Some days do lend themselves to diary entries more than others. Yesterday was one of them. Not that anything too exciting happened, but everything was interesting, and nothing was too personal to write about..

A day in the city:

I woke up at a normal hour, looked at all my normal smart phone apps, showered, dressed, came downstairs, read the Times, had breakfast (Heritage Crunch), and wrote yesterday’s blog post. I then had email and text correspondence with a number of people regarding both the Haberman Institute for Jewish Studies and the Jewish Funeral Practices Committee, and then updated the sale registry for our on-line book business. At about 11 a.m., I left the house.

A beautiful walk to the Metro, down 32nd Street to Brandywine and out to Connecticut, marred only by someone cutting the grass with an oversized lawn more which covered me with grass chips. The walk is about 2/3 of a mile. The Metro, not very crowded, came about a minute after I arrived at the Van Ness station, and I got off at Farragut Square. I used to do this all the time because for 35 years of the 40 that I practiced law in DC, I worked within a block or so of Farragut Square (in four separate buildings). But I hadn’t got off there in several years, and this time my destination was not near Farragut Square, but at Metro Center, about a mile away and a 20 minute walk. But it was 11:45 and I had to be at my destination at 12:10, so I had plenty of time.

I walked down Connecticut Avenue, by the Army-Navy Club, the AFL-CIO, and St. John’s Church and through Lafayette Square, which looked very green and appealing except that the fountains were not turned on. There were people walking with a purpose, walking without a purpose, and sitting (ala Bernard Baruch) on the benches and, because this is Washington, after all, there was a big demonstration by the TRP Alliance, waving flags with butterflies on them and shouting in unison. The TRP alliance supports making the amnesty for people who have come from certain countries (like Cuba, Haiti and Ethiopia) a permanent one, not just a temporary one.

I walked by the White House lawn, the Treasury Department and a number of shops and cafes until I got to the Church of the Epiphany for its weekly Tuesday noon concert. As usual, an excellent program featuring flutist Carrie Rose, and pianist Szu-Yi Li, playing duets by Handel, Barber and Copland, and Szu-Yi Li playing a solo piece by Liszt. The Copland piece was a duo for piano and flute, written to honor the chief flutist at the Philadelphia Orchestra, William Kincaid, who had passed away. It’s interesting how Copland’s music is recognizable as Copland through the first two notes of the flute. The Barber piece, which I can’t say that I understood, was apparently the basis for the piano concerto that won Barber a Pulitzer Prize. I really don’t know Barber’s music at all.

At 1 p.m., I walked to the Martin Luther King main library, and went to the new cafe there, run by DC Central Kitchen. A first class chicken salad on a brioche sandwich and a glass of iced coffee, all for about $11.

From the library, I walked another block to the Gallery Place Metro stop and took the train back to Dupont Circle, getting off to look at the $4 books outside Second Story Books. For years, I have tried to figure out how they decide what they put on these bargain shelves, but there seems no rhyme or reason. Today, I bought (1) Susan Rice’s memoir, “Tough Love”, signed by Rice on the title page, and in top notch condition, (2) “The Carrot and the Stick: Israel’s Policy in Judaea and Samaria, 1967-68” by Major General Shlomo Gazit, also in top notch condition, signed in Hebrew and English lettering by the author, published by B’nai Brith, and (3) an even rarer volume, “Political Documents of The Jewish Agency, May 1945-December 1946, published in Israel by the World Zionist Organization in 1996, also in perfect condition.

I looked to see what these volumes were selling for. I found the first two listed each at $100 by, ta-da, Second Story. Are these the $100 volumes they decided to sell for $4? They are still listed for sale on their website, so I don’t know. Maybe these are second copies, maybe they were inadvertently pulled off the shelves? I just don’t know. As for the third volume, I cannot find it listed for sale anywhere. Perhaps it is in many research libraries, I don’t know. But it’s a treasure trove for anyone interested in the topic.

I lugged the books to the L-2 bus stop, about five blocks away. The bus (which let’s me off a block from my house, not 2/3 of a mile, like the Metro) came in about 15 minutes. I got on the bus, pulled out by Metro smart card and started to pay, when the driver said “you can just go and sit down”. Why did he do that? He liked me? He felt sorry for such an old man? His machine was broken? Who knows? But I saved $1.25.

Strangely, the bus was relatively empty for the entire 30 minute trip. Only one event worth noting. Sad and funny at the same time. I guess more sad than funny. There was a lot of paving work going on at 18th Street and Columbia Road, and there was fresh concrete poured into a raised mold which was broadening the sidewalk. A middle aged woman, wearing a skirt, was walking by and somehow (I did not see how) tripped and landed right in the fresh concrete. She was OK, except for the fact that she looked like she was in a Three Stooges film, covered from head to knees in wet concrete. The workmen tried to help her out, but I think succeeded only in spreading the concrete further all over her. I am sure it was extraordinarily upsetting – but I think six months from now, she’ll be laughing about it.

I got home, and got back on the phone on Funeral Committee business. Our treasurer and 30-year board member has announced he is resigning so we are working to replace him, and I think we are just about there. All would be set up for Board approval next month at our next board meeting.

Then came supper, and then we watched a disappointing baseball game. Well, it wasn’t disappointing until the last pitch of the game, which wound up in a walk off home run by the Marlins, who beat the Nats 5-4. Until that pitch, it looked like the Nats, who took the lead in the 8th, were sailing to victory.

The game was followed by Episode 5 of The Diplomat on Netflix. Three more to go – I will say I think it is getting better, although I still find it a rather shallow production of very limited worth..

Then, it was an hour or so of reading. Still going through my Penguins (about 3 years worth left), I am now reading, for the first time, some Tacitus. Last night it was the second half of Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law, who was the Roman governor of Britain from the year 77 to 85. Like a lot of these classics, I am finding out, it is interesting, easy to read, and not at all intimidating. The Penguin Tacitus I have contains one more long essay, Tacitus’ impression of the Germanic people of northern Europe.