"Juan Antonio Santacruz says he has sold quite a few tacos to Sotomayor, who frequents his Mexican restaurant, Tacos El Chilango."

"Chix and the Greek Spot are two other neighborhood restaurants Sotomayor has patronized.... Sotomayor sometimes stops by the Greek Spot after work to order the gyro platter, the owner says...."

A WaPo slideshow answering the question how Justice Sonia Sotomayor — who lived in the West Village when she was a federal judge in NYC — is adapting to the "distinctive rhythms" of the neighborhood where she lives in Washington. ("Distinctive rhythms" — is that politically correct? ) Here's the related article:

“U Street is the East Village,” said Sotomayor, who keeps a place in Manhattan’s West Village. “The East Village has been developing in the last 10 or 15 years, and I’ve often said if I was going to buy an apartment now, it probably would be in the East Village. So what did I do? I came to Washington and established a home in the East Village.”

"Daybreak Sunday found 789,358 in the Washington region still without power..."

"... facing another sweltering day and the prospect of returning to work Monday before electricity is restored to their homes."

Seems like an occasion to make political jokes, but I'll refrain.

"Unbuilt Washington."

The ziggurat that might have been the Lincoln Monument, the gigantic enlargement of the White House, the Kennedy Center that looks like Monona Terrace, the National Sofa... yes, the National Sofa:

In response to the closing of Pennsylvania Avenue — the first of many hysterical security measures since the Oklahoma City bombing and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — Allegro and Michel envisioned a wide, arching “sofa” in front of the White House, with a giant video screen giving visitors an insider’s peek into the executive mansion.

MLKin6.

6-word tweets reacting to the new monument.

"Sarah Palin and her family sneaked out in Washington on Sunday night for what she called an 'incognito' tour of the national monuments..."

Reports the NYT:

Details of the visit were posted Monday morning on her Web site, along with pictures that show her, her husband, Todd, and her daughters enjoying stops at the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

In one picture, Ms. Palin and Mr. Palin are sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking out toward the Washington Monument, like any other couple might. In another, the whole family is seen standing below a part of the World War II Memorial that says “Alaska,” their home state.

Beautiful, innovative unrolling of what is presumably her candidacy for President.



Sarah, she's just like you, visiting the monuments, posing by the name of her state, wearing a visor and a baggy black T-shirt. I love the way she's slouching as if she's not thinking about her looks at all, while the other women are doing the photo-pose-y thing and the husband takes the figure-flattering 3/4 position and sucks in his gut.

Palin posts her Rolling thunder pics.

More here.

ADDED: "'I love that smell of the emissions,' she said, donning sunglasses and a Harley Davidson skullcap-style, black helmet."

Meade goes to Washington: Pictures from the Capitol, from just a few minutes ago.

I just spoke to Meade, who arrived in Washington, D.C., after a 22-hour bus ride, in time for the protest at the Capitol. He's taking pictures and video, but what I have right now is from the iPhone:



I think the yellow flags say "Don't Tread on Me" (or as we say around here: Don't Tread on Meade).



Nice soviet-style graphics in this one:



This shows the crowd-size:



Consider that the weather is absolutely beautiful — and either discount the crowd-size or get over there and make it bigger.

I love this guy:



He had a whole traffic-sign theme going:



Meade got his name as David Rothwell — from the eastern shore of Maryland.

And I really love this guy:



Citizen Meade!

I spoke to him from the scene, where the phone battery is close to dying. I'll put up the video of the phone call in a minute, but basically he's having a great time amongst the right-wingers who, he assures me, are not crazy.

ADDED: Here's the video of the phone call:



And Meade texts that he'd like you to see this:

Justice Louis Brandeis said get out of Washington: "I believe that every man should get back to his hinterland."

From an Anthony Lewis review of a new biography:

Law clerks and other young people who met Justice Brandeis learned how serious he was in his commitment to the states. He would advise them to leave Washington and go home. A lawyer I knew in Washington in the 1950s, Joseph A. Fanelli, told me that he went to Washington from Harvard Law School in 1935. Sometime later he had a telephone call from the justice's messenger, Edward Poindexter, saying that the Brandeises invited him for tea. Fanelli went to their apartment, was handed tea, and introduced himself when the justice came into the room. "What do you do, Mr. Fanelli?" "I'm with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Mr. Justice." "Don't stay too long!" Brandeis said, and moved on.

Fanelli was invited back once a year, and the same conversation occurred. He achieved such seniority that his wife (he had married) was asked to help pour the tea, and Fanelli was determined to break through the formula. When the justice said, "Don't stay too long!" he quickly asked, "Why do you say that, Mr. Justice?" "Because, Mr. Fanelli, I believe that every man should get back to his hinterland." "But, Mr. Justice, I come from New York. I don't have any hinterland." "That, sir, is your misfortune," Brandeis replied. And moved on.

Althouse in Washington.

The symposium over, Althouse sits dreamily in an octagonal room at the Renwick Gallery:



Photo by Meade.

One more, also by Meade, with the bust of James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895) in the background.



***

We're back in Madison now, arriving to homecoming Saturday, after the game has been lost. Too bad for the Badgers, but congratulations to the Boilermakers for beating the Buckeyes! West Lafayette is one of my favorite places on the face of the planet, so I'm very happy for Purdue.

And I'm happy to be back in Madison. I had a nice trip to Washington where George Washington Law School's law review hosted a wonderful symposium on judicial review, and I had a great time hanging out with various conlaw characters. It looked like this:



But that ended, and it was out into the cold rain of our nation's capital to search for my adorable husband, to see some art and eat some food and, today, to fly back into our lovely medium-sized city in the midwest.

Should the President be working harder?

Excuse me if I don't find this as charmingly cute as the NYT does.

IN THE COMMENTS: Freeman Hunt said:

"Mrs. Obama and her staff also visited Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen, where the first lady bumped into Bill Richardson, a 46-year-old homeless man. Mr. Richardson was so stunned that he could barely stammer thank you as Mrs. Obama scooped a helping of mushroom risotto onto his plate this month."

LOL Okay, so it's not that Bill Richardson, but the mental image was still funny.

AND: Glenn Reynolds answers my question — Should the President be working harder? — "I think he should take as much time off as he wants."

Rodrigo Díaz says:

Can you imagine the OUTRAGE, had GWB been this person with the brewski? The country is going to hell… This ass hat at a B-Ball game.

"Priapism? That's the least of your worries!"

Cool sketches of "hateful" DC people from Sparky Donatello. And here are "little people I trampled over on my way to DC."

"Madison is the smartest city in the United States."

So says a new study in Bizjournals. Somehow, Washington is second. I'm suspicious of the methodology.

Doug Moe is also suspicious, based on absurd accolades of the past:

I recall Men's Health magazine, in November 2003, putting Madison first in a survey of 101 cities that were ranked "by how well they keep the male citizenry safe, sane, and well stocked with six-pack abs."

The article began: "You can go an entire day without seeing fat people in Madison."