It's been busy on weekends. Jeezum crickets, what have I been doing?
Last weekend I had one of the great alone days since I've been in this area. Took me down to Chinatown for Chipotle, then to see Hot Fuzz, which was really funny. I think it was funnier than Shaun of the Dead. It makes fun of big action cop movies, but changes the setting to a small town in England. It's actually got a lot of people you've seen around in this and that. And for whatever reason, I never would've recognized Timothy Dalton if I hadn't seen his name in the credits. I totally missed that one. I knew he looked familiar, I just couldn't pin him down.
Haagen Dazs on the way out to make the walk a little more pleasant. Saw a girl in there who I should have offered to buy ice cream. Anyway, it was a gorgeous day, the first great weather weekend of the year. I walked around the National Mall for about three hours, just watching people and enjoying everything. Finally, it was off to Pentagon City and the first Popeyes I'd had since Lent ended. Magical.
Back into DC for a few hours at SOTW. The bartender ate four saltines in under a minute, which is a great accomplishment. I freaked out the waitress by showing her the "short arm trick". The rest of the evening was very pleasant.
Sunday my cousin and I went to the Kennedy Center to see Coriolanus, which was very good. It ought to be, since it was put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It's always nice when you look at the playbill and see a listing that says, "Patron: Her Majesty The Queen". When I see things like plays or musicals, I tend to go in just thinking about the acting and storyline. I forget about the production itself and how they change the scenes and set the backdrop for different times and places. It was very well done and did a great job of enhancing the action, drama, or emotion of each scene.
After the play we went over to Eastern Market. The food was good. It's an active neighborhood. Our waitress was cute. She was nice. She was from the Midwest. And she was terrible. I won't name her or the place, since I don't want her to somehow get in trouble. But man she was awful. Did I mention she was nice? She needs to quit that job and come live with me.
I'm going to run to bed so I'll talk about New Orleans and the Jazz Fest later.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
April 14
I spent most of the day in downtown DC. The Freer Gallery was running a free anime marathon, so I went to the first film. As a result I got to see the grand epic of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Movie. Reagan Building for lunch, then wandered around the street festival for the Cherry Blossom Festival. A group of drummers and dancers was performing on the big stage. They were pretty good.
I moseyed on over to J-Pop Land and watched Mitsu Massyu. I think they pulled off something pretty tough: it was really, really, really loud but still managed to be pleasant. I could actually see myself listening to this stuff at home. I wouldn't understand a single thing, but it was nice. Speaking of not understanding a thing:
It seemed like only one member of the band spoke English, the male guitar player, but he didn't really do any talking. The lead girl did most of that. The thing I really liked is that for the most part she didn't even try to speak English. She just went on and did her thing in Japanese. There seemed to be plenty of people there who understood her, and not just native Japanese folks. (I did understand whenever she said "Genki deska", which is like "How are you?". Standard reply: "WOOOOOO!!") Now and then she'd say a couple of things in English and the crowd would go wild. Reminded me of what they say about Americans traveling in foreign countries like Italy or Germany. If you even try to speak the native language, they love you.
After that it was off to Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The song at the beginning was worth a big chunk of the price of admission. There's no point in me talking about the rest. You can see Stephen Hunter's review here. Or the Slate review here.
Then it was back over to the street festival for more Mitsu Massyu, this time on the big stage.
I started a sort of one-man, metro-based mini bar crawl. A burger and a couple of drinks at Sign of the Whale started the evening. A traveling salesman bought a round of shots, so I asked for Wild Turkey (puts a fire in your belly, it does). The bartender suggested Wild Turkey Honey. Very nice. Instead of setting your eyes on fire, it sort of makes the area under them warm and tingly. I'll have to try that stuff again. Went to Whitlow's for a drink, which was a complete waste of time. Whitlow's is loud and crowded, and there is absolutely nothing going on unless you're there with a group of people. Then over to Bailey's for a couple more drinks and watched a few games on TV. That sort of crawl is a nice idea, but I've got some refining to do before it's as good as it can be.
Sunday I sat on my butt all day and didn't do anything except a little laundry. WHEEEEEE!
I moseyed on over to J-Pop Land and watched Mitsu Massyu. I think they pulled off something pretty tough: it was really, really, really loud but still managed to be pleasant. I could actually see myself listening to this stuff at home. I wouldn't understand a single thing, but it was nice. Speaking of not understanding a thing:
It seemed like only one member of the band spoke English, the male guitar player, but he didn't really do any talking. The lead girl did most of that. The thing I really liked is that for the most part she didn't even try to speak English. She just went on and did her thing in Japanese. There seemed to be plenty of people there who understood her, and not just native Japanese folks. (I did understand whenever she said "Genki deska", which is like "How are you?". Standard reply: "WOOOOOO!!") Now and then she'd say a couple of things in English and the crowd would go wild. Reminded me of what they say about Americans traveling in foreign countries like Italy or Germany. If you even try to speak the native language, they love you.
After that it was off to Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The song at the beginning was worth a big chunk of the price of admission. There's no point in me talking about the rest. You can see Stephen Hunter's review here. Or the Slate review here.
Then it was back over to the street festival for more Mitsu Massyu, this time on the big stage.
I started a sort of one-man, metro-based mini bar crawl. A burger and a couple of drinks at Sign of the Whale started the evening. A traveling salesman bought a round of shots, so I asked for Wild Turkey (puts a fire in your belly, it does). The bartender suggested Wild Turkey Honey. Very nice. Instead of setting your eyes on fire, it sort of makes the area under them warm and tingly. I'll have to try that stuff again. Went to Whitlow's for a drink, which was a complete waste of time. Whitlow's is loud and crowded, and there is absolutely nothing going on unless you're there with a group of people. Then over to Bailey's for a couple more drinks and watched a few games on TV. That sort of crawl is a nice idea, but I've got some refining to do before it's as good as it can be.
Sunday I sat on my butt all day and didn't do anything except a little laundry. WHEEEEEE!
Ptooey! Beijing 2008
The New York Times today has a pretty interesting article about the efforts of the Chinese government to get residents of Beijing to clean up their acts before the Olympics come calling in 2008. Highlights:
----------------------------------------------------
Last week, the city commemorated “Queuing Day,” an event held on the 11th of every month because the date symbolizes an orderly line. Volunteers wearing satin Queuing Day sashes shooed rush-hour commuters into lines at busy subway stations, while hospital administrators and a few city officials handed out long-stemmed roses to patients who stood in line to pay their bills or pick up medicines.
----------------------------------------------------
Public spitting is a frequent practice in Beijing and even more common elsewhere in China. (The sinus-clearing, phlegmy pre-spit hawking sound is so common that one foreigner wryly dubbed it “the national anthem of China.”)
----------------------------------------------------
English translations on signs are considered fashionable and good advertising, as well as a gracious gesture to foreigners baffled by Chinese characters. But until recently, the attention paid to the accuracy of the translation was, at best, uneven. Consider that a local theme park about China’s ethnic minorities was initially promoted in English as “Racist Park.”
----------------------------------------------------
Tony Kornheiser pointed out this morning that the Pulitzer Prize in criticism went to a man named Jonathan Gold, who is the restaurant critic for LA Weekly. Tony said that the DC equivalent of this was someone winning from City Paper. You can see samples of Gold's writing here. One day I'll move back to Natchitoches and win one writing for the Natchitoches Times.
I'm reading the Aeneid right now. If you decide to read both the Aeneid and the Iliad, read the former first. If you start with the Iliad, you'll only be disappointed in the Aeneid. It's like it was written by a 5th grader compared to the Iliad. From what I've heard, it's like visiting both Australia and New Zealand. "They" say to do Australia first.
I bought my first item off of itunes over the weekend: The 2007 Sugar Bowl: LSU 41, Notre Dame 14.
Chris Richardson told Simon tonight on Idol that "nasal is a singing style" after Simon described his performance as "nasally" for the umpteenth time in a row. I suppose this could technically be correct. But surely Chris realizes that you sing through your nose when you don't have a good voice.
Ach, Bones is a rerun tomorrow. A good one, though. One more thing before I get on to talking about my weekend:
The song "Turn Me On" by Norah Jones is wonderful.
----------------------------------------------------
Last week, the city commemorated “Queuing Day,” an event held on the 11th of every month because the date symbolizes an orderly line. Volunteers wearing satin Queuing Day sashes shooed rush-hour commuters into lines at busy subway stations, while hospital administrators and a few city officials handed out long-stemmed roses to patients who stood in line to pay their bills or pick up medicines.
----------------------------------------------------
Public spitting is a frequent practice in Beijing and even more common elsewhere in China. (The sinus-clearing, phlegmy pre-spit hawking sound is so common that one foreigner wryly dubbed it “the national anthem of China.”)
----------------------------------------------------
English translations on signs are considered fashionable and good advertising, as well as a gracious gesture to foreigners baffled by Chinese characters. But until recently, the attention paid to the accuracy of the translation was, at best, uneven. Consider that a local theme park about China’s ethnic minorities was initially promoted in English as “Racist Park.”
----------------------------------------------------
Tony Kornheiser pointed out this morning that the Pulitzer Prize in criticism went to a man named Jonathan Gold, who is the restaurant critic for LA Weekly. Tony said that the DC equivalent of this was someone winning from City Paper. You can see samples of Gold's writing here. One day I'll move back to Natchitoches and win one writing for the Natchitoches Times.
I'm reading the Aeneid right now. If you decide to read both the Aeneid and the Iliad, read the former first. If you start with the Iliad, you'll only be disappointed in the Aeneid. It's like it was written by a 5th grader compared to the Iliad. From what I've heard, it's like visiting both Australia and New Zealand. "They" say to do Australia first.
I bought my first item off of itunes over the weekend: The 2007 Sugar Bowl: LSU 41, Notre Dame 14.
Chris Richardson told Simon tonight on Idol that "nasal is a singing style" after Simon described his performance as "nasally" for the umpteenth time in a row. I suppose this could technically be correct. But surely Chris realizes that you sing through your nose when you don't have a good voice.
Ach, Bones is a rerun tomorrow. A good one, though. One more thing before I get on to talking about my weekend:
The song "Turn Me On" by Norah Jones is wonderful.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The Elephant in the Room
On March 24, the Rutgers women's basketball team beat Duke by one point to advance to the Elite Eight in the women's tournament. On December 4, they had lost to Duke by forty points. That's a pretty big turnaround within the same season, and done against the #1 team in the country. Well done.
The Scarlet Knights next ran over Arizona State to make the Final Four, then the Lady Tigers of LSU in the national semifinal game (sigh) to make the title game on April 3rd. So you've got to figure that from the night of April 1st all the way through the Tennessee game, and even after they lost, the players from Rutgers must've been feeling pretty good. Cloud nine, maybe. Probably the greatest season in the history of their team, though I admit my knowledge of Rutgers women's basketball lore is thin at best. With so many of their players only freshmen, there were good feelings all around about the present and future of the team. Life is good, right?
On the morning of April 4, a 66-year-old white man with a nationally syndicated radio/TV show called them "nappy-headed hos", and all hell broke loose.
Before I get to what I think, let's browse a little and see what some other people are saying. Here is Jemele Hill's article on espn.com. The only part I'd comment on is this:
"In case you're wondering, I would have been equally outraged if Imus were black, Asian, Latino, Portuguese or Italian. The ethnicity or skin color of the perpetrator matters none." (my italics)
I disagree. The ethnicity or skin color shouldn't matter, but it does. Should has nothing to do with it. An old white guy called black college girls "nappy-headed hos". One of his lackeys (also white) used the term "jigaboos vs. wannabees". Another lackey (also white)--who had already been fired from the show for outlandishly vile comments (Yes, they apparently thought it was okay to bring him back. Genius)--said the girls looked like the Toronto Raptors. He's the same guy who said that Serena Williams would fit better in National Geographic than Playboy.
Even though Jemele Hill is a black woman saying that the ethnicity doesn't matter, I have to think that there are a lot of black people around the country watching and reading about this, seeing a two week suspension, and thinking that these white guys are skating away from repercussions again.
Here's the New York Times story:
------------------------------------
Today he said that the phrases he used “originated in the black community. ... I may be a white man, but I know that these young women and young black women all through that society are demeaned and degraded by their own black men and that they are called that name.”
------------------------------------
That's gutlessly passing the buck, and undoes a lot of the supposed fence-mending he did with his rambling apologies. Origins are irrelevant in this case. Hip hop is irrelevant in this case. What black men do is irrelevant. What is relevant is what YOU, DON IMUS said trying to be funny. As David Aldridge said on Mr. Tony's show this morning, "What was the joke? What exactly did he think was funny?"
Here is the Lisa de Moraes column in the Washington Post.
"Yesterday's activities included issuing his longest "apology" to date on his radio show while (you saw this one coming) chatting up the number of minority kids who come to his camp for cancer patients in New Mexico."
There has been, and probably will be, a very long line of friends and allies of Imus coming to his defense and pointing out all the good things he has done for the less fortunate and all the money he has raised for various charitable causes. I'm sure it's all 100% true. It's also 100% irrelevant.
I picked a random blog to look at by googling [Don Imus offensive history]. I came up with this.
"The problem for Imus is that he is white and insulted blacks. The reverse is acceptable. His transgression is not. Black hip hop music, videos and humor has degraded all standards to the bottom. Language or epithets commonly used by black entertainers are far worse than used by Imus."
Aside from also passing the buck to black entertainers for saying worse things, he's wrong in saying, "The reverse is acceptable." It's not acceptable for black people to say insulting things about white people. It doesn't cause as much outrage for a variety of historical reasons, but that doesn't make it acceptable.
Now on to what I think:
The best part of this whole story from a very, very selfish point of view is that it introduced me to Heather Zurich:
The Scarlet Knights next ran over Arizona State to make the Final Four, then the Lady Tigers of LSU in the national semifinal game (sigh) to make the title game on April 3rd. So you've got to figure that from the night of April 1st all the way through the Tennessee game, and even after they lost, the players from Rutgers must've been feeling pretty good. Cloud nine, maybe. Probably the greatest season in the history of their team, though I admit my knowledge of Rutgers women's basketball lore is thin at best. With so many of their players only freshmen, there were good feelings all around about the present and future of the team. Life is good, right?
On the morning of April 4, a 66-year-old white man with a nationally syndicated radio/TV show called them "nappy-headed hos", and all hell broke loose.
Before I get to what I think, let's browse a little and see what some other people are saying. Here is Jemele Hill's article on espn.com. The only part I'd comment on is this:
"In case you're wondering, I would have been equally outraged if Imus were black, Asian, Latino, Portuguese or Italian. The ethnicity or skin color of the perpetrator matters none." (my italics)
I disagree. The ethnicity or skin color shouldn't matter, but it does. Should has nothing to do with it. An old white guy called black college girls "nappy-headed hos". One of his lackeys (also white) used the term "jigaboos vs. wannabees". Another lackey (also white)--who had already been fired from the show for outlandishly vile comments (Yes, they apparently thought it was okay to bring him back. Genius)--said the girls looked like the Toronto Raptors. He's the same guy who said that Serena Williams would fit better in National Geographic than Playboy.
Even though Jemele Hill is a black woman saying that the ethnicity doesn't matter, I have to think that there are a lot of black people around the country watching and reading about this, seeing a two week suspension, and thinking that these white guys are skating away from repercussions again.
Here's the New York Times story:
------------------------------------
Today he said that the phrases he used “originated in the black community. ... I may be a white man, but I know that these young women and young black women all through that society are demeaned and degraded by their own black men and that they are called that name.”
------------------------------------
That's gutlessly passing the buck, and undoes a lot of the supposed fence-mending he did with his rambling apologies. Origins are irrelevant in this case. Hip hop is irrelevant in this case. What black men do is irrelevant. What is relevant is what YOU, DON IMUS said trying to be funny. As David Aldridge said on Mr. Tony's show this morning, "What was the joke? What exactly did he think was funny?"
Here is the Lisa de Moraes column in the Washington Post.
"Yesterday's activities included issuing his longest "apology" to date on his radio show while (you saw this one coming) chatting up the number of minority kids who come to his camp for cancer patients in New Mexico."
There has been, and probably will be, a very long line of friends and allies of Imus coming to his defense and pointing out all the good things he has done for the less fortunate and all the money he has raised for various charitable causes. I'm sure it's all 100% true. It's also 100% irrelevant.
I picked a random blog to look at by googling [Don Imus offensive history]. I came up with this.
"The problem for Imus is that he is white and insulted blacks. The reverse is acceptable. His transgression is not. Black hip hop music, videos and humor has degraded all standards to the bottom. Language or epithets commonly used by black entertainers are far worse than used by Imus."
Aside from also passing the buck to black entertainers for saying worse things, he's wrong in saying, "The reverse is acceptable." It's not acceptable for black people to say insulting things about white people. It doesn't cause as much outrage for a variety of historical reasons, but that doesn't make it acceptable.
Now on to what I think:
The best part of this whole story from a very, very selfish point of view is that it introduced me to Heather Zurich:
I think she's cute.
I've heard some people say that Imus and crew have said a lot of stuff way worse than this and got away with it. This tells me that his show has been cruel, vulgar, and pretty low for a long time. And got away with it for a long time.
Here's a difference: these are all young college girls probably age 18-21. They're not politicians. Not pro athletes. Not journalists or reporters. Not infamous criminals. Not anything at that level. This isn't a level playing field. They can't fight back the way other targets can. They can't hold a press conference every day and blast Don Imus. They don't have radio shows or nationally prominent blogs or columns. And they certainly didn't do anything to deserve being attacked, apparently other than playing against Tennesse in the national title game. Imus and his lackeys going after them is like a crocodile going after kittens.
My favorite quote so far:
"I would like to speak to him personally and ... ask him, after you've met me personally, do you still feel in this category that I'm still a 'ho' as a woman and as a black, African-American woman at that?" said Kia Vaughn, a sophomore center. "I achieve a lot, and unless they have given this name of 'ho' a new definition, then that is not what I am."
To me, Bernard McGuirk saying "jigaboos vs. wannabees" is even worse than what Imus said, and I don't care if he was quoting a Spike Lee movie or not. "Jigaboo" is a terrible word and is certainly not fit to be used on radio, TV or anything remotely resembling polite company. Of course, nobody ever said that the Imus show was anywhere near "polite company", did they?
The "this is free speech, deal with it" argument has surfaced some in reasoning why Imus should not be fired. Yes, this is free speech. No, nothing illegal has taken place. But as often occurs, the First Amendment is being incorrectly applied. I haven't heard anyone say that he should go to jail. But I'm willing to bet that the radio station could fire him right now and not face any legal liability. What he did may not have been "wrong" in the legal sense of the word. But in the moral sense, it was absolutely wrong. People are screaming about it, and they should scream. He's being roasted over the fire, and he should be. He does have the legal right to say what he wants. But no one has the legal right to say the kinds of things he said and reasonably expect to keep his job. Some people out there need to stop adhering to the notion that just because no actual crime has been committed, that nothing wrong has really taken place.
That's about all for now. I'm heading to bed. Next time, maybe I'll talk about Colin Cowherd deciding to randomly shut down people's blogs.
Five Days Till Tax Day
I got my taxes done, so I guess I should mail the checks in pretty soon.
They're doing Latin music night on American Idol (alas, no Gregorian chants) and everybody stinks so far, in my humble opinion. Of course, Haley hasn't come out and jiggled her jigglies yet.
What's been going on? Let's see:
Florida won the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. At the moment, they are the two-time champs in basketball and the current champ in college football. As the Crocodile Gang boss said in Kung Fu Hustle, "Is there no justice? Is there no law?"
Ah, here comes Haley. Very short shorts. Can't sing worth a darn, poor thing. Can't understand a word of what she's saying.
Nancy Pelosi went to Syria and supposedly did so in "defiance" of the White House. Like there's anything the President can do to stop her. Or that there are any repercussions for going to Syria besides looking like you're kowtowing to Assad. What can Bush do? Nuthin'. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Some people were upset that she brought along a scarf in order to use as a head cover in certain situations. "You're giving in to the Muslims!" I look at it this way: the US Ambassador to the Vatican used to be Lindy Boggs. It is customary for women to wear a veil or some sort of head covering when meeting the Pope. When Boggs did so, I didn't hear anyone screaming that the United States was capitulating to the Holy See. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention.
It sort of reminds me of when Stephen Colbert ripped Bush apart at the correspondents' dinner and people said what a courageous thing he did with the President right there. Again, what could happen to him? This isn't Russia, where the "President" will have you killed if you piss him off.
For whatever reason, the final eight on Idol this season seem really weak. The trend of the contestants getting better and better each year seems to have hit a bump. I hope they ditch Latin week in future seasons. I can't think of a single Latin song that would sound good on this show.
I went to Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral in DC on Sunday. It was packed, so I was in a little side chapel where I couldn't really see anything. It's okay, I know what happens. I've seen it before.
Anyway, I was sitting in a temporary chair setup they'd put in for extra people. An older lady sat down on the steps next to the mini-altar thingy (technical term) in front a great sculpture in the chapel. A little bit later a girl sat down on the steps as well. When we all sat down, I asked the lady if she would like to sit down in a seat, so she switched with me. I had an extra song/liturgy pamphlet, so I gave it to the girl.
Sanjaya doesn't sound as terrible as usual, maybe because he's singing in Spanish. Maybe that's the secret. Oh, he just switched to English. Bad.
At the end of Mass, I was standing on the steps waiting for people to clear out. The girl stopped by me on her way out and thanked me for the pamphlet. "No problem." Then she sort of caught me off guard when she also thanked me for giving my seat to the older lady. "Well, it just didn't seem right" for me to be sitting when she wasn't. I was actually a little embarrassed, though I can't say why (though the fact that she was gorgeous might have something to do with it). She said it was a very nice thing to do and that not everyone would have done it. She thanked me again and wished me a Happy Easter. It made me feel about ten feet tall and made me think that maybe I'm not such a bad guy after all.
After Mass I met up with my cousin and we went to see Reign Over Me, which was funnier than I expected. I wouldn't have seen it without somebody to go with, but it's pretty good. Don Cheadle is good. Adam Sandler wasn't bad. It's got the incredibly attractive Saffron Burrows, who was Andromache in Troy. We wandered over to the Hirshhorn, around the Tidal Basin, and up to M Street for dinner at Daily Grill.
I'll save the elephant in the room for my next post.
They're doing Latin music night on American Idol (alas, no Gregorian chants) and everybody stinks so far, in my humble opinion. Of course, Haley hasn't come out and jiggled her jigglies yet.
What's been going on? Let's see:
Florida won the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. At the moment, they are the two-time champs in basketball and the current champ in college football. As the Crocodile Gang boss said in Kung Fu Hustle, "Is there no justice? Is there no law?"
Ah, here comes Haley. Very short shorts. Can't sing worth a darn, poor thing. Can't understand a word of what she's saying.
Nancy Pelosi went to Syria and supposedly did so in "defiance" of the White House. Like there's anything the President can do to stop her. Or that there are any repercussions for going to Syria besides looking like you're kowtowing to Assad. What can Bush do? Nuthin'. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Some people were upset that she brought along a scarf in order to use as a head cover in certain situations. "You're giving in to the Muslims!" I look at it this way: the US Ambassador to the Vatican used to be Lindy Boggs. It is customary for women to wear a veil or some sort of head covering when meeting the Pope. When Boggs did so, I didn't hear anyone screaming that the United States was capitulating to the Holy See. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention.
It sort of reminds me of when Stephen Colbert ripped Bush apart at the correspondents' dinner and people said what a courageous thing he did with the President right there. Again, what could happen to him? This isn't Russia, where the "President" will have you killed if you piss him off.
For whatever reason, the final eight on Idol this season seem really weak. The trend of the contestants getting better and better each year seems to have hit a bump. I hope they ditch Latin week in future seasons. I can't think of a single Latin song that would sound good on this show.
I went to Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral in DC on Sunday. It was packed, so I was in a little side chapel where I couldn't really see anything. It's okay, I know what happens. I've seen it before.
Anyway, I was sitting in a temporary chair setup they'd put in for extra people. An older lady sat down on the steps next to the mini-altar thingy (technical term) in front a great sculpture in the chapel. A little bit later a girl sat down on the steps as well. When we all sat down, I asked the lady if she would like to sit down in a seat, so she switched with me. I had an extra song/liturgy pamphlet, so I gave it to the girl.
Sanjaya doesn't sound as terrible as usual, maybe because he's singing in Spanish. Maybe that's the secret. Oh, he just switched to English. Bad.
At the end of Mass, I was standing on the steps waiting for people to clear out. The girl stopped by me on her way out and thanked me for the pamphlet. "No problem." Then she sort of caught me off guard when she also thanked me for giving my seat to the older lady. "Well, it just didn't seem right" for me to be sitting when she wasn't. I was actually a little embarrassed, though I can't say why (though the fact that she was gorgeous might have something to do with it). She said it was a very nice thing to do and that not everyone would have done it. She thanked me again and wished me a Happy Easter. It made me feel about ten feet tall and made me think that maybe I'm not such a bad guy after all.
After Mass I met up with my cousin and we went to see Reign Over Me, which was funnier than I expected. I wouldn't have seen it without somebody to go with, but it's pretty good. Don Cheadle is good. Adam Sandler wasn't bad. It's got the incredibly attractive Saffron Burrows, who was Andromache in Troy. We wandered over to the Hirshhorn, around the Tidal Basin, and up to M Street for dinner at Daily Grill.
I'll save the elephant in the room for my next post.
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