Christopher Barger on the outlook for the Tigers from Laurie Mayers on Vimeo.

The Washington Nationals and the Detroit Tigers start their baseball seasons today, the Nationals at home against the Phillies and the Tigers in Kansas City. I am sorry not to be at either stadium on Opening Day, but will definitely catch Pudge Rodriguez in his current home later this season. The Tigers have upset some fans by trading star and all-around nice guy center fielder Curtis Granderson to the Yankees and by paying $8 million for evil aging Yankee/former Red Sox Johnny Damon. In any case, I saw social media evangelist Christopher Barger in Detroit last week (disclosure: client) and asked him about the coming season. (This is my first video; I’ll do better next time with the edits and the unsteady cam.)

Circumcision protesters at the Capitol Saturday

I don’t know why, but these stories keep popping up, so to speak. Now that the Tea Party protesters have gone home, along with the thousands protesting for immigration reform — who were practically ignored by the media, due to bad timing — this week’s protesters were few in number but equally provocative.

Standing on the Capitol’s South Lawn on a sunny day, when the Mall was full of families flying kites and tourists ogling cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, these “intactivists” held several attention-grabbing signs.

So I went to their web site, StopInfantCircumcision.org, which has a charming, early ’90s web design, reinforcing the impression that this is a fringe group without enough funds to build itself a decent web 2.0 site, accompanied by Facebook fan page and Twitter feed. But if you click on the “I’d rather not know” button on their homepage, you’ll see a photo of a baby undergoing the procedure. He certainly appears to be in pain. And let it be said that the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend routine circumcision for babies, but yet more than half of U.S. parents of baby boys choose the procedure.

The Stop Infant Circumcision site also has an interesting article about Nobel Laureate George Wald’s adoption of the movement and his attempt to interest the legendary New Yorker editor Wallace Shawn in an essay on the topic. Shawn declined, and 25 years later, New Yorker senior editor Hendrik Hertzberg told circumcision opponent Van Lewis, “I am not at all surprised that Shawn turned it down. The reason, I’m sure, is that he was incredibly queasy about anything involving bodily functions and/or private parts. He wouldn’t have even allowed the word ‘foreskin’ into the magazine, let alone publish an entire article about the cutting off of same.”

So while the gentlemen at the Capitol seemed a bit wacky (the Uncle Sam hat and the tie-dye, for example, not leading to an impression of seriousness) they do have their points. But, really, wouldn’t the Washington Monument have been a better site for the protest? Or, better yet, the Ypsilanti Water Tower?

Marchers for immigration reform on the Mall. Photo by Karen Kortesoja.

It was a big day for the First Amendment at the Capitol today, with what appeared to be more than 200,000 people marching from the Mall through the neighborhood of Capitol Hill urging immigration reform. The Washington Post reported that, perhaps not coincidentally, the INS raided several popular Maryland restaurants recently and detained 29 people for administrative immigration problems.

On a day when most eyes were on the health care bills, the long-scheduled march was almost entirely overshadowed by a much smaller number of Tea Party protesters on the south side of the Capitol urging the House to vote against the health bill.

• My photos on Flickr
• Other Flickr photos of the immigration reform march

Celtic Cross at Clocmacnoise, Ireland. Photo by James Gaddis

St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill is celebrating St. Patrick’s Day a few days early, on Saturday the 13th, with a special Mass and Irish music. The music is “St. Patrick’s Mass,” by Philip Green, at least part of it, and Four Hymns by Vaughan Williams, with guest soloist the acclaimed tenor John Aler. And by “acclaimed,” I mean, “He’s won four Grammys.” Aler is a friend of Music Director Kevin O’Brien, and both are Catholic University alumni.

This is the same choir I wrote about in December, which performed stunning selections of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. Additionally, I’m singing with them, in the mighty alto section. My contributions will be very minor, but it is a lot of fun. Kevin gets some really amazing sound out of a small group, and his high quality of musicianship attracts some very talented singers to this all-volunteer choir. We’re talking a high number of voice major students and semi-professionals.

The music begins at 4 p.m., followed by Mass at 4:30. After Mass, I am told there is quite a party in the Parish Hall, featuring “salmon, salad, soda bread and suds,” with performances by two Irish dance schools and a raffle. So, come take care of your Sunday obligation Saturday night, and hear some lovely music in the bargain.

Arlington National Cemetery, JFK Gravesite

I like visiting cemeteries. They offer history lessons, mortuary monument fashion shows, and countless little poignant stories of long lives and short ones.

Arlington National Cemetery gets 4 million visitors a year. It is a huge place. Unlike the Congressional Cemetery in southeast D.C., it is a solemn place. It’s here where presidents lay a wreath on Memorial Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns. It’s here that John F. Kennedy and Jackie are buried, around the corner from Bobby Kennedy and now Ted. Signs throughout the cemetery point to the JFK gravesite and its eternal flame, which is in a beautiful spot below the Arlington House. There is a guard there shushing people, so it is a somber place. Bobby Kennedy’s memorial around the hill is a still pool, above which are engraved passages from some of his important speeches. If you were alive in 1968, the scene will likely to take you back to that horrible time.

Above the graves of the Kennedys is Arlington House, which has a fascinating history. The House was built by George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington, raised from his infancy by Martha and George Washington, as a monument to George Washington. Custis and his wife, Mary Lee Fitzhugh, lived in the house until their deaths in 1853 and 1857, with their married daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, and her husband, Robert E. Lee.

Lee didn’t spend much time at Arlington House, as he was busy fighting the Mexican War and was later superintendent of West Point. After his father-in-law died in 1857, however, he returned to restore the estate to profitability. The Lees lived in Arlington House until 1861, that fateful year. After Virginia seceded, Lee resigned his commission and, well, certainly, you know his next career move. His wife fled, leaving their slaves behind. After the war, the estate was confiscated and turned into a military cemetery for the thousands of Union soldiers. A Freedmen’s Village was created there.

Pierre L’Enfant was also re-interred in front of Arlington House, where he has a splendid view of the Potomac and the city that he planned.

Be sure also to visit the Tomb of the Unknowns and its honor guard and the memorial to women in the military and the WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who were granted veteran status only in 1977.

My photos on Flickr

Candy Holmes and Darlene Garner got their marriage license yesterday. Photo by Matt Dunn

Woo hoo! Same-sex couples could apply for marriage licenses in the District of Columbia beginning yesterday, and about 100 of them did, according to the
DC Agenda. The first weddings should be March 9.

The Superior Courts of DC site has more information, including the revised a marriage license application form, a form to request a civil wedding at the courthouse (10 to 15 guests will fit in the marriage ceremony room), and an application to celebrate marriages within D.C.

Matt Dunn has a great photo set on Flickr.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has no plans for big, expensive campaigns to try to get Detroiters to be counted in the 2010 Census, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The city can’t afford it, and Bing feels it’s time to face reality and scale back city services to match its smaller population. The city of Detroit encompasses 139 square miles, about 40 of which are vacant, the Journal said. In contrast, the District of Columbia has an area of 68 square miles. What could you do with those extra 40 square miles? You could farm it, or you could turn it back into the carbon-sucking forest of oak and maple trees that it was before the white people settled it 300 years ago.

To me. it seems, the difficulty is: how do you shrink the geographic boundaries enough so that the city can provide adequate police, fire and city services to its core neighborhoods? What happens to the owner of the one or two last occupied houses left on the east Detroit blocks shown below? Detroit already has 10,000 homes scheduled for demolition.

I applaud Mayor Bing for trying to right-size city services and expectations. But it will surely be an arduous process that will take decades.

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