CITY DAILY PHOTO JANUARY THEME DAY - PHOTO OF THE YEAR

If you are a photography junkie like me it's hard to select a single picture out of a year's work. I considered some that reflected the tumult and  anxiety of 2021. In the end, I decided on something peaceful and beautiful, hoping it might be therapeutic. This is Ruby Beach on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, photographed in September.

On the other hand, if you care to see what I really thought of 2021 click here: https://saintlouismodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2021/10/armageddon-st-louis-style.html                

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.      

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.        

Sunday Night Supplement

So, the flight into Washington National was fine. I get to the hotel and check in. Odd things begin to happen. After she runs my credit card, the clerk presses a warm cookie in a little paper bag into my hand. That's different. I don't eat cookies but I am surprised and accept it. Some US hotels have the TV turned on when a guest checks into the room, usually to the hotel info channel. But a few hotels anticipate your every desire and my TV - how did they know! - is showing an Austin Powers movie. Strangest of all, I am assigned Room 666. I am shocked that any US hotel would have a Room 666. Some of my fundamentalist countrymen and women would completely flip out. For those of you from non-Christian societies, the reference is from the last book of the New Testament, Revelations, full of mystic symbolism about the end of time. 666 is "the mark of the beast," a numerological representation of Satan or the Antichrist. The room is quite comfortable but if I notice sulfurous fumes emanating from the vents I may ask for a change.

TOMORROW: Such a waste.