What I learned this week

I learned a bit about how to extract DNA, extract RNA, sort proteins, BLAST a gene on the internet, and make & stain slides of small mammal duodenum to view with a microscope.

But I also learned that fully 50% of all women on the metro are traveling in footwear that insults their feet. Flip flops offer no support, are hazardous on long escalators and don't protect your toes in the crush of rush hour. Towering heels are bad for your ankles, feet and spine. My feet could never be models in a magazine (now there is an understatement), but I love them. They take me places and when they're happy, I'm happy. (Get a foot massage and tell me this isn't true!) Women, be nicer to your feet.

I learned that nobody looks up. If you do study the architecture above eye level, someone will immediately peg you as an out-of-towner, but that is OK because he might be helpful and tell you all kinds of things about the neighborhood.

I learned that finding things in the city is trickier than knowing what street it is on. In the suburbs, when you want a grocery store you just look for the nondescript building with the big sign in the huge expanse of blacktop. I kind of like the absence of monster parking lots, but it makes finding shops more of a serendipitous challenge.

I learned that the International Monetary Fund building has the best fountains -- balanced yet quietly imaginative and not too gushy.

I learned that the Red Cross has a lovely monument on the corner of E street and 20th with the following inscribed:

"I believe in the ideals of democracy and

the concept of universal brotherhood.

I acknowledge no barriers of country, race, class or creed.

I believe that service to others is the obligation of mankind,

that every right I claim imposes a responsibility,

and every possession implies a duty.

To bring comfort to those who are in trouble,

to alleviate suffering, and to conserve life is my mission.

Wherever disaster calls

there I shall go.

I ask not for whom,

but only where

I am needed."

and this:

Knitting. The bench around the monument is polished granite with a chronology of the Red Cross etched into it. This panel about World War I says "Volunteers knitted over 11,000,000 articles of clothing for American troops." Eleven MILLION.

Have a nice Memorial Day weekend and remember that some troops give it all.