Regulus Star Notes

On Tributes and Songs of Remembrance -OR- Scenes from the 2012 Grammy Awards

2012-02-14T00:01:00.010-05:00

In a happier moment, Whitney Houston sings with her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown on stage in 2009.

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Editor's Note: I wrote this entry on Monday night but posted it shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Feb. 14th.

I'm still quite stunned and saddened by Whitney Houston's untimely death this past Saturday (Feb. 11, 2012) at age 48 in a Beverly Hills hotel room from what may have been a prescription drug overdose.

And I don't care how "bad" she lived her life -- the implication being she "deserved" this.

No one needs to hear that self-righteous shit right now. Besides, we have all fallen far short of the Glory of God, or whatever it is you want to say.

I had wanted to post -- embed as a video clip in this entry-- Jennifer Hudson's wonderful tribute to Whitney Houston at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards last night.

All I can do is find YouTube clips, but the YouTube copyright police are out "in monstrous infinity" and none of the actual clips manages to last very long.*

And for whatever reason, I can't seem to use Hulu on this computer because it thinks I'm outside the United States, or something like that.

Here is picture of Whitney Houston with her daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown. I'm not sure when this was taken but it must have been within the last two years. Brown is just 18 years old and was devastated by her mother's death.

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However, although I cannot find a video clip to embed on this blog, I nevertheless found a nice good video of Jennifer Hudson's tribute song posted on a Los Angeles Times website which you may watch here (with no ads!). I watched it from Larry's Lounge with Kristof and Jamie.

Goodbye, Whitney. Here's hoping you are at peace now.

Oh, yes, here is a nice and unexpected picture of Whitney Houston meeting President George H.W. Bush at the White House in 1990 at a Youth Leadership Forum.

I'm not posting any pictures of f/king Bobby Brown. This whole thing is at least partially fault, that moral and ethical dirt bag.

*I imagine this is the kind of work that you-know-who helps facilitate all day long through 19-hour long conference calls or after flying for 15 hours in a first class pod half way across the planet with mega-billion dollar clients and 1,700 page contracts.

"Eh. Eh. Eheheh. Contract law is the paramount measure of all value and relations. Therefore, from a strict constructionist point of view, contractual fulfillment is the highest form of - "

Oh, shut-up, Wall-P.

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As for the rest of the 54th Grammy Awards, here are some observations and accompanying images ...

First of all, three of the surviving members of The Beach Boys made an appearance to sing with Maroon 5 and Foster the People.

Here the three surviving members of The Beach Boys perform at the 2012 Grammy Awards last night. They are all about 70 years old. Meanwhile, the members of Foster the People are in their 20s.

Oh, yes, Tony Bennett, 85, sang the duet It Had To Be You with Carrie Underwood. They are pictured above. She respectfully referred to him as "Mr. Bennett."

Then there were really weird performances such as this ...

Actually, I found rather amazing the performance with its wild Exorcist theme from Nicki Minaj (pictured above) in her song Roman Holiday.

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And then there was this ...

I'm not even sure what the hell it's supposed to be. Something about a dead mouse spelled "Deadmau5." And the LED face -- in this image, smiling -- kept wildly shifting.

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Oh, and of course, I should point out that Adele cleaned up at the Grammy Awards with six awards including Album of the Year. She also managed to get the words "snot" and "lot" in her heavy North London (Tottenham) accent.

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Grammy Awards 2012 host LL Cool J and Diana Ross announce the Album of the Year award.

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In addition, Glen Campbell performed at the Grammy Awards last night.

Campbell -- pictured above at the Grammy Awards -- sang his hit Rhinestone Cowboy. I forgot just how many of his songs I like including Rhinestone Cowboy, Galveston, The Wichita Lineman, and Gentle on My Mind (which was also performed wonderfully last night by the Band Perry rather than Campbell).

Here the Band Perry performs the Glen Campbell song Gentle on My Mind at the Grammy Awards last night.

Anyway, here is Campbell performing Rhinestone Cowboy in 2001, complete with bouncing-ball like printed lyrics.

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In that same vein, to the tune of Rhinestone Cowboy, and in the spirit of Saint Valentine's Day ...

Like a JRs barkeep,
Like a rhinestone cowboy,
Riding 12 years of bull in a gay bar rodeo.
Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo.
Like a JRs barkeep,
Like a rhinestone cowboy,
Getting handfuls of cash from people I don't even know,
Getting cards and letters from people I don't even know,
30-somethin' and just a teaching offer to show.
And offers comin' over the phone.

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Well, anyway, I think that's all for now. Let me just post a link to Paul Krugman's Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 op-ed on Severe Conservative Syndrome derangement.

Oh, and you should read -- or at least peruse -- this lengthy Sunday New York Times piece on how even rightwing critics of the Federal Government's safety net increasingly rely on it.

The opening sums up the issue:

"Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government.

"He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman."

ABOVE: This image shows the ratio of taxes to transfer payments by state as of 2007. In effect, the ratio shows how much money a state pays in versus how much it collects from the Federal Government in from agricultural subsidies to Medicare payments and everything in between. Click on image for larger version.

"Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice."

This is a scatter plot showing the ratio of transfer payments to personal income (Y-axis) versus the difference between Gallup-measured conservative versus liberal states (top 10 of each). It shows that the more conservative a state, the more it relies on Federal transfer payments -- with some outliers such as Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska (I believe represented by the three bottom red dots), all with rather low populations.

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OK, that really is all for now.

The Augustana Lutheran Church at 2100 New Hampshire Avenue, NW -- literally 300 feet from my apartment -- here in Washington, D.C., 4:58PM, Feb. 12, 2012.

Sigh. My next planned update will be later this week, perhaps on Wednesday.

--Regulus

Saturday Blog Potpourri -OR- The Regulus Sweetheart Tree

2012-02-11T16:25:00.041-05:00

Updated 9PM 2/11/2012: Whitney Houston died today. She was 48. See bottom of entry.

This is the entry I initially drafted Thursday night but simply ran out of time (it got too late and I had to get to bed in order to get up in time for work). I've revised and expanded the entry.

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So it's CPAC -- that's the Conservative Political Action Conference -- time here in the ~~Capital of the Empire~~ Washington, D.C., specifically, the time of CPAC's ever-larger and metastasizing conference held annually.

It features thousands -- approximately 10,000 last year, if Wikipedia is to be believed, and concentrated in Dupont Circle / Woodley Park, downtown, and/or Capitol Hill -- crazed, glassy-eyed, young Republican types spanning the spectrum from fundamentalist evangelical to loopy libertarian to "movement conservative" to gun nut to budding lobbyist for the corporate oligarchical 1% 0.1% overclass to incipient pseudo-intellectual apologist to rightwing blogger and Fox News propagandist and everything in between.

In short, the distilled essence of the modern day GOP / forces of reactionary intrigue and Collapse of Empire.

Of course, there are some closeted types running around, too, and perhaps I'll even see some this weekend at Nellie's. Traditionally, there has never been a shortage of closeted gay male rightwing Republican types.

Nevertheless, the CPAC attendees that stand out the most are the garden-variety, be-suited, sneering and arrogant yet milquetoast Republican "operative" or ~~bowel~~ "Movement Conservative" types (the kind that titillates the nihilistic horsetrading political reporters at POLITICO) ...

... sorta like this guy from Nebraska ...*

... age early to mid 20s, the complete works of Ayn Rand on their Kindle, enthralled with the vituperative wit of Ann Coulter and Rush, and either a Ron Paul or (if the fundie sort) a Rick Santorum button or sticker on their lapel. Politically, brutal, esp. compared to wussy Dems. And, needless to say, possessing no knowledge, wisdom, or understanding.

All very depressing.

(I'll save my critique of the professional Left for another entry, especially when discussing the abortion issue, esp. the next big pro-choice rally.)

(Yes, there is an "s" missing from "Compassionless" that lessens the value of the satire.)

*This 22-year old's goal in life, aside from establishing the GOP 1,000 Year Reign, is "abolishing" the inheritance tax. Imagine that: a tax that affects only a tiny sliver of multi-millionaires in a time of economic inequality as bad the Robber Baron era, and this punk's shitty LIFE GOAL is that. As I said, very depressing indeed.

At this point, I'd like to direct any readers to David Frum's review of Charles Murray's latest book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 - 2010.

Left: Book cover of Coming Apart.

In case you don't know, Murray is a vapid libertarian ideologue ensconced at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who periodically cranks out books always designed to help the corporate oligarchical overclass. That's what AEI "scholars" are paid to do and to be -- Scribes and courtiers in service of Money & Empire. (Little wonder that James K. Glassman ended up there.)

As for David Frum, he's an actual decent and principled conservative intellectual who got booted out of AEI -- or rather, off the GOP Plantation -- because he wouldn't stay faithful to its shape-shifting, inverted Marxist, insular reality.

Murray's book posits that it is moral collapse and rampant moral turpitude that has resulted int the collapsing white working class of America in the past 50 years, and it is the fault of ... drum roll ... "The Sixties" and the moral and social anarchy is supposedly unleashed on the world.

Murray expressly, even openly, refuses to acknowledge ANY economic arguments -- such as the destruction of the American manufacturing base and its wholesale outsourcing abroad, declining real wages, loss of pensions and benefits, and the half-century long war on the working class and the now uselessness of a high school education -- as contributing to this situation.

Above: A picture of Murray, whom I met once about 15 years ago while attending an AEI event.

I am unable do Frum's arguments any justice in abbreviated form and instead they have to be read.

Here is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

However, below are a few key excerpts from Part 1. Interspersed are images from recent entries on Prof. Paul Krugman's blog that shows some of the major economic and social changes (declining real wages and plunging marriage rates) but others that call into question a white working class social collapse (to wit, plunging out-of-wedlock birthrates and dropping violent crime).

Excerpts from Part 1:

"To understand what Murray does in Coming Apart, imagine this analogy:

A social scientist visits a Gulf Coast town. He notices that the houses near the water have all been smashed and shattered. The former occupants now live in tents and FEMA trailers. The social scientist writes a report:

'The evidence strongly shows that living in houses is better for children and families than living in tents and trailers. The people on the waterfront are irresponsibly subjecting their children to unacceptable conditions.'

"When he publishes his report, somebody points out: 'You know, there was a hurricane here last week.' The social scientist shrugs off the criticism with the reply, 'I'm writing about housing, not weather.'"

In short, Murray makes the point that even if it is only shitty, low-paying, no-benefits, no-potential jobs that are available, it is still a MORAL failing of the underclass its members refuse to accept them.

Here is Frum's response:

"You are a white man aged 30 without a college degree. Your grandfather returned from World War II, got a cheap mortgage courtesy of the GI bill, married his sweetheart and went to work in a factory job that paid him something like $50,000 in today's money plus health benefits and pension.

"Your father started at that same factory in 1972. He was laid off in 1981, and has never had anything like as good a job ever since. He's working now at a big-box store, making $40,000 a year, and waiting for his Medicare to kick in.

"Now look at you. Yes, unemployment is high right now. But if you keep pounding the pavements, you'll eventually find a job that pays $28,000 a year. That's not poverty!"

"Yet you seem to waste a lot of time playing video games, watching porn, and sleeping in. You aren't married, and you don't go to church. I blame Frances Fox Piven." (Ha ha)

"How you can tell a story about the moral decay of the working class with the 'work' part left out is hard to fathom."

This graph tells the economic story very starkly -- click on image for larger version.

Frances Fox Piven ...

In case you don't know, this almost 80 year old, erstwhile 1960s socialist political activist and now tenured professor at CUNY, is the object of Glenn Beck-fanned rightwing campaign of hate, obscenities, and threats.)

That's your GOP base.

I should note that the always-thoughtful New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote in his Thursday column that Murray has at least raised an important issue about moral behavior among an underclass (white or black). He cites the rampant use of crystal meth in rural Appalachia as an example of widespread destructive behavior.

Oh, yes, Paul Krugman has written about this issue in his current regular Friday New York Times column.

A young CPAC'ers Free Market dream.

Say, let's get the great Wall-P's take on this ...

What say you, Wall-P??

"Eh. Eh. Eheheheh. Talent naturally rises to its equilibrium point, and everyone is therefore exactly where they should be. You choose to be at your income level and --"

Oh, shut up, Wall-P, you little bug patrol.

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Some more political observations and commentary ...

So it looks like Obama's approval ratings are inching up as the economy shows signs of job-creating life.

He is also increasing his lead over his most likely GOP opponent, the ridiculous Willard Mitt Romney, champion and self-caricature of the rentier corporate oligarchical 1% overclass.

Ha ha -- worth reposting

In the end, as Steve Kornacki always reiterates, the election will come down to how well swing voters view the economy, or at least the trend of the economy.

Also, Obama's contraception insurance rule compromise should mostly help quieten the distracting fury of the issue that so titillates the media and could help the GOP in our zero-sum political discourse.

As it is, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops -- that collection of dour, pasty-faced, silly, closeted gay men in drag -- were never going to be placated because it's all-but-ex cathedra Vatican dogma that even contraception are "abortifacients."

This is beyond ridiculous (and I say that as someone who is a half-step away from being outright pro-Life on the abortion debate).

As you know, official Catholic Church teaching -- spouted by the likes of Mgr. James Watkins in between his mass-time operatic theatrics -- is to have a world sort of like the one pictured above.

Did I ever mention the time Watkins -- pictured at left -- gave a rainy (not snowy -- this IS D.C. after all) Christmas eve mass back in the mid-1990s when he was still at St. Matthew's Cathedral in which he ended with a theatrical "Welcome home!" I went up to him after the mass to say what a lovely homily that was, and he sneered and glided away in his flowing robes.

That told me it was all an act, and a particularly mean-spirited and fraudulent one at that.

He also occasionally gave talks ("starting 7pm SHARP!") at this bullshit organization called the St. Lawrence Society of single Catholic men to which I belonged (because I liked this guy Tim), and once with no sense of irony he spoke of the "Four H's" of life:

Happy, healthy, hetero, and one more I can't recall.

Yes, I'm referring to the hetero part.

The highly ambitious and politically attuned Watkins seeks to be an archbishop. He also likes fine wine, fine food (in the 1990s, it was at the old Sesto Senso), and chocolate (just sayin'). In short, he is everything wrong with the Catholic Church in terms of gilded hypocrisy.

It is me or does he bear a striking resemblance to the late John Inman??

On the other side are the Father Thomas Morrow rightwing social engineer types who are appallingly allowed by the Archdiocese to run "ex-gay" groups (his was called "Courage" back in the 1990s).

I won't even get into the Opus Dei cult and how it permeates the upper echelons of D.C.'s political elites.

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So last night (Friday night), I went to Nellie's for a big post-work happy hour and about 15 people showed up. I also invited Kristof, Damon, and Gary (who didn't show up). Kristof mostly just insulted me. I got kinda drunk but nothing unseemly or warranting apologies or embarrassment occurred.

Damon and I then went to The Saloon on U Street and then capped the night off by going to Stetson's, which is a dive young straight bar literally 700 feet from where I live. I always think of that place and its side note to history involving Jenna Bush.

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Oh, one last item ...

This week's Metro Weekly silly cover story features the following image (one of two).

I *think* (but am not entirely sure since his eyes are closed in both images) that the angelic Anglo-looking guy is named R., and I actually met him one night circa 2003 at JRs, where he and a female friend had had a lot to drink. At one point, he wasn't wearing any shirt and (as you can see) he is quite attractive. We three went to Annie's and my understanding was that I could have gone gone with him.

Unfortunately, at the time he was living in Herndon and was with this friend, and I would have had to have driven their car back and I opted not to do that.

He probably does not even remember this and doesn't even give me the time of day when I see him walking his dog (he lives in a nearby building-- the one you always featured in my apartment window view pictures).

Yeah, that one. This was taken a short while ago today (3:09PM) during a brief, frenetic snow squall that blew through the District and environs.

Oh, by the way, there are NO pics in this week's Metro Weekly of Oooza the Unloved Crow Creature or of Local Comedian / Celebrity / Gym-Nasty-ist and Always the Ex-Boyfriend Mr. Sirius. I thought there was a picture quota. To quote Ester Goldberg, go figure ...

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Anyway, I'd like to end on a happier note.

First, this is the Feb. 9, 2012 APOD ...

Aurora 2012 from Christian Mülhauser on Vimeo.

It features one week's worth of auroral images from last month (Jan. 23 - 29, 2012) over northern Norway, in particular, the villages of Ravnastua, Skoganvarre and Lakselv, during a particularly active solar period. The music is by Pulse Faction.

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Because it was stuck in my head on Thursday ...

This 1940s song Who Wouldn't Love You? was stuck in my head, and so I'll post the lyrics and YouTube clip of it.

Who Wouldn't Love You?
by Kay Kyser
Lyrics by Bill Carey, Music by Carl Fischer, c. 1942

Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't care?
You're so enchanting people must stare.
You're the dream that dreamers want to dream about.
You're the breath of spring that lovers gad about or mad about.
Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't buy,
The west side of heaven if you just winked your eye?
You're the answer to my every prayer, darling.
Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't care?"

Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't care?
You're so enchanting people must stare.
You're the dream that dreamers want to dream about.
You're the breath of spring that lovers gad about or mad about.
Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't buy,
The west side of heaven if you winked your eye?
You're the answer to my every prayer, my darling.
Who wouldn't love you, who wouldn't care?"

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In the spirit of Saint Valentine's Day ...

And since St. Valentine's Day is quickly approaching, let me just post this version of The Sweetheart Tree by Johnny Mathis.

Here is it performed by the late, great Mr. Henry Mancini on The Lawrence Welk Show. For his part, Lawrence Welk inexplicably reminds me a bit of Kristof ...

"They say there's a tree in the forest, / A tree that will give you a sign, / Come along with me / To the Sweetheart Tree / Come and carve your name next to mine."

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And on that note, I really will end this entry. My next planned update may not be until Tuesday night.

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UPDATED 9PM 2/11/2012

Singer and actress Whitney Houston has died today. She was 48 years old. Information is still limited.

Everyone is saying this was to be expected, but I'm not going to get into that at this point, and no matter, this is still shocking. Such an incredible voice and tortured person.

--Regulus

A Friday Filler Entry -OR- Dusk or Dawn?

2012-02-10T00:27:00.008-05:00

(Fairmont) Château Frontenac in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada warmly illuminated at dusk (or maybe dawn).

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Well, I wrote a full entry but I lack a good lead image and it will take too long to format with colorful fonts, justifying, underlying URL links, etc., and so that entry will likely have to wait until Saturday.

The West Quoddy Head Light at dusk (or maybe dawn) on the coast of Maine near Lubec in Passamaquoddy Native American territory on the border of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. This is the easternmost lighthouse in the United States, which makes sense since West Quoddy Head is the easternmost point in the contiguous United States, on which the Sun first rises.

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Again, I should have my other entry posted on Saturday.

--Regulus

Off the Grid -OR- A Sunday Side Street Washington Walkabout

2012-02-08T00:27:00.007-05:00

The turret-capped brick corner house at V and 17 Streets NW (bounded on the other side by Florida Avenue), Washington, D.C., on a tranquil, chilly winter afternoon, 4:38PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

This is my planned big update for the work week, except instead of political commentary in my ideologically convoluted way that takes forever to post and no one reads, I'm instead just going to post the pictures I took on Sunday while walking around Kalorama and adjoining neighborhoods here in D.C., as well as a couple I took today.

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A sign for Fraser Court located off the 1900 block of S Street NW, Washington, D.C., 3:49PM, Feb. 5, 2012. Fraser Court doesn't actually exist -- not even a vestige alley of it remains.

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Many of the D.C. street images in this entry are of (1) backstreets / side streets / residential streets; and (2) the bulk of the streets do not follow the regular D.C. grid layout.

I've discussed that layout previously in my blogging but I will do so again here in this entry. The District of Columbia is divided into four directional quadrants based on the location of the U.S. Capitol Building. Those quadrants are Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and Southwest (SW).

Yours truly standing next to a row of small row house structures -- including one housing an organization called the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund and adjoining the Royal Thai Embassy Residence, Decatur Place NW, Washington, D.C., 3:54PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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The quadrant boundaries extending from the U.S. Capitol are North Capitol Street (NW/NE), East Capitol Street (NE/SE), South Capitol Street (SE/SW), and the axis running down the middle of the National Mall (SW/NW). (There is no "West Capitol Street.") The District's boundaries are marked by Western Avenue, Eastern Avenue, Southern Avenue, and the Potomac River.

Here is a map of the layout of the four directional quadrants of the District of Columbia.

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The Spanish Steps at the dead end of 22nd Street between Decatur Place (just north of R Street) and S Street NW, Washington, D.C., 3:56PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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Owing to the location of the U.S. Capitol Building and the "truncated" nature of the 10 mile by 10 miles square -- the entire Virginia side is missing, today existing as Arlington County, Va., or the City of Alexandria, Va., following the 1847 retrocession, itself an act of really questionable constitutionality -- the Northwest quadrant is the largest of the four while the Southwest quadrant is the smallest. Indeed, if the Virginia side had never been retroceded back, Arlington would mostly be Southwest D.C.

The view from the top of the Spanish Steps looking onto S Street NW in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., 4:07PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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Yours truly looking up at 2133 Bancroft Place from the 1800 block of Phelps Place NW, Washington, D.C., 4:11PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

The north-south running streets of present-day D.C. are numbered while the east-west running ones are lettered in one of four alphabets -- A to W, skipping J (since "I" and "J" are identical letters, or appeared so in the era before type-setting, and it has nothing to do with Pierre Charles L'Enfant not liking John Jay); two syllable A to W, skipping J; three syllable A to W; and floral (A to V).

The floral alphabet is not based on syllables but instead is trees, flowers, and shrubs -- Aspen, Butternut, Cedar, Dahlia, etc., through Verbena, located almost at the North Cornerstone of the District of Columbia itself and "adjoining" the highest street address in D.C., 8500 East Beach Drive (which is next to 1799 Verbena Street) NW.

These are the first, second, third, and fourth alphabets, respectively.

Yours truly again looking up at 2133 Bancroft Place from the 1800 block of Phelps Place NW, Washington, D.C., 4:12PM, Feb. 5, 2012. Except now in sunlight.

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The steps to the building at 1823 Phelps place NW, Washington, D.C., 4:14PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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There are actually multiple street alphabets in use separated by natural or other boundaries, such as Rock Creek. Thus, the two-syllable "U" east of Rock Creek Park is Upshur Street but west of Rock Creek Park is Upton Street; the three-syllable "J" is "Jefferson" and "Jenifer" (one "n"), respectively.

I should note that this is how it runs north of the National Mall / East Capitol Street. Heading south, one "runs out" of D.C. -- at Southern Avenue -- in the 3rd alphabet -- Joliet Street (three syllable "J") is the farthest south of all.

The top of Our Lady Queen of the Americas Church that fronts onto the 2200 block of California Street NW** as seen from Phelps Place NW, Washington, D.C., 4:16PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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** The state-named thoroughfares run more or less on "diagonals" to the N-S/E-W grid of numbered and lettered streets. There are state-named thoroughfares for ALL 50 U.S. States, and ALL but 2 are named avenue (e.g., Connecticut Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., New Hampshire Ave., Wisconsin Ave., etc). The two exceptions are California Street and Ohio Drive.

The intersection of California Street and Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 4:24PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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What's confusing is California Street -- I've seen on at least one old map (circa 1890) that it was called California Avenue. As for Ohio Avenue, it ceased to exist when the Federal Triangle complex was constructed. Ohio Drive today loops around East Potomac Park. It is actually in Southwest D.C., so it is Ohio Drive, SW.

The Wyoming in the 2000 block of Columbia Road NW, Washington, D.C., 4:26PM, Feb. 5, 2012.

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Oh, yes, on either side of the National Mall and well into Capitol Hill, what was once B Street was renamed Constitution Ave. (north side) and Independence Ave. (south side) while on the National Mall, what should be A Street is Madison Drive (north side) and Jefferson Drive (south side) -- not to be confused with Jefferson and Madison Streets in the three-syllable alphabets.

A winter bare (birch?) tree at the triangular meeting plot of V Street and Florida Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., 4:36PM, Feb. 5, 2012. It was the sort of tranquil but seasonably chilly winter weather day that is pleasant.

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This layout was originally started by Pierre Charles L'Enfant himself but it extended only to the original City of Washington -- within the bounds of Boundary Street, today Florida Avenue. It was the 1871 District of Columbia Organic Act that made Washington City and the entire District of Columbia including Washington County and the City of Georgetown one unified political entity. It was later in the 1890s that the street naming system was standardized (as mandated by Congress).

Pierre Charles L'Enfant's layout for the City of Washington as modified by Andrew Ellicott, 1792.

Anyway, ALL of this was build-up to make the point that there are countless, countless exceptions to this grid system and the pictures in here are primarily from those exceptions.

Google aerial view off the Washington Monument and White House grounds with the Organization of American States (OAS) grounds circled in yellow. Within that circle is the geographic center of the original Federal Territory.

That is, if the District of Columbia had remained the 10x-10 mile (or 100-square miles) entity, the geographic center would be somewhere on the grounds of what is now the OAS between Constitution Ave. and C, 17th and 18th Streets, NW.

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A picture taken yesterday ...

A bright sunny winter's day in Washington, D.C., looking out across the miles from L'Enfant Promenade into Northern Virginia (toward National Airport and Alexandria beyond), 1:31PM, Feb. 7, 2012.

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OK, that's all for now.

Oh, yes, there is snow in the forecast. The Sterling LWX automated snow forecast -- which changes constantly, always in the end to end up with nothing this winter and last -- now has the District of Columbia shaded in 1" of snow. This will change three or more times before the actual event arrives.

The LWX automated snowfall forecast for tomorrow for its county warning area.

Updated 6PM 2/8/2012: The snowfall amount turned out, as I figured, to be nil. And the above map got adjusted correspondingly during the day until we weren't in any shaded area. Instead, in D.C. proper, it just rained / snizzled (sleet + drizzled) a bit.

Of note, the first week of February is averaging area-wide 8F to 10F above normal including at DCA (+9.1F), BWI (+9.8F), and IAD (+8.5F).

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Earlier tonight after work, I stopped at The Saloon on U Street for its Tuesday night steak dinner.

The bar at The Saloon in the 1200 block of U Street NW. As I've mentioned, there are no televisions in this place and I really like that fact.

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OK, that's all for now. My next planned update may not Thursday or not until Saturday. Friday night is a big work happy hour at Nellie's.

--Regulus

Diamond Jubilees Are Forever (or at least for one happy day)

2012-02-06T23:55:00.033-05:00

Today is the 60th anniversary / Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II becoming the British monarch.

It was on February 6, 1952 upon the death of her father, King George VI, that she ascended the British royal throne. The day is known as Ascension Day. (The actual coronation was in June 1953.)

Here the Queen visits Kings Lynn in Norfolk, England on Feb. 6, 2012 to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee.

Elizabeth just needs to reign another 3 years 217 days to break her great great grandmother Queen Victoria's 63 year and 216 day reign, the longest of any British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in the world. I've no doubt she'll easily achieve this.

This is the portrait of Queen Victoria taken for the occasion of HER Diamond Jubilee -- June 20, 1897. She died on January 22, 1901.

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Queen Elizabeth II receives the warm wishes of her subjects in Kings Lynn, Norfolk on Feb. 6, 2012 on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee.

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60 years on the throne -- amazing. (That's kind of how I felt on Saturday, but never mind that.) Think of how different the world was in 1952 when she became a young monarch of the British Empire.

Anyway, I tried to post a full entry tonight but it took simply too long to write. I'll try again tomorrow (Feb. 7th) but I may be distracted if the planned water shut to the building lasts longer than the scheduled time. The city (DC Water and Sewer Authority) is actually shutting off the water to the block "for about 20 minutes" at some point between 7PM and 9PM (very inconvenient). Mostly, though, I just have an irrational fear that once off, the water won't ever come back on.

--Regulus

Weekend Stupor Bowl OR Positive and Negative Oscillations

2012-02-04T18:45:00.021-05:00

The Big Sur coastline of California looking north toward the Bixby Bridge (right) and beyond.

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This is a ~~Saturn Day~~ Saturday update. I am having some issues this afternoon as a result of last night's dinner at Chadwick's in Friendship Heights, where I went to meet K., her parents, and her nephew and his girlfriend who were visiting from New Jersey, or possibly from the Campbell's Select Harvest New England clam chowder soup I had when I got home hours later from Nellie's.

Late night at the upstairs back bar at Nellie's, Washington, D.C., 1:59AM, Feb. 4, 2012. I guess I find that young man's body type quite appealing. He didn't notice me or the glass beer bottle on the floor that he kicked.

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I also went to Nellie's thereafter and got a bit drunk and walked home along U Street -- which featured its usual 3AM weekend night drunken gyrations and bumpin' and thumpin'.

At the end of what appears to have been an eventful Friday night out, a young lady half falls / sits down on the curb as her friend reaches down to help her at the corner of 14th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 2:57AM, Feb. 4, 2012.

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Time for the Stupor Bowl Annual American Ritual

I am planning on avoiding the Super Bowl entirely tomorrow as I have no desire to watch this annual American crap-fest.

In short, I find American football an especially vulgar, violent, and pointless sport that I do not like in the slightest.

Nor am I going to pretend -- as you are obliged to do -- to care about the commercial advertisements that are supposed to represent the brilliant artistic essence of billion-dollar corporate sponsors.

Then there is the halftime show.

Remember eight years ago now when The Republic -- still in a post-9/11 pro-Bush delirium -- very nearly collapsed in shrieking media and contrived rightwing GOP talk radio hysteria because of Janet Jackson's wardrobe and Justin Timberlake malfunction?

I preferred it back in the halcyonic 1990s ...

... when Kathie Lee Gifford belted out the National Anthem followed by fighter jets roaring overhead ... the thunderous sound of their billion dollar engines reverberating in a star spangled God Bless America patriotic frenzy in millions of television sets across the U.S. of A. (Note: The video quality of the linked YouTube clip is really bad and the account user's name is posted over it.)

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In keeping with the straight guy topics of sports and money, let's switch from the former to the latter ...

I have decided to be a hypocrite and move some of my 401-K money -- all approximately $800 of it at this point -- into a regular stock market fund rather than all in Treasury bonds and bills.

I might as well since it's not like I'm EVER going to see ANY of that money. I kinda doubt I'm going to reach some fictitious retirement age, and even if I manage to make it to old age, all that money -- not to mention the trillions in Social Security -- will have long since been stolen by the forces of corporate oligarchy that really run America, its libertarian philosophical gibberish notwithstanding.

Given that I am going to make this change, you may expect the stock market to plunge next week.

It has been steadily rising lately, but not because it represents anything of real worth. Indeed, it is still the central fixed casino of our financialized bubble economy pimped so relentlessly by our corporate media for the past quarter century for the sake of the corporate overclass.

Rather, its rise coincides with a belated and desperately needed improvement in the country's employment situation, including in its manufacturing base (the one the GOP couldn't wait to destroy rather than assist as did Obama). Needless to say, the improvement is still far too slow and weak to alleviate the suffering of millions. Taking into account the number of jobs lost in the 2008 crash and population growth, the U.S. needs at least 10 million new jobs need to bring the country back to full employment.

I mention this for the sake of "strict constructionist" corporate legal genius Wall-P since, as we all know, Wall-P doesn't work for his money but rather Wall-P's money works for him. Wall-P values his own value of his existence in a one-to-one correspondence to (1) how well his assets are performing and (2) quarterly billable hours.

Any significant drop in the first factor could adversely impact his upcoming matrimonial contractual arrangement.

He's marrying an Old World poisonous spider you know, and following successful legal negotiations on the prenuptial agreement, he has already picked out the diamond ring he will be giving her.

Pictured at left -- lovingly mounted by the jeweler -- is that diamond ring Wall-P bought for the spider.

This particular ring was the one rated best "Is What It Is" value for his money in 2012 Consumer Reports. Did I mention that the spider will be a June bride?

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A vintage 1940s-era Eskimo fan (possibly still in working condition) and a suitcase with some weird contents. This is a display at the J. Crew store at the Chevy Chase Pavilion, Friendship Heights, Washington, D.C., 5:52PM, Feb. 3, 2012.

My maternal grandmother had one of those Eskimo fans in the 1970s in her house on Henry Street in South Amboy, N.J.

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The Weather, Positively and Negatively Speaking

The weather today is overcast, dull, and gray and a bit chilly (around 44F at the 1PM hour) although we continue to have an unseasonably warm, blah winter across most of the Lower 48 including the mid-Atlantic region. Rain and maybe mixed with a bit of snow is forecasted for tonight.

Schematic diagram of the positive and negative NAO modes.

I would like to return to the previous entry topic in which I mentioned the observation that the North Atlantic Oscillation is apparently out of phase with the Arctic Oscillation -- they are presently positive and negative, respectively -- and how I didn't realize that was possible since I thought they were both measuring the same thing. However, they are in fact somewhat different concepts.

Note: that is a highly scholarly / technical publication that defines these climate indices in terms of mathematical constructs such as "EOFs" -- empirical orthogonal functions -- that really won't make sense to most lay people, including myself.

Yeah, yeah, we know Kristof: you get it.

Here is a schematic diagram (taken from the Wikipedia article) showing the positive and negative AO phases. As a point of clarification, positive AO is associated with lower air pressures over the Arctic and negative AO is associated with higher air pressures in that region.

The NAO is associated with the difference in air pressure across the North Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Iceland. It is positive when air pressures are higher over the Azores and lower over Iceland (i.e., the Icelandic low is stronger/deeper) and conversely it is negative when air pressures are lower over the Azores and higher over Iceland (i.e., the Icelandic low is weaker).

Negative NAO's are associated with cold and snowier winters along in eastern North America.

In the current situation, we have a positive NAO but a negative AO. The plot below that Gary made for me illustrates this situation.

This is a polar plot of the 500mb heights and 850mb temperatures at 0Z 02 Feb. 2012 (7PM EST Feb. 1, 2012). Note this situation clearly shows a positive NAO while the AO may be considered to be negative since there is so much Arctic air penetration across the middle latitudes of Eurasia.

Indeed, it has been a brutal winter across much of Russia and Europe that has resulted in many deaths.

And indeed here is the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) / NWS / NOAA plot of observed NAO and ensemble 7-day, 10-day, and 14-day forecasts. Despite some weather model run suggestions yesterday, it doesn't really look like any major pattern shift is imminent.

This shows a positive NAO since October with the index still slightly positive but trending down. Click for on image for larger version.

And here is a CPC plot of the AO:

This shows what I believe to be a negative AO. It went out-of-phase with the NAO about two weeks ago (although, as noted above, the NAO is trending down).

However, I may be misinterpreting this chart since the vertical axis is a plot of above and below surface (1000mb) normal pressures and by the AO definition, the Arctic should now be in a positive phase (the same as the NAO).

Could one of my meteorology / atmospheric scientist guru friends clarify all of this for me?

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A beer on the counter top at The Saloon (the curious little bar on U Street with NO televisions), Washington, D.C., 6:51PM, Jan. 31, 2012.

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OK, I think that's all for now. I am still feeling a bit -- well, let's just say that I've been visiting my bathroom a lot this afternoon, counting the tiles and perusing my Michelin North America 2004 Road Atlas (the lead image of this entry is the same stretch of coastline as on the cover of the atlas) .

One last item -- my work week was actually a good one and I was quite productive.

A blurry picture of my TV screen tuned to a Soul Train episode aired on Centric TV this afternoon.

Right now I am watching TV as I write this entry. The Centric channel is showing a Soul Train marathon, prompted by the death of Don Cornelius earlier this week. It's odd watching 1970s black pop culture. Over on TV Land is Murder, She Wrote. (By the time I actually posted this entry, it was closer to 7PM).

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OK, that's all for now. It's now about 5:30PM and it's shaping up to be a rainy, chilly February night. There may be a touch of wet snow as well but basically nothing to accumulate, esp. here in D.C. proper.

The view from my apartment -- familiar to my regular blog readers -- looking at the intersection of 16th and U Streets and New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 5:30PM, Feb. 4, 2012.

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I'm going to try to meet Quill for dinner tonight at Woodley Cafe and then perhaps meet Gary at Larry's Lounge. I was going to update this blog tomorrow but given the length of this entry, I shall probably wait until Monday or Tuesday.

--Regulus

Atmospheric Auroras, Stellar Spectroscopy, and Terrestrial Rodent Shadows

2012-02-02T00:20:00.015-05:00

A stunning and rare red aurora seen on the horizon over the Southern Ocean with the the rocky cliffs of a promontory in the foreground near Flinders, Victoria in Australia. This was the Feb. 1, 2012 APOD. This is the aurora australis -- the Southern Hemisphere counterpart to the aurora borealis.

Other "celestial soda pop treats" are also visible in the sky: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri, and the gauzy span of the Milky Way. In the above APOD link, scroll over the main image for labels.

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I started preliminarily to post at least one of those Patrick Smith pieces I've been intending to post but it's already nearly 11PM as I sit here in front of my computer and mostly just watch TV -- funny episodes of Hot in Cleveland and The Exes on TV Land.

A few other items ...

It was a busy day at work.

I got a haircut at the Hair Cuttery, but it was awkward because my regular hair stylist took so long with another customer while I was waiting for her (in an otherwise nearly empty place) -- double the 15 minutes she said it would take -- and I so wanted to get home (it was right after work) that I went to another stylist -- only to have her freed up and seated at her station next to me. Maybe I was too impatient. I'll apologize next time as (1) I sort of like her, and (2) she cuts my hair well.

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Oh, yes, a brief note to a certain friend of mine ...

The reason you-know-who keeps showing up as an ideal match for you on that dating site is because he probably has key profile terms such as high income, daily gym workouts, and celebrity wannabe that its system keeps flagging.

May I suggest another useful profile term:

sciocco.

OK, I don't want this to turn into a hate-fest. Besides, there are so many other things about which to write.

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Happy Groundhog Day. Considering that it was 72F at DCA on Wednesday, and looking at this season's upper level pattern, I don't think we have to worry about "six more weeks of winter" regardless of whether Punxsutawney Phil or any of his compatriots see their shadows.

Updated 2/2/2012 10:40AM: Yes, Phil saw his shadow. Again. As for actual meteorology, read this article about the unseasonably warm winter across the Lower 48 -- and how it contrast it is to the winter across Eurasia. Most interestingly is the observation that the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are out of phase, negative and positive, respectively. I'm not even sure how that happens.

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Ocean tranquility.

That's all for now. My next planned update will be on Saturday. Also, I still plan to post those Patrick Smith Salon pieces. Tomorrow evening I want to try that Castle & Elephant British pub / restaurant on 19th Street.

--Regulus

Le Voyage dans la Larry's Lounge -OR- Crêpe Chautauqua (UPDATED)

2012-01-31T01:02:00.020-05:00

Updated 1130PM 1/31/2012: Please see bottom of entry.

Iconic image from the 1902 movie "Le Voyage dans la lune" ("A Trip to the Moon").

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Tonight sorta got all topsy-turvey, but mostly in a good way.

I originally intended to stay home and watch the Monday night lineup of of reruns of The Golden Girls on We TV and Frasier on Hallmark Channel ... but then I went to Larry's Lounge to meet Kristof and a new friend (John) for two drinks, and that naturally ended 3+ hours with a festive crowd of regulars. And I learned (from G's French cookbook) what are Crêpe Suzette ...

I then walked home around 11:30PM -- and I think I dodged a mugging involving a car with new tags and young thugs sort of waiting at the corner of Florida Ave. and U Street, NW. Now I could have been totally wrong but I wasn't going to test that hypothesis ... nor have a Chautauqua about diversity and cultural expectations.

Oct. 23, 2010 APOD image of the constellation Orion (here flipped "upright").

Changing subjects, I am now home watching a rerun of The Golden Girls, specifically, Journey to the Center of Attention in which Dorothy sings one of my favorite songs, "What'll I Do?"

Here is the YouTube link.

By the way, the late Margaret Gillespie (Meg) Wyllie was in at least three episodes of The Golden Girls.

Screenshot of Meg Wyllie in The Golden Girls episode "Mother Lode."

She was also in the ORIGINAL PILOT EPISODE of Star Trek: The Original Series as one of the Talosians. I find that amazing.

However, she never actually spoke (and this episode was never shown in its full and distinct form on televsion until 1988.) This was a pre-Captain Kirk episode.

Wyllie was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on Feb. 15, 1917 and died Jan. 1, 2002 in Glendale, Calif.

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Changing topics ...

Alas, I did not go back and re-post missing (red X) images -- see previous blog entry for explanation.

Earlier, my work day was quite busy as I am doing two tasks for the Federal client.

Random image: Tropical rainforest on Fatu-Hiva in the Southern Marquesas of the South Pacific.

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OK, that's all for now.

G'night, hippo.

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Updated 11:30PM 1/31/2012:

So tonight I went back through my blog entries tonight all the way to late Aug. 2009 and there was only one missing image I needed to update.

It may be the case that the Blogger 3.bp image directory was simply "off line" for a while and is now back. The first truly missing image I have is in my Aug. 25, 2009 entry and that I one I simply do not have any longer.

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"Oh, the Merry-Go-Round broke down / And it made the darndest sound!"

Alas, Crazy Newt was soundly beaten by Willard Mitt Romney (46.4% to 31.9%) in an election marked by a noticeably lower turnout than in 2008. And mega - multi-millionaire Mitt now apparently believes he is already President-Elect. Jackass. But as Steve Kornacki points out in a his column tonight, Newt's chances will rise and fall on that billionaire casino mogul's money and what the Confederacy masses vote in their GOP primaries in early March.

Of note, some recent polls -- including the notoriously Republican-tilted Rasmussen -- show Obama pulling ahead of Romney in a match up even while his approval has clicked over 50%. As ever, the actual outcome is going to depend heavily on perceptions of how the economy is doing in the 3 to 6 months before the election.

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A couple of Pearls Before Swine strips ...

Jan. 25, 2012 strip -- click for larger version.

Jan. 31, 2012 strip -- click for larger version.

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Weather-wise, it reached 66F at DCA and IAD and 63F at BWI. The IAD number was a daily record high. The January 2012 average temperature at DCA was +4.7F (updated) while BWI and IAD were +5.4F and +4.5F, respectively.

OK, that ends the update. I'm going to try to update the blog tomorrow.

--Regulus

On Disappearance and Expiration -OR- The Red X Doesn't Mark the Spot

2012-01-29T16:56:00.006-05:00

The molecular cloud of hydrogen gas and dust known as Barnard 68 located about 500 light years away blots out all the stars behind it, creating the impression of a "hole" in space.

This is not only today's APOD but it also is kinda relevant to the topic of this entry.

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I had intended to post a full entry but that is going to have to wait until at least tomorrow (Monday) night. In the meantime, I've discovered a really vexing problem with Blogger: a significant fraction of the images I've posted on this blog stretching back to my first entry are missing, replaced by a black square (outlined in white) with that infernal small red "X" on white background in the upper left corner.

Sorta like this -- NO, in THIS CASE this is not a missing image.

I was going to make this the lead image but then I figured that would be confusing and misunderstood as an actual missing image.

It is particularly acute in some entries and seems to be function of whether the images were uploaded into the 3.bp.blogspot.com image directory. There are at least four such image directories or caches (I'm not sure the proper terminology). These include 1.bp, 2.bp, 3.bp, and 4.bp.

When posting and entry and uploading images, a given image is seemingly randomly assigned to those different directories, so you have no control over the process.

At this point, I've re-uploaded the missing images in entries back to late November and other random ones including an entry from last September of which I am particularly proud because (I believe) so few others have ever remarked upon the topic ...

...namely, the geographical corners of New York City. The entry in question is entitled To the Corners of the Big Apple -OR- New York In Geographical Extremes.

That entry was in particularly bad shape in terms of missing images because so many of them were uploaded to that 3.bp directory.

Re-uploading these images will take some time but I should be able to do this for all of 2011 as I have numerous image directories arranged both chronologically and topically. Earlier then Jan. 2011, though, it starts to get difficult for me to find the originals because I had two different computers and not all the images made it to my current computer. This is especially true for the 2008 - 2009 period.

Late night in my apartment with my faux Tiffany lamp, Washington, D.C., 3:12AM, Jan. 28, 2012.

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I've not really culled through those entries yet to see how bad this problem is although a tentative look shows that there are quite a few missing images. Furthermore, the large missing space is replaced by a much smaller one with a central red X.

Also, I had an especially shitty cellphone camera back then -- the images are almost embarrassingly bad such as this one above of the tiny yard of a row house at 17th and S Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., on a wet evening, April 21, 2008.

This was taken less than a week after I started this blog. Of note, my first entry on this blog was April 15, 2008 -- nearly four years ago!

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As it is, there is a certain inevitability to this process of decaying / disappearing images and there is no guarantee that other directories won't likewise suddenly develop problems.

Indeed, given enough time, all the images on this blog are likely to vanish, although I suspect the blog itself will persist for many years -- long after I have stopped updating it (unless, of course, it is deleted, though I have no intention of doing that with this one).

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Speaking of things disappearing and expiring ...

My passport expired yesterday 10 years (less 1 day) after it became valid (Jan. 29, 2002), and as I've not started the process to get it renewed, I presently join the mass of Americans -- concentrated in Red States -- who have no passport and therefore cannot legally leave the United States.

A map purporting to show the percentage of residents who are U.S. passport holders by state. This map appeared in March 2011.

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The expiration of this passport marks the end of any connection, so to speak, with my pre-2004 life. As it is, I have 5 years in which I can send in this expired one with new photos and an application plus $110 and get it renewed.

Here is the old Indian Head Test Pattern shown during the sign-off of old broadcast TV back in the 1940s - 1970s.

And with that, I will sign off this entry.

--Regulus

"So what am I to do to keep the sky so blue?" -OR- Prairie Home TV Companion

2012-01-27T23:56:00.026-05:00

A blue sky fleeced with turbulent post-frontal clouds as seen above the central fountain at Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., on an unseasonably warm mid-winter morning, 10:27AM, Jan. 27, 2012.

I was walking to the dentist (he's on 19th Street just south of Dupont Circle). As you will note, the sky was exceptionally rain-washed blue in the picture I took this morning. It was also unseasonably mild (around 60F -- see below). I was singing to myself that song Who Will Buy? from the 1968 movie musical Oliver! based on the Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

The two-lamp lamp post with signs on the south side of Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C., 10:29AM, Jan. 27, 2012.

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I'm exhausted.

I've been terribly worn out all week and I'm concerned something might be wrong with my health. I'm physically worn out with headaches and just exhausted. Of course, I still went out last night to Larry's Lounge with Damon after a nice dinner at Thai Regent.

This morning I went to the dentist for a six month cleaning and everything was fine from a dental perspective.

The S Street dog park and buildings along 17 Street, NW, directly into the heart of the D.C. gayborhood, Washington, D.C., 10:19AM, Jan. 27, 2012. This was just after the heavy morning rainfall.

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I'm not sure if I'm just tired or if there is a more serious health issue. It may just be that I am not eating properly, even though I'm pudgy (though that is probably from being so sedentary as an office working and drinking too much). I had a banana, tuna fish, and carrots a short while ago -- two food items that have decent nutritional value.

A view of the Swann House bed-and-breakfast place at the corner of New Hampshire Avenue and Swann Street, NW, Washington, D.C., 10:19AM, Jan. 27, 2012.

I remember Wall-P once rattling off in rapid-fire, monosyllabic style how he was going to put his parents up there for a visit.

That's a good son.

And when you earn a HALF GOOGOL (no, not Google) dollars a year, you can do stuff like that. But honestly, I didn't think Wall-P actually had parents. I thought he was just assembled in a factory in Qingdao by one of those people who work 21 hours a day.

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It is a Friday night -- the last one this January -- on a windy but not at all cold night here in D.C. with temps presently around 45F. This followed a brief, drenching, lightning and thundery downpour this morning as a cold front passed through but it is very mild with high temperatures spiking to 62F, 63F, and 64F at DCA, BWI, and IAD, respectively.

DCA actually had 0.63" of rainfall today, pushing its monthly total to over 2" (2.19" to be exact) but still a tad below (-0.24") the normal of 2.43". BWI had 0.89" and brought its monthly total to 2.54" (-0.10"). IAD only had 0.19" and has a monthly total of 1.85" (-0.45").

The blue sky seen through the winter bare branches of the trees along the 1700 block of New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 10:21AM, Jan. 27, 2012.

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Temperature-wise, DCA was running +3.8F above normal for the month as of yesterday and after today it will probably be at least +4F. BWI was running +4.3F and IAD was +3.6F for the month as of yesterday.

The blue sky seen through the winter bare branches of the trees along the 1800 block of New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 10:21AM, Jan. 27, 2012.

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Snow-wise, we've had about 2" of snowfall this month (1.7" at DCA, at 1.3" BWI, and at 1.7" IAD). For the season, all three climate stations are well below normal (-5.8", -7.8", and -7.8"). Of note, IAD's seasonal total is 2.3".

Long story short, there is no real winter weather going on here or across most of the United States and I don't expect much this year given the upper level pattern (with more than a dash thrown in of the steady progression of climate change).

This is also a "typical" winter of the past 30 years or so.

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Anyway, tonight I am doing my laundry (in the basement laundry room) while watching TV in my wee little apartment.

I'm watching TV -- presently, a particularly annoying episode of Little House on the Prairie. It's a two-part episode "Gold Country" where the Ingalls and that weird guy Isaiah Edwards and his wife, Grace, played by Bonnie Bartlett, leave Walnut Grove (in Minnesota) due to flooding rains and head west to the Dakota Territory to join a gold rush -- with predictable results.

Let me just go off on a brief tangent:

Fuck gold.

I hate all it represents from 15th Century Spanish conquistador New World genocide to 19th Century American-style boom/bust deflationary economics, rapaciousness, and violence, to the fiscal straitjacket its monetary "standard" embodies.

Needless to say, all of this benefits the corporate oligarchical / rentier overclass. And naturally, this is why today's GOP overclass loves gold and the gold standard (and its equivalent, Federal balanced budget requirements). And this is why it whips its fundie base into a frenzy with all that "DOLLAR TO COLLAPSE! BUY GOLD NOW!" bullshit advertised so much on rightwing cable TV and AM hate radio.

Speaking of Little House on the Prairie, about two weeks ago I was trying to find the exact location of the biggest of the three trees in the opening title shot of Little House on the Prairie TV series, and to figure out if that tree still exists.

Screenshot from the YouTube clip mentioned discussed below.

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During the course of my search, I found two YouTube clips of a visit on April 14, 2010 to the Big Sky Ranch near Simi Valley, specifically, to the site where the TV show was predominately filmed during its 1974 - 1982 run. The tour guide for the trip was none other than Alison Arngrim, who played the unforgettable Nellie Oleson. She took the guy filming the visit and four other friends there that day.

Of note, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder, the woman who actually wrote the Little House book series that decades later became the basis for the show, had a daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who helped her mother write the series.

Here is a screen shot from part 1 of the YouTube clip showing "The Hill" in the opening as it appears today, except the opening title scene superimposed over it.

Needless to say, it should be pointed out that Walnut Grove was supposed to be in western Minnesota but the Big Sky Ranch is located in a much drier climate and a hillier / rugged terrain of the Santa Susana Mountain range of Southern California with chaparral scrub and oak trees.

As for Lane, she was was a hard-core libertarian who in the 1940s with the Head She-Libertarian Devil Herself ~~Alisa Rosenbaum~~ Ayn Rand helped "to found" that movement, which itself is a grotesque distortion of actual freedom based on absurd, unworkable, silly, and ultimately fascist precepts ("I'M ÜBERMENSCH! EVERYONE ELSE IS A PARASITE!")

Lane obsessed about the evils of Social Security back in the 1940s. Silly bitch.

Anyway, here are the clips of that "Back to Walnut Grove" YouTube visit.

Part 1: Back to Walnut Grove

Part 2: Back to Walnut Grove

Two other items:

Apparently the person "Lindsay Sidney Greenbush" -- the name listed in the opening credits as the person who played the youngest daughter Carrie Ingalls -- was actually TWO people, the twin sisters Rachel Lindsay AND Robin Sidney and their last name is really Bush, not Greenbush.

Jonathan Gilbert, who was in every season of the show's 8 year run from 1974 - 1982, is the adopted brother of Melissa Gilbert, the star of the show, and both were adopted by the same parents. I tried to find what Jonathan Gilbert looks like today but could not.

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Brief Political Detour ...

One political item:

Alas, it looks like the wheels are again coming off the Newt Gingrich Crazy Train and the GOP Death Star is getting its fundie "base" to back Willard Mitt Romney, a living caricature of the parasitic, rentier 1% Overclass.

Crazy Newt is probably going to do badly in the Florida GOP primary, and that's a shame. As Paul Krugman noted, it was fun while it lasted.

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OK, that's all for now.

I'm still home right now (it's about quarter after ten PM as I write this) and don't really fell like going anywhere tonight, although I suppose I'll go out for a bit. Right now on Planet Green is the interesting show Inside the Bermuda Triangle. But I'll refrain from starting a post about THAT topic.

I plan to update this blog over the weekend.

--Regulus

Green, Yellow, Red and Pink Lights in the City Night

2012-01-24T23:48:00.096-05:00

Updated 11:45PM 1/25/2012: See bottom of entry.

A semi-blurry bevy of green traffic lights at the confusing intersection of Q St., 18th St., and New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., on a drizzly - damp "soft city" early night, 7:20PM, Jan. 23, 2012.

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I had intended a big update tonight but I got bogged down doing some work-related assignments (editing reports) and then I was distracted by watching Obama's State of the Union address. Overall, I thought it was a forceful speech of the sort he should have given three years ago, but better late than ~~never~~ unchallenged and unchecked GOP crazy.

I had intended to post those Patrick Smith pieces I have mentioned in my recent entries.However, at this point it is almost 10:30PM as I begin this entry and therefore it is must too late.

I've been quite busy at work the past two days.

Another even blurrier image of the same intersection, the traffic signals at red, yellow, and green, Washington, D.C., 7:21PM, Jan. 23, 2012.

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Just one tidbit ...

I saw one of the key members of the 17th Street gay mafia on Sunday night at Nellie's ...

No, not Oooza the Unloved Crow Creature.

Rather, the turkey vulture with the voice of a shrieking peacock was there and had the goddamn nerve to say hello me me.

Here he is, the gay turkey vulture, or in similar manner to "Son of Sam," "Son of Oooza," a.k.a. "Little P'Oooza."

Go away, you vicious gay turkey vulture. Fly back to your 17th Street gay rookery with your crow and duck business associates, the Capo(regime) and the Consigliere, respectively.

"Quere quare my quips?? Quack! Quack!"

#######

Looking up into the night sky ...

The night sky centered on Orion (the Hunter) and its nearby constellations including Canis Major (Big Dog), Canis Minor (Little Dog), Monoceros (the Unicorn), Gemini (the Twins), (two-headed) Hydra (Sea Serpent), Cancer (the Crab), and Leo (the Lion), as seen over Teide National Park on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. This was the Jan. 23, 2012 APOD (scroll cursor over the image for labels).

Click for a larger, legible version. You can see these constellations sketched in and some of the larger stars -- Betelgeuse, Rigel, Sirius, Procyon, Castor, Pollux, and, yes, Regulus -- labeled.

#######

OK, that's all for now. I am going to try to update this blog tomorrow night.

Updated 11:45PM 1/25/2012: I had planned to post a new entry tonight, but I simply didn't get a chance.

I've been watching some very funny Frasier episode reruns on TV Land tonight. The show's 1996 season was its sustained best. Kristof and I were texting each other about it through multiple episodes, especially "The Impossible Dream."

OK, that really is all for now.

My next planned update will be on Friday night or Saturday as I am not planning on bringing my lap top home tomorrow night but have other after work plans.

--Regulus

On Twin Peaks, Ghost Towns, and Cities of White, Gold, and Green

2012-01-21T17:30:00.017-05:00

A lone cylindrical (water?) tower with a whimsical message painted on its side stands sentinel outside the ghost town of Montgomery City, California near the Nevada border in a rugged and rain shadowed land. I found this image on Flickr.

Montgomery City is located near the far more famous and well-preserved California 19th gold mining era ghost town of Bodie. It is also located just west of Boundary Peak (pictured at left), the 13,140 foot* mountain that is the highest point in the State of Nevada and that also straddles the California border.

*This is an approximate height. I have found numbers ranging from 13,141' to 13,147' elevation. Also, Boundary Peak is probably a sub-peak off of somewhat higher Montgomery Peak located in California.

Indeed, here is a picture of Boundary and Montgomery Peaks -- I'm not sure which is which -- but they are essentially the same mountain with Boundary Peak a sub-peak off of Montgomery Peak.

About 100 miles to the southwest in the rugged, arid wastes of the Nevada high desert is the semi-ghost town of Scotty's Junction. It is located at the western edge of the sprawling Nellis Air Force Base with its Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) -- formerly the Nellis Air Force Range and home to the UFO-enthusiasts' fabled "Area 51" (Groom Lake).

Abandoned ruins around Scotty's Junction, Nevada.

Scotty's Junction really doesn't have much of a population. It is located about 16 miles south of the actual town of Beatty, Nevada, which has a population of approximately 1,000.

#######

Never Ending Blog Entry ...

I started this entry yesterday evening and worked on it in the wee hours of this morning (3AM - 5AM) after I got home from a Friday night Nellie's trip, but I was too tired and I'm trying to finish it now. I have not, not, not forgotten my planned entry of excerpts of Salon writer Patrick Smith's recent pieces -- indeed, I am planning to add another literary quality third one (despite the title):Who needs UFOs?.

However, I need to relate some other items in this entry ...

######

In Memoriam

My friend LP's mom (B.) passed away early Friday (yesterday) morning at a hospital in suburban Maryland after years of prolonged bouts of illness and poor health.

She was 83 years old.

B. was born and raised in England and was there during World War II before coming to America in the 1940s with LP's dad, who was a World War II vet and who is originally from the D.C. area.

A picture from a visit that LP and I took to the Glenwood Cemetery here in Washington, D.C., last summer on July 10, 2011.

I never met her -- indeed, I've never met any of LP's family in the 10 years or so I've known him, but this is not the time or place to go into it. As it is, the funeral will likely just be for the family.

I actually need to call LP -- understandably his phone was off yesterday but I've not made enough of an effort to reach him.

#######

In Memoriam (Part II)

In addition, Etta James died yesterday. She was 73. Here is her obituary.

Here she is about five years ago singing her signature song At Last. This YouTube clip occasionally stalls.

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Washington & Washington Weather

Last night there was a semi-significant winter weather event here in the D.C. area with a mixed bag of precipitation starting with a period of moderate snow followed by sleet and freezing rain.

Here is a map from the Sterling LWX NWS web page showing the advisories as of about 9PM EST last night.

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This was the 10PM Jan. 20, 2012 automated snow forecast for the region that more or less verified.

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There was on average 0.5" to 2 inches of slushy snow area-wide even as surface temps flirted with the freezing mark, so the ground was quite slushy with puddles. This was followed by some freezing rain that coated things, esp. metal surfaces, in a light sheen of granular-feeling ice.

Here are some views from earlier tonight while walking east on U Street, NW, from 16th to 9th (i.e., from my place to Nellie's).

Snowy night in the city of electric dreams, 14th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 11:32PM, Jan. 20, 2012.

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Snowy night on the U Street Corridor,, 13th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 11:35PM, Jan. 20, 2012.

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Snowy night, 12th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 11:37PM, Jan. 20, 2012.

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The view from the eastern edge of the upstairs deck at Nellie's on a snowy night looking east at Florida Avenue, NW, as it runs "diagonal" off of U Street (which sort of dead ends here for a period), Washington, D.C., 1:10PM, Jan. 21, 2012.

The "Ananda Corporation" sign that I mentioned in my Jan. 15th entry is visible just above the green traffic light, the "I" in "Corporation" still blown out.

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As for snowfall amounts, as I said, there on average 0.5" to 2.0" -- REGARDLESS of what is the "official" Washington, D.C., measurement at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), location of a snow board that doubles as Satan's hot plate.

#######

Speaking of snow, it did just that in Seattle, Washington this past week ...

... the heaviest snowstorm since November 1985 (at least as measured at Sea-Tac International Airport) hit the Seattle / Puget Sound area this past week. Officially at Sea-Tac, 9.6" fell between Jan. 15th and 19th, 2012 while Olympia received 14.2" of snow.

The rare sight of shovel-able snow on the ground outside the Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, Jan. 18, 2012.

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Having lived in Seattle one rainy winter, and more generally having paid attention to the weather for many years, I can tell you that MASSIVE amounts of snow (as in dozens of feet of snow) fall in the Cascades and even the Olympic Mountains.

Aerial view of snow-blanketed mighty Mount Rainier at sunset.

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The Paradise Ranger Station on the southern flank of Mount Rainier at about 5,400 feet gets on average 641 inches -- that's 53.4 FEET / 16.3 meters -- of snow a year and in one year recorded what was for a while the PLANET EARTH-WIDE RECORD at 1,122 inches (93.5 feet / 28.5 meters / 9 stories) of snow (1971 - 1972).

But it is rare for the snow level to drop to sea level (1,500' to 2,000' elevation is the usual lower limit) simply because the air off the Pacific is too warm at that latitude. In fact, Sea-Tac Airport gets on average 5.9" of snow per year (based on the 1981 - 2010 30-year average).

Things are now back to normal with temps above freezing and winter time rain, rain, rain in the forecast ...

The NWS forecast panel for the grid-point forecast of downtown Seattle issued last night and valid for Jan. 20 - Jan. 24, 2012.

#######

Political Update ...

Today is the South Carolina ~~Crazy House~~ GOP primary and I am really hoping that the suddenly resurgent megalomaniac Newt Gingrich wins over the corporate sociopath multi-millionaire Willard Mitt Romney.

I loved Gingrich's John King smack down at the debate last night -- even if it is from Gingrich, the man who invented post-modern era slash-and-burn politics of personal destruction. King is a useless media sort (the TV version of The Washington Post editorial board and the other "pearl clutchers"). Doofus King gave Gingrich such an opening -- may have helped him to win South Carolina, especially since no one does chimerical liberal media victimization / grievance better than the rightwing fundie base of the Southern neo-Confederate GOP.

As for Willard Mitt Romney -- Mr. "Carried Interest" Multi-Millionaire -- I'm not sure if he's more of a clueless dope, someone's dark parody of "The Man," or just a fraudulent shell encasing a sociopath.

Building on what others wrote, Ed Schultz had a funny satirical segment on his show last night about Romney's claim to be "someone who has lived in the real streets of America" --asking the street in front of which multi-million dollar beach side mansion, alpine resort, or secluded woodsy villa that would be??

This is the same Mitt the Idiot who variously has declared during these times of chronic high unemployment, economic anxiety, and general distress, "Corporations are people" ... "$10,000 bet?" ... "I like being able to fire people."

Unlike his dad, this Romney probably can't release his tax returns, or at least not multiple years' worth -- otherwise everyone across the political spectrum would be hit over the head with the fact that Romney likely doesn't even pay at the 15% capital gains tax rate but probably closer to ZERO thanks to his Cayman Island / offshore tax dodging games.

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Notes from the Department of I-Hate-Mark-Wahlberg

Delusional Mark Wahlberg Fantasizes About Being 9/11 Action Movie Hero

Mark Wahlberg managed to out jackass even himself by his vulgar and silly comments about how the 9/11 attacks would have been (partially) avoided because he would have single-handedly taken down the hijackers and then safely landed the jet. This outburst during an interview prompted because Wahlberg was supposed to be on one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Center but was not.

Wahlberg, a 4'2" tall combo action figure doll, made the comments to Men's Health for its February 2012 edition, and has since wisely apologized (for career purposes), although he is also now blaming the reporter.

Mr. "Say Hello to Your Mother For Me" reminds me a bit of Wall-P in that he has to stand on a highchair to see over a lectern yet manages to exude a searing arrogance and whose erect posture reminds me of one of those big male kangaroos in Australia -- such as this male Eastern Grey Kangaroo pictured at left -- chest all puffed out.

And even if the reporter "set him up," it doesn't matter -- Markie Mark Wahlberg is just fun to hate on.

#######

From the Department of Let the American Eagle Soar

I received in the mail yesterday my W-2 form for 2011 income and I earned ... drum roll ... $59,632.87 in 2011 as listed in box 1 (wages), or alternatively, $60,050.35 in 2011 as listed on box 3 (Social Security taxable wages). The difference has to do with a medical flexible spending account we have.

Either way, this is actually the most I've ever earned and compares as follows to recent years:

2011: $60,050 (rounded)
2010: $43,093 (tax return AGI, rounded)
2009: $12,430
2008: $28,874
2007: $49 (yes, $49)
2006: $10,348
2005: $14,062
2004: $12,531
2003: $45,911
2002: $40,110
2001: $12,314
2000: $6,244

1999: $5,729
1998: $22,076

1997: $6,836
1996: $1,088
1995: $944
1994: $1,111
1993: $1,131
1992: $708
1991: $2,069
1990: $209
1989: $1,771
1988: $270
1987: $386
1986: $1,823

1986 - 2011 Income Total: $332,167

Figures for 1986 - 2009 are from my annual Social Security earnings statement.

Of note, 2011 is the first year since 2008 that it does not include ANY nightmare 1099 "independent contractor" income from the Tokyo turkey farm in Bethesda, an intellectual sweat shop engaged in a sort of low-rent, cheap corporate espionage where I worked as a regular job in 2008 and then switched to an independent contractor in 2009 and finally ended there in 2010 when I got my present job.

Looking at my income, well may you ask how did I live for the 2000s and 1990s?

Yes, you may ask.

For starters, his is why I have $224,000 in student loan debt -- having been profoundly stupidly, if not outright mentally retarded-wise, in school for THREE masters degree program -- plus $40,000 in discharged credit card debt in 2002 and another $10,000 or so in credit card debt (on which I have settled wholly or in part on four of the five debts and is down to about $6,200 including one unresolved amount of $3,100) plus a final $4,000 I owe to LP.

Adding it all together comes to about $278,000 on top of the combined $332,167 or $613,167. In addition, I was not actually living on my own until about 1992, so you can subtract out those years.

And there you have it. Oh, and for you vicious, self-righteous, libertarian types, I've been totally supporting myself with just my income and no additional debt for the past 3 years.

Yeah, yeah, I know -- frickin' Wall-P earns this ENTIRE amount in one year, and You-Know-Who was given that much in tips in about five years' time, maybe less.

Actually, one of the reasons I have such Wall-P antipathy was his vicious reaction to my turkey farm job situation back in 2008 / 2009. I worked every bit as hard as his corporate legal yes-men self and earned one-tenth the amount, and at a dinner once all he could do was spew in that rapid-fire monosyllabic, know - it - all way about why I needed to stay.

#######

Rent Control

Lastly, my new 2012 rent figure -- for the period March 2012 - February 2013 -- arrived today (on the same day as my W-2 form), and it increased by $40 corresponding to a 2.2% CPI for the rent control period May 1, 2011 - April 30, 2012 plus the extra 2.0% or 4.2%.

This brings my rent from the current $1,014 to $1,054 -- not that bad.

Plus it covers all utilities, and I am fairly centrally located within a half mile of Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.

OK, that really is all. My next planned update will be on Monday or Tuesday.

--Regulus

Run to the Roar (Part I)*

2012-01-17T22:36:00.021-05:00

A high-flying passenger jet with condensation trail appears to clip the gibbous Moon in a blue daytime sky.

*Yes, Run to the Roar was the title of a book by the late Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and I used it once on my old Arcturus blog in 2006. The title has been used since by others. What a strange cover picture she chose.

#######

I had intended to post extended excerpts of two recent columns by pilot and Salon.com contributor Patrick Smith, including one of his more standard but always interesting pieces on the nuts and bolts of American aviation and the other a less characteristic, literary quality piece about his travels to Africa -- Dakar, Senegal and other places in French West Africa -- and the resulting ruminations on how the world seems to be falling apart.

The first is You wouldn't believe how long my flight was! and the second one is Out of Africa.

I will try to post excepts of these in my next entry.

########

Flying above cumulus congestus clouds somewhere near Jamaica.

#######

Now, however, I want to post part of a new Salon piece by the inestimable Michael Lind mulling over the question why does the Republican Party -- with its updated Jacksonian populist base -- usually nominate members of the oligarchical rentier overclass* for its presidential candidates (and why they usually win).

*This is the class with which the ~~brilliant legal mind realizing corporate synergies~~ nihilistic & solipsistic legal servant and corporate yes man, Wall-P, is endlessly impressed.

#######

However, before continuing, let me just get one item out of the way ...

I took down -- or rather, saved into draft until I decide whether to repost or delete it -- the entry about Toucan Sam that I posted Saturday morning.

In brief, it was not my intention to upset him, which I must have done since he removed his two VIMEO videos. I still have to ask why one would post such videos under one's own full name if one did not want attention. And wearing a shirt that reads "No one cares about your blog" probably originated as some inside joke about / dig at me. I don't think that's egocentric to say that.

Look, all I did was take some screenshot images and make a few sarcastic comments. I thought it was pretty funny and creative, but I didn't mean to upset his 28-year old A-List urban gay male sensibilities.

My apologies.

Oh, and here again we see Captain Sirius ("Like, oh mawh Gawd, full speed ahead!") commanding his great metaphorical vessel the H.M.S. Relation-SHIP.

Seriously, though, this is an image of the badly grounded / half-capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship that killed at least 11 people with 23 still missing. And here is an article complete with transcript describing how an Italian Coast Guard captain -- Gregorio De Falco -- was screaming at the cruise ship's captain -- Francesco Schettino, who fled the ship earlier, and is now under house arrest and charged with multiple counts of manslaughter -- to get back on board and help in the rescue.

#######

GOP Rentier Class Corporate Oligarchs "R" Us ...

Michael Lind ponders the question (link embedded below):

Why does the party of Jacksonian populists usually nominate corporate oligarchs for President??

Key excerpts (with bolded emphasis added in places) ...

"... In the 19th century, the Republican Party was founded by Abraham Lincoln and others, devoted to the Henry Clay's idea of the 'self-made man.' But in spite of conservative rhetoric about small business, today's Republican economic orthodoxy does not promote the interests of entrepreneurs or industrial capitalism.

"Instead, it promotes the economic interests of rentiers -- families with inherited wealth and Wall Street investors -- the kind of people who make money in their sleep, in the words of the 19th-century classical liberal economist J.S. Mill, who despised them.

"The GOP crusade to abolish the estate tax -- the 'death tax' -- does nothing for American business in general, even as it chiefly benefits the trust fund babies of a few super-rich families. A lower tax rate for capital gains than for earned income means that the idle rich, and the hedge fund managers who manage their assets and are taxed at the capital gains rate, pay a much lower tax rate on their income than the majority of Americans who depend on wages or professional fees for a living. Self-made entrepreneurs? Hardly.

"Nor does Republicanomics serve the interests of captains of industry. If the Republican economic plan were drafted by CEOs of American-based companies that actually make things, rather than rearrange money, it would not necessarily please liberals but it would bear little resemblance to the rentier-friendly plans pushed by the Wall Street right. The emphasis would be on a permanent R&D tax credit, lower corporate taxes, depreciation allowances, public infrastructure investment, policies to lower the costs of energy and other inputs, dollar devaluation and other policies to promote the inshoring of production in America. Genuine captains of industry would not assign priority to estate tax relief and low capital gains taxes for the benefit of the trust fund set like the Bushes and Romneys.

"The conclusion is inescapable. The Republican Party is not really a pro-business party at all. It is a pro-hereditary wealth party. Its platform serves the interests of those few Americans who are born into wealth and seek to preserve their fortunes, not those who start new companies or invent new technologies. Naturally, therefore, the party's presidential candidates are chosen nowadays from among the pedigreed, hereditary social elite who are the chief beneficiaries of its policies.

Please note that I altered the name of this JPEG image showing income by groups since 1979 to reflect the ending year of 2007, not 2011 as I originally posted it. In other words, it shows income gains by income group through the top of the 2007 housing bubble -- before the 2008 crash and everything since that time.

#######

"How is it, then, that the party of old money has succeeded in winning the vote of the white working class since Nixon and Reagan? To understand how this could occur, we need only look at American history.

Ha ha

"In the 19th century the Jacksonian coalition, then identified with the Democrats beginning with Andrew Jackson, was, like the Republican Party today, based on an alliance of white Southerners and Southwesterners with working-class whites in the North. Like today's neo-Jacksonian Republicans, the original Jacksonians posed as the champions of the common man, denouncing government tyranny and privilege.

"But Jacksonian common-man rhetoric was a camouflage for the interests of the most parasitic rentier elite in American history: the Southern slaveowners, including Andrew Jackson himself. The rentiers of the plantation South were allied with Northern crony capitalists -- businessmen and bankers who sought to loot the public domain by means of what today would be called 'privatization.'

"That is why the Jackson administration destroyed the Bank of the United States, a quasi-public agency that was the largest corporation in the country, and distributed its financial assets to 'pet banks' allied with Jackson and his cronies. The modern equivalent would be the privatization of Social Security and Medicare and the diversion of their vast revenues into private hands, which, of course, is the centerpiece of the Republican economic agenda for America.

"Old or new, Jacksonianism has always combined the pretense of egalitarian rebellion against privilege with the reality of domination by upper-class rentiers and crony capitalists. In the 21st century as in the 19th, the Jacksonian oligarchs divert the attention of their yeoman followers from what is going on by means of military jingoism (Jackson bellowed at France, today's Republicans threaten Iran).

"Central to the Jacksonian tradition is the exploitation of paranoid fears of federal tyranny, combined with dark undercurrents of racism (witness Ron Paul's recent denunciation of the Civil Rights Act and the blacks-on-welfare trope cynically deployed by Gingrich and Santorum).

"Can the Jacksonian trick of enlisting the white working class in the service of hereditary wealth and crony capitalism work again? Why not? It has worked before."

######

OK, that's all for now. Oh, yes ...

Happy 90th Birthday, Betty White!

I watched the tribute to her last night on NBC at Larry's Lounge last night, and then I hurriedly walked home and alternatingly watched the marathon reruns of The Golden Girls on Hallmark and We TV channels.

Here is a nice video summary of YouTube clips of some highlights of White's 50+ year career on the The Los Angeles Times website.

--Regulus

Washington, D.C., Weekend Train Station and Taxi Cab Hoe-Down

2012-01-15T18:54:00.007-05:00

Thunder Grill at Union Station, Washington, D.C., 3:33PM, Jan. 13, 2012.

The restaurant has this Southwestern U.S. theme, but the giant red chili pepper lamps look creepy -- like something out of a monster - horror movie. Also, the train line is actually underneath the restaurant and shake it -- causing sort of minor earthquakes in the place when they do.

The view from the Thunder Grill seating area in the main hall of Union Station (now under all kinds of scaffolding / restoration work), 3:33PM, Jan. 13, 2012.

My mom, Ray, and I had lunch here on my 41st birthday back in late 2010.

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The vaulted east side window of the main hall of Union Station, Washington, D.C., 3;35PM, Jan. 13, 2012. It lets in the light of the morning Sun.

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I went here on an extended (2+ hour) lunch to meet Chester and Mike G, two of my 1990s era University of Maryland, College Park meteorology grad school friends. I hadn't seen Chester since -- I determined -- the day I moved into my current apartment building in February 2005. He helped me move into it.

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Yours truly in the main hall of Union Station, Washington, D.C., 3:35PM, Jan. 13, 2012.

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Today is a bright, cold winter day here in Washington, D.C., Capital City of the Empire, January 2012, where I live my fairly nebbishly and mostly pointless existence.

The view (again) from my 5th floor apartment looking to the southwest across part of Washington, D.C., toward Rossyln / Arlington in the distance, 1:48PM, Jan. 15, 2012.

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This is a good segue into this topic (since I hope to become a ghost after I die and haunt some place, or at least just Mr. Sirius).

The Baltimore skyline as seen about 6 years ago, Jan. 29, 2006 on a dull gray winter day source here.

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I'm presently watching an episode of A Haunting on Planet Green, specifically, "Echos from the Grave" about an allegedly haunted house in Baltimore -- South Baltimore, no less -- in the 1970s.

Hmm. South Baltimore in the 1970s. To borrow a quote from Wendie Malick's Nina Van Horn character in the TV show Just Shoot Me, "There's your problem right there."

This episode of the Discovery Channel-made "paranormal docudrama" was made in 2005 but apparently has been turned into a 2010 book with a title A Baltimore Haunting by Terrie Ann Huffman.

"I had a ghaost livin' wif me in my old hame in Balmer, hon, and that's why I moved to Anny Runnell Kenny!"

My stepfather (Ray) is from Baltimore, specifically, the dumpy - awful Brooklyn area of South Baltimore, which is ultimately why I ended up in Washington, D.C., area in the 1990s and the District proper by the 2000s and 2010s. As for Ray, he has to have more surgery on Tuesday (for kidney stones).

The Baltimore skyline at night as it appears nowadays as seen in a black and white image.

As for that show, I can only handle Anthony Call's over-the-top narration for so long before I have to change the channel. (For the remainder of this entry, I actually was watching TV Land reruns of Murder, She Wrote.)

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Speaking of haunted things in Baltimore and Mr. Sirius ...

Here is he last March at the Edgar Allan Poe tomb in Baltimore.

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And here is a metaphorical image of his most recent relationship.

Alas, in real life it is the luxury cruise liner Costa Concordia that ran aground off Italy's Isola del Giglio in the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing at least 5 with another 15 as yet unaccounted. There were 4,200 people on board this ship -- whose website, is still up as of entry posting, touting all the wonderful amenities and luxuries of the ship, which given the circumstances was more than a bit creepy.

As if it needs to be pointed out, April 14 - 15, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

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The shadow of yours truly on a cold, late night in Washington, D.C., 3:05AM, Jan. 15, 2012.

This wall is actually the back side of the Freedom Baptist Church at 1519 U Street, NW, located next to my apt. building.

In fact, in the main page picture, that is my apartment building behind it. The church is run by the Very, Very, Very Right Reverend Pastor Gregory Baldwin.

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While Friday night was sorta crappy, last night was better. In point of fact, both nights involved the same things -- drinking at Nellie's -- although last night included a nice solo dinner at the Woodley Cafe bar and then drinks with Damon and Kristof at Larry's Lounge before I head over to Nellie's.

For starters, I had a nice dinner at the Woodley Cafe. For its part, the place was especially nice -- quiet, thinly crowded, classical music -- YES, classical music -- playing, and a single TV over the bar turned on but muted -- YES, muted.

The Woodley Cafe as seen last Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012.

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It was tuned to CNN (so the muting was welcome) but I happened to catch the Piers Morgan interview with Lenny Kravitz last month. The TV was muted but the close-captioning turned on, so I could read what he was saying.

The part about him and his biracial parents, including the late actress Roxie Roker (who played the interracially married Helen Willis on The Jeffersons) was quite fascinating.

And then as I was finishing my steak dinner, the Hoe-Down section from Aaron Copland's Rodeo ballet played.

Considering I was having a steak dinner, I guess it was appropriate (see above YouTube video). In case you don't get the reference, the video shows a 1993 commercial by the old National Livestock and Meat Board's "Beef Industry Council" promotional arm. It was part of the very successful ad campaign "Beef: It's What's for Dinner."

As I recall, this group's previous ad campaign (circa 1987) and featuring actor James Garner was the "Beef: Real Food for Real People", implying not-so-subtly that vegetarians are not "real" people, or at least not "real" Americans.

Anyway, after dinner, I walked to Ventnors in Adams-Morgan to meet Damon. En route, I happened to pass Wall-P.

He was standing atop a small flight of steps into one of the various Adams Morgan bars on 18th Street. He was outside smoking with his friend John, whom I actually do like.

Wall-P was in a good mood and was rapid-fire, monosyllabic yammering about buying another African face mask from that weird store on 18th Street in Adams Morgan whence he has purchased the two dozen or so masks that incongruously adorn the walls of his 50-room cliff-side plantation above Rock Creek Parkway near the National Zoo.

These are the walls that were once painted interesting pastel and off-primary colors but in the Era of Wall-P are all off-white.

I guess the future wife let him out of the house last night. He may indeed be that Robert Rubin "Master of the Goddamn Universe," with endless positive asset flows and corporate legal synergies galore in his professional life, but she still rules the home roost, and don't cross her.

And when she picks a fight with a skinhead in a beat-up old car with Maryland tags, telling him his car and by extension is whole existence is a piece of shit, well then you just better do your job and swing into action to show your woman that you got the right stuff.

I was (again) thinking of Wall-P after reading this Paul Krugman blog entry that included the following image:

A chart showing GDP per capita compared to median family income in the U.S., 1947 - 2007. The divergence between the two is powerful evidence of the MASSIVE upward transfer of wealth to the top 1% in the financialized, securitized, Wall Street oligarchical, boom-bust bubble economy that was created over the past 40 years.

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What say you, Wall-P??

"Eh. Is what it is. This proves once again I'm right. Wealth and income are properly distributed based on hard work, knowledge, skills, and an ideally structured society in which the top talent is rewarded and -- "

Ohhh, shut up, Wall-P. Frig you and your philosophies.

#######

OK, enough of that.

So I met Damon at Ventnors, where he was (thankfully) ready to leave because all 20 or so televisions in the bar were tuned blaringly loud to the Patriots - Broncos game and Tim Tebow's insufferable Jesus freak show).

Funny how God isn't too worried about horrors in South Sudan, but SWINGS INTO ACTION over a bullshit American football game.

"If only Tim Tebow were here to play football."

As it is, the Patriots easily won (45-10), eliminating the Broncos from the upcoming Superbowl (I guess Jesus must have been busy last night), so I guess we have at least one happy Great-billed Heron here in the District of Columbia ...

Ha ha

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Damon and I were going to go to Millie & Al's, but the place was mobbed and instead we went to Larry's Lounge, where Kristof was headed anyway. We had a fun time there, but they both wanted to leave around 12:30AM and so I headed over to Nellie's.

Damon was trying to catch a taxi as he had to get back to suburban Maryland (Takoma Park). His effort met with predictable results.

For those of you who don't know, D.C. taxicab drivers (who are either Middle Eastern / Pakistani, Ethiopian, or old African American men) will usually drive you where you want to go EXCEPT approximately between 10PM and 4AM on Friday and Saturday nights (or rather, Friday to wee hours Saturday and Saturday to wee hours Sunday) when the number of fares spike sharply and the cabbies transform into a crazed, monomaniacal army of robot-drivers programmed ONLY to take 1 person a mile or so, or 5 people out to Fairfax.

That is, quick trips that earn them $10 or so or a big, long-distance fare that earns them $70.

Anything else and they refuse to take you. Cab doors are kept locked and they refuse to open them until you tell them your destination and they agree. And there is absolutely no recourse, because if you aren't in the taxi cab, then they aren't doing anything wrong. As for "complaining", the D.C. Taxicab Commission -- which has nominal jurisdiction over them -- pretty much just laughs at those things.

Here is the old taxi zone fare map that used to be in effect for travel within the District of Columbia for decades. It has since been replaced by a meter system which the cabbies said would destroy their industry, but of course, as whenever that is said, it was the usual bullshit.

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Then there are the Virginia and Maryland taxi drivers who come into the city and are not supposed to pick up fares in the District but do so anyway. Then there are beat up old taxis that have multiple license plates (D.C. and either Maryland or Virginia) to avoid that issue.

Finally, the D.C. (MPD) police don't particularly like the taxi drivers and seem to pull them over disproportionately.

Anyway, long story short, Damon did was I suggested -- took the Metro to Maryland (Silver Spring) and got a taxi there, and it worked, while I walked to Nellie's in the cold night air. Oh, yes, Damon and his wife are soon to move back into D.C. into a house they just purchased.

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I got home last night around 3AM and surfed the internet a bit. Yahoo had the following set of headlines which I am posting just to give a flavor of how miserable our times really are.

Click for larger version.

Imagine that: A President Romney, a caricature of an amoral corporate oligarch, which is to say the parody of a 1% President, which the working poor in Middle America will only too happily support. And the way made easy by a weak and ineffectual, corporate-friendly President Obama, too busy trying to please the Robert Rubins and The Washington Post Editorial Boards of the world.

Oh, and more Eurozone German government - banker austerity and brutality. Just what the economic witch doctor ordered.

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This is the sign for something called the Ananda Corporation at 807 Florida Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 2:49AM, Jan. 14, 2012.

This sign -- whose lettering is actually a deep pink hot -- can be seen (if you know what to look for) nearly 3/4 of a mile west on U Street, right near where I live, unless it is lost in the glare of distant car or bus lights. However, the store is actually on Florida Avenue, which intersects U Street at 9th Street (right at Nellie's) at an oblique angle, so the signage appears truncated from a distance -- just a little smear of red light that gets lost among the red traffic lights of the numbered cross streets between 16th and 9th. You can't actually make out what it says until you are about a block away. And, as you can see, the "I" in "CORPORATION" is out.

I've no idea what this company does and I really didn't want to visit its website, although it comes up straight away on Google.

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OK, I think that's all for now. I don't really have any plans for tonight (probably just the usual stuff). As for tomorrow, it is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal holiday, and I have the day off from work. I may meet up with K. to go to a museum, or maybe take a walk.

My next planned probably will not be until Wednesday night.

--Regulus

Irregular Regulus Thursday

2012-01-12T23:52:00.212-05:00

Yes, this was the APOD image for Jan. 10, 2012: A stunning image of this blog's namesake star, Regulus, and (visible below as a small swarm of distant pin-points of light) the Leo I Dwarf Galaxy.

The fiercely shining blue-white giant star Regulus with a highly elongated shape (due to its rapid rotation rate) that is about 75 light years away while in the sky constellation Leo.

Here is an adapted picture of Regulus and the Sun, although the Sun is not "yellow" but rather basically white as seen from space.

Regulus rotates so rapidly that it has an oblate spheroidal shape. Indeed, if it rotated just slightly faster, it would tear itself apart.

By contrast, the Leo I Dwarf Galaxy is about 800,000 light years away. Leo I is one of a cluster of approximately 14 satellite galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy (such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds). The Milky Way and the Andromeda (M31) Galaxy, in turn, form the two principal members of the Local Group.

The Local Group with some of its members labeled.

Most of the remaining members are the attendant satellite galaxies of these two large galaxies, although there are other larger and more distant members such as the Triangulum Galaxy and outliers such as the Phoenix Dwarf and the Tucana Dwarf.

In all, about 54 galaxies make up the Local Group, itself on the outskirts of the Virgo (or Local) Supercluster.

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The interior bar of the Woodley Cafe, Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C., 7:01PM, Jan. 10, 2012.

It was pleasant enough, but as usual there were flat-screen TVs tuned to blaring news -- in particular, the frickin' New Hampshire primary results this past Tuesday night. It is almost impossible to get away from TVs in bars and other public gathering places in present-day America.

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I wanted to post this entry before midnight while it is still Thursday, Jan. 12th (which I think looks better than than Fri. Jan. 13th in the year 2012). No, it has nothing to do with Friday the 13th as a dreaded date. In the end, though, I cheated slightly by posting the entry momentarily at 11:52PM and then finishing it in draft so that it would have a Jan. 12 date stamp and finally posting it around 125AM.

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Another view of the interior of the Woodley Cafe, Washington, D.C., 7:02PM, Jan. 10, 2012.

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Normally, I go out on a Thursday night but as I was out Tuesday and Wednesday, and as I had a huge pile of laundry to do -- plus I wanted to update this blog -- I stayed in. Oddly enough, I had a large amount of pressure to go out (to Larry's Lounge) from M., who is kind of a flighty pain in the ass sometimes. Well, actually, most of the time.

Another one of those rainy night "soft city / electric city" views from my apartment looking at the intersection of 16th and U Streets and New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 11:50PM, Jan. 11, 2012.

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I also had an invite to the Black Fox on Connecticut Avenue, where I have long intended to go but have yet to. Apparently, it was open-mic night, but more importantly, there was actual talen there in the form of the Gay Men's Chorus, or some such group. At least that's what Jeremy said, but I never made it there.

Funny scene from the Frasier episode "Author, Author' as Frasier and Niles brawl in a hotel room, their planned collaborative book a total failure.

Funniest lines:

"Because I'm FED UP!"

-and-

"YOU STOLE MY MOMMY!"

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As it is, I did my laundry, even folding it. I had to get rid of an especially old pillow (I have four others that are much newer), but I "remade" it with towels and a sheet wrapped in the same (washed) pillow case. It is the pillow I particularly like to hold. As for my stuff animals, they just sort of occupy and overflow the bed.

Here are my stuffed animals playing -- including plush hippos -- atop a pile of clean laundry, pillows, and blankets in my wee apartment somewhere in Washington, D.C., before I folded / made up everything earlier tonight.

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My work week has gone sufficiently well -- nothing occurred that I feared early on on the week. In addition, I finished the two additional Long Beach compliance cases and now I can move onto the West Virginia one. There are also apparently a flurry of ones in Oregon as well.

However, I also have an entirely different task that is beginning to take more of my time (even if I'm quite limited on how much time I can dedicate it to it, or rather, how many hours I may bill to it).

I put the overhead light on just for a better view. It is usually much darker in my apt. (as in above picture).

#######

I've not been able to access the Bank of America site all evening but this apparently has to do with my connection to the internet and how that site is being accessed rather than it actually being down.

I may be having lunch with two friends -- Mike G. and Chester -- from my meteorology grad school days tomorrow at Union Station, although we may have to postpone it.

OK, that's it for now.

I am omitting any political conversations, including about Mitt Romney and his illegal and inhumane treatment of his long-dead dog Seamus, not to mention everyone who has ever worked for a company that this member of the 1% (or rather, 1% of the 1%) has American-style corporate-raided American into working class oblivion. Read about the original story and what it means here.

But I can bring it around to note that this must appeal to Wall-P's values.

"Money by definition defines success, which defines that which is good rahhter than bad, and therefore --"

Oh, shut up, Wall-P. Enough of your nihilistic, solipsistic, bankrupt philosophies.

Whoever thought it would be crazy Newt Gingrich to call attention to this -- even though it's a done deal, I suppose, and Romney will be the GOP nominee and we can all "romney" -- ha ha.

Needless to say, Obama will just help Romney win because that's what Obama does.

Here is a screenshot image of a Salon headline to a column by Glenn Greenwald the other day on Obama's choice of Jacob Lew as his new Chief of Staff -- so that the WaHoPo / Beltway- establishment elite-approved Bill Daley can go and raise cash from his Wall Street corporate cronies.

By the way, the permanent link column has the much more benign headline "The new WH Chief of Staff and Citigroup." The WaHoPo would be pleased.

Anyway, that's all for now. Suffice it to say, I'm just happy I got through another week.

My next planned update will be over the weekend.

--Regulus

A Light Fall of Winter Snow AND Trippin' Through REM Dream Land

2012-01-09T22:47:00.019-05:00

A (slightly cropped version of) sublimely lovely image of the early morning lunar eclipse on Dec. 10, 2011 as seen over the snow-blanketed Colorado Rockies. This was the Dec. 24, 2011 APOD.

I think there is a full Moon tonight, except it is overcast here in the mid-Atlantic tonight, so I can't see it.

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Oooh, I'm fat.

I now jiggle, and not in a good way. And if that makes you giggle, I'm happy. Perhaps this is why I love hippos so much.

Speaking of which, I am delighted with the plush hippos on my bed. They are very good.

OK, this entry was intended to be a quick update this Monday night, but in the end (as usual) it ran much longer than I anticipated.

Just some of the many discarded Christmas trees I've seen around the Dupont area -- these on the 1900 block of New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 9:57PM, Jan. 8, 2012.

Once the 12th day of Christmas was over (Jan. 5th or 6th, depending on how it is reckoned liturgically), all the ~~live~~ now dead and discarded Christmas trees appeared on sidewalks all over the city.

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This Monday turned out to be a good day -- nothing happened about which I was worried. I'm still not done two of the three compliance case reports for Long Beach, but I made good progress on the second one and the third one will essentially be a carbon copy of it, making it a much faster process to write.

I'm actually going to work on the report at home more tonight as soon as I post this entry.

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The view walking home -- also in the 1900 block of New Hampshire Ave., NW, looking toward the 16th and U Street intersection, Washington, D.C., 6:30PM, Jan. 9, 2012.

The dark blocky building on the other side of it is my apartment building.

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Speaking of tonight, I'm home thoroughly ensconced in my wee efficiency watching the Monday night line-up of reruns of The Golden Girls, although Frasier is on later. I simply cannot tune into the news / commentary shows, even the ones on MSNBC and listen to any more about the GOP primary process.

The view from my office during the first of a couple bursts of semi-unexpected moderate snowfall in the Washington, D.C., area today. This picture was taken at 1:51PM, Jan. 9, 2012.

Yes, this is the view from my office. If I were in the wing of that other wing of the building, I would have a terrific, full-on view of the nearby Washington Monument, but from my office, alas, I can only see its reflection.

Here was the LWX NWS radar in base reflectivity mode at 1:44PM EST, Jan. 9, 2012.

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The reason for this entry is that I wanted to note that we had our first official measurable snow in the Washington, D.C. area today as a wave of low pressure passed across North Carolina but the system and its associated precipitation shield crept farther north than anticipated and it was about 6F colder than forecasted with sufficiently low thicknesses and -- voila -- there was snow.

Here was the LWX NWS radar in base reflectivity mode at 4:44PM EST, Jan. 9, 2012. This was during the second wave of snow -- its radar signature virtually identical to the first one three hours earlier.

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Sterling LWX was seemingly beside itself in its discussions, trying to downplay -- with nonstop blather about how the "column will saturate" at a dew point just above 32F and the snow would quickly change to rain -- except it never did. I also think given the driving situation and general panic that erupts around here in any snow, esp. as it occurred at rush hour, I would have raised a winter weather advisory.

But Sterling LWX crew (think WOODY!) are adamant about following the highly precise rules for these things for our "CWA" (county warning area), so no advisories.

Sterling (LWX) snow total forecast for the region through 7PM EST Jan. 9, 2012 -- auto-generated by the LWX website at 6:37PM EST (that is, 23 minutes before the end of the period and thus highly accurate).

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The updated 1/09/2012 airport climate station amounts were as follows: 0.6" of snow at Reagan Washington Reagan National Reagan Airport (DCA*), the first measurable snowfall of this 2011 - 2012 season while Dulles Airport (IAD) had 0.5" of snow and BWI Airport received 0.4" of snow.

*Note: The Oct. 28 - 29, 2011 snowfall event, which buried parts of New England, "officially" produced a trace at DCA, so it did not count as a measurable snowfall.

Snow total map for the NWS Sterling county warning area (CWA) for Jan. 9, 2012 as reported by various spotters. Click on the image for larger version.

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Around the area, 1 to 2 inches fell in the cultural-purgatorial agony that is the Northern Virginia suburbs and exurbs. This includes 2" in Manassas. Baileys X-Roads had 1.2" and Culpeppa' -- actually, it's "Culpeper" (no double "p" though many people incorrectly spell it "Culpepper") -- had 0.6".

In suburban Maryland, parts of Prince George's Co. had up to 1" while Montgomery Co. in general had trace to 0.5". Here in D.C., there was a slushy coating.

There is another weather event for Wednesday into Thursday that may feature frozen precip. at the outset followed by 1"+ of rainfall.

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I need an Alka-Seltzer. BTW, they are more fun to drink if you plop-plop, fizz-fizz the two tablets into water that is very warm, almost hot. The furious geyser of warm bubbles goes up your nose and is fun.

Say, what's the difference between Alka-Seltzer and a Bromo-Seltzer?

I couldn't find it online straightaway.

#######

"Dream Variations" (yes, I borrowed the title from a Langston Hughes poem) ...

I had a strange dream involving Mikey, a.k.a., Toucan Sam -- that would be Mr. Sirius's (ex?) boyfriend -- this morning.

It was during that frenetic REM sleep that occurs just before I have to finally and with much agony get up during the week.

In the dream, I was going up a stone flight of stairs outdoors (no, not the above ones, but I like the picture of it I took last May) in some strange place. Mikey was on the steps above me, and I intentionally fell down in front of him. When I got up, he said, "I don't care," and so I smacked him. He lunged at me -- except it was Mr. Sirius. Then I woke up.

Now what could that mean?

OK, that's all for now.

Oh, yes, I have that small claims case on Wednesday morning for one of my credit card debts (my third visit there), except I already settled on it for 60 about percent of the debt, and have made 2 of the five payments, so this is more pro forma filing papers.

However, I really don't think I should skip a court date where I am the subject of the proceedings -- even if it is the Wednesday morning credit card debtor frenzy when D.C. Small Claims and Conciliation Branch at Joo-dish-yoo-whary Square turns into a Greyhound bus terminal for the American loser - debtor - defaulted class.

After this, there may be one additional case but that one continues to drift about in the ether.

I may not update this blog for several days.

--Regulus

Weekend Worries and Wednesday Washington Monumental Core Night Walk

2012-01-07T20:19:00.011-05:00

The view from among the back (south) side columns of the Lincoln Memorial in early winter nighttime darkness, 6:56PM, Jan. 5, 2012. I was walking there after work on Thursday (see explanation below).

It is remarkable but probably only 1 out of 50 or fewer tourists ever thinks to walk on the backside, which was closed for a long time post-9/11. The West Steps of the U.S. Capitol remain closed for no good reason.

I used to walk (and bike) down to the National Mall so much more than I now do.

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This is my planned weekend update.

The view of the Washington Monument at early winter night, 6:16PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

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The pictures in this entry were taken primarily on Thursday night when I left work by L'Enfant Plaza around 6PM and walked ... and walked ... down the Mall past the still earthquake-damaged and closed Washington Monument ... along the still-under-massive-reconstruction Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, which is always sublimely wonderful at night ... to the Watergate and the bar inside the Rivers at the Watergate restaurant I like ... and thence to Larry's Lounge where I met Kristof, and home (finally) by 1230AM. The total walk was probably about 4 miles, give or take.

I also saw some lovely, ever-shifting perspectives of the nighttime-illuminated Rosslyn skyline, but I couldn't get any good images with my cellphone, but I'm posting this one I found online, though I'm not sure if I'm supposed to or not.

The result is the entry content does not always "go" with the entry pictures.

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Approaching the Washington Monument, the east side seen full close-up and illuminated, 6:20PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

The twin red navigation (non-LED) lights on each of the four sides collectively blink in unison. Prior to Feb. 1995, they each had a much more sublime, out-of-phase partial "wink" but at that time they were "synchronized." I don't know when the lights were originally installed in their current form.

It would / will look weird if the lights are ever changed to LEDs.

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This past week was a very stressful one. It got off on a bad start in that I was not at all relaxed after the holidays because I still had two of the three compliance reports to finish. By work week's end, I was still only about a third complete one of the two, and again I have the same intention of finishing them "at home over the weekend."

The base of the Washington Monument in the early winter darkness, 6:22PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

This view is of the south facing side of the Monument -- ever-so-briefly the world's tallest man-made structure in 1888 - 1889 (until surpassed by the Eiffel Tower), and it is still the world's tallest all-stone obelisk (although third tallest monumental column).

The Monument was damaged in the jarring 5.8 earthquake that struck D.C. (and the Mid-Atlantic region in general) on Aug. 23, 2011. (I was about 1,800 feet away from it in my office when it struck, and I sure as hell felt it.) This is not surprising, given its all-stone composition.

Here is as good of a close-up with my crummy cellphone camera as I could get -- and I've circled in yellow the three places where pieces of marble fell off.

Here was the seismograph from the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Ga., about 500 miles away from the epicenter in Georgia showing the quake S and P waves.

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It has been closed ever since for unspecified repairs. The quake was centered 90 miles to the southwest of D.C. in Louisa County, Virginia. See my blog entry from that day here and read the (comprehensive) Wikipedia article about "2011 Virginia Earthquake". It includes security camera footage from inside the Washington Monument.

If that quake had been, say, 6.1, it would have really caused damage to the Monument, and anything over 6.3 would have likely toppled it.

FIRST DIBS ON THE ALUMINUM CAPSTONE, the one that reads, "LAUS DEO" ("GOD BE PRAISED")!

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My supervisor on this particular task is getting irked with me, and the only reason she has not said anything is that she likes the quality of the reports when they are finished (such as the 19 page one with 8 attachments and colorful tables in the first one). She also is a friend of mine, so that probably makes it awkward.

I kept getting interrupted with the other, high-priority task -- technical edits for audit reports -- that I have to do as soon as they arrive. This task has be interfacing (God, did I just use that term??) with the client, who seems quite pleased / happy with me.

Then I did not get adequate sleep but kept getting to bed at 130AM each night -- and not into work until 10AM, although I stay until 6PM and don't really take a lunch break per se. I have been exhausted and suffering from bad headaches.

I also had some potentially major computer issues with (as ever) my anti-viral software. The trouble is that the computer I use is my work laptop that I take home almost daily (my monitor on my home computer is broken and I never got around to setting up the new monitor and restarting that computer).

At present I do not have the regular work-approved anti-viral software because the newer version simply would not load ("I've never seen anything like that..." said the IT guy, who is the assistant to the head of our IT).

Of course he hasn't -- this is me and all my computer issues.

Any computer malfeasance, such as bringing something bad into the work system and the punishment is being fired.

More generally, I just hate computers so much, I hate the internet, and everything both of them represent in our unhappy civilization.

Ah, the nighttime sublime and majestic interior of the Lincoln Memorial, 6:55PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

I nearly sprained my left ankle walking along the south side (the north side being closed) of the Reflecting Pool (under massive renovation and at present not even in recognizable existence) as I neared the Lincoln Memorial because I tripped on the 3" rise from the compacted ground to the asphalted pathway.

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Speaking of computers and the crap that can jump onto them, the site meter site that I use (look on the right side to see it) is a bit funny that way -- on more than one occasion one of the ubiquitous banner ads has proven itself to be less than passive-benign and things have attempted to jump onto my computer based on the reaction of my anti-viral software.

This blog itself and the way I keep it up is also stressful, sucking up so much of my time. It has taken the place of the obsessive written journal-keeping I used to do for about 12 years in a journal that ran to tens of thousands of pages, but virtually none of which remains. I just didn't have any place to store it and it was just filling my closet collecting dust in folders. Besides, the content was not that great -- mostly just repetitive, boring, and/or obsessive.

Yours truly among the columns on the north side of the Lincoln Memorial, 6:56PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

There is quite a drop off just beyond the column, although it is in a series of smaller but still significant step-downs.

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Anyway, I have been very stressed and had some migraine headaches, plus that floater in my right eye seems to get more pronounced at night when I am tired. I'm not sure if that's possible.

I don't know what next week holds but I am apprehensive. If I lose this job (and, of course, it would be for some absurd set of events), that would be pretty much it for me here in D.C. -- and I honestly would have no idea what to do. I'm not even sure I would try to get a new job anymore.

Once Wall-P found this out -- which he would, because most of my friends are all gossipy yentas who secretly thrive on others' misfortunes -- would say in rapid-fire monotonic binary-speak:

"Eh. Eh. Eheheheh. Eh. Eh. Eheh. Eheheheh."

This loosely and nonsensically translates as:

"Is what it is. Proves I'm right. Rahhther asset flow synergize. Consumer Reports rated favorably. Client satisfactuated from strict constructionist perspective."

You can always tell when Wall-P is trying to make a key point by saying, "Rahhther ..." ("rather"), although this sudden British English inflection doesn't jibe with his regular speech patterns.

The Lincoln Memorial among the columns on the south side looking to the east with the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol visible, 6:58PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

The reason the color / lighting looks different than in my lead picture has to do with how long I "exposed" the image with my cellphone camera. The actual color was sort of somewhere in between the two.

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The illuminated Lincoln Memorial seen from the north side, 7:01PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

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That aside, I still have the Wednesday morning small claims case here in D.C. -- even though I already settled with the creditor for about 60% of the total (reflecting more accurately what I actually incurred as charges) and I've made two of the scheduled 5 payments. I'm not even sure if I need to show up since, in theory, the law firm is only filing the settlement papers I signed in early November, but I don't like the idea of a court date involving me at which I am not present.

The bar at the Rivers at the Watergate (old 600 Watergate) restaurant, Washington, D.C., 7:41PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

One of the people in this image had been playing the piano in the bar and it was very pleasant. Oh, yes, Karl Rove -- yes, Bush's Brain / Turd Blossom himself -- came in to pick up a take-out order. He was wearing a lengthy rain coat (though it wasn't raining) and a yellow baseball cap. The bartender and I determined it was he by looking at the bill he signed: "Karl Rove."

It has been my experience in D.C. that you will see high-ranking Democratic political and media types out and about but not usually Republican ones -- they tend to travel in limousines and do not mix with the general public as much.

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Outside the Watergate Office Building at 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 8:55PM, Jan. 5, 2012.

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Last night, I went to Nellie's, where the bartender E. is very friendly to and seemingly genuinely interested in me as a person. We may even meet up for a drink in a couple of weeks. Or not.

Corner of the downstairs bar at Nellie's, Washington, D.C., 1:35AM, Jan. 7, 2012.

This flat screen TV was tuned to a strange D.C. church channel and the guy on it was a very young, gay-ish looking, fundie-tele-evangelist preacher (whose name I did not get), which made for an odd juxtaposition to the gay sports bar setting. The volume was muted but the close-captioning was on.

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The Subway at 14th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 3:09AM, Jan. 7, 2012.

This Subway shop just recently opened (within 6 months).

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U Street was the usual weekend wee hours shit-show walking home at 3AM, a sort of D.C. strip-version of the French Quarter, although I think maybe that analogy is better applied to nearby Adams-Morgan, which is even more so.

The waxing gibbous sinking in the west appearing to be pierced by the top of the turret of the corner row house at 15th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 3:14AM, Jan. 7, 2012.

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Weather Detour

After a brief cold spell in which it actually felt like, well, January, during which time DCA actually fell to 17F (13F at BWI and 14F at IAD) on the morning of the 4th ...

... it quickly warmed back up and the dull-shitty pattern this winter remains with partly cloudy conditions and well above normal temps. Yesterday it reached 63F and today 68F at DCA, which is only +25F above the daily normal high (although no where near the 76F daily record high set in 1907 in a pre-DCA Washington, D.C. record).

There has been an astonishing dearth of snow this winter -- not just here in D.C. proper, where (if you pay attention at all) you expect that but over most of the United States. And there is no sign of any "winter regime" coming this year.

Here is a map of snow (white) and sea ice (yellow) cover over North America as of today, Jan. 7, 2012. As you can see, there ain't much.

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By contrast, here is a map of snow and sea ice cover over Eurasia including the endless taiga and tundra of Siberia and the wastes of the Gobi desert and western China as of today, Jan. 7, 2012 (although I guess it is already tomorrow over part of this region).

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The best that I can hope for is that he hold normal on precipitation (rainfall). A storm with about 1" of rainfall may impact the region Wednesday into Wednesday night.

There is a lot more I want to write and grouse about, including more on Wall-P and a new song I've tentatively written for Mr. Sirius that is a parody version of "Frosty the Snowman" called "Matthew the Barkeep" (I think it's kinda funny).

Instead of this, however, I think I will just end this entry here.

My next planned update (barring anything noteworthy, esp. on the bad side) will be either Monday or possibly Tuesday night.

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Another one of those wintertime sunset views from my 5th floor apartment overlooking the intersection of New Hampshire Ave. and 16th and U Streets, NW, Washington, D.C., 4:43PM, Jan. 7, 2012.

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OK, that really is all for now. Again, my next planned update will be Monday night.

--Regulus

Calk-Cussing Among the GOP Caucasians; More D.C. "227" Geo-Trivia

2012-01-05T00:50:00.017-05:00

A stunning beautiful tropical image along the Hana Highway beside the Pacific Ocean on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.

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This is my midweek update, although in point of fact, I have not finished all three of the Long Beach compliance reports I need to do, and instead I have only completed the big one with two smaller ones to go. Thus, I should not be blogging tonight. However, I likely will not update this blog until Friday or Saturday, and I just wanted to post a few items.

Tonight is a cold, overcast one with some snow flurries / snow showers around the region, although everybody's favorite climate station -- DCA, Reagan Washington National Airport -- is still at "TRACE" for the season and almost certainly will remain so.

BEHOLD! The actual Reagan Washington National Airport weather "ASOS" (automated surface observing system) where the city's "official" climate is measured. This is an image I found online. I'm not sure if the actual snowboard is at this spot -- that may be removed in that small, crappy little shack by the river.

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Ha ha

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Unfortunately, I just don't have the time or energy to write a big political-themed entry about the Iowa GOP Caucus / carnival sideshow and the virtual tie between the plutocratic multi-millionaire who says anything, and the object of Dan Savage's puritanical satire (Willard Mitt Romney "won" by 8 votes over Rick Santorum, 30,015 to 30,007 out of 122,255 cast).

Santorum's creepy sexual puritanical obsessions aside, Santorum just might not be the standard corporate oligarch on economic issues. That would be an interesting change of pace for a GOP'er, although I am probably reading too much into his positions. But if true, it would certainly confuse the corporate Robert Rubin Democrats / WaHoPo Editorial Board / Wall-P money-and-power obsessed types.

I liked the comment I heard on the Ed Show tonight by Joy-Ann Reid. Paraphrasing what she said: "It was a bar fight, and Romney won, but Santorum is the one getting free drinks at the bar and Gingrich is waiting outside with a broken bottle."

Last night, Chris Matthews -- who has a real hatred of Gingrich -- said that Santorum looks like a politician who could connect with voters, and unlike Gingrich, "he doesn't LOOK like an assassin."

I'm actually a bit sad that Bachmann dropped out -- she was like no other in terms of utter P.T. Barnum-like, American-fundamentalist Looney Tunes.

But she does head the Teabagger contingent, so we should be fine for a while at least for entertainment purposes.

Matt Taibbi had a very good blog posting about how the Empire will re-exert itself and ensure that the two candidates are the Establishment-approved ones. (No, he doesn't use that term "Empire" but it's the same idea.) I suggest reading the entry.

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Kinda says it all ...

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Clay Bennett,the editorial cartoonist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, is amazing with his political drawings. And in that part of the country, he must get a ton of crazed hate mail.

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A screen shot from the Talking Points Memo blog tonight with a story about an Army Reservist, Cpl. Jesse Thorsen -- who looks curiously familiar -- who probably got himself into trouble by showing up in uniform to praise Ron Paul. Not very bright thing for Cpl. Thorsen to so.

As for Ron Paul, who came in a very close 3rd place in Iowa (thank God I don't have to hear about Iowa for another four years), I highly recommend Michael Lind's Jan. 3, 2011 Salon piece entitled "Race, Liberty and Ron Paul", although originally it was called, more appropriately, "The Moral Idiocy of Ron Paul" because he addresses the real issue -- the thinly-veiled racism underlying the nonsensical and outright silly bullshit that is American libertarian ideology.

Excerpt:

"By equating the Civil Rights Act, which expanded American civil liberty, with the Patriot Act, which reduced it, on the grounds that both are federal laws with sanctions, Ron Paul displays the moral idiocy of someone who declares that a person who pushes a little old lady out of the path of a bus is just as bad as a person who pushes a little old lady into the path of a bus, because both are equally guilty of pushing little old ladies around.

"Like other libertarians, Ron Paul does not understand American values. The American experiment is an experiment in creating and maintaining a democratic republic, not a minimal state. American political culture is founded not on the theories of Ayn Rand or Ludwig von Mises but on the reasoning of natural rights theorists like John Locke, for whom coercion in the service of communal self-defense is perfectly legitimate.

"In Lockean social contract theory, in order to protect themselves from human predators, people form a community and then transfer the pooled power of self-defense to the community’s trustee, the state, the better to resist invasion and crime. While abuses of military and police power are to be guarded against, the idea that the military and police and government as such are inherently tyrannical, a familiar theme in libertarian and anarchist thought, is utterly alien to America’s Lockean republican tradition.

"Libertarians typically argue that only government, backed by military and police power, can be tyrannical. Lockean republicans in contrast believe that private power located in the for-profit or non-profit sectors can be tyrannical, as well. By means of their agent, the state, the sovereign people legitimately can protect themselves from predation by private sector tyrants as well as public sector tyrants.

"Libertarians are not the brightest lights in the candelabra, a fact that is evident from the alternatives they tend to offer to public prevention of private abuses ...

"From his statement that the Civil Rights act 'destroyed the principle of private property and private choices,' I think his meaning is quite clear: civil rights legislation at any level -- federal, state or local -- should never have been passed. To this day, store owners should be free to call on the public police at public expense to drag blacks, Jews, or members of other groups that the owners do not like from their business establishments, in the name of property rights."

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A random picture of mighty Mount Rainier as seen from Tacoma, Wash., along the south edge of Puget Sound. Mount Rainier's native Yakima name is "Takhoma."

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And, of course, I highly recommend Paul Krugman's daily blog along with his Monday and Friday columns.

His entry earlier today cited his economist comrade-in-arms Brad DeLong in a response to the criticisms that both of them are too aggressive and rude -- or in WaHoPo/Beltway-speak, "shrill" -- without responding to their opponents' views.

DeLong's detailed response to John H. Cochrane, the High Priest of the irrationally and nonsensically anti-Keynesian Chicago ~~School~~ Cult.

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Oh, yes, I would like to note here the clarification that I already posted in my previous entry about the TV show 227's geography of Washington, D.C., more specifically, the opening sequence with the picture of the Washington Monument.

Please see the previous entry and (re)read the paragraph beginning "However, the Washington Monument's 'grid location' ..."

I would like to talk a little bit more about that opening screenshot in 227 of the Washington Monument in supposed relationship to the "227" walk-up row house apartments, which I am reposting below:

Assuming that this image was taken in spring or fall (see the trees in the lower right of the image) and around mid-to-late morning -- judging by the sky hue and Sun angle -- there is no way that the sunlight illuminated portion could be the north or west side. (Indeed, it could almost never be illuminating the north side like that except around the summer solstice, and even though only around sunrise or sunset from an oblique / shallower.)

This means the sunlit side is EITHER the south or east side. If it is the south side, then the shaded side is the west side, so the row houses would have to be on the southwest of the Monument -- except there is nothing on that side except the Potomac River and then the area toward the Pentagon on the Virginia side. If it is the east side, then the shaded side is the north side, so the row houses would have to be on the northeast side. This IS possible, except the nearest row houses would be in Capitol Hill just to the northeast of the U.S. Capitol Building and at least 1.5 miles and more like 2 miles away.

In point of fact, those row houses look a bit like they are along North Capitol Street, and this is not a vista you would have, or if so, the Monument would be in the distance behind the low-to-medium rise of buildings in downtown D.C.

OK, that's enough of that. My next planned update will be on Friday or over the weekend.

--Regulus

Ringing in 2012 in Great Cities of the World; Navigating Washington, D.C., in "227" Reruns

2012-01-03T00:53:00.022-05:00

Fireworks shoot from Big Ben Clock Tower and above Westminster Palace (British Parliament building), London, January 1, 2012.

"Big Ben" is actually the name of the Great Bell inside of the Clock Tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, which houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Clock Tower -- which is also called Big Ben -- houses four quarter bells. Thus, there are five bells in all inside the Clock Tower.

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This is my first entry of 2012 on this my Regulus blog.

This entry contains mostly some New Years Eve celebratory images from some of the better known cities and their celebrations on Planet Earth to ring in the New Year. The second portion of this entry contains some pictures my own New Years Eve in suburban Maryland (Rockville) and back in D.C. They don't really capture the night but they are the ones I took.

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New York City ...

The penultimate New Years Eve place on Planet Earth: Times Square, New York City, at the midnight hour, Jan. 1, 2012.

Of course, I would not like the 12+ hour wait that some folks have just to be in that location. I don't think I could hold out that long.

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A festive crowd at Times Square in New York City, New Years Eve 2012.

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More throngs of revelers amid a blizzard of confetti, New Years Eve 2012, Times Square, New York City.

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London ...

Fireworks shoot from Big Ben Clock Tower at the stroke of midnight with part of the great London Eye Ferris wheel in the foreground, London, Jan. 1, 2012.

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Fireworks shoot inward from the London Eye and above Westminster Palace, London, Jan. 1, 2012.

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Another New Year Eve 2012 image of fireworks above Big Ben Clock Tower, London.

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Still more fireworks in interesting formation over Big Ben clock tower in London, New Years Eve 2012.

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Paris ...

New Years Eve 2012 revelers in Paris amid a spray of champagne with the illuminated Eiffel Tower in the distance.

New Years Eve revelers in Paris on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.

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Berlin ...

Fireworks over the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Jan. 1, 2012

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Close-up of fireworks over the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Jan. 1, 2012

Germany and its frickin' euro and its self-righteous, probably racist-based, certainly doomed-to-fail deflationary economics / all-austerity-all-the-time as "punishment" for the peripheral countries of the EU are really getting on my nerves.

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Athens ...

Speaking of one of the peripheral countries of the EU (Greece) that Germany feels it needs to "punish"...

Fireworks over the Acropolis with the crowning nighttime-illuminated Parthenon in Athens, Greece, New Years Eve, 2012.

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More fireworks over the Acropolis with the crowning nighttime-illuminated Parthenon in Athens, Greece, New Years Eve, 2012.

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Moscow ...

New Years Eve 2012 fireworks over St. Basil's Cathedral at the Kremlin, Moscow on what appears to be a cold winter's night.

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Fireworks over the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower, New Years Eve, 2012

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And, of course, Sydney ...

Year after year, no one does it quite like Sydney with the great pyrotechnical fireworks display shooting from the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the iconic Syndey Opera House in the foreground, Jan. 1, 2012.

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Close-up view of New Years Eve 2012 fireworks launched from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and above Sydney Opera House.

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Still more spectacular New Years Eve 2012 fireworks images over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

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Seattle ... (A city I love)

New Years Eve 2012 fireworks over the iconic Space Needle, Seattle, with silhouetted figures watching in the distance.

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More New Years Eve 2012 fireworks over the Space Needle, Seattle.

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Spectacular fireworks launched from the top of the Space Needle, Seattle, New Years Eve 2012.

Crocodile DG was somewhere in Seattle celebrating on this night (judging by the text message he sent me).

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Taipei ...

Here is quite a fireworks display being launched from Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in Taipei and presently either the second or third tallest in the world.

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Hong Kong ...

New Years Eve 2012 revelers on Hong Kong, one carrying an interesting and hopeful message.

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Illuminated paper dragon lantern in Paju, South Korea near the Demilitarized Zone.

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A happy girl rings in New Years Eve 2012 in Hong Kong.

OK, that's all for the New Years Eve pictures. If my Statcounter is any guide, I will have a flurry of hits on these images next New Years Eve (2013). I'm sure the above image is likely eventually to get an incredible number of hits from the Far East.

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Washington, D.C. ...

Also, you will note that I have no pictures of New Years Eve 2012 in Washington, D.C. That's because D.C. is not now nor is EVER among those great cities with celebratory New Years Eve events.

The last time D.C. tried a New Years Eve event was for the arrival of the millennium in 2000 -- and it sucked beyond belief with poor and disjointed organization and a crummy, anti-climactic (and climatic) event.

As it is, D.C. does the 4th of July with a spectacular fireworks show.

The Rockville Metro station platform, Rockville, Md., 8:02PM, Dec. 31, 2011.

I had gone up to Rockville where I had dinner with my friend and co-worker DD and his family. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Rockville city center.

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The Friendship Heights Metro station's subterranean platform, Washington, D.C., 8:23PM, Dec. 31, 2011.

I stopped off at Friendship Heights to have a few drinks with K. at the Cheesecake Factory -- just like we did last year.

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Yours truly in the Chevy Chase Pavilion, Friendship Heights, Washington, D.C., 8:28PM, Dec. 31, 2011.

I was waiting for K. to show up to go to the Cheesecake Factory. We did the same thing last year. Of note, here was my entry from last year (Jan. 2, 2011) that included another picture in the same pavilion.

At the midnight hour of New Years Eve 2012, I was actually at a festive event with a group of friends at Larry's Lounge, including Kristof, Gary, Dilshan, Gloria, and K.

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Here was the sky earlier today as seen from my apartment looking at the Brittany, Washington, D.C., 1:56PM, Jan. 2, 2011.

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Washington, D.C., 227 in 2012

OK, that's all for now. I am home now at this late Monday night on the "eve" of the start of the regular 2012 year -- tomorrow is back to work after the holidays. I am watching alternately the Monday night reruns of The Golden Girls on We TV and the 1980s sitcom 227 on Centric Channel -- the renamed BET Jazz / BET J channel spin-off from BET.

There has been a 227 marathon on Centric Channel all day and through tomorrow morning. 227 was a sitcom on from 1985 - 1990 and starred Marla Gibbs, who was best known as Florence on The Jeffersons. Apparently Marla Gibbs is now 80 years old (!) while her Jeffersons co-star Sherman Hemsley is 71.

227 was supposed to be set here in Washington, D.C., except this opening image suggests that the address (227) of their small walk-up apt. in a row house is located in a neighborhood relatively near the Washington Monument. I base that on this screenshot of the opening:

However, the Washington Monument's "grid location" is 16th Street (1600 block) NW on the axis of the National Mall ("unit block" if it existed there). Thus, the only possible neighborhood this could be -- with row houses of this nature -- is the Foggy Bottom area, and there is no 200-block in that area. For Foggy Bottom, the street numbers here start at their lowest EITHER in the 2000s (i.e., starting at 20th St. NW) and reckoned east-west between the north-south running numbered streets) OR in the 500s (i.e., starting at E St., NW, which is approximately the southernmost residential street in Foggy Bottom) and reckoned north-south between the east-west running lettered streets).

Google aerial map view of downtown / monumental core, Washington, D.C.

The only other possible 200 block for it to be located would have to on the north-south running streets, but that too makes no sense for a neighborhood that is supposed to be near the Washington Monument since it would have to be EITHER on the block between Independence Ave. and C Street, SW, OR Constitution Ave. and C Street, NW.

However, there are no residential structures in these areas.

Another clarification: Independence Ave. and Constitution Ave. are the old "B" Streets on either side of the National Mall.

In an actual D.C. neighborhood, it would have to be immediately off East Capitol Street (again between Independence Ave. and C St., SE, or Constitution Ave and C St., NE) in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but either is at least 1.5 miles or more from the Washington Monument. And as for the image of the Washington Monument shown above in the opening, its sunlit side could NEVER be on the north, which rules out the NE section of Capitol Hill.

Finally, as for when the show was set -- 1985 to 1990 -- let's jsut say that D.C. was a pretty rough place as the crack wars erupted and Marion Barry had ultimate power. Nevertheless. I like the show, though, and the opening theme.

Got it?

OK, that's all for now. My next planned update will be Wednesday or Thursday.

--Regulus