Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bloodroot Moon<\/p>\n
First day, tired. \u00a0Ate. \u00a0Walked. \u00a0Got too chilly. \u00a025 mph winds and 37 degree temps. \u00a0Came back to the Harrington after getting a sight of the US Capitol, white and domed at the far end of Pennsylvania Avenue.<\/p>\n
When I began to scout D.C. on the web, I got on a Washington Post website that featured restaurant critiques. \u00a0It wasn’t the restaurants that caught my eye though, it was a helpful graphic the Post staff had created to help you find “the homicides in your neighborhood.”<\/p>\n
That night I didn’t click through since I didn’t have a neighborhood, so imagine my surprise as I sat in Harriet’s, the Harrington’s restaurant and saw, on the now cliched plasma screen, “Murder by the Whitehouse.” \u00a0Sure enough, within two blocks of the restaurant and hotel somebody had shot a football player and killed him.<\/p>\n
The Whitehouse is only a hop, skip and a drive-by from here.<\/p>\n
Whitehouse, in fact, is the Harrington’s passcode for its wi-fi. \u00a0A \u00a0natural.<\/p>\n
Too weary to do sight-seeing with a wind-chill I went back to my quiet room, wondering what was happening on floors 2 thru 9, and flicked through the channels, reconfirming our decision to cancel our Comcast TV.<\/p>\n
But. \u00a0I did find a middle weight boxing match, a world championship in the WBA between Macklin, the contenda, and Felix Sturm, the champ. I haven’t watched boxing since they were sponsored by Gillette Razors and that was in the fifties, but I watched this one.<\/p>\n
No knock-out punches, but a lot of gamy attacking by the contenda and a lot of backing up by the champ. \u00a0There was blood, some. \u00a0Shots of faces crushed by left and right hand jabs. \u00a0Uppercuts. \u00a0The occasional clinch, but mostly strategic holding up of gloves followed by flurries of punches. \u00a0Boxing seems almost quaint with mixed martial arts, Ultimate Fighting, now enjoying popularity.<\/p>\n
The bout had a Hemingwayesque aura, perhaps a bit of the 1940’s. \u00a0 \u00a0The referees were all Latino one from the U.S., one from Puerto Rico and one from Spain. \u00a0They went with the German though the Irishman, Macklin, could have won it, too. \u00a0At least that’s what the announcer said.<\/p>\n
It was Hemingway and contestants bloodying each other up and the Spanish referee that led me to bull fighting. \u00a0There is, in both boxing and bull-fighting, a suspicion that you shouldn’t really be watching. \u00a0Two adults pounding each other with their fists? \u00a0A whole raft of folks against one bull whose only way to leave the contest is dead? (Yes, there are the rare exceptions where the crowd saves the bull, but most of the time the bull dies.)<\/p>\n
This wasn’t the I planned my first evening of this pre-Raphaelite immersion, but there you are anyhow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spring \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Bloodroot Moon First day, tired. \u00a0Ate. \u00a0Walked. \u00a0Got too chilly. \u00a025 mph winds and 37 degree temps. \u00a0Came back to the Harrington after getting a sight of … Continue reading The Contenda<\/span>