I asked SI (Super Intelligence) for a 250 ft. Golden Arch for the President! Awesome! Bet Marine One could fly right through and land! No D.C Flight Path Restrictions or bothersome FAA Approvals! Wait’ll Natalie prints this and brings it to the Prez! So proud, my very first (and probably last) SI created image! But so embarrassing for an old, retired photographer! Who needs expensive cameras, lenses, lighting, sets, education, experience or skill? Not SI!
Finally – Trump TV! Who needs cable when you can stream the “Natalie” and “Melania” channels! Hilarity as Stephen Miller deports Nursing Home aides!
A new White House Helipad! Wonderful words from the President! Xi will be so impressed! Here’s the Official White House Video: Ribbon Cutting at White House Helipad !
Not Fake News! Better odds than “Draft Kings” or “Fan Duel“! Make a reverse fortune! 1 USD of DJT Stock bought in 2022 is now 56 cents! A stunning -44.69% RoI! Genius! Put that bloated, ugly bulge of cash on a diet! Financial Wegovy! No White House access required!
“Trump Media & Technology Group is navigating significant challenges, reporting a $238 million net loss in Q2 2026, primarily due to unrealized losses in digital assets.” Crypto is awesome
Year To Date Return
One Year Return
5 Year Return
* I started this blog primarily to display a post retirement retrospective of my final career as a photographer. Recently, I’ve been distracted and astonished by the daily lunacy encompassing Washington, D.C.. Instead of creating another blog, I decided to just add the category of “Crazy Town”. I am, just an Old Curmudgeon, colliding with a strange, new world. To borrow a punchline from a very old (like me) joke: “If it wasn’t for the booze, I don’t know what I’d do!” Mea Culpa and Peace Unto You.
My Thriftbooks purchase arrived today ($9.29)! It joins Confidence Man and Regime Change to complete my Trump Library! Highly entertaining! Trump sued the author for $5 Billion! Court threw it out, hilarious!
A sample review: Jose Lambient of The Palm Beach Post wrote, “Sarcastic at times, hilarious and irreverent at others, the book demystifies the star of The Apprentice as the poor man’s rich man and portrays him as a potty-mouthed P. T. Barnum with a bad comb-over.”
In spite of the Presidents insistence yesterday that North Carolina Cities are “blood-soaked killing fields”, I went shopping , at Michael’s, channeling my inner Martha Stewart: Binder, Archival Binder Sleeves Mounting Paper and Photo Corners for organizing a dozen years of my photography at Cary Ballet Conservatory. Ballet! Worse, this afternoon, I finished putting up my homemade chicken stock, not 48 hours after making vegetable stock! And replaced Air Wick Room Fresheners! Listening to classical music on WCPE! And submitted my 2026 Cary Photographic Artists Open Juried Competition Entries – all images of Paris!
Which is way better than making a hole in the water with 120 other young bucks in a Lafayette Class Fleet Ballistic Submarine for months, standing watch in Missile Control Center, ready to obey lawful orders and incinerate a few million poor souls who lived too near Soviet Radar sites with ancient Polaris A-2 Missiles and unreliable , 100 times Hiroshima yield, W47-Y2 fusion bombs. 55+ plus years later, the current versions are still, indefensible. And still unavoidable, Madness aka, Mutual Assured Destruction Doctrine. No winners. C’est la guerre.
“Trump Goes to North Carolina and Declares State ‘One of the Worst in the Whole Nation” – “President Donald Trump criticized North Carolina in Gastonia Wednesday evening as he called its cities “blood soaked killing fields.”
Unsafe here but where to go? Palm Beach? Maybe, if I vote Republican, I’ll get $5K and can afford to move! Maybe I can get a job here!
Or maybe here, doing Pool Repair or Lawn Care or Installing Portable Fencing!
My birth town! Say it loud, say it proud, “Cleveland Rocks”!
City Council passes resolution renaming portion of Lake Erie ‘Gulf Of Cleveland’
“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump posted on social media.
Ronald McDonald goes wild! Free Happy Meals in Secret Service Express Lane!
New Trainee with XXL Apron
Saturday, September 10 is in 2033! Should be all fixed by then!
I wonder if they can get the equipment out and re-fill it today?
Next, fix up the Mall Lawn where the July 4th stage was!
Contractor Blames Its Own Repairs, Not Vandals, for Reflecting Pool Failure
“The contractor said the pool’s new blue liner peeled and tore because of “human oversight” and a flawed plan that involved layering two incompatible chemicals, documents show.“
A worker pulling up a piece of the pool lining on Thursday.Credit…Salwan Georges for The New York Times
“But the bigger problem, the company said, was that the repair plan laid out in the contract called for the layers of liner to include two chemicals that turned out to be incompatible.”
Workers sprayed blue coating Thursday as part of ongoing repairs at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington.Credit…Salwan Georges for The New York Times
Uh-oh, I thought September 10, 2026 was today! My bad! Twilight zone!
Reading “Regime Change” this late afternoon, waiting for dinner to warm, I put it down and started re-reading “Confidence Man”. Halfway through the prologue, I knew where we are today. I’ll have another.
Donald’s Bad Hair Day in Dallas
Opening Thursday at Midnight (says the NPS Sign).
Today – Empty of rain from a recent storm!
Yesterday – After the storm blown fences and debris removed
There are apartments behind, beside and above me. All are quiet now. I’ve learned which awake at 0530, 0630 and 0730. A robust shower singer lives behind me. Later, footsteps on stairs, car door key fobs and engine noises announce the work day. My day begins with coffee and a croissant and wonderfully, no schedule. Then to the luxury of writing books. I am content, without a bucket list or complaint – “no would of, could of, should of” regret. Me and my Sweetheart Boss Lady didn’t wait for retirement – we went when we could. And spent hours on perfect Fall afternoons, vieux amants, at bistros in Paris. A widower now, it sustains me.
Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine, Le Marais
Having used all my “Dress It Up Champagne Vinaigrette”, drove to my local, upscale “Fresh Market” for replenishment. Long ago, a teenage son worked there, on weekends. It moved, so a longer drive today from taking him to work then. And “Beer” on my shopping list was supplied by a long ago, hometown brewery. I wish it were, October. It’s been a long, long, hot Carolina Summer. Unlike the perfect weather for this weekends Cleveland Labor Day Air Show at Burke Lakefront Airport ! Which it was, long ago, when I watched very young sons climb out of the Cargo Bay of a USAF C5-A Galaxy. To watch the Blue Angels!
It’s unavoidable – I need an hour & coffee to come back to life in the (late) morning. I find the news no surprise and the politics ridiculous – just put a a big, striped tent over D.C., bring in the Circus Train and Peanut Vendors!
Later in the day, been slogging through a desktop publishing learning curve that’s nearly vertical!. Discovered that the issue with rough check print proofs from my utility printer was due to a clogged Yellow nozzle – read the frigging manual, dummy! Performed the mfr. recommended maintenance. Progress!
Fortunately, affordable Bourbon & Beer. Dinner at 8. Wine & Chocolate follow!
The Reflecting Pool is beautiful American Flag Blue! Open in 1 week! And a brand new today, $2.7 Million Maintenance Contract! But wait, there’s more, even better than White House Bowling Alley lighting fix up or Kennedy Center Reno or the White House Ballroom!
“The federal government plans to start excavation over the next two weeks on a massive triumphal arch across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said Thursday “- CBS News
Had lunch today with dear friends, ladies associated with Cary Ballet, my artistic home from 2010 to 2022. Told them a bit about this.
Writing a book about it. Metadata shows I uploaded this image to this blog media library on 13 Dec. 2012 – after midnight of the day I made it.
That was when I realized how much I didn’t know about light – deflating for a photographer! And realized, she was, my Muse. The book is in a very nascent stage. I do have a domain parked for it – “The Muse Provides”. Stay tuned!
