The Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, 1776. Except they didn't. That famous giant signature didn't happen until August. So why do we celebrate the Fourth?

Join novelist D. K. Wall for a short, mostly-true musing untangling the gloriously messy story of how America picked the day to celebrate its birthday.

Twelve minutes. Bring a sparkler.

📖 Read 250 Years Ago... More or Less on my website

Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

★ Support this podcast ★ Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

Everything about modern customer service is designed to help us—except the part where we actually get help. This week, I descended into the purgatory of automated phone systems and evil chatbots in my quest to reach a real person. The technology might have been built to serve us. Or, more likely, to save companies money. Either way, we can only endure the indignities to find the holy grail, the one thing machines can't replace.

📖 Read Press One for Purgatory on my website

Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

★ Support this podcast ★ Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!

Everything in this 1983 movie is obsolete—except the part that matters. This week I rewatched WarGames and took a nostalgic, slightly cranky tour through the dead technology inside it: arcade quarters, acoustic modems, floppy disks, payphones, and pull-tabs. It's the gadgets that time forgot, the prices we used to pay for a long-distance call, and the one thing in the movie that still hasn't aged a day.

📖 Read Shall We Play a Game? on my website

Hello, I'm D. K. Wall, author of novels and short stories. Welcome to Musings and Tales. Whether it's a story I'm spinning or a thought I'm sharing from my home here in Asheville, it's all 100% true... except for the parts I make up.

📚Visit my website to discover more about my novels and short stories.

★ Support this podcast ★ Your contributions support the cost of this commercial-free podcast. Thank you!

🎧 Subscribe to Musings and Tales on your favorite podcast app

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Thank you so much for being a listener.

Happy Reading!