It turns out that I have all these saved drafts of blag(ish) material post saved all over the place. Here's something I did a while ago, when I could write and was still funny.
Amusing things about D.C: it’s a common joke about D.Cists that D.C. is an expensive city. It is; there’s even a souvenir mug that quite popular which is effectively a semi-circle attached to a handle that says “D.C. was so expensive that I could only afford half a mug.” Other cities have this mug as well, but to the best of my knowledge, this mug started in D.C. (much like how the I Heart NY shirt got contracted out to every other thing imaginable; recently there's this strange souvenir design popping up on shirts everywhere. It’s got the name of the city in big block capitals running across and along the shirt, with faux-graffiti/painters splashes over them. I have no idea how such an idea got popular.)
My pet theory/crazy thought for why this is so is this: It’s all cause of the damn Gubmint (supported institutions). In many other cities, many travelers basically skimp on accommodations/food/basic necessities, in order to spend their money on that particular cities sightseeing attractions, theatre, events, drinking and so on. Most people don’t wish to respond to a ‘how was [insert place X]’ request with a ‘I don’t know, I spent all my money on the hotel. But the hotel was fantastic!’
(Though personally, I think that there is an exception to this: The Four Seasons. Despite whatever financial troubles they're suffering from, the service and comfort is supposedly so legendary that a) you will pretty much get anything you want, at any time you want, and b) it prompted both Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey to give unbidden, unsponsored endorsements of The Four Seasons linens. If anyone has stayed in a Four Seasons, lemme know. But I digress)
Ironically, this trend is reversed in D.C; there are so many free-to-low cost things to do in D.C. that the local government publishes low-cost/free attractions in their standard tourist booklet. The Smithsonian alone hosts about 14 different high-caliber museums, the majority of which are free. Then there’s the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art (which is so huge it has two separate buildings to house it all), all the memorials to every president ever, and the National Mall, a two mile strip of beautiful greenery and monuments and phallic white columns. The Canadian embassy has an art gallery open to the public, for god’s sake.
To support all of this, the theory goes, the government needs money. And how do governments get money Throughtheft taxation. D.C. has an absolutely punishing hotel tax of 14.5 percent, which is much higher than anywhere else in the nation. (Thankfully, unless you actually choose to stay downtown, it’s easy to avoid this and still get to see a lot of the city. D.C. and the surrounds are fairly well-serviced by public transportation, so it’s possible to stay just outside the city and still get around easy like.) All of the lodgings in downtown D.C. tend to be les pantalons fancies like The Four Seasons or the Ritz- Carlton. For sure, there are more economically priced places, but this is an expensive city to stay.
Amusing things about D.C: it’s a common joke about D.Cists that D.C. is an expensive city. It is; there’s even a souvenir mug that quite popular which is effectively a semi-circle attached to a handle that says “D.C. was so expensive that I could only afford half a mug.” Other cities have this mug as well, but to the best of my knowledge, this mug started in D.C. (much like how the I Heart NY shirt got contracted out to every other thing imaginable; recently there's this strange souvenir design popping up on shirts everywhere. It’s got the name of the city in big block capitals running across and along the shirt, with faux-graffiti/painters splashes over them. I have no idea how such an idea got popular.)
My pet theory/crazy thought for why this is so is this: It’s all cause of the damn Gubmint (supported institutions). In many other cities, many travelers basically skimp on accommodations/food/basic necessities, in order to spend their money on that particular cities sightseeing attractions, theatre, events, drinking and so on. Most people don’t wish to respond to a ‘how was [insert place X]’ request with a ‘I don’t know, I spent all my money on the hotel. But the hotel was fantastic!’
(Though personally, I think that there is an exception to this: The Four Seasons. Despite whatever financial troubles they're suffering from, the service and comfort is supposedly so legendary that a) you will pretty much get anything you want, at any time you want, and b) it prompted both Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey to give unbidden, unsponsored endorsements of The Four Seasons linens. If anyone has stayed in a Four Seasons, lemme know. But I digress)
Ironically, this trend is reversed in D.C; there are so many free-to-low cost things to do in D.C. that the local government publishes low-cost/free attractions in their standard tourist booklet. The Smithsonian alone hosts about 14 different high-caliber museums, the majority of which are free. Then there’s the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art (which is so huge it has two separate buildings to house it all), all the memorials to every president ever, and the National Mall, a two mile strip of beautiful greenery and monuments and phallic white columns. The Canadian embassy has an art gallery open to the public, for god’s sake.
To support all of this, the theory goes, the government needs money. And how do governments get money Through
