The Monday Briefing: Getting a jump on the 4th

PICK OF THE WEEK: Can't wait for July 4th to get your fireworks fix? One of the (many) great things about a long weekend is that the celebrating can start early. Really early, in this case, with Plymouth getting a jump on the field by holding its fireworks show at 10 p.m. Wednesday following a performance by the Minnesota Orchestra at Hilde Performance Center. And many other venues will be lighting up the skies Sunday night, including Bloomington (Normandale Lake Park), Marine on St. Croix (Village Hall) and Hudson, Wis. (Lakefront Park).

Cheat sheet: The buzz about the Ryder Cup golf tourney is building and likely will continue to do so as we creep toward the Sept. 30 start. To bring you up to speed:

• It's held every other year and pits a team of the top men golfers from the United States against a team of Europe's best. The women's version, called the Solheim Cup, is played in the years opposite the men's tourney.

• It alternates between Europe and the United States. This will be its first time in Minnesota.

• It gets extensive media coverage on ESPN, the Golf Channel and network TV and is considered a really big deal — at least until the following weekend, when the next stop on the pro tour gets extensive media coverage on ESPN, the Golf Channel and network TV.

Day by day: Tuesday is national Paul Bunyan Day, something Minnesotans must never take for granted. We know that Paul is part of our state heritage, but a lot of other places are trying to horn in by making facetious claims about him, including Maine, Arizona, California and Wisconsin. (Wisconsin? Have you ever seen a statue of Paul and Babe wearing cheesehead hats?)

LIFE HACK: To make sure you don't accidentally send an e-mail before you're done writing (and rewriting) it, don't fill in the "to" field until you've finished the message.

recommended reading: The theme for Wednesday's Variety is how to write a killer college-app essay.

JEFF STRICKLER • jeff.strickler@startribune.com