Hallmark’s Anniversary Gifts by Year only goes through year 60, which seems somewhat short-sighted given extended life-expectancies, though I expect those numbers to start decreasing as the earth’s temperature continues to rise.

Still, we would be remiss in not celebrating America’s sesqui-something anniversary, so I am proposing, a little late, that the 250-year gift be potassium nitrate, a key component of fireworks, which is available in five-pound bags through Amazon.

The other supply problem is, of course, that China produces at least 90% of our fireworks and, you may have heard, there has been some tinkering with the tariffs on goods imported from there.

Nevertheless, the good news for fireworks aficionados, of which I am not one, was that the Taste of Chicago found enough funding to set off a display on July 10. The not-so-good news was that the nearby Grant Park Music Festival, in its infinite wisdom, delayed the start of its concert that evening by an hour and 45 minutes, so that instead of the fireworks starting, very appropriately, just after the music ended, the sky lit up, and the noise started, during the first movement of the orchestra’s otherwise beautiful rendition of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony.

This faux pas did, however, allow guest conductor Leonard Slatkin to turn to the audience between movements and suggest, to a roar of approval, that the organizers had mistaken this work for the Tchaikovsky piece more often associated with fireworks.

I didn’t go to the actual Independence Day Salute a week earlier, but did attend its prior afternoon rehearsal, which not only allowed me to see concertmaster Jeremy Black get his moment in the sun with a couple wonderful solos, but also to listen to him playing them multiple times while the conductor tinkered with the orchestral accompaniment.