Life, already interesting at Main and Corcoran streets, is about to become even more so.
Yesterday, contractors began conducting soil borings in the lawn next to the Green Wall, in preparation for the 26-story skyscraper, scheduled to start construction on the lot next year. There was also a guy in his 60s sitting on the bus bench with most of his butt showing. He had a belt on but it had slipped down, and initially I thought he was wearing a thong. You can’t unsee these things, and I did not photography it for posterity—or posteriority.
No two days are alike here, and not just because people pee on a tree in broad daylight, but Tuesday was particularly interesting. Through a Raleigh nonprofit, International Focus, we hosted 20 journalists (18 men and two women) from Afghanistan who came to learn about independent media. They were part of a State Department leadership program, and wanted to know about our editorial philosophy, the division between advertising and editorial, circulation, design—every aspect of newspapering.
All of them were inspiring, and made everyone on staff feel grateful to work in a society with a free press (or more free than many countries) and where women reporters don’t need bodyguards to do their job.
After the Afghan journalists left, I walked into my office to see this boy staring in the front window. Ever-curious, kids do this a lot because our windows have a lot of interesting ephemera in them: a deer spine, a scare owl and a frightening Thom Tillis mask, for example.
I photographed him with my iPhone—for posterity.