OLYMPUS E-P1 PROJECT
... i wandered from cincinnati to columbus, following route 22 through small towns and fields of corn awaiting harvest ... in the city of washington court house i stopped to visit the fayette county courthouse ... while i'm sure the offices along the periphery of the building are well lit, the interior foyer was dismally dark, as if it were the set for some 1940's gangster movie ... in the large courtroom, which fills one side of the building, two very tired looking lawyers were having some sort of a discussion with a rather tired looking judge while a very tired looking bailiff seemed to be snoozing as he stood his post guarding the door ... sitting on the ancient wooden benches facing the central stairwell were several people, each apparently awaiting a turn before the bench ... two young girls huddled with an older women, her attire and lack of nose rings and prominent tattoos leading me to believe there was a good chance she was their lawyer ... they appeared to be having a gum popping contest while she studied the notes written in very tidy cursive on the yellow pad she kept aligned neatly across her lap ... a rather surely looking man was hunched over at the other end of the bench, it was only after a second glance i noticed his hands were cuffed in front of him ... at the door of the nearby records office a uniformed cop was chatting it up with a very pretty secretary, in his serious flirtation never ceasing to glance every few seconds in the direction of the man in restraints ...
... large murals adorned the walls, after searching i found tacked near the water fountain a faded photocopy of a brief typewritten commentary as to the history of the paintings ... they were done by john trumbull, famous to most as the creator of the huge paintings adorning the walls in the rotunda of the united states capitol building in washington d.c. (the back of a $2 bill, too) ... apparently it was unknown for over 75 years that he had done these in ohio, but, after that fact was discovered, further inspection of the painting "the spirit of the post office" revealed that he had surreptitiously hidden his name in one of the letters in the painting ...
... the city of washington courthouse has a very unusual street layout ... while the lanes of the downtown are in a grid pattern, quite typical of midwestern towns and cities, the alignment of the grid is northwest-to-southeast, rather than the standard north-to-south arrangement ... this was done so that the courthouse did not have any rooms on a north facing "dark" side ...
... inscribed over the main entrance is the phrase, fiat justitia ruat coelum, "even if the sky falls let there be justice" ... noble words, for sure, but i departed the courthouse questioning exactly where it was located between philosophy and reality ...
