THREE-ALARM SOMETHING AT MAJOR DC INTERSECTION!

Walking back up to my modest SoCo perch this evening, I kept noticing emergency vehicle lights at the end of every block, and upon final approach to the semi-famous cross-streets adjacent to the place whence I now type, it became clear the locus of locii was in fact this arguably noteworthy intersection. And I did what came naturally: I took pictures. More to the point, timid, not-wanting-to-get-in-the-way type pictures. With an abiding deficiency of expertise w/r/t my digi's outdoor capabilities in twilight. Here's what I could salvage:


The view from my front walk. These are 3 of 5+ full-on fire trucks parked in the immediate vicinity, and a tiny fraction of the overall emergency vehicles stationed, lights a-flashing, throughout the neighborhood. Easily 20+ with Metro PD cruisers and numerous city-commissioned SUVs and sedans scattered about.


Seriously, is there a crash course in amateur photography I can check my Canon SD450 settings against? (FLOG™, I'm looking in your direction.) Because I didn't shell out $400 American for this.

A little while ago I called the Metro PD non-emergency number to find out just what in tarnation was going on outside. After all, there's still a police cruiser or two loitering around 13th Street NW. I was transferred to the local office — which I suspect of being a non-descript townhouse across the street — where a circumspect young officer explained it all away: "Just a traffic light out."

Er, really? Worth blocking off four or five intersections and directing a baker's dozen streets immediately surrounding? For reals? I expressed my skepticism — five fire trucks? He was silent for a moment, and then reaffirmed: "Traffic light, yeah." I didn't have anything else up my sleeve, so I thanked him for his time and hung up — or more accurately, button-pushed and beeped off.

I've been clicking away from the 8:30 repeat of "Colbert Report" (my regular viewing hour) to NewsChannel 8 (think NY1 tied to the ABC affiliate, and without the investigative efforts) to no avail. WTOP is of no help. The Post is silent. It's censorship!

Apparently tonight they solved the two-neigborhoods-over murder of New York Times editor David Rosenbaum... so perhaps that's it? A human skull turned up in Chevy Chase this evening. That isn't too far away...

Anyway, the good news is that I haven't recently been struck in the head with a dart from a blow gun, unlike another Columbia Heights resident I know.

P.S. Speaking of "Colbert," how about this indisputably self-referential yet still un-forthcoming AP report on Stephen Colbert's crusade against the AP for not crediting him with the obvious coinage of the word "truthiness"? Sure, as the AP points out, it's the variant of a word stuck way back in the little-visited craw of OED, but the definition of the word is indisputably new. And while I doubt the salience of the word — will it enjoy the same currency a year from now that "strategery" still does? I doubt it. But it comes from the brilliant first epsiode of the surprisingly-durable first episode of "Daily Show"'s first spinoff. So 'fess up already.

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posted by WWB at 8:39 PM |