Dull men like to visit Washington DC. Dull men feel at home there.In many cities, dull men need to look hard to find havens of dullness where they can feel comfortable. But, even in these cities, with persistence (dull men are persistent), spots of dullness can be found. In New York City, for example, we take the Lexington Avenue Subway to 14th Street where we watch the moving platform. And we go to Central Park and enjoy sitting on the park benches (some of the best in the world).In Washington, we don’t need to search very hard:

●  Washington has many monuments. We spend hours touring each of the monuments.

●  We visit Congress. We spend hours listening to hearings, most of which are very dull.

●  We simply walk around town and see drab bureaucrats going to and from work or out shopping or running errands.

 

We like to arrive in Washington by plane in the morning. That’s when traffic heading into town is the heaviest. We can sit in traffic for a long time.As for food, there are many cafeterias in Washington. Washington is the capital of cafeterias. Many serve meat loaf, macaroni salad, and Jell-O.One restaurant we like – one that might surprise you – is Cactus Cantina. This is a Tex-Mex restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue, near the National Cathedral. We of course tell the waiter to give us only the mild salsa. What we really like about the Cactus Cantina is their wonderful tortilla machine. Dough is fed in at the top, then winds its way along a fascinating route, pulled by a chain drive, though the machine. The tortillas cook as they travel along the route. The machine in effect is a giant toaster. We always call in advance to reserve a table near this machine. We sit there for hours watching it.Dull men like decent women. There are many decent women in Washington. They dress decently. It’s rare to find a bare midriff. Women in Washington often dress not much differently than Army nurses. No Gucci/ Pucci clothes like we see in New York, London, or Paris. In Washington, it’s more like LL Bean.The women sometimes try to dress like men – many suits. Except the suits are not always gray. There are red suits. We see these when watching from the galleries in the Senate and House. We think the lady Senators and Congresswomen wear red suits so they stand out, attract attention. We wonder why their mail counterparts don’t do the same thing, assuming they want to stand out, which we think most of them want to do.A drawback to Washington are the streets. They are confusing. Many twists and turns. Square blocks of streets. But also diagonal streets spanning out from traffic circles. And also streets that follow creek beds. The confusion of streets is probably why federal laws are so confusing. Senators and Congressmen become accustomed to driving on these streets. It rubs off on they write laws.

Another drawback to Washington, many say, is that summers are so hot. We don’t mind that. We don’t mind staying inside, listening the humming of air conditioners and enjoying the cool air they produce.

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