The big doin's are starting at the Idaho Legion Hovel. The Glorious Fourth is coming so more tanker cars of beer are being routed onto the Legion Siding, a couple of boxcars of meat for grilling are sitting in the Yards chillin', and the boys and girls are out working on The Boss -- the biggest grill in the American West.

The Boss has a total grill surface only slightly smaller than that of two football (any sort) fields and a cricket pitch, cunningly designed so that two people can flip burgers and burn hot dogs without help. Shucks, one person can do it in a pinch! The charcoal used to come in by the carload, but air pollution laws forced the switch to propane and that comes in by the carload now; four cars, the average amount needed, are sitting by the reefers in the Yards.

Up on the hill The Biggest Show In Idaho is winding up. Raucous rock bands have disturbed my peace since I got back and fireworks are being trucked up every couple of hours. It's rumored that they have a small air-burst nuclear weapon this year, but I doubt it.

Meanwhile, the Elks Lodge has turned the parade over to the Old Town group. It will kick off at 10 a.m. and wend its way from Old Town to the parking lot at Holt Area (a/k/a The Dome or The Minidome). Floats will float and candy will be thrown to those viewing, even though city ordinance says to hand it, not to throw it.

Fireworks stands proliferate. Legal "safe and sane" fireworks are those which don't fly into the air or explode. This is honored in the breech. Sometime in the coming week the Fire Department will delineate those areas thought to be especially prone to wildfire and will ban fireworks there.

All in all it's shaping up to be a gigantic anticlimax.