Colder and Merry (Greek) Christmas!

Four hours passed this cold gray day before a penny was made. Oh sure, I like pedalling around the Mall and getting some exercise, but this is a job and that means I need to get paid for it.
But there was a lighting of a Christmas tree on the grounds of the Capitol at 5pm . Several pairs of ladies paid for my words and legs. A Greek pair told me the way to say Merry Christmas in Greek - phonetically - Kala Christougena.

"The whole world is waiting for your Congress to pass a climate bill."

"The whole world is waiting for your Congress to pass a climate bill." said a young woman from Italy I picked up in front of Smithsonian Air and Space Museum tonight. She works on climate change for the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, Environment Research and Development Department in Rome.

Vanessa has a Ph.D. in Microbiology; she worked on biological remediation methods for hydrocarbons (oil) pollution. She also has a Masters degree in International Law.

I feel like I disappointed her when I gave my jaded ex-lobbyist perception that the current priorities for the Obama Administration were The Economy (stupid !, as President Clinton campaigned),  Afghanistan, health care, then maybe, climate change.  I thought about Steven Covey's quadrants for prioritizing:  urgent/not urgent vs important/not important. Global warming may be important (IT IS!) but not collectively perceived as urgent yet. It will take the Great(er) Communicator President Barack Obama many speeches and press conferences to convince the American people and thus their Congress that time is now, even overdue, for substantive action on climate change legislation.

She mentioned Obama's excellent campaign speeches promising action onclimate change legislation.  I thought of that joke about heaven and hell where hell was golf courses, lobster and steak dinners, strolling violins etc. and heaven was quiet and harps. Something like one was advertising and one was something else. (OK, I can't remember the joke exactly so will edit the blog later..)

We took a 45 minute tour to the Lincoln Memorial, passing where the President was about to light the National Christmas tree! It looks great! Buon Natale!

2 doctors, a lawyer and a Texan

Several more interesting folks I drove today,  Tuesday, usually slow. At the Capitol I picked up a young couple who's family came from Kerala in southern India. a family physician and a radiologist couple. It was right next to the James A. Garfield statue so I had a good story to tell I heard from Stephen Pinker podcast on the mind.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield
Most historians and medical experts now believe that Garfield probably would have survived his wound had the doctors attending him been more capable.^[27] Several inserted their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe for the bullet, and one doctor punctured Garfield's liver in doing so. This alone would not have caused death as the liver is one of the few organs in the human body that can regenerate itself. However, this physician probably introduced Streptococcus bacteria into the President's body and that caused blood poisoning for which at that time there were no antibiotics.

Guiteau was found guilty of assassinating Garfield, despite his lawyers raising an insanity defense. He insisted that incompetent medical care had really killed the President. Although historians generally agree that poor medical care was an element, it was not a legal defense. Guiteau was sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on June 30, 1882, in Washington, D.C.

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Next, a Texan wanted to go to the Rayburn House Office Building to tell his Congressman why he opposed the health care bill. He paid me to wait 45 minutes, then take him to WWII and VietNam Memorials. He was a paratrooper "jumping out of perfectly good airplanes" in VietNam with the 101st and 82nd Airborne. He is a small businessman and we talked about as a small businessman, success or failure is all the owners fault, the American Way!
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Finally, on the way back to the shop, I picked up a a well dressed man and his wife.  Today this man from Minnesota argued before the Supreme Court, suing the government for laws he said were written by Citibank and Visa that allows lawyers to give bad advice on financial matters.  We both loved Mondale.

"Happy wife, happy life." the secret to 30 years together.

It was dark and the temperature was dropping. Picked up a joyful couple from Bay City, Michigan on the last day of their 30th anniversary trip. So the 1/2 hour tour started from the Washington Monument. "Foundation laid in 1848 but the civil war interrupted things. See the two colors of stone 1/3 of the way up? They ran out of money and it laid unbuilt for a couple decades until a Federal Commission was appointed and it was finally finished in 1884, at 555 feet it was the tallest building in the modern world until the Eiffel Tower surpassed it in 1889."

Then off to my favorite, the Jefferson Memorial, where I learned the couple was on an anniversary ride.

I pointed to the Tidal Basin and told them about my first anniversary 4 months earlier.  I used to tell my wife several times as we passed the blue paddle boats, that while I have been here for most of 30 years (permanent tourist, eh?) I had never taken a rideon these little boats. So Trish started our amazing anniversary soiree with a ride on the paddleboats and a picnic.

Then, from the Jefferson, we went to the Capitol and time was well passed the 1/2 hour so I stopped the clock and drove them partly back as I was late to return my pedicab.

I asked this happy couple, she a nurse installing cardiac stents and catheterizations, he a school janitor, the secret to their 30 years?

She ginned and said"Happy Wife, Happy Life!

I had to call my wife on that one....

Old cell phones traded at Natural History Museum for 3D Movie

Traded three old cell phones for three IMAX tickets at Smithsonian Museum of Natural History 3D Wild Oceans movie! Nokia doing this special for one more week! Save your coltan, a mineral used in cell phone metals. San Diego Zoo warns of relation between cell phones, coltan mining and extinction of Great Apes.

Milano, Amsterdam and Mexico City

It was a beautiful day to pedicab today - cloudy and not too hot, not too cold, like the three bears porridge. After taking an American mother and older son to the Grand Hyatt, an Italian woman from Milan here for business with the pet food part of Mars asked for a round trip to CVS. We chatted in Italian about La Scala and our recent honeymoon in Italy.
Then Richard, a kind financial analyst from Amsterdam took a tour from me and I snapped a few pictures of him on my cell phone to send to my wife so I could send to him via email.  I love the 21st century sometimes!
Finally on the way back to the shop, found a happy Mexican couple near the Capitol, managed enough Spanish to give good tour.  He works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent a nice note.

All spoke English very well. Too bad most of us don't speak their languages.

More than 2,000 children from D.C. area trick-or-treat at the White House with the Obamas

Picked up a white ghost faced little 3rd grade girl and her Mom and took the short ride up 15th Street from the front of the White House to the back so she could go trick-or-treating at the White House. I was told she was chosen by lottery out of a pool of local students who participated in sports.

And I had to send a note to my sister in law who once helped the engineering of a process to print on the tiny face of M&M's. The kids got dried fruit and M&M's with President Obama's signature!

http://www.startribune.com/nation/67981162.html