A Pilgrim’s Digression

The Capitol Lounge on Pennsylvania Avenue SE burned yesterday morning. It caught fire about six AM and was still burning as I walked to work about 6:30. Fire trucks had C street blocked from 2nd street to third, and Pennsylvania and Independence were also blocked all the way to third street. It was quite a fire.

As I crossed Independence Ave., I was almost hit by a car heading the wrong way down the street. I hadn’t even looked for traffic before crossing because the street was blocked off; there wasn’t supposed to be any traffic on it. A cop directing traffic yelled “What the hell are you doing?” I thought he was yelling at me for jaywalking. He was yelling at the car going the wrong way. It had squealed to a halt right beside me. “What are you doing?” He yelled again, sounding more exasperated than angry this time. I couldn’t hear what the driver said.

I expect if I continue living in this city any length of time, I am probably going to be struck and killed by car.

This morning, the Capitol Lounge was boarded up and closed and there was little trace of the fire, except for some soot on the sidewalk and the scorched “DC Doughnut” sign hanging in the window. The cause of the fire is said to be a smoldering cigarette thrown into a trashcan.

However, rumors are that this must be an act of terrorism. Terrorists are trying to disrupt the social life of Capitol Hill staffers, sowing chaos in an attempt to change how we live our lives. We will be steadfast in the face of this threat; we will not be cowed. We’ll go to Bullfeathers for lunch instead.

In the window of the Trover book shop are a number of titles I would like to read.

1. 1945: the war that never ended
2. Eleventh month, eleventh Day, eleventh hour: Armistice Day 1918 and its violent climax
3. 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus
4. A man without a country (Kurt Vonnegut)

I rather like the European style of not capitalizing every initial letter of a title. I am going to adopt this in my own writing. No mare capitalization except where grammatically necessary!

The weather has been cool and seasonable in Washington lately. Good weather for relaxing in Bartholdi park or just walking around the Hill at lunch, seeing if one can spot someone famous.