October 2021 After I moved to the safe house on Perry Place, NE in Washington yet AGAIN with the ever forbearing PM and DV at the end of...

July 2019 On my final return to Iraq from the USA, my brother was the one to take me to the airport (Dulles, Washington, DC). We agreed...

August 2017 When I lived in Japan I was shocked at how little Japanese learned in their history classes about World War II and the...

July 2019 In the 6th grade we took a class trip to Washington, DC. We saw the museums, the Capitol, and walked around on the Mall, but what stuck with me about the trip were the stops on the way back: one, at the Franciscan Monastery to see its re-creation of places in the Holy Land; and the other, at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Considering nearly everyone on the school trip was Protestant, I think stopping to see two major Roman Catholic sites was d

[from FB post: July 22, 2013] There was a problem with a train at the Dupont Circle metro that caused it to smoke excessively. We all...

North Corner Boundary Stone, District of Columbia. April 2013 Mega-walks Life was in a huge pause. I was in the process of looking for...

Environmental Protection Agency, Constitution Avenue December 2021 An old love affair gone sour In my childhood seeing the Federal Triangle meant we were just a stone's throw from the Smithsonian Museums. Those massive Greco-Roman columns for me as a kid on a trip to the capital from rural Pennsylvania were awe inspiring. In later years as a college student, I continued to love the severity of those facades. They stood for so much it seemed - democracy and order at the v

Gallery Place/Chinatown. December 2021 In 1976, the inaugural stretch of the Red Line ran from Rhode Island Avenue to Farragut North station. By the time I reached Washington as a university student the metro had already been expanded to include 2 more lines, the Orange and the Blue. Much to Georgetown's later regret, it lobbied AGAINST a metro station which meant my taking the metro as a student was a long walk to Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, or Roslyn, Virginia. None of

Sackler Gallery, Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Insitution. December 2021 Bringing outside inside Under the Enid Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle is a museum complex that most people would never think even existed at first glance. One half of it is the Sackler Gallery of Asian Art. The architect, Jean Paul Carlhian, is not a name many people are familiar with and he did not leave behind a huge architectural legacy. Nevertheless, the complex is one of my favo

National Building Museum. December 2020. National Building Museum Interior. July 2018 The Pension Building Exiting the metro at...

Georgetown University Gate, Healy Building. November 2021 “One of the greatest tragedies in life is to lose your own sense of self and...

Great Hall, Library of Congress. September 2021 My favorite American building The grand design of the library's Thomas Jefferson Building was based on the Paris Opera House and seemed to proclaim America's faith in learning and knowledge as vital strengths in upholding the republic. With its synthesis of architecture, art, decoration and ambition, the Library of Congress's Jefferson Building ranks among America's greatest achievements. When it opened November 1, 1897, writer

Kennedy Center. September 2021 The Group Leader Sometimes I wonder how we lived in the pre-internet age. One of the advantages of living...

DC Court of Appeals, Judiciary Square. December 2021 Time rolls on This neo-classical building rises on the south side of Judiciary...

Rotunda, Art & Industries Building, Smithsonian Institute: December 2021 Slow and steady The new national museum, the Smithsonian,...

Apple Store (ex Carnegie Library), Mt Vernon Square. December 2021 Gutted Andrew Carnegie built libraries across the United States with his wealth, some of which were spectacular monuments to public dissemination of knowledge. The one in St Louis is still as grand as the New York Public Library. Another of them was in Washington, DC on Mount Vernon Square built in 1903. The library was extremely successful and almost outgrew its capacity immediately. Carnegie also funded

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute. December 2021 American Indian Portraits, George Catlin , National Portrait Gallery. August 2017 A silencing On a summer visit to DC, TFR and I visited the Renwick Gallery to see a recommended exhibit of famous American painter, George Catlin's, works. I rank it among one of the most impactful exhibits I have ever seen in my life. George Catlin was a fellow Pennsylvanian hailing from Wilkes Barre. Given he was born in 1796, I assume

St Helena, c. 1495, Cima da Conegliano, National Gallery of Art. December 2021 Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem. June 2018 ...

Smithson Crypt, Smithsonian Castle. December 2021 The strange story of James Smithson and the creation of the Smithsonian Institution...