At Union Station, the south escalator down into the Metro station is broken. I walk slowly down the steps behind a man with a cane having some trouble. A MARC train appears to have arrived and the Metro station platform is full, but Red Line trains to Shady Grove are running seven minutes apart — at rush hour. A voice on the PA system fuzzily announces a delay, and that trains are moving. I am unable to squeeze into the first train that arrives, but manage to get into the one after it. At Metro Center, a 6-car Blue Line train is waiting, but one car is dark and closed. Then at Foggy Bottom, one of the two escalators going up from platform to mezzanine is broken, forming a huge bottleneck. Again, another up-escalator is broken from mezzanine to street level, causing yet more traffic. Finally I emerge into the hot, hot sun. Not a good Metro day.

Paulo Ordoveza

Roving Asian mendicant, can occasionally be seen wandering the streets of downtown Washington, muttering unintelligible gibberish to passers-by while pushing a “bag lady” shopping cart full of old blankets, American flags, soda cans, and healthy secondhand snacks from organic food shop dumpsters. Used to live in a cardboard box at 16th and K but the rent was too expensive.