Saturday, April 13, 02002
The 59th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is this coming Friday.
Some aspects of the Warsaw uprising were common to all ghetto insurrections. Resistance came at the end, when all hope for survival was abandoned ... The fighters knew they were bound to lose. There was no longer a choice between life and death, but at stake was the honor of the Jewish people. The choice was to die fighting and to inflict casualties on the enemy.
On a completely unrelated note,
three babies have been named Jenin over the past couple days.
Posted at 11:17 AM EST [Link][Comment]
Friday, April 12, 02002
Trout Fishing in Arlington County.
Posted at 12:33 AM EST [Link][Comment]
Tuesday, April 9, 02002
Before the book dumping incident on the 24th, I had sent an e-mail to the library asking if they could make an exception to their April 8th date for accepting new donations. They sent me back a response saying they would let me know by that Friday if they could arrange anything. But they never got back to me, so I figured they couldn't deal with the request. Well, this Saturday I'm planning on dropping off the books that fit in the storage area. I went back to the e-mails I had been trading with the library, so I could make sure someone would be around Saturday morning. I was surprised to see an unread message from the library saying that it would be OK to make the donation on the 24th. It was dated on the 21st, just a few hours after their 'we'll get back to you' message had been sent out. As far as I can tell from the headers, it was really delivered at that time. But I know I didn't get it. I am absolutely sure of it. I was watching for some sort of response very closely. I don't get so much spam that a message I was waiting for would have gone unnoticed. But yet, there's a response in my in-box now, and I'm wondering if all those books got thrown away because I didn't pay close enough attention to my messages. I feel sick.
Posted at 11:37 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Monday, April 8, 02002
The Post has a harsh article on the old, old story of the King family profiteering. "I Have A Dreamland" ? Really, please. Is this a late April's Fool Day joke ? I couldn't make something like that up, even on my wackadoodliest of days.
Posted at 01:46 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Sunday, April 7, 02002
Today I found the secret bonus piece at the current Hishhorn H.C. Westermann exhibit. The exhibit is a lot of fun of its own right, even if you don't get to see the secret bonus piece, so trek on down to the Mall and take it in. The bag search lines at the Hirshhorn are way shorter than the Air and Space Museum....
Now there are "do not touch" signs plastered all over the Westermann exhibit. There are probably as many "do not touch" signs as there are signs explaining the pieces. And then there are signs explaining why there are "do not touch" signs. But the real kicker is that there are motion detectors that start beeping if you get too close to some of the pieces.
Now a lot of the pieces have fine details, so you have to really close to really get the full effect . For instance, you can't see inside the windows of the 'house' pieces otherwise. So people are constantly peering at the pieces, setting off the alarms. Now the beeping isn't annoying enough to actually force anyone to move away. Some people look around and wonder what's causing the noise, but then they go right back to their peering. The beeping seems to be purely for the guard's benefit. There is just one guard for the entire exhibit. He is running all over the place, asking people to please step away. Then he dashes off to the next beeping piece.
The poor guard is overweight, overheated, and obviously exhausted. I should feel his pain, but I don't. Damn, I should be annoyed by the incessent beeping going on, but I'm not. I stick around a little longer after taking in the exhibit just to watch his plight some more. I suspect he knew I was watching him. I almost took his picture at one point, when he was catching his breath and flirting with some young hottie, but I it seemed inappropriate somehow. It would've looked too much like I was taking the hottie's picture. Oh well. I wish I'd gone for it. Then I could have posted it here.
Anyway, that is the secret bonus piece - a little bit of unexpected performance art carried out by an unwitting actor. I've titled the piece, "The price of art is eternal vigilance". I think Westermann would approve.
Posted at 12:30 AM EST [Link][Comment]
