Quote from sociobiologist EO WIlson's new book Anthill

"He constructed a broader context in which he drew a picture of humanity, and of himself. The image was at first vague, but grew thereafter steadily in clarity. In time he understood that nature was not something outside the human world. The reverse is true. Nature is the real world, and humanity exists on islands within it."

I really enjoy my passengers. The couple that came up to me when I was being interviewed, the Ellmores of North Carolina, and I had a a wonderful ride. Unfortunately the US Botanic Garden was closed as they have an amazing orchids exhibit. (I used to have hobby of killing orchids, now I water them less and they live longer and bloom once in a while!)

And for Mr. Ellmore, who works for Duke Energy, at the end of a joyous ride, I pointed out the fin de siecle ethos carved into the stone at Union Station something like - "electricity- lighter of darkness, conveyor of messages," etc. and I want to find it exactly online and post it because it honored him and his work and gave an idea of the hustle and bustle and manifest destiny jazz of the turn of the previous century when electricity was a new and marvelous thing, not just another semi-regulated industry we all take for granted.

http://peoplesdistrict.blogspot.com/2010/04/paul-on-riding-through-history.html

It's springtime in Washington: the cherry trees are blooming!

Wow! Spring has finally sprung in Washington DC! And a simple gesture of peace by a Japanese businessman around the turn of the previous century, a gift of dozens of cherry tress, has become a Cherry Blossom Festival drawing thousands from around the world. Tomorrow starts the two week Festival!
http://www.nps.gov/cherry/schedule-of-events.htm

Pedicabs on skis?

After two relentless snowstorms, one the National Weather Service http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ called a blizzard, Washington is still digging out from mountains of snow. Biscuit, a Red Cross buddy, called, laughing, saying he wanted his birthday pedicab ride now. I said, "Sure, just get me a half dozen hardy Huskies and a couple of skis and away we go!"
We pray for spring.

Poem for passing through Springfield

01/28/2010 10:36 EST

Poem for passing through Springfield

Malaise or Evolution?

Driving through Springfield just off 95, where we lived 30, no 40, years ago when Dad was transferred here from VietNam, I noticed a few little changes.

What a surprise to see Mickey Dee’s now a Saigon City selling pho and an orange neon sign saying, OPEN. Gone are those golden arches touting how many billions sold. Where is that idealist on the bus on the way to Lee High School dividing the Earth’s population and wondering how many days McDonald’s could feed us all?

And Pizza Hut is now Kabul Kabob. (I imagine Paul Simon’s “My Little Town” song floating through my multi-media mind…) Do we invade countries then adopt the cuisine of their refugees?

My old Little League field is now an office complex that has my destination, a coin counting machine so that cup full of $64.04 minus a few wheat pennies and silver dimes, will keep things from bouncing. (And Joni Mitchell’s “Pave Paradise, Put Up A Parking Lot is enervating cells in my auditory cortex…)


We’re just doing the best we can. Or are we? Depression era Marine Corps parents had flabby kids who woke up too slowly to join the struggle. (And Jackson Browne’s “struggle for the legal tender..)

Free Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors Exhibit at National Geo. every Wed 6pm

At National Geographic Society Museum at 17th and M Sts., until March 31 when the exhibit leaves, 200 free day-of tickets will be available for the 6:00 p.m. exhibition viewing every Wednesday. Tickets will be distributed at 5:30 p.m. with a limit of two tickets per person. $5 for an audio tour was well worth it.

An entire necropolis of an army made of clay with 100 rivers of mercury was discovered in X'ian province from the Qin dynasty, just after the Warring States period in China.

"Qin Shihuang, the first creator of a unified dynasty in Chinese history, died at the age of 50 during his tour of inspection. Emperor Qin Shihuang's experience, life and merits and demerits are noticeable, even the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum sitting at the foot of Lishan Mountain has drawn great attention due to many unresolved mysteries."

The Willard Hotel, Frito's, Nixon's Inauguration, Lobbyists and more...

Two close blocks from The White House is the Willard InterContinental Hotel, and a grand hotel it is! Some Suites go for $3,000 per night! Some say the word lobbyists came from the Willard Hotel and the days of hard-drinking President Gen. Ulysses S. Grant nightly wandering over to the Willard bar for a whiskey. There were gladhanding throngs lurking in the lobby only too happy to buy the President a whiskey and succor federal favor.  Martin Luther King wrote his "I Have A Dream" speech he delivered on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 there.

Some of my own personal history include my mother's habit of taking her sons to lunch around Christmas-time and eating surf and turf at the Occidental Restaurant inside the Willard.  But my favorite story comes from a cold January 20, 1968 when Richard Milhous Nixon was to be inaugurated President. I was an 11 year old new Boy Scout, and our Troop 881, was to a be a back up Honor Guard. That meant we froze in our little uniforms and were allowed to warm ourselves and wait interminably inside the now dilapitaded run down Willard Hotel, paint peeling and graffiti abounding.

Marriott had given up one box lunch each, Pepsi all the Pepsi we could drink and Frito's all the Frito's we nervous, cold Boy Scouts could shovel into our fat faces.  It was only a few years ago that the smell of Frito's didn't bring on a nausea.