I’ve been thinking that it’s kind of a bummer to begin the holiday weekend with an obituary, so I thought I’d put up something a bit more entertaining. Of course, the odds are against anyone actually reading any of this before Tuesday morning, and if you are reading this over the weekend, I recommend that you immediately shut down your computer and get yourself outside. Follow the smell of charred beef and cordite until you find some Fourth of July festivities, then plant your butt in a lawn chair and enjoy the things that make this country great: artery-clogging meat products, microbrewed beer, and entertaining pyrotechnic devices. Or, as Apu once said, “Celebrate the independence of your country by blowing up a small piece of it.”

If, however, you are one of those unfortunate drones who is chained to the computer during this time of revelry, listening to the slow methodical drumbeat of that fat guy who lets you know when to swing the oar, allow me to provide you with some diversions:

You’re probably sick of the subject already, but if you’d like to read more about the life and films of Marlon Brando, I recommend this appreciation over at Salon. You’ll have to sit through a brief commercial to gain access to the article, but it’s a good read from an intelligent (if somewhat irascible) film critic.

If you’re tired of hearing about deceased celebrities, Lileks devoted a few amusing paragraphs of Friday’s Bleat to one of the less-appreciated aspects of the classic Star Trek TV series, the distinctive incidental music.

For some space adventure here in the Real World (Galaxy?), check out the latest photographs from the Cassini space probe, currently orbiting the ringed planet Saturn, on either NASA’s Cassini site or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s mission home page. Even more intriguing than the photos is a “sound” recording made by the probe as it entered Saturn’s magnetic field. (Of course, there isn’t any actual sound in space, but the readings made by Cassini’s plasma detectors of the solar wind interacting with the ringed planet’s magfield have been compressed and rendered by a computer into a haunting audio track.) You can hear that recording on NPR’s Cassini page. Look for the link called “Sounds of Saturn, Captured by Cassini as It Met the Planet’s Magnetic Field.”

Perhaps you’re more interested in visitors to our world. If so, you may want to know that Spanish Fork, Utah, a small farm town to the south of Salt Lake City, has been chosen as an alien landing site. Go here for a nifty overhead view of Utah’s own crop circle, and if the thought of mysterious markings appearing overnight in a wheat field alarms you, just remember the pluck displayed by Mel Gibson’s daughter in Signs: “Daddy, there’s a monster in my closet, can I have a glass of water?”

Finally, in the spirit of the holiday, Wil Wheaton offers up a remembrance of the Independence Day when he learned something about being a grown-up.

After all of that, if you still need a way to kill some time, treat yourself to some fireworks and try to imagine yourself sitting on a blanket with someone you love and a warm summer breeze wafting across your sunburned legs.

Happy Fourth of July, and remember not to hold onto the firecracker after the fuse has been lit. See you in three days…