Fascinoma

It's Earth Day Plus out there on the Mall and people are gathering and singing and saving the planet like crazy, mostly because it's a sort of balmly day in DC and not as rainy as predicted. I went for a run and snapped some pictures, but mostly it was just white folks in summerwear. I did like the cool bus pictured above, the "Peacemaker," because you meet the nicest people on a bus.

I once ran into a lovely former student, Laura, a couple of years after she graduated and she told me that right after she'd last seen me she was riding the bus from Colorado to Phoenix and out in the Arizona desert a motorist pulled up alongside the bus and started firing a pistol into it, hitting numerous passengers and the driver, who somehow managed to maintain control. Then the shooter raced away, but turned around and plowed head-on into the bus, ending his spree. It turned out he'd already killed three people (including his ex-wife) down in Phoenix that day, and set his apartment building on fire. He was the quiet type apparently. Laura doesn't ride the bus anymore. Or go to Arizona.

The Earth People reminded me (just by their numbers) of all the Teabaggers I've seen in recent months, all eight billion of them if you believe the Foxaganda. Virtually all Teabaggers reminded me of The Big Drift -- which is that tendency among Americans to gain one or two pounds and lose one IQ point each year after college, until finally you're fatter and stupider than the young you would have thought possible. Teabagger: QED.

Your Earth Day Assignment: go here, scroll down and listen to the Axolotl Song. Epic!