Bagel Day

Tuesday was Bagel Day at the software development center, and I favored Bagels & Baguettes near Stanton Park. There was a line when I got there, around 8:30 AM. The shop was near the Senate office buildings and the Heritage Foundation, so there was a TV tuned to CNN to keep news-obsessed customers occupied.

By the time I got my two dozen hot bagels, the damnedest thing was on that television. An airplane had crashed into a World Trade Center tower in New York, and the building was on fire. It was September 11, 2001.

I went to the office break room and put out the bagels, cream cheese, and smoked salmon. I guess I was making coffee when the second plane hit the other tower. I figured people still had to eat.

Ivanka Trump Earns Millions From a Rented Government Building

Presidential Advisor, sweatshop shmata merchant, and former runway model Ivanka Trump is also an hôtelièr, renting out rooms in a publicly-owned building her Dad’s company leases in Washington. Last year Ms. Trump earned $4 million from her hotel side-hustle.

More:

“Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made as much as $135m last year,” Bernard Condon, AP, via The Guardian

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DC Emancipation Day, 1862: It Was Slaveowners Who Got Reparations.

On April 16, 1862, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act freeing the 3000 enslaved people in the District of Columbia. This was nine months before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the Confederate states, many of whom actually remained in bondage until the the war’s end in 1865, and 20 months before ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment, which definitively outlawed slavery everywhere in the United States.

Understandably, April 16th is a holiday in the District of Columbia, District Emancipation Day, celebrated with speeches, concerts, fireworks and parades. There’s a bit of rain on that parade, though, if you take a closer look at history. That 1862 act was called the Compensated Emancipation Act, and it authorized payments to DC slaveowners rather than liberation of enslaved people on moral grounds. It even sought to promote emigration of former slaves outside the borders of the United States.

In any case, black Washingtonians had their freedom. That’s definitely worth celebrating.

More:

“When Slaveowners Got Reparations,” Tera W. Hunter, New York Times

Related:

“Georgetown students vote in favor of reparations for enslaved people,” Susan Svrluga, Washington Post

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Hello Mr. New Year

“Hello Mr. New Year,” recorded in 1958 by the The Coolbreezers, of Washington ,DC: Joe Reuth, Richard Steward, Bob Armstrong, William Primrose, Earl J. Williams, Sonny Williams. Like many African American harmony groups, the ensemble originally sang Gospel music. The Coolbreezers recorded for Bale Records, a short-lived venture of long-time DC R&B empresaria Bea Williams, sister of two group members.

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Bagel Day

Tuesday was Bagel Day at the software development center, and I favored Bagels & Baguettes near Stanton Park. There was a line when I got there, around 8:30 AM. The shop was near the Senate office buildings and the Heritage Foundation, so there was a TV tuned to CNN to keep news-obsessed customers occupied.

By the time I got my two dozen hot bagels, the damnedest thing was on that television. An airplane had crashed into a World Trade Center tower in New York, and the building was on fire. It was September 11, 2001.

I went to the office break room and put out the bagels, cream cheese, and smoked salmon. I guess I was making coffee when the second plane hit the other tower. I figured people still had to eat.

The developers were plugged into the Web, and learned as much – or as little — as anyone that morning. We knew a third plane hit the Pentagon and heard the false report that a fourth had hit the White House. There was a rumor that a plane had hit the Capitol, but we were two blocks away and would have heard that.

I scanned on the radio, but the news stations were clueless. I heard some good eyewitness reporting from New York over Pacifica, which I hadn’t expected. I put it on the telephone intercom and went through the office, turning intercoms on for some, off for people who had already heard enough.

I called the boss, got the word to send folks home, and surfed up reports on school system closings and Metro. The Red Line at Union Station was shut down until early afternoon. Phones at schools were busy, cell phone systems overloaded. I helped negotiate carpool rides for suburban commuter parents anxious enough to try the crowded roads, shut the center down, and walked home.

It was a quiet walk. There wasn’t a plane in the sky. All civilian aircraft were grounded. I kept the radio off and waited for the Wednesday paper.

Versions of this have been posted here each September 11th since 2007.

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2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is back in Washington DC, June 27th to July 1st and July 4th to July 8th. You’ll find it on the National Mall.The free festival features the cultures of Armenia and Catalonia (music, dance, craft and foodways), crafts of African Fashion, Migration and Creativity, and a special Sisterfire concert.

The festival schedule is here. See you on the line at the food concessions.

Festival map. Festival blog. Download the festival program here. 

More:

“How To Get The Most Out Of The Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” DCist

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Pantsless Pearson Spanked By the DC Bar

You may remember DC Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson Jr., who persistently but unsuccessfully sued a neighborhood dry cleaner for $54 million over a lost pair of pants, which were later found. What was lost was Mr. Pearson’s lawsuit, as well as his position as a judge. Now the DC Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility is finally considering disciplinary action over the 4-year-long, meritless claims crusade. The Board had rejected a 2016 hearing committee’s recommended 30-day stayed suspension, and now, 2 years later, proposes a 90 day suspension.

So, this is about a suit initially filed in 2005, decided in 2007, denied on appeal in 2008 and 2010, reviewed by the DC Bar disciplinary committee in 2016, and reconsidered by the Board in 2018. Bear in mind that Mr. Pearson claimed he was wronged in part because he didn’t receive the dry cleaner’s advertised “Same-Day Service.”

Oh, the dry cleaning store closed in 2007 due to the financial and emotional toll of the lawsuit.

More:

“Judge Who Sued Dry Cleaner For $54 Million Over Missing Pants About To Get Wedgie From Disciplinary Committee,” Joe Patrice, Above the Law

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Temptation ‘Bout to Get Me

“Temptation ‘Bout to Get Me,” written by Jimmy Diggs, who recorded it with Richard Dunbar as the Knight Brothers in 1965. There’s a pretty good version by the Rascals.

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Corporate Person Opens Bible Museum In DC

Today a well-known corporate person, Hobby Lobby, opened the Museum of the Bible in a former warehouse near the railroad tracks in Southwest Washington DC. Once the Washington Design Center, the original building was built as the Terminal Refrigeration and Warehouse Company in 1923.

The new tourist attraction features a ballroom modeled after Versailles (mentioned in la Nouveau Testament, maybe?), replicas of the village of Nazareth and the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey, holograms, the Drive Thru History of the Bible Theater, and a restaurant serving biblically themed meals. Oh, and some historic books and 40,000 artifacts from the Green Family collection (sorry, the artifacts the family smuggled from Iraq were confiscated and won’t be on view). To ensure historical accuracy, the museum has the same advisor as the Creation Museum, where dinosaurs romp with cavemen. In fact, while museum admission is free (a $15 donation is suggested), there’s an amusement park price structure, where you pay to see each special exhibit or attraction.

Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green and his family believe the government of the USA is based on Christian biblical principles, and the family has enough money to share that misconception with an unsuspecting public.

Unbelievers can beat the church-going crowds. Unlike Hobby Lobby stores, the Museum of the Bible is open on Sundays from 10 AM to 7 PM.

More:

“Just What Is the Museum of the Bible Trying to Do?” Candida Moss and Joel Baden, Politico

“Jefferson took a blade to his Bible: Presidents, faith and the new Bible museum,” Rachel Siegel, Washington Post

“We’re All Living in Hobby Lobby’s Bible Nation,” Sarah Jones, New Republic

“Critics call it evangelical propaganda. Can the Museum of the Bible convert them?” Noah Charney, Washington Post

“Mystery at the new Bible museum: Are its Dead Sea Scrolls fake?” Daniel Burke, CNN

“The Museum of the Bible reflects the discouraging state of Christianity,” Christine Emba, Washington Post

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here . Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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Tried So Hard to Please Her

“Tried So Hard to Please Her,” written by Jimmy Diggs and Elward Tobe, recorded by The Knight Brothers (Jimmy Diggs and Richard Dunbar) in about 1967.

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