Egghead for Prez

I couldn't agree more with Eugene Robinson's editorial today. You really ought to read it. Considering the ginormous mess the next prez is about to inherit, we really ought to go find the best and brightest one out there, whomever that may be (Robinson alludes to it being Al Gore). Some of the best parts below:

One thing that should be clear to anyone who's been paying attention these past few years is that we need to go out and get ourselves the smartest president we can find. We need a brainiac president, a regular Mister or Miss Smarty-Pants. We need to elect the kid you hated in high school, the teacher's pet with perfect grades.
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I want a president who reads newspapers, who reads books other than those that confirm his worldview... and who's smart enough to form his or her own opinions, not just rely on what old friends in the oil business say.
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I want a president who believes in empirical fact, whose understanding of spirituality is complete enough to know that faith is "the evidence of things not seen" and who knows that for things that can be seen, the relevant evidence is fact, not belief... Actually, I want a president smart enough to know a good deal about science...
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I want the next president to be intellectually curious -- and also intellectually honest.

Wow, almost sounds like too much to ask for these days, eh?

Code Orange Air Pollutant Level: UNHEALTHY

Here's your morning Public Health Alert for those of us in DC: We are officially at our first Code Orange unhealthy air quality warning day of the summer.

Wow, this is what you get for watching GMA before work. They cut to the local weather guy who reported DC has it's first Code Orange of the summer. What does this mean? I had no idea, so I googled...

Code Orange: Unhealthy for sensitive groups

•	Temperatures in the upper 80s to low 90s
•	Light winds
•	Slow moving high pressure system with sunny skies

Actions to Protect Your Health:

•	Sensitive Groups – children and active adults, people with respiratory disease, such as asthma and emphysema and heart aliments should limit prolonged outdoor physical activity.

Well, (in your best Church Lady voice:) isn't that special?

Here's hoping Seattle doesn't have get code fucking orange days. Good thing my footy game tonight is indoors. Seriously, this is disgusting. And the only real difference between today, Code Orange, and the next level of badness, Code Red, is a few degrees of temp. If it creeps up into the mid- to high-nineties this afternoon, we'll basically be at code red.

Luckily it's back down to Yellow, or "moderate" again for the weekend, would be awfully ironic to be running the race for the cure on Saturday morning while we are inhaling dangerous particles and pollutants which could, theoretically, someday lead to cancer.

In other public health news, the CDC actually knew this guy, "Passenger X," had a really rare and bad form of TB (XDR TB in fact) and yet they didn't warn anyone in the airline industry that he shouldn't be allowed on 7 transcontinental flights. Bizarre, but planes are petri dishes and TB is very infectious... that said, the CDC thinks he probably infected no one on the flights he took. Let's hope they are right. (UPDATE: here is a better account of the whole affair, thanks WaPo.)

my memorial day weekend...

Some of you may remember one of my inaugural posts about how great my new years in Spain was; how, in fact, I boasted that it was better than your holiday. Well I think I've done it again, I truly think my Memorial Day weekend was better than yours, and I have a photolog* documenting my Saturday to prove it.

Friday night entailed Indian tapas happy houring, Amersterdam falafel shop dinning, and dive bar juke box joint drinking. Saturday I set out on an expedition to parts mostly unknown to my adventurers and I: Maryland's Eastern shore. We'll get to the tales of Slurry, Frank, and I shortly, but let me first finish my weekend recap. Sunday was a classic M-Day Sunday: bare chested and grilling under one of the good-'n'-hot first days of summer. In DC, that can mean chillin' on a roofdeck in 90 degree heat with no water in sight, which is what we did. With only ice cold beer to protect us from heat rash, we BBQ'ed about an eight course feast that started with halibut and red snapper fillets and concluded with a big ole NY strip. (It's a small grill, we had to do it in phases... think: BBQ tapas). Sure, torrential downpours forced us inside to grill the strip under the broiler, but that did not discourage we party people. Monday included a trip to the public pool (Domestique is now officially "sun-burned"), a viewing of the worst blockbuster of the summer, Pirates 3, and another backyard BBQ. How can anyone beat that? Especially after this: our trip to Waterman's Crab House in Rock Hall, MD.

Beta commandeered the vehicle, and a nice one at that. The satellite GPS lady--a very pleasant alto with no recognizable accent; I pictured her as 40-something and blond, definitely pretty-- guided us safely all the way from DC, off the beaten path and through some pretty po-dunk lookin' parts of MD.

(What? It's a road trip, you got a lot of time in an enclosed area with this disembodied voice, it's pretty odd at first and I found myself needing to associate the voice with a body in order to not get too with weirded out by the whole thing. And no, my sobriety at the time is not the issue here.)

Anyways, Memorial Day weekend is associated with horrendous traffic, and for those who have crossed Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the Eastern Shore, you know what a parking lot hell it can be at 1am on a Tuesday, let alone a holiday. So we were asking for trouble. We got none. It was awesome. The first few pics here are from my view in the passenger seat.

After the toll (US$2.50), but before the big bridge part:
Above: Slurry in 20 years.
This house below here in Chestertown, MD was doing it's own MemDay thing, with a bunch of white flags in their lawn and a big ole sign that read "REMEMBER THEM." Sadly, I was too slow on the snapshot to get that.
Speaking of Chestertown, there is Bingo every Thursday night at 7pm down at the Fire Dept.
This one is a unique fixer-upper available in Rock Hall, not much to look at now, but there is potential there...
Above: we have arrived at Waterman's, which is--as the title aptly declares--right on the water. Yes, this might be the first public image available of our now infamous mustached hero: Slurry Beta. Below, some of the boats in the parking lot. We were one of the few chumps to drive a car to Waterman's, most customers seem to boat there. Awesome. Obviously, some big boats. And, equally obviously, some big bux floating around these parts.
A view of the dinning room at Waterman's:Mmmmm, beer. Yueling, of course.
Domestique's first ever oyster on the half-shell, documented for the world to see (check out the size of those babies!!):Frank, the good buddy he is, loaded this one up with lemon juice, cocktail sauce and horseradish. Needless to say it was good. For my second I went with just lemon juice and a touch of horseradish to get more of that oysterness. I gotta admit, they are damn good. I will not confirm any rumors that I, under the aphrodisiac-influence of the oysters and beer, I turned to Beta and said "Damn that 'stache looks good." I also have no explanation for the ridiculous face I am making below.
And after tossing the frisbee around for a bit in an attempt to work off some of the massive amount of food we consumed (two seafood platters, full rack of ribs, 6 sides, oysters, crab dip, strawberry shortcake [Frank] and ice cream sundae [moi]), we headed back. I got these photos on our way back across the bridge.As you can well imagine, I was in no shape to do anything on Saturday night, and I fell asleep on the floor into a blissful food coma while watching some stupid movie.

Think your Memorial Day weekend can beat that? I don't.

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*I made this word up. Photo essay does two things wrong: 1) Essay makes what I am doing sound more important than it is; and 2) Essay connotates old school to me, and I think it undervalues the medium of the internets that lets me add my running commentary, lets others take copies of the photos and leave comments, and all the other things this vast series of tubes affords us the opportunity to do.