In 1992, a mysterious package was delivered to the National Museum of Natural History containing an unsigned letter and an enormous, milky crystal skull.

On display for the first time, the 31 pound Smithsonian skull dwarfs the crystal skulls on view at the British Museum in London and the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris.

Is this one of the legendary 13 Aztec skulls? Does a mystical healing energy emanate from this crystal object? Does it come from Atlantis?

Smithsonian anthropologist Jane McLaren Walsh thinks not. She began her investigation soon after the milky quartz skull arrived at the Smithsonian. She identified modern stone-carving tool marks and determined that the skull couldn’t have been carved before the mid-19th century. Instead, she believes the skull was manufactured in Mexico around 1960.

Is this really a story of New Age hype? Or could there be some truth to the skull’s mystique?

The crystal skull is on display in the ground level of the Natural History Museum through September 1st. The museum is open until 7:30 pm daily thru the Labor Day weekend. Why not head over there after work and check it out for yourself.

DCist reminds me that Screen on the Green has begun!  Yesterday kicked off the 2008 run with the first Bond film, Dr. No.  Sadly, I missed the opportunity to follow Bond to the Caribbean and beyond, because I was sick as a dog yesterday.  By the time the show started, I was in bed.  Oh well.  Here’s the rest of the lineup:July 14 - Dr. No (1962)
July 21 - The Candidate (1972)
July 28 - Arsenic and Old Lace(1944)
August 4 - The Apartment (1960)
August 11 - Superman (1978)

Next week, you’ll note, is The Candidate, this year’s obligatory choice for the movie that’s political and/or set in DC.

Oh, but don’t think that Screen on the Green is your only choice, my friends.  No, no.  You’ll definitely spot me at Cinema Del Ray this week, for one of my favorites:  The Princess Bride, at 7PM Saturday.  And there’s still more:  The Bond festival continues.  (I’ll be the one dancing to the main titles for A View To A Kill.  Yeah, yeah, the movie stinks.  But hey, that’s my favorite Duran Duran song.  You wanna make something of it?)  Check this list to find the film(s) for you.

And if you don’t want to head outdoors, there’s always the AFI’s 80s fest (I heart Jake Ryan) or the National Theatre’s Bette Davis fest.  (Damn!  I already missed Dark Victory?  But, but, next to King’s Row, that’s Reagan’s best work!  Good thing I haven’t missed All About Eve yet.)

What’s your favorite summer activity?

Photo by flickr user bossco, under a Creative Commons license.

If you, like me, are a resident of the City of Alexandria City, you may have noticed a terse letter from Mayor Euille in the Alexandria news bulletin that arrived in your mailbox last week.  The Norfolk Southern Railroad has established an ethanol transloading facility at its yard in the West End neighborhood.  Now, apparently they own the facility and have gotten the National Surface Transportation Board to override at least some local ordinances.  The City Manager and City Attorney have admitted that communication (internal and external) was badly handled and the City Council has opened up their records and documents for public inspection.

In short, the City folks are displeased about this facility!  It is apparently located thisclose to an elementary school, and is also near the Beltway and the Blue line.

NSRR has bought some fire equipment for the City, including providing a quantity of the special foam that would be needed in the event of a fire, and conducted some training for Alexandria FD.  They’ve also agreed to certain time restrictions on the number of trucks coming and going from the facility.  I’m not sure what to think, myself.  I wonder how much of this issue stems from NIMBY-ism?  Did the railroad really just unilaterally plop an ethanol facility 600 feet from an elementary school and think no one would notice?   How real is the security concern? (IMO, not very, but then I am quite jaded about “security” these days.)  How real is the risk of fire or explosion?  We have all seen enough news reports of chemical factory or fuel dump explosions - with horrific effects - to worry about it, even though the probability may be incredibly low.

In any event — Alexandria has put together a website where you can read documents and correspondence, or look at a map of the facility and its neighborhood.  What’s your opinion — should we be concerned?

When my parents were here in March we happened to head a little farther west than we normally do, and ended up having a late lunch in Manassas. When we parked there it was hard not to notice the particularly large sign across the street and wonder what its story was. It was notable enough that I took a picture.

So when I saw this story on the front page of the WashingtonPost.com I was curious to read the story behind it. It’s an interesting one - based on the message above I’d wondered if this wasn’t a religious organization, with their message of love and empathy. “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” The sign has changed notably since March 9th - the WaPo story has a small shot of the presumably current sign, though it’s small and they provide no transcription.

Unfortunately WaPo writer Nick Miroff decided to do a little editorializing in the WaPo story, which summarizes the sign’s content thusly:

The sign’s text has changed a few times, but its message has essentially remained the same: Latino immigrants have been exploited by ungrateful, racist white residents who took advantage of their labor and now want them to leave.

Anyone see any assertions of racism or ingratitude in the sign above?  This is why you should report facts and not interpret them, Mr Miroff.

Transcriptions of old and new sign after the jump. Read more

Apart from seeing a businessman borrowing his daughter’s Winnie the Pooh backpack today on the Metro, I’m not sure how many of us could publicly regress back into childhood at a moments notice. So it did warm my heart this morning when my inner child was revealed to me in a sign for the “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” which will open July 12th at the Smithsonian’s ’s International Gallery. Given the description of the program, I’m hoping it will be better than the last lackluster 5-6 item exhibit last trotted out to fans a few years ago. It is an amalgamation from the “Jim Henson Legacy” exhibit as well as the Smithsonian’s traveling “show”, which should be the best of both worlds.

For those of you who are more transient residents to D.C., or visitors stopping in to say a hearty “hello” to the National Capital region, the global phenomenon known as The Muppets was started here at the University of Maryland through Henson’s first show, “Sam and Friends”, broadcast on WRC-TV in D.C. starting in 1954. Who knew Kermit was that old, right?! Besides the Muppet characters, Henson was an experimental filmmaker, collaborating with composer and electronic music pioneer, Raymond Scott (Henry Warnow) on several films. If you can’t get enough of Henson at this exhibit, swing by UMD for the bronze statue and garden or visit the library there for more collections (the online version is also a treasure trove).

Jim Henson Memorial

Originally uploaded by zhurnaly

First off, if you’re a Nats fan headed to the game with the Orioles on Sunday, good luck. You’re hosed.

Heads up to everyone travelling across the District this weekend: every single Metro line is seeing major track work and rail testing from Friday night through early Monday morning.

Blue Line
Sad to say, this one’s been hit the worst. First, customers traveling between the Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn Street Metrorail stations should add up to 30 minutes of travel time for their trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 10 p.m. to closing (3 a.m.), Friday, June 27, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., Saturday, June 28, 10 p.m. to closing (3 a.m.), Saturday, June 28, and 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., Sunday, June 29.

Additionally, if you’re traveling between the Pentagon City and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations, you should add 15 minutes of travel time for your trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 10 p.m. to closing (midnight), Sunday, June 29.

Yellow Line
You get to piggy-back on the Blue Line’s woes. See above for sharing issues between Pentagon City and Reagan National.

Orange Line
Riders traveling between the Stadium-Armory and Cheverly Metrorail stations should add up to 20 minutes of travel time for their trips because of bridge repairs. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 28.

Green Line
If you’re traveling between the Greenbelt and College Park Metrorail stations, add 15 minutes of travel time for your trips because of rail car testing. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, June 28.

Red Line
And finally, riders traveling between the Friendship Heights and Medical Center Metrorail stations should add 15 minutes of travel time for their trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 9 p.m. to closing (midnight), Sunday, June 29.

Speaking of the Kennedy Center, it has announced that this year’s Mark Twain Prize will be awarded to George Carlin. A worthy recipient indeed, as Carlin is one of the defining luminaries of stand-up comedy, and American comedy in general.

But I can’t help but note the irony of the Kennedy Center awarding its prestigious comedy award to an artist best known for his bit on the “Seven Dirty Words” you can’t say on television, when they wouldn’t allow Lewis Black to associate the Center in any way with his “Red, White, and Screwed” special because he says the word “fuck” too much.

In any case, congratulations to George Carlin for this much-deserved honor, and thanks to the Kennedy Center for giving Lewis Black more comedic fodder.

When my friend Holly told me that Lewis Black was doing a signing in DC, I was surprised. He’d just gotten done playing the Warner a few weeks back, but he was back in DC again! Sure, why not. Politics & Prose was hosting the signing at the 6th & I Historic Synagogue just north of Chinatown. The crowd outside the Synagogue at 6:45 was impressive, wrapping around the corner. By the time all of us were there and ticketed, the only seats that were left were in the balcony with a poor sightline down to the center stage speaker’s platform, which was frustrating.

It was pretty impressive, though, to see the place fill up in as quickly as it did. Mr. Black did a short talk on his creative process and what it was like to write the book, and then the floor was open to questions. There were some good questions (What would you ask the candidates if you were moderating the debate?), and some bad ones (I’m looking at you, rambling lady in the neon green top who just would not shut up.) but the crowd was pretty affable over all. The tour is for his new book Me of Little Faith.

I do admit to chuckling to myself that as Lew was dissecting Catholicsm, Judaism and a number of other faiths, it was right in the heart of the major league thunderstorms that blew through town last night. Thanks much to P&P for coordinating the event, and 6th and I for hosting in their beautiful sanctuary.

Lewis Black at 6th & I - Closeup — Originally uploaded by tbridge

Fellow Metroblogging DC writer amandaa and I have been tossing around some ideas for a summer series on the best ice cream in the District and surrounding areas. What better way to cool off on these hot, sultry days that plague this area? To those who like fancy-sounding potentially evil ice cream alternatives, I have to ask: What the hell is the deal with gelato? It’s not ice cream, not an Italian ice and certainly doesn’t come in flavors I understand.

Please help me understand this difference. Better yet, if you have a favorite gelato spot, please let me know. I am will to try it again, but the stuff I got at the cafe under the National Gallery of Art fell short of the mark for being what I would call good or tasty. In fact, I threw out half of it. If you have seen me near ice cream, you know that never happens.

So is gelato really worth pursuing or is my intuition right that it is simply genetically inferior to ice cream?

I saw this motorcycle parked behind the National Gallery of Art on Sunday. Does anyone know whose it is? Without evidence to the contrary, I would have to guess that George Clinton picked up a job there.

Who would do such a thing to a motorcycle? Even though I think it was ass ugly, I have to admit that it had a certain flair and filled me with admiration for the person who apparently thinks it looks good. It was certainly good handiwork if nothing else.