Washington, DC
Harpers Ferry, WV
Potomac River
Saturday, July 7th

If you have never floated down a scenic river in an inner tube with some good friends while drinking a couple of beers, well then …, you really should. Norm loves a good float trip. He has spearheaded this trip for about eight years now. Each year the group varies in size and identity. Some are regulars, others come just once never to return. This year’s roster included about 23 members. There were many from Norm’s close group and some friends of friends. Norm and Virginia were nice enough to cart me there and back. We put in the Potomac river right near Harpers Ferry, WV.

The posse at the redezous point in Alexandria, Va

Fran, showing off some of his 7th street Dragons gang signs. They are known by their waterproof cameras worn kicked to the right of their head.

The whole river operation is run by Butts Tubes. To say they have this operation down to a fine art is an understatement. They rent out the tubes, two types, tubes for coolers, coolers, ice, water shoes, and more tubing related items. They also have buses which drop off and pick up, you and your supplies. While you are waiting for the buses they have a Blue Grass band that plays, only on Saturdays. They have thought of neatly everything.

Well the trip was awesome. The weather that day was in the 90’s but when you are on a tube in the river you do not really notice. There was plenty of tasty food, cold libations, and fellowship. The trip went well and as usual our group was one of the last off the river. When we got back to DC we went over to Fran’s condo which was having a party because its address is 777 H Street, it’s the date, 7/7/07. They had plenty of food and fun.

Another good day.

Unloading at Butts Tubes in Harpers Ferry

Norm in one of staple hilarious and ridiculous shirts.

Washington, DC
Friday, July 6th

When I first looked at the schedule for today I saw; a Smithsonian Museum, I’ve been on at least five 8th grade trips to DC, a discussion of the Washington Post series on Dick Cheney, great series but a whole discussion?, and a debate on immigration. I thought to myself boring day. Man was I wrong.

This museum blows away any of the museums I have seen in DC, ever. The National Portrait Gallery has recently re-opened after being closed for renovations for the previous six years. Our guide, Wendy Wick Reaves, a curator, and mother of St. Albans alum opened up the museum two hours before it regularly opens to give us a private tour. The museum is located in Chinatown right next to the MCI Center. Despite Mrs. Reaves extremely informative tour there is no way a person could truly view and appreciate the items in this museum in anything less than two days. We had two hours. At least ten of the SPS students want to come back on Sunday and spend the day here. Mrs. Reaves sad that during the renovation the idea was for the Portrait Gallery to basically reinvent itself. Here is an article about the renovation.

We heard of how the National Portrait Gallery managed to save the "Lansdowne Portrait" of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. Commissioned for the British Lord Lansdowne after the Revolutionary War, in recent times his descendants had loaned it to the National Portrait Gallery. When they decided to sell it, they gave the National Portrait Gallery the right of first refusal, but the $20 million price tag seemed out of reach until, almost by chance, administrators of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation saw a story about the issue in the media and came to the rescue with the $30 million grant that allowed the Portrait Gallery to purchase the painting and take it on tour all over the country. It is now back in Washington, resting comfortably, and we got a chance to see it today in all its life-sized glory

Lansdowne Portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart

The Portrait Gallery is stunning in not only its architecture but collection as well. They have combined the historical with the contemporary. In fact during the renovation the museum ditched its long standing policy of waiting ten years after a person’s death to accept a portrait to now accepting living people. Some of the best exhibitions currently on display have the living.

Two exhibits caught my fancy. In most of the ext few paragraphs the links will have a much better explanation than my own. The first was an exhibition called Portraiture Now: A Framing Memory. The artist who caught my eye was Tina Mion. Her pieces are intriguing. My favorite was called, “Harvey Girls”, you can see an image of the painting below. (Description of Harvey Girls) The other exhibit that I enjoyed was called, “Being There” by Harry Benson. The photography, both technique and topic, were amazing. Here is a link to his web site which has a repository of some of his most famous pieces. I do not know why I chose the photo of the Watts Riot in 1965 to show. I guess it was the look on the cop’s face.
There are many more exhibitions that are wonderful; The Cold War is informative as it is grand and Great Britons which is on loan from the British National Gallery Museum. I could go on for days. It is a MUST see the next time you get to DC.

Harvey Girls by Tina Mion

Watts Riots, Los Angeles, 1965

Benson said about this photo, "Prowling the streets with police sirens wailing and buildings smoldering around me, I came across this scene in the early hours of the morning."

After their afternoon of their final public speaking and econ classes the students heard from St. Albans and West Point (04) Alumni Cpt. William Felder of the 10th Mountain Division. He was a last minute sub fro the Cheney article, and a good one. He was stationed in Afghanistan for the last two years and only returned to the states a few weeks ago. He gave us a pretty comprehensive briefing of what was going in Afghanistan in general and for him and his guys specifically. They operated in the southern districts near the Afghan border of Pakistan. His stories were frank and horrifying. He spoke of the 80 Mullah he got to know rather well who had in lifetime fought off the Russians, the Northern Alliance, and the Taliban. By the way this mullah has a 34 year old wife and if the father of six month old. Cpt. Felder, all of 26 years old, spoke of his admiration for this leader and fighter who was loyal to the idea of government. Cpt, Felder went into his observations of a two year deployment that were fascinating. His thoughts confirmed some of my thoughts, dispelled even more, and gave me a ton to think about.

In the evening the SPS students settles down for a debate on immigration. The students were divided in two even groups. The format took the form of the Government Club of St. Albans. I wrote about on the June 22nd entry. The debate was quite spirited. I served on a three person judge’s panel. In the end the vote was tight but the Immigration Bill on the formally named Group 2, won 12 to 11. Speakers could score points after the proposal of each speaker. The speaker would be open to a series of questions. If the question logically followed the proposal the team of the questioner scores a point. The speaker scores a point it they offer a sound rebuttal of the questioner. There are a few other ways to score points but they are even more dry than the previous sentence so I will move on. We finished around 9:30pm so we gave the students some free time around the Cathedral neighborhood.

Cpt. Will Felder, STA "00", West Point "04"

10th Moutain Division

Washington, DC
Thursday, July 5th

What: The House Softball League game of the week.
Who: The #9 Ugly Mugs are pitted against #5 Milestones. Both teams undefeated.
Where: Anacostia Park
When: 6:30pm

What Happened? Read on.

David Ignatious speaks to SPS.

The students had econ and public speaking classes in the morning. In the afternoon we were fortunate enough to get a visit from David Ignatius, who writes an award-winning column on foreign affairs for the Washington Post. The students were certainly interested in how Mr. Ignatius got his start in journalism (we also liked his story of how he proposed to his wife), but the most buzz occurred when Mr. Ignatius talked about his successful career as an author of spy thrillers, and revealed that his most recent book, Body of Lies, has been optioned for a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe! (For fans at home: shooting is scheduled to start in September). Mr. Ignatius revealed that his first novel, Agents of Innocence, was sparked by a chance remark someone made to him: "Did you hear? Our man in the PLO has been assassinated." It turned out that the U.S. did indeed have a source inside the PLO -- no less than Arafat's chief of intelligence --and from this real fact, a novel emerged.

The new novel and soon to be Ridley Scott film

After taking some time to talk to us about his start in journalism and as a writer of fiction, Mr. Ignatius posed some hypothetical situations to the group. First: if you are Judy Miller, do you go to jail rather than reveal your source during the Grand Jury investigation of the leak regarding Valerie Plame? One SPS student gamely volunteered to play Judy Miller, and convincingly and eloquently argued why he felt he had to make the decision (as Ms. Miller) to go to jail. Another SPS student, playing the publisher of the New York Times, felt that it was important to support his reporter. (Of course, in real life, Judy Miller subsequently received a waiver from her source, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and was called as a prosecution witness at his trial.) In the second hypothetical, editors three other students role played whether or not they should publish a story about a presidential contender who had an affair twenty years ago while separated, but not divorced, from his then-wife. Opinions ranged from the view that the information should be put out there for the public to decide its relevance, to the view that it was an unacceptable intrusion into privacy, to the view that it was an unacceptable intrusion into privacy that would sell papers! After a lively debate, Mr. Ignatius revealed that the Washington Post had once been faced with just such a dilemma and had not published; however, the information subsequently became public through (where else) an internet site!

After the talk Pete prepared his game face and headed to Anacostia with a furrowed brow with only softball on is mind. Ok that whole thing is getting weird. While driving to the game field I was listening to NPROn the way to the game a piece came on about how the recent controversies surrounding the US Justice Department may affect its long term credibility. Anyway the two people they interviewed were Roscoe Howard, former Justice Department prosecutor and Stuart Gerson, frequent Supreme Court lawyer. Why is this of any importance you ask? Well SPS has heard from both people in the last three weeks. I played the piece to the students later on they thought it was “cool”. Not as cool as I did but I’m a dork.

Well I know that all of you have been on the edge of your seats wondering who won the big game. The Ugly Mugs downed the higher ranked Milestones 8 to 4. We moved to 10 and 0 and up to 7th in the rankings. Not bad for 123 teams. Pete played sparingly but was a vocal supporter of the team and more thirty supporter of “Mister’s”, softball nickname, margarita supply. Kremser called it the Ugly Mug homecoming game because there were twenty two of us there. Good game, good win, better drinks, and great pizza rolls and mini burgers.

Washington, DC
Wednesday, July 4th
Happy Birthday USA!!!!

Ah the fourth of July. Our nation’s birthday. How does a country celebrate its beginning you ask? That’s easy. We get together with friends and family and over drink, overeat, and then watch loud and colorful explosions. I love the US of A. The previous statements are not intended to be sarcastic. I truly believe the above things are really engrained into our culture. Instead of being ashamed of it be proud of it, I am.

Students and Faculty enjoy the SPS Olympics

The SPS students started the day with a late wake up call, 9am is late relatively speaking. After breakfast they participated in the second annual SPS Olympics. The group was divided into three groups; the Holy Devils, the Ivanhoes, and the Special Olympians, self named if you have not guessed. They competed in events that tested the physical and mental prowess. Some of the events were Knockout in Basketball, the Sudoku challenge, scavenger hunt/Albans trivia quest, and egg/water balloon toss. (Video of Egg Toss) The winner was …, it ended in a tie, particularly after the water balloon toss devolved into a water balloon fight. Fun was had by all. After cleaning up the SPS students headed off to movies then watched fireworks from the lawn outside the dorm, it is one of the higher vantage points in DC and great to watch the fireworks.

The view from Norm's roof

Pete left them right before the movies. I headed down Massachusetts Ave to Norm’s for some hanging out before heading to fireworks watching party. Norm has a 13th floor balcony, facing opposite the National Mall, and his rooftop is often overcrowded for fireworks watching. We did watch a storm come through DC from his roof’s vantage point. There was a tornado warning or watch…, which ever one of them is less alarming. I still think they need to get a better system to differentiate between the two. Anytime that there is mention of one of these comes there is automatically confusion. Invariably that confusion is cleared up by some blowhard who says they know definitively which is which. Unfortunately that blowhard is often me and do not know so go figure. Ultimately the National Park Service cleared the mall sometime @5pm. The people, and there is a lot of them, waited in parking garages and museums on the National Mall which were opened up for this very occasion. In the end it all worked out fine and the weather turned out to be just some rain that cooled down the city. The watch/warning/whatever was called off and the fireworks went off is a spectacular fashion.

Party at Fran's

So after grabbing a couple of beers we headed over to Fran house, whose balconies offered a perfect view of the air space above the mall and a therefore great for watching the fireworks. I have included a link to a video of the fireworks. My first foray into YouTube; let me know how it goes. The picture is not very good, I’m still not good with my new camera’s video features, but you get the idea. I can not thank the Memphis Tech Crew enough for their suggestions and information. I ended buying the Canon PowerShot SD1000, the 2 GB card, and extra battery. All aspects of the purchase have been well worth the investment.

Video Experiment
Fireworks Video Link 1 – Longer
Fireworks Video Link 2 – Shorter but bigger explosions
Random DC guy rapping outside the Metro stop in Chinatown
Irish Seisiun at Nanny O’Brien’s- really bad video but decent sound

Fran, who is a friend of Norm’s and an excellent cook, had a wonderful spread. Asian salad, potato salad, with bacon (everything is better with bacon), Asian short ribs and pork ribs, hot dogs, and get this…, homemade Krystal burgers, White Castle for the northern contingent. All was delicious. Pete ate well.

Food Spread at Fran's (Check out the homemade K Burgers)

Some of the ladies on the balcony

After the fireworks we head back to Norm condo and balcony for some post fireworks festivities. From his balcony you could see fireworks from other cities, official, and other neighborhoods, unofficial, unregulated, illegal, and therefore more fun. This of course was only interrupted by Karaoke, if you know Norm this makes perfect sense. Happy Birthday United States of America!!!!!!!!!

Norm kicking it with Karaoke at his place

Washington, DC
Tuesday, July 3rd

The SPS students headed down to Annapolis, MD for the day. Pete skipped this trip today for one next week when they visit The Naval Academy. I slept in, needed form the previous night’s Irish themed festivities. I ran errands around the neighborhood and prepped for a case study that I’m teaching next week on Hurricane Katrina. Interesting case, I’ll discuss further when I’m done teaching that particular class.

Around noon Micah, Ryser’s husband, picked me up at school and we prepared for preparing dinner later the night at Bill and Amanda’s for the gang. By prepare we mean, sitting in the Man cave at Bill and Amanda’s and watching various crap on TV. After a beer and the a viewing of the 2006 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Park, Kabyashi won, we went down to the social Safeway to shop for the meal.

Hear was the meal Micah and I planned.

Shrimp Ceviche
Grilled Parmesan Broccoli
Chicken Breast stuffed with Proscioutto, Pesto, and choice of Goat cheese or Fresh Mozzarella
Vanilla Ice Cream with fresh strawberries and peaches

It took a little time to cook but it was an enjoyable experience. If the readers are sensing that his meal was beyond Pete’s skills…, you are right. Micah has retired from the Air Force and is about to begin a one year program in French Cooking. Regular readers may recognize Ryser and Micah from the BBQ Fest in May. SO anyways Micah really knows what he is doing. From the responses of the diners, the food seemed turned out wonderfully.

The dining crew way Micah, Ryser, Bill, Amanda, Ishtari, a friend and co-worker of Ryser’s and Pete. We leisurely dined, drank wine, and generally enjoyed the unseasonably cool weather. After dessert the crew sat down to a couple of games of Scene It, a DVD game that involves movie trivia. It was quite fun. The boys beat the girls, of course, the first round. The second round Amanda and I blew a seemingly insurmountable lead to Bill and Ryser. Of course the two did not talk any trash. RIGHT.

It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. Micah, we are glad to have you on the Erie Gang team. Bill and Amanda thanks for the use of your kichen.

Washington, DC
Monday, July 2nd

There are two more weeks left in the program. Where has the time gone? Today was a busy day. In the morning we headed down to the CATO Institute. CATO is a libertarian think tank that is headquartered in Washington, DC. The really short explanation of libertarianism if you do want to check the link is limited government, individual liberty, and free market. On some issues they are right of Republicans and on others they are left of Democrats. We met with Brink Lindsey, who is vice president of research for the CATO. He recently penned a new book that sounds pretty interesting called, The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture. The book delves into how the United States unprecedented prosperity of the latter half of this past century drastically changed American politics and culture.

Brink Lindsey of the CATO Institute

Mr. Lindsey spoke the group about what think tanks are and their role in the government and politics. He described a think tank as a cross between a university with no students and a lobbying firm with no clients. Lindsey spoke about other thinks tanks such; the Brookings Institute and the Center for American Progress. As a side note the students heard from Dan Restrepo, the Director of The Americas Project at the Center for American Progress later that evening. The School of Public Service tries to as hard as it can to balance the philosophical and political views of the speakers and outings in effort to try to balance out the curriculum. Both speakers were informative and the students continued to ask lots of questions, and good ones at that.

Dan Restepo of the Center for American Progress

After lunch the students heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci MD, of the National Institute of Health. The NIH is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Simply described, the goal of NIH research is to acquire new knowledge to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat disease and disability, from the rarest genetic disorder to the common cold. Fauci is the Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases. The NIAID is a large component of the NIH. Dr. Fauci was on the forefront of identifying, categorizing, and on fact naming the HIV virus AIDS. He has an interesting background. Dr. Fauci has the rare combination of a doctor, scientist, and someone who can communicate with a wide variety of people with varying degrees of topic knowledge. This is the third year I have heard his presentation and I am never disappointed.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID

After a short free time SPS hosted the Washington in Ireland Program. The program is a half year program of personal and professional development that brings talented Catholic and Protestant university students from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to DC for summer internships and leadership training. I highly suggest you visit the link to the website I provided. Pay particular attention to the journal entries they are fantastic. Back to the point. We hosted this group for diner at Albans. They were lively, intelligent, and excellent conversationalists, but then again I’ve never really met anyone for Ireland, North or South who wasn’t. After diner we engaged in three rounds of old fashioned debate. We mixed up the SPS students and WIP students into twp teams of two. Three of these groups were organized and they debated topics such as capital punishment, safety vs. liberty, and whether Paris Hilton should be jailed. The last was for pure fun but actually quite lively. The teams had only 10 minutes to prep so the debates favored style and logic over factual information. The debates were raucous to say the least. Everyone had a great time.

SPS and Washington in Ireland breaking bread

The debate of Capital Punishment

Kevin, of Trintiy College in Dublin, channeling Michael Collins

After the debates I joined the SPS faculty contact with the WIP program, the WIP director, and some of the WIP students for a sip of…... Ireland’s signature export. The eclectic crew ranging in age from 58 to 21 went to a local pub, unknown to me till now, called Nanny O’Brien’s. We had excellent conversation. An Irish Seisiun was firing up in the back of the pub. Suffice to say, Good Craic, (Gaelic for Fun).

Irish Seisiun at Nanny O'Briens

Orla dazzles the crowd with traditional Irish Dance

Washington, DC
Sunday, July 1st

Pretty lazy day in our nation’s capital. It was marvelous day weather wise. I believe the high never topped 84 degrees. They catholic crew and I headed back to Holy Trinity in Georgetown for mass. The people watching was fantastic. Big Mike, your head would have been on a swivel.

After that the SPS students were let loose to wander the city with the only caveat to be back in time for dinner. I did nothing but read outside. I wandered around the Close; remember that's Albans high brow, snooty, way to say campus. I finally settled on a place underneath a tree in one of the many gardens to finish up my book. (For info on book see right hand of column) I read uninterrupted for about four hours until I met up with Chuck Crossan, resident director for St. Albans. We grilled up burgers, steaks, brats, and hot dogs. The kids ate it up like ravenous wolves.

The students settled in for a movie, Bloody Sunday, to prep for some of our guests Monday night. I was amazed to see that some of the students had no clue what the “Troubles” were about. On the other hand those who did not know were filled in by treatises of those who did. A student summary was much more succinct and efficient than one of Pete’s long winded rambling “summaries”.

I then went down the street to Bill and Amanda’s place to just hang out. Bill and I watched some movies on the plasma and ate some Ice Cream. One of the things I really enjoy about my time in DC is how easy it to catch up with the old crew.

I’m adding some photos from around the St. Albans campus

Northwest View
People relaxing in the Garden
Garden Entrance
One of my morning coffeespots in the Garden