The President, the City and the War The museum shop at the National Archives has to be just about the best in a city with some pretty cool ones. They seem to have something for everyone. There with a group of eighth-graders recently, I made an impulsive purchase of a book because it was about […]

Lincoln Memorial, a classic Greek temple, constructed of Colorado Yule marble and dedicated in May 1922 to honor his saving of the Union.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, Arlington National Cemetery

It’s crisp this week in Washington and the flowers are looking their best. Tulips and pansies ringing the Cemetery Amphitheater steps from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

Things Must Be Slow Bookings must be way down if even I got a suite at the Hilton. Trust me, not complaining here. It’s a great hotel located about a ten-minute walk from the Wembley Park Tube station and adjacent to Wembley Stadium. And, Wembley is ten quick stops north(ish) of Bloomsbury, my hangout for […]

Wembley, Actually I grew up eating those white and black packages of cheese and powdered milk marked “USDA Government Surplus”,  a 1960’s form of food stamps, which may in part explain my perpetual desire to save a buck. So it was I found myself in a “World Traveler Plus” seat aboard a British Airways 777-200ER, […]

A Cool Spot on a Very Hot Day There’s a bit of web-inspired kerfuffle this morning over a photo of visitors standing in the water at the WWII Memorial in front of a sign saying not to. The sign says, “Honor Your Veterans, No Wading…” obviously implying that standing in water up to your ankles […]

A Life Apart Perhaps it is the noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer who reminds us the Lincoln marriage was one lived largely apart. During the early years, Abraham Lincoln, a busy Springfield lawyer, rode the circuit, gone for weeks at a time,  with judges and other counsel. They would huddle around a campfire or sleep […]

Sony “Un” Done Leave it to Hollywood to assume that they can make a film depicting the assassination of the world’s most vicious dictator and that he would happily go along with it, perhaps in the spirit of Christmas. Not. North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, gastric-banded dictator and cheese fanatic, is reportedly behind the hacking of Sony’s IT […]

Make Way for the Elephant Robert Emmett, Irish patriot, was hanged, drawn and quartered in Dublin, Ireland, convicted of leading a failed rebellion for Irish freedom in 1803. He was 25 years old. Emmett was a protestant from a wealthy family, hardly the type to commit “high treason.” But he identified strongly with Catholics in […]