The odds are someone has mailed you this Muppets video in celebration of the 4th. While watching it, I tried to remember the entire preamble to the Constitution, which we were required to memorize in school. Sadly, I couldn't do any better than the Muppet did.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This week, we test your knowledge of the Constitution of the United States in the News Cut Quiz. All the questions are true/false. As always, take the quiz, and report your results below.

We're all counting on you. Good luck.

The Associated Press must've realized today that there' simply no dignified way to write an obituary when the deceased is Bozo the Clown.

Take the last line of this paragraph, for example, in the obituary for Larry Harmon, who died today at 83:

Although not the first person to play Bozo, Harmon took on the famous clown's persona and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly TV stations. Those stations then recruited their own Bozos for local shows.

(The AP rewrote the last line for the morning papers.)

I often think that if Cirrus Design were based in the Twin Cities instead of Duluth, it'd be a bigger "Minnesota" story than it is. The company has, over the last decade or so, become the most influential general aviation aircraft maker in the country (with a nod to Cessna).

Today, the company pushed a new boundary that has the real possibility of changing all sorts of things about aviation -- it flew its personal jet for the first time.

You know, no doubt, about the small planes that buzz all over the country. Now, there is likely to be a transformation from piston engines to jet engines in some of those small planes. The so-called very-light jet category (VLJ) is aimed at the business flyer. It's no secret -- or shouldn't be -- that I'm a big aviation guy, but I'm not convinced that the aviation world is ready for this.

Already, small airports are closing in the United State every day. Despite the best intentions (in most cases) of the private pilot to be a good neighbor, many people don't want airplanes flying around their houses, even though the airports were there first. The VLJ is designed to fly into airports which are too small now for standard jet traffic. That introduces the possibility of new fronts in the airport noise debate.

My pilot friends will be very mad at me for pointing this out but it's anticipated there will be up to 20,000 VLJs within two years flying around the country, and airlines, which have a habit of blaming general aviation for ills of their own making, have got a few high-powered friends believing that air traffic congestion will result.

Supporters of VLJ point out, on the other hand, that the airlines are grounding their flights to lower costs and raise fares and if people are finding alternative ways to navigate by air, then whose fault is that?

It's the slowest news day in a traditionally slow news week, which allows me more time to think deep thoughts. Today's deep thought: How many things that you owned in 1977 are still working and still useful to you?

If you were born after 1977, then think back to the deepest recesses of your memory for a similar object.

I just moved a couch that I bought in 1983, out of my house and into my son's new apartment after convincing him that an orange-dominant, all-plaid couch never goes out of style. That's about as far back as I can go to find a useful object.

1983 is six years after this country launched two Voyager space probes, which originally were intended to fly past Jupiter and Saturn, but worked so well that their mission now is to reach interstellar space, which is the space in a galaxy that is not occupied by planets or stars.

In 1977, the picture of the year was Annie Hall. Hotel California was the top song, and the Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl, 32-14.

Voyager II was launched the same year Apple Computer was incorporated, and the Apple II computer was unveiled. Tandy's TRS-80 made its debut, the Atari 2600 game system was first sold, and the Concorde made its first regularly scheduled flight from London to New York, and this baby was the Motor Trend Car of the Year:

All of those things are now, for practical purposes, junk. And yet, there is Voyager, still functioning. And this week it taught us that the bubble of solar wind surrounding the solar system is not round, but has a squashed shape. It's an impressive thing, even though we admit to having no idea what it means or what its significance is.

Meanwhile, back on terra firma in 2008, the average lifespan of a cellphone is 14 months.

Much is being made across the various national media today about a report that some states are selling lottery tickets after the advertised jackpot has already been won. It stems from a USA Today story (media insight: Most stories start with a newspaper article) earlier this week.

About half of the 42 states that have lotteries -- including Florida, New Jersey, Michigan and Tennessee -- keep selling tickets after the top prizes are gone. The states say the practice is fair because lottery tickets and websites disclose the practice. Also, other prizes are available.

And Minnesota? "To your question - we pull all remaining scratch games in a game once the last top prize has been validated and awarded, to a player," Minnesota State Lottery Director Clint Harris told me in an e-mail today.

News Cut is in a nostalgic mood. It happens every time I read another story about vinyl LPs making a comeback, especially if it's accompanied by a picture of a record rack featuring albums, every one of which -- I think -- is in the News Cut vault (i.e. an unopened cardboard box in the crawl space under the stairs from at least three moves ago).

But this item in this morning's Worthington Daily Globe sealed the deal:

Pat Boone will present holiday concerts at 3 and 7 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Business, Arts and Recreation Center (BARC), 1012 Fifth Ave., Windom.

Tickets for the event are now on sale with all seating reserved.

Boone hit national fame in 1955 with his recording version of "Ain't That A Shame." He hit the national spotlight via his first television appearance singing on the "Ted Mack Amateur Hour." Pat Boone sold more records in the 1950s than any other artist except Elvis Presley. He has sold more than 45 million records and has charted 60 songs, 18 of which hit the Top 10.

Pat Boone? Is he still alive? Yes, and he's on a 50 year anniversary tour (aren't we all?), according to his Web site, which automatically plays him singing "Tears of a Clown." and -- if that's not enough to make your day, reports that there's a petition drive to get Pat Boone into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.

The prospect of an evening checking out Pat Boone fans in Windom on a December evening during his 50 Year Anniversary Tour cannot be ignored.

Now the only thing left to make it a perfect entry into the holiday weekend is to stumble onto a Hot Rod race for pink slips on the way into work.

What do you say to someone who has cancer? That was one of the questions a caller asked earlier this week when MPR's Midmorning talked with Leroy Sievers, a journalist who has been writing about his battle with cancer on an NPR blog.

Yesterday, Sievers wrote about the question on his blog:

Cancer patients know how difficult it is to talk about our disease. It's hard for us. I have broken down into tears any number of times recently.

But what's more important, more important than the words you might say, is the effort to simply say anything. And if that "anything" isn't about cancer, that's even better.

The best conversations I have these days are about something, anything else. Politics, sports, books, whatever.

If cancer is not in the room for even an hour or two, that's a gift.

The difficulty, of course, is sometimes "How 'bout those Twins?" sounds a lot like "this is me not talking about cancer." The comments section of the blog post provided a good example: a mix of highly sensitive thoughts mixed in with questions about politics and the Red Sox.

The Olympics are approaching, the every-four-year period in which it's acceptable to say "stick it" on TV. But the Olympics occur against a backdrop of important athletic issues that cannot be ignored. Is prancing and tumbling around waving a stick with a ribbon a "sport"? Is hitting a little ball being thrown at you at 90 mph a sport?

Is ballroom dancing a sport?

Beer Pong?

What events do you think should be in the Olympics? What events do you think shouldn't?

Here's an odd turn of events in the reported burglary in the residence of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John C. Nienstedt: A number of stolen items have been found in a box in the Archbishop's bedroom, according to a news release this evening from the Archdiocese.

"Reverend Lee Piche, Vicar General of the Archdiocese, discovered the missing valuable historical items, worn by former Archbishops, today in a subsequent final sweep of the room," the release said. In a final sweep?

Father Piche of the Archdiocese "wondered how the thieves, who had accessed the rooms through the residence roof could have managed to carry both the 75 pound safe and another box, and decided to check the room again, even though it had been searched before. That search resulted in his finding the box with the precious and suspected stolen crosses and rings," the release said.

One of the more disturbing pieces of video of late is the one released this week showing a woman dying on the floor of a New York hospital and nobody seeming to care.

According to the story on the BBC's Web site, "On Tuesday, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the hospital, agreed to increase the monitoring of patients at the hospital's psychiatric ward as part of a lawsuit settlement." The BBC's version of the video is even more disturbing.

What's troubling -- more so after you watch the video -- is the assertion that there was a systemic breakdown of monitoring, rather than a simple breakdown of decency and compassion.

There is reason for hope, however. Six people were fired or suspended as a result of the incident.

Just another day in the American economy. UnitedHealth is cutting 4,000 jobs, the Treasury Secretary makes a proposal that allows financial firms to fail without messing up the economy, 900 flight attendants at American Airlines will lose their jobs, and oil prices have hit a new record

News Cut is constantly testing the underpinnings of the American economy. Today is no exception.

Retail sales specialist -- and occasional MPR reporter -- Tom Weber remarked today that the size of sales receipts is growing at a frightening rate. Today, for example, he bought a pack of Mentos and a pack of Eclipse gum (he paid $3.79 for gum, but that's a topic for another day),

Here's his receipt.

9 1/4 inches.

Yesterday I bought lunch for my sons and a friend at a local restaurant. Here's the receipt:

11 inches.

Even the U.S. Postal Service is big-receipt happy. Sending a certified letter?

That'll cost you 9 1/2" of valuable wallet space.

By far, the worst offender is Home Depot. A one-item purchase will net you a sales receipt equivalent to about a full roll of toilet paper.

In most cases, the size is attributable to offers to tempt you into filling out an online survey about the store's performance. "Your receipts are too big," does not appear anywhere as a survey option, however.

Small receipts can usually be found from the gas station's pay-at-the-pump printer. Oil companies are making massive amounts of money. Home stores, restaurants, and street retail are struggling in the economy.

This leads us to the theory we need to test: The worse the business is doing in a tough economy, the bigger the receipt.

"I don't see people slowing down," Mrs. News Cut remarked to me today as we drove along I-494 in the East Metro -- in the far righthand lane, of course. "That's because people want everything and everyone else to change so that don't have to," I replied, invoking the time-honored sweeping generalization method of anthropology.

People are in a big hurry and when it comes to the cost of gasoline, getting somewhere in a hurry is a fair trade, many figure, for a few extra bucks.

And yet, people will sit in line for an hour or more, probably, to save money on gasoline.

There's got to be an easier way and, fortunately, noted energy consumption specialist -- and occasional MPR reporter -- Tom Weber has recently completed some research:

I wondered how much gas I might save if I simply change when I turn my car on. In the past, I'd turn it on, then put my seat belt on, then turn on the radio. And when I get home, I'd park, then roll up the windows, then turn the car off. It was all backwards! Actually turning the car on should be the last thing you do when you're leaving and the first thing you do when you're parking.

It was actually hard, took me a week to do - to break my habit. Now, I sit in my car, get situated, plug in my phone - maybe turn the car on (but not the engine) to roll down the windows -- then I turn the car on and immediately shift it into gear and go.

When I get home, I park and immediately turn off the car. If the windows and radio are still on, I can roll those up without having the engine on.

I just filled my gas tank on the way home today and noticed my car got about 2 miles per gallon more this tank. I actually spent fewer minutes with the engine on, but didn't limit how much I actually drove and it saved. Sure, only a few bucks. But what's wrong with using gas more efficiently and saving a few bucks?

I have to admit, I've noticed the same thing. I get in the car, turn it on, put the seat belt on, then close the garage door. The radio? You have to turn them off now?

It feels like a good day for chewing on your Weberific gas saving idea.

Next to Christmas week, this may be the slowest news week of the year, prompting companies and organizations to pump out an unusually high number of press releases. News organizations are hungry for the faint aroma of "news," so there's a pretty good chance that an organization's "story" -- and name -- will get on TV, the radio, or printed in a newspaper. Or a blog.

Sometimes the release involves things your parents never had to tell you, because they calculated at an early age that even you, for example, wouldn't be dumb enough to eat a glow stick. And if they did think you were dumb enough to eat a glow stick, they wouldn't buy you one in the first place.

Says Minnesota's Poison Control System:

A Glow Stick consists of a small fragile glass vial containing a chemical activator housed inside a larger plastic vial containing the dye solution. When the inactivated Glow Stick is bent, the glass vial breaks allowing the previously separated chemicals to mix. The resulting chemical reaction causes a non-heat generating light emission. While these chemicals are not very poisonous, the chemicals can irritate the skin and eyes. If swallowed, the chemicals can cause a burning sensation.

In other "news"....

Oh, by the way kids, don't do that, either.

Discovery Discover Magazine lists a few simple facts (what? No dinosaurs?) about the substance that's wreaking havoc, including the tidbit that it was once considered a health drink.

For all the sturm und drang about the protests during the Republican National Convention, you have to take at least some comfort from scenes like this in downtown St. Paul this afternoon.

It was a nice, orderly war protest at W. 7th Street and Kellogg Boulevard, right past the Xcel Energy Center. That's where the Republicans will be gathered starting Sept. 1.

Much like the pro-immigration march this spring, the local constabulary seemed to be amiably handling matters and the marchers got to make their point.

Maybe even too amiably.

The ratio of police to protestors seemed even generous by the look of the march from Kellogg Boulevard. Clearly, it was a fine day to be out getting some practice for keeping the peace, even when it looked pretty well kept already.

It makes you wonder if the marchers might take requests.

(Collins notes: I know they're real, remarkably trained and all that, but cops on bikes don't scare me the way the ones in police cars do. Why is that?)