scattershot 8 - cross-country edition

1) i like debbie's "scattershot" better than "random bullets of crap" and am, therefore, thieving it from her.

2) yesterday, i took the car to the mechanic for an oil change. On my way home from the mechanic, I drove past the Library of Congress, the US Capitol, several Smithsonian museums, the Department of Agriculture, the Washington memorial, the WWII memorial, the White House, and the World Bank. I also spent most of my drive in a national park. Living in DC has its perks and its bizarrities.

3) I am not a fan of the WWII memorial. It cuts the mall between the Lincoln and Washington memorials and, more importantly to me, its symbolism seems completely wonky. How does fascist-style architecture celebrate the triumph over fascism? And why? really why? are the states and territories that participated under the US flag divided apparently randomly in semi-circular halves labeled with the names of the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of the war?

4) leaving DC, I passed a car with the license plate "RRRTIST." If that is your license plate, am I to assume that you paint nautical scenes? or that you have made your career performing in a certain Gilbert and Sullivan musical? Or perhaps that you are a fan of Napster?

5) This afternoon, I arrived in Chicago and, on a walk with my parents, had the gratifying, essential-to-any-winter-worth-its-name experience of my legs freezing to my jeans.

6) Relatedly: On Wednesday I took the dog for a walk in a hard rain. The air temperature was 33 degrees. The ground was mostly covered in ice. Where there was no ice, there was cold slush. I far, far, far, prefer -20 plus windchill to that despicable excuse for winter, any day. At least when it's bitterly cold one is guaranteed a brilliant blue ski.

7) Ceisaf may never actually catch a cat. Nor would he know what to do with one if he did. But he is just fine with keeping his long suffering owner up most of the night on the off chance that he might get his chance.

8) The Count of Monte Cristo, in 43 glorious hours, is a lovely way to pass the time of an interminable drive across Ohio. Being on disc 9 of 35 and having the trip almost halfway done really puts things in perspective (as does comparing my 10 hour drive with the possibility of 14 years of more-or-less solitary confinement in a dungeon).