As a metro area urbanizes, the old country homes built off of major highways become less appealing as residences and more appealing as commercial entities. This isn’t surprising; the quiet metamorphosis has taken place for decades. A subtle commercial conversion. People don’t want to live directly alongside throngs of fast-moving vehicles if they can help
Over the years I have unintentionally amassed photos of quite a few of the states’ capitol buildings, including some of the more obscure, lightly populated ones in remote locations. Yes, I’ve been to Pierre, South Dakota; I’ve stood in front of the state house in Concord, New Hampshire (the humblest of buildings from my recollection).
It’s Flag Day! And it’s kind of remarkable how, given my blog’s fixation with flags over the years (including some very creative flag reimagining), I’ve never really covered this 75-year-old holiday, commemorating the 247th anniversary of a distinct American flag. Yes, it was June 14th in 1777 that the Second Continental Congress adopted an official
I usually wait more than a few weeks before I offer a follow-up from an earlier post. But if I learn something new almost immediately after posting—sometimes as a direct byproduct of the initial article—then I’m more than happy to revisit the subject, offering new insights or corrections as necessary. More often than not, the
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to come out of nowhere, it bears a direct spatial resemblance to one I wrote just a few weeks ago: on a row
The two gnarly white mulberry trees (Morus alba) in the photos below don’t look like much, and they certainly aren’t much aesthetically—at least if one’s aesthetic standard for a tree is something tall and strong and sturdy and proud. Not these guys. The tree in the foreground is a wee bit tilted; it needs a
Amidst the broader cultural polarization and the ensuing moral panics (or perhaps the moral panics that have prompted the cultural polarization?), we’ve witnessed far more people announcing their political loyalties than in the past, often through overt displays in their front yards. While one can find these sort of signs just about anywhere in the
Strangely enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve covered flags and swimwear. It’s not even the second time. Judging from the tallies of the two topics, the count on flags vastly exceeds those of swimwear. I do love me some flags. As an (extremely) amateur vexillologist, I enjoy not just their origins in heraldry but
Exciting things are astir at the intersection of George Mason Boulevard and Lee Highway (U.S. 29) in Arlington County, Virginia. This should come as no surprise: it’s a prominent intersection, given that Lee Highway is a busy, heavily commercialized arterial, while George Mason Boulevard is a stately collector (much of it with a tree-lined median)
For the last three years I have lived within a twenty minute walk of the Supreme Court of the United States. I can’t say it’s quite as banal as a city trash can, but it’s hardly something special at this point, when one lives this close. I’ve walked, run, or biked (and sometimes driven) past
As a metro area urbanizes, the old country homes built off of major highways become less appealing as residences and more appealing as commercial entities. This isn’t surprising; the quiet metamorphosis has taken
Over the years I have unintentionally amassed photos of quite a few of the states’ capitol buildings, including some of the more obscure, lightly populated ones in remote locations. Yes, I’ve been to
It’s Flag Day! And it’s kind of remarkable how, given my blog’s fixation with flags over the years (including some very creative flag reimagining), I’ve never really covered this 75-year-old holiday, commemorating the
I usually wait more than a few weeks before I offer a follow-up from an earlier post. But if I learn something new almost immediately after posting—sometimes as a direct byproduct of the
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to
The two gnarly white mulberry trees (Morus alba) in the photos below don’t look like much, and they certainly aren’t much aesthetically—at least if one’s aesthetic standard for a tree is something tall
Amidst the broader cultural polarization and the ensuing moral panics (or perhaps the moral panics that have prompted the cultural polarization?), we’ve witnessed far more people announcing their political loyalties than in the
Strangely enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve covered flags and swimwear. It’s not even the second time. Judging from the tallies of the two topics, the count on flags vastly exceeds those
Exciting things are astir at the intersection of George Mason Boulevard and Lee Highway (U.S. 29) in Arlington County, Virginia. This should come as no surprise: it’s a prominent intersection, given that Lee
For the last three years I have lived within a twenty minute walk of the Supreme Court of the United States. I can’t say it’s quite as banal as a city trash can,