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April 2004 Archive  Say goodbye to the Museum Kittens, and say hello to the Museum Cats - Max and Maxine are now one year old. The day has been marked by the ceremonial introduction of adult cat kibble into their customary kitten chow, and their ceremonial turn up of noses at it. Other festivities planned include napping, wrestling, resting on the blue blankey, scampering, and perhaps another nap. 23 April I'm finally convinced that Spring - quite delayed this year - has arrived at last -  The mallards in Norbeck Fountain are introducing their ducklings.  The Washington Grove oaks, always slow, are leafing out at last. I plan on getting in some serious porch time this weekend.  Met Buffy, a member of the Capitol Hill police force yesterday. Nice doggy. 17 April - Amish Fashion Statement  Back during his hippie days long long ago, our maintenance man Gus Norbeck outfitted himself almost entirely in stuff purchased from the Whole Earth Catalog. One of his favorite vendors was an Amish clothier, Gohn Brothers of Middlebury, Indiana. Recently, Gus asked our intern Zoe to try to find the Gohns on the web. She kindly did so, and found the address and phone number - but no web site for an Amish business, of course - web sites are worldly and vain. Gus made the call and quickly received the rather elegant denim jacket shown above. It has hooks and eyes instead of buttons, which are worldly and vain. The two pockets are inside the jacket - are exterior pockets worldly and vain, too? The jacket costs $28.98 and Gus ordered the stand up collar option for an additional two bucks, which gives it a fine retro Nehru jacket look. It's a very good-looking jacket - I may have to get one, myself. I notice that the Gohns were written up in the Cool Tools blog back in February; with a little more viral marketing, Gohn jackets could be the next big hip thing, just like German prison clothing was for about three weeks last year. And wouldn't you rather have threads made by God-fearing Amish instead of a bunch of German cons? 16 April Noam Scheiber of The New Republic's &c. blog reports a touching testimonial to our president's talents, which obviously shined like a beacon I finally finished doing the Museum's taxes yesterday; not quite at the last minute but near enough. Take my word for it, don't ever use tax preparation software purchased from a dollar store. 14 April  Another day dawns, and another sighting of our frequent visitor, the CSX Trash Train, on its way to the Dickerson incinerator. Good view of the intermodal well cars, today. Received another letter from Emerson Chu, our Chinese airship correspondent; here's a sampling of his philosophical, geopolitical ramblings - nothing on airships, this time: Living is full of painsMore of Mr. Chu's aphorisms can be found here and here. 13 April  Hard to tell in this photo, but it's pouring down rain - as it has been all day - driving away a profitable onslaught of tourists flocking to view the famous Janus Museum azaleas, now in bloom. But there's a fine sunset bathing The Circle in pure golden light that puts me in mind of tornado weather. I'm not impressed with spring, so far. 10 April - A Single Kiss They were offering a new sort of Hershey's Kiss - filled with caramel, over at the grocery store today. A lady was handing them out, and I asked for one, polite, like. She says - certainly, but sorry, only one per customer. I say - I suffer from multiple personality syndrome; may I have one for each personality? She says - you all are going to have to share. The Kiss was good, but a bit too sweet.  Went for a walk in Wallingford Park, and ran into Nina, the Great Dane. She's usually friendly, but today was quite barky and froward. I don't blame her - the news being what it is lately, I'm getting pretty barky myself. 7 April  A beautiful, though slightly smelly sight - The CSX Trash Train at the Gates of Dawn. Opposite is Hershey's, Washington Grove's finest restaurant - try the famous fried chicken or the crab cakes.  When one lives in the DC area, one is obliged to take at least one Cherry Blossom snap during Cherry Blossom season. My work is done. 4 April  The final concert of the season of Washington Grove's Mousetrap Concerts was splendid. The guitarist Paul Galbraith performed Bach, Debussy and Ravel; the day being warm, the windows of McCathran Hall were open, and the birds accompanied Galbraith in the Bach. And for the reception afterwards, Friend of the Museum Alice Negin's famous Mousetrap Meatballs were served up. Bach well-played, and meatballs to follow - splendid, splendid...  Following the concert and the meatballs, we crossed Wallingford Park to watch neighbor Betsy Klinger move her new bees into their hives. Betsy sprayed them with sugar-water, which made them happy and relaxed, and then dumped them - carefully - into the hives. Fat and happy from the sugar water, the bees were marvelously complaisant about the whole procedure. Some did fly about and land on onlookers, but none offered to sting. Note to self - sugar-water spray is an excellent tranquilizer - will certainly carry a bottle of it around with me for self-protection - wonder if fleets of aircraft equipped with sugar-water sprays could have positive effect on international tension? Perhaps a generous grant from Domino to study the phenomenon? |
