Snow

It's snowing.
We've surpassed the record from 1899. It's cold and the grocery stores have been picked clean. The Federal government has been closed for 3 days, but so far, no one has really noticed. Washington businesses are shuttered because roads are impassable.
Climate change? Global warming?
I've got a call in to the Mayor of Vancouver, B.C. Have I got a great deal on some cheap snow to fix up those Olympic venues!

Washington Weather

Is it me, or has the tropical monsoon season arrived early and stayed late on the East Coast? Washington DC is equatorial between June and September on a regular basis, but this is ridiculous.

Summer is a time for Congress to leave Washington and tourists to throng to the National Mall along with the mosquitos and the humidity. The Smithsonian is an oasis of air conditioned cool for the weary researcher or traveler. The Library of Congress is positively chilly, with marble floors and walls that beckon. I love the momentary sense of cave-like cool the museums exude in deep summer. In the National Archives branch in College Park, one follows a path into what feels like a restaurant-sized refrigerator. Ah!

Washington natives, and there are very few of us, love to complain about Washington in summer. It's been the sport of residents since Lafayette came and laid out the grid for the city. But, as I easily navigated Capitol Hill this morning, I thanked the Founding Fathers. We may sit on a miasmic swamp, but, you can't beat the parking as the mercury rises.

The Most Amazing things

I have been a researcher for a long time, so I'm used to "amazing finds".  Once, while working on a book on the Lincoln assassination, I got to hold artifacts from the State funeral, and I saw the hangman's nooses that executed the 5 people who were tried and found guilty, among them Mary Surratt. It made my hair stand on end.  I've been out before dawn with photographers to catch the first light.  And I've carried roses in my car, with the heat at full blast in the middle of August to force them to bloom before going into the studio.

Been there, done that.

What never fails to surprise me is generosity.  People who have things in their collections almost always give the gift of their time, their expertise and their knowledge.  And they usually give me more than I came for, which means I never walk away empty-handed.  

I traveled to Oklahoma recently to research the history of Native Americans who were "relocated" by means of the Indian Removal Acts to Indian Territory, which became the state of Oklahoma.  While working there, I was the recipient of the Indian "give away".  A pair of handmade beaded earrings.  An original woodcut by a native artist.  Chocolate.  I was overwhelmed by kindness.  Native Americans give because they can, and because they want to not because they have to.  

It's a gift to still be surprised and gratified by the work one does.  Almost everyday I learn something new or meet someone extraordinary.  The day I stop being amazed and when I stop learning, I'll go work at Starbucks.

For now, every day is an adventure.  

Why I Love the Boston Globe

My routine is always the same. Mornings never vary and Sunday is sacrosanct. Feed the dogs. Make tea. Get the newspaper at the end of the driveway. Read from cover to cover.

There's something comforting about Style and Arts, knowing that even in the rotten economy, there are still movies and plays, art in the galleries, fashion, commentary. The comics are like a lovely confection, a big piece of sweet roll or coffee cake, smothered in sugar and butter.
Metro gives a harder edge to life in the city. I read the obits to make sure I'm not in them.

Front page, world news. The state of the world and the nation. The pulse of life beats on. The editorial page is a familiar haunt, with right and left elbowing for bragging rights.

The printed page is an important part of my life. Holding a piece of paper with the day's news gives my day a kickstart. Reading it online isn't the same. It's hard to balance a computer and a coffee cup and read. Computers have no tactile comfort. They're hard and plastic. They make noise. Little advertisements pop up incessantly. They irritate and annoy.

The Boston Globe is a newspaper legend. Loud and brassy. It bellows when others merely raise a voice. I grew up with the Washington Post, that staid and decorous gray lady of Washington news and Watergate headlines. In college, I had to learn to love the Globe. It was yellow and bold, grandly opinionated. It made your eyes water. But it was news. It was blue collar and the Red Sox. Fenway and Back Bay. The great equilizer in a town with brahmins and guys from the 'hood.
Keep The Globe. It's an institution that is part of the foundation of a very great city. To lose it would be to lose the soul of the city that threw the first Tea Party.

Web images are not FREE!!!!

Just because you find a photo online, does not mean it's free to use. Funny, most people don't understand this. Say you find a baseball cap on a neighbor's front door step. Can you pick up the cap and walk away with it?
Clearly, the answer is NO.
But, many people think that if it's on the web, it's free for the taking. Not so. Photographs, movies, paintings, cartoons--all visual materials- are COPYRIGHTED. That means someone else owns them. Unless the owner places the image into the public domain, which means anyone can use it, or if the copyright has expired (there's a 75 year waiting period for this).
Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Google Images all have tantalizing images. You can't use them unless you ask the owner, and in some cases, clear rights, permissions, and pay for the right to use the image.
So remember, just because it's on the web, doesn't make it free for anyone to use.

The name's Jane, Jane the Photo Editor. Research, photography, hanging around libraries and museums is my game. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think that's a low estimate. Pictures tell you what words can't. Photos, when they're not doctored by PhotoShop, give you an instant peek into history. One that can never be duplicated.
I plan to write a blog once a week, taking you to places like the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Museum of the American Indian. I'll take you inside the workings of a BIG new museum and tiny archives most people never get a chance to see. Civil War battlefields. Photo studios. Newsrooms. And more.
My dog Hattie is a pro too. She'll take you to dog parks, the vet, a Canine Massage Therapist, a Veterinary Accupuncture specialist. Follow her nose.
We're a team. We're on an adventure, always.