... If any memorial is erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it to consist of a block about the size of this [putting his hand on his desk] and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the archives building. I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot, but I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, "In Memory of ..."
Franklin Roosevelt to Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter—September, 1941
... we were walking by the white house when suddenly the guards began to clear everyone from the plaza in front of the building ... as we walked towards the mall we encountered armed guards closing off many streets and buildings ... later we learned it was a rehearsal for this week's nuclear proliferation conference, but at the time we had great fun speculating as to what was going on ...
... i wonder what he was thinking ...
... i think this is like how those of us who live in maine sometimes don't take time to look at the fall folliage ...
... adrien was almost overcome by emotion, standing as close as she could get to the exact spot where charles guiteau assassinated president garfield on july 2, 1881 ... there is neither monument nor plaque, go figure ...
... with this camera the lunar reconnaissance orbiter has snapped pictures of neil armstrong's foot tracks in the moon's dusty surface ... damn, how i so would like to run across a deal on one of these on ebay ...
... in crystalline form, otherwise this would be simply charcoal or pencil graphite, thus the fancy display case for this sparkly metastable allotrope of carbon ...
... together these aren't worth the cost of the pedestal the hope diamond sits upon, but, in my opinion, they are no less beautiful ...
... adrien and i enjoyed a visit to gravelly park, where we sat until sunset watching the giant airplanes land, their tires swooping just above our heads as they touched down only a few hundred yards from our vantage ...
... we weren't alone in appreciating the show ...
... washington canoe club paddlers stroked down the potomac ...
... we visited the air & space museum when it opened in 1976 ... i remember how the moon rock was the centerpiece of the great hall's entrance, and that the line to view it extended out of the building and half-way across the mall ... now the tiny stone is tucked along the wall at the opening to the 2nd-floor "apollo to the moon" exhibit ... at first i was upset when i noticed how most visitors were passing it by, but, once i'd reflected a bit, i realized that this was as it should be ... a new generation—one to which 1969 is ancient history—i think it's time they get their own rock ... cross fingers, it'll be red, and i'll quite willingly stand in a long line to see it ...
... i dropped adrien off near the jefferson memorial, where she ended up capturing much nicer images of the cherry blossoms than anything i took ... while i waited for her in gravelly park i found these flowers ... those around me paid them little notice, perhaps thinking them weeds, but i thought they deserved they same attention their brethren across the river were receiving ...
Washington isn't a city, it's an abstraction
DYLAN THOMAS