Tidbits from Today's Washington Post
Jan. 25th, 2009 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxklore1) There was an article on how sloppy counterfeiters have gotten. That surprises me since you would think that dealing with counterfeiting is mostly a technological arms race. But it appears that the bad guys have given up and just print out a few sloppy bills they try to pass, instead of even trying to be convincing. The example they showed even had the wrong person's face on the bill.
2) It's not really news that Livingstone, Zambia is benefiting from the woes of Zimbabwe and people who are afraid to go to the town of Victoria Falls. The article mentioned a few things about visitors who are still coming to the Zimbabwe side. But the writer neglected to answer any of the important questions. Can you still have tea on the terrace of the Vic Falls Hotel? Is there still a broken card phone next to the post office that lets you make international calls at a tenth of the going rate? And, most importantly, is Explorers Club still open and, if so, have they ever fixed the table that broke when one rafting guide threw another across the room in the bar? (We were eating dinner in the restaurant side at the time and somehow managed not to notice the whole brawl.)
3) There was some speculation that all the people who discovered they could walk places during the inauguration might continue to use walking as a form of transport. However, that neglects the difference that traffic makes. I walk a lot in D.C. and I still get irritated that the lights give you 70 seconds to cross some rinky dink one lane road and 20 seconds to cross the 6 lanes of K Street.
4) A book review contained the wonderful description of a book about some of our presidents as being "unsullied by big idea of any kind."
2) It's not really news that Livingstone, Zambia is benefiting from the woes of Zimbabwe and people who are afraid to go to the town of Victoria Falls. The article mentioned a few things about visitors who are still coming to the Zimbabwe side. But the writer neglected to answer any of the important questions. Can you still have tea on the terrace of the Vic Falls Hotel? Is there still a broken card phone next to the post office that lets you make international calls at a tenth of the going rate? And, most importantly, is Explorers Club still open and, if so, have they ever fixed the table that broke when one rafting guide threw another across the room in the bar? (We were eating dinner in the restaurant side at the time and somehow managed not to notice the whole brawl.)
3) There was some speculation that all the people who discovered they could walk places during the inauguration might continue to use walking as a form of transport. However, that neglects the difference that traffic makes. I walk a lot in D.C. and I still get irritated that the lights give you 70 seconds to cross some rinky dink one lane road and 20 seconds to cross the 6 lanes of K Street.
4) A book review contained the wonderful description of a book about some of our presidents as being "unsullied by big idea of any kind."
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 05:30 am (UTC)And which of our presidents are described in (4), besides Bush-43?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 10:54 am (UTC)I actually kind of like the system at my (suburban) intersection. If you push the button, the pedestrian crossing time is doubled. During rush hour, when a lot of cars are heading into the metro station (which I live across the street from)), that makes a real difference.
The "unsullied by big ideas of any kind" referred to the book )Baptism by Fire by Mark Updegrove), not hte presidents. The book has to do with presidents who took office during times of crises and does not, therefore, include Dubya. It does include FDR. JFK and John Tyler, but I don't know who else, as those were the ones mentioned in the review.