Some cool Dog Backpack images:
The Un-Welcome Center
Image by M.V. Jantzen
This sign is annoyingly stupid. It’s hilarious to see items that pose a threat juxtaposed next to things that are just messy. The guard by the X-ray machine was asking everyone if they had food in their backpacks and such. Of course most people have gum or bottled water – "food" is a rather broad category… these treacherous tourists are turned away. Note the "welcome" center isn’t even in the White House; it’s two blocks away in the Commerce Department building. Never before have I seen a "NO Chewing Gum" or "NO Balloons" sign. What about kites? Can I fly my kite inside the building?
Herewith the text of the sign:
The Following Are Prohibited Inside The White House Visitor Center
NO Food or Beverage
NO Chewing Gum
NO Smoking
NO Balloons
NO Explosives
NO Suitcases, Duffle Bags, or Oversized Backpacks
NO Animals (Except Guide Dogs)
NO Knives
NO Arisol Containers
NO Electric Stun Guns
NO Guns or Ammunition
By entering the White House Visitors Center, you hereby consent to the search of your person and/or all hand-carried items.
You will pass through an electronic weapons detection system and your hand-carried items will be electronically and/or physically inspected. Any device(s) or weapon(s) discovered, which are in violation of the District of Columbia Dangerous Weapons Act, are subject to immediate confiscation.
Individuals found in violation of the above are subject to arrest and prosecution in accordance with applicable U.S. and/or District of Columbia codes.
nothing to add nothing to contest
Image by Kalense Kid
I remember mercifully little about cricket except that games go on day after day, until someone wins, loses or draws. Being a mine of useless information, I also know that cricket has Laws, of which 3.9 allows the umpires to suspend play if the light is "not suitable." Incidentally, that link is worth following, if only to see a doofus showing how the ground crew marshal a plane into its parking slot. If you’re British, you, like me, may know nothing at all about cricket except that "bad light stopped play." I think it happens with tennis, too, but in the last minute or so my interest in these odd pastimes has abruptly reached a new low.
I think that you can see where this is going.
So far my Spanish trip had been dogged by grey weather and rain. But now I was in France, and the south of France at that, a place whose sun and light is famous throughout the world. This is why, at 09h30 on the dot, it clouded over and stayed clouded over, raining a bit now and then to relieve the monotony.
All the towns that are in the Michelin Guide are underlined on my Michelin map, just as all the pretty roads are rimmed in green. Moissac is underlined; perhaps it is famous for its hand-crafted manhole covers, or its annual schnauzer-gliding contest, but I don’t really care. Well, OK, it’s a World Heritage Site of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela – but isn’t everywhere? I can no longer say that I’ve never been to Moissac, but bite me if I ever go again.
From there north to Lauzerte and Montcuq its interesting country. There would have been some great photos, including some good plantain avenues, had there been any light. Montcuq, one of the stops on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella, is a small mediaeval town, full of earnest-looking people with backpacks.
Montcuq is the butt of many jokes – as is Pussy, a village whose sign I snapped last year. This year in Spain I passed, in reverential admiration, a sign for Cuntis.
Since bad light had stopped play, I decided to go to Cahors to buy some jeans. The ones I was wearing had this alluring aroma about them, and were probably older than my daughter. Hell, they were probably older than my sister. The pocket I use to keep my wallet in had developed an inconvenient trait – two major holes – and there was more ventilation between my legs than was seemly. Reluctant as I am to cast aside old companions, I decided, nevertheless, to buy another pair. But I arrived at Cahors at 12h35, and Cahors was shut until 14h00.
The D653 is an astonishing road. In the middle of one of the most densely populated bits of the planet, this road streaks out for miles across the Causses du Quercy, a vast wilderness with (mirabile dictum) No People. The sky was various shades of pearl grey. I cut across country north of Figeac and south of Mauriac, through the Pas de Peyrol to end the day in Murat, deep in the Auvergne, on the southern flank of the great Massif du Cantal.
It looked suspiciously like rain. I couldn’t face another soggy start, so found a cheap hotel just before the heavens opened. I’ve seldom seen a storm like it. I was in a bar, looking out at the ankle-deep torrent that was the street, when I realised that a puppy-sized frog was sitting on the sidewalk looking back at me. His drain was flooded, and he looked distinctly unhappy. Even for him, bad weather had stopped play.
Date: 2007 08 28
Geotag: N 43 00 30.4 W 000 41 13.2
Title: Bloc Party Waiting For The 7.18
Tagged with: Ammunition • backpack • Bottled Water • Center Image • Chewing Gum • Commerce Department • Confiscation • cool • Dangerous Weapons • District Of Columbia • Dog Backpack • Electronic Weapons • Guide Dogs • images • Kite • ray machine • Stun Guns • suitcases • Umpires • Useless Information • Welcome Center • White House Visitor Center • x ray
