Rally to restore sanity

13 years ago

A fun day. While much of my view of the stage was blocked by the TV cameras and equipment, I was able to see Kareem Abdul Jabar. Man, is he tall! And maybe this shows my age, but Tony Bennett singing America the Beautiful was, to me, the highlight of all the songs. Forget Roots rapping, John Legend, Yusef (Cat Stevens) and Ozzie Osborne on competing trains, Sheryl Crow, even Mavis Bacon. Tony Bennett still has it.

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Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture
13 years ago
I was there in spirit!
golddust
13 years ago
Me too! I saw Tony on CNN!
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Yeah, sorry about that. I know. :-p I added the "humble" part because I figured people would assume a pricey area meant a fancy house. In my case, it doesn't. My house is comfortable, not a shack, but it's not what others might think that price point implies. (And I bought it back when I could it. That wouldn't be now.) Most of the value is in the land (which is itself mostly a function of the schools.) Lots of people who would consider buying my house would scrape it and build something new. Happens all the time in my neighborhood. I wouldn't, even if I could afford it. I like my comfortable little home (as does the tenant in the cottage). I looked and there is only one Loewen dealer for tens if not hundreds of miles. That said, that one is very close. I guess it can't hurt to talk to them. I was going mostly from GW recommendations for Marvin and Kolbe with Loewen mentioned as close but slightly behind. ef_houseman's comments and other reading that I've done make me nervous about pine, though I'm not sure if I'm 20K$ nervous. Kolbe's strong reputation doesn't really fit with a problem-prone wood? I'm still trying to judge how stupid I'm being avoiding clad. I'm not entirely sure I know how close in look I could get with clad. I can go back and research that. But I balk at not being able to choose my own colors: I'm a big fan of Schweitzer's Bungalow Colors book. I believe I can get custom colors for a setup charge though I'm not sure the charge. Plus if I ever have to get a replacement, I'm kind of screwed since a < 1K$ sash would still have the high setup charge. So I'm back to painting AL. And I'm (foolishly?) a traditionalist: I like wood, particularly vgdf. All the doors, casings, and moldings will be vgdf (cabs will be cherry.) mgdf is a non-starter: I don't like flat-sawn fir; it looks too rustic for what I'm going for. To his credit, the Marvin dealer has a vgdf french door display that shows more color variation (presumably heartwood/sapwood) than a custom cab/furniture maker would accept. He tells the story that Marvin saw it and wanted to replace it and he said no. He shows it to anyone that's going to do a natural finish and points out that Marvin doesn't consider it a fault.
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I am sitting on my patio with a thermos of tea, and a heated throw, since it is surprisingly cold for May, and watching a hummingbird flit from salvia to kangaroo paw. I hear a male house finch song along with the ubiquitous house sparrows. Now a male Anna’s hummingbird chimes in with its complicated high pitched singing, mostly out of my hearing range. Off in the distance a small flock of Amazon parrots is creating a ruckus and a crow caws. The sun has just peaked over the neighbor’s house to light up the salvia and warm Monsieur Tillier. Soon Madame Alfred Carriere will get some warm rays. I contemplate a sapling of a large tree growing in the 6 inches between the back retaining wall and the fence and how I could get it out by digging under the fence to access its roots. There is always something to do in a garden. It gives me so much joy, exercise and is always filled with the sounds of birds and the fragrance of flowers. As I am getting ready to post, I hear a male mocking bird singing in the distance. Maybe I will tackle the sapling or maybe leave it for tomorrow. Thank you all for your grounding presence in a chaotic world.
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terezosa / terriks
13 years ago
I was cleaning house and forgot about it, till I saw a bit on CNN. I hope to see all of it on Comedy Central. My favorite sign:

Also
mahatmacat1
13 years ago
COOL, suero! I saw an estimate of 280K people?!

All those signs make it look like a big UU convention! (I'm a UU, so I can say that :))
deegw
13 years ago
I have a politcally active cyber friend from another board (about figure skating - now you know one of my guilty pleasures). Anyway, she has been to more than a few rallies/protests in DC and she said the rally yesterday was the largest she has ever seen.
graywings123
13 years ago
I was there too! I went because it fit perfectly with my political philosophy and I wanted to help raise the attendance figure.

I wished they had had jumbo trons and speakers further down the mall so that I could have heard and seen more. The crowd was so wonderful, calm and reasonable, which was good given how many people were there. I have never seen the Metro so crowded.

Even without seeing or hearing much, I thought it was worth the trip just to see the signs. They were funny and off the wall, some political, some not.

Here is a link that might be useful: 100 best signs
kitchenwitch
13 years ago
I was there too and it was awesome!!!

We were in the thick of the crowd for the earlier part, but then walked around the perimeter. The signs were so witty and true, and all the people of all ages were friendly and SANE. Such a wonderful expression of Americans!!

We left NJ at 5:30 Saturday morning and at rest stops along the way we ran into so many people from PA, New England and other places. We got on a Metro at a Park & Ride and as the train kept getting fuller at each stop, we all just crammed in and sang "Peace Train".

I don't have a DVR, and I missed most of the stage show -- they definitely needed more Jumbo Trons. I hope Comedy Central shows it again so I can see it! I don't know how to estimate crowds, but I know we had to go several blocks from the event before we weren't shoulder-to-shoulder with people.

We had a big Peace Sign banner that doubled as our lawn blanket. My sign said "Mainstream, not Extreme"; perhaps you saw me, LOL.
kkay_md
13 years ago
I was there, too--wonderful rally! Everyone was so civilized and reasonable. The signs were terrific, and it was great to feel among like-minded citizens. We did get front and center, so heard and saw everything, but I know lots of people who couldn't penetrate into the crowd to see/hear, and decided to leave early.

We drove in (my husband's office is on the Hill) but my son took Metro with a big group of friends, and the trains were so crowded, several passed them by. It was a mob scene, but a well-behaved one.

I particularly enjoyed the invocation.
geogirl1
13 years ago
We were there too! Awesome signs, great people, wonderful show! We got there by 9:30 am, so we had great seats with rooms around us and we saw the Jumbo Trons. The Metro back was a wee bit busy, but everyone was so reasonable, that being smashed against each other wasn't so bad. Our signs were:

1)Where's my pony? I want my pony!
2)I respect your right to say stupid things.
3)I respectfully disagree with Rush Limbaugh on everything.
4)My feet hurt and my butt itches.
5)If we agreed, we'd both be wrong.
6) I'm with stupid (with arrow pointing to the sign carrier)
7) Start catering to the busy people.
8) Dear Press, Please report the news instead of sensationalizing it. You are kind of giving me a headache.

Wonderful day!
beekeeperswife
13 years ago
I like the sign--"Fear the Amish"
maddie260
13 years ago
I was so there in spirit!
maddielee
13 years ago
I'm jealous of those that were there....

a question, did the crowd leave the Mall area clean? I was impressed that Jon Stewart asked that they do early in the rally.

ML
busybee3
13 years ago
those were great...thanks graywings!!

Rally to restore sanity

Comments (13)

Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture

golddust

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mahatmacat1

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graywings123

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busybee3

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