Metro Tales

On the way to Columbia Heights tonight, three young people (maybe a few years younger than me -- at least one said she was a college student) were carrying a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Barack Obama. Well, that's not quite right: one was carrying it, and the other two were having trouble keeping their composure, as they thought it was hilarious. I thought it was nice. It got a lot of smiles from the other passengers, a lot of pointing and gawking and laughing and grinning. I liked that.

On the way back home, I transferred Green Line to Red Line at Gallery Place. Walking up the escalator, I noticed that the escalator let us out way at the end of the platform. "Not again," I thought. I then immediately realized that, obviously it happened "again" because the escalator doesn't move. It's going to let me out at that same spot on the platform, every single time I travel to Gallery Place.

Finally, on the car ride home, the radio was playing an advertisement for UMD's MBA program. "The top ranked" (wow!) "part-time" (alright) "MBA program in the region" (what counts as a "region"?). The vaguely British sounding announcer promised it would prepare students to meet the challenges facing "our nation, our world, and our planet". Which is amusing, since I'm pretty sure "world" and "planet" are the same thing, albeit evoking different angles (the former being more social and political, the latter more natural and environmental).