big bonfire that they made out of our old barn and some other construction debris after we moved out of town in \u201988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I found it interesting to see that the big Fourth of July celebration they have at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade in Boston could be endangered, as longtime show producer and sponsor David Mugar is stepping down and was having trouble finding anyone else to sponsor the show this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to that a couple of times and it was a sight to see, mostly because of the insane amount of people there, plus, of course, the patriotic music, the abundance of red, white and blue, and the fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any towns around here having big fireworks displays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some people, that might tempt them to set off a few fireworks themselves. And that\u2019s all well and good, there\u2019s always a few fireworks going off over some neighbor\u2019s house around the Fourth of July, though some go overboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one thing people tend to forget about fireworks is that they are illegal. In Massachusetts, all fireworks are illegal, including sparklers, firecrackers and bottle rockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our former state representative, Rich Bastien of Gardner, tried to change that, even after he left office, by trying to put a ballot question on legalizing fireworks up for a vote, but the attorney general rejected it due to the wording. Fizzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, they\u2019re still illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t tell that to Phantom Fireworks of Hinsdale, London\u00acderry and Seabrook, New Hamp-shire, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sent me a flier in the mail, to my mom\u2019s house in Bald\u00acwinville, addressed to me, letting me know that all fireworks are on sale and I should \u201cstock up for the long holiday weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It apparently doesn\u2019t bother them I live in a state where fireworks are illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s really just a technicality, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s legal in most states, with New Jersey and Delaware being the only other states that completely outlaw everything, including firecrackers and sparklers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the names don\u2019t make you think anything could go wrong either, with \u201cMolotov Cocktail\u201d (don\u2019t let any terrorists use these), \u201cBombilation\u201d (the box says \u201cwarning: Shoots flaming balls\u201d), \u201cWicked Pissa\u201d (\u201ca Boston favorite\u201d \u2026 forgetting that Boston is in Massachusetts where fireworks are illegal), and, of course, the aptly named, \u201cBarely Legal Lock and Load Assorted Shells\u201d (as in \u201cnot legal\u201d if you\u2019re from Massachusetts where you dummies sent the flier).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Am I missing something here? This just doesn\u2019t seem right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a line in the fine print about people from states where fireworks are illegal buying them at Phantom Fireworks, and using them in a state where they are legal, which seems unlikely. So, it\u2019s all hush-hush. Many people just buy them in New Hampshire and say they\u2019re going to use them in New Hampshire. And once they get them in the car, they\u2019re golden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fireworks users know that if they get a few nice ones, and don\u2019t overdo it, no one\u2019s really going to say anything. But, if they get a whole bunch of ridiculously loud ones, someone might just call the cops. I might avoid \u201cCrack the Sky,\u201d \u201cMt. Olympus Thunder\u201d and \u201cRed, White and Boom.\u201d Plus \u2014 news alert \u2014 it\u2019s been dry out lately, and brushfires are a real danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these people just want to celebrate the Fourth, this law actually is there for a reason. Just this past year, New York Giants defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul brought national attention to the dangers of fireworks after blowing off half his hand in a fireworks accident. Countless people have been seriously injured from fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I myself was once with some people who almost set the woods behind their house on fire with a super-big bottle rocket that went haywire and shot right into an area of dry leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say, if you\u2019re going to light off fireworks, limit them to a few of the small bottle rockets \u2014 or just leave it to the professionals. You can always drive to Boston or someplace else that\u2019s having them, or watch the fireworks on TV, or just stick to the hamburgers and chips and wave an American flag so you can celebrate our independence without injuring anyone. Now that would be a Wicked Pissa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This column ran in The Gardner News on 7\/1\/2016.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fireworks company advertises in Massachusetts, where they’re illegal John VincentOn Further Review The Fourth of July is coming up on Monday, and you know what that means \u2014 everyone everywhere will be celebrating the good old USA, freedom, democracy and the rule of law. And what better way is there to do that than with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","hide_page_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinionpieces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsandviews101.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}