TAKE-OFFS AND LANDINGS

All around me the District is closing down and will remain on high security through at least Friday afternoon. With Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev and leaders from virtually every country we maintain diplomatic ties with coming into town this week, they're saying it's potentially the largest gathering of world leaders in any one place, ever. Which of course makes it a terrorist target so enormous the word "enormous" fails to reflect the danger. This means the city is on lockdown. Streets and bridges are closing and my vehicular-bound colleagues are all fretting about the hours-long commute they may face on the way home.

Ronald Reagan himself arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in about an hour and a half. One hour after that he'll be taken through town on a riderless carriage to the Capitol Building. So I'm off to go see if I can catch a glimpse of the procession down along Constitution Ave.

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posted by WWB at 3:43 PM |