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December 10th, 2014
Cheap thrill: crossing the ford through Rock Creek in 1960.
When my family moved from Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia in the early 1950s we lived for a while in a small motel on Arlington Boulevard, near Fort Myer, while my parents looked for a house.
We were within Frisbee range of the Nation’s […]
November 12th, 2014
I tuned in to the Concert for Valor last night, after I learned that HBO was unscrambling its signal so that even non-subscribers such as I could enjoy the Veterans Day tribute.
I expected the usual bland assortment of pop music stars delivering the usual red, white, and blue anthems with earnest efficiency. And the […]
November 5th, 2014
In autumn sunlight gilds the birches at the edge of Green Lake in Seattle.
Far from the maddening mud fight of politics, the world of gardening spins steadily along. Days shorten, temperatures drop, and leaves skitter across the lawn.
Gardeners are immune to the vagaries of political power struggles. Regimes and movements come […]
October 6th, 2014
Tie-dyed t-shirts had to be home-made in 1970, when only freaks wore them.
The crisp feeling in the air, the rustle of dry leaves skittering along the sidewalk, the scent of fresh apples — these things signal the most poetic time of the year, for me.
Others may wax nostalgic about spring or […]
September 8th, 2014
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., includes telling quotes from his momentous twelve years in office.
I don’t know who I am anymore.
I used to be this fiction person. Never willingly read anything else. But something’s come over me in the last year or so. Call it reality, at long […]
August 12th, 2014
Wonk this way. Just steps from the Capitol, a garden offers secluded serenity.
In our nation’s capital, a place normally immune to the dictates of fashion, detail-oriented paranoia never goes out of style. For people who want to be taken seriously — that is to say, almost everyone except the tourists who come […]
July 29th, 2014
Hungarian artist Gabor Miklos Szoke created this giant wood sculpture of a Hungarian Puli dog, an ancient herding breed, for the 2013 Folk Life Festival on the National Mall. Everyone loves a big dog.
They’re here! The hottest weeks of summer. That time the Romans called caniculares dies, or, for those of you […]
July 1st, 2014
Claude Jones played real good for free at Fort Reno Park in 1970.
Everybody sing: “Back of my neck gettin’ hot and gritty.”
In 1966, whether you lived on a farm or in a penthouse, chances are you heard that Lovin Spoonful hit floating on the breeze. It was everywhere for a few […]
June 16th, 2014
Bill Wood’s stainless steel work suggests mountains made of sky.
We set off to explore the wilds of Foggy Bottom on Saturday. The clear blue skies and mild temperatures provided a perfect framework in which to view the outdoor sculpture biennial‘s fourth season.
I’m a big fan of art, but sometimes it’s just […]
May 26th, 2014
There’ll always be an England in one small corner of Georgetown.
Every fandom has its debates.
Gryffindor vs Slytherin. Edward vs Jacob. Angel vs Spike.
Fans of Jane Austen tend to be a civil bunch, disinclined to wage the sort of rough and tumble debate that thrives on the internet. Although, much as […]
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