I've never understood why people insist on taking pictures of fireworks. It's not like they'll come out really well, and it's not like fireworks are that spectacular -- or that they'll never be seen again, they come every year like clockwork -- that they need to be captured for posterity.

The airplane and airport troubles here in Los Angeles almost derailed my Independence Day plans, since the place hosting the barbeque I was supposed to attend is located right behind LAX, and my friend who invited me to go with her wasn't too keen on attempting the traffic and the parking. But in the end, hanging out with people at the beach proved to be a good enough draw and we trekked out there. And I did end up seeing fireworks, even though the Santa Monica PD shooed us away from the pier by saying that they weren't having any fireworks. Too bad they neglected to mention that there would be three other towns having fireworks displays that would easily be observed from the area we were in.

As discussed on tonight's episode of "Sports Night," L.A. has the Pacific Ocean, cars, sunshine and Laker Girls. Does anyone need more than that?