August 2004 Archive

Some interesting Hanuman links on Monkeyfilter, via Metafilter. The same Mefi discussion also linked Godchecker, a good-looking site, but still lacking its Indian pantheon (no Hanuman) and the Roman pantheon, too (no Janus!).

By the way, Hurricane Charlie bypassed us, but we smoked the cigars, drank the beer, and watched the movies we had laid in, anyway.

I went for a hike to McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area along the Potomac on Saturday. But the only wildlife I saw was this guy, Tango:



Back at work, I rooted through the Museum archives, and I found this undated Janus photograph taken in what I believe to be the same area:



It's a carbro print, I think. Here are some other images of the Potomac region on the site.

The Museum's staff meteorologist keeps watch on the developing weather situation from the porch of the Historic Cottage.

It looks like we're well off Hurricane Charlie's track, but after our experience with Isabel last year, the Museum staff made careful preparations, each in our own way - our intern Zoe sensibly laid in bottled water, bread, and canned goods. I got a supply of DVDs - Hellboy and Goodbye, Lenin. The Pacer Farm kindly lent us Hidalgo, too. And my copy of The Turkish Wizard of Oz arrived in the mail, too - what luck. Gus, our maintenance man, also went shopping, and reported back with beer, cigars, jerky, and ammo. So I guess we're ready.

13 August - Cat Critics' Choice


She (left) and He from Private Life of a Cat

Max and Maxine, the Museum's Museum Cats, are not great film-goers, but they give two paws up to

Glimpsed on the road this afternoon, the rare amphibious Geo Metro. Could it possibly be the one mentioned in this article? The propeller looked too small to actually have much of an effect - can one purchase aftermarket non-functional propellers for puzzling one's fellow motorists?

Update - Duh ... Of course, it's a trailer hitch plug. But... what can a Geo Metro possibly tow?

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7 August - Historic Haberdashery



I've mentioned before that Gus Norbeck, the Museum's maintenance man,

6 August - Defenses of Washington Update

The Capitol Police continue to fortify their enclave, which appears to expand daily -



Here's a convenient portable guard booth on the grounds of

the Taft Carillon




A handsome arrangement of Jersey Barriers appeared yesterday in Union Station Plaza; the Capitol's azaleas are now secure.




The severity of this arrangment of the classic Jersy Barrier provides a curious counterpoint to the formerly pastoral atmosphere of Union Staion Plaza.

Downtown again this morning - I paused to take a couple of shots of the Capitol Police checkpoint on Constitution Avenue again. Then, crossing the street, I took a snap with the camera held at waist level - the crappy shot above, as a matter of fact. One of the officers immediately took position in front of me. He said "Everything all right?" "Yes, indeed" I said with a winning smile - "Just fine".

"Why are you taking pictures covertly, sir?" he said. It was a fair cop, I have to admit, though I would have said that I was doing it unobstrusively, rather than covertly, which has such a sneaking air to it. Rather than get into a discussion of my particular aesthetic of street photography, I explained that I had occasionally been hassled while shooting openly on the Capitol grounds. "Well, you can see that it's pretty suspicious to take a picture covertly, can't you, sir?" I admitted that it did look suspicious. I was very glad that I had decided to wear something else other than my dishdasha this morning. The officer continued - "You see our point of view, don't you, sir?" "I certainly do, officer - you make an excellent point that I will certainly keep in mind".

He let me go, and I felt a sudden kinship with the great artist William Hogarth (1697-1764). Visiting France in 1747, just after peace was signed, Hogarth was sketching the great gate of Calais when he was arrested by soldiers. He was accused of espionage and taken before the governor of Calais. The governor looked at Hogarth's sketches, admitted that they were more artistic than strategic, and let him go, though first telling the artist in a kindly way that had France and England still been at war, he (the governor) would have regretfully been forced to shoot him (Hogarth). He was escorted to the Dover packet, dropped on board, and then one of the soldiers - strangely - spun Hogarth like a top. Furious, Hogarth went home and painted one of his masterworks, O the Roast Beef of Old England - Calais Gate:



That's Hogarth on the left, busily sketching, about to get busted. Here's a better reproduction from the Tate.

At least the Capitol Police officer refrained from spinning me like a top. He was quite nice, actually. Here's another Capitol Police officer on the Capitol grounds, very heavily armed:



Oh, right - the Washington Post writes today on the more aggressive steps that the Capitol Police force have taken in protecting their enclave since Chief Terrance Gainer took over the force two years ago. Maybe I'll go another way, next time I head downtown.

I saw a bit of the increased security downtown for the Orange Alert, mainly this checkpoint on Constitution Avenue. I also saw Buffy the Capitol Police dog efficiently sniff out the cargo hold of a tourist bus.

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So I realize that I've got a bunch of shots in the camera that I've failed to download in a timely way, including this snap of a very animated eel fisherman, Cory Weyant of Freeport, New York, brandishing a smoked eel, at the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival in July:



Behind him is his eel smoker -



... and here are some of his smoked eels, smoking in his eel smoker. They looked pretty good, but I was sun-stroked at the time.