Some laws continue to perplex me.

I know that firworks, for the most part, cannot be sold in Milwaukee, but I also know that I have seen sparklers from time to time at various local stores. I just can't remember where.

Filled with the Fourth of July spirit, and not willing to drive to one of those freeway-side fireworks shanties outside of town, I decided to try to find a box of sparklers, even though I couldn't remember where I had seen them in the past. I tried a few places that I thought were a possiblity, struck out at all of them, and finally, one shop owner suggested a gas station, saying she was pretty sure she had seen some at a station in the central part of the city.

So, I drove to the ghetto gas station, determined at this point to find my sparklers. However, the attendant from behind a plate of bullet-proof glass told me they are not "allowed" to sell any fireworks at all, not even sparklers. I can't help but to notice the glass tubes with the paper flowers suspended in them that are next to the register. These are crack pipes.

Then I think about all the other stuff for sale in that gas station -- cigarettes, horribly unhealthy food, beverages full of hazardous chemicals -- and it seems ridiculous that sparklers of all things can't be sold as well. I understand that every year drunk people blow off fingers because some fireworks are unpredictable and dangerous, but sparklers?