Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Rat Killing Hawk of Red Cross Square!


This morning as I walked through a park near the White House, I was startled when a big brown bird flew out of the grass in front of me and landed about 10 feet away. “A duck,” I thought. “A duck with a rat in it’s claws.” Okay, so ornithology is not my forte. My caffeine kicked in and I realized I was looking at a hawk I have seen in the trees of the square for a couple of years. He was ready to have breakfast. And I was about to lose mine.

I whipped out my camera phone to randomly press buttons in an attempt to take a picture but this startled him and he took off again and slowly swooped across the square with his rat McMuffin still wiggling in his claws and landed in a low branch of a tree shading the sidewalk .

A young woman was walking up the sidewalk and was closing in on the tree. What to do? Yell “Hey lady! There’s a big bird eating a rat above your head!” Considering the large security presence in this neighborhood, I decided against being the Paul Revere of raining rodent body parts. Fortunately, she made it through the gauntlet without getting a ratatouille facial.

The picture here is of the same hawk although it was taken earlier in the year by a colleague. I believe it may be a Coopers hawk. The rat was standard DC issue but not this one.


Update: Commentator Christina of From the Garden State to the Golden State blog believes it is a Red-tailed hawk: "the lack of overall rust-colored barring on the breast and the presence of the cumberbund on its front around the middle are giveaways."

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

14th and U Farmers Market 2011

Update: 2011:  The Market re-opens for the season!

Saturday May 7 (9:00 am to 1:00 pm) 2011  14th and U in front of the Reeves Center (Washington, DC)


Vendors include:

Kuhns Orchards
Truck Patch Farms
Mountain View
Northern Neck Produce
Dolcevezza
Plantmasters
Whisked




Crates of Cherries





Bundles of Baguettes
















Farmers Market Booty as Still Life

Elizabeth Edwards Smacks Down Ann Coulter--Nicely!

from "HardBall" 6/26/2006

Elizabeth Edwards calls in to ask the charming and lovely Ann to stop the personal attacks. At the end Ann bursts into tears, promises to start eating again, apologizes to all the people she has hurt with her ugly rhetoric and pledges all future earnings to Code Pink.

Okay that didn’t happen but wouldn’t it be great if it did?

Monday, June 25, 2007

Comcast and WASA Really Bite!


13th St NW and Wallach Place NW (June 23, 2007)

I know it's a blog cliche to whine about Comcast but come on--five Comcast outages in three days??? If both my cable television service and Internet access are out, I am not going to re-boot my freakin' modem Mr. Customer Service Man so stop asking!

And if my red hot rage sets my house aflame, I'm totally screwed.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

THE BUREAU OF MISDIRECTED DESTINY (LOGAN CIRCLE STYLE)
















R.I.P. bees or is there a new Borf for bees?

I found this odd street memorial to the mysteriously missing bees this afternoon near the corner of 14
th and S NW (behind the Garden District). I'm not sure when it went up but it wasn't there last weekend.

(Click to enlarge...but you know that!)

Individual homages to the victims of Bee Colony Collapse Disorder (
BCCD)


























Jesus candles and abandoned honey combs






















A bench is in front where one may sit in quiet reflection on what we may have done.



















Where are the bees?


















Bureau of Misdirected Destiny

























Don't forget to hit the gift shop before leaving



















UPDATE June 19:


This is the work of artists Matthew McGuinness and Eliza Newman Saul as part of SiteProjects DC .

UPDATE June 30:

Wonkette commentator Disinformationministry believes he has located the missing bees.