Day 21

A wonderful day in our nation's Capital - sunny, mild, and no Bushes in the White House.

I loaded up the backpack with reading material and headed down to the National Mall. With two books in progress (Tainter's _The Collapse of Complex Societies_ and Catton's _Overshoot: the Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change_) I added Stuart Pimm's classic _The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth_. I met Pimm a couple of years ago at a seminar at George Washington University and he was one of the brightest and most delightful people I have ever encountered. To have such a grim message (we are killing the planet and there probably is no solution) he has an infectious sense of humour along with an almost Buddah like serenity. Maybe it's fatalism, but he can seem brutally honest and ironically detached at the same time. The book is a good re-read and a perfect compliment to the other reading I'm doing.

I spent time on the mall enjoying the midday atmosphere and finishing Catton's chapter "The End of Exuberance" which made me want to go back and find Alan Greenspan's speech where he spoke of "irrational exuberance" as if what he was speaking of had not already been identified and condemned three decades before. Then I walked up towards the White House and across to the main downtown public library at G and 9th St. It wasn't as busy as the last visit and I spent a couple of hours getting familiar with the organization of books on the second floor - Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, History and Biography. Very comfy and inviting. I can't believe I've lived in this town for 16 years and haven't taken advantage of this space.

After reading a couple of short stories by J. G. Ballard (one of the great 20th Century writers who recently passed away) I left the library and wandered over to the National Building Museum, one of the Smithsonian's multiple locations, to see an exhibit of photographs of store front churches - true Americana. This space was built in the 1880's as the Army's Pension master's Headquarters (essentially the Veteran's Affairs office) and was condemned by Gen. Sherman as "the ugliest building in Washington - and the worst part is, it's fireproof." The interior space is spectacular with three story high columns, fountains and mezzanine galleries and was today being decorated for a galla being thrown by the Carlyle Group. That's DC, investment bankers and arms dealers buy the use of public spaces and we peons just get to watch from a distance. This was the space where the Clinton's did their first Presidential Inaugural Ball and where Hillary gave her concession speech some years later (see photos). That was an interesting day.

After leaving DC's ugliest building I settled into one of the parks in the Judiciary Square area and read another chapter in Catton, dealing with ecological succession and the negative impact that organisms almost invariably have on their environments.

On the way back to the apartment I spent time at the Library of Congress reviewing their Computer Catalogue for entries of interest and then took advantage of the main reading room for an hour. Late in the day it tends not to be too croweded. Very pleasant.