Nutgraf

There's work to be done.

The weather outside is deeply disturbing. And something about the air pressure make me keep tipping over on the sofa like a buffalo with a dart in its flank, napping randomly. But I am delighted to report that I have successfully worked my way through this pile of New Yorkers, and resolve to stay more on top of things moving forward.

• Winter wonderland photos and Deathsnow Challenge Part I
• Bare shelves at Safeway, and Deathsnow Challenge Part II

February 8, 2010, continued

Okay, so after the Keyser Söze piece, I did enjoy the profile of gospel singer Tonex, and his complicated past and present. Best of luck to him in all of his future endeavors. ‘William Burns’ by Roberto Bolano was a dark and disturbing piece of fiction that I was happy to end. Castle in the Air – about a ginormotron skyscraper in Dubai – Vegas of the Middle East, but without the class – was honestly pretty cool. No matter how repulsive  a city it is, they do build some cool stuff. None of the other reviews/critiques really moved me.

And on to the big, fat 85th Anniversary Issue, the last in my series.

Feb 15 & 22, 2010

In Talk of the Town, comparing the week’s takings for Avatar to the federal budget deficit is an unspeakably depressing thing to do. Thanks.

And so we move on to “The Trial,” and Eric Holder’s battle about trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Lots of bloodthirsty people on all sides of this equation who don’t want this to go to trial. Easy for them to say, seems to me. And while we’re at it – if none of the places where people died on 9-11 want to host an expensive and divisive trial, they should just have it here in DC. We never make our budgets anyway and public transportation is already a disaster. Also, c’mon people, due process and human rights are what America’s all about. Love it or leave it, man.

Mules? By the way? Are awesome. And this piece about alcohol and alcoholism across different cultures is really interesting. As is the incredible civil rights photographic portfolio by Platon and introduced by David Remnick – a class act.

And with that, I’ll get back to obsessing about the weather and the poor performance of WMATA. I thank you for your kind indulgence.

It just won’t stop frakking snowing, so I’m still trying to burn through these New Yorkers. Just when I thought that I was nearing the end, the mailman managed to access our house despite the Deathsnow and deliver another one.

• Read Part I of the Deathsnow Challenge

Meanwhile, Spouse had to walk me around today, in advance of this latest storm, so we went to our neighborhood Safeway. A couple of snapshots, to give you an idea of the carnage. I think Spouse was having flashbacks to his youth in Moscow. He kept muttering “if you are for the first time in Moscow, welcome.” and something about 12 kilos of potatoes. Poor Spouse.

February 1, 2010

Bed bugs, Lady Gaga, and the ongoing tragedy in Haiti open up this week’s issue. I kind of lucked out this time, since my copy is missing a bunch of pages from the middle – the result being that the article about Dresden merging awkwardly with one  about the Department of Investigation, also known as “the city’s secret police.” I think.

Meghan O’Rourke’s piece about grief hit kind of close to home, what with my rockstar Grandma dying just a couple of weeks ago. Which reminds me to point out that Cancer is Still an Asshole, and that I’ve had some great success with the Amazon affiliation since launch. There will be a donation to the ACS, as promised, just as soon as Amazon submits their tally. Not bad! Remember, all you have to do is go through this link or any on the Cancer is an Asshole Web site, buy whatever you’re going to buy on Amazon anyway, and they’ll kick me 4% or so of your purchase price, every cent of which I will send to the ACS.

The analysis of the Leno/O’Brien squabble is best summed up as “an abject failure of leadership” and left to die. Never cared for any of those programs myself, so it’s hard for me to take this story or the analysis thereof at all seriously.

Meanwhile, this is taking me so long that I just got another issue. And damn! As the special 85th Anniversay Issue, it’s a fat one.

February 8, 2010

Naturally, this issue opens with a couple of remembrances of J.D. Salinger. More power to ‘em. Moving on to the tragedy in Haiti, the story about Nadia provides a vivid picture of the harsh realities on the ground – both now and before the earthquake.

I don’t know why, but the Shouts & Murmurs pieces have been pretty weak for the last few issues. I could also be humor impaired after sitting in the house all this time. Now, I’m working my way through a really great article about a guy they’re comparing to Keyser Söze, but keep getting interrupted by things like dinner, extremely welcome phone calls, and Spouse wanting to read that article even more than me.

But since it’s Still Frakking Snowing, I’ll have some time tomorrow to finish up.

I’m about to expel a baby from myself, so I have decided to cut me some slack when I get totally obsessed with a notion for no reason. And so, with that in mind, I proudly present my latest fit:

Cute or HR?

We’ve all been there – in the office. And then someone says something that makes everyone kind of pause and think for a moment. You do the rapid calculation – weighing your relationship against both immediate context and overall environment. Then rub that up against your future prospects, workload, aversion to paperwork.

Maybe “rub up against” isn’t the phrase I want to use here.

But either way, this new site is an enormous amount of fun, and I’m just tickled by the response so far.

Please share your own Cute or HR moments, and/or vote on others already published. I strongly suggest that no identifying details be used.

WMATA photograph by Larry Levine

Now, I’ve done my share of bitching about Metro this Summer. Not without cause. Since the terrible accident in June and a series of other mini disasters, the Red line (the line I know well) has been a total disaster. Long waits, nauseatingly jerky rides, inexplicable off-loadings and sloooow service, has made it a really unappealing way to get around.

I’ve seen it good and I’ve seen it bad and this summer it’s been bad, which is why my fuse was short when the weather warmed up and the platform at Bethesda became uninhabitable. Combine that with the longer waits for packed trains full of angry, aggressive commuters, and I got all in a snit. I dashed off a quick note to WMATA customer service expecting little. Imagine my surprise when I got a great, timely, attentive, detailed, personable and professional response. Yes! This from the same people who are shutting the airport stop for the duration of a holiday weekend! Which, I’ve got to say, is a bold “Eff You” to the city.

I’d like to give a little credit where it’s due, particularly since they’re having such a hard time this year. Having received permission from WMATA, here are some excerpts from that correspondence. I’m not publishing the name of the excellent rep who wrote to me, but if Metro wants to give some credit for a job well done, the case # is 503500.

My original email:

It is insanely hot on the Bethesda station platform, and has been all summer. Now that the weather is reaching DC’s usual summer highs, this situation is getting more dire. Please, please, please make whatever repairs or adjustments are necessary.

And the relevant part of their lovely reply:

Thank you for your recent email.  The air conditioning units that blow the cold air are operating and the temperatures inside Bethesda station remain in the 70s.  However, the Bethesda units are some of the oldest units in the system and need to be replaced.  We are working to get them scheduled for replacement, which may be a few years out as funding is always an issue.

Okay, I’ll give it another couple of days, I thought. And I did. And I noticed that I could feel the hot air actually blowing up the long escalator, wilting my suit as I descended into hell. So I wrote back.

Thank you very much for your reply. I must, however, respectfully disagree with you about the temperature on the Bethesda platform and encourage WMATA to have another look…  Perhaps when Metro Center is done with the fans (which have been a great help this summer), a couple of them could be deployed to Bethesda.

Then! Get this! She sent it to the air conditioning department! Who also wrote back!

I had the temperature checked today at 10:30, and the temperature in the middle of the platform was 78 degrees – not bad! Not sure why the customer feels different. If at all possible, I can have a supervisor meet the customer and look at temperature readings so we can know exactly what time they are there and experience what they are feeling.

We will continue to try to find ways to improve air circulation until the units finally get replaced.

We are apprehensive about installing fans for safety reasons, and with temperature readings below 80 degrees, doesn’t justify putting fans down there.

I declined, with thanks, the offer of a meeting nd thanked them both for looking into my complaint.

Really, I’ve had some customer service nightmares (Comcast, anyone?), and I’m very impressed with this response. Kudos Metro. I hope that this experience is one you can emulate throughout the network. And I hope you get the funding to do it.

I had the great good fortune to spend some time at Dumbarton Oaks with my alleged father (as he used to sign notes to my teachers when I was a kid), getting a guided tour from a dear friend and freshly minted landscape architect who has worked there over the summer.

I grew up in DC and have lived here much of my adult life – aside from poorly advised intervals in Ohio and Boston – and yet have never toured these gardens.

The house and grounds were purchased in 1920 by spamillionaires Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. Over the course of years, they renovated the grounds into a series of terraced gardens. Today, it is a weirdly secluded, very private preserve right in the middle of historic Georgetown. Standing on the grounds, you hardly know you’re in DC, the only hint being the distant hum of traffic on Rock Creek Parkway and the occasional view of church spires that peek through the trees.

The Blisses left the property and their art collection to Harvard University, with a generous endowment that continues to support it today. One of the things I find most interesting about it, is that – as a self-sustaining facility – they have no public mission. Many of the gardens are open to the public during limited hours, but their primary mission is preservation and research, and they are beholden to no one.

Here are some photos from our great visit. It was one of those 500% humidity days that DC is famous for (I practically needed a snorkel), as you can see in these overcast and somewhat hazy pictures.

Dumbarton Oaks is so easy to miss and so worthwhile. Strong recommend.