Annie Malone Parade

At the Annie Malone Parade yesterday, a favorite annual photo op. The Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center has done a great deal of good for St. Louis' African-American community for 125 years. The parade gives its friends and supporters an opportunity to strut their stuff. However, the graphics display on its home page uses two of my photos from last year, without my permission as best I can tell. Note to webmaster: busted. Don't do it again, or else.

You meet the nicest people at events like this. It's common that people see me walk by, sagging under two DSLRs and a bag-o-lenses, and ask me to take their picture. That's what happened with the charming family in the first picture. I would not want to arm wrestle with the guy on the left, though.

The second shot are members of the marching band from our Visual And Performing Arts School. More to follow.        

Apotheosis

Fancy word, apotheosis. Who in the history of this country deserves such exaltation? George Washington, of course. Father of our country. The dude whose face is on the $1 bill, making it iconic. The Apotheosis of Washington is the fresco that covers the very top of the interior of the Capitol dome. You can't see much detail from down on the floor without binoculars or a telephoto lens.

I don't think modern Americans know much of anything about Washington. Sure, chief general in our Revolutionary War, crossed the Delaware River in a rowboat in the middle of winter, chopped down a cherry tree when he was a kid, first president. Oh, and that face on money thing. Ask people on the street something beyond that.      

I Like Ike

Carolyn and I spent much of yesterday in the U.S. Capitol, home of the Senate and House of Representatives. I hadn't been there since childhood and it was her first visit.

Lots of good pix but I'm having trouble with my laptop. The trackpad isn't working right and I can't crop or drag so just one for today. More when we get home.

Each state gets two statues in the Capitol. This is the best-known of the pair from Kansas. Carolyn's home. Dwight Eisenhower, of course, was Supreme Allied Commander during World War II and president of the U.S. from 1953 to 1961. Our guide told us the statue was based on a photograph from the war years. The general was explaining to an enlisted man how he liked to tie a fishing fly.

Would He Weep At What He Sees?

Abraham Lincoln sits at the western end of the National Mall, contemplating the city of Washington spread out before him.   He sees the seat of a government so dysfunctional that it feels like a chess game in a perpetual state of check. Yet the state of affairs in his day was so much worse. We Americans were trying to kill one another over what were, at the root, economic issues; over money. Now we use more sophisticated means.

Below, views of the White House from the south and north. Last, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, one of the most emotionally intense places I have ever seen. It seemed trivialized yesterday by swarms of unappreciative high school groups, snapping pix of one another on their phones in a famous place.

I'm on the conference program this morning but it's likely I'll slip out with my camera later in the day.        

J. Edgar Hoover

We got into Washington Tuesday night. My meeting didn't start until late yesterday afternoon. Mrs. C and I spent several hours Tuesday at the Newseum, which is about just what it says. One of the current exhibits was about the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which meant it was about J. Edgar Hoover, who for decades was its notorious chief.

Although Hoover was a tenacious adversary of crime, he had a dark side that was eventually revealed. He became a paranoid crusader against any hint of Communist activity. Some say he persecuted gay men in public life, although controversy remains today about whether he himself was gay.

The last photo from this exhibit is a recreation of the Montana shack of someone well known to Americans, Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomer. Click the link if you would like to know the significance to us.

Something New

The bridges over the Mississippi at St. Louis are very crowded. There are two very old ones and another that's more modern but has been around for many decades. We need a stent in our arteries.

A new river crossing is nearing completion just north of downtown. The decision was a tussle between the two states it will serve. Illinois, being more liberal and interested in public works (although it's now in considerable financial trouble) wanted to have at least three lanes in each direction and to charge a toll. Missouri, ever the cheapskate, refused to consider tolls. So we're getting two lanes in each direction, which is inadequate. It's amazing the bridge got started. The two states have had so many disagreements that the structure doesn't even have a name yet, although it's not far from opening.

We're in Washington. Pix starting tomorrow.         

Produce Row

Necessity, according to the old saying and Frank Zappa, is the mother of invention. I'm getting a little hard up for material. Last weekend, while cruising around the central city, I drove by Produce Row, the area's big wholesale fruit and vegetable market. It was closed in the late afternoon when I arrived but I got these through the fence.

Heading for Washington, DC, tonight, where I am attending a professional conference. I'll be short on comments for a few days and may or may not get something posted on Wednesday. Photos from the seat of power on Thursday for sure.