John Lautner Motel

The John Lautner Desert Hot Springs Motel is for sale.

It's a great building, though what once was probably an isolated desert location is now on the edge of a housing development and trailer park. When we stayed there last year, our room got broken into:


But the price is reasonable.

Evening Tea

This weekend we enjoyed a very pleasant dinner at the Adams's, followed by mint tea by the fire. We talked about the abandoned embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, John Lobb shoes, The Cult of Isis, tea that unfolds into a flower as it steeps and a house containing Faberegé eggs.

Thanks to Zed for the first and last links, and to Robert for the picture of the fire.

The Holidays in the District

Behind the West Wing of the National Gallery. The horse is wearing a santa hat, the parks policeman is wearing a balaclava.

The East Wing of the National Gallery of Art

Melody and I tried to see the Hopper show at the National Gallery of Art this afternoon, but there was an enormous, Disneyland-size line to get in. So we checked out some old favorites in the permanent collection instead (the Flavin fluorescent light Monuments to V. Tatlin (similar to this) and Anselm Kiefer's Angel of History (a four-engined airplane made out of lead, which looks like a B-58 Hustler).

We also got a chance to look at the interior of the East Wing of the National Gallery itself. Both Melody and I thought that the central atrium is one of the most impressive interior spaces in DC (with the atrium of the World Bank). Looking at this shot, the inside of the museum looks like an Apollonian city of the future.

The Disgusting English Candy Drill, Part II

Inspired by a passage from Gravity's Rainbow, I ordered a box of English candy: rhubarb and custard hard candy, pear drops, Army & Navy, licorice torpedos, fizz bombs, and ginger creams.

English candy was difficult to find online. So difficult, I had to order it from Australia.

So far, I've tried the rhubarb and custard, which in their blandness resemble a rhubarb crumble drowned in Bird's custard, the pear drops, which are a pleasant variation on a lemon drop, and the fizz bombs, which are weapons-grade sour. They could be dropped behind enemy lines to deplete strategic saliva reserves.

Check Please: Poochie's

I reviewed Poochie's for the new Check Please segment on NBC 5 in Chicago. The review is one minute long. I don't say anything interesting, and I use the phrase "down home", which isn't the way I normally talk. They cut out the part where, as an indication of my competence in judging hamburger quality, I say that I've tasted the full range of burgers available in Chicago, from the deluxe foie gras topped burger at Sweets and Savories to the ones offered at Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap.

I wanted to review Alinea, but they just laughed at me when I suggested it.

Poochie's was Zed's original find.

Georgetown Library Steps

This is the gloomy entrance to campus. The steps lead to Georgetown's Lauinger Library.

The Seal of Georgetown University

The seal of Georgetown University, in mosaic form in the central entrance to Healy Hall. If you observe people coming and going from this entrance, you'll notice that almost no one steps on the seal. When I was an undergrad, the superstition was that stepping on the seal meant you wouldn't graduate.

The barely legible text around the edge of the oval reads: Collegium Georgiopolitanum Ad Ripas Potomaci in Marylandia: Georgetown College on the Banks of the Potomac in Maryland. There's more information about the seal here.

The eagle in the center of the seal is holding a globe (which looks like a bird cage) in one claw, and a cross in the other claw. That always struck me as a gesture of agression rather than respect.

National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature: Georgetown Bioethics Library

The Bioethics Library in Georgetown's Healy building is the most pleasant place to study on Georgetown's campus. Most of the time, I am the only person in there besides the librarians.

Very Large Array

About a 30 minute drive east of Pie Town is the Very Large Array. The VLA consists of a bunch of gigantic radio telescopes mounted on rails that can be moved around. When they're in their largest configuration, they cover an area the size of Washington DC.

On the official tour, the role the VLA plays in looking for aliens is downplayed. Melody thought that was suspicious.

Pie Town (Part 2)

More pie from Pie Town, this time from the Pie-O-Neer.

Just down the street from the Daily Pie Cafe, the Pie-O-Neer offered warm pies right off the cooling rack (pictured above is a slice of oatmeal-pecan). The crust on the Pie-O-Neer pies was fresh and flaky. We had a pleasant conversation with the crust maker herself as we ate our pie.

Pie town (Part 1)

After a day spent visiting the Lightning Field outside of Quemado, we stopped in Pie Town.

There were no more than half a dozen buildings in Pie Town, but two of them were pie shops. We stopped at the Daily Pie Cafe first.

The pie selection.

A serious banana cream.

Triple berry.

The Daily Pie Cafe was pretty solid. The banana cream was thick and creamy, the triple berry was tart and not too sweet. I only got a little taste of the New Mexico specialty, an apple pie with green chiles and pine nuts (not pictured), but it seemed good. We were warned to avoid the coffee by a couple of women who visited the Lightning Field with us, so we didn't get a full Twin Peaks-style pie and coffee experience.