Dupont Darling » Spotted Elsewhere

Georgetown/Dupont Retail Swap

Dupont Darling — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:16:56 +0000

Claude Taylor Photography, on Connecticut just north of Dupont Circle, recently opened a Georgetown location. Here’s the new store, on Wisconsin just south of P:

Dupont, on the other hand, is home to a second location for Georgetown antiques store Marston Luce. I don’t think this is new, but I have to admit I’ve never seen it before. It is located at 21st and Newport; open Monday through Friday by appointment only and Saturday 11-5. The two or three blocks surrounding the store are all residences, so I was surprised to find it there:

Here is the Georgetown location, on Wisconsin between Q and Reservoir:

A Very Dupont Halloween

Dupont Darling — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:20:05 +0000

Well Dupont, at first I thought Georgetown owned us at decorating for Halloween. I was there last weekend and there were some amazing decorations. I hadn’t seen anything besides tasteful pumpkins-on-steps displays around here. But maybe we are just late bloomers, because over the past week I’ve noticed more creative efforts.

This creeper is on 21st between Q and R:

The faux rat on the ledge (right side of the door) scared the bejesus out of me at first glance. This would be spookier if the ghoul on the left were still upright:

While not spooky, these pumpkins win creativity points:

Still, I’m woman enough to admit that Georgetown wins this battle. But Dupont has a lot more apartment buildings and a lot less kids, so I guess that makes sense. See pictures of some over-the-top Georgetown displays after the jump.

Excuse Me, Do You Have the Time?

Dupont Darling — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:00:40 +0000

The answer is no. No you do not have the time; no one does. Not without a functioning U.S. Naval Observatory master clock. The sight of a blank master clock on a recent walk past the Observatory really unnerved me. The USNO determines the official, precise time in the United States, and is apparently also responsible for managing something called “time dissemination.” (I clicked the link on the USNO’s webpage to try to find out what that was, but my eyes started to cross, so here’s the link. You’ll have to do the legwork yourselves.) It is THE time, people.

So . . . was someone still keeping track of the time, or were we all floating around in a timeless abyss? Is the time correct now, or is it just some naval officer’s best guess after a meltdown? Or, more plausibly, was the sign broken?

The whole thing made me think of “I.Q.,” the 1994 rom com starring Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins. What, you don’t remember it? Well I do, and there is a scene where one of the scientists is doing an experiment where he puts a guy in windowless room all day, leaves the lights on, and feeds him at irregular intervals. The whole thing makes the subject crazy; he screams in a wild panic for hours. Then Albert Einstein (just go with it) slips a watch under the door and the subject is happy as can be. The point is, not knowing what time it is drives people crazy. So let’s hope the USNO resolves the situation promptly so we can all avoid that scenario.