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April 2003 Archive  Relentless kitty cuteness in the Circle. Peake (left) delivers a body slam to Toby the Museum Cat. Not shown - Toby clobbers Peake with a folding metal chair.  Potomac near Carderock. What I do for a photograph: it was a lovely day with the Red Bud blooming. I was hiking a lower part of the Billy Goat Trail, and I ventured closer to the river bank for a noble composition involving a narrow spit, flooded trees, and Vaso Island in the background. The river bank is not a terribly salubrious place, and I slipped on the greasy mud. Barely keeping my feet as I slid towards the river, I held the camera aloft out of harm's way. So when I finally went arse over tip into the water, it was like a scene from Le Morte D'Arthur - me as the Lady of the Lake holding Excalibur (played by the Nikon) above the billowing wave. I emerged from the ooze, snapped the picture, and retired, dripping, to the trail. Bajrangbali Fever continues. I've been lending the DVD to select friends, and even burned the musical numbers onto a CD. And here's a great Classics Comics-style version of the Ramayana, including most of the movie action. Hanuman makes his first appearance in Part 6. 19 April  Green-up continues in the Museum's forest preserve; the snow melt and rainfall has made strolling a fairly muddy operation, though. 18 April  Toby the Museum Cat meets Nick. Initially a bit tense, they soon warmed to each other - Nick politely rolled over and showed Toby his belly:  ... and they parted on the friendliest terms. 12 April - My Man Hanuman  Dara Singh as Hanuman the Monkey God in Bajrangbali. Notice the tail sticking behind - he does great tail tricks with it. If you see one movie musical about Hanuman the Monkey God this year, make sure it's Bajrangbali, starring Dara Singh as Hanuman. Based on the tales of the Ramayana, it features fabulous hats, beautiful sets, incredible special effects, and singing and dancing Hindu gods performed in that understated Bollywood style by a talented cast of portly actors and actresses - this movie has everything - and it's only three hours long. Oh, yes - Hanuman and his monkey army hop up and down during the battle scenes. And beware of having nectar in your navel...  Hanuman surprises his mom.  Shiva and Parvathi riding on a bullock and singing.  My favorite scene so far - Ganesha and friends.  The annual Washington Grove Easter Egg Hunt just took place. Great excitement. 11 April  Unrest spreads to the Circle - Peaches (left) menaces Toby the Museum Cat on the porch of the Washington Grove Pacer Farm, via the Pacer Farm Circle Cam. No casualties were reported. Keegan on the War - Why were pundit casualties so high? Military historian John Keegan, whose masterful The First World War I'm, er, still getting through, writes an interesting analysis of the war in today's Telegraph, via Instapundit: Military analysis is not a difficult business. It partakes of two other techniques in which newspapers employ experts: investment forecasting and racing tipping. The investment approach requires a knowledge of organisational structure, personnel, equipment and so on - what City writers call the company profile. The tipster ingredient, which is the smaller one, bases itself on form and the look of the animal. 8 April  Toby the Museum Cat meditates in the daffodils during our temporary spring weather over the weekend. Something like winter has now come back.  Great events are happening elsewhere in the world, but the big news in town is the arrival of Nick, a sweet and gentle border collie. Everyone I run into says - Have you met Nick? - Oh, I ran into Nick! - Say, heard about Nick?. Reports are that he gets on well with the local dogs, seems to like cats, is settling in nicely. He was adopted by Judy and Ed, the owners of Bandit, Toby's old friend - still missed, but now not quite so sorely. 3 April - La Vie Gendarmerie  There were small groups of police all over the stretch of DC that I traverse in the morning, but any air of impending Code Orangey-type danger was dissipated by the law's relaxed attitude - lounging, chatting, reading the paper - a nice way to spend a spring morning on the Mall. In the afternoon, there were even more of 'em, still relaxed. But a citizen still wonders - what's going on? I recently heard a rumor from a highly-placed reliable source in one of the more active government agencies concerning military advisors assisting the Iraqis - Russians, Serbians, and French advisors. The rumor goes on to state that if any of them are caught by Our Side - "they won't be going home..." Haven't heard a breath of it anywhere else - have you? 2 April - Code Orange blossom time in DC  Cherry blossoms frame a VACIS installation on the Capitol Grounds. The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, from Slate. It puts me in mind of President Bush's Make the Pie Higher, as edited by the Washington Post cartoonist Richard Thompson. Toothsome recipes from Czerws’ Polish Food Products of Philadelphia. Thank the lord that consuming sausages can be patriotic, nowadays. |
