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March 2003 Archive  Finally, a bit of green appears on the Mall. The building with the dome is the Museum of Natural History, and the tower to the right is the Old Post Office. I think I see a bunny in the clouds, too. 30 March  Circle Cam capture, Sunday morning. Yesterday, it was 72 degrees. I was driving around with the sunroof cranked back. I got in some serious porch time. Today - blimey, even the daffodils look stunned. 29 March This just in - one of our dolphins is missing.  Another foggy morning shot. 28 March  Monocoupe 110 Special "Little Butch" I had the opportunity to visit the National Air and Space Museum's new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center the other day. It's pretty amazing - huge - I never expected that the Enola Gay would ever look small to me. It opens in December. On German Television is a Story on Washington Grove Presented On March 16th, down below, I mentioned that the German TV network ZDF sent a crew to cover the Washington Grove town meeting on a proposed peace resolution. ZDF's site now has an article about the town meeting - no video, though. Trusty Babelfish provides a translation, adding a charming English as She is Spoke air to a serious issue: Vote in the Suburb 27 March  Insert your own metaphor here. A foggy morning on the Capitol grounds.  Marines from the historic 8th and I barracks are a frequent sight jogging on the Mall or the Capitol grounds. These guys were doing a new Iraq-themed cadence. I couldn't catch the words, and I didn't want to ask them to stop and do it a bit more distinctly. I'm sure it was very nice, though. 23 March  Isn't it sad when old friends fall out? Donald Rumsfeld (left), then special envoy to President Reagan, is greeted by Saddam Hussein, December 1983.  Toby the Museum Cat enjoying a warm spring afternoon.  A Korean Baptist trumpet player at Union Station, 7:00 AM, Friday. John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's a free country and all, but trumpets at the crack of dawn do not delight me. Bagpipes would be worse, I suppose, but I'd really prefer silent meditation instead.  Waiting for a story to come up and bite him. In comparison to the pictures of heightened security in New York, Washington - at least that narrow segment I see - is pretty laid back. I see a few Capitol police, but that's about it. 19 March The gates of the Temple of Janus are open. 18 March  Korean Baptist and friend singing hymns at Union Station Code Orange in DC - I've taken to carrying a camera with me when I head downtown; couldn't get over to Constitution Gardens to see the Dwight Ware Watson, the tractor guy, though. Elsewhere in town, things were pretty calm. I wonder what it'll be like when the balloon goes up? 17 March  Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Warmer WAITER, what was in that glass? Arsenic, sir. Arsenic. I asked you to bring me absinthe. I thought you said arsenic. I beg your pardon, sir. Do you realise what you've done, you clumsy fool? I'm dying. I am extremely sorry, Sir. I DISTINCTLY SAID ABSINTHE. I realise that I owe you an apology, sir. I am extremely sorry. From The Best of Myles. Who else loves Myles na gCopaleen? Some of the preparations for the liberation of Baghdad have a pronounced medieval air - this from a Washington Post article from yesterday: Troops here have planned extensively for urban fighting even as they hope to avoid it. Some of the $30 million in supplementary special equipment purchased since December by the 101st, for example, has urban implications, if not the hint of a medieval siege: 162 battering rams, 486 grappling hooks, 81 folding assault ladders and 81 battle axes. 16 March  Voting on the War Resolution Washington Grove, the home of the Janus Museum, is the only Maryland municipality that uses the town meeting form of governance. Last Wednesday, the town met to discuss a resolution supporting peaceful measures in the Iraq crisis. The debate was civil, the resolution passed. Although the troops have not yet come home, at least our town, and others around the country have meditated on the issue. Congress, being busy with vital Freedonia Fry legislation, seems to have left it to the grass roots. The event was covered by ZDF German television - even I was interviewed, though what our German friends will make of my geopolitical views remains to be seen... 14 March  Finally... The Museum's horticulturist, Martha Norbeck-Wallingford, has contributed this shot of the first blooms in the Museum's garden - last year at this time we already had daffodils. Check it out. We're trying out a webcam. It's currently set up in a window of the Library, looking out over Washington Grove's historic Circle. A new image is posted every two minutes, and operates during daylight hours. The cam's poor little brain can't quite cope with the changing light conditions, so occasionally one may see either a full eclipse effect or a lurid bright pink sky. Ah, technology... And sometimes a cat will wander through the view. Overheard last evening at Rodman's, the local drug-beer-sundries-and-food store, a large woman in the jug wine aisle, saying to a friend: "Yeah, well, I heard that the war's gonna start Sunday." Remember, you heard it here first. Well, second. I got a six pack of Guinness. 8 March Washington Grove enjoys an excellent concert series, the Mousetrap Concerts, in our town hall. We recently had Hesperus, a local early music band with an international reputation. The music, mainly Sephardic and medieval tunes, was just the thing to distract us from thoughts of war and duct tape. Curiously, I had watched Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow the evening before, and had noticed a Hesperus tune used in the ball scene, when Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) arrives in Sleepy Hollow. The tune, a medly of the Swallow and the Colly Flower appears on the Hesperus CD Early American Roots, one of my favorites - highly recommended. Here it is, played by Hesperus (Real Audio format).  Johnny Depp examines another headless corpse. |
