K Street Reverie

For most of my professional career, K street was the principal location of my offices - 20th between L and M; 19th and K; 1825 K St., 19th and Pennsylvania,  22nd and New Hampshire, 15th and M and finally McPherson Square.  (In the middle years,  there was a 10-year exile to the Flour Mill in Georgetown.)  My memories of K Street are strong - walking East into the sun in the early morning, trudging through snow drifts after leaving the METRO to get to my office in the winter and running into friends and acquaintances during lunch.

It has been three years since I retired, and now I find myself purposely choosing the K Street offices of my doctors rather than their more convenient locations in Friendship Heights. This morning as I walked to and from my most recent medical appointment, I noted the following changes on K Street.  

.  At least two-thirds of the pedestrians were holding smart phones and most of them had ear buds in place.  

.  Less casual attire appears to be the custom - more dresses/skirts than pants and more ties and jackets than open collars and khaki pants.

.  More restaurants offering  burgers and small plates (at the same price of large plates five years ago).

.  There are now almost as many CVS stores as banks.

.  My favorite mens room at the Mayflower Hotel  has retained its old world elegance even though the lobby has undergone an unpleasant modern renovation.

When is my next appointment for a stress test?

Tempting Thai Food

Robin and I had a 6:00 p.m. screening at the Silverdocs Festival held at the AFI theater in Silver Spring.  We had read good reports of a tiny Thai restaurant across the street (8650 Colesville Road), Kao Thai, so of course we seized  on the opportunity after the film was over.

Kao Thai was very busy at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night. With seating for only twenty-two customers, the place was filled with people from the Discovery Channel, a young family with two small children and filmgoers like ourselves. The servers were efficient; the  food kept coming out from the small kitchen; and the tables turned over and over. 

Having eaten  at most of the Thai restaurants in the metropolitan area, we thought that Kao Thai ranks very near the top.  All of our food had fresh and complex tastes, not being overwhelmed by one strong ingredient.  Each fork-full asked for another, and Robin even refused to share her main course with me after offering me a small initial taste.

We began with a shared green papaya salad ( Som Tum). Shredded papaya was combined with tomato, green pepper and peanuts in a chili lime juice sauce with a dash of Thai fish sauce and sugar. Buried in the salad were slivers of very hot Thai peppers.

Robin’s main course was Dragon Noodles, Kao Thai’s take-off on the traditional drunken noodle dish.  Lo mein noodles were stir fried with string beans, tomato, green pepper in a garlic chili sauce along with several shrimp to make a supremely delicious combination.

My main was Pad Prik Khing, a Thai classic, which I was perfectly willing to share with Robin notwithstanding its incredible layered texture of tastes.  I chose chicken as my “meat,” which was combined with string beans, tomato and kaffir lime in a roasted chili sauce.

Since Robin and I have decided to go “on the wagon” for a couple of weeks, we drank only water with our meal, which came to $30.  Quite a dinner - can’t wait to go back with some friends.

Me and My Meniscus

About nine months ago I noticed that my right knee began to ache minutes after I got behind the wheel of my car and started to drive. I moved my driver’s seat in every possible direction, but gained no relief until I went to cruise control and was able to move my leg  in different directions.  The ache only seemed to arrive when my right knee was in a fixed bent position and didn’t bother me during tennis and raquetball.   

But about a month ago, the pain came on big time whenever I moved, changed positions and even when I slept.  So - off to the orthopod I went, and his diagnosis of a torn meniscus was confirmed by an MRI.   The menisci of the knee joint are two pads of cartilage tissue which act to disperse friction in the knee joint between the lower leg and the thigh.  One of my “pads’ was partially torn and when inflamed, caused the pain I felt.

So what to do?  “Surgery is easy, like clipping a hang nail and leaving the remainder of the meniscus whole,” said my doctor.  But he thought I could postpone surgery with physical therapy, an elastic knee brace, a strong anti-inflammatory medication and icing down my knee after activity.

I have never been very good about stretching either before or after exercise, and when my physical therapist, Beth Ann, began to manipulate my leg during the first hour-long diagnostic visit, she remarked that “We have a lot of work to do.”  She  observed that my right (painful) leg had considerably less movement than my left leg and that the tightness of my tendons and ligaments put more strain on my right knee whenever  I twisted and turned on that leg.  According to Beth Ann, this was one of the principal reasons for the tear. With proper stretching exercises, I can increase the elasticity of my knee joint and thus put less pressure on the meniscus, lessening the likelihood that will become inflamed.

So I am now committed to thirty minutes of stretching in the early morning and find that my knee pain is gone, and tennis and raquetball are back on my agenda.  

Road Trip - Columbus, Indiana

For years I have been clipping articles about Columbus, Indiana and its exciting modern American architecture.  A travel window opened, and we took advantage of a family visit to Pittsburgh to continue west on Route 70 to Indiana.  Columbus, with a population of about 50,000, is about an hour south of Indianapolis.  The city is the home of a Fortune 500 Company -- Cummins, Inc. -- which, among other things, has been manufacturing diesel engines for more than a hundred years.

Since 1957, more than 50 public buildings have been designed and built by architects such as  Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero, I. M. Pei, Kevin Roche, Cesar Pelli, and Harry Weese (designer of the Washington, D.C. Metro).  The driving force behind this was J. Irwin Miller, Chairman of Cummins from 1951 to 1977.  He established the Cummins Foundation in 1954, which offered to pay the architects’ design fees for public buildings if the architect was chosen from a list prepared by an independent committee.  And so began the development of this extraordinary group of public buildings:  schools, churches, hospital, county jail, fire stations, parking garage, public housing, library and even a bridge.  Along with the architecture came fine public art and exceptional public landscaping.

We stayed at the Inn at Irwin Gardens, now a bed and breakfast, but formerly the Irwin family home, a mansion in the center of town, which was originally built in 1864 and then extensively remodeled in 1910.  Lots of wood, high ceilings, nooks and crannies, and a large garden with different levels, water features, sculpture and a wide variety of plantings.

We scheduled two tours:  first an architectural tour of the city in the morning, and then after lunch, a visit to the J. Irwin Miller residence, which he and his wife built for themselves and their three children.  All tours begin at the Visitors Center, just a block from our mansion. The morning tour began with a short film about the city and its architecture -- introducing us to what was to come.  

Opposite the Visitors Center is the First Christian Church, designed by Eliel Saarinen and built in 1942.  This is one of the first churches of modern design built in the United States, and J. Irwin Miller was a member of the congregation that broke new ground by sponsoring a large rectangular brick church building paired with a 170 foot brick bell tower.  Hidden windows allow plenty of light to enter, and the eye is attracted and directed by the slightly off-center entrance and interior designs.

Diagonally across the street is the Public Library designed by I. M. Pei, with its plaza-like public space in the front.  Offset in the front space of the library is a sculpture, a large arch by Henry Moore.

We boarded the bus and toured the city for another ninety minutes, ending at the North Christian Church designed by Eero Saarinen.  This church is on a very large plot of land surrounded by trees and other landscape, designed by Dan Kiley.  From the parking lot, the congregant can only see the tall needle-like spire as he approaches the church on a path through the trees, allowing him to reflect and meditate as he prepares to enter the church.

After lunch, we visited the Miller residence, which again was designed by Eero Saarinen.  The house is wonderful in its simplicity.  It is a one story rectangle with a flat roof and stone and glass walls.  The focus of attention is a very large center room with a “conversation pit” at one end.  Behind the walls at one side of this room are the utilitarian children’s bedrooms, continuing around to the parents’ bedroom. The other side of the center room opens to the dining room with its glass walls, which bring the outside inside.  And then to the side of the dining room is the large kitchen.  Light colored walls and carpeting of the house contrast with the vivid colors of cushions and art provided by the interior designer, Alexander Girard, who was a favorite of the Miller family.  Extensive gardens, designed by Dan Kiley, surround the house.  

The Columbus architectural heritage is not to be missed.