…despite being an area with "a large amount of narcotics trafficking" as the local cop told me, despite finding out that most of your favorite spots are former crime scenes, despite the Brookland bomber walking up and down the street shouting threat and offering to wash cars and the Lady walking up and down the two block stretch with bags full of clothes all days, despite all this the neighborhood is nothing short of festive. Even the slightest hint of sun will bring the entire families out on their porches with boom boxes playing 70's soul ….

… I was sitting in that same Cosi and watching as two of DC's finest, one of whom was wearing a t-shirt with a vest labelled Police over the top, walked back and forth, pointing up at it, taking notes. They talked to the manager a bit. We joked that they were part of the Borf squad ….

Oh, poor Friendster guy, he was so not cute. In fact, he was profoundly unattractive. No wonder his picture only showed half his face! ...

...is now on the Google radar screen - yesterday there were four people who accessed the site by doing searches for specific doctor names (all happened to be good recommendations, by the way). I realize that this is rather insignificant in the order of things, but I know that it would make me feel good if, among the search results of various databases of doctor addresses, I actually found something personal, written by a well-meaning stranger, that would reassure me about the human element of the decision I was trying to make. …

Rocio, a former student of Anna Menendez, moved to El Puerto de Santa María, Spain where they celebrated Feria last week. She sent me a few pics that will hopefully help to get you psyched for this coming weekend's Feria in Philadelphia and DC's Feria later this month. Enjoy!