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"Salty." (Scott McLemee)
"Unvarnished." (Phi Beta Cons)
"Splendidly splenetic." (Culture Industry)
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(Rate Your Students)
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politics, but she's pretty fabulous, so who gives a damn?"
(Tenured Radical)

Thursday, May 05, 2005

SNAPSHOTS FROM HOME

Observations Along Strathmore Avenue, Maryland

II

[For I, see UD, April 30, 2004]



They're calming Strathmore Avenue, the main - and the only through - street in Garrett Park. I'm waiting here for a bus to the metro.

The setting at the intersection of Strathmore and Kenilworth has changed enormously since I stood on this spot last spring. Saplings, sidewalks, and vintage forest green streetlamps line the avenue. All around me, workers from the State Highway Administration drill, measure, and haul. They've just about finished the job.

The idea has been to narrow Strathmore, to make it a stretch of road that sends a driver visual signals to slow down. And traffic is indeed slower than I recall, though that might be about the presence of the highway crew more than anything else.

I don't in any case mind standing here (the bench is temporarily gone) in cool May weather, waiting.

--------------------------------------------------

UD is, as we say, on the bus. The driver has signaled that she not pay (the Ride-Ons are often free), so she sits down, bouncing around with the bus and trying to write.