What’s the Story, Deb?

Like a lot of people, I usually end up working over the weekend when it’s quiet and I can catch up (and write things like this). It’s just a usual part of a routine. So taking a whole day to play hookey is an unusual occurrence and, to my mind, sure better be worth it.

Well this past Saturday, it was. The main purpose of my trip was to visit the Nationals' new stadium and see the first (though exhibition) game played there. (It’s a nice stadium, but more on this another time.) So I made an outing of it and spent the whole day tooling around Washington D.C. like a tourist. I had a great time in the process.

First, I got to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. I'd never seen them before. Now you may laugh at this, but it’s been my experience that most people never play tourist in their native land. I grew up in New York (but don’t hold that against me) and have never been to the Statue of Liberty. I didn’t see the Empire State Building until just a few years ago when visiting friends from Spain dragged me there with them. I never went to the top of the World Trade Center. It’s just that, when you live somewhere, you think you’ll get there someday, but without a sense of urgency (or a guest from out-of-town) someday never comes.

I’ve lived in the D.C. area for 28 years and that’s how long it took to get me to see the area’s famous cherry blossoms. I should have gone sooner. They are well worth the visit.

From there, I headed over the 42nd annual Smithsonian Kite Festival on the mall. The mall is not your typical mall. Instead, it’s a rectangular area with the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other. The buildings of the Smithsonian make up the other two sides, and the White House sits among them as well. The Washington Memorial is sort of in the middle of the rectangle. It was great windy day when I visited, and there were thousands of kites of assorted shapes, sizes and heights billowed through the sky. I had to laugh at the image of the kites flying about the IRS Building, the Justice Department and the other bureaus. It is the one day a year you can tell the government to go fly a kite and mean it.

After that high-faluting fun, my day turned serious. I was lucky to be one of a select group of journalists who was invited to tour the new “Newseum” scheduled to open on April 11. The Newseum is a 250,000 square foot museum dedicated to news reporting that moved its headquarters from cramped quarters in Virginia to a brand new location on Pennsylvania Blvd. (Here’s some info.) The most moving item in the Newseum is the actual broadcast tower that once stood atop the World Trade Center and rode down 107 floors to the ground as the building collapsed. It is such a mass of twisted broken pieces and wires fused with molten metal that it takes your breath away when you come upon it. A somber reminder, as the Newseum wanted, of how important news is every day.

Yet what was the first thing I saw when a entered the cavernous building? A lite of broken glass in a railing. “Oh,” I thought I’d murmured to myself, “that’s a story.” Now I say “thought” I’d whispered the comment, but even whispering “that’s a story” in group of journalists is enough to get 15 of them to stop talking and quickly look at you then decide to follow you to the glass. It was a pretty humorous sight.

In fact, a lot of the glass looked like it had just been put in and, despite the preview, a lot more had to be put in. One person who’d joined the parade commented that the glass guys didn’t seem to have their act together. No, I explained, it’s probably that the glass guys are always among the last in the construction process and have to make up for everyone else being behind. You can’t assume it’s their fault, although the unique design of the railings make me think the glass guys have a lot to do in the next few days.

And so you can see how, for me, even on a crisp day in D.C. spent playing tourist, the story is that the glass is always the story.